Michael Appleton Podcast | Page 2 | Vital Football

Michael Appleton Podcast

APHLCFC said:
I was a little disappointed to hear him basically write off playing direct football. I think any manager who doesn't have the pick of the best players in the division should be able and willing to adapt their game plan to whatever is necessary to win.

I understand he wants to play his way to develop players to sell on and make money for the club and keep us progressing in the pitch. Doing whatever necessary to win football matches, resulting in an FA cup quarter final, 2 League titles, a trophy win at Wembley, increasing your support base 4 fold and making your club attractive to sponsors was a good way of making money for the club and progressing us on the pitch too, so I'd be careful of being too dismissive of his predecessors.
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I’m not sure he wrote it off, as much dismissed it as a vehicle for long term success of a club (ie a revolving door of football success balanced with financial stability without significant investment at this level).

This is something we are perhaps living proof of?
 
Sounds like we’ve got a project 2023 to be promoted to Championship.

This year top half, next year play offs, 2023 promotion.

His criticism he did always stress was his opinion so I don’t think anyone will be too upset. And it was well known we spent well under the Cowley’s.

Very interesting thanks for sharing.
 
It's very interesting listening to MA and I am optimistic he will get us into The Championship given time. Time will tell but as a club we have a plan to bring sustainable long term success to the club and the board are backing the manager and sticking to their guns which is very refreshing.

I for one am looking forward to the ride and seeing our young team develop along with talent from the youth team. I have a feeling MA could be our manager for a long time and while not having the whirlwind we had under the Cowleys it will be great to see the club hopefully develop and flourish in steady and sustainable way.
 
RAK1MP said:
I’m not sure he wrote it off, as much dismissed it as a vehicle for long term success of a club...
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Ask yourself how many dedicated long-ball teams there are above League One: the answer is probably one (Wycombe). There is a reason for that, and MA is dead right. Wycombe are in for a horrendous season.
 
My only slight concern is that we lose a bit of physicality about us. I don't want to see us become a Notts County 2018/19 and end up with a squad full of tippy tappy fairies. We need to have some balls about us.
 
Impetus said:
Cowley-ball was unsustainable - I loved the time we had Danny and Nicky - a fantastic few years but it relied on the board spending £££s and they spent big to get us from the National league to League 1.
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He had a similar budget to Chris Moyses when he arrived here, and we all know what happened in 2016-17.

An interesting thought occurs to me: what makes everyone so sure that Danny could not have operated within a limited budget? He did that every year of his managerial career before he arrived at Lincoln, and had a record that was second to none in the non-league game. He took Concord Rangers all the way to NL South on an average gate of around 100. His budget at Braintree was reported to be £175,000, and he finished third.

In my opinion, Danny simply felt he had earned the right to try his hand with a bigger budget at a higher level. There may well be an element of not wanting to tarnish his reputation with a mediocre season at Lincoln, especially considering the change in business model that I am sure he would have known about.
 
So far in their careers the Cowleys have shownwn an ability and a willingness to adapt and do whatever necessary to meet the challenge in front of them.

As Scotimp points out, they didn't have a huge budget in their first season here or at anytime before that. They made some shrewd additions and improved what they had. Any money they spent after that is money earned through their own success. They also played in a way that suited the group they had. They'd already started to evolve the way we played before they left.

In the Appleton podcast the interviewer quoted him as saying something along the lines of 'if plan A doesn't work, plan B is to do plan A better'. That's great until you meet teams who can do plan A better than you, you need to be flexible and be able to change the gameplan as and when necessary.
 
"That's great until you meet teams who can do plan A better than you, you need to be flexible and be able to change the gameplan as and when necessary. "

That worries me too. A manager should be open to ALL styles of play depending on the players he has available. That is why I was so disappointed at MA writing off the Cowley and Wycombe style of play as not producing success or saleable assets.

Ok. It may not be the way he wants to play, but you have to have a plan B and you have to be open minded.

Personally I would be happier with a direct style that brings success and only one or two sellable players, than an attractive style that has us on the fringes of the play offs but results in half the team moving on.

That is on top of my not being able to recall in my 50 years of watching the Imps a single manager who had success with a passing style that did not involve getting the ball forward quickly. Please correct me if I am wrong regarding past managers.
 
APHLCFC said:
So far in their careers the Cowleys have shownwn an ability and a willingness to adapt and do whatever necessary to meet the challenge in front of them.

As Scotimp points out, they didn't have a huge budget in their first season here or at anytime before that. They made some shrewd additions and improved what they had. Any money they spent after that is money earned through their own success. They also played in a way that suited the group they had. They'd already started to evolve the way we played before they left.

In the Appleton podcast the interviewer quoted him as saying something along the lines of 'if plan A doesn't work, plan B is to do plan A better'. That's great until you meet teams who can do plan A better than you, you need to be flexible and be able to change the gameplan as and when necessary.
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Agreed. The Cowleys had us playing in a completely different style when they left compared to the National League season. I think that's one thing they don't get enough credit for. My biggest gripe with Appleton is that he says the same things (about styles) as just about every manager we beat under the Cowleys. We all laughed at those types of managers at the time but now we have one, everyone agrees with him. I have no problem if he thinks our best chance of developing players is us playing in a certain way, but to constantly bemoan other (successful) teams' styles is grating.

There's a manager in the league below who has developed young players and sold them on for millions, has finished fourth with Swindon in League 1 but now spends his time at Forest Green Rovers bemoaning other teams' playing styles. We wouldn't want Mark Cooper here, so for me MA needs to dial it down when talking about other clubs. Believe in your own methods, sure, but make sure it's successful and don't try to diminish the achievements of others.
 
Re Plan A and Plan B, I took it more to mean in a general sense, the plan of how to play and take the club forward, rather than a game by game basis of what tactics are working say against Opposition X or Opposition Y
 
Interesting listen.
MA has an interesting background having got his fingers burnt in management, but subsequently doing a business degree.
From what he said, chose the club over others last autumn as they shared his philosophy for going forward using youth development.
 
Luke Imp said:
My only slight concern is that we lose a bit of physicality about us. I don't want to see us become a Notts County 2018/19 and end up with a squad full of tippy tappy fairies. We need to have some balls about us.
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we do
libertine said:
Agreed. The Cowleys had us playing in a completely different style when they left compared to the National League season. I think that's one thing they don't get enough credit for. My biggest gripe with Appleton is that he says the same things (about styles) as just about every manager we beat under the Cowleys. We all laughed at those types of managers at the time but now we have one, everyone agrees with him. I have no problem if he thinks our best chance of developing players is us playing in a certain way, but to constantly bemoan other (successful) teams' styles is grating.

There's a manager in the league below who has developed young players and sold them on for millions, has finished fourth with Swindon in League 1 but now spends his time at Forest Green Rovers bemoaning other teams' playing styles. We wouldn't want Mark Cooper here, so for me MA needs to dial it down when talking about other clubs. Believe in your own methods, sure, but make sure it's successful and don't try to diminish the achievements of others.
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I don't necessarily agree with him. I really don't like this playing out from the back fad and have been damaged for life for witnessing the disaster of it at the stadium of light.

What will ultimately matter is results and sales.

Appleton will have to keep us in L1 and produce some form of progress whilst using his model to finance us. That's his very clearly stated aim.

If he does that, no-one - including me -×will care about style and Plan Bs.

To me, though, it's a big ask.
 
mikeosullivan said:
"That's great until you meet teams who can do plan A better than you, you need to be flexible and be able to change the gameplan as and when necessary. "

That worries me too. A manager should be open to ALL styles of play depending on the players he has available. That is why I was so disappointed at MA writing off the Cowley and Wycombe style of play as not producing success or saleable assets.

Ok. It may not be the way he wants to play, but you have to have a plan B and you have to be open minded.

Personally I would be happier with a direct style that brings success and only one or two sellable players, than an attractive style that has us on the fringes of the play offs but results in half the team moving on.

That is on top of my not being able to recall in my 50 years of watching the Imps a single manager who had success with a passing style that did not involve getting the ball forward quickly. Please correct me if I am wrong regarding past managers.
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I think the higher up the league, the more ‘football’ in general is played and probably needs to be played to be successful. Given we’ve spent most of the last 60 years below the level we’re at now perhaps is not a fair question.
 
NottyImp said:
we do

I don't necessarily agree with him. I really don't like this playing out from the back fad and have been damaged for life for witnessing the disaster of it at the stadium of light.

What will ultimately matter is results and sales.

Appleton will have to keep us in L1 and produce some form of progress whilst using his model to finance us. That's his very clearly stated aim.

If he does that, no-one - including me -×will care about style and Plan Bs.

To me, though, it's a big ask.
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They can play hopscotch in their own 18 yard box for all I care as long as we win...
 
Apologies if I've interpreted what MA has said wrongly (or perhaps just not listened well enough!) but his focus r.e. styles centred around the development of players rather than lessening the achievements of others by playing a different way.
 
mikeosullivan said:
That worries me too. A manager should be open to ALL styles of play depending on the players he has available. That is why I was so disappointed at MA writing off the Cowley and Wycombe style of play as not producing success or saleable assets.
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I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he said "sustainable success".
Didn't get the impression he was "dissing" the style. He certainly gave Gareth plenty of credit for his work at Wycombe, and certainly acknowledged the achievements of Danny at Lincoln.
To me, he just doesn't like football played in that way. Nothing wrong with that opinion. Personally, I want to see us scoring goals and winning games, playing the best football that we can afford.
The saleable assets comment? Clearly good players will shine regardless of team style. But, anyone must be able to understand the ability of an individual will be more clearly seen within a side where there is more chance of it showing. That is less likely to be in a direct side than in one that plays it on the deck. Again, for me, I want to see the best for LCFC that we can afford and sustain.
 
Luke Imp said:
Apologies if I've interpreted what MA has said wrongly (or perhaps just not listened well enough!) but his focus r.e. styles centred around the development of players rather than lessening the achievements of others by playing a different way.
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By saying "I wouldn't want to watch them" it stops being about development and starts becoming exactly the sort of stuff we've heard from the likes of Cooper in the past.
 
plumbob said:
I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he said "sustainable success".
Didn't get the impression he was "dissing" the style. He certainly gave Gareth plenty of credit for his work at Wycombe, and certainly acknowledged the achievements of Danny at Lincoln.
To me, he just doesn't like football played in that way. Nothing wrong with that opinion. Personally, I want to see us scoring goals and winning games, playing the best football that we can afford.
The saleable assets comment? Clearly good players will shine regardless of team style. But, anyone must be able to understand the ability of an individual will be more clearly seen within a side where there is more chance of it showing. That is less likely to be in a direct side than in one that plays it on the deck. Again, for me, I want to see the best for LCFC that we can afford and sustain.
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MA has several times made the point that current football trends dictate at the higher levels that all footballers need to be technically good. If we are going down the model of developing players to sell on for profit then we have to produce players that meet the requirements for that market. It's no good making that choice and then adopting a hustle bustle, direct in your face style of play as it defeats the point of what is trying to be achieved.

MA was on record of saying last season's crop would be given the opportunity to see if they could play the necessary way whilst pulling no punches pointing out if unable to they would be replaced with those that can. It will be fascinating to see how it goes with his own players, really looking forward to it.
 
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