Against the backdrop of the issues at the club, yes it is entitled and shows a poor understanding of how a rebuild works. Ultimately we are a mid-table side, who are currently mid-table. Our form since the turn of the year has actually been reasonably good. People are just sat here waiting to lose their minds whenever we lose a game. It's boring now.
I am not going to blindly defend him, but there are plenty of mitigating factors in his favour:
- INEOS have created a lot of negative feeling around the club.
- The players aren't really top 6 standard, and their confidence is very low. They come under massive amounts of pressure every week, more so than any other club.
- He came in at the worst time of the season, minimal training sessions and 3 games a week for the first 6 weeks or so.
- These players have been putting in the same old shite performances for the past several years, they are just a bad bunch.
- He's got a very clear and fairly unique tactical style, and he said he won't deviate from that. This was almost certainly made clear when he took the job.
That last point is the one criticism I would have, I think adaptability is important and all the best managers seem to be pretty fluid. I think you could argue he should have started with a regular 4231, tried to motivate the players a bit, and slowly transition to his system, but he has tried to explain the logic behind this.
