Sitting at home sick, so very long post warning.
Good point Tevor. And honestly, I think it's more likely than not. We know Monty and co have gotten their share of signings wrong too and last year just without Cummings we would have had a mediocre season. Take out Silvera as well... We wouldn't have even made finals. Take out Nectar and Beni... who knows where we'd have finished.
Maybe I'm a fool, but for some reason I still believe that Alou has it in him. But time is running out fast. If no one steps up and starts finding the net, then we will suffer until we get reinforcements and it seems plenty of fans are going to blame Jackson even though he's obviously come in last minute and it's not his squad. Actually makes me a bit glad it wasn't Ben Cahn. May have been an impossible hill to climb that would have stalled his otherwise promising career. Of course everyone wants the gig. But hard time to take over.
I do hate this position though. Because if Jackson truly is shit, it does mean that we are at risk of enduring a relatively poor season under him, but not until a little over a year from now when Jackson has built his own squad and had a proper pre season, will we be able to be sure that he's genuinely shit and sack him. Like the Moss era when he was running on Arnie's fumes for a while.
So in the interim. I'm bracing, but I'm still determined to try to see and things as clearly as I can. Quite a few people have been decrying the tactics and the coaching, but largely the only substantiation I've heard is that players are not playing well enough. That 'could' be a result of bad coaching. But it's not in itself hard evidence of bad coaching - especially when what we're seeing is issues in a specific area and the players playing in that area are either new recruits the last coach signed or our bench players previously.
We're fans, we all love to talk shape and selections and play football manager. But unless you're privvy to all the trainings and convos, most things are pretty hard to tell when it comes to specifically apportioning blame. You don't know if players are not really being coached, being mis-coached, simply in poor form, just not good enough or simply undertaking something new and just need a bit more time.
Putting shape, broader game management strategies or a coaches given philosophy/system aside. If I made a by no means comprehensive check list off the top of my head, even the more likely indications of shit coaching have to be consistently displayed by a team to be able to reliably suggest it has to be a result of bad coaching...
- being dominated in possession
- losing the midfield
- poor territory / low entries into opponents final third
- unable to play out
- turn overs & unforced errors
- failure to create chances
- too much space between the lines
- failure to slide, mark or track back
- poor positioning - by unit or collectively
- poor timing of movement - be it stepping up or second waves into the box
- poor communication
- unorganised defensive line
- regularly conceding from set pieces
- failure to tackle or force turn overs
- not contesting or winning second balls
- lack of intelligent movement off the ball and runs
- slow ball movement
- poor link play
- lack of effort
- lack of confidence
- lack of concentration
- lack of belief
- lack of discipline
- obvious team disharmony
- poor team selection
- poor substitutions
- poor recruitment
- wrong tactical response
- slow tactical response
- no tactical response
- tactical inflexibility
I'm willing to put defensive lapses aside for now, as we all know it's a given that some brain farts at the back are par the course with our money ball and youth policy. From the above list, I personally haven't seen all that much yet that shouts out that it's clearly Jackson who's responsible for our short comings. Conversely, as a few others have tried to say, if you watch the games objectively like a neutral, we've actually been ticking quite a few of the boxes and it's been pretty bloody clear what hasn't been working.
Now maybe Jackson is handling his attackers poorly in training and or telling them the wrong things, but if so, despite it, they've still all had plenty of chances to shine in games and or get the win for us but they simply have not taken their moments.
Why? Well, it's always a hard job. And right now? Loss of Monty would have hurt them no doubt. JC and co have also just cast a pretty damn big shadow which may be affecting them. But whatever it is, what's most worrying and costly right now is our decision making/final ball and goal scoring. Further compromised by our lack of attacking depth, heavier schedule and ever present budget limitations.
I agree with calling out our attack. So the only marks against Jackson for me so far, and tbf he has to work with the squad he has, has been a couple of selections. Wilson over Theo... but so many doubters of Theo on here that would have surely made the same error. Storm over Doka. But was Storm fit? I'd take Hall over Paull. But there's probably not a real lot in it...
BUT... the big inescapable argument against that places all and any consideration above aside, is that he is now 3 losses from 3. It's not remotely the full picture, so it would be completely unfair not to contextualise it. But if we're winless in 6. Context doesn't matter. The battle is now becoming massive mentally for players, coaches and fans, et al. So like anyone else, rightly or wrongly, even just for morale, I think he would have to go.
But for mine we're not there yet... and there's still some hope. But it does mean Alou, Torres, Tulio, and DWH must come good. And I think he knows that. Hence his comments. Because he doesn't have any other options. Reec, Wilson or even Di Pizio are not going to save our season.
