Question Is Sturrock important or impotent?

[canveyshrimper]

This is my view for what its worth, I wholeheartedly applaud Mr sturrock for coming to the club when he did, building a team that could compete. Then last season where we amassed all those points and those goals and still miss out on promotion still gets me down now. So all in all sturrock has been very good for SUFC no one can deny that. BUT.....................I just cant help think that maybe someone else would have got a little bit more out of certain players that would have just seen us over the line, how on earth he didnt play harris a bit more and more importantly to his style baffles me, Lee sawyer......simply could have been something special in the centre of the park but sturrock insisted on trying to convert him to a wide player, complete nonsense, even on saturday some iffy team selection followed by subs that were odd, and one more thing he does himself no favors by refusing to do anything other than play Timlin, he was rubbish for the last two months of the season, has had no real pre season this year yet walks into the team on saturday sturrock may as well go the whole hog and adopt him.

I can't agree about Lee Sawyer, surely if he was that good another club would have snapped him up rather than him plying his trade with Woking. Fact is Sawyer maybe highly rated by Southend fans but it seems he isn't within the footballing fraernity. It's a point about Timlin not having match time in pre season, however a shoulder injury should not preclude him from running and getting the miles in his legs.

 

[Cricko]

IMO PS's tactics are outdated. He may have succeeded with them many years ago, buying the same old faces and playing hoofball (as mentioned on the Sheff Wed site) to get up. Times have moved on as was shown by the likes of Swindon and Crewe last year.League 2 is no longer a place where the football is just hitting long balls to big forwards..We has a pre-season to sort a few things out and in some ways I have sympathy for PS in not being able to assemble the squad he wanted because of the Umbongo, although so many players still being injured etc at the start of the new season makes me think, is our training right for the squad?

That said he has signed and loaned and awful lot of players these past few seasons and we maybe had a great points total last season but it was still not enough.

I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say this maybe his year, but that would be my heart talking and not my head, I think we are honestly in for a very long season in terms of results and that is from someone who has no interest in watching them at all ATM as what is dished out bores me rigid.

 

[leeblue]

Its ok criticising but wheres the alternatives ?

Sawyer has not made it at ANY club. Its not like we failed to get the most out of a good player, he hasnt shown anyone he is one. I really dont see him as being special.

Timlin, who would we have played in the middle if he hadnt played? He has signed Spicer who I think will be a good signing, but he isnt fit yet either.

As for the style and not getting the most out of Harris, as Ive said above he has changed the style and because of that we went on a very good run the end of last season, and we seem to be still trying to play in that way.

As i said sturrock has been good for SUFC and its actually hard to explain my niggling feelings/frustrations just a gut thing, as for sawyer I simply will not have it that he does not have it in him, I do allude to his first spell with us where he simply oozed class and looked head and shoulders above, I may be seriously biased in my views but there they are on Lee. I agree about our style changing thus the improved performances from Harris last season, I suppose I was was disappointed to see him on the bench on saturday and we just needed someone to stick the ball in the net, theres only one place for a proven goalscorer and thats on the pitch.

 

[Norwichshrimper]

Sturrock is neither the problem nor the solution.

Season 1 : As others have said, did a good job ensuring our league survival and building for the next season. No sane person could have expected more
Season 2 : As others have touched on, record points and goals, he must have done something right...4th place within a point of promotion - again no-one can say that over the course of the season we did not have a good season.

The problem lies in Season 3, through no fault of Sturrock's the goalposts have changed regarding promotion....he's lost 2 key players in Grant and Mohsni and you can't just go out and buy replacements for those sorts of players. Add to that the emergence of some bigger budgets around the league and Promotion is going to be harder this season. If Sturrock does a similar job to last year we'll probably finish top half. This to some, unaware of the changing world of lower league football, would represent a failure.
Personally I seriously doubt we will challenge for promotion under Sturrock this year - however I have equally strong doubts that anyone else could come in and challenge for promotion with the current squad of players and the budget available to us (assuming we don't get £10m for Mohsni of course).

For what it's worth I think Sturrock should go back to what he knows best - the only way we are going to have a successful season is by playing ugly. We don't appear to have the players or the backroom nous to play football to any great level.

 

[Jam_Man]

]IMO PS's tactics are outdated[/B]. He may have succeeded with them many years ago, buying the same old faces and playing hoofball (as mentioned on the Sheff Wed site) to get up. Times have moved on as was shown by the likes of Swindon and Crewe last year.League 2 is no longer a place where the football is just hitting long balls to big forwards..We has a pre-season to sort a few things out and in some ways I have sympathy for PS in not being able to assemble the squad he wanted because of the Umbongo, although so many players still being injured etc at the start of the new season makes me think, is our training right for the squad?

That said he has signed and loaned and awful lot of players these past few seasons and we maybe had a great points total last season but it was still not enough.

I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say this maybe his year, but that would be my heart talking and not my head, I think we are honestly in for a very long season in terms of results and that is from someone who has no interest in watching them at all ATM as what is dished out bores me rigid.

Do you not think that he changed tactics to positive effect at the end of the season, Crewe aside ?This may well have been prompted more by personnel available at the time but did result in better performances.

Saturday also showed we are going to play different, 442 with little hoof (excluding anytime Prosser got the ball).

The funny thing is that Sturrock last season was using up to date tactics, no one plays 442 in the top league anymore, it was just the way he wanted to get the ball forwards that let him down.

 

[silentshrimper]

As I expected he would, he made quite a few changes tonight...seems to be the way when things aren't going right...I never think he has his best side out and I don't think he knows his best side still, I wanted to see Hurst in the side, but not at the expense of Hall, why not play both and get rid of the ineffective Leonard?

I agree with an earlier comment, I think this season will be his toughest yet, even more tough than the first....we want playoffs again at least after last seasons near miss, and I do not believe we have the same quality as last season.

Much can still change, as a few players are yet to feature who could make a difference.

 

[Jam_Man]

I don think he knows what his best options are due to injuries. Hall was a shock to be honest, I wonder if theres something going on there with his "focus".

Not surprised at the formation though, it got us results last year and PS said that we are looking to play different at home, which we did and implies that away we were going to stick with the 1 up front. Was actually surprised we went 442 at Posh.

 

[silentshrimper]

I don think he knows what his best options are due to injuries. Hall was a shock to be honest, I wonder if theres something going on there with his "focus".

Not surprised at the formation though, it got us results last year and PS said that we are looking to play different at home, which we did and implies that away we were going to stick with the 1 up front. Was actually surprised we went 442 at Posh.

Fair enough with the away selection, but surely playing differently at home should include using two wingers, to be more positive going forward, something I don't remember us doing all of last season. :(

 

[Jam_Man]

Fair enough with the away selection, but surely playing differently at home should include using two wingers, to be more positive going forward, something I don't remember us doing all of last season. :(

Last season we played Dickinson up front and played the same way at home as we did away.

This changed later when Freddy joined and we did play two wingers on one occasion.

PS has changed how we play at home thankfully.

Ive always wanted two wingers, and still do, but bear in mind our two promotions under Tilson we played with one winger and 3 central midfielders.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

saturday we were crying out for two wingers. David Martin was just what we needed on the left.

I think Hall was rested rather than dropped, if that hasn't been covered already

 

[Onion_Bag_Dave]

The only way you can have to wingers is if you have two blokes in CM who break everything down! And even then it's difficult! I do not understand why some people find this hard to understand!

 

[Bluepen]

PS needs better coaching assistance than Coughlan offers him its all very well shouting and screaming on the touch line
but what does Coughlan do on the training pitch or in the tactics room .
All managers have good coaches around them and Coughlan although being a fair player it doesnt make him a good coach.
It can really be the big difference in all clubs ours is no exception

 

[onceknownasrab]

The only way you can have to wingers is if you have two blokes in CM who break everything down! And even then it's difficult! I do not understand why some people find this hard to understand!

You can have the best two CM's in the league with two wingers but if you are playing midgets in the forward line the majority of crosses are a waste of time. This league is full with clubs that have big units as CB's who eat the high ball for breakfast. What the league does not have is many CB's that like the ball, at pace, through the centre with an attacker coming on to it. Thats why we need better CM's to supply the almost forgotten throughball.

 

[Jam_Man]

The only way you can have to wingers is if you have two blokes in CM who break everything down! And even then it's difficult! I do not understand why some people find this hard to understand!

Depends on the wingers and what defensive qualities they have.

As long as they track back and give the full back support theres nothing to say you cant have two.

Often with 3 central midfielders the one playing "wide" drifts in too much so whilst you get that extra support in the middle you lose the width and an attacking outlet.

With Spicer and Timlin Id certainly like to see Hall and Hurst start.

However as OnceKnown says with our current front line having players getting the ball wide isnt overly useful at the moment as we wont be winning much in the air from crosses.

Id happily play with one true winger if we had one CM with some creativity. If we have two more defensive CMs then Id tend to opt for two wingers and hope we can get Harris/Eastwood/Corr in the side. Two of which arent renowned for heading abilitly though...