wellfan

Maybe some fans were sarcastically applauding the manager for finally taking Vogt out of the firing line. A firing line he should never have been put in in the first place, given he’s clearly not good enough. It’s absolutely shite man management, to the detriment of both the player and the team.

We were absolutely shite yesterday, and most of that was down to the manager. While that pissed me off, what annoyed me even more was his post-match interview. If he keeps trying to tell fans that water isn't wet and shite isn't shite, he's even more naive than I thought. There's nothing wrong with admitting you're getting things wrong, that something needs to change, and that it's time to reset rather than stubbornly persevering with a transition phase that's clearly not working. Honesty goes a long way and buys you time, and he'd do well to realise that sooner rather than later.

People keep banging on about the similar points tally so far, but that misses the point entirely. Under JBA, there was a clear identity from day one. Alfred keeps talking about a transition phase, and that's fair enough. Nobody expects him to replicate what JBA achieved. But a transition has to show signs of taking you somewhere, and we're seeing absolutely none. If anything, we're moving further and further away from what was good about us under JBA, and we've looked increasingly clueless the longer Alfred's had the players on the training pitch. I said he'd rightly be given time, but time is worthless if there's no sign of progress. We're getting worse, the same glaring weaknesses persist, and he seems either incapable of addressing them or too stubborn to change anything. I don't expect another JBA season. I expect a team that looks like it has a clue what it's doing. I expect decent performances even in defeat. I'm struggling to see what anyone thinks we're waiting for. Alfred looks increasingly out of his depth. And this isn't a plea for him to be sacked, nor is it a desire to return to the 'dinosaur' style that some keep referring to, as if this is some sort of modern football versus dinosaur football debate. Calling a spade a spade isn't creating toxicity either. The situation is plain to see for me, and if others can't see it, I think they're allowing the transition argument to overshadow some pretty obvious problems. This is also an entirely different situation from the ones we found ourselves in under Alexander, Hammell, Kettlewell et al. The needle has shifted since then, and I don't think criticism of Alfred should automatically be lumped in with the discontent that surrounded those managers. A defeat to Killie this weekend, coupled with another poor performance and no evidence that Alfred is learning from his mistakes, will only accelerate what is increasingly starting to feel inevitable.

I don’t think I’ve once called outright for him to be sacked or jumped on the bandwagon of those demanding it. In fact, I previously posted that he’d rightly be given time. I’m now just questioning whether that patience will ultimately be to the detriment of both him and the team. All I’ve done is point to what I see as his failings and suggest that, increasingly, they look terminal.

I think the ship has already sailed on Alfred, unfortunately. Today could’ve been the day he put his hands up, took ownership, drew a line in the sand and said things have to change. But he didn’t. And that’s despite us getting progressively worse the longer he’s had on the training pitch with the players. It’s now becoming pretty clear to me, and others, that he doesn’t really seem to know what he’s doing, and even the good players in his squad are starting to look lost as a consequence.

The manager.

Yeh. The difference was that, under JBA, you could see what the team was trying to do from the very start of his tenure. There was an identity. The same can’t be said for the start of Alfred’s tenure, and that’s my biggest concern.

Stubborn to the point of failure. I called it.

Trouble in paradise? Players losing faith in their manager. A manager who’s never actually done what he’s asking them to do. Perhaps that’s cynical, but that’s a possibility.

People are entitled to piss and moan when they’re being served up utter shite. Nobody expects another Jens season, but the absolute minimum is some semblance of a decent performance and a clear identity. Losing is frustrating enough, but continually losing without putting in any sort of performance is unacceptable. We’re in a death spiral, and that’s not the fans’ fault.

It’s probably a bit unfair to single out Vogt. It’s not his fault that he’s not up to the standard of the league (yet?). It is, however, the manager’s fault for continuing to stick by him to the detriment of the team. And that’s probably going to be the hill he dies on.

This team has absolutely no identity and nothing of any note to offer. That ultimately comes down to the manager.

Some say we’ve appointed a swede. I say we’ve appointed a turnip, unfortunately.

We’re getting absolutely pummelled. Headless chickens stuff. Utterly embarrassing. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the more time this team spends on the training pitch with Alfred, the worse they get. And now, presumably, the subs will come after we’ve gone two down. Say goodbye to the good vibes and hello to dwindling crowds.

No halftime subs?! The manager is doing his best to prove me right that he might just be clueless, or stubborn to the point of failure.

We don’t help ourselves by starting with an eleven like that, but we also appear to be generally tactically poor. Longelo, Fadinger and Lowry get pass marks. The rest have been really poor.

Very worrying stuff. I’ve no idea what this team is trying to do. We’re offering absolutely nothing in attack or midfield, and we’re so easy to cut through. The Vogt experiment should be over, too. He’s all over the place and looks worse than a man down.

Probably us and St Mirren.

🤣🤣🤣 I guess you may be right, as that was a dreadful interview from the pretend journos. It’s all just feeling a bit uninspiring at the moment.

Is it just me, or does Alfred rarely offer anything particularly insightful? At best, he’s descriptive of the obvious, and at worst, he repeatedly highlights our specific weaknesses across the park, effectively handing the opposition a free playbook. He’s nowhere near Kettlewell levels of verbose crap, but I still often come away wondering whether he’s actually said anything that couldn’t have been covered in three minutes. And that’s fair enough, I suppose. Maybe I’m being overly negative, but we need to start seeing some tangible results from whatever it is he’s trying to implement, and I hope we see some of that on Sunday.

It feels like he’s slow to react to almost every shot at or near him, while those hit directly at him too often seem to go straight through him. At least 2 or 3 of the goals we conceded across those four games came directly from these obvious weaknesses. Can we bring Gordon out of retirement?! Off-topic. Sorry.

Aye, appointment, but you knew that’s what “experiment” meant in this context. Pedantry over terminology when there’s an actual point being made is hardly much of a contribution.

I’m beginning to think Pocognoli is going to be a disastrous experiment. Lennon not getting any minutes, particularly last night when it was clear the central midfield had run out of steam after the same guys had played four consecutive games, is probably the least of our worries now as Scotland fans.

It’s far too early to start judging or criticising Pocognoli, but if Miller continues to get no minutes in favour of Backpass Barry Jnr, then I think both we and Miller would be right to start questioning his involvement.

Let’s hope Miller gets a start against North Macedonia. Ferguson has done absolutely nothing in these past two games to justify retaining his spot. In fact, he was absolutely dugmeat against Switzerland.