‘The Problem’

[Elite_Pie]

Pretty sure we finished 3rd last year and way over-achieved according to the predictions many made (certainties for NL North etc).

To be fair those predictions were only made when we had no owner and simple survival was the main hope. When we had new owners who invested heavily in the squad the expectations obviously went up a few notches.

I don't see last season as a success or a failure, maybe just a bit of a missed opportunity given how close we got.

[Davy500]

I just don't get all the negativity, yeah they messed up Sat but a few days earlier the won away at a team that had won all their games and there was no inquest after that. I don't see us playing negative football, we are pretty expansive most of the time and just play possession football which sometimes means it goes backwards. Defending has been down to the players not Ardley, same players as last season who certainly in the second half of the season were defending set pieces.
This seasons showing strange performances everywhere, Liverpool losing 7-2 to villa its just a reflection of it being strange times with no fans etc.
The only part I worry about is we haven't replaced Dennis unless either Sam or Knowles step up.

You don,t get all the negativity??

Because thats what Ardley does , messes up time after time

I have asked the question that has yet been unanswered especially by Pro Ardley supporters

Given Ardley has had nearly 2 years at the club, brought in nearly all his own players, yet still repeats the same mistakes like set pieces , struggling against high press, time after time.

What makes anybody think, anything will change if we give Ardley even more time????

[SwalePie]

You don,t get all the negativity??

Because thats what Ardley does , messes up time after time

I have asked the question that has yet been unanswered especially by Pro Ardley supporters

Given Ardley has had nearly 2 years at the club, brought in nearly all his own players, yet still repeats the same mistakes like set pieces , struggling against high press, time after time.

What makes anybody think, anything will change if we give Ardley even more time????

Mainly the quality of the football. It's less agricultural admittedly and not widely known for succeeding at this level, but when it works it shows that there is indeed a plan. A plan and some stability is exactly what's required after decades of catastrophic short-termism. That said, he really does need to show us this season that said plan works. He has my full backing at this point though and I find it remarkable that people are calling for his head after three wins and two odd-goal defeats. Just my two penneth.

Oh and before the standard reply comes back, yes, I do think this season is a clean slate and so far it looks promising, despite individual errors costing us a point at Dover and three against Maidenhead.

[PedroTheFisherman66]

Mainly the quality of the football. It's less agricultural admittedly and not widely known for succeeding at this level, but when it works it shows that there is indeed a plan. A plan and some stability is exactly what's required after decades of catastrophic short-termism. That said, he really does need to show us this season that said plan works. He has my full backing at this point though and I find it remarkable that people are calling for his head after three wins and two odd-goal defeats. Just my two penneth.

Oh and before the standard reply comes back, yes, I do think this season is a clean slate and so far it looks promising, despite individual errors costing us a point at Dover and three against Maidenhead.

Oh dear Swale P
I think you will find it's the other way around.
People seem to now think he's the messiah after 3 wins on the bounce.
I think you will find those of us who think he's not up to the job are basing their conclusion on his tenure over the past two seasons.
One which included relegation
The other which included a failed attempt at promotion.
The over riding similarity in both campaigns was playing tippy tappy footy that yielded very few chances created.
Several wonder goals bailed us out of tricky situations last season,this year I dont think we will be so fortunate.

[laddo]

This view that people view him as a Messiah is a pitchfork produced myth. When challenged on this for evidence , one person's single post was quoted.

His past record has been heavily influenced by others until this season. We were heading for relegation before he arrived that season, the whole club was a sh!tshow from top to bottom. He failed miserably to put the brakes on and turn it around but Kewell, Nolan, the squad of players and Hardy all collectively failed miserably as well.

Last season he failed to get us promotion as we lost at the final stage. But as mentioned above almost nobody expected us to get promotion, nobody predicted us to get automatic promotion. We finished 3rd won our semi final and lost in the final. As close as you can get to promotion without achieving it in our first season. Failure?

Very few managers have been up to the job at Notts, so if Ardley isn't then he joins a very long list we are used to.

Another myth , we don't create chances with tippy tappy football, aka possession based football on the deck yet last season we were joint 2nd top scorers in the league. If you are right Pedro we must be extremely efficient in front of goal creating lots of great chances not just chances.

This season more tippy tappy and it's 10 goals from 5 games , 3rd highest in the league. But we created very few chances, the goals column just doesn't support that view.

[crazyfists]

What is also a myth is that people predicted Notts getting relegated to National League North. As Elite says the predictions or hopes of stability and a mid table finish were pre season before the owners and team were assembled. After the squad was finalised and the owners in place I expected us to get promoted or be in the top three which we achieved. This notion that Ardley performed miracles to get us there is like I say a myth, he assembled a great squad for this level and even if it takes a couple of months to get going and match fit, that still leaves the majority of the season to do something.

As I asked earlier in the thread but no one has answered, how long do you want to give someone to build a team to get out of the national league? Genuine question. Also there are alot of good managers for our level out of work at the moment, if we're still inconsistent by the end of November then for me he's had long enough to sort out the issues. We all want Notts to go up, who cares if it's someone else who does it, I don't I just want out this league and stop losing to teams like Maidenhead at home and debating whether we can beat Kings Lynn Town, jesus christ.

[crazyfists]

Also you think Stockport and Hartlepool are going to be as easy to stay with as Barrow and Harrogate? For me we have to be better than last year but there's no evidence so far we will be.

[laddo]

I like your optimism CF that you expected promotion once we had finalised the squad. Top 3/playoffs far more realistic and achieved

It's extremely difficult to get that one automatic promotion place when you are a 4-8 weeks behind your promotion rivals and seriously unprepared at the start of the season. No surprise we started slowly.

Were Barrow easy to stay with? There record after a poor start was simple incredibly.

[Elite_Pie]

Mainly the quality of the football. It's less agricultural admittedly and not widely known for succeeding at this level, but when it works it shows that there is indeed a plan. A plan and some stability is exactly what's required after decades of catastrophic short-termism. That said, he really does need to show us this season that said plan works.

I think that's more the problem than the solution. We certainly have "a plan", and we stick to it rigidly. If it's not worked for 75 minutes and we're level or behind, we still persist with "the plan". We continue to pass it across the back six times before we risk a forward pass. In the later stages of games the opposition must love our "plan"! When we're chasing a winner or equaliser in the last 15 minutes of a game, how many times have we put our opponents under sustained pressure and bombarded their penalty area?

I think the answer is a number less than one.

[60YearsAPie]

“I knew it would be tough when I took the job 18 months ago, but I didn’t think it would be quite so hard as it has turned out. Things have not gone well recently, and I felt I could not carry on, particularly when some of the players failed to respond to the way I wanted them to play. It will be better for the club and the players if someone else takes over.”

Therein lies the problem. The players failing to play the way the manager wants them to play. Simples.

Who said the above? Unfortunately, not Neal Ardley. It was Billy Gray, 52 years ago.

It seems nothing changes.