Printable View
Probably SMs worse decision was to try and balance the teams play more instead of being more gung ho. Even though it seemed the right thing to do unfortunately we had defensive errors just waiting to happen no matter what he did.
It’s pre season and time to be optimistic, especially with the recruitment so far.
We'd played 9 games by 23rd September last season, Stags were 4th, Crawley 5th, Wrexham 7th, Stockport 9th. FGR and Sutton were in the bottom 3, so the table by that stage is a reasonable indicator of who's going to be in contention and who isn't. Doncaster were the only club not in the top 10 to ultimately make the play offs but they went on an insane run of form to make it. So if we're around the same position we finished last season (14th) by the end of September, it's probably going to be a very long season of frustration. I'd predict we'll hover around 5th to 8th for most of the campaign and not go up and that he'll remain in charge for the start of 25/26, though this is of course all assuming the FL programme isn't cancelled, world events currently being what they are.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old_pie
I'm hopeful on Maynard rather than being confident and after 12 games I'll see whether I'm going to be able to have confidence in him to deliver. I have found him quite likeable in his interviews generally but it's mainly results that determine things and with the budget, crowds and players here there's no reason why Notts County cannot finally make it back to League One.
He seemed caught between two stools on the attack v defence question. The main thing is that he's positive come August. He spoke a good game in the latest interview when he said how he wants the wide CBs pressing forward to create overloads. Unfortunately, he isn't as committed as LW and is quicker to go defensive when faced with a bit of adversity.Quote:
Originally Posted by matt_magpie
Being bold is the key - it landed LW a Championship job.
Too much pragmatism will have us mid-table or worse, and I don't think the club or the fans will be happy with that.
I distinctly remember reading LW's history and wondering (on here) WTF made the Reedtz brothers think he was the man for the job. The fact that those numbers were such a poor predictor of his subsequent performance in the role is one of the main reasons I am fairly chill about SM still being in the hot seat after a disastrous set of results last season.Quote:
Originally Posted by OP67
That said, "fairly chill" is absolutely not "very confident he'll succeed". I think he's got a much better side to coach now, hopefully that translates into far superior results. I am going to worry until we're 10 games in and doing well.
Maynard made a significant effort to mention that Stockport went periods of last season where they didn't win for 5 games at a time. So even if we do start slowly, as teams who go onto get promoted sometimes do (ourselves in 2022/23), im not going to lose faith immediately. If we're just outside the playoffs after 10 games then so be it, if we're still outside by Christmas, id be worried. But I still think we need 2/3 more players to be properly competitive at the top of the table.
The anti-Maynard brigade seem to attribute all of last season's failings to him, when in reality, we were on the slide a while before LW left. We got recruitment all wrong and simply didn't have the defenders or keepers to mount a sustained challenge at the top. Once that early season momentum faded, we were always going to finish outside the playoffs, even if LW had stayed.
Yes, our slide was spectacular, and Maynard has to take some of the blame, but he walked into a tough situation with a confluence of factors against him. This season, there will be no more excuses, so it's over to SM and his team to show they can move us forward. I am hopeful but the jury is still out.
The deniers won't like that. SM was completely out of his comfort zone, never had a full time club, never had a club with our history, never had players like ours and never handled a club with such expectations. How many times over the years have we seen other managers being unable to stop a slide once it starts? Why do people expect him to have been able to stop a team already on the slide? He got things wrong, of course he did how anyone could expect him not to is unreasonable. The Bros saw something in him so given all the things he had to deal with at the start and his obvious confidence now give him a break for at least a handful of games ffs.Quote:
Originally Posted by slack_pie
Last two home games under LW we won 5-0 and 3-0. The away form was troubling us a bit but our home form was keeping us above the water. Maynard came in, made "tweaks" and both home and away from just went away, we were not playing entertaining football and it was just turgid. Yes we had problems but Maynard seemingly made them worse. I think the board were being kind when they said we were lucky in the first half of the season and unlucky in the second half, we make our own "luck".Quote:
Originally Posted by slack_pie
This season he has no excuses, we have two defenders that are deemed some of the best in the division and one of the best keepers now, serving up turgid, boring and slow football will see him gone by November
True, but Maynard came in following the departure of a much-loved coach, with players and fans hurting. Morale was low. He also had a bloody hard run of fixtures, which made it hard to get a decent run going. None of these excuse the dramatic slide down the table, but they do provide some much needed context about why the season went off the rails.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicken Balti Pie