Baraclough Out

[Desp]

Yes, I think it's at the point now where a majority want him out.

 

Defeat tonight would see that change to 100% IMO.

[gilmour]

A poll would be interesting.

[Kmcalpin]

 

Defeat tonight would see that change to 100% IMO.

Very doubtful indeed, given the nature of our support and posters on these message boards. If there's one thing I've learnt over the years its that there's always someone with a contrary or different opinion!

[Shire Greats]

The change of tone in here is quite noticeable.

I'm starting to think its edging close to a majority who would like to see him go?

I have found the past couple of games a hard watch, but still think dismissing the guy if we lost tonight would be a knee jerk reaction.......give it till first round of games are by and hopefully Pearson and Fletcher are back and then judge.....its not as if we can just go and get Jurgen Klopp or Jim Jeffries in , anyway

[Busta Nut]

I am going along tonight but I don't really care about tonight, we need to beat Thistle though.

[Kmcalpin]

I have found the past couple of games a hard watch, but still think dismissing the guy if we lost tonight would be a knee jerk reaction.......give it till first round of games are by and hopefully Pearson and Fletcher are back and then judge.....its not as if we can just go and get Jurgen Klopp or Jim Jeffries in , anyway

Thats only about 3/4 games away. We have a winnable game on Saturday against Partick Thistle but then 2 very tough games against Celtic and Dundee after that. I cannot see us taking much from these last 2 games to be honest, even with a good manager at the helm. In effect Saturday is the crunch.

[capt_oats]

Personally I'm at the stage where I think it's fairly inevitable that he'll leave at some point this season. The best that he can hope for is that he sees things out until the end of the season and is replaced then. Circumstances are such that I just don't see that he has support within the fan base and in truth that only really ends up with one outcome.

I'd argue that he's never really had the support there and he's not shown anywhere near enough to convince people otherwise. By no means am I comparing the size of clubs but in terms of the dynamic I see echoes of Moyes at Man U, Benitez at Chelsea, Allardyce at Newcastle and West Ham. Basically Baraclough could go on and get some results in the next few games but I don't think that's enough to change opinion and that's not really a healthy culture to have around the club. Even more so if you're trying to push fan engagement.

For what it's worth I don't think we're likely to go down, I don't think we'll be comfortable in the league though. I think there are equally poor teams in the league with equally poor managers so you'll see teams win a few games then go on a run of losing (Killie's last couple of wins for example). Locke's not suddenly turned into a *better* manager overnight. When it comes down to it though I get the feeling that Baraclough's unlikely to be able to do what the club wants him to do. As I said the other day in the current climate in modern football there are very few managers turn things around markedly after this length of time at a club. He's been here almost 10 months and we're still porous at the back, still can't defend cross balls etc. Granted these faults pre-date his time at the club but the point is these are things that should be able to be coached. It doesn't rely on natural talent.

To me we look like a team unsure of what we're doing, rather than just a flat out bad team. Someone posted yesterday about how we pressed against ICT and to me that's a really good point. For whatever reason (Pearson's injury?) we seem to have abandoned the system we started the season with and are moving to a 3 man midfield, in fact I'd say this change explains the recruitment of both Grimshaw and Robinson perfectly. In that respect it seems to me that we've spent all pre-season working on specific shapes but have abandoned that very quickly. At the moment the hesitation and uncertainty you're seeing when we're on the ball are the hallmarks of a team that aren't familiar with how they're set up. Instead of movement being natural they're having to take a second or two to work out what to do with the ball. In that respect I see echoes of Kampman's time here and that didn't pan out particularly well.

What I would say is that I think we're probably in better shape now to replace the manager now than we were last season. I think we've got a good group of players and there's potential there for a new guy to get the basis of a team. I don't think that was the case with the players we had last season and equally I don't think the club expected the wheels to fall off as badly as they did last year so when they did and McCall walked I think they were caught out. I'd like to think that they may have at least considered that Baraclough may not work out this season and have some sort of contingency in place.

[Nellies]

We all come on this and moan about baraclough but what are us fans going to do about it. Booing dosent really work, think songs and a few banners might show that we dont want him at the club

[capt_oats]

We all come on this and moan about baraclough but what are us fans going to do about it. Booing dosent really work, think songs and a few banners might show that we dont want him at the club

Others have said it, in modern football people just stop going. It's not a protest, it's not motivated by any notion of "Baraclough Out" it's simply the realisation that no one is forcing them to go to Fir Park. The era of people pitching up out of blind loyalty is long gone.

[gilmour]

Tin hat on and call me glory hunter whatever but Ross county was the last straw for me. I can take being beaten (I know last gasp draw) but what I can't watch is dull as fuck football. On nightshifts and wrestled with myself whether to get out my bed n go to accies. Previous shit football proved deciding factor, and proved right.

 

Players look uninterested so why should I be ? and paying for it at the same time.

[steelman1991]

And there lies the worry Capt. Once they're gone its difficult, if not nigh impossible to get them back.

[rab_mackinnon]

If he loses tonight then on Saturday he has to go!!!

 

we have averaged a goal every 144 minutes this season with an embarrassing amount of attacking options the likes our club hasn't seen for years!!!

 

he invested more money in this side of the team and it hasn't worked without Louis moults goals we would be rock bottom of the league just now.

 

He could never fully be judged using mccalls team last season and I believe we won the play off not because of a good motherwell team but a shit rangers.

 

Nothing I've seen this season inspires confidence:

 

Signing Louis laing after the dismal partnership with McManus last season I can't understand?

 

Not strengthening our defensive options other than bringing in an unproven left back from Celtics reserves.

 

Nobody else seems to break up play in midfield other than lasley who can't be far away from suspension. don't get me started on taylor the kids hasn't got it.

 

he's loaned in a goalkeeper and although I'm not a twardzik fan i don't think he would've been any better or worse than ripley.

 

clarksons signing has completely baffled me as he'll be lucky if he's seen 60 minutes playing time the whole season.

 

all this coupled with the fact we look disorganised and disinterested in fighting to win a game until we lose a goal and our brand of football is by far the worst i have witnessed at fir park in years!!!

 

Please prove me wrong bara I'd like nothing more but it's extremely hard to go into the wallet and pull out my hard earned to support the team when this is whats being served up

[Big Wispy Flossy]

If he loses tonight then on Saturday he has to go!!!

 

we have averaged a goal every 144 minutes this season with an embarrassing amount of attacking options the likes our club hasn't seen for years!!!

 

he invested more money in this side of the team and it hasn't worked without Louis moults goals we would be rock bottom of the league just now.

 

He could never fully be judged using mccalls team last season and I believe we won the play off not because of a good motherwell team but a shit rangers.

 

Nothing I've seen this season inspires confidence:

 

Signing Louis laing after the dismal partnership with McManus last season I can't understand?

 

Not strengthening our defensive options other than bringing in an unproven left back from Celtics reserves.

 

Nobody else seems to break up play in midfield other than lasley who can't be far away from suspension. don't get me started on taylor the kids hasn't got it.

 

he's loaned in a goalkeeper and although I'm not a twardzik fan i don't think he would've been any better or worse than ripley.

 

clarksons signing has completely baffled me as he'll be lucky if he's seen 60 minutes playing time the whole season.

 

all this coupled with the fact we look disorganised and disinterested in fighting to win a game until we lose a goal and our brand of football is by far the worst i have witnessed at fir park in years!!!

 

Please prove me wrong bara I'd like nothing more but it's extremely hard to go into the wallet and pull out my hard earned to support the team when this is whats being served up

You could always phone yer big mate van der gaag see if he could do us a turn Rab

[Geedub]

I said to my dad when leaving Hamilton on Saturday that I wouldn't be back to another away game until the team improves forgetting we play Morton tonight so after tonight I'm on a self imposed banning order from all away grounds.

 

If we lose badly tonight and again on Saturday I'll be in the Bara out camp.

[weeyin]

 

Not strengthening our defensive options other than bringing in an unproven left back from Celtics reserves.

 

The 2 new defensive options Kennedy and Chalmers have looked just fine when they have played. Moult and Fletcher have also looked just fine. It's not the unproven players that have been the problem so far. It's guys like Skippy, McManus, Law etc.

[postiejim]

None of his signings have really impressed me t.b.h, Johnston had two great games in the play offs but its been mostly mediocre. Add tae that our so called experienced players McManus ,Hammell,Lasley ,Skippy ,Ainsworth have been poor. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm no paying hard earned money tae watch that crap.

[MelvinBragg]

His signings have been a mixed bag. Johnson is inconsistent but on his day is excellent. Moult and Fletcher have a decent goal return for games played. Laing has the occasional brainfart but has potential, Kennedy and Chalmers have looked decent. Taylor, not so good.

 

As others have said, maybe some of the experienced players need to look at themselves.

 

I think a larger problem might be the fact that Baraclough doesn't seem to know his strongest team...

[fizoxy]

Don't really feel like defending him, but the team he put out on Saturday was pretty much the one we all wanted. We wanted skippy and Laing dropped, and knew that hammell would miss out on the plastic. He brought in Laing for Kennedy in the previous game because of injury.

 

With fletcher injured the forward line is a pick 2 out of 3 scenario, skippy has been poor so we put out he other two. So I don't think the case is that he doesn't know his best team, other than Taylor he seems to have put out the best XI available each week, I think it is more that he doesn't know how to use his best XI available.

 

He's set to have Pearson and fletcher back soon, so if he can't show improvement with his full squad available then we're in trouble.

[Mad Dog]

Surely the experienced players letting Bara's team down are more or less the same experienced players that let McCall's team down at the end. They'll be gone next summer so we'll probably not have this new, dynamic team that we were promised until then. I think that the board will stick by their man (rightly or wrongly) so if we are comfortably outside of the bottom two by the end of the season then that should be seen as an improvement on last season and a further summer rebuild should see us pushing for the top 6.

[yosemite sam]

What he needs to do is get back to playing football on the deck. Stop what has happened in the last two games, with the goalkeeper humping the ball upfield at every opportunity, in the hope that one of the forwards might just get it. The last home game was just turgid, not once did the goalkeeper roll out to feet and try and play from the back and through the midfield. It was murder to watch. And then they wonder why people don't come back to football. Even I (and I've supported MFC for 50 odd years) have second thoughts about attending if this kick and rush football continues.

[capt_oats]

His signings have been a mixed bag. Johnson is inconsistent but on his day is excellent. Moult and Fletcher have a decent goal return for games played. Laing has the occasional brainfart but has potential, Kennedy and Chalmers have looked decent. Taylor, not so good.

 

Apropos of nothing but I'd say most of his permanent signings have been decent enough (Clarkson aside). It's more the loans (Straker, Taylor) and weird short term signings (Nathan Thomas played 2 games for example) that have been poor. I'm not sure what, if anything, that says.

 

As I've said anyone who expects a manager to have 100% rate of top quality signings is mental. So far I'm perfectly happy with the ratio of decent players we've brought in especially the league we play in.

 

I get that it's subjective and that there's arguments to be had about form but for me Johnson, Laing, Pearson, McDonald, Moult, Fletcher, Chalmers, Kennedy are all very solid signings while Theo Robinson looks like he has something to offer. Looking at the business we've done while he's been here I'd say 3 signings have been genuinely poor (Thomas, Straker, Taylor in case you're wondering) the rest vary, for me, from decent with potential to very good with a couple of pointless signings on the side (Clarkson, Samson).

 

Under Baraclough here's who we've brought in;

 

2014/15

Pearson (permanent)

Johnson (permanent)

Thomas (permanent - end of season)

McDonald (permanent - end of season)

Straker (loan)

Laing (loan)

Grant (loan)

Long (loan)

 

2015/16

Chalmers (permanent)

Clarkson (permanent)

Fletcher (permanent)

Laing (permanent)

Moult (permanent)

Kennedy (permanent)

McDonald (re-signed)

Robinson (permanent)

Samson (permanent)

Ripley (loan)

Taylor (loan)

Grimshaw (loan)

[DEWELL]

I believe he has brought in decent players but he just doesn't seem to be able to get them up for games. Ripley is dodgy, the defence is dodgy our midfield doesn't create enough for our strikers the whole shebang is wrong. He has to carry the can for the way we're playing. Nervous and lacking leadership would sum it up. His time is up we need a new manager who can get more from the players.

[David]

There's been times this season that the signing policy has left me both dazed and confused.

[Burn_Broomfield]

Anytime you like.

[Spiderpig]

Taxi for Barraclough...