Paul O'Drisckov?

[BigColSutherland]

Conceding late goals.
An inability to get anything when we go behind.
Possession without end product.
Injury after injury.
Hard luck stories.

All sounds a bit familiar to me

[since-1969]

Rubbish!!!!

[duggiesmyhero]

What a load of b*llocks

[pib]

What a load of b*llocks

Is it?

[BigColSutherland]

That's what I thought pib. I'm not sure there's too much there to disagree with is there?

[GazLaz]

I keep crossing the games off and we are still not in the relegation zone. We should take 4,000 to Millwall if we've got anything about us.

[BigColSutherland]

We should take 4,000 to Millwall if we've got anything about us.

Imagine how many we'd take if we put some of Frosty's marketing ideas in to action. 7,000, 8,000, 100,000?

[pib]

That's what I thought pib. I'm not sure there's too much there to disagree with is there?

I don't think so, Col. But we already knew that by the fact that s/he stopped short of offering a viable counterargument.

[BillyStubbsTears]

O'Driscoll's sides conceded late goals on a regular basis when the first choice XI was out there. Dickov's side hasn't done that.

Dickov has managed to re-build a competitive side half way through the season after seeing the first choice side decimated through injury. O'Driscoll never did that.

Dickov's preferred formation has a strong, physical spine. O'Driscoll's never did.

Dickov plays with out and out wide men and prefers a 4-4-2 formation. Both of those were anathema to O'Driscoll.

Dickov's sides are quick-breaking and direct. There is no emphasis on possession football.

So the similarities are that we've had lots of injuries and conceded a few late goals.

[RedArmy]

Hope people aren't comparing Dickov to o'driscoll he was 5 times the manager of Dickov... Some people have football knowledge of an egg.

[BigColSutherland]

An inability to get anything when we go behind William?

[BillyStubbsTears]

RA

While we're talking multiplication, do you happen to know how many times his budget was bigger than Dickov's?

[Donnybax]

SOD wasn't backed anywhere near as well as Dickov has been since January.

[RedArmy]

That still has nothing to do with the fact that he was a better manager than dickov

[pib]

O'Driscoll's sides conceded late goals on a regular basis when the first choice XI was out there. Dickov's side hasn't done that.

Dickov has managed to re-build a competitive side half way through the season after seeing the first choice side decimated through injury. O'Driscoll never did that.

Dickov's preferred formation has a strong, physical spine. O'Driscoll's never did.

Dickov plays with out and out wide men and prefers a 4-4-2 formation. Both of those were anathema to O'Driscoll.

Dickov's sides are quick-breaking and direct. There is no emphasis on possession football.

So the similarities are that we've had lots of injuries and conceded a few late goals.

"Dickov's sides are quick-breaking and direct" is an opinion I'm not sure I agree with.

And I'm not really sure what "Dickov's preferred formation has a strong and physical spine" means.

I suppose it's better than "what a load of b*llocks" though.

[RedJ]

That still has nothing to do with the fact that he was a better manager than dickov

How doesn't it?

[BillyStubbsTears]

BCS

That is a characteristic of struggling sides. The table of points gained after conceding first has us, Millwall, Birmingham, Barnsley, Charlton and Yeovil in the bottom 8.

Similarly, struggling late on is a characteristic of poor sides. The bottom 5 in the 2nd half table are us, Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall and Blackpool. We've conceded the fewest second half goals of any if that lot.

What you've done is to notice that some of the features which Dickov's and O'Driscoll's sides share are some of the features that struggling sides tend to share. Both of them managed sides that generally struggled in this league. That suggests that the correlation is primarily associated with their managing weak sides.

[BigColSutherland]

BCS

That is a characteristic of struggling sides. The table of points gained after conceding first has us, Millwall, Birmingham, Barnsley, Charlton and Yeovil in the bottom 8.

Similarly, struggling late on is a characteristic of poor sides. The bottom 5 in the 2nd half table are us, Barnsley, Yeovil, Millwall and Blackpool. We've conceded the fewest second half goals of any if that lot.

What you've done is to notice that some of the features which Dickov's and O'Driscoll's sides share are some of the features that struggling sides tend to share. Both of them managed sides that generally struggled in this league. That suggests that the correlation is primarily associated with their managing weak sides.

[BillyStubbsTears]

BCS

Exactly. You've got cause and effect the wrong way round.

[BigColSutherland]

Unfortunately William, I made no mention of cause.

My study has, for now, been restricted to outcomes.

I will soon move on to exposure, however I thank you for raising the possibility of confounders. I would certainly not want to arrive at a flawed view on causality.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Then you've comment on effect with no context.

Mildly diverting but superficial.

[BigColSutherland]

Mildly diverting but superficial.

I believe that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I've made a life-path out of being just that.

[MrWoodySir]

Please don't compare the man who had us finish are second best position ever to the loon we have in charge at the moment. Truly baffling.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I wonder what O'Driscoll would have done if he'd seen 6-7 first choice defenders get crocked.

Actually, no I don't need to wonder about it. I saw it in 2010/11. We were utter dogshite and we got one win in 19 games. And when he had a chance to bring in a defender, he chose Matt Kilgallon, who made a shocking defence even worse.

[RedJ]

Please don't compare the man who had us finish are second best position ever to the loon we have in charge at the moment. Truly baffling.

Care to qualify this statement?

[BigColSutherland]

Rest assured Woody, it's not a comment on their respective abilities - merely a mildly diverting but superficial look at what could be seen as similarities in their outcomes - at different times.

[wilts rover]

There is also another similarity - both have the same whining fans on their back. It took O'Driscoll at least three seasons for some people to stop saying he wasn't good enough and should go.

[BigColSutherland]

One difference between them is O'Driscoll was very good at managing expectations.

He certainly didn't say things like "“We’ve got five games left and I believe we can go unbeaten in those five games.”

[wilts rover]

Performances are more important than results.

Supporters support, fans blow in the wind.