25-11-2025, 01:24
(This post was last modified: 25-11-2025, 01:31 by Slick_Footwork.)
After Mason's decision to take off Mikey Johnston on at half time on Saturday, my patience is wearing very thin.
I also thought his post match comments about Johnston were really poor. To say we would be more threatening without him, after he's set up two goals, is absurd. Then to say it was "50/50 who started anyway" is surely going to upset both Johnston and Illing-Junior, as he's basically saying neither are good enough to be an outright choice and he doesn't really fancy either of them. To be honest, I thought his interview was moronic.
I'm not really sure what Mason thinks he's going to achieve by alienating players, especially Johnston, who has probably been our stand out performer this season.
But for now, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
That said, my gut feeling is that he's got no chance of turning things around and it's just a matter of time before he's sacked...
He's been here for a while and I just don't see any evidence that he has a clue what he's doing.
On the rare occasions you think you see some improvement, like first half against Coventry, he then makes an idiotic decision like withdrawing Johnston that makes you realise that the positive performance was just blind luck.
Our next 2 games are at home so I suspect we'll get something and that will give us hope and buy him time. Of course, if we were to lose them, his position would be untenable and he would have to go. I don't see that happening though.
However, even if we win both of those home games, which we could, I still don't see us picking up points in the away games. Mason's tactics are just far too negative. Against Oxford at home, he made defensive changes and we had to hang on for dear life at the end, parking the bus and punting it anywhere like a pub team...
I think that eventually we will have a losing run and he'll be sacked. By then it will be too late for a new coach to get us in the promotion shake up. Like when Steve Bruce got sacked, we left it too late and just missed out on the playoffs. Had we had Corberan earlier that season, we'd have been in with a shout of automatic promotion.
But of course, I hope I'm wrong. I hope something clicks in Mason's head and he's able to turn it around and guide us to promotion.
However, gut instinct isn't often that wrong.
If we were to lose the two home games and he was to be sacked soon - which I don't expect - I wouldn't want Alex Neil. Although he's always done reasonably well at this level, I just wouldn't find it an exciting appointment. That said, I don't think many managers could have done worse than Mason with this current squad. But I'd be in favour of us casting the net wider and picking up someone from abroad. Although he did poorly with Spurs and Forest, I wouldn't mind giving Ange Postecoglou a platform to rebuild his career. The football at the Hawthorns has been boring as hell for the last few years, at least Ange is gung-ho and you would get some excitement.
I also thought his post match comments about Johnston were really poor. To say we would be more threatening without him, after he's set up two goals, is absurd. Then to say it was "50/50 who started anyway" is surely going to upset both Johnston and Illing-Junior, as he's basically saying neither are good enough to be an outright choice and he doesn't really fancy either of them. To be honest, I thought his interview was moronic.
I'm not really sure what Mason thinks he's going to achieve by alienating players, especially Johnston, who has probably been our stand out performer this season.
But for now, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
That said, my gut feeling is that he's got no chance of turning things around and it's just a matter of time before he's sacked...
He's been here for a while and I just don't see any evidence that he has a clue what he's doing.
On the rare occasions you think you see some improvement, like first half against Coventry, he then makes an idiotic decision like withdrawing Johnston that makes you realise that the positive performance was just blind luck.
Our next 2 games are at home so I suspect we'll get something and that will give us hope and buy him time. Of course, if we were to lose them, his position would be untenable and he would have to go. I don't see that happening though.
However, even if we win both of those home games, which we could, I still don't see us picking up points in the away games. Mason's tactics are just far too negative. Against Oxford at home, he made defensive changes and we had to hang on for dear life at the end, parking the bus and punting it anywhere like a pub team...
I think that eventually we will have a losing run and he'll be sacked. By then it will be too late for a new coach to get us in the promotion shake up. Like when Steve Bruce got sacked, we left it too late and just missed out on the playoffs. Had we had Corberan earlier that season, we'd have been in with a shout of automatic promotion.
But of course, I hope I'm wrong. I hope something clicks in Mason's head and he's able to turn it around and guide us to promotion.
However, gut instinct isn't often that wrong.
If we were to lose the two home games and he was to be sacked soon - which I don't expect - I wouldn't want Alex Neil. Although he's always done reasonably well at this level, I just wouldn't find it an exciting appointment. That said, I don't think many managers could have done worse than Mason with this current squad. But I'd be in favour of us casting the net wider and picking up someone from abroad. Although he did poorly with Spurs and Forest, I wouldn't mind giving Ange Postecoglou a platform to rebuild his career. The football at the Hawthorns has been boring as hell for the last few years, at least Ange is gung-ho and you would get some excitement.