Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[brian green]

You may consider the word gel to be a satisfactory word to use but I do not.  It is far too abstract a concept to apply to the very real problems of playing performance we are experiencing.  I am NOT suggesting lack of patience nor lack of confidence in our coaching staff, I am advocating direct and effective evaluation of where we are failing.

[sid1964]

Brian  - I should imagine that the Dr is asking the same type of questions?

[brian green]

I hope so Sid.  I know I would be if it were my money that had been invested in the players.  For what it is worth, I think it has been an excellent transfer window.  We are putting together a sound squad.  It is now up to them to repay the club by hard work, respect for the club and the manager

[KRS]

I would have thought that Bruce, Round and any others advising on transfer policy, would have identified the types of players that we need to suit the style of play that they were looking for rather than roll the dice and shoehorn a bunch of random players into a team and hopefully come up with some kind of formation and tactics to utilise them. It was never likely that all our problems would be solved in a single January transfer window, but common sense would dictate that Bruce has a plan to accommodate each of these players to remedy a number of issues and in balance in the squad, and make us into a strong Championship team capable of securing promotion. If they've done the latter and just bought a bunch of random players without any thought of balance to the team then we're still going to be inconsistent and results wont meet expectations even if they do settle quickly.

[Jimbo]

The worry is (and I'm not saying that I definitely think it's the case) that all the major signings, players, managers and coaches alike - coming as they do from the second tier (or below), nationally or internationally - see us as their pension plan: the one thing that guarantees their future. If any or some of them are thinking like that then we'll get nowhere. Their ambition is behind them.

What kind of gypsy magic is this? On second thoughts, perhaps you have a point on why successive waves of expensive players are failing to resemble footballers at Villa, despite new owners, managers and coaches? I don't know, I don't work there, but something isn't right.

[oldtimernow]

I think the term gelling is that final piece of the jigsaw that some very good managers are able to bring to their team.

Think of it as a food additive that makes that sauce so much more substantial than the watery slop you have without it. Some managers know about this ingredient and can use it to make  good wholesome ingredients into a better product.
You have good basic  ingredients  but if you don't know what this magic gel is then your end product will end up in the bin as unpalatable

[brian green]

I think it is much more like going to the doctor and telling him/her you don't feel well.  The competent doctor pursues a diagnosis.  Where is the pain? What sort of pain? Does it come and go?  In that way the root cause of your lack of wellness is identified and addressed.  Us and the manager and the coaches watching a gelled team is no more than the sprinkles on the doughnut of hard work.

[oldtimernow]

Agree hard work and the attention to detail in the production process, with correct handling.

Then the sprinkles can make that final difference.

Sprinkling them too early can mean you end up with something you'll want to bin.

[paul_e]

I think it is much more like going to the doctor and telling him/her you don't feel well.  The competent doctor pursues a diagnosis.  Where is the pain? What sort of pain? Does it come and go?  In that way the root cause of your lack of wellness is identified and addressed.  Us and the manager and the coaches watching a gelled team is no more than the sprinkles on the doughnut of hard work.

I think efficient work more than hard work.  Hard graft is for the summer, training during the season is about setting standards and ensuring they're met.  I don't know what our standards are and neither do the players.  They need to be told and they need to be measured against them quickly.

[Small Rodent]

He's kind of given himself a little problem with being faced with possibly dropping some of his new signings already for Saturday.

[supertom]

He's kind of given himself a little problem with being faced with possibly dropping some of his new signings already for Saturday.

I think that would be a mistake. What they need is more training sessions, and to actually be told who is picking up which runners, because no one seemed to know on tuesday and we got shredded to pieces. Managers have to remember that footballers aren't capable of independent thought or initiative. If someones tea bagging them the whole game, they'll keep on enduring it until the manager tells them to move their face to the left a bit.

I honestly have no idea what happens at Bodymoor these days. Maybe it's a hippy crack den.

[mattjpa]

I am sorry to go on about it but the concept of the team needing to "gel" is stretching my comprehension.  All the time, all over the threads and posts the need for the team to gel is seen as central to our future prospects of improvement.

If there is such a group accomplishment as gelling it must be definable.  If it is definable it must be coachable.  That being the case we need not to stand in hope of this epiphany but need to be making it happen on the training ground.

If the evidence of "no gel" is Hutton getting stranded out of position, or the goalkeeper (Johnstone or Gollini or Bunn) punching or slapping the ball into danger areas or Adomah not winning foot races or Jedinak making clumsy easily intercepted passes - the coaches should work on those faults to eliminate them.  To bundle it all together as "not gelling" is a lazy cop out.

If you are a parent and your child is not making progress at school, you don't ignore the problem and leave the passage of time to solve it.  You talk to the teachers and get to the roots of the problem.

As an example, we seemed at Brentford to have gone back to floaty corners.  Proper corner delivery can be taught.  Our future progress must have its foundations laid by hard work by the players and coaches at Bodymoor Heath, not by hoping for Gel Day.

I would take issue with the corner thing Brian. I saw an interview recently when one of our coaches explained a 'fluke' set piece Baker goal as deliberate and planned. To me, it looked like our coaching staff had identified a back post weakness and were trying to exploit it by getting Baker round the back post to win the first header and get it back in the danger zone. Hang the ball in the air and give him a chance to attack it maybe?
I dont know, It just jumped out at me when watching the game. Maybe not, maybe we were just hitting floaty corners again....

[Jimbo]

Isn't the word 'gel' just a way of describing a unit of players who know their roles inside out, and the roles of other players as a team? Behind all that is hard work, but not necessarily the huff and puff kind of hard work. It's about being totally committed to that team - and its aims and goals - in learning, attention and application. You can see it in teams that attack with fluidity and defend with discipline. We haven't seen much of that for a long time.

[Small Rodent]

He's kind of given himself a little problem with being faced with possibly dropping some of his new signings already for Saturday.

I think that would be a mistake. What they need is more training sessions, and to actually be told who is picking up which runners, because no one seemed to know on tuesday and we got shredded to pieces. Managers have to remember that footballers aren't capable of independent thought or initiative. If someones tea bagging them the whole game, they'll keep on enduring it until the manager tells them to move their face to the left a bit.

I honestly have no idea what happens at Bodymoor these days. Maybe it's a hippy crack den.

Good analogy!

[oldtimernow]

Isn't the word 'gel' just a way of describing a unit of players who know their roles inside out, and the roles of other players as a team? Behind all that is hard work, but not necessarily the huff and puff kind of hard work. It's about being totally committed to that team - and its aims and goals - in learning, attention and application. You can see it in teams that attack with fluidity and defend with discipline. We haven't seen much of that for a long time.

I think it's when every player knows their role, the team ethic, performs to their expected level with regard to fitness and skill.(That's where the manager plays his role.)

and then they begin to know what is in the mind of their team mates ....that's the gel, sprinkles sparkles whatever you want to descibe it.