| Big Jim confirmed as permanent manager on 15:52 - May 17 with 1411 views | 442Dale |
| Big Jim confirmed as permanent manager on 15:30 - May 17 by fitzochris |
It is impossible for me to have an opinion on where I'd rank Jim McNulty as my choice for the club's "head coach" without knowing who he was up against.
It's now a moot point as it is he who the board have deemed to be the best candidate for the job.
What now needs to be explained by the board is what his remit will be as "head coach", who will be assisting him and whether or not his role involves player retention and recruitment. If it doesn't, who does it involve?
The role of MRKT both in the recruitment of our new "head coach" and going forward also needs to be explained to supporters.
That kind of transparency can only help supporter buy-in for whatever the objective is for the coming season.
Having spoken to a few people familiar with the National League, it seems to me we are now entering a level of football where physical attributes outweigh technical ones.
Players who are tall, fast and strong will outperform pinpoint passers and clinical finishers, quite simply because there won’t be enough players possessing the latter qualities to outright benefit a team at this level. Those players who possess all of the above attributes won’t be playing at this level very long either.
We need players who can beat offside traps, players who can win first and second balls and players who can hold the ball up. If we can get together a team containing that mix, we should be okay. We need a big, mean defensive block that’s difficult to play through or over. If we then seek to get the ball directly to the opposition box as quickly as possible, chances will come. It might not be pretty, but winning games and creating some stability in the league is more important, as far as I’m concerned. |
And the best Dale teams have always played direct, attacking football. There’s a real misunderstanding around being a “passing team” and “hoof it football”. Keith Hill’s best sides passed the ball but knew when to go direct, getting it wide and into the box quickly.
I remember Dave Sutton’s teams in between 91-94, it had some great players who could never be accused of kick and rush (as Preston were under Beck at the time), but when they were playing well the ball was moved quickly up the pitch and we got the ball into the opponents penalty area. |  |
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| Big Jim confirmed as permanent manager on 15:58 - May 17 with 1383 views | 49thseason |
I think that is more or less where I am and have been for the last 6 seasons. Winning is all that really matters, playing a "style" from Academy to 1st team has done very little either financially or from a points perspective. Most of the players we have sold successfully have arrived from other academies. Playing a style because you hope to sell youngsters rather than because it produces winning football is like shooting the horse and telling the jockey to run round the course, it makes no sense, if we were a winning team the Academy would be less important anyway. No one ever went home from losing or drawing those 3 out of every 4 home games for the last 6 seasons saying "well at least the Academy will prosper as a result". |  | | |
| Big Jim confirmed as permanent manager on 16:29 - May 17 with 1321 views | NorthernDale |
| Big Jim confirmed as permanent manager on 15:30 - May 17 by fitzochris |
It is impossible for me to have an opinion on where I'd rank Jim McNulty as my choice for the club's "head coach" without knowing who he was up against.
It's now a moot point as it is he who the board have deemed to be the best candidate for the job.
What now needs to be explained by the board is what his remit will be as "head coach", who will be assisting him and whether or not his role involves player retention and recruitment. If it doesn't, who does it involve?
The role of MRKT both in the recruitment of our new "head coach" and going forward also needs to be explained to supporters.
That kind of transparency can only help supporter buy-in for whatever the objective is for the coming season.
Having spoken to a few people familiar with the National League, it seems to me we are now entering a level of football where physical attributes outweigh technical ones.
Players who are tall, fast and strong will outperform pinpoint passers and clinical finishers, quite simply because there won’t be enough players possessing the latter qualities to outright benefit a team at this level. Those players who possess all of the above attributes won’t be playing at this level very long either.
We need players who can beat offside traps, players who can win first and second balls and players who can hold the ball up. If we can get together a team containing that mix, we should be okay. We need a big, mean defensive block that’s difficult to play through or over. If we then seek to get the ball directly to the opposition box as quickly as possible, chances will come. It might not be pretty, but winning games and creating some stability in the league is more important, as far as I’m concerned. |
That is why we need to some EFL players who are around 6 ft with ability, the problem is that the board will want poundland specials to save money, if we can afford to offload John, Ball and Campbell, keep O'Donnell and Rodney, and possibly Mullarkey, with Lloyd, Graham, Keohane and even Kelly (yes he is a dwarf, but as skill), we can a team around these players.
However we are faced with two problems, McNulty desire to pass backwards and youth team coaching approach to games and the board inability to say 'no' to any offer for players. However we need to be clever in our recruitment and the consultants belief in data to identify players, rather then understanding the league we are in, could be a mistake in our recruitment. |  | | |
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