By theimps.tk
December 10 2008

It's been a frustrating season for the Imps so far. A Peter Jackson guaranteed promotion season has turned into a battle to escape midtable mediocrity, and quite frankly that's not good enough. Several players have underperformed and very few are worthy of exceptional praise, but are we already at a total loss?

Like a lot of other City fans, I went into this season hoping that we would finally return to the promotion chasing days of a few years back. I hoped that  Jackson's self-proclaimed "magnificant seven" (despite it actually being eight) would progress this club onto new heights for the near future....and what's happened? We've gone on to extend Jackson's record of losing more than he wins and in 41 League games of management, Jackson had gained just 57 points......so in other words, baring a late, late run, that would equate to a midtable position over the space of a season.

That is not progression. People keep on saying that Jackson has achieved as much as Alexander and Schofield because neither of them got this club promoted, but both have more than exceeded what Jackson has "achieved" on a higher budget that either of the aforementioned had. Both of the aforementioned had reached the Playoffs, granted unsuccessfully, but we reached them nevertheless....what has Peter actually achieved? He "saved" us from relegation when we were in a group, it's not as if we were miles adrift.

I really don't understand why people have been stressing about if Jackson will sign a new contract, and all the farce regarding a clause is ridiculous. Huddersfield have sacked him TWICE, they won't be rehiring him any time soon and I highly doubt Bradford would want a manager who has a bigger losing record than winning. Quite frankly, even if Jackson did leave at the end of the season, we wouldn't be losing much.

There is a belief amongst the footballing world that Jackson is a great manager, but not a great coach. He is a poor tactician, playing players out of position and very rarely playing ambitiously. At Exeter, much like our games against many other opposition, Jackson just swapped like-for-like, whereas the opposition brought on strikers for midfielders and defender, only one manager wanted to win that game and it certainly wasn't the Lord of the Hype. Then of course, we get to the timing of the substitutions, Jackson waiting until it's too late to make the changes, even though it's blatently obvious to everyone that we aren't playing well.

One thing that really annoys me is that the players are saying "no-one was complaining in October"......well who bloody would complain about the only time during the entire season we've actually won games? We weren't even playing well! We were playing crap and winning, that's not the sign of a good side, that's the sign of a side who are lucky. We were destroyed at Bournemouth and won because of two linesman's flags and a flug goal. I'm sorry, but in that entire month we did win 5 games out of 6, but only actually played well in one of those games. So stop treating it as though October wasn't a fluke, because it was.

In terms of aspects to the season, I really can't see us even finishing in midtable at the minute. If there's one team that everyone wants to play at the minute, it's City. All the other teams know we can fall apart at any given minute, we're more unstable that a house made of cards and the Titanic. We just aren't as good as the management, the players and some of the fans make us out to be.

We are not going anywhere this season!

Reaction to the season so far

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 10/12/2008 18:46

theimps.tk
10/12/2008 18:46

Reaction to the season so far

Reply Quote Report

RedandWhiteStripes
10/12/2008 18:57

You missed Warlow and Pembleton, no everyone's perfect!

Reply Quote Report

sammyimp
10/12/2008 19:33

I think Green & Beevers have been better than what you have rated them at Nathan, but thats just my opinion....

Reply Quote Report

Kate Jackson
10/12/2008 19:59

The reason I have omitted Warlow and Pembleton is because I only rated players who have actually played.

Good Luck, Mr Gorsky

http://twitter.com/#!/katejackson84
http://www.katejackson84.blogspot.com

Reply Quote Report

kevin6
10/12/2008 20:42

I'm on the fence till beginning of January. My main beef is that the football we are playing is rubbish. If we created chances and scored goals and still lost I could understand it. But we are playing like Arsenal did under George Graham. I went to Wycombe this year and watched Lee Frecklington doing nothing but defend. Negative, negative, negative.

I would be interested to know what system Jacko used at Huddersfield. The only reason I can see he is sticking to 433 is that in his view he hasn't got the players to play 442.

I agree that October was nothing but lucky. We are not dominating matches. We seem to be playing with fear.

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net