Warburton apologises but are we in for the long haul?

[der Berliner 3,245]

We all knew our deficiencies, as did MW. I doubt he sent us out to lose and chose the best people he had. The same who did well enough at Fir Park.

 

If players make mistakes, the plan goes down the drain. Hearts had a good game. Full stop. Maybe they will go on and be a real pest from now on. But that will only the future hold. And the same holds true for MW and his tactics. We have absolutely no insights into team meetings whatsoever, and thus we end up with all sorts of theories and speculation. And most, IMHO and no disrespect, is still quite a bit of garbage.

[Barebear 37]

We all knew our deficiencies, as did MW. I doubt he sent us out to lose and chose the best people he had. The same who did well enough at Fir Park.

 

If players make mistakes, the plan goes down the drain. Hearts had a good game. Full stop. Maybe they will go on and be a real pest from now on. But that will only the future hold. And the same holds true for MW and his tactics. We have absolutely no insights into team meetings whatsoever, and thus we end up with all sorts of theories and speculation. And most, IMHO and no disrespect, is still quite a bit of garbage.

It doesn't take a fly on the wall to see that he's playing a high risk strategy. The tactics lend themselves to high risk high reward. Most mistakes are out of MW's control, that's true, but we should not be in the position where those mistakes are being punished every friggin time!

MW can sort that out.

[Gribz 743]

Mw certainly should get the chance until the summer to clinch second spot. Id then also give him the Europa qualifiers and his target is to reach the group stages. If we plum out of the qualifiers against poor opposition then a change could be on the cards.

 

Another thing before the summer is we expect to see better showings on our next trips to Pittodrie and Celtic Park - more so Pittodrie as we should be going there and winning.

 

I like the idea of a Frank De Boer / Michael Laudrup type manager but that would probably be in a few years time when the club have more of a recovery as its still only season 1 back in the top flight.

[theboyharley 5]

Two points from this thread I think are key to the playing side of things. Tactics and our captain.

 

Tactics. There are only 2/3 teams in world football that can play the same tactics regardless of the opposition. The rest of us have to adapt to our opponents. And that's exactly what opposition managers do to us. Press high and we can't cope. Our CB's can't pass and we lose possession. MW needs to change. When a formation works 20% of the time, it's not working. I think the fans would give him a bit more slack for a performance like Tynecastle if we'd went 4-5-1 and it hadn't worked but within 5 mins you could see what Hearts were going to do. That tactic worked against Celtic last April because they were all on their game. Even then we never won the game! This we keep playing our game doesn't cut it anymore. I await the 4-3-3 tomorrow.

 

Our captain. Lee Wallace is great for Rangers off the field. On it, nope, not for me. I think he brings excellent attacking qualities to our play and links well with McKay but defensively he scares the life out of me. But besides footballing ability it's his leadership on the park that I can't get behind. We concede a goal and he just turns away and walks towards the halfway line. You don't see him shouting at the players to gee them up. Can you imagine Fergie being captain and Halliday making that mistake and fergie just turning round and walking away. Not. A. Chance. He'd be in their faces letting them know what he thought. We are badly needing someone with a voice on the park. This team are too lightweight and nice. It's getting us nowhere. When was the last time we put a few heavy tackles in to show we are up for a battle. I think we'll need a better left back to challenge Celtic next year but more importantly I think we'll need a better leader on the park!

Edited February 3, 2017 by theboyharley

[JFK-1 1,671]

I don't think for a moment the manager will be replaced and if he were the end result could be disastrous. Changing managers at this stage going into the crucial final third of the season is not an option and I still expect him to deliver the much needed Euro spot which is more or less all the board have asked him to do. They're not going to replace a man who is delivering the main objective.

 

If we go on another run of straight wins all of this will blow over exactly as it has before and exactly as it does at every club after a bad result.

[Davie P 4]

The players that Warburton brought when he first joined were good enough to play an attacking and exciting brand of football, which was sufficient to win the Scottish Championship. The reality though is that those players (most of whom are still playing this season, for various reasons) do not have the quality to play that style of football at a higher level, without being found out. Warburton is unable/unwilling to change his style of football and the defensive players cannot cope with being pressed and constantly under pressure which constantly leads to conceding goals. Recipe for disaster if we continue along the current path. Either Warburton adapts his game to suit the quality/ability of the players that we currently have, or gets better quality players (which is unlikely until such time as the finances are in better shape).

 

Was delighted when Warburton and Weir came in, but his refusal to change formation and structure, his continued selection of certain players and his inability in the transfer windows to strengthen those glaringly obvious weaknesses, leaves a big question mark over his future.

[Gribz 743]

The players that Warburton brought when he first joined were good enough to play an attacking and exciting brand of football, which was sufficient to win the Scottish Championship. The reality though is that those players (most of whom are still playing this season, for various reasons) do not have the quality to play that style of football at a higher level, without being found out. Warburton is unable/unwilling to change his style of football and the defensive players cannot cope with being pressed and constantly under pressure which constantly leads to conceding goals. Recipe for disaster if we continue along the current path. Either Warburton adapts his game to suit the quality/ability of the players that we currently have, or gets better quality players (which is unlikely until such time as the finances are in better shape).

 

Was delighted when Warburton and Weir came in, but his refusal to change formation and structure, his continued selection of certain players and his inability in the transfer windows to strengthen those glaringly obvious weaknesses, leaves a big question mark over his future.

 

I think a lot of us didnt see there was a gulf in the top flight to the championship but on a weekly basis it seems there slightly is, not to mention everyone raises their games 20% against Rangers anyway. But your right not adapting and changing is a mistake.

[trublusince1982 243]

MW needs to be left in place until the end of the season and we will have to do our best to get behind the team and hopefully push them into a second place finish.

 

Once the season is over we need to replace the manager and start again. Nothing is being built, we have no spine. We are a shambles from top to bottom. Fitness, professionalism and development are all going backwards or stagnating, our recruitment strategy is weak and lacking any ideas. We have very little options in our squad and display a real lack of ingenuity. A lot of money wasted we didn't have to waste.

[Barebear 37]

I think a lot of us didnt see there was a gulf in the top flight to the championship but on a weekly basis it seems there slightly is, not to mention everyone raises their games 20% against Rangers anyway. But your right not adapting and changing is a mistake.

There seems to be some kind of consensus developing where we see the need for adaptation in styles of play at the right time. That probably involves more work on studying the opposition, like the old fashioned dossier, or simply going to the games. I'm not watching much non Rangers football at the moment but I don't get the impression that you'll see Warburton or Weir at a St Johnstone v Hearts game for instance.

 

Gribz, that's a good point about every team raising their game. They smell blood and have absolutely no fear against us!!!

[der Berliner 3,245]

There is a long ingrained and well fed reasoning that the standard of most of the Premiership sides is about as high as that of the better Championship teams, but in general it is rather poor. The question here is: "compared to what"?

 

IMHO, out of years of domination and superiority, we tend to view these teams with quite a bit of disrespect (which is part of their all-out dislike, if not hatred untowards us) and give them next to no credit whatsoever.

 

In the cold light of day, and a bit removed from the little universe that is Scottish football, these sides play decent enough football at their level. Which is, admittedly so, not of great quality. Yet, they can play and have years upon years of experience too - not least in playing teams of "higher quality", if only one or two of the latter were about. Their managers are no fools either, they and their players go about their business pragmatically. And if you don't have the quality to match up to that and bring your style to a level that beats those teams too, you are bound to struggle.

 

Yet, out of the above "arrogance" still rises much of the debate we see here or over on FF. It is our fault, our board's fault, our players' and our managers' fault. Hardly any credence or respect is given to the ability of the opposition we face ... and with any point dropped a certain amnesia about our players' background and our club's standing increases exponentially.

 

While it is sure fair to question the manager's tactics and use of players, we should remain level headed both in terms of what his players can actually achieve, and what the opposition is capable of. We are fishing in the bargain region of the transfer market and what you get is that level of players. And no matter how cunning you are as a manager, the level of those player will only change to the better in rare cases, else we would see the English hare down at us and throw money our way. (Or indeed had bought these players long before us.) We are where we are and 4 wins on the trott or one heavy defeat will not change that.