Subject: National Team

In fairness to my post, I didn't actually label you in either of those categories. You've had about 5-6 weeks in the job and it's not really sufficient to make a judgement yet.

I was referring to my general impression across past seasons more so then a particular season.

If you don't believe me, read some of the posts in the mini world cup where I pretty much mentioned it was likely something had crept up that was unavoidable (it happens), so all I was really after was an explanation about why and given it's been a week I think we're entitled to be a little concerned ;).

Edit: I realise you're probably referring to borkos there but yeah. I was actually replying to borkos' last sentence so I'll insert the quotes I was replying to.


(edited)

Not too difficult to say you're going to be away though, is it?

Another loss against opposition we should be able to beat :(.

Thompson playing despite being SI? Why?

Good win. We kept control of the game for long periods, particularly in that 2nd half and walked away deserved winners. Stephenson had a good conversion rate too, though it wasn't looking promising until he scored a few in that 2nd half.

I feel the communication aspect has declined since the early games as well as not really doing anything whatsoever outside of setting matches. I realise that there was a week where you weren't available but thats 1 week out of 7-8 now. Any chance we might see improvement in these areas?

Nice to get the result.

I still don't rate 4-in-a-line-across-the-park as a formation for midfielders. Be nice to see at least the mid on the side opposite Thompson move forward for some variety in attack. If either of the more central mids pressed forward when the ball went to Thompson, we would occasionally see Thompson center it, giving us another path to goal if the lone striker is well covered. I thought it was really highlighted today the sort of problem you can find yourself in when your winger (Thompson) can't beat the guy who is marking him (Arai), but has no decent passing options, so he just runs at the guy he can't beat over and over again.

Andreasson, what's going on?

You get angry when borkos mentioned you lost interest and didn't care yet you continue to demonstrate to the rest of us here that you do not give 5 cents about the community.

Communication is a key aspect of this job and it's non-existant. Some explanation would be good or if you don't feel like stating it here, I'm happy to hear of it via a skmail. I'd just like to know why we haven't had anything for most of this season.

You're not helping either being on his back at every occasion from day1.
There's no need to carry on with this attitude imo, unless we see a dramatic change we've all learned that we need to bring the job back in Australia next season and have to write off this season.

What has he done though?

Set matches -> check
Win against credible opponents -> Japan last week was the only one
Communicate in forums -> First 2-3 weeks

That's really about it.

I think with that kind of record my comments are warranted. Most of my questions are related to particular matches and I was after information about why something was chosen as a combination of factors but mainly to see thought processes which might in turn allow myself to learn something.

I've asked this question every week is because we're hearing nothing back, we're going in with the same lineup every week and in a lot of cases the same tactic and we're getting beaten by sides we should be playing better against. I don't think having no communication is healthy, especially when we're not winning games and nothing else seems to be getting done. If there is a reason for it like how he mentioned the other month, fair enough but when it's basically 5 weeks since our NT managers last post here I think questions deserved to be asked. (Technically last post was a bit over 2 weeks ago to deny being bored and then to say the result wasn't acceptable but was another 2-3 weeks before that before you find another post)

Maybe I'm the only one who cares about this issue I don't know, I'd hope not. My aim has always been to get the best out of the team and without the buttons it has always been my intention to keep it that way.

I don't hammer our U21 manager nearly as much because a) communication exists on a regular basis, b) questions I have get answered and c) we're winning matches against opponents we should and against opponents that on paper we shouldn't.

Anyway if people think I'm out of line I'm happy to be told. I might have a few posts over it but obviously if more than 1 think that then I'll strongly reconsider the way I go about things.



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You're very useful to both our NTs in normal time, no one will deny that.
You can be a handful to handle some days but the ones that know you can get past that and work with you and get very useful tip from you...

But I'd like to draw a line.
We've had two foreign managers in a row and we're seeing now the same kind of scenario we saw last season when they just don't communicate or really try hard with the NT because we hassle them with a negative attitude all the time. Either we work with them or for them but not against them.
I don't like the atmosphere it generates on this forum so I'm saying it.

Fair point and one I'm willing to accept. I get a little carried away trying to get my point across at times, but it's usually on the back of something that has me frustrated (in this case, consistent poor results with no communication). Regardless of whether the lack of communication comes from "negative attitudes" or if it's the other way around, your last point is a valid one.

Still though it usually only takes a response back (either through sk-mail or the forums) about not liking a particular style and I'll drop it back. I don't go out to kill unless I feel it's warranted.

I can see Cometer's point to some extent. The guy clearly stated he would be active in forums....I'm pretty sure that was a selling point. Correct me if I'm wrong with this?

I mean the guy goes missing for a week or 2 then comes back & apologises for being away at a wedding &/or something else. How hard is it to communicate this before going away....just a quick one sentence post would have done the job.

Have to admit that I'm not overly impressed either. Communication has been pretty sparse after the initial few weeks. Life happens, but I've been watching his logins for the past few weeks and he's certainly been on often enough for at least a "Life is busy, not getting as much time as I would like for Sokker at the moment" type of comment.

Obviously coaches will go with what is familiar, but the prevalent tactic does seem awfully similar to Andreasson's stock tactic he uses with his own team. Does our NT's strengths really mirror his own team so closely, or is that just the path of least effort?

1. Polska 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
2. Slovensko 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
3. Australia 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
4. Hayastan 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
5. Hong Kong 0 0 0 0 0-0 0
6. Jamaica 0 0 0 0 0-0 0


Hmmm. Tough draw which as a 3rd seed was likely to happen.

for a 3rd seed team though, we got a pretty damn good group. One of the worst 2nd seeds and one of the worst 4th seeds, really we have quite a good chance of going through.

And with there being 16 groups, I'm assuming its just the top two from every group who go through, meaning, having 7 teams in your group has no advantage.

Cometer, your only goal this season, is to get 4 or more points against slovensko

Slovensko aren't one of the worst 2nd seeds at all imo. My guess is you checked the rankings page as it stood today rather than earlier in the season where Slovensko had 200pts more than they currently do which would put them on borderline with the 1st seeds.

In saying that, they should be beatable looking at average ratings. The remaining teams look easy enough to despatch so it really comes down to 2 games as you said.

I would have preferred drawing Scotland,Israel,Lietuva but it's still a possibility we can qualify from this group.

Have to take what we're given at this stage. Anything is doable. We just need Poland to do the business against Slovenia and we'll be in with a shot.