I can't decide if Ismael is an absolutely brilliant manager

Liked Struber but honestly believe it was Covid and the three month stoppage that helped keep us up without that happening we were doomed to Div One.

 

And yet I'm pretty sure that that post was you looking for the negative in me

 

I find you constantly negative unfortunately

 

It's what happened on the pitch that saved us.

Plus Wigan.

These are facts.

In my opinion Struber had a good thing going, that Val is benefitting from now

When the ball drops to our feet after the hoof forward, we look good. And Mowatt is whacking it in. We're getting penalties. We have more of a drive and purpose. Val's got it right with our squad

 

In my opinion the biggest difference between Struber and Val this season is Matty James.

I think they’re both fantastic managers

 

After that midweek home defeat to Cardiff in March we looked like a team with no confidence and no hope and with 9 games left i wouldn’t have given us a prayer of stopping up . Now I’m not certain what happened during those three months of lockdown and obviously Struber deserves massive credit for revitalising the players but no one will convince me otherwise that without Covid happening we were definitely going down plus empty stadiums worked in our favour.

 

Well, thats answered the OP.

 

Perfect analysis for life’s great, anonymous, fence sitter. How would you know? & what would you know what to do if you did? Just having a laugh, Nigel.

 

What a negative attitude

 

What on earth are you lot on about..? It’s like Brexit with a leather ball..

 

Our young team benefited us then.Maybe not having families of their own in most cases meant they had more time or inclination to keep fit throughout lockdown but from the posts on social media. they did that well. And credit must be due to the physios/sports scientists who are at the club too. And of course it gave more time for the Wigan fiasco to unfold, but if we hadn't have got the points we did, Wigan would have stayed up regardless.

I had a good feeling about big Val before his appointment but really didn't expect him to have us in 8th at Christmas!

 

Doesnt look pretty a lot of the time. When we get the ball down on the floor we look good. Val is playing percentage football even down to us kicking the ball straight into touch from any kick off. Its alot about winning second balls and playing in the opposition's half with pressure on the ball. So far it is appearing to work. Let's see what our team looks like after the transfer window closes.

 

Struber did an amazing job last season, but I think we'd be struggling in the relegation zone if he was still here. Once the frustrations with recruitment/ambition boiled over it was clear that his focus was elsewhere, and the tactics in the early games this season were negative and, at times, bizarre. I'm grateful for what he achieved, but the relationship between coach and club had run its natural course by then.

Ismael has been nothing short of sensational so far. Results aside, he's taken fringe squad players and given them a chance, and has even managed to turn Victor into a contributing squad member (I'm trying to forget his miss last night as I type this). I don't think Victor and George Miller are the long-term solution for us, but he's worked with the squad he was given and, on the whole, got as much out of the fringe players as could realistically be expected. He's also turned around the self-confidence and belief in the squad that was lacking in the early games, which is evidenced by the fact that going a goal down doesn't necessarily mean we lose games these days.

The only disappointment so far is that there seems to have been a falling out with Simoes behind the scenes, who had shown some promise in his limited appearances to date. There are suggestions that it could be an attitude issue with him, but I suspect there's also a clash of personalities too, as there had been no suggestion of this under Struber. It seems to be one of those cases where the two don't see eye to eye, albeit Struber froze out more players than Ismael has, so I can't be too critical.

Ismael has, in a very short space of time, earned the right to be backed in the transfer window as far as our resources will allow, both in bringing new players in and trying to minimise the impact of the outgoing players to hopefully retain those who have been the key performers for us. There will undoubtedly be frustrations for us during the window, as that's an inevitable fact of life supporting Barnsley, but I'd hope for a transfer window that has more good than bad within it as a realistic goal.

We'll soon be at the stage where we're starting to get nervous every time a managerial vacancy arises, and the football hasn't been the prettiest at times, but we're digging in and grinding out results on a consistent basis and its showing the potential that we have to be competitive in the Championship despite our limited resources. That's as much as we could realistically have expected from this season.

We've been in similar places a couple of times previously in recent years, and then shot ourselves in the foot with appalling January transfer windows. I'm hopeful that this one will be different, if only because we need to match Ismael's expectations to ensure we avoid the familiar pattern of coaches becoming disillusioned with the role. That's not saying we need to gamble on our future, but to ensure we hit whatever expectations we've given him during the recruitment process.

 

Some good points here but I'd like to add a couple of things:
Don't buy personality clashes with manager. He's the boss. as it only appears to be one player I'm inclined to side with the manager. Look at fergie as soon as a player like Ince, Staam or Beckham started thinking they were bigger than the team they were out.
The second point is that you can't plan to stand still. With some relatively small investment we could sneak a play off place. The board must see that. This January will be their biggest test.

 

Like any other, he can only be judged proper after his full term... Might never win another game.. but done well so far.

 

He played 13 games here, 22 years ago. Not only has the game changed so much since then, but he was barely here.

 

I agree with pretty much all of that Curtis.

With regard to Simoes, I'm 100% behind Val if there is an attitude problem with the player. His reaction when pulled off (can't remember which game it was) wasn't good and if he has shown further signs of sulking, he needs to have a re-think and apologise to the Manager and his team mates. In other words, "Grow up Elliott!".

My previous post clearly alluded to the fact that the Board (aka the 80%ers) and Dane Murphy are getting things right as part of the bigger plan. You know I've preached patience and perspective for a long time and maybe now, we can see the fruits of that.

The Board have made three good managerial appointments (Morais is clearly the exception - lets hope he ends up at Swillsbro) all of whom have progressed the club in some way. Thank goodness we're not being run by a Chansiri or the many others who have "graced" the English game and left many good clubs in dire circumstances.

I haven't measured up the, what we'd consider to be, good player acquisitions vs the **** acquisitions but Brittain, Solly, Mads, Micky Helik, Styles, Matty James, Herbie K, Frieser are good starters for the positive list, in addition to the youngsters who are coming through.

Of course there are those who haven't developed and who we have moved / will move on, but that's what happens with recruitment - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, for all kinds of reasons. At least we've not spent an absolute fortune in the market like many other aspiring clubs who now have multi-million pound players warming their respective benches.

 

Totally agree with this.

I guess I didn't phrase it too well in my original post, but the disappointment I expressed was that it seems unlikely that Simoes will be part of the long-term future of the club, and he looked to be a great prospect from what I'd seen. I suspect he's one of those likely to depart in January, either on loan or permanently. However, if it is an attitude issue (and he wouldn't be the first talented player we've seen to show this, if so) then Ismael has every right to call him out on it, and you'd hope it would be addressed along the lines you describe.

I mentioned personality clashes as it's not unusual to see situations of this type develop when a new manager comes in. A much higher profile example would be Dele Alli and Mourinho at Spurs, currently. Undeniable talent, yet the two of them can't seem to click as player/coach respectively.

I'd love to see Simoes work his way back into contention and show the maturity to deal with the criticism, but you'd have expected any signs of regret to have been shown by now.

 

Stendel improved the team in the attacking third and the transitional play. Struber sured up the defensive side of our game and added structure. So far Val has pieced it all together and made us difficult to beat and more direct as a team.

 

I hope Simoes gets another chance. Big Val.says he's not a vindictive man so I'm sure he must realise how it can be with young over enthusiastic players. Elliot hasn't seemed to have sulked, congratulating his team mates on SM etc. Maybe a loan spell will be best but I must admit I was looking forward to him playing with Styles more this season, he was certainly class in the U23s.