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When Should A Manager Take Credit/Blame?
Topic Started: 9 Apr 2016, 07:02 PM (610 Views)
cribsie
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This is something I've wondered before, but I don't understand how a manager is not to blame when he doesn't get better results out of a squad because it's 'not his team', but if he comes in and makes an immediate improvement, as has Warnock has at Rotherham, he gets plaudits. Of course he should be lauded, and in Warnock's case he's saved them from relegation - but surely it should work both ways?
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Number 13
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It would be easier to be nicer to McDermott if we were a 'lower league' side. Looking at the Reading side, you can't say we have it too bad given the skill level of the players involved. Brian is a different manager to Steve Clarke so he can't just pick up where he left off, but, at the same time, after a few months now, McDermott has to shoulder some blame for poor showings such as today. Personally, I can't say I expected him to lift us up into the play-offs this season so I'm not particularly critical of him currently, but there is probably a feeling amongst some fans that he could be doing better, particularly given the run Clarke took us on earlier this season. It wasn't all Nick Blackman surely...
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Zip
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He still needs time and should be properly assesed pre Christmas. The one thing that does disappoint me is his signings. Evans may prove to be a decent signing in time but it the other January purchasers were poor. We are still desperately short of decent strikers having only just bought two in.
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Madejski

Rakels was rumoured to be a signing made by the owners, so Kermorgant is the only bad one. And as I said at the time, strikers are inflated, January market is inflated, our season was going nowhere. Would have been daft to spend lots of money on a striker in January when they would be much cheaper in the Summer. Ala Blackman to Derby..

Also in the case of Reading we have seemingly had three managers in a row fail.. so when do fans start to blame the players not the manager? Honestly the trash on twitter towards McDermott is a joke. How many players would you honestly say have had a good season? How many players were good last season? You'd struggle to name more than about 7 from the past two seasons combined..

I hope hope hope that Reading fans will finally accept that we're not a promotion chasing club at this level anymore. There are far bigger clubs with far bigger budgets than us who are more likely to get it together and get promoted. If we accept we're midtable at best, then perhaps people wouldn't become so angry about us only being 14th in the league.
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The performance of the players has been hugely disappointing. They have under performed and all the blame cannot be apportioned to the manager. In this respect I won't criticise McDermott. My criticism is aimed at his signings. I don't have the inside knowledge to know who decided Rakels was worth signing. We got rid of a midfielder in Ryan Edwards who has Rakels quality of being a trier but not a lot else. Kermogant was a poor signing and it would have made more sense to have brought Samuel back from his loan spell in January. That's what I thought at the time and nothing has changed in that respect.

I m surprised that a number of Reading fans are calling for McDermott to go. That's a nonsense. Lets judge him in seven/eight months time when his own signings have had a chance to bed in.

As for expectations we do have to be realistic but having tasted top flight football I can understand why some are frustrated at the lack of progress currently. We have been extremely patient to see the club reach the top flight in the first place and our time with the big boys didn't last very long. If Swansea can sustain top flight football there is no reason why others clubs like ours can't do the same.
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Madejski

Perhaps it is worse that a large percentage of our fanbase has only known success. Last season was comfortably the worst season i've experienced as a fan - even if 19th in the second division is greater than where we used to finish.

Further few clubs have had a better period of success than us in the past 15 years (relative to their clubs norm). We've been hearing for years from our old div 3 rivals about what will happen when the bubble will burst, and we're starting to experience it now. No club is going to be constantly successful forever, you will have lows.

The point of tasting top flight football is true. Swansea are one of the few clubs who in the past 15 years have done better than us, but they make a very small list. The problem is that the Championship is packed full of former Premierleague clubs, all wanting to taste it again. And only three at most can achieve it every season.. replaced by three more clubs wanting to taste it again.
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Owlish52
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Kermorgant was widely thought of as an excellent signing, as he had performed well with other clubs, perhaps not quite as well but in more places than Vydra. Both he and Vydra have disappointed badly at Reading so far, and it is hard to put either player's failures down completely to lack of service. Both have missed gilt-edge opportunities that players of their reputation and past performance should have easily converted, especially recently.

Vydra is about out of chances with Reading - it is extremely unlikely that he will be offered to RFC at a price the club could afford. Watford will still want to sell the Vydra of 2014/15 and Reading will not nearly pay that for the Vydra we saw in 2015/16. That Vydra did not have the supporting players that he had in 2014/15 is hard to disagree with - that club got promoted; RFC will not be too close. But to say it was only the supporting cast that failed him here is also hard to agree with - his penalty miss is 100% Matej, for example, and his finishing has been poor at best, and he has had opportunities. His confidence has taken a severe hit, and even McDermott can only dress the facts up so much.

Kermorgant may also be a confidence thing to a degree; it may well have taken time for RFC to figure out just how to use him, as Reading has not had a Kermorgant-style player for some time (the Pog was not one for high balls), and that may have impacted his confidence. As the club seems to have gotten the idea and given him more good chances, he may have lost that sharp edge that lead to the goals he has scored in the past. Perhaps he and the club will be in better rhythm next season, as he does have another year. Still, the club certainly needs a new striker or two, as Kermorgant is still potential at RFC, Rakels is (at best) more potential and Cox is a more mature-looking Church, and should be on his way elsewhere. Samuel may be part of the answer, but he is also potential - Kermorgant is the closest thing to a 'proven Championship striker' currently in RFC's locker for next season, and he is 'proven' only elsewhere, not with RFC.

I believe Kermorgant seemed to be a good signing that just has not worked out (yet? I hope it is 'yet'!) with Reading - he was favorably mentioned by some of the Birmingham posters just last week as a quality addition. Rakels I'm inclined to give McD a pass on, as I don't think he was McDermott's first (or second or...) choice. With Kermorgant and Rakels coming in and Vydra already here, sending Samuel out on loan so he could get more playing time was not a bad call, IMO. In retrospect, extending his loan may have been a poor decision, but it was a tough call at that moment.

It will be interesting to see this summer's signings - a 'proven' striker and a couple of wing players (perhaps including John, if he was affordable, but TBH I'd prefer two new faces - John is a one-way player and not as consistently reliable as I'd like to see). Samuel and Tshibola will be additions to be retained as well. There will be at least two major factors in play - how will McDermott do selecting players and how will the Thais do in funding new faces? We almost certainly will not know how Part 2 there actually plays out, as we can be confident McDermott will not criticize the owners, regardless of how tight the purser strings may be gripped.
Edited by Owlish52, 10 Apr 2016, 03:16 PM.
"It could have been worse with Hillary..." - Owlish52
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SuffolkRoyal
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Despite our success over the last 20 years, I've never considered us any more than a third division club punching above our weight. This is probably due to the fact that all my active supporting years were while we we in the old 3rd and 4th divisions.

We've had some wonderful times in that 20 year period, particularly, ten years ago, but, even then, the club never demonstrated any real ambition to push on. Choosing instead to cash in on our higher valued players, almost like getting to the prem, and spending a couple of seasons there, was job done.
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cribsie
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My point is about managers in general, but let's use this as an example:- If McDermott had come in and got this team to exceed expectations by winning 7 or 8 on the bounce, would you hear anyone saying 'you can't judge until he's had a couple of transfer windows'? Of course not.
My Reading FC History Site The Biscuitmen
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SuffolkRoyal
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I take your point Chris, but we are talking about a manager who's been sacked from every managerial job he's ever had. And it wouldn't surprise me if he's eventually sacked again at Reading, in fact I'd say its inevitable.
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