Is Clement getting an easy ride?

[Nacho_joe 4]

Clement will walk, he can’t afford two successive sackings on his CV.  He is on a hiding to nothing and he knows it.

 

[Laudrupsleftfoot 12,130]

1 minute ago, .Williamson. said:

You liked my first post on this topic, did you read it?

Fair, fucked it there. Went back and read it, forgot it was you but agreed with your first post yes.

[kelvd1873 7,621]

My issue with Clement is he doesn’t appear to have a plan B or C. I think his stubbornness to play his system could be his downfall.

[bluenoz 32,260]

I will wait to see the starting 11 and performance against Union Berlin. If it includes Dessers, Matondo, Wright, and Davies then I will question the gaffer.

Questions marks surround the signings of Nsiala & Igamane. The last thing we need is adding squad players. It is the starting 11 that needs addressing.

Whether he is right or wrong, the handling of Lammers & Cantwell can't be good around the team.

 

[.Williamson. 87,116]

Just now, Laudrupsleftfoot said:

Fair, fucked it there. Went back and read it, forgot it was you but agreed with your first post yes.

I think the squad is better than Hearts. I’m not convinced we won’t drop points in the first game though. 

The squad was arguably even better than it is now when we played them last game of last season, but for whatever reason we still chucked the win.

Clement isn’t to blame for the players he has but he can’t escape not being able to beat everyone in Scotland outwidth celtic imo. That’s my overall point 

[Laudrupsleftfoot 12,130]

1 minute ago, .Williamson. said:

I think the squad is better than Hearts. I’m not convinced we won’t drop points in the first game though. 

The squad was arguably even better than it is now when we played them last game of last season, but for whatever reason we still chucked the win.

Clement isn’t to blame for the players he has but he can’t escape not being able to beat everyone in Scotland outwidth celtic imo. That’s my overall point 

Yeah I agree, for me there shouldn’t be any hiding places for him if we lose there and based on what we’ve seen so far it’s a possibility.

[Cooperson 993]

3 minutes ago, bluenoz said:

I will wait to see the starting 11 and performance against Union Berlin. If it includes Dessers, Matondo, Wright, and Davies then I will question the gaffer.

Questions marks surround the signings of Nsiala & Igamane. The last thing we need is adding squad players. It is the starting 11 that needs addressing.

Whether he is right or wrong, the handling of Lammers & Cantwell can't be good around the team.

 

He has earned my trust, I believe in him if he is backed properly by this shambolic board 

[Redmond7 1,501]

2 minutes ago, bluenoz said:

I will wait to see the starting 11 and performance against Union Berlin. If it includes Dessers, Matondo, Wright, and Davies then I will question the gaffer.

Questions marks surround the signings of Nsiala & Igamane. The last thing we need is adding squad players. It is the starting 11 that needs addressing.

Whether he is right or wrong, the handling of Lammers & Cantwell can't be good around the team.

 

See players like Nsiala and Igamane are fine, planning for the future etc IF and its a big if, you already have a settled squad thats doing well and just need the odd tweak to continue growing. We don't have that. I mean perhaps these two might end up being world class players that net is 40m in the future and we'll all be saying how brilliant that was. But right now, we need a squad that can win the title and we don't have that.

I really like Clement and still think he can bring us success but there are questions marks arising, and constantly picking shite like Dessers and Wright and Matondo. I mean he will probably argue there arent any alternatives. Its still depressing.

[Loyal72 13,414]

1 hour ago, RFC55 said:

With how FFP is there isn't a board who could fund us to the level we all expect. It's why things like NEH and the stadium upgrade are happening as it helps you have more flexibility with regards to It.

 

A bit of creative accounting as they say 

True, overall I just feel deflated as fuck and we've not even kicked a ball.

[.Williamson. 87,116]

I’d expect the performance against Birmingham to be a lot better. If we still can’t string decent passages of play together against that level of opponent it is going to be extremely worrying 

[cascadeshrimp 1,543]

I thought that he got a very easy time of it last season,some of his decisions at the back end of the season were horrendous and i believe he played his part in us imploding. He got off the hook because some of the players were worse than him and injuries bought him time and good will. i said so in the clement thread at the time

I think this year is different, he will either stand or fall off the back of results and performances and there will be no hiding place

So right now he's not our biggest problem but if that changes then he'll get the chop,Dessers could be the end of him if he persists with that big dumplin

Really hope it all works out but the warning signs are all there

[adam2102 660]

Is Clement getting an easy ride?  I don’t think so. I think the vast majority of the support recognise the shit show that he was left with.  He showed very quickly that he can improve the performances of the players last season. 

The issue is not about style of play - it’s about results. He managed to keep Rangers in a title race last season, although the group of bottlers he inherited…bottled it. 

I think it’s clear he is building a long term team - young hungry players. People complain about a couple not ready yet, however, he is clever enough to realise that developing them now will save millions down the road.

Clement has received stick when he has deserved it, so no easy ride.  However most fans can see what he is doing in terms of a vision and people like that  

 

[blaudrup 6,093]

I'm worried.

I think he 'lost' the managerial superstar belief or aura from part of the dressing room towards the end of the season, maybe Lundstram and so on knowing they weren't getting contract renewals, having to play players he obviously can't stand like Davies.

OK, that's us here now, but there isn't yet the slightest flicker that he's got the team back together into a coherent winning entity - just feels like a continuation from the end-of-season collapse so far.

[GA1972 10,303]

Yeah definitely getting an easy ride because of what happened when he came in and how he came across 

He looked less and less like the manager we got last year as the season went on and he made some baffling decisions that possibly cost us the league but definitely cost us the cup 

There’s no clear message and if he has a style of play he wants I can’t see what it is. His love for shite like Tom Lawrence will ultimately cost him and us 

The position we’re in isn’t on him and I worry he’s been bogged down by the failings at board level since he arrived. It is however his job to get the most out of this team 

If he can turn back the clock and be the manager we had at the tail end of last year then we’re laughing but if not I doubt the fans will back him for much longer 

[DrLaudrup 5,037]

1 hour ago, Laudrupsleftfoot said:

Do Hearts have a better first 11 and/or squad than us?

They have the best striker in the league. If we miss chance after chance that may be the difference. 

[.Williamson. 87,116]

Have we heard much from Phil about the performances so far in these games? I’ve not been bothering to wait for interviews after games in truth 

[NeoGeo7 11,253]

This is always a hard one to call because the squad he inherited was shite, we all want a huge clearout and replace the players with ones that actually bother their arses to put the effort in but we are stuck until we can free up funds. Koppen absolutely needs to help him out here by shifting the shite out of the club, freeing up wages and brining in some funds for transfers.

The "style" seems to be the old half back routine of the holding player dropping deep between the centrebacks, drawing an opponent with them then making space to go wide and make the angles to get the pass in to central mid. It's your classic playing from the back but when you play against a team with a high and aggressive press unless you are quick and sharp with your passing you lose the ball and put yourself under pressure.

He can't very well play direct because we have no player capable of winning aerial battles in the last 3rd or holding up play, the only long balls that seem to have been played were from centreback out to the wingers.

In an ideal world we sell Matondo, Wright, Dessers, Lammers, Goldson, Davies and Tevernier. We bring in replacements for them on lower wages and we look to utilise Lowry, Rice, McKinnon, McAusland, Devine, and Fraser as back ups.

Until Clement actually gets to move the dross out of his starting XI I can't judge him properly, I don't think anyone can

[NeoGeo7 11,253]

3 minutes ago, .Williamson. said:

Have we heard much from Phil about the performances so far in these games? I’ve not been bothering to wait for interviews after games in truth 

The problem is if he knows he's stuck with these players for the full season he has to build them up (just as he did when he took over). Internally he can't certainly let them know the performances aren't good enough but from what I can tell of the man he's not one to throw people under the bus.

That said I think if we had offers for all of the players we all know are shite he'd bite their hand off to replace them

[DrLaudrup 5,037]

I think we all saw how he improved what he had over the course of last season. Ultimately we ran out of steam due to usual bottlers and probably the worse injury period I’ve known when following us. He said he had to be judged once he’d been able to bring in his own players but at the moment he doesn’t seem to be able to do that. But what is for sure is that our squad is bloated and overpriced. Part of the work is reducing that and improving our fitness. We are all getting very twitchy and I get that, but I still think there will be movement both in and out prior to the season starting. I just think he would like to have had it done early but he’s had his hands tied due to the bloated wage bill and inability to move people on quickly. 

[Gascoigne's Flute 332]

Bizarre team selections and tactics haven't helped him but the majority of these players shouldn't be at the club.

Needs to change it to get the best of the players at his disposal matching their ability. The style I think he is aiming for is he wants attacking techicial football but doesn't have the players to pull it off.

[Bluekev 46,620]

1 hour ago, Redmond7 said:

really like Clement and still think he can bring us success but there are questions marks arising, and constantly picking shite like Dessers and Wright and Matondo. I mean he will probably argue there arent any alternatives. Its still depressing.

What’s more depressing is that there isn’t any other players apart from really Danilo who are much better and truthfully we haven’t seen enough of Danilo to judge him properly.

[DrLaudrup 5,037]

4 minutes ago, Bluekev said:

What’s more depressing is that there isn’t any other players apart from really Danilo who are much better and truthfully we haven’t seen enough of Danilo to judge him properly.

Agree. There were times in last few matches of the season we couldn’t even fill the bench we had that many injuries. His selections have on many occasions be on who is actually fit. 

[KingKirk 26,401]

No he's been sold a lemon. What are we expecting to be different when working with the same group of failures + barron and Jefte. 

 

[Redmond7 1,501]

21 minutes ago, Gascoigne's Flute said:

Bizarre team selections and tactics haven't helped him but the majority of these players shouldn't be at the club.

Needs to change it to get the best of the players at his disposal matching their ability. The style I think he is aiming for is he wants attacking techicial football but doesn't have the players to pull it off.

What if this is the best these players can actually offer? Havent really seen any signs - think someone else mentioned it earlier - that the squad we have has any kind of levels above what they currently show.

[KingKirk 26,401]

1 hour ago, Laudrupsleftfoot said:

Sorry but if Hearts beat us Clement has no hiding place.

No excuses whatsoever for that to happen, our squad is still far better than theirs.

Of course it is and that will be proven over a 38 game season we will finish 2nd but that's the maximum we can achieve. That's nowhere near good enough and that's where the issues will lie.