After more than half our league games we’d won twice as many as we’d lost and looked to be on course for our best season in around ten years. At that stage I’d have said Brian McDermott was doing a very good job. In fact I’d have said he was doing a similar job to what Roy Hodgson achieved at Fulham in the Premiership last season. Five matches doesn't change that for me.
In the past five weeks or so we’ve had the sort of injury crisis anyone would have struggled with. Not so much the numbers missing as the fact that all our least easily replaceable individuals have been out simultaneously – I don’t really see what McDermott could have done to avert that. Take Senior, McGuire, Burrow, Buderus, Sinfield and a first choice forward or two out of the Leeds team at the same time and I think they’d struggle, though maybe not as badly as us as they're a bigger, more established club and have more depth. If the other “surprise” pacesetters Hull KR & Huddersfield had been devastated by injuries as we have I suspect they would have lost a string of games and fallen by the wayside as we have.
Whether we bounce back or keep falling depends largely on how soon the injured players are able to return IMO and has relatively little to do with Mac’s coaching ability or otherwise.
Obviously the top 5 finish that looked a possibility not so long ago would have been tangible progress and evidence that we might establish ourselves as a regular play-off contenders, so the fact that this now seems improbable is a setback, but I see no evidence to believe that the current run of defeats is part of a long-term slump.
Whether the coach responds in an irritable or inarticulate manner in the immediate aftermatch of a defeat or politely says what people want to hear makes no difference to me.
And whether we "make the play-offs" in 8th place or "miss out" in 9th makes not a jot of difference to me either, apart from the obvious fact that I'd like to see us finish as high as possible.
In the past five weeks or so we’ve had the sort of injury crisis anyone would have struggled with. Not so much the numbers missing as the fact that all our least easily replaceable individuals have been out simultaneously – I don’t really see what McDermott could have done to avert that. Take Senior, McGuire, Burrow, Buderus, Sinfield and a first choice forward or two out of the Leeds team at the same time and I think they’d struggle, though maybe not as badly as us as they're a bigger, more established club and have more depth. If the other “surprise” pacesetters Hull KR & Huddersfield had been devastated by injuries as we have I suspect they would have lost a string of games and fallen by the wayside as we have.
Whether we bounce back or keep falling depends largely on how soon the injured players are able to return IMO and has relatively little to do with Mac’s coaching ability or otherwise.
Obviously the top 5 finish that looked a possibility not so long ago would have been tangible progress and evidence that we might establish ourselves as a regular play-off contenders, so the fact that this now seems improbable is a setback, but I see no evidence to believe that the current run of defeats is part of a long-term slump.
Whether the coach responds in an irritable or inarticulate manner in the immediate aftermatch of a defeat or politely says what people want to hear makes no difference to me.
And whether we "make the play-offs" in 8th place or "miss out" in 9th makes not a jot of difference to me either, apart from the obvious fact that I'd like to see us finish as high as possible.
