Top scorers in title winning seasons

[BigFatPie]

The thing most annoying me at present is Ardley's constant formation changes. Many managers, probably including him, will tell you it's players who win games, not formations. I'll throw that argument right back and say maybe that's right, but if so, then Notts have arguably the best squad of players in this league, so why not settle on a formation and stick with it? Give the lads a consistent identity and formation they can believe in.

I try to put myself in the mindset of a Notts player and what I repeatedly hear from my manager is how strong this league is, how good the (even lowly) opposition are, and that we often pick our formation and style to counter what he has seen the opposition do on various video tapes. We're giving the initiative away before the game even starts. How about concentrating on what WE want to do, and how WE'RE going to impose the way WE want to play on the opposition irrespective of what they do, because if our players are confident in what they're going, they're man for man better than virtually every team in this league?

I don’t know the bloke, but does he come across as that sort of manager to you?

He always comes across to me as a nice man who lets strong characters dominate him, plans his match tactics according to what the other team (no matter how sh!t) might do, can’t get his players up for anything other than a big game, and falls back on poor excuses when his team loses.

The evidence seems to back that up.

[jackal2]

I don’t know the bloke, but does he come across as that sort of manager to you?

He always comes across to me as a nice man who lets strong characters dominate him, plans his match tactics according to what the other team (no matter how sh!t) might do, can’t get his players up for anything other than a big game, and falls back on poor excuses when his team loses.

The evidence seems to back that up.

We certainly agree that he worries too much about the opposition, but whether that's due to weakness of character or perhaps too many hours on UEFA badge coaching-by-numbers courses I'm not sure. Over-analysis seems to be a problem for some modern managers.

I think Ardley is fundamentally a good/nice bloke and I'm not going to criticise someone for that. Nevertheless, every good manager needs a bit of steel about him and I genuinely don't know how much he has, because like you I've never met him or seen how he behaves inside the dressing room. He's certainly resilient, because he came through tough days in the early part of his reign at Notts, and I figure that any individual who 'survived' in the Wimbledon dressing room during their Division One/Premier League days must have a bit about them.

On the flip side, you do wonder why Ardley seems incapable of telling 39-year-old Michael Doyle that he can't expect to play every league game. Likewise, it sometimes feels as if the players respond initially to Ardley and lift themselves after a defeat to put in two or three good performances, but then begin to rest back on their laurels again, leading to the inconsistency that has plagued our season so far. Would a Warnock or a Cotterill or an Allardyce have kept them on their toes that bit more?

I'm not in the 'Ardley Out' camp. As I've said before, I'm happy to leave the owners to judge how well or badly the manager is doing compared with their expectations, and I'll back whatever judgement they make. Even so, it does get frustrating to see the manager and his team appear to be making progress, only to let the momentum slip over and over again. Let's hope he can finally get us on a prolonged winning run.