I'm losing faith in Chris Powell. Are you?

[undercovershrimper]

I don't often feel the need to post on this site but every so often something I read irkes me so much that I need to get my opinion off my chest.

Lets deal with the points you raised one by one :-

Team selection

Having regard to the injuries loss of form and suspensions I believe that in the main the teams fielded selected themselves. What changes would you have made?

Formations and naivety of initial lineup.

What is wrong with selecting a formation and lineup that appeared to play to our strengths? Why should we not have started the Burton match with a formation that served us well at Wycombe, to the extent that it took us to 3-0 up? When it didn't work at Burton as planned, the formation was changed to one that did. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Planning and choice of timing of substitutions and their dubious nature

I was at Wycombe and watched the Burton game on iFollow. What was so dubious about the substitutions at Wycombe? Yearwood needed some playing time as did Kightly We were 3-0 up and cruising. If that wasn't the time to make the substitutions and so give the substitutes some time on the pitch and some of the starters a rest, seeing that they would need to play 2 more games this week, when do you say would have been the right time? Okay they didn't perform as we had hoped but the wisdom of giving them time on the pitch soon became clear. Mantom was injured and Dru was needed to replace him at Burton and Kightly's input at Burton greatly contributed to the change in the nature of the match. I consider that this demonstrated great planning and acumen

I for one have no doubt about Chris Powell's all round managerial ability.

Great post, and I do wonder if people realise the SCP has already won this league with Charlton and managed other clubs as well, it feels like some people seem to think this is his first job as a manager!!

 

[Magnum PI]

Equally some of us supporting CP aren’t just doing it out of blind ‘He’s one of our own’ faith.

We liked what we witnessed last season. We understand that injuries and suspensions have made the start difficult. We don’t need 3-0 every week to appreciate good football.

But weren't you staunchly against Brown being outed and Powell inned? Do you have a view other than that the incumbent should never lose their job on the basis that anything else is heresy?

 

[rigsby]

But weren't you staunchly against Brown being outed and Powell inned? Do you have a view other than that the incumbent should never lose their job on the basis that anything else is heresy?

I was never against Powell getting the job. PB had gone so it wasn't a choice of one or the other.

What I am against is people slagging any manger who has just won 3 in a row.
People who act like spoilt PL armchair fans if their team aren't in the top 6
Fans who think if the manger doesn't pick their starting 11 he must be wrong
Fans who don't see a player signal to the bench but slag the manger for subbing him.

I never get obsessed by any manager or chairman for that matter. I care even less as to what they say to the press, I'm old school.....The game is about the players, always has been and always will be.

 

[mfurok]

I don't often feel the need to post on this site but every so often something I read irkes me so much that I need to get my opinion off my chest.

Lets deal with the points you raised one by one :-

Team selection

Having regard to the injuries loss of form and suspensions I believe that in the main the teams fielded selected themselves. What changes would you have made?

Formations and naivety of initial lineup.

What is wrong with selecting a formation and lineup that appeared to play to our strengths? Why should we not have started the Burton match with a formation that served us well at Wycombe, to the extent that it took us to 3-0 up? When it didn't work at Burton as planned, the formation was changed to one that did. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Planning and choice of timing of substitutions and their dubious nature

I was at Wycombe and watched the Burton game on iFollow. What was so dubious about the substitutions at Wycombe? Yearwood needed some playing time as did Kightly We were 3-0 up and cruising. If that wasn't the time to make the substitutions and so give the substitutes some time on the pitch and some of the starters a rest, seeing that they would need to play 2 more games this week, when do you say would have been the right time? Okay they didn't perform as we had hoped but the wisdom of giving them time on the pitch soon became clear. Mantom was injured and Dru was needed to replace him at Burton and Kightly's input at Burton greatly contributed to the change in the nature of the match. I consider that this demonstrated great planning and acumen

I for one have no doubt about Chris Powell's all round managerial ability.

With posts like that you should post more often.

Great stuff.

 

[Yer Blues]

crazy talk

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

[kentblues]

I think I'm losing faith in my ability to lose faith..

 

[Yer Blues]

Hello there. Thought I'd give this a little bump.

 

[blue pilot]

Not yet. I think he's inherited a lot of over-the-hill or just not good enough players from Brown (Turner, White, Kightly, Robinson to name a few), plus he's been genuinely unlucky to lose 2 or 3 key players to long term injuries. But I think it's an important window coming up in January and he'll need to ship a few out and get a few in, lets see where we are in 3 months...

 

[RomfordB92]

Don't mean to be that broken record sound, but the injuries to not even just squad players but vital players have had a massive knock-on effect.

I get tactics, substitutions, personnel etc are all issues too from what I've seen, but it must be difficult for him, he's probably now on contingency plan D. Does he replace one unfancied player for another player he doesn't fancy 70 minutes in? Think if there were no injuries the personnel still under contract and even in and around the team would be a lot different.

Still think it'll be midtable. No need to panic, and if the owner backs him in Jan and Summer, the best times are still ahead under Powell. Still a great manager at this level, think he'd be a choice for 75% of the clubs in the division for me.

 

[RHB]

Sometimes Ron does stuff which annoys me a bit and other times he doesn't do stuff and I applaud him for it. In this case its the latter and he will not react to our latest form and results by sacking Chris Powell. He will give him time and room the same as he did with Phil Brown. If every time we had a sticky patch we dispatched the manager based on some fans reactions no one would last a season. Its unlikely that this will now be a season which ends up in promotion but Ron understands the reasons and will be patient and me with him.

 

[AndyT]

Our form, though, is OK.

We are 9th on current form over the last 10 league matches and are still in the FA Cup and CheckaTrade Trophy.

This, despite serious injuries to three players and two of the toughest away matches you are likely to get this season.

 

[KevinJH]

Short answer to the OP's question; no.

UTB

 

[HertfordshireBlue]

People getting sick of him after not even completing his first season altering the Brown era squad.. we’re not in the relegation zone. Too many impatient people.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

People getting sick of him after not even completing his first season altering the Brown era squad.. we’re not in the relegation zone. Too many impatient people.

It's a repeat of the Sturrock years. People complaining about quality of football and getting upset when the manager doesn't pick their preferred formation even when we're doing ok in the league.

I think Tilly's greatest achievement was to get fans to buy in and be enthused about the club - and even then they still moaned about his use of subs. That he got them to buy in was in large part down to our cup run and I'm starting to think that Chris Powell will need a FA Cup run and a giant killing to get the town behind the team.

 

[Rob1920]

I havent lost faith in CP, I think people forget who we are. Mid-table L1 is not bad by our standards. However I must confess that rather strangely, I've lost a little bit of interest lately. Not sure why, anyone else feel the same?

 

[MK Shrimper]

I havent lost faith in CP, I think people forget who we are. Mid-table L1 is not bad by our standards. However I must confess that rather strangely, I've lost a little bit of interest lately. Not sure why, anyone else feel the same?

We're probably at the level we should be, unlikely to go up or down. The gulf between Lg1 & The Championship gets wider every year and this mystical Fossetts Farm will never get built. If we lose to Crawley (or even Barnsley) then it will feel like the season is over in November which is hardly inspiring.

 

[Ricky Otto]

In footballing matters (and I do heavily stress footballing matters) I usually have the same opinion as Rigsby. I think we have to be realists and understand what level we are as a club and when managers have problems that are beyond their control (injuries). I think we have a chairman who understands these factors and I think he makes allowances when our managers go through rough patches.

I thought Brown did a good job as manager, he improved us every season apart from his last and I think Ron would have kept faith in him for longer had it not been obvious he had lost the dressing room.

I wasn't carried away with the Powell appointment like some were, I detached the player I loved from the manager. He had an OK record, but I did have a concern that he might be a bit soft and too much of a nice guy. He performed well at the end of last season and this season has been up and down. We looked like we were starting to gel as a team and could be a good bet for a play off spot, then we lost key players. I think if I could have picked the one player who was most important to us achieving that it would have been Hopper. When you are trying to achieve a position beyond your budget you have to make allowances for such big losses. Given the long term injuries this season I think you need to adjust expectations and for me if we are safely mid table then CP should get another go next season.

 

[rigsby]

By the way Ricky, i'm also partial to a Brazilian.

 

[Ricky Otto]

By the way Ricky, i'm also partial to a Brazilian.

Sorry mate that one has gone over my head??

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I think we need to stop looking at things short term. I know that requires a massive change of mindset from the last regime but it's worthwhile as for the first time in a long time we project to be better this time next year than we currently are.

This isn't a side who has peaked. There's room for growth and once players get healthier there will be a noticeable improvement. If we can be mid-table with the injury list we've had this year, it bodes well for next season.