Dave Jones

Watching the game tonight and not enjoyed the style of football so much since Dave Jones. Loving the style and attacking press as opposed to the long ball and anti football of the last few managers.

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Originally Posted by Natman Blue

Watching the game tonight and not enjoyed the style of football so much since Dave Jones. Loving the style and attacking press as opposed to the long ball and anti football of the last few managers.

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We always knew the ugly and uncompromising part of our play but it is lovely to see the flair and pacey players released to do their thing without shirking their defensive duties. Harris never got the balance right and in the end we just turned into a soft touch all over the park.

Jones never quite got the balance right. We looked exceptional going forward but were too much of a soft touch at the back. Hence he never got us promoted with what I still believe to be our best ever squad. If we had won that play off final I believe we were much more suitable to premier league football than the two subsequent promotions.

MM seemed to have gotten things about right at the moment - all over the pitch. We are horrible to play against but have a ruthless streak going forward whether through open play, counter attack or set pieces.

After such a great attacking performance on the weekend last nights performance was equally as satisfying, maybe more so.

I do worry about fatigue with some players though. Moore in particular who adds so much to the team.

Jones was too laid-back. he let the players decide how to play, hence a lot of gung-ho attractive football, but it was undisciplined.

This is quite similar to early Warnock, wasn't all long ball under him. When he came in it was a complete transformation, players busting a gut, and particularly at the start of the promotion season we had attacking players who got at teams.

We are pressing teams well under Mick, its forcing errors and is helping us be able to get some of our more technical players in the game far easier than we managed before. Harris was sort of caught between doing what the squad is good at and trying to keep the ball more. We had a nice balance end of last season but at the start of this we were weak mentally, defensively and when we did pass it was too slow and methodical.

I only wish we could have a bit more composure at times, we don't half get involved in some head tennis.

Definitely agree with all the analysis here. We do seem to have done the right balance, perhaps it didn't see as much of the early football under Warnock as I'd just stopped me season ticket and I didn't know about watching online. The balance is definitely a lot better but I think what I meant is that I've not been as impressed and excited with our forward play and movement.

we improved every year for six years under Jones, whilst building a new stadium.
yes the start under McCarthy is very impressive, and enjoyable but it is still very early days. wait until we have had a bad run before we start drawing comparisons. we aren't going to win every game.

we've seen from McCarthy he's been able to motivate the players, cut out the silly mistakes and get good effort from the players and play a simple game so that everyone knows their role.
that's pretty similar to the improvements that Neil Warnock made when he first came here.

the trouble with managers who are mostly about "man management" is there often seems to be a law of diminishing returns. once the players have heard their motivational speeches and methods umpteen times they aren't going to still be as effective. I think we also see this with a certain Tottenham manager.

that said at least Mick McCarthy doesn't completely disregard the future of youth development like warnock, but it remains to be seen if he can build an attractive team over several seasons beyond his admittedly impressive initial impact

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Originally Posted by Natman Blue

Watching the game tonight and not enjoyed the style of football so much since Dave Jones. Loving the style and attacking press as opposed to the long ball and anti football of the last few managers.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

we improved every year for six years under Jones, whilst building a new stadium.
yes the start under McCarthy is very impressive, and enjoyable but it is still very early days. wait until we have had a bad run before we start drawing comparisons. we aren't going to win every game.

we've seen from McCarthy he's been able to motivate the players, cut out the silly mistakes and get good effort from the players and play a simple game so that everyone knows their role.
that's pretty similar to the improvements that Neil Warnock made when he first came here.

the trouble with managers who are mostly about "man management" is there often seems to be a law of diminishing returns. once the players have heard their motivational speeches and methods umpteen times they aren't going to still be as effective. I think we also see this with a certain Tottenham manager.

that said at least Mick McCarthy doesn't completely disregard the future of youth development like warnock, but it remains to be seen if he can build an attractive team over several seasons beyond his admittedly impressive initial impact

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I think you are making some fair points.

Apart from the results, which have obviously been tremendous, I have been impressed with McCarthys commitment to the young players and development squad.

With only a short term contract, and with a mandate of improving first team results, you would understand if he ignored the youth teams and concentrated on the first team only. It's a testament to his character and love of the game that he is not only bringing in youngsters to the first team set-up but also attending youth team games.

I really didn't expect that at all.

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Originally Posted by AfricanBluebird

I think you are making some fair points.

Apart from the results, which have obviously been tremendous, I have been impressed with McCarthys commitment to the young players and development squad.

With only a short term contract, and with a mandate of improving first team results, you would understand if he ignored the youth teams and concentrated on the first team only. It's a testament to his character and love of the game that he is not only bringing in youngsters to the first team set-up but also attending youth team games.

I really didn't expect that at all.

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a mate of mine who's a fan of another championship side mentioned that McCarthy is always a fan of bringing youngsters through, which I'll admit I hadn't really registered before, bit it seems hes right, at least relatively.

it's annoying to think that as soon as we've put some players in they've all.... been fine. none have looked out of their depth at all.
and I don't think that this current crop is necessarily that much better than the past.
how many players have we missed out on over the years because of our intransigence towards academy players. how many squad player signings could we have avoided, and how much in wages could we have saved if we had a better approach.

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Originally Posted by AfricanBluebird

I think you are making some fair points.

Apart from the results, which have obviously been tremendous, I have been impressed with McCarthys commitment to the young players and development squad.

With only a short term contract, and with a mandate of improving first team results, you would understand if he ignored the youth teams and concentrated on the first team only. It's a testament to his character and love of the game that he is not only bringing in youngsters to the first team set-up but also attending youth team games.

I really didn't expect that at all.

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I am responding to your message about another poster making a good point by stating that you have a good point yourself, old fruit.

Maybe our past young players have not been anywhere near good enough.

Joe Ralls has come through ok.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

we improved every year for six years under Jones, whilst building a new stadium.
yes the start under McCarthy is very impressive, and enjoyable but it is still very early days. wait until we have had a bad run before we start drawing comparisons. we aren't going to win every game.

we've seen from McCarthy he's been able to motivate the players, cut out the silly mistakes and get good effort from the players and play a simple game so that everyone knows their role.
that's pretty similar to the improvements that Neil Warnock made when he first came here.

the trouble with managers who are mostly about "man management" is there often seems to be a law of diminishing returns. once the players have heard their motivational speeches and methods umpteen times they aren't going to still be as effective. I think we also see this with a certain Tottenham manager.

that said at least Mick McCarthy doesn't completely disregard the future of youth development like warnock, but it remains to be seen if he can build an attractive team over several seasons beyond his admittedly impressive initial impact

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I echo your sentiments regarding "man management" and the "law of diminishing returns". On the other board I warned against the fans getting overly euphoric with the current run of results. The calls are getting louder by the minute for the board to jump in and give MM a longer contract.

There is no denying that the manager is getting at least 10% more effort from the players than Harris was. But as you said, what happens when MM's motivational speeches cease to have such an impact on the players ? Still, for now we should just savour our amazing run of form but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

A last word on Dave Jones. Yes, his teams failed to make the big step up but he left us with some glorious memories. The quality of some of the football played under him deserved a higher stage but sadly it became evident that he was not the manager to take us there.

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Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

I echo your sentiments regarding "man management" and the "law of diminishing returns". On the other board I warned against the fans getting overly euphoric with the current run of results. The calls are getting louder by the minute for the board to jump in and give MM a longer contract.

There is no denying that the manager is getting at least 10% more effort from the players than Harris was. But as you said, what happens when MM's motivational speeches cease to have such an impact on the players ? Still, for now we should just savour our amazing run of form but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

A last word on Dave Jones. Yes, his teams failed to make the big step up but he left us with some glorious memories. The quality of some of the football played under him deserved a higher stage but sadly it became evident that he was not the manager to take us there.

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We spent heavily on wages when Jones was here , way above what our crowds could justify

He never got us up despite being given the cash

Warnock did , but then spent too much

We are jinxed

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Originally Posted by Natman Blue

Watching the game tonight and not enjoyed the style of football so much since Dave Jones. Loving the style and attacking press as opposed to the long ball and anti football of the last few managers.

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The high press looks great and works well when its being done right, if you start pressing from the front players it inspires everyone of your team mates imho