Couldn’t have put it better myself. The club, as in the entire management team, must come together and address all these issues. That’s what well run organisations of any kind do, not knee-jerk reactions.
You have to hope that this is already happening. Saturday will tell us more. We win, and lose, together. Time to put that into practice.
As for the abuse that’s being spouted on social media, I find it disgusting and disturbing. But sadly, not surprising. Conspiracy theories, gossip, outright lies and defamation of character have no place in a club that seeks to be values driven, and should be called out.
Agree Lesley. It is also true that there are many mitigating factors at play here - the hard fixtures, the huge disruption ahead of a transfer window. Foster and the club have had a lot to contend with. The side has traditionally been great at bouncing back with a good reaction, so let's hope we manage that again at the weekend.
The worry for me was that we looked clueless on Tuesday night. They played like strangers and made an ordinary Wednesday side look good! We appear to be getting worse. Too many had an off night. We couldn’t string two passes together in the first half. I worry that we have no nasty, scrappers in the team (a Guttuso/Keane type) to drive us on. I’m concerned that I keep saying that we’ve been unlucky and I’ve heard this from so many relegated teams over the years!!
I think there are a huge number of factors all in play – including the transfers made. But the voices of friends and family against Foster is quite worrying. To be a leader, you need to bring your people on a journey with you. If relations have broken down they need to be urgently repaired, or there needs to be a change.
Thank you for a thoughtful and thought provoking piece. I agree with everything you are saying and I don’t believe that it would be in the club’s best interest to sack Foster. However, someone (presumably Simon, Neil or Andrew) has to take him to one side and insist that he makes some changes or risk losing the support of playing staff and supporters. The rumours about certain players being out of favour, training alone etc. are just not acceptable and don’t fit with the family ethos of our club. My real worry is that as the pressure mounts on Foster and the team, he/they find it hard to bear and double down on the current approach. With so many of our fellow strugglers suddenly hitting form, we simply can’t afford this to happen. To be relegated after just one season would be disastrous given the attacking talent that we have in our ranks, not to mention the impact on the club’s 5 year plan, attendances, revenues and morale.
Agree Simon - that's why I thought now was the time to ask some constructive questions about the approach. In a way this is a sign of success - this idea of attacking football has lodged itself in the minds of Argyle fans and has become The Big Idea that those at the club are charged with delivering to the best of their ability. Foster has had a lot to deal with in very hard circumstances. We'd all be delighted to see a reaction on Saturday.
I wonder if this is a case of being too ‘data driven’?
Sometimes you just need to use your eyes!
The first half at Hillsborough was appalling. The ‘plan’ clearly wasn’t working. We looked clueless and disjointed. It needed changing at HT! The changes came too late.
I have some sympathy for Foster. He’s come in at a very tricky time and we lost Azaz (one of our creative, attacking threats).
I’ve heard a comment that maybe there was too much information being passed to the players and that they struggled to instigate that plan. This could be because we are switching too much to counter opposition threat and set up. Maybe we need to focus more on our patterns of play because we appeared to have none against the Owls!
I love how Michael doesn't wade in to make sweeping statements or baseless theories. Just calls it as we all see it. I hope he becomes a OTID regular!
I also forgot to add some links because I wanted this up quickly, while my family and work were tearing pieces out of me:
Michael's twitter: https://twitter.com/savageargyle?lang=en-GB
Michael's Substack: https://fplislife.substack.com
Worrying tweet from Ryan Hardie's nan: https://twitter.com/J198451/status/1765477142752845882
Couldn’t have put it better myself. The club, as in the entire management team, must come together and address all these issues. That’s what well run organisations of any kind do, not knee-jerk reactions.
You have to hope that this is already happening. Saturday will tell us more. We win, and lose, together. Time to put that into practice.
As for the abuse that’s being spouted on social media, I find it disgusting and disturbing. But sadly, not surprising. Conspiracy theories, gossip, outright lies and defamation of character have no place in a club that seeks to be values driven, and should be called out.
Agree Lesley. It is also true that there are many mitigating factors at play here - the hard fixtures, the huge disruption ahead of a transfer window. Foster and the club have had a lot to contend with. The side has traditionally been great at bouncing back with a good reaction, so let's hope we manage that again at the weekend.
The worry for me was that we looked clueless on Tuesday night. They played like strangers and made an ordinary Wednesday side look good! We appear to be getting worse. Too many had an off night. We couldn’t string two passes together in the first half. I worry that we have no nasty, scrappers in the team (a Guttuso/Keane type) to drive us on. I’m concerned that I keep saying that we’ve been unlucky and I’ve heard this from so many relegated teams over the years!!
We need a huge turnaround on Saturday. 🤞💚
I think there are a huge number of factors all in play – including the transfers made. But the voices of friends and family against Foster is quite worrying. To be a leader, you need to bring your people on a journey with you. If relations have broken down they need to be urgently repaired, or there needs to be a change.
Thank you for a thoughtful and thought provoking piece. I agree with everything you are saying and I don’t believe that it would be in the club’s best interest to sack Foster. However, someone (presumably Simon, Neil or Andrew) has to take him to one side and insist that he makes some changes or risk losing the support of playing staff and supporters. The rumours about certain players being out of favour, training alone etc. are just not acceptable and don’t fit with the family ethos of our club. My real worry is that as the pressure mounts on Foster and the team, he/they find it hard to bear and double down on the current approach. With so many of our fellow strugglers suddenly hitting form, we simply can’t afford this to happen. To be relegated after just one season would be disastrous given the attacking talent that we have in our ranks, not to mention the impact on the club’s 5 year plan, attendances, revenues and morale.
Agree Simon - that's why I thought now was the time to ask some constructive questions about the approach. In a way this is a sign of success - this idea of attacking football has lodged itself in the minds of Argyle fans and has become The Big Idea that those at the club are charged with delivering to the best of their ability. Foster has had a lot to deal with in very hard circumstances. We'd all be delighted to see a reaction on Saturday.
I wonder if this is a case of being too ‘data driven’?
Sometimes you just need to use your eyes!
The first half at Hillsborough was appalling. The ‘plan’ clearly wasn’t working. We looked clueless and disjointed. It needed changing at HT! The changes came too late.
I have some sympathy for Foster. He’s come in at a very tricky time and we lost Azaz (one of our creative, attacking threats).
I’ve heard a comment that maybe there was too much information being passed to the players and that they struggled to instigate that plan. This could be because we are switching too much to counter opposition threat and set up. Maybe we need to focus more on our patterns of play because we appeared to have none against the Owls!