Big Sam (Match on Match)

[Madness]

Since his reign & the myth that we are suddenly a decent side and its all Slav's fault


Aston Villa (L 0-3)- Poor performance and was a massive let down after the draw at Man City
Liverpool (D 1-1)- A good performance against a side who declined after this, well worked point
Leeds (L 0-5)- Absolutely shambolic, worst performance in the PL. But Big Sam escapes criticism from many
Arsenal (L 0-4)- Dreadful, Arsenal played well but alarm bells are ringing 
Wolves (W 3-2)- Wolves were their for the taking and we put in a fantastic performance. 2nd best of the season
West Ham (L 1-2)- Looked better and you can argue we could have come away with a draw
Man City (L 0-5)- Man City were too good, We deserve to lose by this much....moving on 
Fulham (D 2-2)- 2 points dropped, Hangover from Man City but 2nd half we were the better side and should have won 
Sheff United (L 1-2)- Deserved to lose, New Players begin to come in but its too late the rot set in with 4 weeks of madness from Big Sam
Tottenham (L 0-2)- 2 offside goals. But Spurs dominated and this was a match we could have targeted
Man United (D 1-1)- Played really well, Again 2 points dropped
Burnley (D 0-0)- We was very good even with 10 men, Again 2 points dropped
Brighton (W 1-0)- On balance we didn't deserve to win, but the last few performances perhaps told us we deserved a win from somewhere
Everton (L 1-0)- VAR stopped us from getting a draw, which i didn't think we deserved 
Newcastle (D 0-0)- Defensive tactics against an awful side, clearly 2 points dropped
Crystal Palace (L 0-1)- Awful simply Awful. No Desire and poor tactics
Chelsea (W 5-2)- Simply awesome performance, But it took Ivanovic to get injured before Big Sam realised that Robinson could do some damage
Southampton (W 3-0)- Southampton didn't turn up and we were very good, finished well- superb
Leicester (L 0-3)- Leicester for 20 mins were excellent and it was enough. But it was an alarming performance
Aston Villa (D 2-2)- We played ok, But Villa deserved something out the game i felt 
Wolves (D 1-1)- Wolves had key players out but we didn't capitalise on this 



Conclusion- We have improved since signing the loanees but we have dropped points against Burnley, Man United, Fulham and Newcastle & Didn't turn up against Crystal Palace 

This is a weak Premier League (Bottom 8 certainly) and we have missed the opportunity to close the gap even with our signings, Damage was done in the first few weeks. Big Sam has ultimately failed as manager and while he will be staying we have rewarded failure while some of you were delighted at Slav was sacked for achieving promotion 1 year ahead of the plan. 

We will learn as fans

[Birdman1811]

This 1 year ahead of an has to stop. He had a max of 2 years, we wanted it ASAP. He also almost blew it with the worst run of form since Pardew.

After Covid, it was that year or never.

[ChamonixBaggie]

This 1 year ahead of an has to stop. He had a max of 2 years, we wanted it ASAP. He also almost blew it with the worst run of form since Pardew.

After Covid, it was that year or never.

Agree. "you have 2 years to achieve promotion" doesn't mean - "take it easy year 1, we're only really bothered about year 2" It means, get promoted ASAP and if you haven't done it after 2 years you're out. Bilic shouldn't get any grace for getting us promoted "early". And as Birdie says, he oversaw 12 months of awful form with us only barely scraping promotion and then being crap in the PL. 

Allardyce made us worse before he made us better but to suggest that the Albion side of the past 6 weeks isn't an improvement on what we were seeing before is frankly mental.

[Cheshire East Baggie]

Sorry Madness, you will never convince me that this isn't Slav's fault. He would not have turned it around, or bought the right players to be competitive. We can't ever know whether anyone else could have done better than Sam.

What is clear to me is that his captain got himself idly and unnecessarily sent off just 30 minutes into Sam's tenure. Then St Romaine fecking Sawyers scored an absolute peach of an own goal under no pressure to gift game 3 away. Bilic's two favourites set the scene for that disastrous run.

If we'd appointed Sam instead of Slav two years ago we'd have missed out on half a season of joy and a season and a half of agony. Let's stop demonizing Sam and see what happens next.

[Psalm23]

This 1 year ahead of an has to stop. He had a max of 2 years, we wanted it ASAP. He also almost blew it with the worst run of form since Pardew.

After Covid, it was that year or never.

+1

The importance of having the top flight TV money in this year of no income from fans attendance, should not be under estimated, it was a life saver.

[Squid]

Sorry Madness, you will never convince me that this isn't Slav's fault. He would not have turned it around, or bought the right players to be competitive. We can't ever know whether anyone else could have done better than Sam.

What is clear to me is that his captain got himself idly and unnecessarily sent off just 30 minutes into Sam's tenure. Then St Romaine fecking Sawyers scored an absolute peach of an own goal under no pressure to gift game 3 away. Bilic's two favourites set the scene for that disastrous run.

If we'd appointed Sam instead of Slav two years ago we'd have missed out on half a season of joy and a season and a half of agony. Let's stop demonizing Sam and see what happens next.

This is correct.

I would also add to that list of performances, I think we definitely deserved a draw against Everton at home and we always deserve to beat the Seals.

[Derek Hardballs]

Since his reign & the myth that we are suddenly a decent side and its all Slav's fault


Aston Villa (L 0-3)- Poor performance and was a massive let down after the draw at Man City
Liverpool (D 1-1)- A good performance against a side who declined after this, well worked point
Leeds (L 0-5)- Absolutely shambolic, worst performance in the PL. But Big Sam escapes criticism from many
Arsenal (L 0-4)- Dreadful, Arsenal played well but alarm bells are ringing 
Wolves (W 3-2)- Wolves were their for the taking and we put in a fantastic performance. 2nd best of the season
West Ham (L 1-2)- Looked better and you can argue we could have come away with a draw
Man City (L 0-5)- Man City were too good, We deserve to lose by this much....moving on 
Fulham (D 2-2)- 2 points dropped, Hangover from Man City but 2nd half we were the better side and should have won 
Sheff United (L 1-2)- Deserved to lose, New Players begin to come in but its too late the rot set in with 4 weeks of madness from Big Sam
Tottenham (L 0-2)- 2 offside goals. But Spurs dominated and this was a match we could have targeted
Man United (D 1-1)- Played really well, Again 2 points dropped
Burnley (D 0-0)- We was very good even with 10 men, Again 2 points dropped
Brighton (W 1-0)- On balance we didn't deserve to win, but the last few performances perhaps told us we deserved a win from somewhere
Everton (L 1-0)- VAR stopped us from getting a draw, which i didn't think we deserved 
Newcastle (D 0-0)- Defensive tactics against an awful side, clearly 2 points dropped
Crystal Palace (L 0-1)- Awful simply Awful. No Desire and poor tactics
Chelsea (W 5-2)- Simply awesome performance, But it took Ivanovic to get injured before Big Sam realised that Robinson could do some damage
Southampton (W 3-0)- Southampton didn't turn up and we were very good, finished well- superb
Leicester (L 0-3)- Leicester for 20 mins were excellent and it was enough. But it was an alarming performance
Aston Villa (D 2-2)- We played ok, But Villa deserved something out the game i felt 
Wolves (D 1-1)- Wolves had key players out but we didn't capitalise on this 



Conclusion- We have improved since signing the loanees but we have dropped points against Burnley, Man United, Fulham and Newcastle & Didn't turn up against Crystal Palace 

This is a weak Premier League (Bottom 8 certainly) and we have missed the opportunity to close the gap even with our signings, Damage was done in the first few weeks. Big Sam has ultimately failed as manager and while he will be staying we have rewarded failure while some of you were delighted at Slav was sacked for achieving promotion 1 year ahead of the plan. 

We will learn as fans

You aren't convincing anyone but those who are already converted.

[Spandaubaggie]

Sorry but even as someone who was sad to see Bilic go your argument seems madness Madness.

You can have your own take on each of those performances, but simply in the last 12 games, since he had his new men in we've performed to be 11th in the table, and that's taking into account playing 3 top six sides, which is roughly par for the course.

With Bilic's players he got pretty near an identical return in points as Bilic did.

Even with an improved side, which we are, you couldn't expect us to win those games as if it's some god given right- we've improved, but only to mid table form, not Champions League form.

Even allowing for a couple more of those results, even 3 or 4, going our way we'd still be going down. We've had a season where the teams finishing above the relegation zone will get several points more than normal. Villa survived last year with 35. Newcastle, Burnley etc will get at least 40.

Some don't want to give Allardyce a chance, but just want to apportion blame. It may be a weak bottom 8, but it's relative we were 'very very weak,' with only an abysmal Sheff U keeping us from being the focal point as the whipping boys.

I didn't want Allardyce, but if 12 games with his players where he has now made us mid table form and restored pride, making us competitive again, can't convince fans then what can?

[Duffers]

Seems every positive result in that list has a caveat next to it.

[Shabby Russian]

This 1 year ahead of an has to stop. He had a max of 2 years, we wanted it ASAP. He also almost blew it with the worst run of form since Pardew.

After Covid, it was that year or never.

This 2 seasons stuff is nonsense, Moore was said to have been given 2 seasons as well, didn't even get a full season.

Truth is with Bilic, is he got of to a great start, over 50 points and only 1 defeat in the first half of a season is going some, but sadly we didn't build on that start, in fact we went backwards.