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Some thoughts in defence of David Artell…

While expecting a barrage of red crosses, I thought I’d put my head above the parapet in defence of our manager and Board.

I read a brilliant tweet today, which essentially likened David Artell to a teacher teaching an A level subject to a nursery class. Having watched the Stockport highlights, I can see the point being made. Good players don’t become poor overnight; neither does a good coach. We still need time to adjust to a new way of playing. And, it is going to take time.

I was at Accrington last week. We dominated that game against a team who had comfortably beaten us just a few weeks ago.

The Stockport game was essentially lost through schoolboy errors, or so it seemed from the highlights.

Going into the Donny home game (which I’ll be at), we’re in a better place than we were in the away fixture in October (which I was also at). We need to give our coach the time and space to get us safely through to the end of the season and the summer to then get the team up to A level standard. UTFM

He’s taking us down IMO. A mundane performance against an Accy side that were quite toothless up front is not enough to give me confidence that Artell has done anything other than take the team backwards.

Contrast Artell to the impact that Karl Robinson has had at Salford (who looked doomed when we played them). That’s the impact that we needed from a new man. I suspect the next couple of games will seal his fate (if the owners don’t act before).

Quoted from Belfast Town

Some thoughts in defence of David Artell…

While expecting a barrage of red crosses, I thought I’d put my head above the parapet in defence of our manager and Board.

I read a brilliant tweet today, which essentially likened David Artell to a teacher teaching an A level subject to a nursery class. Having watched the Stockport highlights, I can see the point being made. Good players don’t become poor overnight; neither does a good coach. We still need time to adjust to a new way of playing. And, it is going to take time.

I was at Accrington last week. We dominated that game against a team who had comfortably beaten us just a few weeks ago.

The Stockport game was essentially lost through schoolboy errors, or so it seemed from the highlights.

Going into the Donny home game (which I’ll be at), we’re in a better place than we were in the away fixture in October (which I was also at). We need to give our coach the time and space to get us safely through to the end of the season and the summer to then get the team up to A level standard. UTFM

I don’t think a lot of them are good players. The vast majority of them were signed from recently relegated sides or have spent the majority of their careers in non-league. Or both in the case of Mullarkey. Which of our players have had generally good careers in the FL? Rose, Eisa, Thompson and  Gnahoua are realistically the only ones. You could argue Rodgers has done okay but I presume he must have had someone good alongside him because we can see firsthand that he isn’t dominant in the air, isn’t good with the ball and is a bit of a coward. It’s a squad primarily composed of losers.

The point about needing time is also pretty important because if either Sutton or FGR find some form then we don’t have that time. We cannot go back to non-league, that is imperative. And if Artell won’t compromise on his “philosophy” (a slightly laughable term for a L2 manager who’s getting hammered most weeks) or can’t get a tune out of them soon then he’ll have to go to give us a chance to stay up.

Quoted from davmariner

He’s taking us down IMO. A mundane performance against an Accy side that were quite toothless up front is not enough to give me confidence that Artell has done anything other than take the team backwards.

Contrast Artell to the impact that Karl Robinson has had at Salford (who looked doomed when we played them). That’s the impact that we needed from a new man. I suspect the next couple of games will seal his fate (if the owners don’t act before).

Just change the word ‘suspect’ from your last sentence and change it with ‘hope’ because that’s obviously how you really feel

Not sure anybody wants to see us lose next two games but if we do can you or anybody else justify not asking serious questions

Quoted from fishcake63

Not sure anybody wants to see us lose next two games but if we do can you or anybody else justify not asking serious questions

I tend to disagree. You can see the regular moaners on when there’s a poor performance, when there’s a good one they go quiet. Some people love the drama and being able to complain about something or someone. They have a regular booboy . They love failure and the chance to have a moan.

Quoted from pontoonlew

Just change the word ‘suspect’ from your last sentence and change it with ‘hope’ because that’s obviously how you really feel

Similarly we know you’re a big fan of Artell, though it’s not particularly clear why. Just accept that I have a different view to yours and move on - it’s a good life lesson.

Quoted from davmariner

Similarly we know you’re a big fan of Artell, though it’s not particularly clear why. Just accept that I have a different view to yours and move on - it’s a good life lesson.

Big difference. Lew is desperate for Artell to succeed,as am I and others for obvious reasons. You nailed your colours to the mast when you wrote

Quoted from davmariner

If David Artell gets the job then we’ll go down.

and seem oddly desperate to be proven right.

Quoted from HatTrickHero

Big difference. Lew is desperate for Artell to succeed,as am I and others for obvious reasons. You nailed your colours to the mast when you wrote

and seem oddly desperate to be proven right.

I think I’ve said on another thread that I take no pleasure in the fact that Artell is doing badly, but I still hope he proves me wrong - however I’m confident that he won’t.

Ultimately my view was (and still is) that we needed a pragmatic manager that would grind out the points that we needed to stay up.

Ripping everything up mid season and trying to make these players play out from the back when they’re low on confidence and ability was madness and destined to fail IMO and our results, particularly our home thumpings are reflecting that. It’s tantamount to playing Russian roulette with our league status.

Quoted from fishcake63

Not sure anybody wants to see us lose next two games but if we do can you or anybody else justify not asking serious questions

I'd be asking serious questions if we lost the next two games but I'm not going to lose it after losing 3-1 to the top of the league side. We've had some alright performances under Artell. The only real shockers I can think of are Walsall were we dominated the first 30 minutes and then fell to pieces and Tranmere. We haven't played too many teams around us since Artell arrived. Let's see how Tuesday goes.