Michael Appleton - Coaching insight

Critchley is a top level coach and will be a tough act to follow. Will be interesting to see the comparison. I'm looking forward to change and some of it will be refreshing but I'm not convinced that, overall, Appleton will prove a more effective coach. But time will tell and I hope he does a brilliant job. I'm really liking what I'm seeing of him. Just seems a very nice bloke with a great attitude. Humble and hard working.
 
voyeur said:
Critchley is a top level coach and will be a tough act to follow. Will be interesting to see the comparison. I'm looking forward to change and some of it will be refreshing but I'm not convinced that, overall, Appleton will prove a more effective coach. But time will tell and I hope he does a brilliant job. I'm really liking what I'm seeing of him. Just seems a very nice bloke with a great attitude. Humble and hard working.
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Just good to see some of the coaching and ideas and see how it would be translated to the players.
 
Wonder what the coaching manual says about taking corners, circa 2020-22.

This is Zone 1, the little quadrant thing connecting the touch and dead ball lines. Then there's Zone 2, the space between there and the start of the penalty area. Zone 3 goes from there to the 6y line and Zone 4 to the far side of the area.

I'm looking and saying, can I get the ball past Zone 2, missing anyone not wearing the same colour as me.
 
CGP1 said:
Wonder what the coaching manual says about taking corners, circa 2020-22.

This is Zone 1, the little quadrant thing connecting the touch and dead ball lines. Then there's Zone 2, the space between there and the start of the penalty area. Zone 3 goes from there to the 6y line and Zone 4 to the far side of the area.

I'm looking and saying, can I get the ball past Zone 2, missing anyone not wearing the same colour as me.
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Sorry I zoned out, but yes if you cant deliver it's pointless.
 
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I've read some of the Lincoln forum thread from the day he left them at the end of April. Lots of sadness and thanks for some of the best football they've ever seen. Explanations as to why he left after a pretty poor season just gone:

He seemed fed up.
He didn't connect with the fans.
Seemed to take negativity from the minority to heart.
Very stubborn.
Lack of flexibility, could only play one way.
Stuck with his favourites and froze others out.
Injuries disrupted the team a lot.
Came back from cancer treatment too quickly.
Tight budget.
Wife and kids back in NW.

Everyone wished him well. Quite a few gutted he'd gone. Predictions he'd possibly get Burnley or Rovers job. Doubts about getting anyone as good as him. Breath taking football at times. A sense that he's a really nice guy but introverted and undemonstrative.

 
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voyeur said:
I've read some of the Lincoln forum thread from the day he left them at the end of April. Lots of sadness and thanks for some of the best football they've ever seen. Explanations as to why he left after a pretty poor season just gone:

He seemed fed up.
He didn't connect with the fans.
Seemed to take negativity from the minority to heart.
Very stubborn.
Lack of flexibility, could only play one way.
Stuck with his favourites and froze others out.
Injuries disrupted the team a lot.
Came back from cancer treatment too quickly.
Tight budget.
Wife and kids back in NW.

Everyone wished him well. Quite a few gutted he'd gone. Predictions he'd possibly get Burnley or Rovers job. Doubts about getting anyone as good as him. Breath taking football at times. A sense that he's a really nice guy but introverted and undemonstrative.
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Yeah a lot of his 2 ex clubs fans couldn't understand the reaction of many on here etc. But obviously people saw him vanish and only saw a very short period of football many years ago and under a different club really.

But it was obvious the moment you looked into him that a lot of the negativity was nonsense.
 
JJpool said:
Yeah a lot of his 2 ex clubs fans couldn't understand the reaction of many on here etc. But obviously people saw him vanish and only saw a very short period of football many years ago and under a different club really.

But it was obvious the moment you looked into him that a lot of the negativity was nonsense.
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Yes but there seems to be some possible issues that might undermine him. He'll get a lot more grief from our fans if we struggle than their fans will have given him. He seems quite introverted, and maybe a tad sensitive to criticism. Could go either way, obviously.
 
Feedback from an Oxford supporter who I know....
Overall I liked Appleton, was sorry when he left
Had a rocky start - nearly got binned. We had a disastrous 5-1 loss at Cambridge (that I was at unfortunately). That was the turning point - he effectively sacked a few of the players and then rebuilt from there, getting in ‘characters’ that he wanted.
He got us promoted so no complaints there. He’s quite understated - doesn’t give too much away.
Recruitment was good - got in several unknowns at the time, who he brought on and then sold for good profit - John Lundstrum, Kemar Roofe, Ryan Ledson etc, so generally he knows what he’s doing there.
Tactically I remember him being ok but that was lower level. Obviously had a good first season at Lincoln but not sure what went so wrong last season.
Overall would have thought he’d be a good fit for you. Would expect him to look closely at premier league academy players for recruitment.
I think we played 4-5-1. Holding midfielder with decent wingers. It was quite attractive to watch - mainly because we had Roofe banging them in from all over.
Defence was steady if unspectacular- I remember goalkeeper was a bit of a weakness during his time here, he struggled to sort that....
 
voyeur said:
Yes but there seems to be some possible issues that might undermine him. He'll get a lot more grief from our fans if we struggle than their fans will have given him. He seems quite introverted, and maybe a tad sensitive to criticism. Could go either way, obviously.
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I don't get why people accept that he'll get abuse, are people a bit thick?

He needs time and support or he might not succeed, if he doesn't we might go down.

It wouldn't just be booing him for eg it's booing the players and not supporting them.

I can't see masses of people daft enough to do that.

I think most will understand.
 
I was severely underwhelmed by this appointment but you have to think rationality. First time was an awful time for the club with Holloway having just left. It was cold and miserable and this guy who was a novice at the time had to deal with Oyston. Give the guy a chance. He seems honest enough and hard working.
 
This is from the Oxford forum thread about him joining us:

"We’ll skirt over 2014-15 when he went through 100 players, tried getting Newey and Hunt playing tika-taka and ruthlessly dumped crowd favourites in Ryan Clarke and Alfie Potter. Having the resources to cancel contracts and bring in Roofe, Baldock (George), MacDonald etc and getting damn lucky with Waddock’s only signing in Danny Hylton helping too.

If Blackpool are willing to be patient, MApp will be a good fit for them. He’s a builder of things and not a quick fixer. If he can continue what Critchley set up, he’ll do a good job."

"To be fair, this is one of the more impressive things about Appleton I thought, and far and away the most frustrating about Robbo. He made plenty of mistakes early on and had a real stubbornness about playing the right way, he was questioned about a plan B when things weren't working at a fans even early in his reign and his response was "plan B is plan A". He stuck with it until probably halfway through that season when he realised he needed to be far more pragmatic sometimes, I think getting battered by Cambridge 5-1 live on Sky was a big part of it

We still generally played great football but we were also able mix it up, sit on a lead or effectively play down channels etc if needed. The big frustration is that Appleton worked out and made great strides in correcting his biggest weakness in six months or so whereas we still have the same issues now (Robinson) four years into the job, as well as the imbalanced squad year after year, something else Appleton was great at."

"Can't we just swap him with KR? Then everyone would be happy."
 
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I like the fact that Michael Appleton only endured Oystonism for two months, and ten years later has rejoined The Mighty Pool after Neil Critchley left us to become Stevie Gerrard's no.2. I hope Neil's career blossoms at Aston Villa after getting us promoted to The Championship in his first season, then comfortably keeping us up.
Appleton must have put forward a really positive case plan to Simon Sadler and Ben Mansford to obtain a four year deal ,and I fully expect to see us in the Premiership before the end of that timeframe. I do like the thought of him playing the best eleven as often as possible because I've never been happy when a manager tinkers with a winning team, apart from it being enforced by injuries and suspensions.
Please give him time to get the team playing the way he sees us constantly improving.
🧡 UTMP 🧡
 
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