Quote Originally Posted by ccfc_is_my_life View Post
Well, you could well argue that the players certainly didn't show up for him.

I don't believe we'd have stayed up. We lacked goals, lacked pace - the squad simply wasn't setup for the way he wanted them to play. Hoilett, Zohore, NML - capable of breaking with pace, hold ball up. Then? Bellamy whose legs were gone, Campbell a hard worker, Mason/Smith?

The only chance we had staying up that season was to keep the opposition to at most one goal.

I'd also disagree that that style was the best way of staying up. Plenty of other teams coming up play more expansively - not gung ho balls to the wall stupidity - and stay up. For me, our squad just wasn't good enough - wasn't diverse enough to allow tactical flexibility, lacked pace. That is down to the recruitment in the summer window. Around Ł25m on Caulker, Medal and Cornelius imo could have been better utilised by being far cuter in the signings we made - more players for lower fees to fit the garing gaps we had.
It was well known that players would run through brick walls for Mackay, the atmosphere at the club was toxic, we were the laughing stock of British football who's owner was portrayed as a Bond villain, Mackay had been told to "Resign or be sacked" a bad result was inevitable

We had a better second half of the season which was squandered by attempting a more expansive style, before the shit it the fan we were getting solid, if unspectacular, results

I seem to remember Mackay being roundly praised after signing Caulker and Medel