Brian Clough got it right....

[Tiptop24]

...Goalkeepers and Strikers win you championships. Get the best you can afford in both positions and you are basically set.

Our top scorer isnt even our number 1 striker, and all of our goalkeepers came on free transfers.

I would also chuck in a new midfielder, we cannot afford to carry a squad with Navarro, Dicker, Sparrow and Harley...

 

[Eggmundo]

I've got a funny feeling Harley is going to come good, his efforts this season have been a bit suspect but Gus will sort him out. Navarro & Dicker are going to stay.

 

[Magwitch Gull]

Brian Clough also said: "We're from the north. What do we care about Brighton? Bloody southerners. Look where we are! We're almost in France!"

 

[army ali]

Clough did things simple, that's it. This is a simple game overcomplicated by those who do not understand what it takes to lead and manage a team. Clough let his players naturally lead without him having to delegate leadership. He saw it as a natural process. I am not too convinced that we have a leader on the pitch presently? It certainly doesn't help when team selections change after every game - lack of cohesion = lack of consistency. Simple.

As for GK and Strikers, again, no rocket science here but a good team capable of winning things has a spine and the team is built around it. However, it does help that the first thing you do is get a good keeper in that forms this spine as it allows confidence and trust to build very quickly.

This is not negative of the team at the moment but we do not have a solid spine. This has been a great season for us and one that most of us believed from the start that we would finish where we are. I did for one. Great to be pushing for play offs with the squad we have but it has proved over the course of the last month it is not quite there to push hard. Nor has Leeds, Leicester, Boro, Hull - all relatively recent premiership experience and with far superior budgets. We have don e well. Perspective.

Gus now knows who stays and can compete at this level and who cannot. I suspect plenty of movement afoot in the summer. However, I do wish for greater consistency of team selection. In my experience this is what matters and too much tinkering becomes confusing.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

In terms of signing goalkeepers, Alan Mullery surely had the best track record: Eric Steele, Graham Moseley, Perry Digweed, John Keeley. Maybe Gus should ask his advice...

 

[narly101]

oh if only we had Steele in the sticks.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Managers,eh?

A breed apart.

The one I remember most had a stock half time message. We would trudge in,coupla goals down (on a good day).And prepare for the tirade.

"'Ow long have you been playing this bleedin' game ?"

He would then disappear into the bogs,only coming out to go back to running the line.

No plan B.

 

[Barrow Boy]

...Goalkeepers and Strikers win you championships. Get the best you can afford in both positions and you are basically set.

Our top scorer isnt even our number 1 striker, and all of our goalkeepers came on free transfers.

I would also chuck in a new midfielder, we cannot afford to carry a squad with Navarro, Dicker, Sparrow and Harley...

I also like one of his other quotes which backs up the one you mentioned,
"Tactics don't win games, players do".

 

[Magwitch Gull]

He actually said "Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes."

also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UjmtNe-Y5I

 

[Gritt23]

I would also chuck in a new midfielder, we cannot afford to carry a squad with Navarro, Dicker, Sparrow and Harley...

I think that's harsh on Navarro, who has looked pretty good to me. I'd definitely want him around the squad next season. The other three though, well, they look to be struggling don't they.