We wanted Cormack to appoint someone different last season and we got it with Thelin.
Don't think anyone was against it. I certainly wasn't.
He has been backed with signings, that no other manager has had since the early 90s.
I'd say Thelin has been left alone to do things his way, but his way is killing the team at the moment.
He should be experienced enough to see the areas on the park where we are being exploited, but doesn't change it time and time again.
There is no point arguing amongst ourselves about who is to blame, as I can only comment on what I see on the pitch and have no knowledge of what happens off the pitch.
What I see on the pitch is very worrying and I saw a dejected bunch of players in red jerseys last night and not sure Thelin can get anything more from them now.
I do hope I am wrong though and we somehow win our final two games.
It's every team we do it against, but we suffer more against better players.
All season we have moaned about everyone back for corners and yet we are still weak as f*ck defending them.
Even if we clear the ball it usually comes back into the box as we have nobody up the field to do any chasing or hit them on a counter attack.
We can argue about structures at the club not being right, but tactical naivety is on the manager.
I'd be mightly p*ssed off being a player and being sent out to fail time and time again.
We are a fairly young side too with lots of nationalities trying to come to terms with our game.
I'd say they are getting chucked under the bus with our tactics.
Im not a tactical expert and my memory is not that great but in the last 25 years Im pretty sure out the 10 managers we have had in that time at least half of them have man marked at corners and not brought everyone back but we have still got rinsed from Celtic time and time again.
Im afraid it?s not as easy a fix as stopping zonal marking or leaving players up front and all of a sudden we will start beating Celtic.
The bringing everyone one back for corners thing is exactly like last season when everyone moaned about Robson playing 3 at the back.
The players were getting chucked under the bus by Robson for playing with a back 3 which never works according to experts, ironically Hibs have sealed 3rd place by changing to a back 3.
Last night Nisbet and Knoester were right next to the Celtic defender at the corner but he still managed to score.
People can blame the managers for how they set up the team with tactics and formations but the players are as much to blame for not doing their jobs properly.
They are professional footballers who should be able to adapt to what the manager is instructing them to do, they are either not good enough or dont give a fvck or both.
Some good points DD - both here and in your other posts. I agree 100% with pretty much all of it.
Bottom line, Thelin is not getting sacked and in terms of league placing and cup runs we have improved this year and that is what the club will point out at the end of the season.
But it is also true that based on our form since November, we would be bottom of the league and relegated.
What has gone wrong? God knows, but something has happened and in 6 months I have seen little evidence of Thelin showing he can fix it.
I am willing to stick with him for now and see what he can do over the summer and moving into next season, but if I am honest, I am really beginning to have my doubts about Thelin. The lack of any plan B, the regular seeming tactical naivety, some utterly baffling substitutions and team selections, sticking with dross like Okkels come what may, the lack of attitude, fight and desire on the pitch - that is all on the manager and he has shown nothing to suggest he can adapt or fix the issues as he sticks with the same thing regardless - sorry but that is just poor football management.
Blaming Cormack (beyond the fact he appointed Thelin obviously) and calling for him to go is also absolutely pointless.
Where is he going to go? Who is taking over? One of the big queue of oil Sheikhs waiting in the wings to buy him out?
You want Milne back running the show?
Now, keeping that gype hanging about I do blame Cormack for and find absolutely mystifying, but the club is light years better ran now than it was with that buffoon in charge - and anyone denying that isnt being remotely objective.
I think there is no doubt he interfered a lot early on - certainly with Glass especially - but I see little if any evidence he is doing that now. Anyone saying otherwise, where is your evidence?
His social media and press output was a massive cringe for a long time too, but he seems to have learnt his lesson there and being honest, his comments after the Hearts semi final were very good and measured.
He has also backed Thelin to the hilt. Nobody can fault the money hes been given to bring in players - we can certainly look to fault the choice of players but I see no evidence these are anything other than Thelin picks.
He is not firing Thelin for reasons stated above (we have improved statistically), and I am sure he will back him again in the summer, but as I said on the match thread, Thelin has used up every last ounce of the goodwill he had and patience is pretty much at the end for most fans, so if he does not get the right players in the summer and we keep playing like we have the last 6 months he will be gone by the end of the year latest, probably by October.
And there is also the rub, because there is also zero evidence Cormack et al will be able to pick the right replacement manager.
But to be honest, given the long standing cultural issues and deep rooted inferiority complex running rampant throughout the club which has been there for decades - does the right manager to sort this shyte out even exist?
A back 3 works fine - if you have the right players to play it.
Look at the back 3 we had of Pollock, Scales and MacDonald - it was brilliant and turned our season around. We had the right players to play it, and a real big nasty hard unit in Pollock who threw himself at everything and never backed down ever - my god we need a guy like that just now.
MacDonald taken out of that setup was pretty useless. Its all about the right players in the right setup.
Our big problem seems to be we just dont have the players to play the system Thelin wants. Ok, there are still a lot of players here he didnt sign, but there are also lots he did and the issues we have seen all year like shyte defending at set pieces and shyte defending against simple long balls are all still there - and the defence is now almost entirely made up of his players.
He will bring in a bunch more in that summer, so the, "not his squad" excuse will no longer exist.
To be honest, he is 100% out of excuses right now.
Im not saying we should get rid of Cormack but to keep saying he is better than Milne so its pointless moaning about him is like saying Thelin is better than Stephen Glass so its pointless moaning about him.
Its also extremely naive after whats happened in the last 6 years to be thinking lets get rid of Thelin and everything will be sorted.
I said it last season that Cormack needs to take a back seat,probably get rid of a lot of dead wood in that board room and hire a director of football who knows what he is doing and let him hire a manager who in turn will be allowed to sign players he wants/ needs instead of this buy players to sell them on for a fortune nonsense.
Thats fair enough moog, there a players in the squad that arent suited to how Thelin wants to play.
But a lot of them werent suited to play how Robson wanted to play or Warnock so what system are they suited to play?
I just dont think the squad is good enough and its been cobbled together by about 4 or 5 different managers through data from about 3 or 4 different head of recruitments.