Pepe Mel in danger at West Brom

[Ant1979]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26350661

 

The players are not happy with his high-tempo, pressing style, want to to back to counter attacking. How about shut the fuck up and earn your thousands per week, let the manager pick the team and tactics? Job in jeopardy after 6 games is laughable, 3 of those were against top 6 sides and they've drawn 4 of the 6 games. The real issue is they shouldn't have sacked Clarke. But this looks to me like players or agents have leaked discontent to try and get him sacked, which is disgusting.

[Guest Nikica]

These primadonna footballers need to be put back in their place, I'm with you there. And that goes for the dicks at Old Trafford as well, because while I don't rate Moyes, some of his players' attempts at sabotage are a disgrace.

 

As for Mel, when will these idiotic players and owners who criticise such managers get a clue? This isn't the Man United situation, where they selected a candidate below their level so can understandably sack him and do better. Clubs like West Brom and Fulham are perennial mid-table and lower clubs. The fact is that, in every season, some teams will struggle - that's simply the way a league table works. Most of these managers in the bottom half are much of a muchness in terms of talent. Sacking them does absolutely no good for the most part - it may galvanise the squad for a few games due to the 'new coach' syndrome, but essentially the squad will still have the same problems.

 

At that level of talent, tactical thought is much of a muchness and different styles can be equally successful. Who exactly do these clowns want to replace Mel? Who do they think will do any better? They are WBA ffs, they are shite in the grand scheme of things. It doesn't matter who manages them, they will rarely achieve anything and will be fighting relegation. The same applies to Fulham and Cardiff. Granted, Fulham were beyond what is reasonable as they weren't even competitive at the foot of the table under Jol, so they had to take action fast. But these clubs who are fighting it out for relegation and not adrift of everyone else need to get a grip of themselves. Solskjaer is doing a shitter job than Mackay, Mel has probably been as good as Clarke was at the end - as I say, that's because the further away from the top you go, the less variance there is in quality of manager. Most of these managers are decent/run of the mill and it's much of a muchness.

 

And the players in this instance sound like idiots. Are they too lazy to carry out his instructions? The style he wishes to attempt is a feasible way of playing in order to survive. They've struggled all season, so counter attacking clearly wasn't working any better - it's simply the nature of their team, and unlike at Man United the manager (s) have not undeperformed relative to what resources they have available.

 

As you allude to, they have had some difficult fixtures so far under Mel and have actually gotten some good results. They're not necessarily 'struggling' by WBA standards, they're simply performing at a level you expect as all of these clubs - Stoke, West Ham, WBA, Cardiff, Palace, Sunderland etc - are at about the same level as each other, so in any given season the placing will be unpredictable. If we started the season again then these clubs would probably be in a drastically different order in the league. They're all of a similar mediocre level with similar standard managers so someone is going to struggle, and sacking manager every time is not the answer (unless they were struggling as badly as Jol). mI mean everyone is praising Pulis for Palace's resurgence - rightly. However, it was still a risk in appointing him and things could have gone very differently. How do we know Holloway wouldn't have turned it around?

 

I agree that agents are a scourge on the game also.

 

TL;DR? My overall point is that it's none of the players' business what tactics the manager wishes to use, they are paid handsomely and should do what is asked of them, rather than staging mutiny. Someone is going to struggle every season, because the margins are generally fine at the substandard level which is the bottom 6 or 7 of a top league. Hitting the panic button and sacking managers left right and centre is not the answer. And - as you show - in this case he's not even struggling ffs.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Nikica