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Andy_S

Member of the Barry Corr Fan Club
Joined
Oct 25, 2003
Messages
9,285
Location
New Barn, Kent
Ian Holloway, you legend. :cool:

He says what fans feel and I for one would like Tilly to drop the nicey nicey attitude when it needs to be dropped.





ARGYLE manager Ian Holloway was unequivocal in the wake of the Pilgrims' 4-0 defeat at Burnley.


The home side had not won any of their previous 19 games but brushed aside Argyle's challenge to inflict the heaviest defeat of the season on Holloway's out of sorts side.

For Ollie, though, it was even more terrible than that.

"That was the worst performance of my football career, I have to say," he said.

"I saw a team in claret and blue want it more, chase, harry, tackle, outfight, outwill, outplay, outwit every one of my team - no matter who I put on, no matter what - every single one of them.

"We have got to get right back to square one. It's like they are on holiday already. It was an absolute disgrace.

"Everybody's saying nice things about Plymouth, our cup run, how we didn't deserve to lose to Watford. Well, I'm sorry, but it's been absolute rubbish ever since.

"That was embarrassing. The goalkeeper shanked the ball out of the ground, we missed a penalty - that wasn't a penalty, to be honest - and we got outfought, outmuscled, outbattled in every single area of the pitch. That's really unusual."


Ollie even raised the possibility that the Pilgrims, who have 52 points, may get sucked into the Championship's relegation fight, and insisted his players should not feel safe.

"Have we got enough points to be safe?" he asked. "Because if that's our form at the moment, it's definite relegation fodder.

"There's nowhere to hide. If a few of mine had a shovel or a spade, they would have dug a hole and tried to hide in it tonight. They can't.

"I don't feel safe in my job, why should they feel safe in theirs?

"They have got to do a lot of reflecting, haven't they? It could have been 5-0, it could have been 6-0, it could have been seven, it could have been eight.

"From how we've been all season, I'm embarrassed. That isn't an Ian Holloway side.

"If they think that's good enough, they can get out. That's the way it is. That is unacceptable, although, in fairness, they have hardly let me down all season.

"There's no point in ranting - they know how I feel. I felt it yesterday and the day before - there's an apathy about the place which I can't stand.

"The transfer-window is shut so I can't do anything about it. All I can do is chop some of this down for next year."

Ollie seems set to recall David Norris for Saturday's visit to Leeds after the midfielder's two-game suspension.

"Is David Norris a talisman for Plymouth Argyle? Is one player that important?" he said, before answering his own question. "He sets the tone for our closing, our pressing, our attacking."

He also sympathised with the small band of Argyle supporters who had made the 600-mile round-trip to Lancashire.

"I apologise wholeheartedly to all those people," he said. "Our players should pay their tickets and their travel. They owe them for bothering to come all the way up here and watch that crock of rubbish.

"We have a duty of care to that badge, to play with pride for it, no matter what. Who the hell do we think we are? Correction - who the hell do they think they are?"
 
I don't judge a manager on what they say, I judge a manager on how their team performs. Whilst that performance may well have been unacceptable, what is now important is the next result.

Forget about sounding good on the radio or in the papers the next day and concentrate on the next game. With that in mind, slagging your players off in public in most cases isn't the best course of action.
 
Not sure I entirely agree, Cousin Weir. In many ways, the manager is the most obvious public face of a club, in terms of the club's business projection to its consumers (i.e. the supporters). Whilst "doing a Ratner" should be avoided (e.g. my players are sh*t), no consumers or investors like a business that fails to explain poor performance or what it's going to do about it. Look at the furore with Tesco and their dodgy fuel - if anything, people were more p*ssed off while Tesco said "it's not our fault", and the situation was only rectified once Tesco held their hands up and said that it was their fault and they were sorry.

If a player is going to go to pieces and/or have a sulk because a manager has gone public and said "I'm sorry, the players were spineless today", then you have to question whether that player has the necessary character to be playing Championship football.

Personally, I applaud 'Ollie for his candour. Occasionally, just occasionally, when our players serve up an utter farce for a performance, I wish Tilson would apologise and bollock the players in public a bit more than he does. It jolly well ought not to affect performances, and those fans who have shelled out a substantial amount of cash on the journey might feel a little less aggrieved at the money and time they'd just wasted.

Matt
 
I agree with Matt and Andy S also.

The Manager is the 'public face' of the Club so to speak, he's the one that receives the brunt of the criticism from the press, has to answer to the Chairman and he's the one the fans will turn on when performances are ****e.

The players have it relatively easy in comparison
 
"That was the worst performance of my football career, I have to say," he said.

"I saw a team in claret and blue want it more, chase, harry, tackle, outfight, outwill, outplay, outwit every one of my team - no matter who I put on, no matter what - every single one of them...

...and we got outfought, outmuscled, outbattled in every single area of the pitch. That's really unusual."...


..."They have got to do a lot of reflecting, haven't they? It could have been 5-0, it could have been 6-0, it could have been seven, it could have been eight.

"From how we've been all season, I'm embarrassed. That isn't an Ian Holloway side.

"If they think that's good enough, they can get out...

"There's no point in ranting

So what's the rest of that then?
 
Not sure I entirely agree, Cousin Weir. In many ways, the manager is the most obvious public face of a club, in terms of the club's business projection to its consumers (i.e. the supporters). Whilst "doing a Ratner" should be avoided (e.g. my players are sh*t), no consumers or investors like a business that fails to explain poor performance or what it's going to do about it. Look at the furore with Tesco and their dodgy fuel - if anything, people were more p*ssed off while Tesco said "it's not our fault", and the situation was only rectified once Tesco held their hands up and said that it was their fault and they were sorry.

If a player is going to go to pieces and/or have a sulk because a manager has gone public and said "I'm sorry, the players were spineless today", then you have to question whether that player has the necessary character to be playing Championship football.

Personally, I applaud 'Ollie for his candour. Occasionally, just occasionally, when our players serve up an utter farce for a performance, I wish Tilson would apologise and bollock the players in public a bit more than he does. It jolly well ought not to affect performances, and those fans who have shelled out a substantial amount of cash on the journey might feel a little less aggrieved at the money and time they'd just wasted.

Matt

Poor analogy IMHO.

1. Football supporters aren't normal consumers: apart from the occasional David Mellor they won't switch to another brand if they don't like the product.

2. You can criticise jewellery but it won't effect its performance. Footballers need confidence in order to perform. Publicly criticising players can damage this confidence. How often do you hear Fergie, Mourinho, Wenger, Bate etc publicly criticise their players? Our players may well not have the mental strength to play at this level, but publicly criticising them isn't going to change that, and you may as well get the most out of what you've got.

3. Tilly may be the most public face of the club, but his duty is foremost to do what is best for the team. If the team does the business on the pitch no-one cares what he says anyway.

Finally, if Tilly is to take the blame for the Col Ewe defeat, then he also deserves the credit for the incredible Preston win. I think the fact that we could summon up the belief to recover from 2-1 down after two heavy defeats is justification for Tilly's not criticising the team in public policy.
 
I think you only have to look at the most successful managers in the Prem at the moment, to see what the best tactics are.

Fergie, Wenger, and Mourinho, all to some extent or other, defend their players in public to the hilt, and more than likely attack them in private.

Look at Fergie's dealings with the press - he's a curmudgeonly old sod, but he gets the players really delivering week after week, year after year.

When Holloway has an ounce of Fergies success, I might listen.
 
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