Alex Neil - Stick or Twist?

[Bill and ben]

My problem with Neil is that I don't actually know where his strengths lie.

there is no evidence of a tactical mastermind; motivation seems to be a weak point; he doesn't seem to turn out a team that can last the full 90 or rotate a squad to keep guys fresh and the vision to change a game around is lacking.

Perhaps in a few years time the youth he has brought in will pay dividends, but what use is that now?

maybe, as some have said, there is an attitude problem with some of the players. I dont know if this is the case but there is an argument for saying that a manager is employed primarily to deal with personalities and, if he cannot, to dispose of them.

id like to know what other posters see as his strengths

 

[Canaryboy]

He did a pretty good job of it in this league last time around, players really responded to him, I guess it was a short term shot in the arm and built upon primarily a sense of relief that Neil Adams had gone and just giving players a clean slate. Hasn't shown for me that he can build and manage a squad, some of his decisions have been strange. Like giving Whittaker a new contract after 6 months without picking him, and rejecting a Sunderland offer for John Ruddy despite clearly rating a freebie from Hamilton as a better keeper. 

 

[Fenway Frank]

AN has been asked about Whitaker. His answer is he's good enough at this level and can play at both right and left fullback. If he'd have let him go he would have had to either buy two replacements or find someone else that can play in both of those positions. He wanted to keep the cash for a striker so offered Whitaker a new deal.

 

[Canaryboy]

AN has been asked about Whitaker. His answer is he's good enough at this level and can play at both right and left fullback. If he'd have let him go he would have had to either buy two replacements or find someone else that can play in both of those positions. 

Shame he didn't "find" Darnell Fisher the pacey 22 year old Rotherham full back who kept the Murphy's quiet and joined them on a 3 year deal this summer, can play at either right back or left back and didn't come from a league which is unknown to Alex Neil.

What can Rotherham pay for players, £250k? 

 

[Dubai Mark]

Despite the earlier results, the performances against mediocre teams have been average and with this squad we simply shouldnt be doing "average".......let alone total capitulation like Saturday. So, for me an early decision must be made to show AN the door along with his coaching staff and bring in a new set with a depth of experience, not somebody "cutting their teeth".......the club need balls to do that, no sentiment just big league decision making.

 

[Canaryboy]

Another positive to bringing Lambert back would be that he wouldn't just ditch Hoolahan, he'll use him. 

Oh and he was never afraid to use two strikers if the lone striker was isolated, could play "lump it to Lafferty" for the last 10 minutes occasionally? Laffertyovich (oh, that doesn't quite work!). 

Coming around to this Lambert idea to be honest. Yes it didn't work out with Walker, but it worked out OK for Leicester when they took Pearson back and Steve McLaren has had a decent start back at Derby. 

There is a good chance Wolves are about to appoint either Sherwood or Lambert. If that's all that is on the market right now then FFS don't let them take Lambert, because I'd rather we do our usual skinflint thing and appoint Irvine than have Sherwood here! 

 

[Fenway Frank]

When has AN ditched Hoolahan ? 

 

[Canaryboy]

When has AN ditched Hoolahan ? 

He hasn't, I'm talking about the period after Alex Neil has been sacked and we need to find a new manager. 

If people are talking about potentially sacking Alex Neil if he doesn't fix things very quickly, then we need to start thinking about who is out there to replace him. 

 

[Canaryboy]

He wanted to keep the cash for a striker so offered Whitaker a new deal.

Perhaps he should have thought about not buying two £8m attacking midfielders so he could afford both a striker and a defender or two.

We had £20m worth of Alex Neil signings on the bench against Brighton.

 

[Fenway Frank]

I'm only telling you his answer when he was asked. You clearly don't like him, fine, but the £20m worth of signings on the bench weren't all strikers were they ? 

 

[Canaryboy]

I'm only telling you his answer when he was asked. You clearly don't like him, fine, but the £20m worth of signings on the bench weren't all strikers were they ? 

The point is that Alex Neil has had money to spend, but perhaps hasn't spent it correctly. At very least he was wasted £8m by signing two attacking midfielders instead of one, and that is £8m which could have been invested elsewhere. 

Alex Neil has spent £4m on one solitary striker, but received £11.5m in transfer fees for Grabban, Van Wolfswinkel and Hooper in the past year. That's a disparity of £7.5m, which you could easily attribute to what we spent on Naismith. That's fine, if Naismith had actually had an impact, only he appears to have replaced him with Pritchard for £8m just 6 months later and we've Naismith sitting on a 4 year deal. 

Even people who want to give Alex Neil until late December and are still backing him can acknowledge that this Naismith / Pritchard situation is a gross waste of money and that there are other areas of the pitch which may have needed that investment? 

The reason that Alex Neil needed money to bring in a striker was because he'd spent his striker money on Naismith. Or he spent it on Pritchard, whatever way we want to spin it. 

It would be better for all concerned if we just thrashed Leeds and went on a long unbeaten run, plenty of managers salvage their jobs so lets hope that Alex Neil is one of them. Changing manager is always a risk, especially at a club who often seem to take the cheap option, so I'd much rather we just got our sh*t together and started winning again. 

 

[Fenway Frank]

It would be better for all concerned if we just thrashed Leeds and went on a long unbeaten run, plenty of managers salvage their jobs so lets hope that Alex Neil is one of them. Changing manager is always a risk, especially at a club who often seem to take the cheap option, so I'd much rather we just got our sh*t together and started winning again. 

?

 

[GJP]

Perhaps he should have thought about not buying two £8m attacking midfielders so he could afford both a striker and a defender or two.

We had £20m worth of Alex Neil signings on the bench against Brighton.

There's been a fair amount of money spent since we got promoted but we haven't got any better for it.

 

[SussexYellow]

It would be better for all concerned if we just thrashed Leeds and went on a long unbeaten run, plenty of managers salvage their jobs so lets hope that Alex Neil is one of them. Changing manager is always a risk, especially at a club who often seem to take the cheap option, so I'd much rather we just got our sh*t together and started winning again. 

?

Well yes that would be ideal but what is the likelihood of that happening after what we witnessed on Saturday? Extremely low in my view.

But the important point you make CB is that we are a club that tends to take the cheap option and do it slowly. If we are to change manager then we need to have a quality replacement lined up first.

I feel we are at a watershed either the club act boldly and quickly now or we likely to be heading for a few years in the wilderness.

 

[Fenway Frank]

The problem would be that the best managers are already at clubs so we would have to try and pry them away from their current clubs. I really want AN to do well and get us out of this muddle we seem to be in but if I had to go for someone I'd say Gary Rowett 

 

[RhythmicTheory]

My thoughts on the situation now we have had a bit more time with our manager:

1. I still like his tactical approach to games, although he seems to have lost some belief, his substitutions arent as proactive as they were up until Newcastle in the prem.

2. Hes not good at squad managment, he has over used players at his disposal, I dont know if this is a failing or a lack of faith in the rest of the squads ability.  This might improve with more experience.

3. He likes playing with high wing backs (great), but doesnt seem to recognise that we dont have defensive midfielders disciplined enough to sit and cover.  Tettey (former attacking midfielder before us), Dorrans (same again), Howson (can do a job, but limits him), none of these are good enough in that role and we havent addressed that at all.  Alot of our conceded on the counter is down to this.

3. I think the squad was over worked in pre season, which is going to be down to the sports science dept, there were too many muscle injuries early in the season and we looked very lethargic first 5-10 games, lots of late goals conceded (fatigue/concentration).

4. I am concerned with the back room team / board behind the scenes, no scouting team in place before prem so late signings in Jan.  Plus our signings in general have been very random, there doesnt seem to be a strategy, this isnt the case with all, Klose was good, Naismith made sense.  Signing Canos, Pritchard and Maddison seemed odd, given other priorities and members of squad already.  Theres been many poor decisions at board/back room level and I dont have confidence in them to make the right decisions or support their manager.

5. Have always thought the squad has a underlying mental weakness, this has never been addressed across Hughton, Adams nor Neil.

So I see our predicament as a collective failing rather than just the manager, I dont think the team have lost faith, I just think they are mentally weak, lose grafters like Pinto and Howson from the side and you see what we end up with.  Additionally there are players who without those forementioned players driving them, just dont try as hard and seem not want to be here (take a bow Brady, all season).

All of these is quite a mix, The only way I can see Alex addressing it is by drawing more on the youngsters, but they might not be ready.  We need a goalkeeper, a solid dm and a striker to add to klose and howson as a spine of the team in Jan.  But unless he can move people on, we cant sign, hence why we have been stuck with pretty much the same defence this season, which I think the players in question know, so again, they arent exactly motivated.

See what everyone can do by end of Nov, otherwise take Dec to get a new team in (im not just talking manager here, behind the scenes/football board) and give them Jan to sign.  I dont see Newcastle signing anyone in Jan, as they are fine, so we will be competing against Villa and thats prob it (maybe Derby, if they panic).

We are mainly here again because of mismanagement behind the scenes though, so I want to see changes at that level before I worry about any manager.

Ps. I would get Lambert back, but whether he would be as good without out the same backroom team, who knows.

 

[GJP]

What is his tactical approach to games?

 

[Canaryboy]

I can remember when Declan Rudd came into the team last year and the defense suddenly looked a lot more solid when Ruddy was put out of his misery. Didn't last because Rudd then got a bit shakey too, but when we are defending like a sunday league team I wonder whether McGovern may not be filling the back 4 with confidence right now? 

Also, in hindsight do we think that we could perhaps have done a bit more to keep Gary O'Neil at the club? He chose a two year deal at Bristol City over a one year deal here, but surely we could offer more wages than them and could easily have put an automatic one year extension into the deal if he plays x number of games this season? He finished last season as one of our better players and could have been a great defensive screen this season sitting in front of the back 4?

Bit of a travesty that O'Neil didn't sign a new deal having been so great in the final few months last season, but Turner and Whittaker got extensions despite being finished (in my opinion). 

 

[RhythmicTheory]

What is his tactical approach to games?

A very fluid high press, a lone striker with a lot of movement and wing backs that push high and wide there should then be lots of space for attacking midfielders (where we are strongest) and opportunity for over loads. Just wish we had the necessary water carriers who were good enough to shore up the back.

 

[GJP]

Is that what it is?

Is it one size fits all?