Message to Kevin Nicholson

portugull · Post by **portugull** » 25 Oct 2015, 18:01

Kevin I hope you get to see this message as I am desperate for you to succeed as our Player/Manager.

The following suggestions are meant to be constructive and are based on 60 years experience of watching professional football at all levels.

Gulls Player.

I suggest you study carefully the 40 goals we have conceded this season and learn from the experience.Failure to mark players at set pieces is top of the list. Goalkeeping errors. Failure to have two defenders on the line at corners one on each post.

Training Ground Routines when we have a Corner or Free Kick. These are scoring opportunities BUT the lack of TACTICS and IMAGINATION is very plain to see. There is no real evidence of what the team works on. Why not set the team a target to score at least one goal per match from a set piece. It sounds crazy but make a study of goals scored on TV every weekend and copy the best routines.

Discipline. Instruct every player not to question the referees decision. They very very rarely change their mind BUT we cannot afford for the few good players we have to miss games like James Hurst did yesterday. 5 yellows is a suspension. It makes NO sense to get a yellow for dissent.

After such a fine display against Grimsby yesterday was hard to understand. The players need to understand that every match is life and death from now on. To succeed they should always remember who might be watching!

Good luck Kevin but despite your 20 years in the game I think you need to think "outside the box" if you are to save us from another drop which will finish us.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 25 Oct 2015, 18:50

This revolutionary thinking will surely transform the game as we know it. You're a football genius, capable of thinking beyond that of mere mortals, Manchester United will surely be on the phone any minute now, offering hundreds of thousands of pounds a week for your knowledge.

You're a **** idiot.

Matt.

Post by **Dave** » 25 Oct 2015, 19:33

Wind your neck in Matt, the O/P may have been slightly stating the obvious no need to refer to the author as such. As for the O/P it's almost certain Kevin Nicolson knows all of this, it's certain that he works on all aspects of the game and phases of play, including discipline.

The problem is, no matter the level, when the manager sends the players over the white line to play , he has to trust them to make the right decisions, at the right times for the right reasons, and carry out the instructions given. In the heat of battle with the adrenaline pumping, with the best will in the world that isn't always going to happen.

portugull · Post by **portugull** » 25 Oct 2015, 19:47

This is the whole point of my post.

The very obvious is NOT being sorted out. We can all see this every match.

Why?

nickbrod · Post by **nickbrod** » 25 Oct 2015, 20:09

...admit you're out of your depth.
Saturday was a total disgrace; those in charge should hang their heads in shame. 50 years a supporter; 30 + years a season ticket holder and at the moment this could be my final year. Apart from me does anybody from the club care?

Post by **Dave** » 25 Oct 2015, 21:37

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, the reaction to yesterdays defeat is understandable, I feel the same trust me. However I do think in some respects the reaction is going O.T.T.

Didn't see to many people questioning what goes on in training when our team was keeping a clean sheet while winning at Southport, nor to many people wanting to know why these obvious mistakes keep happening when our team kept out Grimsby for 79 minutes and the remaining 10 minutes after the penalty, yes that's the team with 38 goals scored the best attack in our division.

Haven't seen to many accusing Kevin Nicholson of being out of depth while he's was bringing home 5 points from our last 3 league match's, now the very fact our chairman issued an apology for yesterday's defeat is clear sign that the club do care, and what are they accused of, issuing hollow words.

If the club had the ability to increase the managers budget by £1 million they'd do it tomorrow, unfortunately, we've got one to many inexperienced players in key positions, with that comes inconsistencies, sadly the one game we needed a performance it didn't come.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 26 Oct 2015, 11:48

He's not "slightly stating the obvious", Dave. The OP is the football equivalent of a two year old wandering up to his patents and asking "why don't the men who don't like each other just have a cuddle and be nice to each other and have a tea party?"

Let's move sports, and change to F1. You know that Rosberg bloke, yeah? Well, if he wanted to win the race, why didn't he just drive faster? Why can't anyone else see that that's the answer, just get a quicker car.

I demand to know why Mercedes aren't sorting the simple things!

Yours,

Retarded of Reddich.

For **** sake!

Matt.

Scorpion · Post by **Scorpion** » 26 Oct 2015, 14:52

Portugull is spot on, it is the simple things that are not being fixed. The whole point of training should be to work on these points. Of course with a young and inexperienced squad it will not be perfect, but it should be possible to see gradual improvement.

Dutchgull · Post by **Dutchgull** » 26 Oct 2015, 15:34

Feckin ell Matt that is not called for. You are getting as rude as a well know north Devon resident. May I respectfully say that it is you who is the f**king idiot on this occasion !!

The obvious things that Portugull is referring to are not happening so they need to be highlighted !!

Lloyder5 · Post by **Lloyder5** » 26 Oct 2015, 15:54

I don't hold with the way the point is made, but how anyone can suggest that KN has not thought of these matters is beyond me. Did the England rugby coaches not work on discipline (I assume they did), yet the same offences were committed and penalties given away, usually by the same couple of players. My view is that he can instil a better understanding of the basics but it may take time. He has to contend with a serious strategic error in the previous manager not allocating a portion of the availble resources on an experienced (ish) goalkeeper.

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » 26 Oct 2015, 15:56

I agree about the set pieces especially corners.

We have a small side and if you use a zonal system it does help as the players have to watch the ball and not the man as several players have been caught out watching the players as they try to mark them and being young don't have the strength to hold off players so why bother.
I 've used this for years and if the players believe in the zonal system it will work for you.
Our keeper needs to use his feet earlier and anticipate where the cross is going Lavercombe is best at this and approaches the crosses at the right angle. Spiess approaches the ball unbalanced.
Yes this is another o.a.p. Matt.

portugull · Post by **portugull** » 26 Oct 2015, 15:57

Thank you Scorpion and Dutchgull for your posts.

Unfortunately Matt does not seem capable of understanding the basic points I addressed in my original post.

They are indeed very obvious which makes it all the more frustrating for the fans when yet again on saturday the opposition is left unmarked after 3 minutes giving Basingstoke the crucial opening goal gift wrapped. Read it again Matt.

Post by **Dave** » 26 Oct 2015, 18:52

I totally agree with your sentiment Portugull, you're right, think we all find it frustrating standing in the ground watching the same mistakes the same goals hit the back of our net, I've not got a problem with your expressed opinion or the motive behind it, but, you've directly addressed Kevin Nicolson in your OP in a manner that would suggest he's some random Dad pulled of the street the manage the team who's never done it before.

In reality he's a current professional footballer with not far of 500 senior games under his belt, and I believe he has the UEFA B coaching license. He will be more than well aware of what you're saying, and there was plenty of evidence v Southport and Grimsby that he's been working on it, the improvements were there for all to see.

As I'm sure you're only to well aware it doesn't matter how many attack v defence, defending corners and free kick scenarios etc you set up in training you can not 100% replicate what's going to happen in a game. Fair amount has been said about our goalkeepers, but when you look at Spiess with 26 senior games under his belt and Lavercombe with about 7 , it highlights a whopping great problem, and that's the problem with a lot of young in-experienced players, you will get inconsistencies, you will see them play like world beaters one week and look like a team of local U12'S the next.

Southampton gull made a post yesterday worth everyone reading. And that's the problem when you try to put a side together on a budget of £1.75 you can bring the best football coach on the face of this planet to TUFC, we have a group of players who are at a certain level of ability, some of them are already as good as their ever going to be, all the coaching in the world is not going to improve them.

The answer is to bring in better players, but our football is where it is, at the moment, the only way the club can improve the team is, if us fans go to the games and dig deep into our pockets and pay for it, sadly no else is going to, there's no new Thea Bristow's out there at the moment.

Added in 6 minutes 35 seconds:

arcadia wrote: We have a small side and if you use a zonal system it does help as the players have to watch the ball and not the man as several players have been caught out watching the players as they try to mark them and being young don't have the strength to hold off players so why bother.

Completely agree with you, in my humble opinion, I'd like to see the three most dominant headers of the ball across the six yard line, there job is to mark the space and attack the ball, and with two on the posts, if they fail and keeper can't save it, the players guarding the posts should.

Orange Gull · Post by **Orange Gull** » 26 Oct 2015, 19:39

I echo what others have said here, do you not think that Nicholson knows what is wrong, and that he is doing his utmost to fix it? We have a poor squad, we know that, but the last few games before Saturday produced good performances by all accounts. I don't know what went wrong on Saturday but I do know that there has been an improvement since Nicholson took over. He has the whole week to sort things out and set the team up for Altrincham, which is a game we must win.

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » 26 Oct 2015, 19:43

The coaches we've had over the last few years all had badges but if you don't know the game it does not mean a thing as you've got to know when to implement these changes and Nicholson has done well up to now and we've all seen improvement before Saturdays game but lets hope it's a blip.
Going to watch my other side tonight BC.

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