Is Adkins another Brendan Rodgers?

[southbank1871]

Who is this Jordo chap? He sounds pretty clueless. Whoever bought these players, they shouldn't be losing 6-0 to a League One team, only Adkins can take responsibility for that.

[Maguire]

You're telling me Adkins only has to take responsibility if he signed all 11 players in the side? Barmy.

[yuomi]

Stolen this from twitter

Last night's 11. 6 BM signings. 1 BR, 1 SC 1 NA and 2 youth products. Can't point the finger at NA, he is as frustrated as us.

@Jordo79

Well that's just bullshiteous. Not until you get to the rarified air of the SAFs and Wengers do you have completely your own players to work with and none of the detritus you inherit from your predecessor. Yes, NA is new and yes, he hasn't had (much of) a chance to make his mark on the playing squad but managers work with what they have, their role is to motivate and tactically apply what they have at their disposal to the best possible ends. The LC is a dead rubber, so last night was mostly irrelevant, however the scale of the loss and the total lack of performane were pretty sickening. It's not just the tactical ineptitude, it's the total lack of team cohesion, spirit and application that terrify me. Ex-Prem team second string drubbed for six without reply that could easily have been double figures? NA has to be at least partitally culpable...

[maffff]

Is this question asking whether Adkins will get sacked then go on to prove us wrong by improving a decent team to the extent they get into the Premier league [for the first time] and consolidate it then by being headhunted by one of the worlds biggest teams* who are living on past glories after being badly managed for several years then after a slow start having them looking competitive again?

Maybe we should just persevere with him then, at Southampton it took a little bit of time and look how that ended up...

*historically

[Z175]

You can't just say all those players are useless and its not Adkins fault and at least hes not playing them in real matches...

That 11 contained our 3 best outfield performers from last season in Robson Kanu, Mariappa and Le Fondre. But it contained a lot of players making their first start of the season, against a Peterborough team with 5 wins from 5. If those players aren't sharp and motivated, surely that is the managers' fault above all for firstly getting them into that position and secondly picking them in such a tie.
If players like Pogrebnyak and Mariappa want to leave the 28 August is not the best time to find this out. And we will need them this season - Drenthe and Guthrie won't necessarily be able to play 46 games each.

So hes had 6 months in charge, longer than the previous manager had to realise Gunter was poor and replace him. That talk of the group and the squad should not just be sound bites. If you were Federici, Pogrebnyak, Mariappa, etc would you be that pleased to finally start in this match? The squads attitude pre-Adkins was brilliant so I'm not sure we can say they are all bad eggs! And you can add to that a most unprofessional dismissal of crowd favourite and long term club servant and often best playerJimmy Kebe ever playing for us again. McDermott was much more concillatory towards Guthrie who, in my opinion, to have done worse that what Kebe appears to have done. What if he does have a niggle? He does have a history of injuries!

I've enjoyed watching us in the league so far but am far from convinced. For all the midfield skills we look appallingly disorganised at the back andpretty toothless up front. Adkins has one only twice in 13 games and we are in the bottom half of the leadeyet in his interviews, to be fair, he seems to think its all going well. I'm right behind Adkins as I was McDermott, ( I mean changing the manager again would be a ridiculous option) but you would have to be blinkered in the extreme not to have the alarm bells ringing after last night. Hopefully we will turn it around against a tired Yeovil side on Saturday. But I was looking forward to Kebe and Drenthe

[Doolittle]

I don't really buy this "it's not his fault, he's got the wrong players" argument. It's the manager's job to choose a way of playing that gets the best out of the players available. That doesn't mean he can't change the style over time, but there's no point in prematurely imposing something totally unsuited to the group available, which is what happened at Peterborough. Gorkks is way too slow to play in a system involving having the full backs pushed forward, Cummings isn't suited to playing that way either, and if you're going to ask Gunter to play way up the pitch, then your winger needs to be someone prepared to drop back and fill a gap when you lose the ball. McAnuff can do this, but not HRK. So HRK and Gunter was totally the wrong combination for that system.

NA should absolutely be given time, and I think he has the right long term ideas. But last night, it was blindingly obvious by half time that our formation was giving us square pegs in round holes in several positions, yet he didn't change it in the second half. He needs to become more flexible, or else he'll lose the dressing room. . and if that happens, he'll be toast, regardless of any long term plan.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

So why did he play that combination of players if they weren't up to the job and he didn't have confidence in them?

If he wasn't going to take the competition seriously by not putting out a competent team why didn't he do the decent thing and let people know beforehand so they could save time, money and energy and stay at home?

[Schards#2]

So why did he play that combination of players if they weren't up to the job and he didn't have confidence in them?

If he wasn't going to take the competition seriously by not putting out a competent team why didn't he do the decent thing and let people know beforehand so they could save time, money and energy and stay at home?

You don't think that might have had some ramifications with the FA?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

So why did he play that combination of players if they weren't up to the job and he didn't have confidence in them?

If he wasn't going to take the competition seriously by not putting out a competent team why didn't he do the decent thing and let people know beforehand so they could save time, money and energy and stay at home?

You don't think that might have had some ramifications with the FA?

Probably not, because they're not the competition organiser. But it never used to worry Steve Coppell.

[Royal Lady]

So why did he play that combination of players if they weren't up to the job and he didn't have confidence in them?

If he wasn't going to take the competition seriously by not putting out a competent team why didn't he do the decent thing and let people know beforehand so they could save time, money and energy and stay at home?

Yeah I said this. As I said on another thread, if they didn't say anything in order to avoid a fine or whatever, they could just hint at it in future by paying for coach travel or something.

[Lower West]

Good record. Good footballing philosophy. Can't make it work at Reading.

The team was set out in a 4-4-2 formation last night.

The players found that too much to cope with ...........

If the aim was to get crosses into the box. It didn't work. Then those that did arrive were too often high and floated, and came from deep. We didn't get behind them once.

[Royals1871J]

NA has just been stuck with McDs team. Most are hoof players and don't understand his mentality. Just needs time to clear them out and get in players who know how to play his game.

[TBM]

We've won 2 out of a possible 13 games with NA in charge......its not that bad

[Cureton's Volley]

We've won 2 out of a possible 13 games with NA in charge......its not that bad

Of course it isn't that bad, our share of possession has increased at least 10% since McDermott left

[jellytot]

some people are very stupid. Again Rogers should have been given more time. He went on to
MUCH bigger things! perhaps the playing staff are too thick to.get the passing
game. i think we have to give him time. we may need this season to get players out who we don't want and to get players in we need for the style. Patience needed. But we must NOT be in a relegation fight! that would be unacceptable.

[Cureton's Volley]

some people are very stupid. Again Rogers should have been given more time. He went on to
MUCH bigger things! perhaps the playing staff are too thick to.get the passing
game. i think we have to give him time. we may need this season to get players out who we don't want and to get players in we need for the style. Patience needed. But we must NOT be in a relegation fight! that would be unacceptable.

I think many agree that the passing game to is out of reach of the squadas it is - at least to the extent Adkins/Rodgers want/wanted to go to.

What is more sensible is to compromise and slowly work towards Nigel's ideal vision, therefore slowly improving our 'style' whilst negating the risk of inconsistent results and the threat of relegation.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

some people are very stupid. Again Rogers should have been given more time. He went on to
MUCH bigger things! perhaps the playing staff are too thick to.get the passing
game. i think we have to give him time. we may need this season to get players out who we don't want and to get players in we need for the style. Patience needed. But we must NOT be in a relegation fight! that would be unacceptable.

But all the time in the world won't be enough if the players aren't good enough to play in the new style.

So what do you do, try to make the players fit the style or change just about every single player?

If the latter ain't gonna happen, and the former won't work no matter how long you try it for, what next?

[sandman]

Have to wait and see if Rodgers has truly gone on to "much bigger things". Walked into a job where the majority of the work to play his "style"was done already and has yet to pull up any trees at Liverpool. Personally I think his replacement at Swansea has done more to make them a better and more exciting team than Rodgers ever did.

[Lower West]

But all the time in the world won't be enough if the players aren't good enough to play in the new style.

So what do you do, try to make the players fit the style or change just about every single player?

If the latter ain't gonna happen, and the former won't work no matter how long you try it for, what next?

The opening 20 minutes against Watford showed that there is the foundation of a good team. With a better style of play than in recent years.

[Royalee]

Have to wait and see if Rodgers has gone on to "much bigger things". Walked into a job where the majority of the work to play his "style"was done already and has yet to pull up any trees at Liverpool. Personally I think his replacement at Swansea has done more to make them a better and more exciting team than Rodgers ever did.

Sorry m8, didn't realise Swansea had made the playoffs before Rodgers took over. You don't rate Coutinho, Sturridge or even the guy he signed who captained us to promotion 2 seasons ago? You get an E -