Neither are ours nor will be here next season why coach them for other clubs benefits, we are not even saying that we couldn't have that quality unless it was on loan ala Azaz
-
This site is sponsored by Lang & Potter.
Thoughts on Ian Foster
- Thread starter Lancastergreen
- Start date
But how do you know he actively changed things a lot?
You don't have an insight into how Foster works.
You're just extrapolating from context-free, offhand remarks, barely a sentence or two long, from interviews with regional sports reporters that almost every football personality will regard as the most boring part of their job.
It's just as likely that those comments are pretty meaningless. That Foster has a record of front-footed attacking football and wants to play that way with Argyle, because we undertook a diligent recruitment process to identify that kind of individual. Maybe we are struggling because he is having to rebuild a team mid-season while competing against teams with greater resources and they are simply outplaying us.
If it's your opinion that he has changed too much, that's fine.
But it's just a speculative opinion, and it would be helpful to present it that way rather than repeatedly asserting it as fact.
When people repeatedly undermine the manager on here, it is going to have an affect on the fanbase and ultimately the team.
That may be necessary or inevitable or whatever and it's not an excuse to censor criticism. But I think it does bestow a responsibility on the critics to have the humility to ask 'what if I'm wrong?' and to post in a tone that recognises that they might be.
Or they could just re watch every game since he took over and tell us that we are wrong.
Thousands of people saying the same thing v a minority, its as clear as you like, only the blind cannot see what he has done.
But that's exactly my point.
We got the (five) points at home to Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Watford and scored lots of goals, but the difference in the way we played and the underlying performance in those games was not so different to what we have seen under Foster.
Five of those eight goals were from outside the box. At least four were scored or assisted by Azaz.
I wouldn't say we played cautiously either, but we were under the cosh for very long spells of all three games.
The balance of play was if anything less attacking than under Foster at home to similar calibre of opposition (Cardiff, Coventry and Preston are similarly placed in the league).
The main difference is that we scored several screamers out of nothing in the pre-Foster games. That was never going to keep happening every week.
Ah, but you're asking the impossible there Greenpilled. Some people are now so entrenched in their view of Ian Foster that there's no prospect of them keeping an open mind or acknowledging any mitigating factors.
I want to give Foster a chance because I believe he walked into an unenviable situation and deserves time to have a good go at the job. That said, I'm also willing to acknowledge that home matches under him have been incredibly drab and disappointing. Also that he tried to change too much too soon and risked upsetting the apple cart.
Try to get some of the anti-Foster brigade to acknowledge some of the improvements that have been made under him, on the other hand, or admit that he didn't exactly walk into an ideal situation? Forget it because FOSTER BAD.
It's the Donald Trump/Brexit effect and indicative of the polarised, blinkered world we live in today.
He came in and said he was going to concentrate on defence, the Simon Hallett pod interview said he’d chosen to focus on defence, the players interviews have made it clear they’ve focussed on shape, and both the stats and our eyes bear out that we’ve massively changed how we play. E.g. you don’t suddenly become the second most long ball side in the league by accident.
What more proof do you need?
Last edited:
That's true. I think most pragmatic fans appreciate Foster hasn't got an easy gig, his first taste managing an this level with a hard run of fixtures and one of our best players leaving. I think most fans are realistic and the best we hoped for was to stay up which could and hopefully will still happen.
I think the worry is the way we are now set up and the body language of the players. The rigid tactical nature and neutering of our attacking play.
However seeing us in essence hitting long balls to a striker ill suited to that style of play smacks of league 2 football, the only difference is when we have played that way a few years ago is that we had players such as Jimmy Spencer or Ryan Taylor who could hold the ball and play off.
Surely a coach analyses the squad and plays to their strengths within their chosen formation.
Yes, but both these Clubs are former Premiership Clubs who have received shed loads of seasonal £Ms for decades before their more recent relegations. When were their training facilities developed? Google maps will not tell you that. Our comparison should be with the likes of traditional second tier clubs viz, Rotherham Swansea, Coventry,1999 was 25 years ago!
Edit: Have a look on Google Maps for "(Insert Championship Team) Training Ground", starting with Leicester City or Southampton. They are magnitudes ahead of what Argyle has, which is why the Brickfields project is so important.
This is the season in a nutshell, having to score 3 to get anything out of games is only repeatable so many times.
Of course your absolutely right- better infrastructure would help enormously.Thats why brickfields is so important.1999 was 25 years ago!
Edit: Have a look on Google Maps for "(Insert Championship Team) Training Ground", starting with Leicester City or Southampton. They are magnitudes ahead of what Argyle has, which is why the Brickfields project is so important.
Then again I do regret the perception at times of some to believe that we achieve success inspite of us being plymouth Argyle and not because we are plymouth argyle.
After all we've got a lot going for us.Our opponents dont like travelling this far away from the metropolitan centers, and home park is a formidable place when the supporters are in good voice and behind the team
Also it's because of our geographical remoteness that we tend to have the sort of team spirit that other clubs envy and cannot replicate or buy for any amount of money
Also wasnt the 'huddle' copyright of plymouth Argyle football club ? To me this is the energy and spirit at the football club- which pushes us over the line when things are tight
We have very good links with continental Europe- such a shame we have never properly embraced it after frio, larrieu, buszacky, timar and halmosi
New training facilities would be great.Are they key to our future success ? Not in my view
I think we could learn a lot of lessons from jim mcLeans success at Dundee united, on not a lot of money.And although the game has moved on a lot since those days, the lessons are still there
One of his disciples did quite well here- I seem to remember
I bet simon hallett would love it if he could find amongst the playing staff a man who loved the club as much as mcLean loved dundee utd, and who would stay on at Home Parkfor the same length of time, and with the same level of achievements.....
Regardless of what division they've been in, those are the clubs we are competing against this year. Their facilities are a long way ahead of what Argyle has for the time being, but that won't always be the case.
There are a lot of clubs in this division who have indoor facilities, whereas earlier this year, Argyle had to train on an all weather pitch in Saltash because the ground was frozen at Home Park.
I've posted before about Tony Pulis saying he thought every club lifted weights until he came to Argyle, but it is only this season that there is finally a gym on site at Home Park. I will grant you that Pulis joining was only 19 years ago.
It's still very concerning what I'm hearing, really concerning and as i said in one of my last posts expect lots of players to leave this summer.
When you don't listen to the senior players and especially our number 1 leader in the dressing room who loves the club from day 1, keep ignoring them, not even be happy to listen to what they are saying, what chance do you have.
When you don't listen to the senior players and especially our number 1 leader in the dressing room who loves the club from day 1, keep ignoring them, not even be happy to listen to what they are saying, what chance do you have.
I actually said on the phone to a barrister's clerk this morning that Paul Sturrock was our best manager of all in my opinion, and the only person on that list ahead of Schuey. (it was part of a longer, totally work related conversation about how the Championship had developed since the last time I spoke to him, which came about because one of the other clerks in his office is a Millwall fan).
I've lived away from Plymouth since 2011 and I think that makes me appreciate the positives of the place more than I did when I was there, but there's no getting away from the fact that the club is in the process of playing catch up to many of our rivals this season off the field. Great strides have been made though, when I moved away the Price of Football podcast would not have been able to do a live show in such pleasant surroundings, for sure.
Nice post
I am old enough to have seen the original 'crazy gang' playing at plough lane under dave Bassett , when living in london in a previous life
While I would never want us to play that way, i did admire them they did things differently to other bigger clubs and had such strong team spirit...that was their key strength inspite of being such a small team they were thriving in the top league and competing and succeeding, against much bigger clubs
Some of the things coming out of the club lately do worry me ( if true) - the 'corporatisation' of the football club.This is taking us in the wrong direction I feel, and away from what makes us strong as a football club ( in my opinion)
Unfortunately, the sheer size of some of the teams in the second tier does mean that to have a chance of standing still in this league Argyle need to be able to earn money 7 days a week. Even when I had a season ticket in the early /mid 90s (which my Dad paid for), the cost of that didn't pay one player's wages for one week.
When I moved to Bolton in 2015, their team was going down the leagues quite rapidly, but my job was based in the huge offices in the north stand of their ground. There's a hotel in the south stand and a large function suite in the east stand. I was struck by the fact they could earn money from the site around the clock but were still in dire straits financially.
Argyle have managed to match them on the function suite now, but it is incredibly hard to make long term progress at this level when so many rivals are prepared to throw cash at the problem again and again, year after year.
