Paul Clark

[IloveShrimp]

Brush's tactics at Orient were cr&p, as any Borient fan will tell you.. Perhaps he should be the one to go!

 

[OldBlueLady]

Brush's tactics at Orient were cr&p, as any Borient fan. Perhaps he should be the one to go!

Must admit this is the way I've been feeling. I've said before that Brushy seems to be much more visibly in control on match days, don't know how that translates on the training pitch though.

 

[WickfordShrimper]

I sent a text to BBC Essex ( that didn't get read out ) - Tilson out Clark in.

Agree with everything Richard Cadette says

Clearly you was not around when Paul Clark was Southend manager.... All I know he nealy lost us promotion after the Legend Dave Webb walked out on us the first time.....

Having said that he does talk like he knows where we are going wrong.....

Paul Clark... Another ex Wickford Town FC boy....

maybe he can help our our Steve Tilson when we defend set pieces ???

Roll on Saturday I say..... 3 points please SOUTHEND UNITED FC

 

[Pubey]

He was also full of praise for how Peter Clarke always plays the easy ball and doesn't just hoof it down the pitch. Errrr????......

i seem to remember maccas goal against hartlepool came from a really well played but simple ball from defence to wing... people who think clarke is just about hoofing it are completely wrong, i personally think his distribution is very good

 

[Aberdeen Shrimper]

The thing is that was true - or certainly the first part of it. Our play and tactics, not theirs, won them the game.

Agreed.......with the absence of a crystal Ball i guess he could only call it as he saw it at the time

 

[Aberdeen Shrimper]

Clearly you was not around when Paul Clark was Southend manager.... All I know he nealy lost us promotion after the Legend Dave Webb walked out on us the first time.....

Having said that he does talk like he knows where we are going wrong.....

Paul Clark... Another ex Wickford Town FC boy....

maybe he can help our our Steve Tilson when we defend set pieces ???

Roll on Saturday I say..... 3 points please SOUTHEND UNITED FC

My fear is that we can all talk a good game.....making sense when talking about football is a million miles apart for putting it in to practice with the players we have.

 

[Jam_Man]

i seem to remember maccas goal against hartlepool came from a really well played but simple ball from defence to wing... people who think clarke is just about hoofing it are completely wrong, i personally think his distribution is very good

I disagree, his distribution is woeful.

He may well use the ball well on occassion but its far more common for him to launch the ball 60 yards and for it to go for a throw in.

Admittedly we do get the ball higher up the pitch but the way he gives the ball away repeatedly just puts us back under pressure.

Peter Clarke, know your limits!

 

[Richard_Cadette]

Clearly you was not around when Paul Clark was Southend manager.... All I know he nealy lost us promotion after the Legend Dave Webb walked out on us the first time.....

That is an extremely harsh assessment of what happened to be fair!! Webby left at the most inopportune moment, leaving us right in the lurch at a critical time. Clark took over the reigns, and did an excellent job IMO.

He also took over from Dick Bate, and had it not have been for him, we almost certainly would have got relegated that season - it's a miracle in all honestly that we stayed up at all, but he sorted out a defence which was leaking goals all over the place, got the team playing with passion, organisation and confidence, and we ended up knocking Derby County out of the Littlewoods cup with him in charge - and that was over 2 legs!!

I don't view his as some sort of messiah, but he knows his stuff, and given how badly we are defending at the moment, it certainly wouldn't make the situation any worse than it already is!

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Brush's tactics at Orient were cr&p, as any Borient fan will tell you.. Perhaps he should be the one to go!

Such a lame argument, Orient had quite a successful period under Brush, just that it never really happened for them and it got tired. I guess part of could be down to Hearn not wanting to part with money.

Tilly is the manager and he makes the decisions on tactics and subs. Brushy is only there to advise, it is down to Tilly to listen but make his own decisions. Believe if it was down to Brush then there would be some players a few us feel should not be playing at the moment would not be.

Must admit this is the way I've been feeling. I've said before that Brushy seems to be much more visibly in control on match days, don't know how that translates on the training pitch though.

On match days what you see is that Brushy is more vocal whereas Tilly is more laid back. So Brushy is usually buzzing around the technical area.

 

[OldBlueLady]

On match days what you see is that Brushy is more vocal whereas Tilly is more laid back. So Brushy is usually buzzing around the technical area.

But Tilson also rarely comes out to take the pre-match training these days either.

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

A lot of managers do not do pre-match training, they leave it to the coaches. So I would not read to much into this to be honest.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

What is Clarky's managerial/caretaker experience other than his caretaker spells here? Was he at Orient for a while?

Whilst I'm concerned by Tilly's blindspot when it comes to defending, I also recognise that there is a difference between talking a good game and producing the goods. I know which one I value higher, and Tilly's lack of articulation really doesn't concern me.

 

[Richard_Cadette]

What is Clarky's managerial/caretaker experience other than his caretaker spells here? Was he at Orient for a while?

Whilst I'm concerned by Tilly's blindspot when it comes to defending, I also recognise that there is a difference between talking a good game and producing the goods. I know which one I value higher, and Tilly's lack of articulation really doesn't concern me.

Believe he had a spell at the O's as assistant manager, but not sure who to. Don't know if he has managed anywhere since us, but I don't believe it is purely a case of just talking a good game with Carky, he is a vastly experienced defender, exactly the type of defender we need now, and has had managerial experience with us, albeit in short doses.

I am not advocating that he should be replacing Tilly, but simply that he could compliment what is being done at the moment. The defence has been wrong for too long without anything being done to improve it, and the blindspot you mentioned is becoming something which is costing us points week in week out.

 

[sufcintheprem]

I think R_C's thread has been hijacked here by the usual sensationalist stuff.

It seems easy to forget that we are a good team with potential who aren't making the transition to an excellent team in this league as opposed to a mediocre team playing above themselves.

I don't know where the expectation came from that we should be at the top of this division. In the summer we sold our top scorer and second top assister from last season who also, on a more subjevtve slant, was the sole focus of our attacks that didn't involve speculative efforts from the edge of the box. This was from a team that wasn't good enough in the first place and got worse due to the advancing age of our only commanding defenders.

Basically, we came down with a keeper whose confidence must have been in tatters, a disorganised defence, some decent midfielders and strikers with either potential or some promising displays hinting at past success. As I said at the time, a good midfield should help you control games against weak opposition where you can hide your defence and rely on goalscoring midfielders supporting a targetman.

Furthermore, history suggests that teams who get relegated should not expect to go straight up. This season, Leeds are marginally in front of us and Luton are in 23rd. Taking every relegated team from the Championship since 2000 (18 with duplicating teams):

3 now reside in the Championship
12 now reside in League One
6 now reside in League Two

Basing it on the finishing position in the season directly after relegation:

-- The average position for the team finishing 22nd (us) is 10th
-- The average position for the team finishing 23rd (Luton) is 12th
-- The average position for the team finishing 24th (Leeds) is 17th
-- Overall avg 13th

Obviously points deductions due to cheating may change things this season as Leeds were clearly not the worst team in the division but that only boosts the argument that we should not expect too much.

Anyway, the point of this is that teams don't normally bounce straight back and generally don't bounce back at all. Only three teams managed promotion post relegation since 2000 yet none in the last three seasons.

We're not a big club with endless resources either. Leeds, Forest, Sheffield Wednesday and to an extent QPR (after stabilising financially) have vast resources, vast appeal and huge crowds. Whatever we might think about "The Eastwood Money", we are still a club heavily in debt with very few assets to leverage that against. There was no way we could justify spending more than half of the transfer fee received from Wolves due to our financial position and until there is a new stadium standing under the club's ownership, we won't be able to either.

Ok, there have been disappointments this season but there is no way we were one of the best squads in the division pre-season and there is no way we have the resources for the manager to easily remedy that.

In my opinion, Tilson has bought well under a tight budget having acquired Bailey and McCormack for a snip and the potential in Black has been there for all to see. He has also got in defenders who have all the physical attributes but need organisation and has not yet put in that final piece of the jigsaw.

I honestly think that one addition to the squad would raise our game considerably but not for one second do i think that creating the rest of the team was simple or something that your average pundit could do.

Oops, just hijacked the thread

 

[BoyWonder2]

Fantastic post there sufcintheprem.

Before the start of the season I said we'd finish around midtable so where between 9th and 14th. I also said we would flirt with the play-offs for a bit. We are in the right position for a club our size at the moment.

If we could sort out so problems at the back, and get a few of the strikers chipping in with goals, then we'd make the play offs easily. Our midfield is strong. Bailey and McCormack are on 9 and 8 goals. Gower, although off form at the minute, is a top player when his on top of his game. Black has started to kick on now, although sounded like he had a poor game last night. Then we have the club captain, Maher and a promising youngster in Moussa in waiting. Also, Grant, Hunt, Francis and Mulgrew can all fill in there as well.