I have had grave concerns from before Christmas last year really that he’s just out of his depth. There’s a reason why he’s pushing 60 and this is his first shot at the big time. Equally we are in a bit of a bind after all our chopping and changing with mangers where we have to give him a go and I really do hope my instincts are wrong and it does work out.
Last season can be broken down into two parts really. We had a fast start/new manager bounce over first 10 games, picked up 26 points out of 30 and were top of the table. That’s an average of points a game. After that, 40 points out of 84 over last 28 games, as teams figured us out, a rate of just over 1.4 points a game. 28 games is a long time to be on a poorish enough run of form.
I’m always wary of a manger who’s a slave to a system and doesn’t really have a Plan B. The you score 3, we score 5 approach is grand with Celtic, or in Japan or Australia but this is a hard nosed league and our defensive play and structure has been so poor now for so long. I just don’t get a sense of learning from mistakes and addressing shortcomings.