Coaching Angst - ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Did you even see that game...?

Yes. Dura scored. Payne handball. We lost.

And i'm a C-Type

I won this time. Ha!

BANSTICK FOR THE NEXT PERSON TO CHANGE THEIR NAME!!!!

You serial ?

The problem with hanging your hat on this "making the finals 3 years in a row" argument is it implies that finishing 1st is the same level of achievement as finishing 6th.

Herbert has convinced a lot of people that it's all the same when clearly it's not.  Listen to Arnie and CCM and they don't care a jot for the playoffs - what they want to win is the league.

Neither

That's cause the playoffs are so farcical have 6/10 qualify

 Thanks to those who gave me a good laugh in the last three pages of this thread this morning.

A good signing today and Ricki has his thumbprint all over it - compare this announcement with Corey's one.

Got to admire the way he has done it, he is obviously fighting for his position  getting in a quality player for next season already

Must make it harder to sack him after the review at the end of the season. "Give me one more year to show you what I can do with Carlos, Corey ...and a few other names to come."

I think he may have dodged the silver bullet with this

Ricki is a werewolf?

This changes my perception of him greatly.

MODS!

So, interested on people's thoughts on how yesterday's announcement re: Carlos Hernandez affects their view of whether Ricki should stay or go as coach.

If before yesterday you thought he should definitely go does this sway your view at all? If so, how much? What else would he need to do to convince you he's worth keeping?  Are things just too far gone now or is there life in an old dog yet?

For me, I had definitely moved into the "he should go as coach" camp but the Carlos recruitment gets him at least a stay of execution, maybe even back to 50/50 chance. A lot still depends on results for the rest of the season and maybe hearing about a couple more good signings.

I can't deny yesterday was a "wow" though. Without getting stupid and throwing ridiculous names from the EPL about, it's hard to think of another A-League level player signing that could have increased his stocks by so much in one hit.

I feel exactly the same way as you Termy.

I feel similarly, I was definitely in the "he should go as coach" camp, this signing has moved me a little bit, but I think my biggest problem with him is still tactically. 

So while the signing gave me a WOW and a big smile, and credit to Ricki for the signing, if they moved him into a DoF type role, he would still be working on signings, but someone else would be on tactics (I have no idea what options are out there).

So in saying that I think I have moved from 100% he should go as coach back to about 75% he should go as coach, I want to see some improvements on the pitch tactically as well.

Spot on. Keep Ricki as a scout?

Personally I don't think Ricki is a great scout. Tends to bring players who have already played A-league, vast majority on foreign players have been donkey's and I think he struggles to identify young talent.

Chen, Gao, Elrich...... I could go on.

 I bless the rains down in Africa.

Anyway, I'm still 50/50 on Ricki.

Classic Doloras !

His job is still to coach the team so in the end I don't really get how signing a very much known quantity player really changes anything. It's great he got him to come - but I don't really see how this increases Ricki's stocks.  I don't really get the angle here - you say Ricki pulled this one out of the bag, but what do you see as his part in the signing?  He identified him as a good player he'd like to sign - but couldn't most of us have said yeah, sign him, if someone offered the club Carlos Hernandez?  Doesn't really prove he has the ability to spot a player does it

I noted that Ricki pointed out the relationship he has with CH (and fair enough too).

"I've always had a good relationship with Carlos and from the first call I made to him our talks were positive."

It would be interesting what CH has to say about why he chose Welly, but probably won't happen any time soon I guess. Has it changed my mind about RH? Probably not, but it is definintely a piece of weighty evidence in his favour come review time. I think it's fair to assume that had we sacked RH a month ago, and were bedding in a newish coach with no relationship with CH, he wouldn't have ended up here.

JD, he got Carlos Hernandez to sign for the Nix. I would have thought that's pretty significant. In the case of a big name player it's not the spotting that counts it's convincing them to come and play for you.

Is he responsible for recruitment or not? You can't have it both ways. If he takes the blame for a bad recruitment, he gets credit for a good one.

Anyway, I'll go out on a limb and put you down for still being a 100% Sack Ricki.

Yip a very good signing, and I being one that has just been slagging off his recruitment ability I'll admit he has done well here.

But a good signing for next year shouldn't take away attention to the fact we started the year with an extremely weak midfield which most coaches would have known was going to cause a lot of issues. And overall our squad was never going to be able to compete with the top teams. Yes people were saying it was our best squad put together, but over in Australia we were picked to be the wooden spoon.

Also doesnt change the fact that this season we have only won 5 games out of 20. And not only have we been losing, but losing badly.

Carlos won't change Mr Herbert lack of ability at tactic's especially adapting his tactic's in the middle of the game.

Ricki Herbert's biggest strength was he created an environment that gave the team high moral. Seems like this year his biggest strength has let him down some what. Yes some of it might have been out of his control, but all clubs have these issues and coaches need to get past it.

I am very much in the camp Herbert has to go, and sooner the better. But he will remain till the end of the season, and for me to change camps the team is going to need to show a remarkable improvement. Not neccasirly making play offs, but we are certainly going to need to push for play offs.

We have Brisbane away this week. This is a team sitting sitting one point above us. If we lose this I would have to think our chances of making the play offs is over. And if we get completely outplayed and are on the end of another one sided result (which I can see happening) then I see little chance of Herbert changing my opinion. But at the end of the day what does my opinion count for really?

RH signs CH so now people who thought we should sack RH before, should now think............ I LOVE RICKI !!!!!!!!!!!!!

No.

When RH takes the Phoenix to the HAL title....... then I will change my mind about him.

But I am not holding my breath.

What if we got a new coach next season and we came 10th? Would you be tippexing out the RICKI on your SACK RICKI T-shirt for re-use? Or give him a chance?

Pfft. No. I'll just get another one printed.....

If we got a new coach and we came tenth I still wouldn't say sacking Herbert was a mistake. We just obviosuly didn't find the right replacement and need to keep looking. A lot of club's go through a number of managers until they find the right one. They just try and make sure they get it right sooner rather than later. There is always the risk that we might do worse, but if you never maker changes how can you ever improve?

Plus finishing tenth aint going to be much worse than where we will most likely end up this year.

 Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, the fact remains that we do not have the players to be good enough to win the final. (even if we were to make the top 6)

20 matches - conceded 37 goals (2nd worst) and scored 22 (2nd worst).  

All I want to know his how, if he stays on, he's going to reverse those numbers

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/coaches-leading-a-revolution-of-the-species-20130215-2eiin.html

Interesting article on A-League coaching.  I think it's a little bit over blown - the A-League still isn't greatly consistent but does point out that we're dropping behind the curve.  Now that the only other remaining first generation coach has been sacked (Ferguson) the onus has to be on Ricki to show he's learnt in the same way as Arnie did