Scientific Experiment V2 #9 - MON(thly) Approval Ratings

[Risso]

40% or 37 out of 91 want him gone.

I really do worry about the impact our fanbase could have on this club. Are we Newcastle or something?

No, some of us just have more ambition for the club, and aren't prepared to settle for second best, which is all O'Neill is capable of delivering.

[kurtsimonw]

40% or 37 out of 91 want him gone.

I really do worry about the impact our fanbase could have on this club. Are we Newcastle or something?

I wouldn't worry. The poll on here does not reflect what you get at VP at all. It seems very split (though probably slightly more in the Pro-MON camp) on here, whilst the section I sit in at VP is pretty much soley Pro-MON. One bloke behind me complains about him alot and basically gets told to shut the **** up by everyone else.

[Big_John_10]

of course it doesnt guarantee anything, but if what youre doing isnt working you dont just keep doing it for the sake of it

why isn't it working? Because we aren't winning every game and sitting clear in 4th? We want to be in the race right down to the wire and at the moment we are.

If we change it and lose the next 3 will you say oh well at least he tried?

[Guest Ricardomeister]

You cannot, imo, read too much into a poll with such limited options. Personally I am not satisfied with MON at present but I am not asking for him to go as he has to be given every chance to prove the doubters wrong, but there is no option in this poll for that opinion.

[Big_John_10]

of course it doesnt guarantee anything, but if what youre doing isnt working you dont just keep doing it for the sake of it

why isn't it working? Because we aren't winning every game and sitting clear in 4th? We want to be in the race right down to the wire and at the moment we are.

If we change it and lose the next 3 will you say oh well at least he tried?

[P3te]

of course it doesnt guarantee anything, but if what youre doing isnt working you dont just keep doing it for the sake of it

why isn't it working? Because we aren't winning every game and sitting clear in 4th? We want to be in the race right down to the wire and at the moment we are.

If we change it and lose the next 3 will you say oh well at least he tried?

p

coz we're unable to break teams down

thats how its not working

do you think it is? and that we're currently at the very peak of our ability or something? playing to tactical perfection every week?

[paulanddonya]

The reason why it is 60-40 is that those are the only two options.

I sit Holte Lower, and speak with a lot around me. I also speak with many many Villa fans that sit elsewhere.

The vast majority (in fact I would say everyone I know, which I would say is around 80 people) have the same opinion.

Which is - yeah, I'd like MON to stay and be successful, of course I would, but if he went tomorrow - I gotta say I wouldn't be too bothered.

And I reckon, if you polled all 30k season ticket holders - that opinion would come out on top.

[Risso]

of course it doesnt guarantee anything, but if what youre doing isnt working you dont just keep doing it for the sake of it

why isn't it working? Because we aren't winning every game and sitting clear in 4th? We want to be in the race right down to the wire and at the moment we are.

It's not working because we're not winning games, and we're falling further and further behind in the chase for the top 4.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I said at the end of last season that maybe getting rid of MON is out of the question, but changing the backroom staff would help a lot.

As we've seen with SAF, often a change in coaches can bring about success (Queiroz being a good example).

[paulanddonya]

DOnt really wnt to start a new thread but is this a possibility

Do you reckon now that Celtic have sacked Mowbray (oh what a surprise) then they may try and get MON back. And if so, would he, coz I reckon he may do. It will be interesting to see if Celtic put a temporary boss until June in.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Neil Lennon is in charge for now.

MON won't go back, simply because the Scottish League is nothing to what it used to be, long are the days of Larrsons and Gattuso's in that league.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

of course it doesnt guarantee anything, but if what youre doing isnt working you dont just keep doing it for the sake of it

why isn't it working? Because we aren't winning every game and sitting clear in 4th? We want to be in the race right down to the wire and at the moment we are.

It's not working because we're not winning games, and we're falling further and further behind in the chase for the top 4.

I'm very much in the stay camp but agree with the small series of comments (with Risso)

[commander]

of course it doesnt guarantee anything, but if what youre doing isnt working you dont just keep doing it for the sake of it

why isn't it working? Because we aren't winning every game and sitting clear in 4th? We want to be in the race right down to the wire and at the moment we are.

If we change it and lose the next 3 will you say oh well at least he tried?

YES!! That's it in a nut shell for me if he tries something (logical) and it doesn't work fine, but if we're not even trying things then what's the point?

* For starters, he could try a 442 with a right back and right winger.

* He can try something rather than 2 big lumbering centre forwards

* He can introduce a proper squad rotation and swap peopel around in order to keep them fresh. Whilkst we'd all like to see Gabby, Yopung Milner etc in the team every week, if in soem games especially against weeker opposition wolves etc, have one on the bench. Just imagine, Downing has been terrorising the rightback all game, then for the last 20 mins, he makes way and a fr4esh Ashley Young comes on the defenders will be shitting themselves. Imagine Gabby used in some games like Vassell was used for England. Delfouneso or whomever runs himself into the groujnd for 65 mins, defender start to tire, then Gabby comes on fresh. Defender would shit it.

* He can make substitutions. You have to keep the opposition guessing.

* He can try the huigely successfuly 451/433 in some games. Evewn at home, it can be an attacking formation, if we have a solid 3 in the middle and give say the front 3 of say Milner, Gabby & Young and give them a licence to roam, then that woudl be very exciting to watch. These 3 in poarticular will run their arses off all day and if we had a solid 3 in the middle, we could over run the opposition.

* Sometimes playing players out of position for a specific reason and on extremely limited occasions can work wonders but it has to be for a specific reason (eg Dalian Atkinson playing right wiong in CC Final 1994 - Sir Alex never saw it coming so couldn't prepare his team to counter it until the game commenced). This is tactical, taking advantage of teh opposition, and exploiiting oppositions weaknesses. Cuelalr at right back if he's against a tall left winger and the opposition has lots of 6ft + players is a good tactical decision as there is loigic behind it. We can all discuss the pluses and minuses of doing iot but the decision is logical.

There is nothing logical about playing Cuellar rightback for say 10 games in a ROW ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS NOW BECOOMING A LIABILITY.

* I want a plan B, C & D. Same with transfer window, we should now have a list of say 15-20 potential considerations for strikers, number them in priority if we can't get option A, move on. What is totally acceptable is oh the first chociue rightback moved elsewhere so we didn't bother.

* I want someone who **** up to admit it. Or at least acknowledge WHY fans may see it that way. All this Gabby was booed etc - he wasn't it was aimed at you Martin. Accept it, heck, even say fans were wrong but don't start talking about us fans booing Gabby cos we weren't - we were booing you.

* Don't be soo stubborn- like vs Wolves, Luke Young & Delfouneso warm up - huge cheer the fans want them both on cos we are so visably disjointed - what happens he stops em warming up and there in that instasnce he decides he won't bring them on.

[smetrov]

MON will walk - he won't be sacked. - and he won't go because of any poll on a message board. To me he got the hump last summer - when he left it very late in the transfer market - and got loads of grief on here and the local media - I beleive he made his mind up then, that this would be his last season.

Thing is where does he go from here ? - the team isn't full of teenagers who have yet to reach there potential- he has been here long enough and had funds to get the type of players he wants - Whilst the youth\reserves seem good as a collective unit - it seems highly unlikley that the basis of a top 4 team can come from there ?

So what does he do ? - settle for top six - and hope for a 'Peter Withe' type signing (ie a decent player who suddenley clicks at Aston Villa)

More likley - we stay top 6 - in the same format we have now - but how long before MON himself goes stale ?

[barry'sboots]

YES!! That's it in a nut shell for me if he tries something (logical) and it doesn't work fine, but if we're not even trying things then what's the point?

* For starters, he could try a 442 with a right back and right winger.

* He can try something rather than 2 big lumbering centre forwards

* He can introduce a proper squad rotation and swap peopel around in order to keep them fresh. Whilkst we'd all like to see Gabby, Yopung Milner etc in the team every week, if in soem games especially against weeker opposition wolves etc, have one on the bench. Just imagine, Downing has been terrorising the rightback all game, then for the last 20 mins, he makes way and a fr4esh Ashley Young comes on the defenders will be shitting themselves. Imagine Gabby used in some games like Vassell was used for England. Delfouneso or whomever runs himself into the groujnd for 65 mins, defender start to tire, then Gabby comes on fresh. Defender would shit it.

* He can make substitutions. You have to keep the opposition guessing.

* He can try the huigely successfuly 451/433 in some games. Evewn at home, it can be an attacking formation, if we have a solid 3 in the middle and give say the front 3 of say Milner, Gabby & Young and give them a licence to roam, then that woudl be very exciting to watch. These 3 in poarticular will run their arses off all day and if we had a solid 3 in the middle, we could over run the opposition.

* Sometimes playing players out of position for a specific reason and on extremely limited occasions can work wonders but it has to be for a specific reason (eg Dalian Atkinson playing right wiong in CC Final 1994 - Sir Alex never saw it coming so couldn't prepare his team to counter it until the game commenced). This is tactical, taking advantage of teh opposition, and exploiiting oppositions weaknesses. Cuelalr at right back if he's against a tall left winger and the opposition has lots of 6ft + players is a good tactical decision as there is loigic behind it. We can all discuss the pluses and minuses of doing iot but the decision is logical.

There is nothing logical about playing Cuellar rightback for say 10 games in a ROW ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS NOW BECOOMING A LIABILITY.

* I want a plan B, C & D. Same with transfer window, we should now have a list of say 15-20 potential considerations for strikers, number them in priority if we can't get option A, move on. What is totally acceptable is oh the first chociue rightback moved elsewhere so we didn't bother.

* I want someone who **** up to admit it. Or at least acknowledge WHY fans may see it that way. All this Gabby was booed etc - he wasn't it was aimed at you Martin. Accept it, heck, even say fans were wrong but don't start talking about us fans booing Gabby cos we weren't - we were booing you.

* Don't be soo stubborn- like vs Wolves, Luke Young & Delfouneso warm up - huge cheer the fans want them both on cos we are so visably disjointed - what happens he stops em warming up and there in that instasnce he decides he won't bring them on.

You are so right. I thought I'd posted this myself under a pseudonym!

[Chindie]

YES!! That's it in a nut shell for me if he tries something (logical) and it doesn't work fine, but if we're not even trying things then what's the point?

* For starters, he could try a 442 with a right back and right winger.

* He can try something rather than 2 big lumbering centre forwards

* He can introduce a proper squad rotation and swap peopel around in order to keep them fresh. Whilkst we'd all like to see Gabby, Yopung Milner etc in the team every week, if in soem games especially against weeker opposition wolves etc, have one on the bench. Just imagine, Downing has been terrorising the rightback all game, then for the last 20 mins, he makes way and a fr4esh Ashley Young comes on the defenders will be shitting themselves. Imagine Gabby used in some games like Vassell was used for England. Delfouneso or whomever runs himself into the groujnd for 65 mins, defender start to tire, then Gabby comes on fresh. Defender would shit it.

* He can make substitutions. You have to keep the opposition guessing.

* He can try the huigely successfuly 451/433 in some games. Evewn at home, it can be an attacking formation, if we have a solid 3 in the middle and give say the front 3 of say Milner, Gabby & Young and give them a licence to roam, then that woudl be very exciting to watch. These 3 in poarticular will run their arses off all day and if we had a solid 3 in the middle, we could over run the opposition.

* Sometimes playing players out of position for a specific reason and on extremely limited occasions can work wonders but it has to be for a specific reason (eg Dalian Atkinson playing right wiong in CC Final 1994 - Sir Alex never saw it coming so couldn't prepare his team to counter it until the game commenced). This is tactical, taking advantage of teh opposition, and exploiiting oppositions weaknesses. Cuelalr at right back if he's against a tall left winger and the opposition has lots of 6ft + players is a good tactical decision as there is loigic behind it. We can all discuss the pluses and minuses of doing iot but the decision is logical.

There is nothing logical about playing Cuellar rightback for say 10 games in a ROW ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS NOW BECOOMING A LIABILITY.

* I want a plan B, C & D. Same with transfer window, we should now have a list of say 15-20 potential considerations for strikers, number them in priority if we can't get option A, move on. What is totally acceptable is oh the first chociue rightback moved elsewhere so we didn't bother.

* I want someone who **** up to admit it. Or at least acknowledge WHY fans may see it that way. All this Gabby was booed etc - he wasn't it was aimed at you Martin. Accept it, heck, even say fans were wrong but don't start talking about us fans booing Gabby cos we weren't - we were booing you.

* Don't be soo stubborn- like vs Wolves, Luke Young & Delfouneso warm up - huge cheer the fans want them both on cos we are so visably disjointed - what happens he stops em warming up and there in that instasnce he decides he won't bring them on.

You are so right. I thought I'd posted this myself under a pseudonym!

I'm loathe to really get involved in this but, sadly, 'Honey theres someone wrong on the internet' has ascendency. I'm going to say that commander and Barry'sboots are, surprise surprise, largely (note, largely) wrong.

- 442 with a RB and a RW. We do already. You'd have a point if we didn't play anyone at RB and played some bizarre argumentation of 442 with a LB a sweeper and 2 CBs, but sadly Carlos is our RB. He may not look comfortable there, he may not always look brilliant there, but our RB he is and that is that. There will be a reason O'Neill plays him ahead of Luke Young, I'll not speculate that he's fallen out with Luke Young or whateve (I doubt he has mind), but I'll say the the figures, information, whatever, gives O'Neill a reason to play him. I'd hypothesis it's the extent to which he's useful at set pieces at either end, coupled to the fact that he oftne has Downing ahead of him who isn't as comfortable tracking back on the right and thus O'Neill wants a more solid backing on that wing.

As for RW, we switch so much that natural positions don't matter so much, and mixing up inswinging deliveries from a left footer on the right is mirror of what has made Ash so successful on the left.

- 2 lumbering cente forwards who happen to be our only fit CFs and only play together when Gabby, our other senior experience CF, is unfit. The Fonz came on yesterday and didn't do terribly, but by all accounts also struggled at times. Might give a hint why he's not playing.

- He clearly doesn't have the same faith in our squad that our fans have. I suspect he's right not to. I don't think we're in the position to just rest as we please yet. We're in the position to not be as weakened, in some positions, by injuries as we have been. But that doesn't mean we can rest players as we please, especially given our style of play clearly suits the first XI more than any other player filling in.

- Subs I'll agree wholeheartedly with. He seems loathe to use them. Might refer back to the above.

- 451 has been done to death before now. It's not the be all and end all and we've moved on from it. It's very limited.

- The playing players out of position thing I think is over played. We only really do it with Cuellar, who, despite being poor recently, still hasn't totally embarassed himself there and obviously brings other advantages to the table. I'm not overly bothered who plays there from Young to Cuellar, both have their plus points.

- Very few teams, I'll maintain, have a genuine Plan A/B/C. The best they usually do, and by this I mean really top level teams like United, is have a player that can come on and have the game adapt to them. We don't have that capability yet because, well.. look at the squad. Someone who's going to make that much difference is going to be starting for us. But genuinely different ways of playing? Don't think it happens, sorry.

- No manager, in the top level, these days, is going to go before the media and say he got it wrong. It just invites pressure they don't need. Behind the scenes, I'm sure he'll be making sure they work on areas that have gone wrong or having a word with a player performing badly. But admit it? Rarely happens. John Gregory is long gone.

- The Delfouneso cheering warm up - changed sub is maintain is rubbish. Wolves changed their own style to a more defensive one, he reacted to that. Nothing more to my mind.

[Condimentalist]

He's still the man for me, frustrating as he might be.

(Unless we could nick Moyes).

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I sense that a multi-quoting feast is upon us..

[Chindie]

I sense that a multi-quoting feast is upon us..

No point. If anyone else wants to, go for it, I frankly can no longer be arsed. Just say my thoughts and leave it be.

[PompeyVillan]

40% or 37 out of 91 want him gone.

I really do worry about the impact our fanbase could have on this club. Are we Newcastle or something?

No, some of us just have more ambition for the club, and aren't prepared to settle for second best, which is all O'Neill is capable of delivering.

With time, we really don't know what MON is capable of delivering. What I feel is that in an increasingly competitive climate he has progressed the club in his time here. The amount of money he has spent and the time in which he has spent is not really of much concern to me.

A change of face is not always the answer when you're 'nearly there', as we are. Just look what happened to Spurs when they sacked JOL for example. No manager can guarantee success and it would only hurt the club to lose our manager now.

Regardless, I doubt we'll see him go anytime soon. I sometimes wonder how expectations levels got so high, and whether or not some take our relative success (of becoming a top 6 team) for granted.