That’s what I meant yeah! I’m not suggesting we’d go down etc the team and the management are good enough for that obviously. I can see us having another very similar season.
Maher clearly knows how to set a team up not to lose and keep some clean sheets, I have my doubts over his ability to turn those into wins though.
We need to have a similar season to last season. To do that, we need the right players.
Defensively we’ve been quite good under Maher. Sadly we lost the heart of our defence in August & still haven’t replaced it yet. We got very close with Golding, but again bad luck has seen us lose him.
We have been low scorers during his tenure though & that’s one area we must improve. This season has been terrible in that sense. I don’t think people grasp how badly it affected us losing Cardwell. Trying to replace a player of his calibre was never going to happen overnight. We didn’t have the funds to poach from other teams and anyone worth their salt had already been snatched up.
Same could be said for Pepple. Replacing him has proven a tough ask so far.
And I know these are the same old “excuses”, but does anyone believe that if Cardwell or Pep were still with us, we wouldn’t be sitting higher in the table?
The encouraging thing about this season is that we have very rarely been outplayed. We’re very competitive in games, even if it’s quite blunt at times. For that reason, I’m convinced that Maher should be allowed the unimpeded opportunity to sharpen us up.
The wrong recruitment over the summer, along with our better players leaving or becoming disheartened, could impact on far more than one season. KM has brought players in and despite all of the talk about DD, analysis, players being his choice, he has failed to get a decent, consistent tune out of them.
Agreed the recruitment needs to be spot on.
So far under Kev, the recruitment has been ok. We’ve brought in some cracking players with decent potential & of course some not so cracking ones who we’d all like to see shipped out.
No manager will ever get his recruitment 100% right though.
Poor pre-season, embargo, third choice players, yes we have heard the same stale arguments time and again but, the key issue is whether we believe KM has got the best out of the squad he has. For me that's a no. His most loyal supporters prefer to dwell on 'circumstances' beyond his control and his heroic, even epic stand in the face of adversity. He deserves many an accolade for his playing and managing contribution to this club, that is beyond question,but it does not mean he is the right man to take us further.
You’re right, it doesn’t necessarily mean he is the man to take us forward. He may turn out to be Southend’s version of Churchill.
He has earned his chance to operate without obstruction though, to me at least. I appreciate that isn’t a sentiment that is shared with everyone, but it is my opinion. I’m willing to be patient and see what he can do with a clean slate. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. It might mean another season in this division which I can live with.
The vast majority and on this forum, myself included, would absolutely be chuffed if he were to bring us success. I just do not think he will and I believe he has spurned opportunities to do so already, not least this season in particular.
Again, you may be right. But before I blame him there’s 20-odd players who I’d be looking at first for why we aren’t higher in the table.
The amount of chances we have spurned this season has been criminal. I’ll never forget that Tuesday night game against Fylde where we should have been 5-0 up at HT.
