Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

I think its still too early to judge yet. I was hoping Des would come in and continue where Manning left off. But that hasn't paid off.

The excuses of injuries or squad unbalances only go so far and while its true both have been a factor (injuries to key attacking players and lack of a decent goal scorer) this does not fully explain the drop in performances and apparent lack of a plan. The hope that this is just teething problems and soon everything will click seems not to be the case.

Now I think we face 2 scenarios the first is that Des wants to play a certain way and that the players he has does not necessarily fit what he wants. This will lead to a pretty much write off of this season (unless we get lucky) and a yet another rebuild in the summer. I really hope that this is the case. The other is that Des is as mentioned out of his depth and will face a steep and short learning curve to to improve or end up a failure.

Kip makes a great point that the club should have paired him with an older experienced coach or two to help him find his feet. Without that his job is just much more difficult.

Irrespective of current results and the massive disappointment this season is turning into, and the frustration this brings, I think we have to gave him time. We will not get relegated this season. Therefore while its a complete gut punch we currently are blowing a great chance we should i think give him until next season to judge Des properly. We have a squad of some extremely good players (even if it is light on strikers and defensive midfielders) this should be a great basis for any decent manager to build on. We have had some great backing from the board in terms of being able to get these players so this is not an issue either. If by this point next season we are not back to challenging again (or worse if we are still struggling) I think then it will be time to admit that sadly Des is not the man we need. Until then I guess the fair thing to do is look for improvements that hopefully will come and try to be to mad at what could have been.
 
greatunclekip said:
Yep! Desperately want him to do well, talks a very good game but tactically he is miles off, and I honestly think the decision not to appoint an experienced assistant (whoever's it was) will cost dearly.

The difference between Manning (where there was always an incredibly clear game plan) and Des is night and day. Hopefully it comes with experience.
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That's very true. As much as we dislike the bloke now, you have to say it was a crystal clear and well executed game plan that Manning had. Under Des, I'm not sure what we are. In three or four of his last pre match interviews he has come out with the phrase 'we are very clear on what we want to achieve and how we want to get there' - I'm assuming there is a more detailed answer than 'promotion and winning football matches' and I wouldn't mind to hear Des's explanation of this tiresome drivel. It's becoming a bit too easy to say but not so easy to put this supposed plan in to action.

Sometimes we look a bit Manning-esque with these periods of sideways football across the back four - I guess the theory there being if we have the ball the opposition can't score. Other times we mirror the more expansive, over lapping full back, football of the peak Robinson years and then there's the intricate, up a blind alley approach, when we try and play everything through RR.

I'm really unsure what we are, other than eleven players looking a bit confused as to what their role is and quite what we are trying to do.
 
Never has a new manager been so scrutinised as Buckingham, is it because of his Oxford connection? He needs to be given a chance. IMO he can’t be fairly judged until he’s had a full season at least.

One thing I must add is that generally our club tend to give managers a chance (Robinson and Appleton started slowly, even Manning took a bit of time to get going) and they came good after a while, Buckingham needs to be given a fair chance.
 
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As others have stated, the lack of any apparent coherent gameplan, tempo or urgency is concerning. I too really want to see Des succeed but, for me, the jury is very definitely still out.

I’m sure there was a new face in the dugout last night. Quite a tall fella who was very animated with instructions especially towards the defence. It definitely wasn’t Hackett - he had hair (sorry Chris) and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Short or Price. Anyone else notice?
 
Corbo said:
Never has a new manager been so scrutinised as Buckingham, is it because of his Oxford connection? He needs to be given a chance. IMO he can’t be fairly judged until he’s had a full season at least.

One thing I must add is that generally our club tend to give managers a chance (Robinson and Appleton started slowly, even Manning took a bit of time to get going) and they came good after a while, Buckingham needs to be given a fair chance.
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He does but Appleton, Robinson and Manning took over teams in need of some serious work. Des took over a team sitting very pretty in second, only a fool would try and tinker too much and risk losing the momentum that we had. Any manager who takes a team from second to within a whisker of seventh in the space of two and a half months can rightly be scrutinised and questioned.
 
yellowbow said:
As others have stated, the lack of any apparent coherent gameplan, tempo or urgency is concerning. I too really want to see Des succeed but, for me, the jury is very definitely still out.

I’m sure there was a new face in the dugout last night. Quite a tall fella who was very animated with instructions especially towards the defence. It definitely wasn’t Hackett - he had hair (sorry Chris) and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Short or Price. Anyone else notice?
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I think that was Price.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
He does but Appleton, Robinson and Manning took over teams in need of some serious work. Des took over a team sitting very pretty in second, only a fool would try and tinker too much and risk losing the momentum that we had. Any manager who takes a team from second to within a whisker of seventh in the space of two and a half months can rightly be scrutinised and questioned.
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Personally as much as I dislike Manning now I think he is an outstanding coach who was getting the maximum out of a fairly mid table League One squad. It’s understated how much the players would have been rocked by his speedy departure.
 
Corbo said:
Personally as much as I dislike Manning now I think he is an outstanding coach who was getting the maximum out of a fairly mid table League One squad. It’s understated how much the players would have been rocked by his speedy departure.
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If it wasn't for the work he did at the beginning of the season before he left we would be in a relegation scrap . As much as I want Des to succeed I think he's out of his depth I've seen very little since he's been here to change my mind. As I say I really hope he pulls it off and can prove a few people wrong
 
Its only me said:
Sad as he came with good rep, maybe the city group carried him. Anyone who knows current players will know that he has no respect.
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You been busy with school? Not heard from you after the Charlton or Carlisle games..

As for Des, it wasn’t always going to be tough to come in and keep the run we were on going. We were punching above our weight and the stats showed that we weren’t going to keep that run up consistently. Even if Manning had stayed I don’t think we would be much better off than where we are now.
On top of that, Manning was going to need a few windows to turn the squad around and Des will need the same.

Appleton was a very slow burner but he didn’t turn out too bad and I think Des will be the same.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
You been busy with school? Not heard from you after the Charlton or Carlisle games..

As for Des, it wasn’t always going to be tough to come in and keep the run we were on going. We were punching above our weight and the stats showed that we weren’t going to keep that run up consistently. Even if Manning had stayed I don’t think we would be much better off than where we are now.
On top of that, Manning was going to need a few windows to turn the squad around and Des will need the same.

Appleton was a very slow burner but he didn’t turn out too bad and I think Des will be the same.
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He might be but this is the season to get out of L1 - the weakest in years. Next year we will have those three or four strong teams who miss out this year, possibly the likes of Rotherham, Wednesday, Huddersfield or QPR from the Championship and likely two well backed teams in Wrexham and Stockport coming up from L2. Next season will be immeasurably harder in my opinion. We've been fortunate this season that Reading and Wigan have had issues and the teams coming up from L2 were fairly average. If Reading sort themselves out then they too could regroup and be strong contenders.
 
When Manning first came in he did a good job of getting us organised defensively and he did just enough to keep us up, but he didn't exactly turn us on our head. If we're comparing Buckingham to Manning then I think it's important to remember that the first few months of Manning were hardly revolutionary football. He simply took an underperforming team and made things simpler from the starting point of trying not to concede so many.

It still took us until the end of April to beat an absolutely shite Forest Green to confirm our survival. Then he did his best work over the summer alongside Waldron to start to patch our squad back together, but it was always going to be an unfinished job because of the contracts we're weighed down with until this summer. For what it's worth, I think we would've run out of steam through the winter fixture pile up had Manning stayed as our squad depth and lack of options were exposed, maybe not to the same extent we are seeing under Buckingham but then Des did have to come in and pick up the pieces after Manning left us in the lurch.

It's worthwhile mentioning that Manning also had Hogg from day one, who was always singing off the same hymn sheet but also there to take the load off, making it much easier for Manning to focus on the bread and butter of management.

The leadership at our club deserve credit for the ambition and speed in bringing Buckingham in, but in my eyes they have hung him out to dry since appointing him. The Assistant Manager fiasco is inexcusable, and although Buckingham should be held to account for matters on the pitch, I can't help but think he's been totally stitched up and a more pertinent question should be asking if he's been given the best opportunity to succeed. It's my understanding that he has been working very hard since he arrived, but he has been having to do things like chase up contracts for support staff, rather than be left to focus solely on first team squad matters.

I think it's also important to note that City group graduates are likely to be the sorts with a clear idea of how to play. 'This is my idea and what I want to build', rather than the type to come in and rouse a squad into a shorter term pick up. With Manning, we saw what he could do with one transfer window. Things were considerably better after he had time and an opportunity to put a stamp on things. I strongly suspect we'll see the best of what Des can achieve next season, which feels like a waste of the position we find ourselves in now, but for me the main reasons things are dropping off are matters mostly outside of Buckingham's control (lack of support staff and unbalanced and incomplete squad). What he really needs is the support of those above him (I'm looking at you, Tim) in order to give him the structures he needs off the pitch to be the best he can be.
 
Osei Yaw said:
When Manning first came in he did a good job of getting us organised defensively and he did just enough to keep us up, but he didn't exactly turn us on our head. If we're comparing Buckingham to Manning then I think it's important to remember that the first few months of Manning were hardly revolutionary football. He simply took an underperforming team and made things simpler from the starting point of trying not to concede so many.
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This is the kind of logic that is keeping me positive about his appointment, that being said, I would love to hear (and see) what our game plan is, because I do struggle.

A lot of our players first thought is to go backwards, this can't surely be what he wants, but other than buzzwords, I'm yet to hear what he DOES want
 
Its very hard to have any faith in him. We have absolutely no identity, or style of play - other than 'pass it backwards and whatever you do, don't put a tackle in'.

If he wasn't from Oxford, would people be defending everything he does so strongly?
 
SteMerritt said:
What are you basing this statement on?
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Opinion.

I think Wrexham, Stockport, MK, Mansfield, Notts County etc will be stronger and financially backed better than Orient, Carlisle, Northampton and Stevenage who came up last year. I'm not sure two of the teams relegated from the Championship this season will start next season with points deducted either.
 
Carpy said:
This is the kind of logic that is keeping me positive about his appointment, that being said, I would love to hear (and see) what our game plan is, because I do struggle.

A lot of our players first thought is to go backwards, this can't surely be what he wants, but other than buzzwords, I'm yet to hear what he DOES want
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Our players seem to go backwards whenever there is an opponent in front of them - which is obvs a lot of the time. That is surely a coached technique, with the aim of retaining possession at all costs?
 
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