Appleton's mission statement when he signed

Maths

Maths

Well-known member
'I want to play aggressive, forward-thinking football and we have certain things that we want from the players when we're playing, dependent on opposition clearly. We just want to be exciting and get people off their seats.'

Anyone feel he's succeeded with that?
 
Maths said:
'I want to play aggressive, forward-thinking football and we have certain things that we want from the players when we're playing, dependent on opposition clearly. We just want to be exciting and get people off their seats.'

Anyone feel he's succeeded with that?
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Not sure about getting people off their seats but we’re struggling to get 10k people on them for home games tells you all you need to know really.
Yes I accept the price increases this season aren’t helping in attracting the pay on the day casual fan but the standard of football isn’t either.
 
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To be fair he says nothing about being solid at the back.
We are creating more chances but cannot finish and leak goals like a sieve, and we did have Bowler when he made that statement.
 
I sat next to a first team player at a recent match who was out for the game

I asked him what he thought of MA

His words were “Good. He wants us to play attacking football “
 
A few weeks ago we were “the entertainers of the division”. Was a typical over the top quote from either Scrafton or McGinlay. It’s not true.

Appleton also isn’t as dull as people are making out.

people just need to stop being too dramatic either way and not go over the top.
 
He does want to play attacking football, gone a bit off that with the needs must at Huddersfield and sticking with it albeit changed personnel.

I'm sure he'll get back to it, but not sure why he didn't on sat.

As for getting people off their seats... People won't be getting off their seats at home to come and watch us if we carry on with a stayem that doesn't suit us.

But tbf the clubs pricing has been off so many aren't getting off their seats anyway.
 
We were aggressive and forward thinking against QPR, Burnley, and Bristol City, there have clearly been signs of what he wants to do with the personnel and I would put blame on him again for persisting with 5-2-3 yesterday, but perhaps he still didn't feel comfortable reverting back to 4-3-3 with the players he had fit.

He's got an entire international break to get players healthy and work with them.

After the Burnley draw people were singing his praises and now two back to back defeats has people wanting him out, I don't think it's reactionary to be worried or upset, but I think it is still too early to make a judgement on him.
 
AmericanTangerine said:
We were aggressive and forward thinking against QPR, Burnley, and Bristol City, there have clearly been signs of what he wants to do with the personnel and I would put blame on him again for persisting with 5-2-3 yesterday, but perhaps he still didn't feel comfortable reverting back to 4-3-3 with the players he had fit.

He's got an entire international break to get players healthy and work with them.

After the Burnley draw people were singing his praises and now two back to back defeats has people wanting him out, I don't think it's reactionary to be worried or upset, but I think it is still too early to make a judgement on him.
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Whilst I agree it’s too soon to be calling for the sack, besides it would be financially ruinous to do so. He should remember the old adage, ‘ The definition of a fool is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result’.
 
AmericanTangerine said:
We were aggressive and forward thinking against QPR, Burnley, and Bristol City, there have clearly been signs of what he wants to do with the personnel and I would put blame on him again for persisting with 5-2-3 yesterday, but perhaps he still didn't feel comfortable reverting back to 4-3-3 with the players he had fit.

He's got an entire international break to get players healthy and work with them.

After the Burnley draw people were singing his praises and now two back to back defeats has people wanting him out, I don't think it's reactionary to be worried or upset, but I think it is still too early to make a judgement on him.
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QPR was a really boring game, Burnley battered us for all but 20 minutes in the second half - where admittedly we were very good and Appleton's in games changes were refreshingly good.

Bristol City is probably the closest we've come to putting it together properly, but then again the defensive frailties in that second half were shocking.

I fear he's tried to change too much too soon without the tools needed to do the changing properly, the next 4 are as hard as you get in this division and if we're still experimenting I can only see 4 more defeats.

He has to go simple and really get through the next ten games with a minimum of 15 points or I think he could be on his way out. Having said that if a poor PNE team do us, now I think about it I think that'll be him done.
 
Might be sticking my neck out with this but when it's been good under Appleton it's been better than anything Critchley served up - faster paced, more direct. I'd say it fits his description and you can see the way he is trying to play with a squad that mainly isnt his, when it comes off it's great but we're pretty inconsistent with it. When it's been poor it's been no worse than when it was poor under Critchley. It's ridiculous to quantify bad and good periods under Appleton anyway as he is 10 games in, I'll judge him much later down the line.

Same thing is happening here that happened before with Critchley, those who dont like Appleton (or the fact he was appointed) will come out and get on his back anytime we have a bad game or hit some bad form. They'll quiet down again after a decent result or a good run of form but as soon as anything negative happens the knives will be back out.
 
Maths said:
'I want to play aggressive, forward-thinking football and we have certain things that we want from the players when we're playing, dependent on opposition clearly. We just want to be exciting and get people off their seats.'

Anyone feel he's succeeded with that?
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ill break it down a bit because this is the reason I'm critical and having doubts. We are not aggressive we are very passive as a team, almost every game we play quite deep and we don't really press high up the pitch, the defensive midfield are often reactive to situations rather than forcing an opposition attack to break down. We have the players to do an aggressive press, maybe not a full ninety minutes but you actually don't have to because once a defence has lost the ball a few times they start to go long, which is often what we are currently doing. its worth noting we have already scored three times from pressing defenders. Its a particular weakness of every championship side. I can understand a defensive rear guard as at Sheff Utd last year, an organised defensive display and the shutting down of an opposition can be as entertaining as full on Holloway kamikaze attacking.

the dependent on opposition thing, we do seem very ill prepared to deal with every team we have faced - im not sure even that statement is particularly relevant.

Forward thinking football - I'm not sure what that means but I'll take it as meaning attack minded which apart from a few short periods we haven't been that. Setting up as 3-4-3 but in reality ends up being 5-4-1 most of the game is not forward thinking - it is the diametric opposite. but even the 4-3-3 he wants to play has largely been 4-5-1 and often a very static 4-5-1 with inherent defensive frailties.

getting us out of our seats maybe - at least a few times, i was falling off the sofa against Burnley, but of the 990 minutes we have played (including Barrow) i would say two thirds of it has not been particularly entertaining.

so has he succeeded with that - i don't think so,
 
Thatseasider said:
QPR was a really boring game, Burnley battered us for all but 20 minutes in the second half - where admittedly we were very good and Appleton's in games changes were refreshingly good.

Bristol City is probably the closest we've come to putting it together properly, but then again the defensive frailties in that second half were shocking.

I fear he's tried to change too much too soon without the tools needed to do the changing properly, the next 4 are as hard as you get in this division and if we're still experimenting I can only see 4 more defeats.

He has to go simple and really get through the next ten games with a minimum of 15 points or I think he could be on his way out. Having said that if a poor PNE team do us, now I think about it I think that'll be him done.
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Def think changing too much too soon comment is correct, I think most managers would of started the Critch way and slowly implemented changes. Having gone for a complete overhaul I guess we were always going to have a sticky period whilst the players get to grips with what he wants
 
We’ve seen in patches how he wants to play but it’s hard when he’s been clearly let down in the recruitment stages and injuries to players like Fiorini and Patino obviously haven’t helped as for example I thought the first half at QPR was really good and we played some really good stuff.
 
Maths said:
'I want to play aggressive, forward-thinking football and we have certain things that we want from the players when we're playing, dependent on opposition clearly. We just want to be exciting and get people off their seats.'

Anyone feel he's succeeded with that?
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Bearing in mind that the previous manager was slaughtered for playing timid, defensive football, he's doing OK.
 
NewburyOne said:
And this is why he needs someone from above to have a word. Talk is cheap it seems..
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Why the board got it wrong with their choice of assistants. Anyone who read the Lincoln board had very few good things to say about either Kerslake and O'Donnell and I believe between the three of them that what momentum we had through team spirit and togetherness has arguably been lost under these three.
 
Tons of Apples said:
Why the board got it wrong with their choice of assistants. Anyone who read the Lincoln board had very few good things to say about either Kerslake and O'Donnell and I believe between the three of them that what momentum we had through team spirit and togetherness has arguably been lost under these three.
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And this is another important point as to why I don't think he/they are the right coaching team. It has nothing to do with his previous spell, it has everything to do with how he did at Lincoln and is doing with us. He says one thing and does another, his team are the polar opposite of attacking and aggressive. They're not even well coached and prepared. 10 games in and the best we've managed is about 30mins in any one game, quite frankly that is shocking. The fact he has already started blaming the players isn't exactly going to help, bringing in an old general could go either way. It just feels like a lot of the stability and good spirit is being undone.
 
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