THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

I'm not getting on the Jackson hype train just yet. I've seen enough absolute poverty since he joined. I can appreciate the wins and believe me I'm as excited and happy as anyone we've had a recent upturn but some of the stuff prior to Cambridge was as bad if not worse than Manning.

We'll see next season (if we stay up) what he brings.

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"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

Jackson 20 games, 6 wins, 6 draws, 8 losses, GD -10, 24 points, 1.20 PPG
Manning 20 games, 4 wins , 3 draws, 13 losses , GD -13, 15 points, 0.75 PPG

Wow on the back of 3 more unbeaten games Mark has improved his record with this year's squad and I think it is clear he has given them a belief that Liam never managed to instill in them this season.
How do people rate Liam's start at Oxford? Unbeaten but three draws of which two were Morecambe and Port Vale?

So in the end Liam Manning can be seen as successful for keeping up Oxford but the stats are pretty mediocre for both of them....

Jackson 25 games, 6 wins, 9 draws, 10 losses, GD -12, 27 points, 1.08 PPG


Manning at MK 20 games, 4 wins , 3 draws, 13 losses , GD -13, 15 points, 0.75 PPG
Manning at Oxford 10 games, 2 wins , 5 draws, 3 losses , GD +3, 11 points, 1.1 PPG
Manning Total 30 games, 6 wins , 5 draws, 16 losses , GD -10, 26 points, 0.86 PPG

To be fair to Mark his record over the season would have kept us up but I didn't see enough green shoots of recovery myself and as I have said elsewhere if he isn't under contract beyond this season he wouldn't be my choice to take us forward.
With Liam M it will be interesting to see how the Oxford rebuild goes he clearly got it wrong with us (along with Liam S ) in the Summer will he have learned from that experience?

Ultimately, Jacko came in to save the club from relegation and failed. When he came in we were 22nd on 18 points, 3 points off safety and in the end we finished 21st on 45 points so he improved our position by a single place.

Then I think of the times we've thrown it away. The Barnsley game was painful. Whether that's down to the players or his mismanagement of that game I don't know but we don't want that in L2. I don't recall Manning having a game like that in 18 months.

It's odd, Jacko is more vulnerable and open in front of a camera which makes him more likeable personally, but Manning's stoic demeanour inspires more confidence that he knows some deeper, darker tactics that nobody knows about. For a one off cup final, you'd choose to have a beer and watch the game with Jacko but you'd trust Manning to do the work on the pitch.

There are bigger questions to be asked of Winkie and Sweeting and their relative positions rather than those two.

Can someone update me on Who are jackson and manning? Have they been managing our under 23 side?

I wasn't at the Barnsley game but I think it is a mix of their subs and our lack of ability to manage games. They have the luxury of bringing of watters as a sub whereas we would only dream of having a squad that in depth. People say the subs were odd that day but at that point it was 4-3 the damage had been done. It's the defence not being switched on and yes i include Lewie and o'hora in that one. I know Lewie especially is teflon but as a captain and a defender he should have been on that pitch making sure that shit didn't happen.

As for manning his team's wouldn't have scored four for a start against Barnsley. The football this season's under him was turgid to say the least the only team this season that you can say was good was morecombe away but that was probably the only one. I certainly can't name anymore.

In the end we misfired under both coaches. I was all for Manning staying on - there were clear green shoots but we went backwards instead of onwards. Jackson gave more impetus when he arrived but we were terribly disorganised under his watch. Neither coach managed to turn this squad into a hard working, cohesive unit.

Only once did I see anything like a competent league 1 team display and that was that the move that led to Leko’s goal against Barnsley.

I don't think there's much in it.

IMO we looked a better team under Jackson, but Jackson had a more balanced squad with Leko, Kaikai, Maghoma.

In fairness to him, and I retract what I might very said previously about the the subs that day, having watched the game back JMC made a rash challenge whilst on a yellow at 4-1 just before they scored their second. I think the mind was then made to bring him off... in the time they managed to get the sub on, we'd conceded 2 quick goals. Ideally you'd like to have kept him on but the decision was correct to sub him, it just so happens that we conceded 2 quick goals immediately after the subs were being redied so that's an awkward one for him

_________________
"It's not about hoping this little moment will change our momentum, its about our daily actions and courage in everything we do.. We've got to stop believing in fairytales"

- Graham Alexander, October 2023

Half of the problem with the Barnsley game was that they got a stupid goal to make it 4-2 and the atmosphere changed immediately. The team then invited pressure. I felt it in the stands, I would have absolutely bet the house on us not winning that game.

Very experienced players manage the game at that point and realise the danger - bit of time wasting, momentum-sapping fouls, go on a long run and get the crowd going. We were very naive and that cost us.