Re: Tim Sherwood - Head Coach
It's a funny one this one - i've read through reams and teams of posts, read some very good points being made on both sides of the argument, and so wanted to add my two penneth worth. this is the Tim Sherwood thread so I will focus my comments on that:
Tim's post-match reaction / comments - seem to be two very different streams of thought on this one. On the one hand says he did the right thing calling out some players who didn't have the right character, because let's face it, it's what we the fans have been seeing for quite some time now.
On the other hand, his post-match reaction is seen as naive, that of an inexperienced manager who has let his emotions get the better of him and said a few things about 'nameless' players, which may or may not come back to bite him.
So what's the right answer? Well unfortunately I don't think there is one but if we are looking at this dispassionately, what Tim did may not, on balance, have been the right thing IMO. Let's switch this around, if its Mourinho against Arsenal and Arsenal had done to them what Chelski had done to us, what's Jose's reaction? We can only guess but he may have focused on the main game changer, the penalty and sending off of Kaboom - everything thereafter wasn't pretty and yes we made it worse through some very bad individual errors, but we still had a chance to get something from the game. Now Jose may also have called out some of his players for lacking character, but the difference is that the players seem him, seen that he has been successful know that chelski have a big enough squad to keep players on there toes. Tim does not have that reputation, because he does not have any previous experience. Like it or not players will be less likely to heed his words than the words of a much more experienced manager, even if those words were right.
Think about it you get balled out at work by a new young boss who hasn't been doing the job for long or you get balled out by a guy who has been around the block and has your respect, then who are you most likely to listen to / pay regard to. More times than not its the more experienced guy than the young guy, even if the message is the same. This is not me having a go at Tim specifically, its me pointing out human nature.
And the 'weak-minded' players also know that with our current injury crises, there is much less competition for places so, again like it or not, human nature says they will be less likely to put in the extra effort that knowing your place is up for grabs means you have to.
This last point is crucial for me - having called out some of this players as not having the right character, Tim needs to follow that up, drop a few underperforming players, shake things up abit. But he does not have the personnel to do that - and what a week to be doing that - big game against Benfica and even bigger game against the Goons.
Those of you already thinking that the like of Rodgers, Martinez even Pep show that young managers aren't always less successful that more experienced ones (and therefore less well-regarded / respected) are right. What those Managers have that Tim does not is i) a team molded by them to ii) play a specific way - success always makes players more open to respecting their manager.
So what should Tim have done - for me the post-match reaction should've been all about the poor refereeing, poor penalty, poor sending off, what else can you expect when we're playing someone like Chelsea, refs had a bad day, we move on. They hardly had a sniff at goal all game until Jan's unfortunate slip. the two goals at the end came about as a result of the sending off , and reshuffling of the team after Daws goes off. The scoreline was overly flattering to them, and didn't reflect how well we'd kept them at bay initially, but let's not forget Chelski have not lost for 74 games at home under Mourinho. They even did Emirates Marketing Project so let's not get too carried away by this result. We'll have a sit down with the lads, go through the game again, work on the areas we need to be tighter on, and move on upwards and onwards. We don't have time to wallow in pity, we need to pick ourselves up and get ready for a tough game against Benfica and then the big one against the Goons.
Yes a lot of the above is 'blame' shifting, and hides some of the real truths of the lack of character in the squad etc etc but that's what I think the post-match reaction should have been. What his comments have done is bring the club into sharper focus, put the players under more focus / pressure - basically made a rod for his own back.
2) Will he stay or will he go now?!?! The continued speculation of us being linked with another manager while we have Tim trying to do a job for us is not helping. This is a Levy problem - LVG keeps saying he might be interested / he might come after the world cup. FdB has come out and said he'd be interested now, Prandelli's been linked, Hoddle keeps needling - it's understandable if its all to much for Tim. Levy had no choice when he took Tim on, there really was no-one more experienced available that Levy liked the look of. yes we can argue the merits of 'he who must not be named' staying and given the chance to put right the many wrongs, but that's for another thread. Tim did what best he could for himself and wangled an 18 month contract - surprised a lot of people. I really think Levy gonad*ed that one up - Tim should only have been given until the end of the season, if Levy's intention all along was to wait for someone else. Yes a short term contract probably wouldn't have changed the results we've had, but instead we've ended up with constant speculation. And I do think that speculation is having an effect on the players, whether we like it or not, it's definitely undermining Tim's position, as who knows he might not be hear after the summer so why should I be bothered to listen to him? Some players are already agitating for a move to CL club and that is just not something we'll be offering next year. So Tim is again hamstrung by that. Add to that the long injury list, especially in defence and it's no wonder we're struggling for consistency when we cannot consistently get out our best players.
Tim is not completely blameless in all this, as he can still influence the style of play, which for the most part has been more expansive at the expense of being defensively solid, almost the complete opposite to the previous incarnation this season when we were dour but solid (albeit riding our luck on many occassions).
Rodgers system of tiki taka is played regardless of personnel, whereas Tim's systems / style seems to chop and change based on who is available to play, and who we are playing. I'm going to have to go back to what Harry did for us - put round pegs in round holes and let them play. Saturdays formation was ballsy for a new manager and for 50 odd minutes we did smother them, and maybe we did only come there for the draw, but if he'd gone there too open playing 2 up front we would have got mullered anyway. I'd have preferred to see Kyle start at RB and Lennon in front of him, with someone like Pauli playing off Ade, but that's hindsight for you it's a wonderful thing. Tim is not the first and won't be the last Spurs manager to leave stamford bridge with nothing.
So where now Tim - this week will definitely be era defining for him, regardless of what happened on Saturday past. But don't expect it to be easy with Daws injured and Kaboom possibly suspended we are running short of players to play in defence, so could be in for a few more drubblings before the week is out. i'm hoping the players respond positively to all the criticism, but would not be surprised if they didn't.
