Now is the time to perform a miracle Jesus

[Gloomy Gull]

Very rare poster, but seasoned follower of this forum.

There seems little more that can be said about the current state of our football club that would provide any insight or solace in this very troubled time.

Much is and has been discussed about the quality, or lack of, evidenced by our previous two managers, but those periods are in the past, albeit there is a belief that we are carrying a legacy of their tenures.

We have to concentrate on the here and now because we cannot change the past. Our current manager is the populace choice Chris "Jesus" Hargreaves, lauded before and at the time of his appointment as an expected "saviour" of the club and our seemingly inexorable descent in to the eternal fires of non-league football.

I must confess to not becoming a disciple when his appointment was pressed for by, what appeared to be, the masses. My view at that time was he was a really nice bloke, good social skills, a face for camera but lacked EXPERIENCE.

My view of his abilities have not changed since his first game in charge. He speaks well in interview and his passion for the club is unquestionable. But does he have the ability to influence the future?.....I have seen no evidence to suggest that he has.

We benefited from the "dead cat bounce" and won a couple of games, but since that time, for me, he has not evidenced the tactical "nous" required, the charisma to energise and motivate a team of footballers to perform to the best of their abilities, or the ba**s to make tough decisions. I am aware that his raw material is a group of club "legends", journeymen and higher league youngsters with little/no experience of a relegation scrap. But I believe that someone with a natural managerial ability would be able to show some progress after 2 months in the job.

Notwithstanding the quality of the tools he has available he has yet to adequately demonstrate to me that he is a man who can manage in a crisis.

At the time I was, and remain, of the view that the board appointed at haste and we will all repent at leisure, their decision spurred on by public opinion, and if CH really is Jesus he needs to open his book of miracles and pluck one out. Given the poor quality of football (I struggle to describe what I have witnessed in the last few weeks as that) he has engineered since his appointment I am beginning to think that his "legend" status as Jesus is over stated and he is actually a simple man.

Before I bring down a hailstorm of fire and bile on myself, I do not have a definitive answer to the problem, but do feel that a short term appointment of a firefighter with CH as his assistant may have worked better for us, with Jesus rising to the exalted position of manager at a future date having learnt from someone with experience.

I apologise for the length of this epistle, and it has been written as a form of personal catharsis rather than a search for salvation and I do feel a little better now.

I sincerely hope that Jesus can find that miracle and find it NOW.

[nickbrod]

Amen to that.

[chunkygull]

Hallelujah brother - And the truth shall set you free.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Play at a high tempo to try and get energy and confidence in the players and make appropriate subs earlier if needed to try and take command of a game. If we lose we lose. Hargreaves hasn't really managed either which are basics. Today we needed a couple of changes at half time to give Accy something to think about. We either haven't got anything to bring on or it is bad decision making by Chris. I'm not saying it would definitively make a difference but the fact that he struggles with both is a massive concern. Chris has been dumped in a mess by a man who was supposed to be an experienced manager and it isn't his fault but if you are an inexperienced manager then all you can do is get the common sense fundamentals right and we've seen teams can pick up. Tactics don't matter. What matters is giving the players renewed belief, approaching games with an all or nothing manner and going for broke. Today we didn't do any of these and Accy waltzed away with the points. Knill wasn't the right man and I'm not sure Chris is either but we have to trust that he has an idea of where he wants us to be in these next couple of months. He has dug us out some good away wins so he must have something , he also got his tactics spot on at Chesterfield until Poke cost us anything. He is under massive pressure now and it would be easy to get carried away putting the boot into Chris when it is Knill that left us in this sh*t. If we go down then Chris isn't at fault but he must forget tactics now and just get desire and energy and make seemingly easy decisions like when to bring on a sub less of a hardship.

[brucie]

Its also about picking the right team and Hargreaves failed miserably today.

We cannot score goals especially at home. In our position we need leaders on the pitch. There is no point in playing seventeen loanees without a league game between them. Downes may not be the quickest but Accrington had George Boogerman and the seventies porn star lookalike up front today. Both players were slower than a camels arsehole.
Clearly Downes had to play alongside Pearce today - notwithstanding his major goal threat in the opponents penalty area.
This would have released O'connor to have supported Goodwin up the right flank. O'connor is excellent at getting forward and is far more comfortable at right back.
The Accrington right back is the slowest player I have ever seen. Our tactic to get him was for Nicholson to continually hoist long balls up the left wing not giving Chapple a chance. Nico should have **** off to Bideford at the start of January he is that bad. Knill didn't get much right but that was one decision that he got spot on.
Hargreaves should have brought on Benyon to run the channel between the right back and the centre half.
Todays bench consisted of Harding (who hasn't played for six months) and Stevens (who hasn't kicked a ball for twelve months).
We ended up with the inept Stevens in central midfield and two strikers with three and a half minutes league football between them.
Call me old fashioned but if thats the best the manager can come up with then we will be fighting relegation from the conference this time next year.

[tomogull]

Accrington had George Boogerman and the seventies porn star lookalike up front today. Both players were slower than a camels arsehole.

That's the beauty of this Forum - you learn sooooo much. I never knew before today that a camel's arsehole was slow ..........

[hector]

My feeling at the time go the clamour for CH was that I would have liked him alongside Sturrock until the end if the season. It is asking a lot of a rookie, and is also slightly unfair, to expect him to reverse the mess he was left with, whilst still finding his feet as a manager. The club took the lazy populist option with both Knill and CH. However, I think Hargreaves has the makings of a good manager. He needs to let Mansell/Nicho go at the end of the season plus the likes Benyon and any others he played alongside.

Essentially, we are planning for the Conference. It will likely mean that the youth system needs to go, as how can the club run it without the funding. The future is very bleak but it isn't the fault of CH.

[Gloomy Gull]

The future is very bleak but it isn't the fault of CH.

CH is of the same opinion !

‘’The players are onside and it’s a great group. I’ve got no doubt they will succeed. I’m not the reason we are second from bottom in the Football League.Read more at http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 28194Ev.99

I ackowledge that we were in the bottom two when he took charge.......but we are still there - who should take the blame for that?

Surely it is a Team responsibility - which includes the players and the management !

[hector]

CH is of the same opinion !

‘’The players are onside and it’s a great group. I’ve got no doubt they will succeed. I’m not the reason we are second from bottom in the Football League.Read more at http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 28194Ev.99

I ackowledge that we were in the bottom two when he took charge.......but we are still there - who should take the blame for that?

Surely it is a Team responsibility - which includes the players and the management !

Even if Hargreaves had won yesterday and therefore had a 50% winning record, we would still be in need of 3 points to get out of the bottom two. It is what has gone on before that puts in the bottom two. It may be that CH is a little out of his depth and by the end of the season we may be wishing he had chosen Northampton but when we are relegated you cannot really blame Hargreaves. The damage had already been done.

[Gloomy Gull]

I'm not blaming Hargreaves, he has been put in a very difficult position for a rookie.

But he was appointed at the start of the transfer/loan window with, I believe it was muted, some funds (not much though) and I am not convinced that his transactions since that time have been astute. This is probably down to his lack of experience a) in the situation we are in and b)full responsibility for 1st team management. He can only learn from this experience - I hope! - and come out the other side with battle scars and more guile.

I know that all comments point to CH not having funds to use, he made mention that he would like some money in his pre match interview yesterday, but can we believe that all the loan players are coming in at Nil cost? Given his obvious enthusiasm to make this work and, it seems, his predication that we do not score enough goals (I don't think he would find an argument there!), has he spent/allocated whatever funds he is able to use effectively or is his inexperience causing a "panic buy" mentality ?

For the record, I have sympathy for the man( and he is only a man - not Jesus!)as I feel he has been thrown into this maelstrom and is not receiving much, if any, guidance/help from above. Probably because the Board are as inexperienced as CH.

In perspective there are 15 ganes/45 points left in this season and we now need Jesus to peform a miracle and to turn W*nkers into Winners!!