To be honest i dont know what to think .....

[colinwhite]

Relegated with 3 games to go. Lets get a few things straight.
Im not and never have been a particular fan of Scott Parker. To me I saw it as a positive sign when he was appointed as giving stability to the club and looking to operate with a coach on along term basis. He is young and inexperienced as  a manager,but also hungry and hard working ,and surely this was the point. Build for the future with someone at the helm who knows the PL.
He has shown  an ability to organise his defensive structure quickly,despite having more or less 7 new defensive players on the pitch,in those first few games when the window closed.
Making us less open inevitably led to us defending and pressing from the front,which in turn inhibited our offensive play and made us find it harder and harder to score goals. Mitrovic ,has looked diinterested for most of the season, which may or may not be down to Parker,who knows ?
What is clear is that Mitro has not  looked a premier league player with the way the team is set up and with the quality of players around him. That is not to say he is not good enough, with 2 or 3 class ,attacking players around him I believe he could look the part ( but that could be said of other players too). The same would very much apply to Cairney in my book. He isnt PL class in the context of our team,where he is expected to be  a leader and  a player behind things. Could he look PL class in a team like Spurs ? Absolutely he could.

I think Parker realised early on that with Mitro and TC in the team we would be a lot weaker defensively ,which would outway the attacking positives they would bring to the table. So he was left with some good defenders and quick hard working forward players ,which led to 5  the back and playing more directly on the counter attack. This was successful in many ways ,with some remarkable away results but too many draws ,which has ultimately proved so costly. It worked against the better sides but (particularly at CC ) not when teams sat back and let us  come on to them.  Counter attacking is great when your level or winning but a lame duck once you go behind.
Ultimately these decisions were made by Parker. They made us more competetive for a chunk of the season ,but eventually also got us relgated. Did his tactics play to our strengths( something I keep hearing that we didnt do)  ?  It depends on if you think Mitro is Pl quality player capable of leading the line against most sides in the PL ,with the present crop of players we have around him.

Can Parker take the present group of players forward? Does he have the faith and confidence of the players likely to be still in our squad next season? If yes,then there is a strong case for keeping him on ,and getting the attacking players and midfielders we need to make us a better side (which will be difficult but could be done). This would provide continuity and maybe  enable us to build something on more solid ground.
If no ,then he should be replaced and the club should move on. It wont be easy and if this is the chosen path people will have to be patient and realise it may be difficult to go up next season.



   

[Mr White]

 

   Good post,and for what its worth ,i don't think Mitro is PL quality, I think Newcastle realised long time ago.

[ianthailand]

What we must remember is Mitro was injured back-end of last season and then went straight into Euro play-offs. He then missed the penalty that enabled Scotland to go through at Serbia's expense. Then with little time before the PL season began may not have recovered either physically or mentally. He then went into a team that no matter how many goals we scored we let in 1 more at the other end. Parker's system also doesn't suit Mitro and thus we saw (the prolific) Cavaleiro taking his place. This meant we defended from the front better but lost any hope of scoring. Irresponsible behaviour when partying and breaking Covid rules and then catching Covid has meant a totally disrupted season for him and subsequently FFC. Do we keep him? If we get a significant offer then let him go but, ultimately it's up to the DoF and Parker to decide (God help us).

[colinwhite]

What we must remember is Mitro was injured back-end of last season and then went straight into Euro play-offs. He then missed the penalty that enabled Scotland to go through at Serbia's expense. Then with little time before the PL season began may not have recovered either physically or mentally. He then went into a team that no matter how many goals we scored we let in 1 more at the other end. Parker's system also doesn't suit Mitro and thus we saw (the prolific) Cavaleiro taking his place. This meant we defended from the front better but lost any hope of scoring. Irresponsible behaviour when partying and breaking Covid rules and then catching Covid has meant a totally disrupted season for him and subsequently FFC. Do we keep him? If we get a significant offer then let him go but, ultimately it's up to the DoF and Parker to decide (God help us).

Yes forgot about the partying

[St Eve]

A goal scorer does not forget how to score. He scored 5 times in 3 games for his country. Our wingers and midfield seem incapable of getting the ball to him. Cav and RLC should never have been in the team. Anguissa always goes backwards and Lookman seldom looks up, although I think he has potential. I like Reid and Lemina but they are not playmakers. Maja soon found that out.

[RaySmith]

Our attack wasn't functioning with Mitro playing, though it didn't  function that well without him either.

Easy to criticise Cav, a winger, when he played up front, and he missed a lot of chances, but he had a lot more of the ball than Mitro, who often looked lost, though was this because he'd hardly played, when he was up front;
though often Cav  also had more possession because he dropped back, but he did  seem to have more dribbles, and more of a general role going forward, taking on defenders, and shots on goal, even if off target.

WE became sound defensively, after the awful start to the season, and had a great run, when we looked like we would escape, but seemed to lose confidence after the City game, and we  hadn't been scoring enough anyway. Then, we seemed to lose that  defensive stability too, with old errors recurring during the  second half  v Citty.

Should Scott be blamed, or did he do  the best anyone could, with the players available -  and how many of them are Prem quality?

[LittleErn]

What we must remember is Mitro was injured back-end of last season and then went straight into Euro play-offs. He then missed the penalty that enabled Scotland to go through at Serbia's expense. Then with little time before the PL season began may not have recovered either physically or mentally. He then went into a team that no matter how many goals we scored we let in 1 more at the other end. Parker's system also doesn't suit Mitro and thus we saw (the prolific) Cavaleiro taking his place. This meant we defended from the front better but lost any hope of scoring. Irresponsible behaviour when partying and breaking Covid rules and then catching Covid has meant a totally disrupted season for him and subsequently FFC. Do we keep him? If we get a significant offer then let him go but, ultimately it's up to the DoF and Parker to decide (God help us).

Yes forgot about the partying

A goal scorer does not forget how to score. He scored 5 times in 3 games for his country. Our wingers and midfield seem incapable of getting the ball to him. Cav and RLC should never have been in the team. Anguissa always goes backwards and Lookman seldom looks up, although I think he has potential. I like Reid and Lemina but they are not playmakers. Maja soon found that out.

All the above are valid explanations for MItro's poor form, but they don't alter the fact that he did not perform in the Premier league. I don't doubt that he knows how to score but he doesn't get the time or space in the Premier league that he got in the Championship, and yes, even in International matches. People say that Parkers tactics don't suit him but why not? He isn't fast enough to outpace defenders when running into space so a slow build-up should suit him. He was always known for his strength in the box, so a crowded box should suit him too. I agree with those who say our crosses have not reached him, but again I haven't seen him finding good positions or losing his marker. I don't fault his effort or his motivation but I'm not convinced he has the class for the Premier League. If we keep him he should be good in the Championship again, but I think that is his level.

As for the Lookman and Anguissa faults, I think that these could and should have been coached out of them as they have been apparent all season.

[jarv]

Interesting post. Based on all the responses, I have gone full circle to the title......I too, don't know what to think.

Could be .... decent playmaker, tricky and pacey winger, STRIKER who knows where the goal is. Of course, that was Mitro last season.

[rebel]

A goal scorer does not forget how to score. He scored 5 times in 3 games for his country. Our wingers and midfield seem incapable of getting the ball to him. Cav and RLC should never have been in the team. Anguissa always goes backwards and Lookman seldom looks up, although I think he has potential. I like Reid and Lemina but they are not playmakers. Maja soon found that out.

Agree 100%. But Mitro was almost 'glued to the spot at times', no movement at all.

[rebel]

Our attack wasn't functioning with Mitro playing, though it didn't  function that well without him either.

Easy to criticise Cav, a winger, when he played up front, and he missed a lot of chances, but he had a lot more of the ball than Mitro, who often looked lost, though was this because he'd hardly played, when he was up front;
though often Cav  also had more possession because he dropped back, but he did  seem to have more dribbles, and more of a general role going forward, taking on defenders, and shots on goal, even if off target.

WE became sound defensively, after the awful start to the season, and had a great run, when we looked like we would escape, but seemed to lose confidence after the City game, and we  hadn't been scoring enough anyway. Then, we seemed to lose that  defensive stability too, with old errors recurring during the  second half  v Citty.

Should Scott be blamed, or did he do  the best anyone could, with the players available -  and how many of them are Prem quality?

Agree 100%. Parker tried to make Cav our main striker, guess who that would upset? Parker doing things that really weren't going to work.

[Brawn]

Good post, and I really appreciate not going down the route of "I never liked Parker, so he should be gone and I was right all along", which is very easy to do.

I feel as though those calling for Parker to go are missing the point. The only grounds for Parker going are defensive football - hardly a sackable offence for a club in our position - or getting relegated, implying you think we ought to have stayed up. This is why Jokanovic and Ranieri had to go, because they were expected to stay up and Jokanovic had dreadfully high expectations according to Cairney.

If anything 18th will represent an overachievement given we came up with West Brom.

On Monday we didn't play defensively, we had more of everything except in the column which mattered, and we gave it everything.

[colinwhite]

Our attack wasn't functioning with Mitro playing, though it didn't  function that well without him either.

Easy to criticise Cav, a winger, when he played up front, and he missed a lot of chances, but he had a lot more of the ball than Mitro, who often looked lost, though was this because he'd hardly played, when he was up front;
though often Cav  also had more possession because he dropped back, but he did  seem to have more dribbles, and more of a general role going forward, taking on defenders, and shots on goal, even if off target.

WE became sound defensively, after the awful start to the season, and had a great run, when we looked like we would escape, but seemed to lose confidence after the City game, and we  hadn't been scoring enough anyway. Then, we seemed to lose that  defensive stability too, with old errors recurring during the  second half  v Citty.

Should Scott be blamed, or did he do  the best anyone could, with the players available -  and how many of them are Prem quality?

Probably not many Ray! Areola and andersen are the ones that spring to mind but neither had been getting agame before they came to us, and both dropped off abit of late.Had Andersen played the way he has in the last few games Im not sure i would think he was definite Premier league quality.