The Alfred Johansson Thread

[Great Balls of Shire]

21 hours ago, Prestwickwell said:

Genuine question for people backing the manager ( u know who u are )

if the results & the standard continues…..

how long before u realistically turn?

(for the record I don’t see him turning it but I’m genuinely interested in how long)

End of this month( 3 more games)

[El Grew]

10 hours ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

End of this month( 3 more games)

Our league performance under Johansson to date:

HOME P4 W1 D1 L2 GF3 GA6   
Falkirk D 0-0
Dundee Utd W 3-0
Aberdeen L 0-4
Celtic L 0-2

AWAY P5 W1 D1 L3 GF7 GA10 Hibernian W 1-2
St Mirren D 3-3
Rangers L 0-1
Dundee L 1-2
Kilmarnock L 2-3

That’s 5 losses on the trot and a win rate of only 22%.  On top of that we’re losing close to 2 goals per game so we need to score 2 goals per game just to get a draw and 3 goals to win but our current scoring average is only 1 goal per game.

Our next 3 games are:

25th Oct Hearts (h)    
28th Oct St.Johnstone (a)   
31st  Oct St. Mirren (h)

That takes us to the start of November. For me, we need to take at least 6 points from these 3 games. If we don’t then I think it will be time for him to go. Meantime, the board should be exploring options as to who they will replace him with should it come to that.

[Kmcalpin]

4 hours ago, El Grew said:

That takes us to the start of November. For me, we need to take at least 6 points from these 3 games. If we don’t then I think it will be time for him to go. Meantime, the board should be exploring options as to who they will replace him with should it come to that.

I agree with your overall assessment Grew.

In terms of our record to date, I reckon the Dundee United win is a known unknown. Would we have won if they'd kept 11 men men on the park? We'll never know. 

However, I'd settle for 5; most likely draw against Hearts and St Johnstone and beat St Mirren. On paper thats achievable. 4 points would answer little. Less than 4 and I'd say AJ was on borrowed time, but not quite there. 

We also need to take into account performances. Will they improve or get even worse? A lot of these games are down to very fine margins as we saw on Saturday with Killie benefitting from spadefuls of good luck. We on the other hand, are taking a shotgun to our feet.   

[wellfan]

He’s got until the end of the month to prove his worth. 

[Prestwickwell]

After the st Mirren game was where I felt it should be reviewed ( thought we had 4 of 5 winnable before Celtic )

almost more frustrating that all of the teams seems to be performing poor or taking points off each other 

any sort of run takes 4th in the league 

 

[Spiderpig]

25 minutes ago, Prestwickwell said:

After the st Mirren game was where I felt it should be reviewed ( thought we had 4 of 5 winnable before Celtic )

almost more frustrating that all of the teams seems to be performing poor or taking points off each other 

any sort of run takes 4th in the league 

 

Its 9 games in, 29 to go and 87 points on offer ffs, technically every one of the 12 teams can potentially win the league.

So its time we all relaxed and dropped the manager must go, we are getting relegated chat, and lets see where we are in 10 games time at the halfway point.

[Prestwickwell]

5 hours ago, Spiderpig said:

Its 9 games in, 29 to go and 87 points on offer ffs, technically every one of the 12 teams can potentially win the league.

So its time we all relaxed and dropped the manager must go, we are getting relegated chat, and lets see where we are in 10 games time at the halfway point.

Don’t think anybodies said we’re getting relegated ( currently I do think we’ll be down there though come the end of the season )

it’s the performances that are the concern 

I’ve still not seen anybody on here point to 1 positive to suggest it’ll turn 

not saying it will but if the unthinkable happened where we took no points from the next 3 ( we won’t from hearts in my opinion )

you’d still blindly leave it til the halfway point?

[wellsince75]

1 hour ago, Prestwickwell said:

 

it’s the performances that are the concern 

I’ve still not seen anybody on here point to 1 positive to suggest it’ll turn 

not saying it will but if the unthinkable happened where we took no points from the next 3 ( we won’t from hearts in my opinion )

 

I share your concerns. Since the early games in July we've regressing and it not obvious if we've hit bottom yet.  

My expectation of a transition period = you see a mix of things.  I'm not seeing a mix, I'm seeing  deterioration.  

I hear the manager outline the issues but I don't see the team fixing those issues.  The weekend for example we were well beaten by the team who sat bottom of the league. 

I hope rather than expect for things to turn around.  There's not many previous managers that I can recall went into a 5 game straight defeat and turned it around.  It January 2025 with Kettlewell/Frail last time it happened.  The time before was Hammell.   

I'm not calling for the manager to be sacked, I hope things get better but I'm not yet seeing signs of improvement , I'm concerned. 

[joewarkfanclub]

1 hour ago, wellsince75 said:

I share your concerns. Since the early games in July we've regressing and it not obvious if we've hit bottom yet.  

My expectation of a transition period = you see a mix of things.  I'm not seeing a mix, I'm seeing  deterioration.  

I hear the manager outline the issues but I don't see the team fixing those issues.  The weekend for example we were well beaten by the team who sat bottom of the league. 

I hope rather than expect for things to turn around.  There's not many previous managers that I can recall went into a 5 game straight defeat and turned it around.  It January 2025 with Kettlewell/Frail last time it happened.  The time before was Hammell.   

I'm not calling for the manager to be sacked, I hope things get better but I'm not yet seeing signs of improvement , I'm concerned. 

I agree with most of that.

But I dont think we were well beaten by Killie.

The first 5 minutes of suicidal defending apart, we largely controlled the first half, played some nice stuff and should have scored at least 3 goals. So something was going right.

Second half was absolute shite after we got the second goal, but that was mostly down to us rather than what Killie did.

They basically fired long balls over the heads of our defence and looked to take advantage of mistakes.

Deserved to lose? Probably.

Well beaten? I dont agree.

I do totally agree that we have regressed though. Can you imagine playing Freiburg now?

🫣🫣🫣 

[MJC]

He’s done and we’re done with him as manager. It’s not going to work so the sooner we go our separate ways the better.

The team has nothing, no leadership and no direction and the players don’t look like they believe in the manager. We will do absolutely nothing but continue to freefall under Johansson’s management.

The longer he remains the more likely relegation is this season.

[grizzlyg]

1 hour ago, MJC said:

He’s done and we’re done with him as manager. It’s not going to work so the sooner we go our separate ways the better.

The team has nothing, no leadership and no direction and the players don’t look like they believe in the manager. We will do absolutely nothing but continue to freefall under Johansson’s management.

The longer he remains the more likely relegation is this season.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd always look on the brrrrriiiggghhhhtttt sidddde of life

Dee dee.   Dee dee  dee dee dee dee 🤪🤪

[SteelmaninOZ]

1 hour ago, MJC said:

He’s done and we’re done with him as manager. It’s not going to work so the sooner we go our separate ways the better.

The team has nothing, no leadership and no direction and the players don’t look like they believe in the manager. We will do absolutely nothing but continue to freefall under Johansson’s management.

The longer he remains the more likely relegation is this season.

W.T.F are you on ? 

[SteelmaninOZ]

26 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Annnnnnnnnnnnd always look on the brrrrriiiggghhhhtttt sidddde of life

Dee dee.   Dee dee  dee dee dee dee 🤪🤪

 

[Mccus28]

5 hours ago, MJC said:

He’s done and we’re done with him as manager. It’s not going to work so the sooner we go our separate ways the better.

The team has nothing, no leadership and no direction and the players don’t look like they believe in the manager. We will do absolutely nothing but continue to freefall under Johansson’s management.

The longer he remains the more likely relegation is this season.

Well that escalated 🤣

[stv]

6 hours ago, MJC said:

He’s done and we’re done with him as manager. It’s not going to work so the sooner we go our separate ways the better.

The team has nothing, no leadership and no direction and the players don’t look like they believe in the manager. We will do absolutely nothing but continue to freefall under Johansson’s management.

The longer he remains the more likely relegation is this season.

C'mon stop mincing yer words what do you really think of our wee Freddie

[David]

On 10/18/2026 at 2:37 PM, Prestwickwell said:

Genuine question for people backing the manager ( u know who u are )

if the results & the standard continues…..

how long before u realistically turn?

(for the record I don’t see him turning it but I’m genuinely interested in how long)

For me, I'd use the November international break as a checkpoint, not the point where I'd make a final judgement.

Unless things completely collapse and the arse falls out of our season altogether I'd be looking towards Christmas. By then we'll have played around half a league season and he will have had a proper block of normal training weeks rather than the European schedule, travel and recovery that dominated the early part of the season.

More importantly, we'll have played a good number of teams twice. That's when I think you can properly judge if the coaching is taking hold. If a team exposed a weakness first time around, have we adapted when we play them again? Are the pressing triggers, spacing, rotations and defensive structure becoming more automatic? Are the same mistakes disappearing? Is he changing things that clearly aren't working?

Thirteen games can tell you there are problems. I'm not convinced it's enough to tell you whether a new playing model is going to work. Nineteen or twenty games is a much more realistic sample I'd think.

The other thing is that the board and management team will have a far better idea of what's actually going on than we ever will.

We see the 90 minutes. They see the training every week, the physical and performance data, how quickly players are understanding what they're being asked to do, how the manager communicates, whether players are responding to him, whether the dressing room is still with him and whether the staff themselves believe the process is moving in the right direction.

They'll also be speaking directly to AJ, the coaching staff and senior players. If things look poor on a Saturday but the internal evidence says the team is progressing and the players remain fully bought in, that's an important factor. At the same time, if the results are poor and training is poor, confidence has gone and the dressing room is starting to turn, they'll know that long before we do.

That's why I don't think we should try to set some arbitrary "lose X games and sack him" threshold based purely on what we see from the stands.

By Christmas, though, the external evidence should also be much clearer. If we're still seeing the same structural problems, poor performances, little tactical development and poor results after half a season, then the transition argument becomes much harder to sustain.

Obviously there has to be an emergency brake taken into account as well. If we lose another five or six on the bounce and become detached at the bottom, you don't wait for Christmas for the sake of it.

But if we're competitive and picking up enough points to stay out of serious trouble, Christmas is about the point where I'd expect both the internal evidence the board sees and the performances we see to be pointing fairly clearly in one direction or the other.

Just my take on it.

[grizzlyg]

1 hour ago, Mccus28 said:

Well that escalated 🤣

It's all reverse psychology I reckon until the part i get told I'm a terrible comedian! 🤣🤣

[Prestwickwell]

58 minutes ago, David said:

For me, I'd use the November international break as a checkpoint, not the point where I'd make a final judgement.

Unless things completely collapse and the arse falls out of our season altogether I'd be looking towards Christmas. By then we'll have played around half a league season and he will have had a proper block of normal training weeks rather than the European schedule, travel and recovery that dominated the early part of the season.

More importantly, we'll have played a good number of teams twice. That's when I think you can properly judge if the coaching is taking hold. If a team exposed a weakness first time around, have we adapted when we play them again? Are the pressing triggers, spacing, rotations and defensive structure becoming more automatic? Are the same mistakes disappearing? Is he changing things that clearly aren't working?

Thirteen games can tell you there are problems. I'm not convinced it's enough to tell you whether a new playing model is going to work. Nineteen or twenty games is a much more realistic sample I'd think.

The other thing is that the board and management team will have a far better idea of what's actually going on than we ever will.

We see the 90 minutes. They see the training every week, the physical and performance data, how quickly players are understanding what they're being asked to do, how the manager communicates, whether players are responding to him, whether the dressing room is still with him and whether the staff themselves believe the process is moving in the right direction.

They'll also be speaking directly to AJ, the coaching staff and senior players. If things look poor on a Saturday but the internal evidence says the team is progressing and the players remain fully bought in, that's an important factor. At the same time, if the results are poor and training is poor, confidence has gone and the dressing room is starting to turn, they'll know that long before we do.

That's why I don't think we should try to set some arbitrary "lose X games and sack him" threshold based purely on what we see from the stands.

By Christmas, though, the external evidence should also be much clearer. If we're still seeing the same structural problems, poor performances, little tactical development and poor results after half a season, then the transition argument becomes much harder to sustain.

Obviously there has to be an emergency brake taken into account as well. If we lose another five or six on the bounce and become detached at the bottom, you don't wait for Christmas for the sake of it.

But if we're competitive and picking up enough points to stay out of serious trouble, Christmas is about the point where I'd expect both the internal evidence the board sees and the performances we see to be pointing fairly clearly in one direction or the other.

Just my take on it.

There’s too much to read there 😂

i’ll go with hopefully turns it round ( quickly )

im still of the opinion next 3 are massive for him & if the players look like their behind him 

[wellsince75]

2 hours ago, David said:

For me, I'd use the November international break as a checkpoint, not the point where I'd make a final judgement.

Unless things completely collapse and the arse falls out of our season altogether I'd be looking towards Christmas. By then we'll have played around half a league season and he will have had a proper block of normal training weeks rather than the European schedule, travel and recovery that dominated the early part of the season.

More importantly, we'll have played a good number of teams twice. That's when I think you can properly judge if the coaching is taking hold. If a team exposed a weakness first time around, have we adapted when we play them again? Are the pressing triggers, spacing, rotations and defensive structure becoming more automatic? Are the same mistakes disappearing? Is he changing things that clearly aren't working?

Thirteen games can tell you there are problems. I'm not convinced it's enough to tell you whether a new playing model is going to work. Nineteen or twenty games is a much more realistic sample I'd think.

The other thing is that the board and management team will have a far better idea of what's actually going on than we ever will.

We see the 90 minutes. They see the training every week, the physical and performance data, how quickly players are understanding what they're being asked to do, how the manager communicates, whether players are responding to him, whether the dressing room is still with him and whether the staff themselves believe the process is moving in the right direction.

They'll also be speaking directly to AJ, the coaching staff and senior players. If things look poor on a Saturday but the internal evidence says the team is progressing and the players remain fully bought in, that's an important factor. At the same time, if the results are poor and training is poor, confidence has gone and the dressing room is starting to turn, they'll know that long before we do.

That's why I don't think we should try to set some arbitrary "lose X games and sack him" threshold based purely on what we see from the stands.

By Christmas, though, the external evidence should also be much clearer. If we're still seeing the same structural problems, poor performances, little tactical development and poor results after half a season, then the transition argument becomes much harder to sustain.

Obviously there has to be an emergency brake taken into account as well. If we lose another five or six on the bounce and become detached at the bottom, you don't wait for Christmas for the sake of it.

But if we're competitive and picking up enough points to stay out of serious trouble, Christmas is about the point where I'd expect both the internal evidence the board sees and the performances we see to be pointing fairly clearly in one direction or the other.

Just my take on it.

Pragmatic approach - agree with the majority of what you’ve written . 
 

im really hoping the arse hasn’t already fallen out of it - other than mcinnes and levein not too many managers got past a 5 straight game losing streak . 
 

Some non defeats will have to come along pretty quickly - together with improved performances . Hoping Sunday is one of them 

[David]

2 hours ago, wellsince75 said:

im really hoping the arse hasn’t already fallen out of it - other than mcinnes and levein not too many managers got past a 5 straight game losing streak.

I think it depends on what the view is within the club. As I mentioned, if the board and management team are seeing a coach whose ideas just haven't quite clicked properly yet, or who has simply had the misfortune of being dealt the result of a mediocre transfer window, but who is still confident, has a coherent plan, and who the players are still fully behind, then I don't think even a few more losses will change that. 

Sure, fans will react on gut and based on what they see in the 90 minutes, but the board is there to be more analytical and not react emotionally. They have all the information to go on, while we don't.

However, if there are signs of things cracking behind the scenes, you'd hope the people in charge would adjust their plans accordingly. 

I have every faith that they would. 

[Prestwickwell]

6 minutes ago, David said:

I think it depends on what the view is within the club. As I mentioned, if the board and management team are seeing a coach whose ideas just haven't quite clicked properly yet, or who has simply had the misfortune of being dealt the result of a mediocre transfer window, but who is still confident, has a coherent plan, and who the players are still fully behind, then I don't think even a few more losses will change that. 

Sure, fans will react on gut and based on what they see in the 90 minutes, but the board is there to be more analytical and not react emotionally. They have all the information to go on, while we don't.

However, if there are signs of things cracking behind the scenes, you'd hope the people in charge would adjust their plans accordingly. 

I have every faith that they would. 

In reality it goes with results 

plenty managers over the years have had great ideas, tried to implement different coaching techniques ( whether ur John Collins at Hibs or ten Haag at man united )

cannot keep losing whether the board like him or not 

[David]

25 minutes ago, Prestwickwell said:

In reality it goes with results 

plenty managers over the years have had great ideas, tried to implement different coaching techniques ( whether ur John Collins at Hibs or ten Haag at man united )

cannot keep losing whether the board like him or not 

Results are the ultimate barometer, as I said in my first post. But if it looks like he's lost his way entirely, there's a good chance he's gone quicker than he would be if there's a suggestion that he has a plan and it's simply taking time to implement. 

I'd personally be very shocked if the club removed him before Christmas unless we're a total disaster, which isn't the case at the moment.