I have been stewing on opinion of RM for a couple of months now and despite winning today the manner of the win and the performance screams to me of a manager who hasn't learned lessons, cannot man manage his squad and while admittedly the board have done him zero favours in January half of our transfer problems can be blamed on RM himself.
Man Management
RM is becoming somewhat infamous now for having no issues with publicly throwing players under the bus or for hauling off / freezing out players who are not playing to instructions with the way he wants to play.
The list of players brought in on his watch and within 15 months frozen out, fallen out or pushed out is flabbergasting... Obafemi, Ogbeta, Whittaker, Joseph, Oko-Flex, Williams, Paterson, Congreve and the list goes on are all players who have suffered his wrath in some way or another.
Then there are the players who are being used absurdly out of position which goes counter to over a decade of their training and experience and often counter to their qualities as a player. For no one does this stick out so much as Latibeaudiere who is a centre half by trade but has been used by RM as a right wingback since day one despite his well noted lack of pace, dribbling, trickery, attacking instincts and crossing ability.
Game Management
Despite having an 18 man squad how often does RM fail to utilise his substitutions to change a game proactively rather than reactively (or fail to do so at all)?
Being able to make five changes over three opportunities (four if you count half time) is meant to help deal with player fatigue and reduce risk of injuries. In practice RM doesn't make changes until something has already happened despite everyone else in the stadium seeing that a goal is coming or that pressure is mounting.
He got caught with his pants down the other week when Lati went off injured after making four changes over three opportunities in the second half, why is he one of the few managers who never makes a change at half time unless we are already being battered 2-0 or 3-0 before the break?
Added to that our inability to cut out stupid defensive mistakes and eliminate soft (and often kamikaze) defending. We may be the fourth highest scoring team in the league but we are also one of the easiest teams in the league to score against.
Man Management
RM is becoming somewhat infamous now for having no issues with publicly throwing players under the bus or for hauling off / freezing out players who are not playing to instructions with the way he wants to play.
The list of players brought in on his watch and within 15 months frozen out, fallen out or pushed out is flabbergasting... Obafemi, Ogbeta, Whittaker, Joseph, Oko-Flex, Williams, Paterson, Congreve and the list goes on are all players who have suffered his wrath in some way or another.
Then there are the players who are being used absurdly out of position which goes counter to over a decade of their training and experience and often counter to their qualities as a player. For no one does this stick out so much as Latibeaudiere who is a centre half by trade but has been used by RM as a right wingback since day one despite his well noted lack of pace, dribbling, trickery, attacking instincts and crossing ability.
Game Management
Despite having an 18 man squad how often does RM fail to utilise his substitutions to change a game proactively rather than reactively (or fail to do so at all)?
Being able to make five changes over three opportunities (four if you count half time) is meant to help deal with player fatigue and reduce risk of injuries. In practice RM doesn't make changes until something has already happened despite everyone else in the stadium seeing that a goal is coming or that pressure is mounting.
He got caught with his pants down the other week when Lati went off injured after making four changes over three opportunities in the second half, why is he one of the few managers who never makes a change at half time unless we are already being battered 2-0 or 3-0 before the break?
Added to that our inability to cut out stupid defensive mistakes and eliminate soft (and often kamikaze) defending. We may be the fourth highest scoring team in the league but we are also one of the easiest teams in the league to score against.
