Sheehan Out? Calm Down!

[cadleigh]

You’re right of course but what got me was his line up - it was negative to say the least. Why not chick Widdell and Inoussa on from the off? Tell them “we’ve got a shit record against these see if you can make a bit of history for yourselves”.
And not starting with Vipotnik favouring Cullen would have not helped Vipotnik’s confidence.

Pretty much everyone who has expressed a view on this season’s Championship expects Boro to finish 6th or 7th and be genuine play-off contenders, with the Swans around 11th to 13th. So your advice to the manager would have been ‘don’t go defensive away from home against a team that usually beats us in a stadium that rocks like few others can match these days, chuck a couple of newbies on and hope we score one more than them’. I see. Were you Lord Cardigan in a past life by any chance?

 

[cadleigh]

Exactly this , Widell was supposed to be so good we had to sign him in January and loan him back for fear of missing out on him to bigger clubs, and yet he couldn't get in the starting line up for Saturday, neither could Inoussa . It was a cowardly , gutless and unambitious team selection by Sheehan, who probably was hoping to nick a point with a bore draw . The fact we lost Saturday was purely down to the manager, and he got the result he deserved.

Nicking a point with a bore draw is actually a really good strategy, George Graham built a career on it. Gets monotonous after a while but so does champagne if that’s all you get to drink.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

Pretty much everyone who has expressed a view on this season’s Championship expects Boro to finish 6th or 7th and be genuine play-off contenders, with the Swans around 11th to 13th. So your advice to the manager would have been ‘don’t go defensive away from home against a team that usually beats us in a stadium that rocks like few others can match these days, chuck a couple of newbies on and hope we score one more than them’. I see. Were you Lord Cardigan in a past life by any chance?

On the whole, I agree with what you're saying.

Where I sympathise with views like Dilwyn's is that our 2008-2013 side is still relatively fresh in people's memories, and let's get it right - that side was good enough to go anywhere, play football on its own terms, and win. I often get frustrated sometimes that we can't or won't do that anymore.

But then I remind myself that we are a different football club now, and the teams we've had in the last 10 years have been nowhere near that sort of level. We just don't have the players to do it anymore, as hard as it might be to accept.

It doesn't mean we can't get back there one day. But for now we have to be realistic about it. If we'd gone up to Boro on Saturday and played a 4-1-2-3 with wingers flying forward and fullbacks pushing on we'd have been back in 'tail end of Williams' territory.

 

[Dillwyn the Dog]

Nicking a point with a bore draw is actually a really good strategy, George Graham built a career on it. Gets monotonous after a while but so does champagne if that’s all you get to drink.

Pretty much everyone who has expressed a view on this season’s Championship expects Boro to finish 6th or 7th and be genuine play-off contenders, with the Swans around 11th to 13th. So your advice to the manager would have been ‘don’t go defensive away from home against a team that usually beats us in a stadium that rocks like few others can match these days, chuck a couple of newbies on and hope we score one more than them’. I see. Were you Lord Cardigan in a past life by any chance?

Can’t win - don’t try. Fantastic ! Were you Homer Simpson in a past life?
They aren’t the side that finished last season and had a brand new manager. If we’d got at them that “Rocking” stadium would have turned on him and his team. Shy boys don’t get sweeties.
In any case we could have played Vipotnik as Cullen sounded as ineffective as ever.
We just surrendered the game before kick off.

 

[Dillwyn the Dog]

Nicking a point with a bore draw is actually a really good strategy, George Graham built a career on it. Gets monotonous after a while but so does champagne if that’s all you get to drink.

I don’t know if you noticed but as boring as we may have been we got f all out of the game. Middlesbrough had all three points

 

[cadleigh]

Can’t win - don’t try. Fantastic ! Were you Homer Simpson in a past life?
They aren’t the side that finished last season and had a brand new manager. If we’d got at them that “Rocking” stadium would have turned on him and his team. Shy boys don’t get sweeties.
In any case we could have played Vipotnik as Cullen sounded as ineffective as ever.
We just surrendered the game before kick off.

Sheehan’s strategy wasn’t to try not to win. What a strange thing to post. It was obviously to defend deep and take at least a point, if not snatch all three on the break. He may well have intended to put in a more attacking formation for the last 10 minutes like he did against Derby. The goal we conceded scuppered that plan. Doesn’t mean it was intrinsically flawed. Judge him when he has a midfield replacement for O’Brien and a first choice striker.

 

[JackSomething]

People still moaning about Saturday I see. I can only conclude that Sheehan is out shagging people's wives given how early his card has been marked by some. Still, at least we've halted that shocking run of no wins in three games...

 

[cadleigh]

On the whole, I agree with what you're saying.

Where I sympathise with views like Dilwyn's is that our 2008-2013 side is still relatively fresh in people's memories, and let's get it right - that side was good enough to go anywhere, play football on its own terms, and win. I often get frustrated sometimes that we can't or won't do that anymore.

But then I remind myself that we are a different football club now, and the teams we've had in the last 10 years have been nowhere near that sort of level. We just don't have the players to do it anymore, as hard as it might be to accept.

It doesn't mean we can't get back there one day. But for now we have to be realistic about it. If we'd gone up to Boro on Saturday and played a 4-1-2-3 with wingers flying forward and fullbacks pushing on we'd have been back in 'tail end of Williams' territory.

While largely agreeing with you, I do remember that 2-0 defeat at Watford in February 2009. Martinez had nothing on the bench other than like-for-like replacements for the starting XI. Playing in the rain on a pitch that most allotment holders would be ashamed of, we needed a team of Alan Tates and Martinez subbed him. And then slagged off the players for trying to play the ball rather than channeling their inner Chopper Harris. Watford were on the edge of the relegation zone at the time but their manager was the better man on the night - he saw we had an unbalanced squad and only one way of playing. I wonder what happened to him?