Once were Loiners wrote:
At some stage he passed from being a slightly odd, highly driven character with immense self belief into an aggressive loon who clearly believed in his own mythology. The current situation we're in started well before the end of his watch, with the laughably amateur treatment of junior development. It was clear he really had no idea what to do to replace the Golden Generation, and our decline since then until he left is as much his fault as Hetherington's.
If he seriously thinks every player should be capable of 80 minutes then he's a fool. Big bopper forwards train to do short bursts, and even those with amazing stamina can't generally do more than 50-60 minutes a game, and most far less. If they trained to play 80 minutes they could, but they'd be far less dynamic.
McDermott used league games at times to test and stretch players , sometimes it looked nuts but he was all about getting them capable of going above and beyond when push came to shove in big games. I don’t recall him doing the unused sub routine in big games unless we were winning by plenty.
He could do this type of thing because he had a hardened core of quality players.
He used some league matches to test and trial and push players and see what reaction he got. His job was not youth development that was Barrie McDermott. For mine that’s where we went wrong.
I was not a big fan myself but he was good at pushing some players buttons and getting responses. He also pushed players to come up with answers themselves in games.
I don’t think it would work with this group but his record speaks for itself.
I’d add he left in 2018 and we are now 5 years on, I don’t think he carries any blame for current state.
