[Albion] If you could ask Hurz some questions...

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

He used the word pedagogical, on NSC no less? What do you think this place is? High brow?

Pedagogy is critical for communicating strategy and tactics effectively to operatives such as football players

(The quality of football analysis on NSC increasingly includes some absolutely top drawer content, along with all the 'get rid' drivel, of course.
It's a bit like channel 4. )

 

[Guinness Boy]

Who would win a fight between a mantis shrimp and a honey badger?

 

[Moshe Gariani]

why is there a simultaneous look of us not having control of games, something more associated with a counter-attacking style, and yet we’re so painfully slow at getting the ball from one end of the pitch to the other?

That is a very interesting graphic. Only 4 teams have the "slowest" rating for progress from attacking third into penalty area...

Liverpool and Man City are two of them.

The other two are us and Southampton!

 

[maffew]

There is a rumour you are not as old as other managers in the prem, in fact some say you could be the youngest one ever! Did you lie about your age on your cv?

 

[Lush]

Why, during the warm up, do three players wear pink bibs (usually inc. Mitoma) and three players wear yellow ones (usually inc. Baleba, who stuffs his in his back pocket)

 

[WATFORD zero]

Who would win a fight between a mantis shrimp and a honey badger?

Start him off with an easy obvious one

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm in no shape or form "manager out!!!" and won't be as long as we win a game in January (if we don't it might be an unsurmountable challenge for even the best of managers if he's young and inexperienced, but lets worry about that another day).

I do have questions however and I guess others do to, so lets take a "lets not kill or worship the guy and just tell the concerns and general things you'd like to understand".

I want to know the following things:

1. All sports science tell us that starting U21 players repeatedly (often twice a week) over a few months is a very dangerous game to play. Last season our Jack Hinshelwood suffered the most typical "overplaying non-full grown bodies" injuries - a stress fracture.
Regardless if his current injury has anything to do with overplaying - what is the reasoning for letting Jack Hinshelwood play more than anyone else in our opening 11 fixtures while also playing for the English U21 team?

2. We have heard you talk about the team needing to have a positive body language and control their emotions and reactions towards each other.
From a pedagogical and coaching perspective, whats the benefit of telling players to be controlled and disciplined while you yourself pick up cards and suspensions for losing control and discipline? Is there some sort of idea backing this up? I've studied some coaching and never heard "behave the opposite of how you want your players to behave", so I'm genuinely curious.

3. I understand there is a process. I do get that.
I'm not telling you to give away all the details - no manager would - but I would like to here if you could care to elaborate on the process and provide some insight to this process so that I can better understand it and perhaps show more trust in it? Like... what are the core areas we're targeting to improve? Feel free to be vague; just some sort of answer other than "trust the process" or "we haven't done what we want to do yet".

4. I mentioned Jack Hinshelwood before but there's another player I'd like to ask a somewhat similar question about: Danny Welbeck.

Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi were quite keen on managing and limiting the game time of Danny Welbeck in order to keep him fit.
I'd like to know if you think those were wrong in doing that given you started Welbz in our first 13 PL games, including days after he had been transported by ambulance to a hospital due to injury? Is the increased game time for Welbeck due to physical tests saying it'll be fine or is it simply a decision made because he's too good to rest?

5. We've had a taller and physically stronger setup this season than in recent times and we're neither scoring nor creating particularly many chances (not conceding many either tbf) from set pieces. Is this... a work in progress to be polished once others things improve a little bit more or is it something we've prioritised but not managed to do well yet?

I'm not going to reply to your questions because, er, I'm not fab. Enough. But here are some comments.

1. I fear that the manager can overrule good medical advice when a player isn't injured. So it may be that Fab has overplayed Hinch to the lad's detriment when fit, with the medicos muttering too tentatively under their learned breath to be heard.

2. Fab has been a bit unlucky with cards. I expect it will even itself out. As for the suggestion he is preaching 'do what I say, not what I do', that is a given in all arenas where there is a focal boss. And in football, I never understood why managers sit on the bench anyway. You can't see f*** all. If I were a manager I would always sit in the gods, with a mic to relay instructions to the bench. So his cards are not particularly consequential.

3. I don't mind the process being secret. As Danny Baker often used to say, never shine daylight on magic.

4. I'm afraid that playing Welbz whenever he is available makes absolute sense but if he was selected when injured that would have been a serious mistake. But anyway, he's off to ManU in the morning so it is an academic point now.

5. Hoofing it to the Big Man? It could work. . . . . . .

Happy New year, old fruit

 

[Han Solo]

That is a very interesting graphic. Only 4 teams have the "slowest" rating for progress from attacking third into penalty area...

Liverpool and Man City are two of them.

The other two are us and Southampton!

Normally over the last five years we've had the slowest build up... together with all the top teams (though actually not often Klopps Liverpool).

Building up in a controlled and patient way is how good teams does. Its not a problem.
Doing it while frequently looking as chaotic as we do is potentially something of a problem though.

 

[Peteinblack]

What Is the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow?

Presumably varies according to air pressure, humidity/moisture, wind speed, topography, fitness of said Swallow, etc

 

[WATFORD zero]

Rylan Clarke, Gemma Collins, Piers Morgan

Shag, Marry, Kill ?

 

[tedebear]

Did you or did you not at 0:56 on the pre match interview say "They are all very good in ponchos" or do I need new ears or speakers? I quite like a poncho truth be told, I fear it was more about one on one shows now I listen back to it, but heres hoping this is your endorsement of ponchos.

 

[Zeberdi]

I'm in no shape or form "manager out!!!" and won't be as long as we win a game in January (if we don't it might be an unsurmountable challenge for even the best of managers if he's young and inexperienced, but lets worry about that another day).

I do have questions however and I guess others do to, so lets take a "lets not kill or worship the guy and just tell the concerns and general things you'd like to understand".

I want to know the following things:

1. All sports science tell us that starting U21 players repeatedly (often twice a week) over a few months is a very dangerous game to play. Last season our Jack Hinshelwood suffered the most typical "overplaying non-full grown bodies" injuries - a stress fracture.
Regardless if his current injury has anything to do with overplaying - what is the reasoning for letting Jack Hinshelwood play more than anyone else in our opening 11 fixtures while also playing for the English U21 team?

2. We have heard you talk about the team needing to have a positive body language and control their emotions and reactions towards each other.
From a pedagogical and coaching perspective, whats the benefit of telling players to be controlled and disciplined while you yourself pick up cards and suspensions for losing control and discipline? Is there some sort of idea backing this up? I've studied some coaching and never heard "behave the opposite of how you want your players to behave", so I'm genuinely curious.

3. I understand there is a process. I do get that.
I'm not telling you to give away all the details - no manager would - but I would like to here if you could care to elaborate on the process and provide some insight to this process so that I can better understand it and perhaps show more trust in it? Like... what are the core areas we're targeting to improve? Feel free to be vague; just some sort of answer other than "trust the process" or "we haven't done what we want to do yet".

4. I mentioned Jack Hinshelwood before but there's another player I'd like to ask a somewhat similar question about: Danny Welbeck.

Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi were quite keen on managing and limiting the game time of Danny Welbeck in order to keep him fit.
I'd like to know if you think those were wrong in doing that given you started Welbz in our first 13 PL games, including days after he had been transported by ambulance to a hospital due to injury? Is the increased game time for Welbeck due to physical tests saying it'll be fine or is it simply a decision made because he's too good to rest?

5. We've had a taller and physically stronger setup this season than in recent times and we're neither scoring nor creating particularly many chances (not conceding many either tbf) from set pieces. Is this... a work in progress to be polished once others things improve a little bit more or is it something we've prioritised but not managed to do well yet?

At the risk of further boring everyone with another very long post on this thread in response , apologies for the TL;DR :

Firstly, I think people can pose their own questions and don’t need others to do it on their behalf. Secondly, it is a little weird why you are phrasing these questions as if you were asking Hürzeler/PB and not a bunch of fans on NSC?

EDIT - MISREAD THREAD PURPOSE/TITLE- so ignore sentence above and last paragraph of post - on second thoughts just ignore it all - I can’t edit or delete any of it or @tedebear will get upset and think I’m stalking her

I find some of the content of your post, while seemingly constructed as ‘reasonable’ questions, are in fact heavily loaded with a inherent negative bias. For example:

1. What does Jack Hinshelwood’s playing time and subsequent injury last season have to do with Fabian Hürzeler. Also, U21s develop at different physical rates - so while generally, the younger the player, the more risk of ’still growing’ injuries, it depends on individual physiology and what level a player has been playing at and for how long. I think we have one of the top football Physicians in Germany on our staff with a very good medical team - pretty sure they know more about what injury related issues than any of us do.

2. Is just a pathetic dig at Fabian Hürzeler imo. He’s hardly a RDZ/Klopp/Pep/Van Gaal/Wenger meltdown aficionado on the touchline.

3. A fishing question imo to which if you gave it some thought and analysis, I think you could answer yourself.

But I will try and give my own POV in addressing it in as full a manner that you took to ask:

We are rebuilding a team after several seasons of earlier successful recruitments being sold, several recruitment windows in 2022/3 and 2023/24 where for whatever reason (including those beyond our control) we didn’t secure the level of new recruits needed or loans/players didn’t work put as expected. Last summer saw a big influx of new players, some very young, and a manager with no experience of building a premier league team (but a project manager who could develop along with a young team).

His tactics at St Pauli were discussed in heavy detail on various threads last June (and back in May on the Hürzeler thread before we signed him) as was his approach to management. Changing from a very specific positional focused DNA, (imposed by De Zerbi) although it builds on its foundations, (as RDZ built on Potters) it takes time to move to a fluid, more flexible system as he was doing at St Pauli. Like at St Pauli, he is working for a Club on a limited budget that has sold several very important, key players in it’s recent past - his system is organic according to the players at his disposal rather much in the way Nagalsmann builds his squads according to their individual strengths, to play a versatile and tactically varied system of foitball. This is actually harder to do as a manager than Potter or RDZ attempted - it’s key value lies in not being “discovered” , being hard for oppo teams to predict and maximising the natural talent of individual players (as opposed to playing them out of position to make your system work ) .

As for the rate of progress - In RDZ’s first season, he adopted from Potter a very tested and excellent squad that was the result of recruitment 2 or 3 seasons earlier. In his second, he started with key WC level players having been sold and finished with several remaining key players injured. FH took over a very weakened squad which was replenished in the summer window. We now have a very young squad and when you try and bed in 6 or 7 new players into a side of older players that are conditioned to working in a particular way, everyone has to adapt and show patience. Including us, the fans.

4. Again, another poorly disguised dig at Hürzeler imo intimating he is to blame for Welbeck being injured because he‘s overworked a player - this time one that is too old not too young.

5. Answered above.

Re the sentences highlight in bold - I hope you are not thinking of emailing this to PBOBE as you have done previously posing as a spokesman for ‘dissaffected’ or ‘confused’ fans! I don’t think it would show you in a very good light but good luck if you do. However, you certainly wouldn’t be phrasing questions I might have in the way that I would if I were honest. And I certainly wouldn’t be asking our CEO questions about football in this manner and certainly not Hürzeler.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Did you or did you not at 0:56 on the pre match interview say "They are all very good in ponchos" or do I need new ears or speakers? I quite like a poncho truth be told, I fear it was more about one on one shows now I listen back to it, but heres hoping this is your endorsement of ponchos.

Sounded like 'one against one-choes' to me

 

[macbeth]

Normally over the last five years we've had the slowest build up... together with all the top teams (though actually not often Klopps Liverpool).

Building up in a controlled and patient way is how good teams does. Its not a problem.
Doing it while frequently looking as chaotic as we do is potentially something of a problem though.

spot on, big problem, and sort of implied in my question that i would’ve asked him, is that we’ve sort of ended up in a ‘worst of both worlds’ situation

 

[tedebear]

Firstly, I think people can pose their own questions and don’t need others to do it on their behalf. Secondly, it is a little weird why you are phrasing these questions as if you were asking Hürzeler/PB and not a bunch of fans on NSC?

I find some of the content of your post, while seemingly constructed as ‘reasonable’ questions, are in fact heavily loaded with a inherent negative bias. For example:

1. What does Jack Hinshelwood’s playing time and subsequent injury last season have to do with Fabian Hürzeler. Also, U21s develop at different physical rates - so while generally, the young the player, the more risk of ’growing’ injuries, it depends on individual physiology and what level a player has been playing at and for how long.

2. Is just a pathetic dig at Fabian Hürzeler imo. He’s hardly a RDZ/Klopp/Pep/Van Gaal/Wenger meltdown aficionado on the touchline.

3. A fishing question imo to which if you gave it some thought and analysis, I think you could answer yourself.

But I will try and give my own POV in addressing it :

We are rebuilding a team after several seasons of earlier successful recruitments being sold, several recruitment windows in 2022/3 and 2023/24 where for whatever reason (including those beyond our control) we didn’t secure the level of new recruits needed or loans/players didn’t work put as expected. Last summer saw a big influx of new players, some very young, and a manager with no experience of building a premier league team (but a project manager who could develop along with a young team).

His tactics at St Pauli were discussed in heavy detail on various threads last June (and back in May on the Hürzeler thread before we signed him) as was his approach to management. Changing from a very specific positional focused DNA, (imposed by De Zerbi) although it builds on its foundations, (as RDZ built on Potters) it takes time to move to a fluid, more flexible system as he was doing at St Pauli. Like at St Pauli, he is working for a Club on a limited budget that has sold several very important, key players injured it’s recent past - his system is organic according to the players at his disposal rather much in the way Nagalsmann builds his squads according to their individual strengths, to play a versatile and tactically varied system of foitball. This is actually harder to do as a manager than Potter or RDZ attempted - it’s key value lies in not being “discovered” , being hard for oppo teams to predict and maximising the natural talent of individual players (as opposed to playing them out of position to make your system work ) .

As for the rate of progress - In RDZ’s first season, he adopted from Potter a very tested and excellent squad that was the result of recruitment 2 or 3 seasons earlier. In his second, he started with key WC level players having been sold and finished with several remaining key players injured. FH took over a very weakened squad which was replenished in the summer window. We now have a very young squad and when you try and bed in 6 or 7 new players into a side of older players that are conditioned to working in a particular way, everyone has to adapt and show patience. Including us, the fans.

4. Again, another poorly disguised dig at Hürzeler imo intimating he is to blame for Welbeck being injured because he‘s overworked a player - this time one that is too old not too young.

5. Answered above.

Re the sentences highlight in bold - I hope you are not thinking of emailing this to PBOBE as you have done previously posing as a spokesman for ‘dissaffected’ or ‘confused’ fans! I don’t think it would show you in a very good light but good luck if you do. However, you certainly wouldn’t be phrasing questions I might have in the way that I would if I were honest. And I certainly wouldn’t be asking our CEO questions about football in this manner and certainly not Hürzeler.

Oh good lord...I wondered when this thread would get ruined too with a lovely thinly veiled patronising know it all put down...

 

[Weststander]

That is a very interesting graphic. Only 4 teams have the "slowest" rating for progress from attacking third into penalty area...

Liverpool and Man City are two of them.

The other two are us and Southampton!

And Arsensl?

 

[Han Solo]

I'm not going to reply to your questions because, er, I'm not fab. Enough. But here are some comments.

1. I fear that the manager can overrule good medical advice when a player isn't injured. So it may be that Fab has overplayed Hinch to the lad's detriment when fit, with the medicos muttering too tentatively under their learned breath to be heard.

2. Fab has been a bit unlucky with cards. I expect it will even itself out. As for the suggestion he is preaching 'do what I say, not what I do', that is a given in all arenas where there is a focal boss. And in football, I never understood why managers sit on the bench anyway. You can't see f*** all. If I were a manager I would always sit in the gods, with a mic to relay instructions to the bench. So his cards are not particularly consequential.

3. I don't mind the process being secret. As Danny Baker often used to say, never shine daylight on magic.

4. I'm afraid that playing Welbz whenever he is available makes absolute sense but if he was selected when injured that would have been a serious mistake. But anyway, he's off to ManU in the morning so it is an academic point now.

5. Hoofing it to the Big Man? It could work. . . . . . .

Happy New year, old fruit

1. Hopefully this is not the case because medical staff will almost without exceptions leave a club if their advice isn't followed. Doctors expect their medical advice to be followed, from my experience they very rarely see themselves as "beneath" the manager or that the manager is their boss (that's the club or someone with a medical profession at the club). They often simply won't take their ~10 years of education getting overruled by someone who has none.
So lets hope its not like that.

2. Generally the managers sit there because they're expected to and people will lose their shit if they're not at the sideline. The dugout is indeed the worst possible view and people playing a Premier League team will barely hear nor see the "sideline antics" from any manager because they're busy playing football. If you ask any manager why they yell a lot on the sidelines, the answer will almost always be "for my own sake!". And then of course... while sitting in the stands will give you more info and insight, its not why people become managers... the thrill comes with being in the action.

3. Fair enough. I just feel that any little insight could remove a little bit of pressure on Fab. Not that there's much of that at present, but if we don't win for another few weeks he'll either be bald again or turning gray as if he was aging at 200km/h. I think it can be a good moment now to be a bit more transparent.

4. Maybe. I genuinely have no idea. He didn't seem to suffer from playing a lot when he was fit but at the same time we've been very keen on managing his minutes since basically the day he arrived and I just wonder what changed.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Fab, is it true you get your hair cut in poundshop?

 

[Han Solo]

Firstly, I think people can pose their own questions and don’t need others to do it on their behalf.

I'm going to stop reading your essay right here.

I'm posting my questions on my behalf. Others are free to post theirs "what would you ask Fab"-questions and we could all have interesting discussions around these questions and what should be the answers and what could possibly be Fabs answers and whatnot.

That is all.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Yesterday at the darts the fans were singing:

“Callan Rydz, Callan Rydz, Callan, Callan Rydz
He’s got shit hair but we don’t care, Callan, Callan Rydz”

Do you think this is fair?