New Manager?

[Observerpie]

Maynard looks to me to be an excellent 'coach'. Notts are well organised, defensively solid, regain shape well and our attacking patterns can be excellent.
I would also guess (I don't have any statistics) that our results with 3 or more of our best attacking players available - Jatta, Didzy, JJ and Crowley - have been very good and have others have said would likely put Notts in the automatic positions.

Crowley was sold from under him, and also missing for sections in the first part of the season plus JJ has barely played and aside from the first 5 games he hasn't been match fit.
First team players like Macari and Austin have also had long spells on the sidelines. Robertson could have been a very effective foil for Palmer and Abbott too, but he's not been fit either.
So I think Maynard needs to be cut a large amount of slack given the injury list.

He's been given replacements yes, none picked by him I would assume so we can't criticise his recruitment.
None of the replacements have come in ready to play at our level, all are learning.
In my opinion Jarvis and Whittaker look like they are improving game on game. I have no idea what level either will get to but I think Maynard deserves a some credit for improving them with his coaching?

What a coach does Monday - Friday is 95% of the job and for the most part I think he's doing a good job. I'd give him an 8/10 for this.

All the above said though, I think during a match he's been poor. Very slow to make changes in personnel or
hange system even when its obvious that chances need to be made. He's reactive rather than proactive and that can be massively frustrating for match going fans. This is probably only 5% of his job, but it's 100% what fans witness and our judgement is clouded because of this. I'd rather him a 4/10 for this.
He massively needs to improve during the match day 90minutes. He's a young coach in his first professional job, hopefully he can add these strings to his bow?

Against Crewe on Saturday he even made Notts changes before the Crewe dugout made theirs and we hadn't even gone behind! I almost passed out. So you never know, hopefully he is learning?

Excellent post.

[the_anticlough]

Excellent post.

It is a really good post.
I agree on the Maynard sections but maybe not on the substitutions

The coaches bread and butter is the main game plan and the team selection and set up. He gets a chance to prepare for all that as much as he wants all week. He then picks his best XI available, and non-preferred players get to be subs, and if things work out Ok that holds for 75% of the match

Substitutions are more about replacing tired and ineffective players with fresher players who can execute the original game plan and position better than the players who are tired or having a bad game. You don't often see them coming on with a load of new instructions - that's all been done in advance. I think in-game adjustments and mythical 'Plan B's are overrated in the minds of fans. I don't think modern coaches are willing to throw out their game plans too much for something reactive that they haven't really prepared the team for.

If IPie is saying he's a bit slow to act on replacing tired or failing players he might have a point, but I think fans should drop this idea of the master tactician changing a game with his sheer tactical genius and focus more on the game plan and first team selection. For example, that dreadful first 10mins against Barrow or sticking with players that don't deliver for too long.
Outfoxing the opposite coach by suddenly going 4-4-2 just ain't going to happen, but tweaks to improve the main game plan and set up will.

[Lullapie]

I'm not sure what our level is or what is expected on the gates we get. However, Bradford got 23,000 on Saturday against Colchester. I think we'd struggle to get that many in the Premiership on most occasions, even if the ground could hold that amount.

[PedroTheFisherman66]

I'm not sure what our level is or what is expected on the gates we get. However, Bradford got 23,000 on Saturday against Colchester. I think we'd struggle to get that many in the Premiership on most occasions, even if the ground could hold that amount.

A good thought Lullapie. I saw their gate size and wondered if maybe it would be beneficial for Notts if we adopted their style pricing? i believe they sell their season tickets at knock down prices hence why they regularly get large crowds. I'm not sure what the price is but does anyone here have any idea what they sell at ? Does anyone think that the brothers should try and copy this format and would it work for little old Notts bearing in mind we aren't a premiership side unlike Bradford !?

[upthemaggies]

Some people seem to really struggle with the notion of underachieving, probably because the idea of accountability makes them feel uncomfortable. If we can't accept that clubs can underachieve and everybody just deservers to be where they are and that's that, then nobody can overachieve either.

What was so special about Leicester winning the Premier League? Why was that a remarkable achievement if they just finished where they deserved to finish discounting size, history and expectation . Why was that any different to Man Utd winning it? Were Notts fans more entitled than Sutton fans to feel angry and upset about being relegated to the NL?