Im going to be the first to say it....

[Basil Fawlty]

Well I do think your earlier point is a bit much, telling somebody that shows an opinion (I know he does go on the wind up a lot), that is not in line with the gimps, masses and righteous to f*** off and support another club.

i understand what you are saying, but why don't he get behind the club and not moan about MM.

 

[Uncle Buck]

But what the hell makes you think we'll play 4-4-2 on Saturday? McGhee doesn't fall into the trap you constantly fall into, in believing that one set formation is right all the time.

All season, McGhee has alternated between up to 5 or 6 different tactical shapes on the pitch.

You ignore the sucess we've had with those other formations and just fixate on those games we've won with 3-5-2.

If I was to fall into the same simplistic trap as you, I would bollock on endlessly about how our best performance of the system when we beat the now runaway leaders of this division was acheived with 4-4-2.

But I'm not going to be that FOOLISH. Rigid tactical proscriptions are for those who have a little knowledge about football. But as the phrase goes, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

McGhee will look at his team for Saturday without being weighed down by these naive beliefs. He will look at Leicester, their players and their usual shape, and then he will look at the players he currently has at his disposal (not many) and will then decide what is the appropriate shape to employ. This is THINKING football management, not daft simplistic answers from the stands.

But then the most succesful teams have been those that have played a reasonably set system and not tinkered with it. Liverpool in the 80's won everything and played 4-4-2. The players knew their role and those in the squad could fit into the system. When we won the third under Adams we generally played something along the lines of 4-3-2-1, which quickly became 4-3-3, everyone knew their role and it worked.

This season we have chopped and changed our system and at times the players have looked lost. We do not have the talent in the squad to play weird formations, we should be sticking to a system that suits our squad best so there is some consistency and with the players that are left that is 5-3-2.

 

[itszamora]

Succinct as ever Kev

 

[Uncle Buck]

i understand what you are saying, but why don't he get behind the club and not moan about MM.

But surely it is better to let off steam on here, rather than at the game. It is all about opinions, the problem these days is when someone like Kinky sticks his head up the high and mighty think it is their right to shoot him down.

 

[London Irish]

But there is a difference if you are a top of the table team, like Liverpool and some Albion teams of recent times.

If you have the best players in the division, managers have the luxury of knowing their players will be able to impose their gameplan on nearly all their opponents. A settled formation is fine if your opponents have no answer it.

With respect, I would hope you would know that this is not the position we are in. We have a small and limited squad of players, many of whom are straining at the upper end of their abilities by playing in this current division.

Those players we have can't impose a settled tactical system on most of the opponents we play. They are not good enough.

But what McGhee can give them is a little extra edge by altering our system from time to time to attack particular weaknesses in the opposition.

For example, the Sunderland game. McGhee analysed them and saw that Sunderland committed their full-backs forward in a defensively risky fashion at times.

So he settled for a plan of attack involving the wide players you say we don't have, OGH and Leon, and that plan worked a treat. We constantly got behind the Sunderland fullbacks and both our goals arose from fine work down the flanks.

McGhee will be looking at the videos of Leicester and trying to spot any similar weaknesses. Do I know of any? No. Because I am not a football manaher and don't have full time access to tapes to be able to study the opposition.

Our coaching team does. That's why I give them the benefit of the doubt over others in the stands with pretty limited evidence and facts to back up their views.

 

[Stinky Kat]

But surely it is better to let off steam on here, rather than at the game. It is all about opinions, the problem these days is when someone like Kinky sticks his head up the high and mighty think it is their right to shoot him down.

Agreed, McGhee does baffle everybody at times and he was sacked by millwall when he lost the players through his strange tactics. personally

When he 1st took over from Coppell idid not rate me but he won e round, I like the guy's honesty and cant see the point of him going now at this late stage of the season.

That said he has still not signed the contract I have a sneaky feeling he will go at the end of the season if there is a negative Falmer decision or a relegation. I would not blame him either.

 

[Uncle Buck]

But there is a difference if you are a top of the table team, like Liverpool and some Albion teams of recent times.

If you have the best players in the division, managers have the luxury of knowing their players will be able to impose their gameplan on nearly all their opponents. A settled formation is fine if your opponents have no answer it.

With respect, I would hope you would know that this is not the position we are in. We have a small and limited squad of players, many of whom are straining at the upper end of their abilities by playing in this current division.

Those players we have can't impose a settled tactical system on most of the opponents we play. They are not good enough.

But what McGhee can give them is a little extra edge by altering our system from time to time to attack particular weaknesses in the opposition.

For example, the Sunderland game. McGhee analysed them and saw that Sunderland committed their full-backs forward in a defensively risky fashion at times.

So he settled for a plan of attack involving the wide players you say we don't have, OGH and Leon, and that plan worked a treat. We constantly got behind the Sunderland fullbacks and both our goals arose from fine work down the flanks.

McGhee will be looking at the videos of Leicester and trying to spot any similar weaknesses. Do I know of any? No. Because I am not a football manaher and don't have full time access to tapes to be able to study the opposition.

Our coaching team does. That's why I give them the benefit of the doubt over others in the stands with pretty limited evidence and facts to back up their views.

I do to an extent understand and agree with bits that you are saying. However when we have been fighting for our lives in the past, the 96/97 season is a good example, we settled on a 4-4-2 system and that did just about get us out of trouble, OK different level, but it worked.

Even last time out at this level, as a rule of thumb Coppell played 5-3-2 for the majority of the time and that would have worked if we had not lost or drawn a couple of silly home games in the run in.

 

[London Irish]

McGhee has has less room for manoeuvre in plugging weaknesses in his squad than Coppell had. We are two years further down the financial black hole that Withdean puts us in and the hands of any manager of the Albion are more tied than they were two years ago, more tied than at any time since we got rid of the 3 wankers probably.

If Coppell had stayed, it would have been interesting to see how he would have coped with the gaps in our squad, the suspensions, the injuries, the refs decisions, and with little money to bring in players - he might have done very well, he might not have, we'll never know. But what McGhee has achieved with his limited squad of players bears favourable comparison with what Coppell acheived two years ago, IMHO.

 

[junior]

i understand what you are saying, but why don't he get behind the club and not moan about MM.

Im sure he does support the club,as i and every other Brighton fan the posts on this Board does.

Whatever he says about MM is an opinion and right or wrong,surely he is entitled to an opinion as much as the rest of us??

Why do people resort to using words such as "why dont you just f*** off" as a reply to somebodys OPINION??

For the record i dont agree with the MM out theme,so i dont bother to post.But it doesnt give me the right to tell him to "f*** off".

Whoever said this surely has a mentality far worse.

 

[Basil Fawlty]

Im sure he does support the club,as i and every other Brighton fan the posts on this Board does.

Whatever he says about MM is an opinion and right or wrong,surely he is entitled to an opinion as much as the rest of us??

Why do people resort to using words such as "why dont you just f*** off" as a reply to somebodys OPINION??

For the record i dont agree with the MM out theme,so i dont bother to post.But it doesnt give me the right to tell him to "f*** off".

Whoever said this surely has a mentality far worse.

MM is working with a small squad. If it werent for him we wouldn't be in this division. He deserves a medal if he keeps us up this season. But on this site you get twats who slag him off. So if we win on Saturday against Leicester and we move on to 47 points.
I bet some people will stop there moaning.

 

[Uncle Buck]

McGhee has has less room for manoeuvre in plugging weaknesses in his squad than Coppell had. We are two years further down the financial black hole that Withdean puts us in and the hands of any manager of the Albion are more tied than they were two years ago, more tied than at any time since we got rid of the 3 wankers probably.

If Coppell had stayed, it would have been interesting to see how he would have coped with the gaps in our squad, the suspensions, the injuries, the refs decisions, and with little money to bring in players - he might have done very well, he might not have, we'll never know. But what McGhee has achieved with his limited squad of players bears favourable comparison with what Coppell acheived two years ago, IMHO.

I understand the limited squad, but at times there has been so much tinkering that our players do not know what their roles are. That is why I advocate generally picking a system that suits the players available, in my opinion 5-3-2 and generally sticking to it. At the end of the dat the tinkering in the last 6 games has led to 6 defeats (I know there are other factors), so generally starting with the same system and then changing it during the game if things are not quite working.

 

[Uncle Buck]

MM is working with a small squad. If it werent for him we wouldn't be in this division. He deserves a medal if he keeps us up this season. But on this site you get twats who slag him off. So if we win on Saturday against Leicester and we move on to 47 points.
I bet some people will stop there moaning.

Please Kev, leave it. Just because you do not agree with people does not give you the right to call them twats and wankers.

 

[Basil Fawlty]

Please Kev, leave it. Just because you do not agree with people does not give you the right to call them twats and wankers.

Alright i will. But some people need to realise what MM has done for this club. He is a miracle worker.

 

[junior]

Please Kev, leave it. Just because you do not agree with people does not give you the right to call them twats and wankers.

What he said.

 

[junior]

MM is working with a small squad. If it werent for him we wouldn't be in this division. He deserves a medal if he keeps us up this season. But on this site you get twats who slag him off. So if we win on Saturday against Leicester and we move on to 47 points.
I bet some people will stop there moaning.

So you respond to my post by doing exactly the same thing.

Calling somebody a twat because they dont have the same opinion as you (and the majority probably for the record).

Some people might think YOU are the "twat" because of YOUR opinion on the subject.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Alright i will. But some people need to realise what MM has done for this club. He is a miracle worker.

But the problem is not everyone is viewing things through your blue and white specs and looking at the last 6 games and seeing we are shipping goals at an alarming rate, losing and at present going down quicker than the girls that worked on that boat in Baku. Getting rid of McGhee at this stage is not the answer, but I guess some people are frustrated at some of the selections and so on. It is better to voice those opinions on here, rather than sitting in the South Stand on Saturday slagging the players off and creating a negative atmosphere at the game (although any atmosphere at Withdean would be different).

 

[London Irish]

At the end of the dat the tinkering in the last 6 games has led to 6 defeats (I know there are other factors), so generally starting with the same system and then changing it during the game if things are not quite working.

What tinkering would that be? Apart from enforced changes, I can't think of a time in the season where we have had a more settled selection. Perhaps that's the problem?

Your views seem to be in contrast to your fellow 5-3-2 disciple Kinky, who puts the problem down to McGhee's consistency, wrong formation, wrong players.

 

[Uncle Buck]

What tinkering would that be? Apart from enforced changes, I can't think of a time in the season where we have had a more settled selection. Perhaps that's the problem?

Your views seem to be in contrast to your fellow 5-3-2 disciple Kinky, who puts the problem down to McGhee's consistency, wrong formation, wrong players.

Virgo in midfield would be the obvious example against Reading, now I know you are going to say that in the manager's eyes he was the best replacement for Carpenter, but we had Hammond and Nicolas on the bench, both of whom could have done a better job in their NATURAL position. Harding playing in midfield one week and then defence the next, that has stopped for the minute as Mayo is injured and McGhee has not yet thought of playing Watson at left back.

Now I know the injuries are knackering us and I have never know a season like this one for long term injuries and retirements, but I think a settled system, with players playing in position is what is needed for the run in. Now that is my opinion, not fact.

 

[London Irish]

Virgo in midfield would be the obvious example against Reading, now I know you are going to say that in the manager's eyes he was the best replacement for Carpenter, but we had Hammond and Nicolas on the bench, both of whom could have done a better job in their NATURAL position.

I could have said that. But actually, Virgs played in midfield about 20 minutes. During that time, he played competently and we were in the game.

Later, when playing in his "natural" position of centre-back, he miss-timed a tackle on Glen Little, allowing the winger to cross for Forster's goal.

Perhaps McGhee should have stuck with Virgs in midfield all game?

Once again, this concentration and emphasis on players having to play in their usual positions strikes me as tilting at windmills a bit.

 

[Uncle Buck]

I could have said that. But actually, Virgs played in midfield about 20 minutes. During that time, he played competently and we were in the game.

Later, when playing in his "natural" position of centre-back, he miss-timed a tackle on Glen Little, allowing the winger to cross for Forster's goal.

Perhaps McGhee should have stuck with Virgs in midfield all game?

Once again, this concentration and emphasis on players having to play in their usual positions strikes me as tilting at windmills a bit.

But if players consitently play in their natural or set position, game after game, with generally the same players around them they will generally work as a team. The chopping and changing of tactics can lead to a situation where people do not know what they are doing. I do advocate finding a system that works and sticking to it and with the players available I believe that is 5-3-2.