A time for change?

[rik2304]

Let democracy decide!

[dunblanemike]

I’ll leave it a few hours before voting….

[Pat McGroin]

I’m hoping he resigns to be honest. 

[cristo]

I almost hate myself for doing it, but my vote is in. You just can't defend ten straight defeats. Bottom of the league and knocked out the cup by a team fro league 2.

[John Bonham]

If calum goes, would Tommy as caretaker until end of season at least give us a shot at staying up? It’s not the time for a rookie manager so if we do look elsewhere you are looking at someone with experience of the league and that really narrows down options. 
 

who else is out there that could come in and galvanise us in this situation? 

[sideline]

Tommy did not exactly save Kilmarnock last year.

I have a thought we should look at d*** Campbell. 

[ex-montrosesaintee]

I just dunno.  I'm just looking forward to our next spell of punching above our weight in 20 years time.  It was fun while it lasted, just like it was in the 90s.

If I wanted permanent glory I'd join the old firm bandwagon.

Really feeling pretty shite about the whole situation, but I'm not convinced sacking callum now is the answer to the bigger picture.

[sixties saintee]

He's gotta go end off

[R.B.B:- Adz]

If he had switched to a 4-4-2 in today’s cup match and lost, he would have at least been given the benefit of the doubt.

To pick that starting 11 and shape against a league 2 team, when we are in the form we are in is fu***** unforgivable. Absolute joker!!!!

[crieffsaintandy]

Think his time is up with his sheer stubbornness in his tactics its not working, clearly a good coach but needs to be adaptable, not for the Tommy return,  jack ross flatters to deceive in every job, but we need someone in that inspires, beginning to think he has lost the dressing room or the players realise the system is shite

Edited January 22, 2022 by crieffsaintandy

[Cagey]

36 minutes ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

If he had switched to a 4-4-2 in today’s cup match and lost, he would have at least been given the benefit of the doubt.

To pick that starting 11 and shape against a league 2 team, when we are in the form we are in is fu***** unforgivable. Absolute joker!!!!

He is just finished telling the courier he is flexible willing to change things. More or less said but yet.

Same old long diagonals from our 18 yard box out side to wing back level with their 18 yard box with nothing coming from it. McCart the biggest culprit.

75 mins to first change indicates he was nott fuming at how they were playing and still not changing shape.

Took off shifty and Kane and still no Vertainen. Well he did get 5 mins..

Keltys manager sussed us out after 15 minutes.

[slf]

Am getting pished

[Pat McGroin]

53 minutes ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

If he had switched to a 4-4-2 in today’s cup match and lost, he would have at least been given the benefit of the doubt.

To pick that starting 11 and shape against a league 2 team, when we are in the form we are in is fu***** unforgivable. Absolute joker!!!!

This is what I’ve been saying. I could deal with a horrible losing streak during a transition period if you saw that the management were attempting a few different systems and trying to see what actually worked for our squad in matches, but it’s the same old shit. 
 

No cohesion. No tempo. Spread the ball across the back line for 75-80 mins before hurrying up and trying to go more direct for the last 10-15. 

[Graeme S]

For those suggesting it'd be too expensive to sack the manager as he has a long contract - surely there must be targets/milestones that must be achieved in order to meet performance objectives? Only a moron would employ someone with absolutely no way to exit them if they couldn't complete the job profile in a competent manner? 

Most/all football managers adapt their systems to suit the opposition they are playing, even minor tweaks to combat individuals that pose potential threats - however, we haven't deviated from the same defensive, boring, unattractive game plan - it's a learning experience, and it appears the manager isn't learning. 

Latest press this evening appears to suggest that the players didn't do as they were told - so, if that's been the case all season, (as results have been similar), why has he not done something about it?

 

Frustrated beyond belief. 

[ex-montrosesaintee]

55 minutes ago, slf said:

Am getting pished

Me too

[cristo]

23 minutes ago, montrosesaintee said:

Me too

I already am.

[Pat McGroin]

Me three

[Cleveland-Saint]

I think we need a change and he's lost players confidence, but he's not all the problem here.

The real fault lies in the clubs lack of ambition or creativity to build off success, and we now find ourselves desperately trying to spend a war chest we should have spent in the summer, Broon desperately grabbing at a falling knife. 

 

[scott1982]

I think he should go. Mostly because I don't want him to sign anymore of these awful players. That being said, I don't know the actual operation. Is Callum the one sourcing all these guys ( Crawford, MacPherson, Cleary, Etu, Gallagher)? If not then who ever the feck is finding these guys should go 

[Pat McGroin]

Waited until I’d slept on it before voting. Has to go. 

[RandomGuy]

1 hour ago, scott1982 said:

I think he should go. Mostly because I don't want him to sign anymore of these awful players. That being said, I don't know the actual operation. Is Callum the one sourcing all these guys ( Crawford, MacPherson, Cleary, Etu, Gallagher)? If not then who ever the feck is finding these guys should go 

Davidson and the HOR are both identifying players.

Davidson has the final say on who they sign and what they offer.

[Radford 72]

The problem Callum Davidson faces is that when you start weighing it up, there are so many facets of his management that you can pour scrutiny on, whereas the defence is limited to past achievements that don't really provide much source for optimism in our current situation. 

He turned it round last season - by luck or design - with the introduction of a couple of new players into his system but the big difference was that despite not getting results, all the indicators pointed to a change of form. Basically we created a lot and gave little away. 

That brings us to the first aspect of his management, tactics:

The system he developed last season was good and became even better when you added the predatory instincts of Melamed and everything that Rooney offered. Wide diagonals were effective with the aerial prowess of the latter and Tanser, McCann would snap in and win the balls off those contacts. Wotherspoon understood and thrived in the inside forward position behind a main striker. Kerr advanced up the field to give the extra man you need when pressing in games but operating with a back three. 

It wasn't perfect - we didn't score enough goals - but it worked. It looked a system that the manager had developed to suit his squad, which is always encouraging, and he received plaudits for his ability as a coach. 

It was understandable that he wouldn't change much going into this season in that sense but as the team changed, so did the results. We no longer had the ability to win the first or second contact on the diagonals, nobody to pick up the ball in the pockets of space in attacking midfield and nobody to step out from defence. Yet he has persevered with the same system for now four months with no upturn in form, results or performances. Quite the opposite and it's drained the belief and confidence from the squad of players it is his job to manage. 

At some point (in my opinion about a month ago) he had to realise this wasn't working and try something different. I think the players would have relished it as much as the fans. It might not have worked straight away but it would have shown an acknowledgement and willingness to rectify a worsening situation. 

We now don't know if he can come up with something different tactically when assessing where to go from here. 

The morale of the players looks at rock bottom and that's part of his remit, to manage a group of individuals and the unit. He said yesterday that they hadn't done what he asked of them in the first 40 minutes. The problem with that is that we were so well-drilled last season and the system has hardly changed. So why aren't they doing what he says? It's hard to believe they don't understand what is being asked of them given where we were previously. Have they stopped playing for him? The reaction to going a goal behind in the defence of your trophy was as limp as it could be.

Is the bigger picture that he can't inspire players in the way some of his predecessors could? Saints have always lost their better players to clubs with greater resources but have largely avoided seeing the sort of defection witnessed with Scott Tanser's switch to St Mirren. The list of players not interested in signing a new contract under the manager is far longer than the list of those that are. 

Maybe that's purely financial and you can't judge him overly on that but you can on his business, or lack of, in the transfer market and his failure to evolve the squad he inherited. 

There is a defence, the uncertainty of the pandemic, the timing of his own arrival and most certainly the timing of the August departures of Kerr and McCann. But there is also a pretty damning case for the prosecution:

Despite the success of the team last season, at just 0.47 goals per game, Saints recorded the lowest goals per game at home of ANY club in ANY division in the HISTORY of the Scottish league... AND we lost Guy Melamed. Yet this summer the manager made no proven additions to his striking options that he was clearly going to be happy with. How did he think that was going to work out? 

Tanser was replaced with a young loanee with no experience and the potential sale of Kerr was prepared for in the same manner. Loans have been the order of the day until this month, when it's potentially too late in any case. 

The advantages of Saints making a change now are you hope it lifts the players, we see something different tactically to surprise the opposition and you have a few days left to recruit some reinforcements with a lot of scouting having been done on potential players by others at the club. 

Sad to say but what are the potential disadvantages? I think when you get to the stage where you ask yourself if it can get any worse, you probably already know the answer to both that and whether the manager should remain in his role... 

[blueheaven]

Great post from @Radford 72 above, I agree with pretty much every word.

This isn't the worst Saints team I've ever seen but I don't think I've ever seen a Saints team look more defeated, out of confidence and in some cases yesterday even distraught. It was very, very difficult to watch. One player in particular looked really shaken towards the end of the game and seemed to almost freeze amongst what was going on. Richard Foster said on Sportscene last night that he was shocked by Callum Davidson's appearance at the end of the game because CD was always such an upbeat guy and a motivator. Last night he looked dishevelled, downbeat, almost unwell. You can tell this is having a huge effect on everyone and I actually said to my Dad before the match that I was worried about what would happen at full-time with the players having to make their way off the pitch through the crowd. 

Clearly all of this is not good and I just cannot see any way out of it with Davidson in charge. I can't even see us scoring a goal, let alone getting points on the board. We could still be playing that Kelty game now and we still wouldn't have scored. I really hate to say this because of course it's not entirely Davidson's fault, but a significant enough proportion of it is his fault. I'd love to give him time to turn it around because he's brought us such wonderful moments and he seems like such a decent guy who undoubtedly has the club at heart, but I just don't think the extra time would work. We are only going to get worse, and get cut further adrift from the rest of the league.

The club needs to act now, while there is still time. 

[tucker]

Last two posts brilliant, well done lads think every fan feels this way

[ex-montrosesaintee]

After sleeping on it, and reading the posts above, I voted.  Callum was one of my favourite saints players, and last year delivered an unimaginable highlight, but in football management nobody is immune from failure, and as mentioned above, after yesterday, I don't think it can get any worse.