Next Seasons Manager

Manning doesn’t use Twine in exclusively wingers zones though? Zinckernagel and Twine would operate in the middle zones of each side and the wingbacks would take the wide positions up. Also, Bournemouth and Fulham went up without using just quick players, same with Norwich the season before

 

Manning is asked about his future here, about four mins in. https://twitter.com/mkdonsfc/status/1523409505362624513?s=21&t=HREAklDxqX5RGd7noplpSQ

He merely says that his short term future is that he is going to have a beer and that he is always looking to learn and improve himself and is thankful to those around him. He didn’t do much to shut the speculation down.

 

I'm not sure why any up and coming young manager would want to work for England's most dysfunctional club

 

Ego.
Every manager worth his salts will assume he will be the one to bring endless success and stay for 3 years (3 months in Silva's case) before moving onto a top 6 club.

 

Get paid for three years work when sacked after three months.

 

Yes that too !

 

True. But I'd have thought any young coach with confidence in his ability would prefer to wait until he got a better offer and not jump at the chance to join Pozzo's circus

 

That's a fair point, though we finished 2nd last season by scoring a lot of goals on the counter. I'm not sure about your holding the ball up point though - if you're expecting us to have lots of possession in the opposition half, as opposed to counter-attacking more, then surely we'd need a poacher as a CF more than anything else?

Interesting website, though if you actually look at the breakdown of those measures he's actually towards the bottom of that list for average carries per 90, average carry distance and average carry progress (14th, 19th and 15th) - i.e. he doesn't actually progress/dribble with the ball that often and that far.

The reason why he scores highly on that measure is more because he creates a lot of chances with his passing when he gets the ball - he can carry the ball forward a bit when there's a bit of open space available, but he's predominantly looking for a pass when opposition get near him.

Checking whoscored, Twine is actually 55th in League One for 'successful dribbles per 90' out of wingers, attacking midfielders and strikers with at least 10 appearances, having an average of only 0.7 per game.

As a player he is relatively static and needs pace around him to pass to and feed off.

 

Fulham switch between Bobby Reid, Neeskens Kabano and Harry Wilson in the wide/attacking midfield positions - all of which are faster and trickier dribblers than both Zinc and Twine.

Muff use Jaidon Anthony and Ryan Christie. who are likewise.

Norwich won the division with Buendia and Cantwell. Fair enough Buendia isn't rapid, but they are both very good dribblers and regularly weave between players. They also had Pukki in front of them who is quick in running off the shoulder of defenders (and exactly the kind of striker we'd need if we oddly had Zinc and Twine behind).

Having Zinc and Twine together in those roles would definitely be unusual.

 

None of these players you’ve mentioned bar Anthony are quick. Zinck also ghosted past Christie against Bournemouth the other night! Also Zinck is a much better dribbler than Wilson and Reid — that’s something Wilson is objectively bad at, same with Bobby Reid. Kebano is slightly better, but still not a better dribbler

Successful dribbles per 90:

Zinckernagel: 1.5
Kebano: 1.2
Wilson: 0.9
Reid: 0.6
Christie: 1
Cantwell: 1.3
Anthony: 1
Buendia: 1.6

 

Zinckernagel if he stays needs to play wide of the three up top. He was insane there for Bodo and is deceptively quicker than he looks. Ok the standard cannot be compared but this position was his best over the two seasons I watched him there.

 

Well Zinc must have improved that aspect of his game this season compared to last then, because I'm sure I'm not alone in recollecting than Zinc rarely seemed capable of running beyond opponents with the ball last season and seemed about as "quick" as Sema.

 

Tbf he had come off the back of a full season with Bodo/Glimt.

 

He'd had a few weeks break in between. He also didn't seem any sharper for us initially in pre-season either (though that could be due to our inability to condition players).

 

The guy who seemed most certain we were getting Roy Hodgson before it happened - well he’s claiming Rob Edwards is emerging as a ‘leading candidate’.

 

Unclear how newsy this is though. He was named as one of four or five leading candidates in Leventhal’s piece last week and Crook has only described him as “a” leading candidate.

 

As with Manning he seems to favour an approximate 3-4-1-2.

An initial glance though indicates his style of football at Forest Green seems a bit more direct and high-octane, as opposed to Manning's slightly more measured possession-based style (albeit they still focus on playing proper football quickly on the ground - they don't seem a long-ball/kick and rush team).

The most stand-out feature of Forest Green's team stats this season appears their pressing ability - in line with their high-octane style they seem to favour pressing very high up the pitch and allow their opponents few opportunities to play out from the back.

Another tick in Edwards' favour is that unlike some of the other candidates we've been linked to he's actually managed to win the division he was in with his team.

One only minor thing against him is that unlike Eustace and Manning there might not be as many worthwhile former players of his he could tempt along with him should he sign. Their best player this season though seems to have been their right wing-back, 22 year-old Kane Wilson. He'd actually be available on a free transfer though and scouts from the likes of Forest and Bristol City have been watching him recently. He's quick and has a good cross. He could be a good understudy to Femenia in that role tbf, but whether he'd actually be of much use there will depend on Ebosele.

 

They’re reporting him as the front runner on Talk Sport this afternoon, and say he’s competing with Eustace for it.

 

Interesting to hear about the style of play. Sounds positive.
Wouldn’t worry about a head coach tempting players though. We all know they don’t get a say and even if they did, we haven’t got a pot to p*** in. If Wilson’s free then that’s a possibility, but a free RB from league 2 isn’t make or break for me.

 

Ah, so we're going for the cheapest option presumably. Of course we are.

Emerging as the leading candidate because he costs the least pennies.

 

I think I’d be happy with Edwards too but to be fair to Manning, he has earned a higher points total in a division that is not just a higher standard but also is much more competitive with many big budgeted clubs pushing hard for promotion.

 

On what basic is the assumption being made that Edwards would be the cheap option? Wouldn’t that be Eustace, as he’s the only candidate on the short-list who isn’t a current number one?

Edwards would need compensation being paid. He’s on a long-term contract at FGR.

It’s an interesting short-list and I’m sure all of us have our preference. I like what I’ve read about Eustace, I’ve been impressed with Manning and I have a close friend who works in the Bristol/Glos sports media who has interviewed Edwards several times and rates him as both coach and person. It’s difficult to say which candidate would be the best fit but they all seem to have something going for them.

Edwards would be taking the biggest step up..two divisions. In his favour he hit the ground running at FGR, is well connected (what odds Kenny J coming with him as an experienced over-seer?), and a proven winner. Maybe getting an ex defender as our new manager would benefit our hapless back line?

I wonder if it will signal the end of the steak pies at half-time if he gets the job though?!

 

After making that post I also noticed that Wilson was awarded League Two player of the season.

For sure it's not make or break though, and I think it really depends on whether we keep Ebosele here or if he goes to Udinese. For sure Ngakia will not be a decent right wing-back for a promotion chasing Championship team, and Wilson appears as if he'd be a good backup for Kiko with potential to improve further.

 

Although Eustace has only actually managed in the Conference North!!

 

Yes true. I meant of the managers on our list who’ve been a number one.

Re your previous post btw, I like the idea of a potential headline saying WATFORD SIGN KANE!

 

If we also signed the left-sided Harry Pickering from Blackburn we could have Harry Kane on the flanks.

 

Nice one Son.

Oh sorry...wrong player!

 

Hypothetically though, on the slim chance that say we brought in Manning and wanted Twine, and offered the same fee and wages as a non-promoted Nottingham Forest, then having Manning here could persuade him to come here instead of them.

Recent bits of information don't seem to have Manning as the favourite anyway though. First the info earlier today from talksport about it supposedly being more between Eustace and Edwards, and then I saw this today on the MK Dons forum (could be baloney, but still):

"I have heard from someone in the know that Manning is 100% off. He has had two credible offers (don't know what level but not Watford) and had spoken to clubs pre play offs. "

https://www.sitdownorwellstealyourclub.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7729&start=0

 

Jackett was at the last two u23 games I've been at.

He didn't appear to be part of the WFC entourage - dressed casually and sat apart from the backroom staff in the stands as far as I could tell - so may have just been there for the fun of it.

polite note:
I've edited your post to highlight the Jackett news, not because I was dismissing your other points.

point of order to anyone in the slightest bit interested:
I used to post as TheRecluse but after I stopped visiting the forum for several reasons I'll be damned if I can remember my details. Getting old isn't fun kids!

 

Spoke to a Forest Green fan about Edwards

 

Ha, welcome back!

Maybe you can add your old profile pic to this account though so it's easier to recognise you?

And how come didn't call your new account something like 'TheRecluse 2' or 'TheReclusive'??

 

Because nobody interesting ever calls their second account xxxxx2!


Btw, from my media friend who covers Forest Green....”Like I said he’s very impressive. it was a good squad of players he had this season already but he is impressive”