Why do you think the manager didn’t try to change anything last night?

Michael Mols

Well-Known Member
It was painfully obvious that they had lost their way in the second half. I doubt anyone was surprised when Killie equalised. Why didn’t he try to shore up the midfield or tighten the defence?


Did he think things weren’t that bad? Is he scared of making a sub incase it upsets the balance? Does he just not trust the bench?

I can’t get my head around it at all.
 
The truth is we shouldn't be waiting until things are going awry in these games to change it. That's 8 games on the bounce we've played 4-3-3 against teams who sit in, and 8 games we've struggled to get going, including against Stranraer. Whether it's formation or personnel something should have been shaken up by now. That Gerrard can't see it worries me.
 
He’s generally been a reactive manager rather than pro-active.
Possibly doesn’t know how to change anything for the better, or inexperience.
His inability/unwillingness to make changes earlier in games has cost us before and will again.
 
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what happened regarding the sub we were supposedly going to make in the first half right before we scored?

did the goal change minds? and if so why?
 
It was painfully obvious that they had lost their way in the second half. I doubt anyone was surprised when Killie equalised. Why didn’t he try to shore up the midfield or tighten the defence?


Did he think things weren’t that bad? Is he scared of making a sub incase it upsets the balance? Does he just not trust the bench?

I can’t get my head around it at all.

I think SG just likes to be patient and give the players that he has faith in time to get the right result
 
what happened regarding the sub we were supposedly going to make in the first half right before we scored?

did the goal change minds? and if so why?

Did Aribo not take a knock and we were waiting to see how he was?

When does Gerrard ever make an early change or tweak the formation. You could see from 55 minutes in we were struggling, there were shouts for change in the match thread yet Gerrard waited another 22 minutes.
 
I still find it hard to believe that despite us having a so called better back room staff than anyone in this league, we don't have the answers to break down stubborn defences and do the basics to defend properly.
 
He perseveres with the players even when they are playing shite. Aribo was for the hook after 30min last night. We got the goal and all is well. That's Aberdeen and Kilmarnock that subs are on too late.
 
I still find it hard to believe that despite us having a so called better back room staff than anyone in this league, we don't have the answers to break down stubborn defences and do the basics to defend properly.

We invite this situation on ourselves by hogging the ball with no purpose and without risk. We need to be more direct, quicker and unpredictable, otherwise It’s a leveller for poor players.
 
The biggest issue was our inability to possess the ball. We missed out the midfield and played long balls forward. And it never stuck.
 
I think because we kept coming back into it and looked dangerous on the break, he would have been expecting the 2nd.
 
Did Aribo not take a knock and we were waiting to see how he was?

When does Gerrard ever make an early change or tweak the formation. You could see from 55 minutes in we were struggling, there were shouts for change in the match thread yet Gerrard waited another 22 minutes.

stewart looked like he was getting stripped, reading the tactics board etc.

then we scored and it all just got left

arfield scored out of nothing we weren't playing particularly well

i was pleased to see a change coming so early for once
 
Because he doesnt know how to. He's proved it time and time again.

This is the correct answer.

When a game is slipping away Gerrards a rabbit in the headlights.

Davis should have been on at 60mins.. it was clear the equaliser was coming.
 
He doesn't know how to, as he's a rookie manager with little experience in the job. It's really that simple.
Surely this can't be true though. I am just a basic football fan of 35 years and have my level 1&2 for youth coaching and I knew that the game needed managed at that point. In fact most people around me In the Chadwick last night were shouting the same thing from a 65-70 mins. It was the most obvious thing in the world. Davis on to shore up middle, put foot on ball and Hagi off would have been my first change.
I'm not sure what his thinking was, but I don't believe he never identified there was an issue and didn't have an idea how to combat it had he decided to use it.
 
Surely this can't be true though. I am just a basic football fan of 35 years and have my level 1&2 for youth coaching and I knew that the game needed managed at that point. In fact most people around me In the Chadwick last night were shouting the same thing from a 65-70 mins. It was the most obvious thing in the world. Davis on to shore up middle, put foot on ball and Hagi off would have been my first change.
I'm not sure what his thinking was, but I don't believe he never identified there was an issue and didn't have an idea how to combat it had he decided to use it.

I think it's probably a combination of inertia, fear and cluelessness. He's not a particularly brave manager.
 
He doesn't know how to, as he's a rookie manager with little experience in the job. It's really that simple.

A manager with 100+ games under his belt should know when and how to make a substitution. Moreso when it's a former world class player we are talking about.

My view is that he errs on the side of caution more often than not and is very much in the reactive camp. Too much evidence now to say otherwise and the worrying thing is that he does it so often with the same result I'm not convinced he's going to change.
 
The only change we had really to help us gain control of the game was Davis to come on.

Flanagan? Nope
Edmundson? Nope
Jones? Maybe
Kamberi? Nope
Stewart? Maybe

Davis has also been tripe for weeks.
 
I think that's how he sees himself, the kind of attributes he valued in a manager, a hard but fair man the team can trust, who won't panic and who'll give them scope to 'find a way'.
He needs to drop that idea, at least with these players, pronto and manage the game in front of him.
 
Not bringing Davis on for either Hagi or Kent was criminal.

As soon as their midfield started bossing it, we should have gone with a middle 3 of Jack, Davis and Arfield and got some possession back.

I have no idea why he did nothing, it was negligence at best, incompetence at worst.
 
We needed something in the midfield, Davis should have been brought on.

I’m not a manager though so it’s easy for me to make an assumption that it’s just as easy as that.
 
A manager with 100+ games under his belt should know when and how to make a substitution. Moreso when it's a former world class player we are talking about.

My view is that he errs on the side of caution more often than not and is very much in the reactive camp. Too much evidence now to say otherwise and the worrying thing is that he does it so often with the same result I'm not convinced he's going to change.

Nah, the player stuff means nowt.

I don't know how long it takes a manager to get good at the role, but it's clearly taking its time for Gerrard. I'm sick of seeing guys on the touchline who don't know what they're doing because they lack the experience.
 
I think it's probably a combination of inertia, fear and cluelessness. He's not a particularly brave manager.
But in this occasion there wasn't a need to be brave, In fact it was quite the opposite. Get another midfielder on (one with over 100 caps) to get back control of the middle of park, while taking off the more offensive young lad that is blowing out his arse. Absolutely baffling mate, honestly messes with my head.
 
Nah, the player stuff means nowt.

I don't know how long it takes a manager to get good at the role, but it's clearly taking its time for Gerrard. I'm sick of seeing guys on the touchline who don't know what they're doing because they lack the experience.

Don't you think that playing experience counts for something though? Of course it's a different viewpoint and he's not 'in the game' as such but I'm sure he could tell when he was playing when his team was flagging and needed to mix it up, I can't get my head around how standing on the touchline would just result in that evaporating entirely.
 
I think that's how he sees himself, the kind of attributes he valued in a manager, a hard but fair man the team can trust, who won't panic and who'll give them scope to 'find a way'.
He needs to drop that idea, at least with these players, pronto and manage the game in front of him.
100% agree with everything in this post.
 
We went in leading at h/t, Killie to get anything would have to drive the bus and that would leave room for us, 433 would be correct in those circumstance.
However when players don’t perform and officials get it wrong they equalise.
He then sends on 2 fresh forwards to try and get the 3pts, goal ruled out then a schoolboy error and we end up losing.
 
Not bringing Davis on for either Hagi or Kent was criminal.

As soon as their midfield started bossing it, we should have gone with a middle 3 of Jack, Davis and Arfield and got some possession back.

I have no idea why he did nothing, it was negligence at best, incompetence at worst.

He didn't do nothing though. That's just a lie.

He went to a flatter three in the midfield which didn't work, fine. But let's not pretend he just stood and watched the game.
 
There's a body of evidence in games against Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Hearts and Hibs over the last season and a half that he can't change it.
 
It looked like nothing to me.

Well you weren't watching the game then.

Aribo dropped in to make a flat three. So it's not much different than what you suggested just different personnel.

Didn't work.

But then maybe it would if the ref was consistent.
 
I think SG thought that with Kilmarnock starting to attack and come out there would be more space for our more skillful players,unfortunately it didn't work out.
 
Well you weren't watching the game then.

Aribo dropped in to make a flat three. So it's not much different than what you suggested just different personnel.

Didn't work.

But then maybe it would if the ref was consistent.

Davis in a flat 3 is a miles better option than Aribo though. And not even close. So if he did what you say, it was still the wrong thing to do.

PS Of course I watched it you cheeky git.
 
Am no SG Manager this isn't meant to be anything other than an observation not a comparison from me hard hat on!!! but have my Level 1/2 youth coaching i managed a team from 14s-19s i had a simple philosophy when we played a team with 1 upfront and 2 banks of 4+1 (parking the bus) i played 3-5-2 for the simple reason the ratio of 3 defenders to 1 forward was a good balance for us and we attacked with 2 forwards to compensate the 2 banks of 4 defenders
Not saying am great just a normal guy

Hence the reason they have changed there formation!!!!!!!!
 
Surely this can't be true though. I am just a basic football fan of 35 years and have my level 1&2 for youth coaching and I knew that the game needed managed at that point. In fact most people around me In the Chadwick last night were shouting the same thing from a 65-70 mins. It was the most obvious thing in the world. Davis on to shore up middle, put foot on ball and Hagi off would have been my first change.
I'm not sure what his thinking was, but I don't believe he never identified there was an issue and didn't have an idea how to combat it had he decided to use it.
That’s what we basically thought as well.

Davis on Hagi off and probably move Aribo or Arfield into Hagi’s position. Either way definitely Davis on as we were saying this is going to be Hearts all over again.
 
Davis in a flat 3 is a miles better option than Aribo though. And not even close. So if he did what you say, it was still the wrong thing to do.

PS Of course I watched it you cheeky git.

Aye Davis would've been better. I'm not debating that.

But he did do something. It didn't work.
 
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