Oh the irony

[durhampie]

Maybe that's what gave them the idea to call for the sacking of another manager/head coach

I've made no secret of what i thought about Burchnall and his style of play, what are your views about him ? Did you think that the style we were playing would get us out of this league.? Were you happy to see us outfought on some occasions ?

[laddo]

I've made no secret of what i thought about Burchnall and his style of play, what are your views about him ? Did you think that the style we were playing would get us out of this league.? Were you happy to see us outfought on some occasions ?

I liked him, very knowledgeable and tactically astute. His style of football although producing very similar results to his predecessor was more appealling to the viewing public.

Would his style get us out the league? Without some adjustments no, but it wouldn't have taken too much tbh as the results show. Could he have adjusted enough? Maybe maybe not we will never know.

I've never been happy to see us outfought under any manager, who has? I was critical of his team's performances on the road both on here and in the away ends last season , so no not happy.

Saying that I've seen us not outfought but completely outplayed playing anti-football not only my travels with Notts but at Meadow Lane. That wasn't fun either as I'm sure you remember.

[durhampie]

Fair comment, it would be interesting as a bit of fun just to see how other guys viewed Burchnall regarding his tenure at Notts.

[hissingdwarf]

Fair comment, it would be interesting as a bit of fun just to see how other guys viewed Burchnall regarding his tenure at Notts.

Right or wrong, I was one of the “baying crowd” who had had enough of Burchnall. His reluctance to have a change of plan when we were pressed high by weaker opposition etc…
The attacking fluid football was exciting when it worked, but, and just like Moniz, the lack of stability at the back and the solid midfield, lost us the season.
I personally think we got off lightly by having him go to FGR, but the concern is still the same with Williams. I’ll give him a fair crack of the whip, but I don’t expect much of a difference. I expect he’ll play out from the back with 3 and 2 wingbacks and off we go again.
A couple of hard nosed signings might help balance the squad, but the crunch comes when we need to play them. Will he do that or will Francis be championed as our saviour again?

The daft thing with IB was, I think he was only a few tweaks and bit of a change in philosophy away from getting us higher. Problem was he never looked like he’d change style at all. I may be old fashioned, but the ability to control the game means having possession but also the physical attributes to hold the line when needed and push back against the opp.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Fair comment, it would be interesting as a bit of fun just to see how other guys viewed Burchnall regarding his tenure at Notts.

When Burchnall first came in I thought his attacking minded approach was refreshing more than the cautious approach under Ardley. I thought IB tried to play football properly and the right way on the floor and going forward. It's a results based business and at home 15 wins speaks for itself along with all the goals that we scored. Likewise he did get the best out of creative players like Rodrigues who appeared to fall out of favour under Neal Ardley. I didn't want him to be sacked or leave, but was more looking forward to seeing how he would address our shortcomings this season to give us that extra five wins needed away from home to be in with a shout of winning the title.

I can understand those fans who were frustrated when we were passing the ball around the back and recycling it waiting for space to appear for us to play the ball into, but also get and understand the reasons we did it because the aim was that while we had the ball the opposition didn't and therefore we were keeping possession.

We came unstuck at home in the second half when Grimsby went for the high press and pushed us and pegged us into our own half. Most teams that came to Meadow Lane did not have the energy required for such a high press, or would adopt the low block and would be happy to let us keep the ball. Paul Hurst obviously saw something and went with the high press tactic and must have been pleased because we did not counter it sufficiently by playing the ball over and into the space behind the high Grimsby defensive line. Instead we continued to try and play it out from the back through our congested half of the pitch but it did not work.

One of the later home games (I think it was Dover) they were at times playing a 6-3-1 low block and it led to people becoming frustrated because we didn't score 5 or 6 against them. We could have perhaps mixed it up a bit by getting high balls and crosses into their area and in the mix and asking questions. It's what we would have to do away from home.

I didn't go to any away games last season but from reports, listening to commentary and results we had a soft underbelly at times and lacked the mentality to kill the lesser teams off. It was never really addressed throughout the season and the Torquay defeat was the wiley old fox Gary Johnson once again getting the better of us and our tactics and style.

In conclusion I think IB set us up to play in a controlled possession based manner with a focus on the technical aspects of the game and that was that regardless of what the opposition did. We were us and that is what we did. When it worked it was very good and entertaining, but when it didn't it was difficult for us to mix it up by being a bit more direct both in getting the ball out of own half and also when up against a low block like the examples I've demonstrated. Likewise when that physicality and aggression was needed it was found wanting. But then you can't change it based on what's happening in game if you don't have the personnel to change it.

[kill_the_drum]

Fair comment, it would be interesting as a bit of fun just to see how other guys viewed Burchnall regarding his tenure at Notts.

I think IB was a very good coach and will go on to prove as much.
I don’t get this constant criticism of the style and a lack of plan B.
Of all the ‘long ball’ managers we’ve had, did any of them ever change to a passing game when it wasn’t working? Of course not!
We didn’t go up because over the course of the season we weren’t good enough defending our own goal. Simple as that.
In my time supporting Notts I don’t recall any other manager that made changes to personal and formation as early in games as IB did. If any manager ever had a plan B, it was him.
He also did change our style, towards the back end of the season, against teams that pressed us. We started playing balls over the top, into the channels, to push them back. Look at the goals against Kings Lynn. The first two were from a ball over the top and a very direct pass.
I saw nothing wrong with IB’s style of play and in my opinion he was learning and evolving.
What I saw was a slight imbalance of how good the team was with the ball Vs without the ball. And that was down to personnel on the pitch.

[laddo]

Some good, interesting and contrasting thoughts on our former head coach. Agree with some of the points made on both sides.

A refreshing read, (hopefully) long may it continue. This is when NCM is at its best for me

[LaxtonLad]

Passing along the back with no outlet prompted the opposition to high press us, and in some cases to concede goals. The second half against Grimsby springs to mind, not to mention other games when we couldn't get out of our own half, but continued to play it out from the back. That's the annoying thing, Burchnall didn't seem to have any idea of how to counteract those tactics..

If a team is using the high press against you then it’s because their manager knows you are vulnerable to it. The obvious tactic then is to realise the oppo will have fewer midfielders/defenders behind their attackers and exploit those gaps with a ball over the top. Burchinall seemed to think we had the talent to pass the ball accurately through an energetic mob of eager attackers, we didn’t.
Don’t ask me how many goals were conceded by us poncing around at the back but it was certainly a depressing and a somewhat embarrassing sight seeing our clueless and immobile manager stood standing there watching a tactic that never scored us a goal.

[laddo]

If a team is using the high press against you then it’s because their manager knows you are vulnerable to it. The obvious tactic then is to realise the oppo will have fewer midfielders/defenders behind their attackers and exploit those gaps with a ball over the top. Burchinall seemed to think we had the talent to pass the ball accurately through an energetic mob of eager attackers, we didn’t.
Don’t ask me how many goals were conceded by us poncing around at the back but it was certainly a depressing and a somewhat embarrassing sight seeing our clueless and immobile manager stood standing there watching a tactic that never scored us a goal.

Does anyone else want to tell him, or shall I?

[SwalePie]

Does anyone else want to tell him, or shall I?