Is Ally the Man for the job? - The McCoist Thread

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Personally, I have nothing but footballing reasons for defending Ally's position. I think it's worrying that anyone would have any other motivation to do so.

 

what are they?

[Zappa 0]

all of them. Wallace shields black.

 

if you think they signed for ally why aren't they playing for him.

 

as no one ever gives me any positives we must all be negative.

 

as for still being here. well done give him an attendance award.

 

No need to get tetchy when someone questions your reasoning....

[UCF2008 0]

what are they?

 

Well, while my opinion of McCoist as a manager might not be quite the polar opposite of the majority of the negativity thriving on this thread, I do generally rate him as a manager. I think he performed as well in his duties as could have been possible for any manager in his position last season. Far better than expected and it mystifies me how some of those fans could have been watching the same games as me.

 

He's given youth a chance even when it's not been necessary. Was his arm being twisted to give the likes of McCabe as much game time last season? Tactically I think he's tried to be more attacking than Walter did, despite having less resources to do so. I've rarely disagreed with his team selections or been screaming at him to make a change. To put it simply, I don't see what all the fuss is about.

[kuznetsov 0]

the excuses are getting more and more desperate with every passing day. one or two on here prime candidates for uber fan of the year. it is only a matter of time, the clock is ticking.

[der Berliner 4,151]

the excuses are getting more and more desperate with every passing day. one or two on here prime candidates for uber fan of the year. it is only a matter of time, the clock is ticking.

 

See, this is where any sensible debate ends. You got your ideas about it, others got theirs. You do not agree to the latter and call them "excuses" and the people "über fans". That will leave you with a group of people agreeing to you line of thought and you thus living in your own little perfect world. Not exactly reality though.

[der Berliner 4,151]

I think gunslinger is asking what do people see about Ally as a manager that makes them positive. Do they see something exciting and forward thinking in the style of football? Do they see an ability to get required results on a consistent enough basis? Do our players play in a way that give encouragement about the coaching?

 

Not unreasonable questions.

 

The thing is what people were looking for or expecting. He got 9 players in the summer before last and before having any real chance of melting them together, he was dumped out of two vitally important European cups. Shyte happens, most on the park those nights. Not much he could do - though some will sure disagree. We still ran away with the league ere Naismith (the driving force at the time) got injured, the Whyte fiasco struck, Jela went and we got far more important topics concerning everyone's mind than a title being handed to the Hooped Horrors by Whyte and Co.. It is pretty obvious that the team as such was not able to get back on track with everything hanging in the balance. (Maybe someone will still argue that a different manager would have seen better results or football still, but honestly, in what world do these people live?) That people come up and slanting a rookie-manager of this whole sorry episode actually beggars belief.

 

Enter summer 2012, 20odd players gone, signings coming in while we were already playing football and we're not exactly getting the cream of the cream. Enter 3rd Division brick-walls and hammerthrowers - yet still people who have played the game for years - and a Rangers team that has hardly had time to adopt, lost people on a weekly basis, was hardly out of pre-season training (if any), get to know each other's strengths or the way the oppositions plays. This is simple a list of "facts", no "excuses" as some like to call it. Should McCoist get a gist of how his team works best, how the opposition will adopt to our teams? Yes, sure he should. But that takes time and I have already stated that I'd give them at least till the end of September till starting to judge him and his side.

 

So far, the restless have solely snapped at him and the team at every opportunity, coming up with tacitcal changes required or players being dropped (preferrably on hindsight). How about suggesting changes he should do, you would do? So far he has changed line-ups and players - for various reasons - and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. That happens all over the place and if you read comments on here, it sounds like people are utterly oblivious to this.

Edited September 23, 2012 by der Berliner

[johnnyk 158]

I think we just want to see football played on the deck, especially at this lower level. We have supposedly better players than most other Scottish teams never mind the third division. We have signed players who were probably their teams best player last season in the SPL. I know it takes time to settle in to a new team etc but they have played in Scotland for a while. I don't know why we signed some of the foreigners before looking closer to home as they are taking time to settle in and some don't look that great TBO.

 

We keep playing long balls from the back when it rarely works, why? This must be down to the manager and coaches but again he rarley changes things at all. I love Ally and have backed him and will continue to do so while he's manager but he needs to start getting the team playing decent stuff surely we deserve that and not the long ball game against much lesser opposition. We have backed the team big style and know the team should be playing better, with the right tactics and coaching we should be doing this or the fans will turn against them, as some have already.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Well, while my opinion of McCoist as a manager might not be quite the polar opposite of the majority of the negativity thriving on this thread, I do generally rate him as a manager. I think he performed as well in his duties as could have been possible for any manager in his position last season. Far better than expected and it mystifies me how some of those fans could have been watching the same games as me.

 

He's given youth a chance even when it's not been necessary. Was his arm being twisted to give the likes of McCabe as much game time last season? Tactically I think he's tried to be more attacking than Walter did, despite having less resources to do so. I've rarely disagreed with his team selections or been screaming at him to make a change. To put it simply, I don't see what all the fuss is about.

 

he played McCabe when we had a raft of injuries and dropped him to put jig in midfield at one point. as for more attacking than Walter I can't say I saw it but it wouldn't be hard I suppose. Walter scored more goals mind you.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I will give ally more time but as I said 6 weeks ago. I guarantee that in 6 weeks, 6 months and 6 years if he's still here we will be discussing the exact same failings.

[simplythebest 0]

The thing is what people were looking for or expecting. He got 9 players in the summer before last and before having any real chance of melting them together, he was dumped out of two vitally important European cups. Shyte happens, most on the park those nights. Not much he could do - though some will sure disagree. We still ran away with the league ere Naismith (the driving force at the time) got injured, the Whyte fiasco struck, Jela went and we got far more important topics concerning everyone's mind than a title being handed to the Hooped Horrors by Whyte and Co.. It is pretty obvious that the team as such was not able to get back on track with everything hanging in the balance. (Maybe someone will still argue that a different manager would have seen better results or football still, but honestly, in what world do these people live?) That people come up and slanting a rookie-manager of this whole sorry episode actually beggars belief.

 

Enter summer 2012, 20odd players gone, signings coming in while we were already playing football and we're not exactly getting the cream of the cream. Enter 3rd Division brick-walls and hammerthrowers - yet still people who have played the game for years - and a Rangers team that has hardly had time to adopt, lost people on a weekly basis, was hardly out of pre-season training (if any), get to know each other's strengths or the way the oppositions plays. This is simple a list of "facts", no "excuses" as some like to call it. Should McCoist get a gist of how his team works best, how the opposition will adopt to our teams? Yes, sure he should. But that takes time and I have already stated that I'd give them at least till the end of September till starting to judge him and his side.

 

So far, the restless have solely snapped at him and the team at every opportunity, coming up with tacitcal changes required or players being dropped (preferrably on hindsight). How about suggesting changes he should do, you would do? So far he has changed line-ups and players - for various reasons - and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. That happens all over the place and if you read comments on here, it sounds like people are utterly oblivious to this.

Very generous view of the European results in my opinion, it happened not once but twice in two qualifying rounds where we were seeded, he still had a core of a squad that had plenty experience of Europe so I really don't believe there was 'not much he could do'. Certainly Whittaker made the away leg hard for everyone with an awfully stupid sending off but we had lost the home leg to leave us right up against it anyway. Naismith's injury was a blow but if you're a one man team then there's always going to be trouble, and we managed to sign Aluko to in November to compensate for the loss of pace and skill.

 

Again for me the Whyte fiasco only struck on Feburuary the 14th, I think it's re-writing history to say that football wasn't the priority until that time. There was speculation but we'd been having constant speculation about our finances since 2008, the players were getting paid and the speculation hadn't stopped them winning matches and titles before so it's really not an excuse. The sale of Jelavic only left us without him for a few games before disaster struck, and it still couldn't excuse the awful overall display vs Dundee Utd in the cup. So yes it all became low priority in the end but for me and many others there were some very concerning failures of Ally as a manager before everything became about the finances, the football wasn't very good most of the time, we'dd had four early cup competition exits and a 9-15 point lead had turned round to a 4 point deficit. I wasn't slating him when my mind was on the club's survival of course but now that it's all about football again i'm remembering last season and just not seeing any improvement, despite us being at such a lower level with some of the best players in Scotland at us.

 

I'll answer the other points in a bit, have to go and shower.