Message #339720

[bungle]

I agree with you that we've seen little to suggest that JFH is a significantly better manager than JED. In terms of tactics, man-management etc he doesn't seem to have made significant improvements. On the other hand, barring McGugan he hasn't yet had the chance to make his own signings so it's too early to judge him on the crucial issue of recruitment.

My point is simply that: A. I can't see JFH being sacked for the time being and   B. in any case replacing him with another mediocre lower division manager (which, let's face it, is what we would almost certainly get) would do very little to improve our fortunes and would cause unnecessary further disruption for no gain.

I actually think that Page, JED and JFH are probably much of a muchness in terms of managerial ability.  JFH probably has a bit more potential due to his pedigree as a player, his Dutch background and the fact that he has at least experienced the feeling of managing a successful lower-division side (albeit one effectively ready-made for him).

With the notable exception of Wilder, the vast majority of our managers over the last twenty years have been mediocre or poor. At some point you have to stick with someone and give them time to impose their vision.

Anyway, back to the present: I'm not convinced that he set us up to be hard to beat yesterday. George Smith should be playing from the start and I think we've seen that playing the likes of Waters, Long and Grimes in the same team makes us too lightweight.


I also think it's significant that the post-Oxford downturn in form has coincided with the return of Matt Crooks. I like Crooks and he is definitely  worthy of a place in the team, but the fighter-to-artist ratio becomes a bit unbalanced if he is playing alongside Grimes. Personally, as I say, I would try playing him up front as a kind of emergency target man or false 9.