Does Clough believe in his own ability?

[Bris Vegas]

First 6 games of the season saw us pick up 4 points, we played well at Leeds and Coventry and was unlucky at home to Cardiff and QPR. (Clough + Metgod both stated they will stick to 4-2-3-1 and play football despite losing Hulse)

After this we started picking up a few draws Swansea (A) Barnsley (A) plus a quite brilliant run where creativity was at the central of our play. We was brilliant and Clough and his backroom staff deservedly took credit. (Clough stated he'd like to push on and consolidate in the 'top 10')

Following some strange changes in personnel, we then suffered 4 straight defeats, however no-one can deny we was extremely unlucky with last minute goals. Our play in general against Brizzle and Reading was still at a very high standard. My Reading mate said we was the best team they had played.. Clough should have stuck with it! We hadn't been sussed!

Since then it's been one big Greek Tradegy.. Clough has gone from back to top 12, to pick up confidence, and ultimately to survival.. Playing for draws against Scunny, Pompey, Barsnely, Donny and Sheff Utd is disgraceful.. The dropping, abondoning, selling of creativity ball playing players in Bailey, Cywka, Bueno, Moxey, Savage in favour of a flat 4-4-2 with hard-workers in Pringle, B.Davies, Pearson, Addison, Porter is a joke and the inclusion of Ward and Robinson shows that he really didn't notice the importance of a decent front man.. ie. Hulse, Kuqi and Moore.

I really hope Clough has learned from this season, and in the summer goes back to playing football.. If not he clan clear off, he can have $5mill to spend, but if his decision making + constant change in style of play + lack of playing to players ability then it aint going to make a difference..

[GboroRam]

Clough belive in his own ability?

I've never heard anything from him to make me think he's nothing but exceptionally confident in his own ability. I don't think he believes in the ability of his players though.

[MrOrdinary]

Clough belive in his own ability?

I've never heard anything from him to make me think he's nothing but exceptionally confident in his own ability. I don't think he believes in the ability of his players though.

I second this. I get the feeling he's not really a motivater

[RamNut]

Clough belive in his own ability?

I've never heard anything from him to make me think he's nothing but exceptionally confident in his own ability.

Correct.....It's just some of the rest of us who are struggling.

[Ambitious]

I don't understand why he has gone back to 4-4-2, we've been dire since we started lining up like that and we looked so much better 4-2-3-1. We've gone back to last years performances and results, although it was good enough to see us up, we played **** football and were so boring to watch, it felt like a job to go and watch football, shouldn't be like that.

Clough started this season so brightly installing his ideas into the players and it worked, no we've gone back to 'through the motions' clough and he needs to go back to how it was at the start of the year.

[Bris Vegas]

Cloughs philosiphy worries me.. He states we need around 6 proven Championship players..

These can be found in the lower leagues, Scotland, Ireland and abroad.. And it doesn't take $5mill.. George Burley had Bisgaard, Idiakez, Reich, Ian Taylor, Rasiak, Jonno, Tommy Smith for the equivalent of what.. 300k?

But more to the point, does he know what type of football he wants? I've never seen so many changes in a single season by a manager than this one..

[Alph]

Similar to something in another thread. If in doubt play your best 11 in a system they know.

They know 4231. They worked on it all summer.

They know it works. They won matches and were 4th with it. It won't help confidence if we're saying "forget all that, here's what we're doing instead"

There were partnerships. Savage/Bailey barker/ leacock, brayford/green. Cywka/ bueno/ commons,

Now these players are seperated.

The partnerships that were developing are crushed along with a system that forged them.

I don't want clough to go. I'm happy to give him time to show hes learned from mistakes. But he's broken down all he built.

He's sent some bad signals to the players and probably made it impossible for them to settle for a long time.

I agree that hes got faith in his ability and that he hasn't got enough in his players. Would green, bueno, cywka and co refound their form by now and put us back on track? A bit more patience maybe? I very much doubt we'd be in a worse position now.

Good out of form players are still good.

Maybe Nigel lost it all when he actually had MORE options!!

Playing 442 shows a bit of lack of faith somwhere.

If were going to persist with it martin would be handy

[NorfolkRam]

Similar to something in another thread. If in doubt play your best 11 in a system they know.

They know 4231. They worked on it all summer.

They know it works. They won matches and were 4th with it. It won't help confidence if we're saying "forget all that, here's what we're doing instead"

There were partnerships. Savage/Bailey barker/ leacock, brayford/green. Cywka/ bueno/ commons,

Now these players are seperated.

The partnerships that were developing are crushed along with a system that forged them.

I don't want clough to go. I'm happy to give him time to show hes learned from mistakes. But he's broken down all he built.

He's sent some bad signals to the players and probably made it impossible for them to settle for a long time.

I agree that hes got faith in his ability and that he hasn't got enough in his players. Would green, bueno, cywka and co refound their form by now and put us back on track? A bit more patience maybe? I very much doubt we'd be in a worse position now.

Good out of form players are still good.

Maybe Nigel lost it all when he actually had MORE options!!

Playing 442 shows a bit of lack of faith somwhere.

If were going to persist with it martin would be handy

Good post, very good points and says alot of what I have thought about the change to 442.

[CumbrianRam]

4-4-HOOF (as I call it) without any wingers and targetman is never going to work.

Also I think we have had our worst midfield ever this season.

B Davies Savage Addison Pearson/Pringle

An OK MF for huff and puff but not for passing intelligent, creative play.

[RotherhamRam]

First 6 games of the season saw us pick up 4 points, we played well at Leeds and Coventry and was unlucky at home to Cardiff and QPR. (Clough + Metgod both stated they will stick to 4-2-3-1 and play football despite losing Hulse)

After this we started picking up a few draws Swansea (A) Barnsley (A) plus a quite brilliant run where creativity was at the central of our play. We was brilliant and Clough and his backroom staff deservedly took credit. (Clough stated he'd like to push on and consolidate in the 'top 10')

Following some strange changes in personnel, we then suffered 4 straight defeats, however no-one can deny we was extremely unlucky with last minute goals. Our play in general against Brizzle and Reading was still at a very high standard. My Reading mate said we was the best team they had played.. Clough should have stuck with it! We hadn't been sussed!

Since then it's been one big Greek Tradegy.. Clough has gone from back to top 12, to pick up confidence, and ultimately to survival.. Playing for draws against Scunny, Pompey, Barsnely, Donny and Sheff Utd is disgraceful.. The dropping, abondoning, selling of creativity ball playing players in Bailey, Cywka, Bueno, Moxey, Savage in favour of a flat 4-4-2 with hard-workers in Pringle, B.Davies, Pearson, Addison, Porter is a joke and the inclusion of Ward and Robinson shows that he really didn't notice the importance of a decent front man.. ie. Hulse, Kuqi and Moore.

I really hope Clough has learned from this season, and in the summer goes back to playing football.. If not he clan clear off, he can have $5mill to spend, but if his decision making + constant change in style of play + lack of playing to players ability then it aint going to make a difference..

Totally disagree BAILEY not dropped injured, can't play

the 4231 fromation was brought in only about 2 weeks ago. We have not won a home game since November, and if it continued we would go down the league. 422 is a survival tactic which a team has to adopt when things are not going your way, so VERY VERY harsh comments

[NorfolkRam]

Totally disagree BAILEY not dropped injured, can't play

the 4231 fromation was brought in only about 2 weeks ago. We have not won a home game since November, and if it continued we would go down the league. 422 is a survival tactic which a team has to adopt when things are not going your way, so VERY VERY harsh comments

I dont think they are harsh I think they show how clough has slowly had to rein in his expectations, understanably.

though I understand why we have gone to 442, it hasnt really helped much has it? we pretty much went 442 when ben davies came in which is december and january. now december wasnt bad until forest. we played well but we had bad luck and poor refereeing decisions against us, not an excuse to change the formation. After forest, yes it was bad except the preston result and i guess millwall we had nothing, so maybe he did need to change things around, but february with 442 has been no better than january with 4231, the only thing we do know is last season we couldn't play 442 effectively but in september /october we proved we can play 4231 really well if we stick at it.

There is no denying right now we are losing games (or scraping draws) and playing bad, at least in december we were losing but entertaining, except forest which was our turning point.

[Bris Vegas]

I dont think they are harsh I think they show how clough has slowly had to rein in his expectations, understanably.

though I understand why we have gone to 442, it hasnt really helped much has it? we pretty much went 442 when ben davies came in which is december and january. now december wasnt bad until forest. we played well but we had bad luck and poor refereeing decisions against us, not an excuse to change the formation. After forest, yes it was bad except the preston result and i guess millwall we had nothing, so maybe he did need to change things around, but february with 442 has been no better than january with 4231, the only thing we do know is last season we couldn't play 442 effectively but in september /october we proved we can play 4231 really well if we stick at it.

There is no denying right now we are losing games (or scraping draws) and playing bad, at least in december we were losing but entertaining, except forest which was our turning point.

And how much of that was down to the return of Bywater and Pearson, the preference of Moore over Kuqi, the dropping of Bueno, the position change of Brayford, sacrificing the creativity of Green by playing him RB, or even Leacock (A CB) at RB etc.. And then the blasting of players afterwards.. Our 4 2 3 1 in January looked nothing like our 4 2 3 1 in Oct or Nov.

[NorfolkRam]

And how much of that was down to the return of Bywater and Pearson, the preference of Moore over Kuqi, the dropping of Bueno, the position change of Brayford, sacrificing the creativity of Green by playing him RB, or even Leacock (A CB) at RB etc.. And then the blasting of players afterwards.. Our 4 2 3 1 in January looked nothing like our 4 2 3 1 in Oct or Nov.

Agreed 100%. I think Clough got frustrated with bad luck and bad refereeing decisions and tried to alter things which backfired on him, then the Forest result which must have hurt him as much as us, lets face it he may have been a legend to them but they turned on him so I can't see him feeling too much towards them in general now.

to summarise Clough fcked up and he knows it. I just hope/think he learnt from it all because if he didnt then we are in trouble. But I get the impression he has and we just need to make it to the summer when he can regroup and he can try and extend on the purple patch.