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I thought Rickie Lambert was getting on a bit but signing Murphy seems like total desperation - it's been years since he was in George and Mildred.
It can't be mentioned enough. I know Slade was slated for his managerial dealings but this is on a different level.
It's almost unheard of. Take 2 seasons in Ireland out of the equation and he's spent 14 years in the UK and started 55 games. That's just under 4 games a season on average for his entire UK career.
He's managed 22 starts in the Championship, keeping 7 clean sheets. Sounds reasonable enough but he kept 6 in his first 10 games with Ipswich. During his illustrious time at Swansea, he kept 2 clean sheets in 18 starts, mainly in the tin pot cup.
I might be a tad pessimistic here and apologies for it, but I don't think he's quite the keeper to fill Marshall's boots.
I slated Slade for his transfer dealings because after a life-time in the lower leagues he plucked one player from there he thought he had potential, when it was an obvious choice, and it didn't ever look like working.
I'm not sure how that criticism can be applied to this regime in this transfer; unless you want to point out Slade was criticised and yet things aren't perfect since he left, again.
He isn't, going by his starts he's comfortable sitting on the bench and so I assume that's what we have in mind for him. He's purely cover, probably third choice.
Wilson or Amos will be trying to fill Marshall's boots. Hopefully we give Wilson a chance, given a youngster an opportunity is going to be the only good thing to come out of such a poor decision to let the first two choice keepers leave.
55 games in 14 years? Money for old Roper.
Don't put him through the Mil, dred the thought he reads this.
While the question wasn't directed at me, I feel like supplying an answer.
If it's a case of Slade vs Trollope, I reckon we'd be marginally higher in the table now if Slade was in charge. That would hardly paint the whole picture mind. Trollope is trying to get us to play to a different formation and changing things as we have means we were always likely to have a slow start. 4-4-2 was a system that hardly got the best out of us in my opinion and, while the change to a back 3 and having an extra body in centre midfield (where we struggled most last season in my opinion) might or might not be for the better, the change itself will take time.
I think Trollope is streets ahead of Slade in a tactical sense though I have worries about Trollope as a motivator.
This was always likely to be a transitional season. I'm glad Trollope is giving youth a go; Slade didn't want to know.
What we're seeing, for me, is the result of incompetence at the highest level at the club. Our transfer dealings have been crap overall and I don't think that's Trollope's fault. I reckon Slade would have had the same issues.
Trollope has to build a football club again and I'm not 100% sure he's the right man for that, though I'm 100% sure we haven't got the right infrastructure and board to do that.
If the question is are we worse off now we've lost Slade, my answer would be an unequivocal no, even with the start we've made.
I hear so much talk of systems, tactics and formations - but simple passing, movement and creativity has been sadly absent for quite some time.
Managers sometimes need slow starts. You can't make wholesale changes and not expect them to affect the team.
4-4-2 saw our centre midfield hopelessly exposed too often to be ignored. That's a part of the reason we failed to make the playoffs.
Sorry, but there is a lot of evidence to suggest Trollope will give youth more of a chance than Slade.
Trollope is a part of our transfer committee, just as Slade was. I believe at the current time their hands are tied. We've been crap in the transfer market for too long for it to be the fault of one manager.
We have ended up with 5 at the back with 3 midfielders who are wary of pushing forward and 2 strikers who are starved of any service? Going back to the Lambert debate there is no way he will get many goals playing 5-3-2 he will score more if we play 4-4-2.
I f we are going to play Whitts he needs to be left side of a midfield 4 anywhere else we are screwed. Why is PT experimenting with a squad that came close last season?
Hear, hear!
I also think the key to good football management is good scouting. Too much emphasis placed on formations, plan-B etc, etc.
Get the right players in and they'll adapt to situations on the field as they happen - oh, and pace ... you simply cannot legislate for someone who has pace, this is why we're so easy to contain and why we don't score enough goals.
Was there not a stat that last year's points tally in the season before would have seen us midtable rather than challenging?