Stan A. Einstein wrote:

County ranger wrote:I cannot believe we have threads critising players when we are top end of L2 with a limited budget and many who do more or nothing other than a basic trust membership.

Mike Flynn seems to have no difficulty criticising players, why do you think supporters don't have the right to do likewise?

Got to agree with Brendan on this issue.

When it goes wrong Mike Flynn is the first one to criticise the players in the press. You never see 'top level bosses' doing that.
Rip them a new one in the dressing room and at training but dont openly criticise them in the press.
These are the players HE brought in , he keeps saying that they are a great bunch etc and the ones he will need to get him out of a sticky situation if the current slump were to carry on for a few weeks, ( and given our current form , performances and the next two or three fixtures it could easily happen ).
Yes managers fall out with players all the time , make bad decisions etc but the way he has handled the KMB situation is another example of poor management. If you were a manager looking to sign him and his current manager has come out with what he has said to the press about him , would you want to sign him ?
I have heard rumours that KMB is digging his heals in because of the way MF has treated him and intends to stay as long as possible. He has had options to move but why hasnt he ????

Yes MF has done well so far but lets see if he can cope if he goes 6 or 7 games without a win , gets knocked out of the cup next week ( I hope we dont by the way ) and then the poor form continues for a few weeks.
The very same players he has criticised to the press about are the ones he will need to
get him out of it..
If your boss slagged you off to the press (or in our case , fellow workers within the company we work for) would you feel the same way about him or would you deep down resent him for his criticism ?
And if the runours of him swearing at a fan are true I hope that G Foxhall will remind him of his position . I know things happen in the heat of battle and passions are high but whats to say children were not in earshot of their 'idol' and thinking its ok to swear at fans...The same as if any fans were having a go and swearing at him . I would like to see them warned about it too.
We pay his wages , he is supposed to be a Professional , IMO he needs to rise above criticism unless it gets personal, then he can defend himself within limits. For what I hear and read Saturdays incident wasnt . It was because he kept a player on who was 'ill'
Telling a fan to FOOK OFF is out of order

Many of us predicted that MF would hit a 'bad patch' , now lets see if he can motivate the players enough to get us out of it without too much grumbling from fans.
No this is not me having a go at him , its a question of will he be able to cope with pressure that a bad spell brings, up to now he hasnt had it since he took the job. Over to you MF

I could agree with you Neil if this was a change in MF's style but this is the way he's always managed and look at the success we've had. Also the isn't the first time he's looked for a response so he's passed similar tests before. Personally I've always preferred a boss who told me straight and very often publicly, that doesn't make you a bad manager it makes you an honest manager. You refer to KMB but I'd rather refer to Inniss who he supported publicly and there have been a good few others who have praised him eg Tozer. I get the impression the environment is one where the players can speak their minds and that's important too. I've worked nearly 40 years and I have always preferred the straight talkers to the double headers.

I guess the proof will be in the next couple of months , Chris Wilder publicly criticised his keeper after the Liverpool howler and he’s gone on to concede just 1 goal since and picked up 8 points from 4 games

Back to the original point I'm actually a big fan of Matt. Yes he's not the most prolific but I don't think that's his job in the side. He works tirelessly for the team, chips in with a dozen or so goals himself and hardly got any rest last season at all. We are playing quite direct again and when the ball is fired up to him so quickly he is often isolated as the midfield doesn't have time to get up and support him (and I don't think we have that type of player in the midfield anyway). I had hoped that with some of the signings like Whitely that we may have had a few different options to change tactics now and again but I'm not quite seeing that yet. Don't get me wrong given our budget we're at the right end of the table and we will throw in the odd bad performance but I would just like us to be able to vary our approach from time to time because when plan A doesn't work we don't seem to have another option.

When Nouble left I doubted we'd get a replacement who could occupy defenders to the extent he did, but when 100% fit Matt does that and scores more too.

I think with Matt last year was the exception to the rule - he's never really been a prolific scorer throughout his career but what he does do is work hard, link play, and hold the ball up. He and Podge are copping a lot of stick for their goal output this year but when I've seen us play this year they've been fine, 6/7 out of 10 type performances.

I agree with other posters that I'd like to see more of Poleon and particularly Abrahams, but I'm not about to slate Jamma because he does a job for us and, generally speaking, does it well. He's just not ever going to be that 20-goal-a-season guy on a regular basis.

njbh86 wrote:I think with Matt last year was the exception to the rule - he's never really been a prolific scorer throughout his career but what he does do is work hard, link play, and hold the ball up. He and Podge are copping a lot of stick for their goal output this year but when I've seen us play this year they've been fine, 6/7 out of 10 type performances.

I agree with other posters that I'd like to see more of Poleon and particularly Abrahams, but I'm not about to slate Jamma because he does a job for us and, generally speaking, does it well. He's just not ever going to be that 20-goal-a-season guy on a regular basis.

But that's what we require.

Frank Nouble 3 wrote: But that's what we require.

Not if his attacking involvement creates more goals for others it isn't. Plus we're sharing the goals between three viable starers this season in him, Amond and Abrahams.

Besides, he scored 20 last season across all competitions. He had 10 by now rather than 2.

But teams evolve as opponents come to negate opposition strengths. Plus the team overall is more defensive, we'd scored 34 and conceded 34 this time last year, this season it's scored 24 conceded 25 (including Leasing.com Trophy).

But more importantly, Matt's only started 11 games this season, compared to 14. Difficult to score when you're not on the pitch.

Another honest assessment from MF nothing wrong with that he just seems to want small improvement in the key areas which means we'll be successful. Also great to see him praising the travelling fans which just strengthens the bond.