Dan wrote:gazza1988 wrote:Sorry Dan, but the table at the end of season doesn't lie. Evans 16/17 season: 12th. 17/18 season: DNF (with 3 transfer windows in total). DF 17/18 season: 8th. 18/19 season: 4th (with 2 transfer windows in total).
DF and Evans' approach are nigh on complete opposites. Evans signed loads of players. I believe we had 3 or 4 right wingers in 17/18. As a result DF inherited 2 crock CB and a RW on a huge amount who didn't want to play or move on at a paycut.
So I guess based on that you are suggesting JR and CR are to blame? Who sanctioned 3 or 4 right wingers? Who agreed to such a contract for a right winger whose legs had gone? It's a strong case.
For me there are way too many fingers in the pie to say 1 person is 100% to blame. It's a culmination of different factors.
The players didn't bottle it, for me our injuries to key players that we couldn't replace hurt us the most.
None of that has got anything to do with my original point. DF came in when we were 4th & managed to bottle it & grab 8th which at the time he came in seemed nigh on impossible. Irrelevant of the players at his disposal as they were the same ones who took us to 4th.
DF had 12 games when he came in. He won two of them. One against relegation fodder at the Prozac & the other against the mighty Yeovil. He couldn’t even beat the likes of Crewe, Port Vale & Crawley at home fgs.
Completely irrelevant. For starters we were 5th when DF took over. It's where you finish in a season after playing each team in the league twice that counts. His fixtures were Lincoln (and later play off finalists), we lost to Luton and Accrington (both promoted). yes there where more than a couple of disappointing results from Flitcroft in those 12 games, there were many more from Evans. Accrington, Cheltenham, Colchester, Swindon and Crawley spring to mind.
Let's not forget that in Evan's last game we couldn't even beat, at the time of the game, a mid-table side who spent 75+ minutes down to 10 men. We can sit here all night pointing out where we played bad, or the opponent was just better but at the end of the day DF did fail to get us automatics and Evans failed so much worse at it. At the time DF took over only 2 of the 4 play off places were occupied by teams that would participate in the play offs at the end of the season. The 2 teams who were present that didn't make it? Stags and Swindon.
I think you are one of those people who were duped into thinking Evans was some kind of footballing god, the football was, let's be honest here, "Paul Cox"-esque but with a bit more style. it always baffled me when the song was and the "got us playing the way we should" part was sung, I didn't think we were that good. Also, many people have questioned Danny Rose's ability to score. He was Evans' focus for our attacks (and clearances) under Evans. Stop making out the entire squad that DF inherited was some kind of League 2 smashing team. It was slightly above average as a unit. 0 (zero) team of the year mentions anywhere. Under DF we had 4 players in the team of the year. The side this year was a big improvement on last season's side in both results and entertainment. I would have expected great things this season what with the "deadwood" finally able to be cut from last season. But the ball is with JD now, lets's see what he can do.