Neil was always going to make a few mistakes at this level because of how inexperienced he is, we knew that when he was appointed, however he was the man we needed to get us out of the Championship. Whilst he has had his shortcomings this season, the main reason we are currently in the bottom 3, and look like we won't get out, is that simply we don't have good enough players. When I look at our squad I would say that Tettey, Hoolahan, Redmond, Naismith, Brady, Howson, Ruddy, Klose and possibly Bassong are all good enough to play at this level, all the rest, quite honestly, are not. Even out of those who are good enough, Redmond, Naismith, Bassong and Hoolahan are inconsistant, Ruddy has only recently found his form again after a shocking first half of the season, Klose only came in in January and Tettey is injured for the rest of season.
There are a ridiculous amount of games this season where we have actually played well, or at least not badly, and tactically we have been sound, but haven't got anything because of stupid individual errors from the players:
Palace (H) - 3-1 Loss. Midfield fail to track Zaha for first goal, nobody marks Delaney properly from a corner for the 2nd, Martin leaves Cabaye unmarked for the 3rd.
Stoke (H) - 1-1 Draw. Tettey doesn't mark Diouf from a free-kick, ends up scoring.
Southampton (A) - 3-0 Loss. Whittaker gets stupidly sent off after half an hour at 0-0. Up against it for the rest of the game with 10 men.
West Ham (A) - 2-2 Draw. We're 2-1 up going into the 90th minute, they get a free-kick, Ruddy messes up his punch away and Kouyate scores from it.
Man.City (A) - 2-1 Loss. Bennett doesn't track Otamendi from a corner, who scores. Ruddy fails to catch a cross, ends up leading to a penalty, which they score.
Chelsea (A) - 1-0 Loss. Wisdom and Martin switch off from a quick free-quick over the top, Costa goes through on goal and scores.
Arsenal (H) - 1-1 Draw. Terrible kick from Ruddy gives the ball away, he then stupidly comes charging out of his goal to close down Ozil who chips it over him.
Watford (A) - 2-0 Loss. Tettey gives the ball away and then brings down Ighalo for Waford penalty, which they score. Bassong gets turned too easily for their 2nd.
Everton (H) - 1-1 Draw. Poor clearance from Olsson gives the ball straight to Deulofeu, who crosses to unmarked Lukaku who scores.
Stoke (A) - 3-1 Loss. 0-0 after half an hour when Gary O'Neil makes a needless, stupid challenge and gets himself a red card.
Liverpool (H) - 5-4 Loss. 3-1 up after 55 minutes, end up losing the game despite not changing the tactics. Don't think I need to go into any more detail.
West Ham (H) 2-2 Draw. Same as Liverpool game. 2-0 up with 15 to go, end up drawing. Again, don't think any more detail is needed.
Leicester (A) 1-0 Loss. Outplay Leicester the whole 2nd half. Ulloa is left unmarked in the box with 2 minutes left and he scores.
Chelsea (H) 2-1 Loss. Fail to close down Kenedy who scores from distance after just 1 minute. Play well for the rest of the game but don't take our chances.
We have taken a total of 5 points from those 14 games, and I don't think you can blame the tactics that Neil chose for those games one bit. He has made the odd error in there, for example neither Martin or Rudd should've been selected against Liverpool, Ruddy should've been dropped earlier, but apart from that I would go as far as to say he is blame free in all of those games. We played well in the vast majority of those games, and competed in all of them. I'm not saying that we would've won all those games, but if we didn't make the stupid errors that we did then we would have a hell of a lot more points the board, and certainly wouldn't be in the bottom 3. However, the reason we have only taken 5 points from those 14, is because most of the players are not Premier League quality, hence why we are currently in the position we were in.
I have been pro-Neil all season, and as long as we actually put up a fight in the final 9 games, compete in them, and don't end up finishing below Villa, I will continue to be pro-Neil even if we go down. The fundamental differences between this season and Hughton's final season are that we are actually competitive in most games, particularly at home. We've only conceded more than 3 goals in a game twice this season, and one of those was the 5-4 against Liverpool. In Hughton's final season, we conceded more than 3 goals in 6 of our games. Plus, Neil has actually tried different personnel/formations to find the right formula, whereas Hughton used the same players in the same system every single week even when it was clear it wasn't working. Also, our games this season, even when we lose, are often exciting, full of goals and we try and play good football. I get why fans are desperate for us to stay up, at all costs, but personally I would much rather my team were a 'Yoyo club' that play exciting, attacking football, with games that are full of goals and action, than a team like West Brom or Sunderland, who play terrible football, have dire games, but limp towards safety each season. Obviously I want us to stay up, but at any cost? I don't think so.
I'm not trying to make out that Neil is totally blame free, of course he's not. Any manager has to take a certain amount of responsibility when their team are relegated. However is his inexperience the main reason why we will go down (assuming we do), absolutely not. That lies with the quality (or rather lack of it) of the majority of our squad. With the exception of Brady and Tettey, I don't think a single player can really say they've performed consistantly well this season.
