Thanks Kev - but is a new manager needed?

[Bar na bas]

I am quite fortunate, I think. In life, I am far more optimistic than pessimistic. I have been watching Southend United since 1968, and have seen many ups and downs. I suppose on a pure league position basis, I have seen more downs than ups, but having been an exile over near Bristol for about 12 years and now back in the Southend area, due to my marriage break-up, one aspect which was compensatory to an extent was being able to watch the Blues. I saw many matches last season and bought a season ticket this season, mainly to thank COSU for their vast investment and commitment to keeping the club in existence, as I was still hopeful that my marriage would still survive in which case I would probably not see many matches, as I would either be in Bristol or perhaps even abroad.

But circumstances changed and here I am... I have only missed one home game, due to my grand-daughter's birthday party, and although some of the matches have been a difficult watch, my main feelings are two fold. I go and enjoy the matches with my cousin, we chat about life, our families, our enjoyment of music, how many guitars we have got, etc. I enjoy chatting with others around me in the South Upper. And we get to celebrate the occasional goal... but also, I am incredibly grateful to all of those who kept the club going over the last two seasons, when it would have been far easier to give up and walk away. Players, management and staff. I am grateful to COSU. I am grateful to still be able to watch the team play.

Maybe I am lucky, that my feelings are those of gratitude, rather than GRRRR-attitude... But perhaps that is also about my mindset, as that is how I try to live life in general. Always look on the bright si-ide of life, du du, du du, du du.....

So, I have a few observations and a question...

In the last 11 matches, we have 6 wins, 3 draws and 2 (admittedly dire) defeats. Ok, 2 of those wins were in the Trophy against lower league teams. But if we win the next two matches (yes, I note the if), we will have 8 wins and 3 draws in 13 matches, will be three points off the play-offs, and in the quarter finals of the Trophy.

Also, after 27 league matches last season, we had earnt 44 points, although we had the 10 point deduction. We have 36 from 27 so far. But in matches 28 to 31 last year, we gained only one point. If we can win 3 out of the next 4 matches in the league, by game 31 we will have gained the same number of points as we had last season, but not have had the points deduction. IF we can achieve that run of form, we would presumably be sitting in the play off zone.

So, here is my question:
I know there are IFs there. But just humour me and imagine we can beat Sittingbourne, and three out of four of Fylde (dire away from home), Maidenhead (same home record as us), Halifax and Rochdale (remembering that we have already beaten both of those last two away already)... At what point would people who voted Yes in the above poll wonder whether that was too premature, and that Kevin and the team deserve more encouragement than criticism?

 

[bluethroughandthrough]

I have been watching Southend over 60 years , it really annoys me the way people keep attacking Kevin . Judus showed his loyalty to Southend when he and his coaches up sticks and went up to the sleeping giants Judus knew the lower leagues because that was all he knew . You explain to me that calling Fatso Judus says a lot .

Probably ron

 

[bluethroughandthrough]

I have been watching Southend over 60 years , it really annoys me the way people keep attacking Kevin . Judus showed his loyalty to Southend when he and his coaches up sticks and went up to the sleeping giants Judus knew the lower leagues because that was all he knew . You explain to me that calling Fatso Judus says a lot .

People aren't attacking Kevin for his loyalty or character. It's his football.
Loyalty is a wonderful human character - arguably so is ambition.
I think people forget that football is a business.
It's sport entertainment which means tickets sales, merchandise etc. Fail to create a meaningful product to sell and you have no business.
Fry created a wonderful product which I was certainly very happy to pay to watch.
Contrastingly paying to see the football at the moment is more begrudging - and this football isn't any different from when Maher took over - same stubbornness, style, lack of learning, mentality, setup etc etc
Birmingham - who had more resources and didn't have Ron - liked the product he created and offered him an opportunity which he took.
All he showed was ambition
Perhaps the pain is greater because we were doing so well and playing well above our station.
It also meant peter Taylor taking over which wasn't the greatest success
You may place loyalty over success which is your call.
I prefer to pay for a great product. If loyalty comes with it all the better.

 

[Avl1983]

I recently changed my vote on here from on the fence to yes. The main reason for that was the style of play and Maher's reluctance to attack other teams, even poor quality teams. I go to Roots Hall (and away) to be entertained and support the team and this season there's been almost zero entertainment.

My stance is now that IF we continue to attack teams and have a go at them then I personally would be happy to give Maher the time he obviously deserves with a full pre-season. If we go back to defending at all costs and playing it sideways/backwards then I'd sadly have to continue to vote yes. I'm not as worried about the league position although obviously I want to get back to the EFL as soon as possible, my issue has been the quality of the football.

I thought the game last night was really good, I know we missed some sitters but were in the National League, what do we expect? I also think that when strikers are out of practice they're going to miss a few to start with, consistently create the chances and they'll get better and better. At least we had a go last night! My only worry is, was that because we were playing Fylde? I think we would have performed so much better against Barnet if we'd attacked them which is where my gripe has been coming from. Fingers crossed this continues.

 

[Tampa Blue]

I recently changed my vote on here from on the fence to yes. The main reason for that was the style of play and Maher's reluctance to attack other teams, even poor quality teams. I go to Roots Hall (and away) to be entertained and support the team and this season there's been almost zero entertainment.

My stance is now that IF we continue to attack teams and have a go at them then I personally would be happy to give Maher the time he obviously deserves with a full pre-season. If we go back to defending at all costs and playing it sideways/backwards then I'd sadly have to continue to vote yes. I'm not as worried about the league position although obviously I want to get back to the EFL as soon as possible, my issue has been the quality of the football.

I thought the game last night was really good, I know we missed some sitters but were in the National League, what do we expect? I also think that when strikers are out of practice they're going to miss a few to start with, consistently create the chances and they'll get better and better. At least we had a go last night! My only worry is, was that because we were playing Fylde? I think we would have performed so much better against Barnet if we'd attacked them which is where my gripe has been coming from. Fingers crossed this continues.

Your post sums up my feelings 100%.

As they say in football, “you’re as good as your last game” - a simplistic statement but quite an element of truth when game becomes games.

Anyway, I too have changed my vote in line with the change in tactics and team set up.

 

[rlb999]

He's changed his tactics slightly, but quickly reverts mid-game when he has a lead to protect. Doing this has meant we've beaten a load of poor sides in recent weeks - and with Sittingbourne and Maidenhead coming up that should hopefully continue.

The games after that will see the standard of opposition increase - we've got a series of fixtures against mid/upper table sides - and these are the games that will show us how competitive we've actually become. I'm also keen to see how Maher sets up against these better sides - we're Southend United and we should be going after the majority of teams in this league.

I'd like Maher to succeed but I'm not changing my vote at this stage.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

I have changed my vote................from yes to no.

Why? Because the football was dire, unthreatening and we were vulnerable because we sat back so much.

Kev has changed that over the last couple of games. Dagenham is never an easy place to go, but we made it appear so, with the new set up.

Others have raised questions about had Kev lost the dressing room, I think the last couple of performances have answered that emphatically. It's a NO.

Yes those two games have been against lower placed teams, but we have dominated them. Halifax and Rochdale will be a lot tougher and we have three home games on the spin in Feb.

Carry on like this and we will gain momentum, if we haven't already.

I wasn't expecting promotion this year, but a year of consolidation, but having a team to support, I wanted performances to be proud of and have opposing fans be wary of us.......for next year. Having said that, with the heart and passion we have shown, as a club since Kev has been here, play offs, I thought, were an outside chance.

Now we seemingly have the passion and pride back. On the pitch we are not pushing the self destruct button and the last two results, where we have moved to in the league standings, have made fans of other clubs look at us with a few nerves, believe me. We have a presence and amongst our rivals, expectations, to be near the top of the division when we get it right. Outside of this club, we are now starting to perform as others expected us to, without them knowing the final issues off the pitch we had to negotiate in the summer.

We are not far off and I feel, for whatever reason both on the pitch and within the management team we needed to demonstrate that, not to others, but to themselves.

As above, Dale and Halifax will be good reference points for where we are, but if we take one game at a time and now we have demonstrated flexibility tactic wise, we can worry most, if not all the teams we have to play in the remainder of the season.

We won't win every game, but we can now, I believe, compete in every game. That is a major difference, that we haven't had earlier in the season. We have to pay respect to every opponent, obviously, but WE ARE SOUTHEND UNITED and others have to deal with us, not us worry about them!

Carry on like this and I not only feel that Kev deserves the challenge of next season, but what about this one? It's far from over, we have re-enforcements incoming and despite unforeseen setbacks, such as Collin's injury, we have people ready to step in and pick the baton up, as Nathan Harness has done admirably.

So here's to the rest of the season and looking forward to it much more positively now.

 

[kentblues]

I think we all like 343 but as has been said without the right players to play it you will get over run in midfield and found out very quickly. Key is the three man front press- and maintaining it. You could see in the second half the press becoming less effective and as a result needing KAF. The alternative is to have 6/7 front guys with the right profile where you can change the front three on 55 mins. We haven’t even had the first front three for this approach most of the season.

You then need the right two in the middle as the opposition will have three in there even if the front three is working and dropping off where necessary. You need a Husin working their socks off, putting a foot in. No CM passengers they all (both) need to put in a shift and again the right cover is needed on the bench.

Then a Golding who can step into the CM as a ball carrier- almost becoming a DM on occasion? And if his Kensdale like qualities are essential there where does Goodliffe go?)

Kev started way back with 343 and it unravelled because we didn’t have the round pegs for the round holes. Arguably with even some limited activity in the transfer market we are already much closer to fixing that? Is this all a new plan or actually returning to the original plan as it becomes viable?

 

[Thundersley Blue]

I think we all like 343 but as has been said without the right players to play it you will get over run in midfield and found out very quickly. Key is the three man front press- and maintaining it. You could see in the second half the press becoming less effective and as a result needing KAF. The alternative is to have 6/7 front guys with the right profile where you can change the front three on 55 mins. We haven’t even had the first front three for this approach most of the season.

You then need the right two in the middle as the opposition will have three in there even if the front three is working and dropping off where necessary. You need a Husin working their socks off, putting a foot in. No CM passengers they all (both) need to put in a shift and again the right cover is needed on the bench.

Then a Golding who can step into the CM as a ball carrier- almost becoming a DM on occasion? And if his Kensdale like qualities are essential there where does Goodliffe go?)

Kev started way back with 343 and it unravelled because we didn’t have the round pegs for the round holes. Arguably with even some limited activity in the transfer market we are already much closer to fixing that? Is this all a new plan or actually returning to the original plan as it becomes viable?

Firstly, Goodliff gives Kevin a bit of flexibility, he could play both he and Golding moving Ralph to Bridge's role. The interesting conundrum will be accommodating the lad from Slough. Assuming of course he has really signed and is a forward thinking midfield player. Might be dangerous to play 3-4-3, particularly against the stronger sides. Will be interesting to see what happens, but certainly Kevin will have a lot of options, which he hasn't had before.

 

[kentblues]

Firstly, Goodliff gives Kevin a bit of flexibility, he could play both he and Golding moving Ralph to Bridge's role. The interesting conundrum will be accommodating the lad from Slough. Assuming of course he has really signed and is a forward thinking midfield player. Might be dangerous to play 3-4-3, particularly against the stronger sides. Will be interesting to see what happens, but certainly Kevin will have a lot of options, which he hasn't had before.

Thing is neither Golding or Goodliffe is left footed- whereas Ralph and Gubbins are..Goodliffe is very highly rated and here to play games not get splinters else will get recalled I’m sure. Golding fits the ball carry centre of a three mode. Not sure Goodliffe does and not sure there’s a vacancy at RCB. Suspect Golding may be the one to give way? Be interesting to see how this competition at the back develops.

Agree re CM. Morton needs to play unless he loses form. Imagine a box to box high energy CM would be ideal along side him or in a CM 3 if we go two up top- options starting to build

 

[Morty01]

He needs to go. No question about it.

 

[Jack_23]

He needs to go. No question about it.

No chance they sack him tho

 

[JCB]

Time to go. Won’t happen

 

[Blue Yonder]

The ups and downs in performance level is bewildering.

 

[MisterStubbs]

A reminder today as to why I can never fully be behind him or his team.

 

[Tommy2holes]

Kevin Maher.

Club legend, fantastic captain but he really isn't the right man to move the club forward.

I know people will disagree and that is fine but he just doesn't have enough in the tank and is not forward thinking enough.

Todays performance was unforgivable

 

[Che's Left Foot]

Much like Tilly, an absolute club legend who's achieved miracles both as player and manager.

And just like Tilly, tactically naive.

Thanks for the memories Kev but it's time.

 

[Shrimper]

I'm very close to getting off the fence. February will tell me all I need to know

 

[Tommy2holes]

Much like Tilly, an absolute club legend who's achieved miracles both as player and manager.

And just like Tilly, tactically naive.

Thanks for the memories Kev but it's time.

You can't compare Tilly to Maher.

Maher has achieved nothing as manager and tilly got us promoted twice and played some of the best football we have played.

 

[Jay_SUFC]

You can't compare Tilly to Maher.

Maher has achieved nothing as manager and tilly got us promoted twice and played some of the best football we have played.

I still think a lot of that was down to Brush and not Tilly.