Many questioned his appointment, or at the least, were surprised by it, myself included. Never on the shortlist, never even mentioned as a candidate, but got the job, and deserved our backing from day one. Over all, I’d say most were willing to support him, and give him a fair crack of the whip.
What now seems like an age ago, but in reality only a few weeks ago, people were calling for his head. I’m not suggesting we should get too excited by our current run of wins, in the same way that many shouldn’t have got hysterical over a run of bad results.
When Ling first arrived, we were a club short on players and resources, and pretty low on morale as well no doubt. He had to quickly assemble a squad of players, and one of the first things he wanted to do, was get Danny and Joe signed up. Upon signing Danny for two years, he said it was up to Danny to step up and make a claim for a place in the team. He said Danny had never had a decent run of games, and probably needed that to bring him on as a player and get some much needed self-confidence. Well, whatever ML has done, Danny has come on incredibly, and just on the performance against Plymouth on Saturday, it was clear that self-confidence is there, along with ability. I’ve started a separate thread on Danny, so I won’t clog up this one, but just to say, ML was 100% correct on that call.
In signing up Joe and identifying him as a right back (something the previous manager failed to do), he has put manse back in his natural central midfield role, and I don’t need to tell you what a great season he’s having so far.
Rene Howe, perhaps not everyone’s idea of a lone front man, but what a fantastic job he’s doing up there. I didn’t think it was working with him in a front 2, of a 4-4-2, but Ling has found the right formation, and employing the tactics to get the best out of everyone. People still doubt the signings of McPhee, Rice, Atieno etc. but I’m happy ML knows his onions, and if needed, these boys will also step up to the plate and not let anyone down. We’re by no means world beaters, but if his job was to steady the ship, I’d say he’s done that and more.
Finally, having witnessed the contrast on Saturday, between the first and second half performances, he clearly has the ability and approach off the field, so change a game. He didn’t even have to change the formation or personnel on Saturday, but after a dire first half, we came out a different team in the second half. At half time, you couldn’t have honestly picked a man of the match for us, but by the end, you could’ve picked 6 or 7. It was a particular flaw with the previous management that they were unable to change a game, and I can only honestly remember a couple of occasions where it happened. One that springs to mind is the match at Oxford in the conference when we were 3-0 down at half time, but got back to 3-3, which was good, but still not as good as the improvement we saw from the team on Saturday, in what was a far more important match.
Oh, and he seems a top bloke with it.
So, that’s all from me on the subject, I’ll leave it for the rest of you to comment further.
