by shrimper » Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:37 am
Hey great arguing, lads, really enjoying it - please do carry on.
Marky, so you'd have had Sammy sacked had we not beaten Lincoln, eh?
Fine line isn't it? I mean, why not after we lost at home so badly to Northampton? Or, say we'd lost by one goal (as we could have done) at Torquay and then at home to Northampton. Sack him?
That would be pretty consistent with your reasoning but, in my opinion (and, in fact, as it turned out - but hindsight's wonderful isn't it?), would have been totally the wrong decision based, even, on the evidence of what had gone before, never mind what has happened since.
Fact was we played really well at Torquay (but we could have lost it), as we did in a number of other games which we drew. So to say things like 'if we don't beat Lincoln he gets the sack' is really short-sighted IMO.
It ignores the many good performances the team had put in up to that point which, with respect, if you don't see many games and then rely on reports from people who may have a particular axe to grind (either way) then you wouldn't necessarily have appreciated.
This is the point about not seeing games. Fair enough to have an opinion but people will argue that the background that informs that opinion needs to be stronger for it to have more credibility.
General strength of performance, the way the players were really grafting for the boss, the way the manager was trying different tactics to fine-tune our system and our style to get an extra 10%, (ie the difference between playing well and drawing games or playing a little bit better, being slightly more effective and then starting to win games) - that's what you judge a manager on. Also, I'd argue, you need to consider his record with us so far in changing systems, changing players to get us back on track after a poor run or, in this case, in order to make a solid start get even better.
Sammy's not just some first-timer who had joined us at the start of the season.
Is the glass half full or half empty? Mmmm? hard to say - but it does look like there's room for more beer!