Laddo if it was easy to hire a manager we would have been in the Super League given how many times we have tried. It is actually somewhat amazing that out of all of them it has only really worked well one and a half times in the last 20 years and whilst some of them were truly awful a number of Ray Trews hires now look quite good in the scheme of things! I am still waiting for the current manager to let us all know what the recruitment style is going to be and where he sees gaps. Given what he said about attacking football when he came in has really not resulted in anything of the sort so far other than some fleeting glimpses in the first half at Torquay and Eastleigh I am not expecting to either. I also wouldn't say that there were "many threads demanding for him to be sacked". The vast majority of fans who wanted to see the back of him were happy to see an orderly change at the end of the season, not what actually transpired although alternate options were few I do agree. I think it was still highly conceivable we would have seen Birchnall at the end of the season regardless of what Ardley achieved this season and they feared missing out on the playoffs and hit the panic button given it appears he was not close to joining Wimbledon as mentioned elsewhere. Its turned out well that.
It’s about taking responsibility when in receipt of the ball and grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck. I’ve always been a fan of JOB because he always tries to make something happen, is vocal and has drive. JOB and Doyle are the closest we have to animals that Mo Ross refers to for me. However they are the wise old lions now. We need their ten year younger equivalents.
The reason yesterday felt like a default Ardley performance for me is that it was one of those where we were passing the ball waiting for the opposition to make a mistake and leave a gap or opening to which we would capitalise on rather than trying to make something happen.
Anyone who watched the stream will have seen a perfect example of this in the last ten minutes as to what this consists of. Passing the ball around defence and midfield, going sideways slow going forward and then lose the ball on the edge of the opposing teams box because it’s all compacted. Rinse and repeat. How are we going to win a game in the last ten if we do not get the ball into the box? That is the frustrating part. Look at what Torquay did in the last ten against us as to what we should be doing.
Lack of confidence makes it easy to receive the ball and play a safe pass to a team mate so it could be that. On the other hand every player has to be brave and take responsibility when receiving the ball and think what can I do here, am I going to push forward, take a man on, or put the ball in a dangerous area, down the channels, into the box, have a little game of one-twos with a team mate and play through a team.
That’s what I meant on the match thread when I referred to the play being safe and manufactured. That summed up yesterday’s game for me and I don’t think that is how Ian Burchnall and Mo Ross want us to play.