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Alex Neil - New head coach confirmed

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PNE fan here. Alex Neil in my view is as good as manager as you could have got, and a seriously big coup for a League One side. I don't think he would have moved down to that level for any other club, but given the size of Sunderland AFC and your fanbase, he has clearly been tempted by the challenge and the potential.

His final year or so at PNE did not go well. I don't think he was comfortable at all in the behind closed doors games, and various off the scenes problems such as multiple key players not signing contracts clearly affected his attitude and mentality. Most fans sympathised with that predicament but it's something he'll have to learn from because it did spiral into far too many many defeats that season before he left. It felt a bit like he had given up.

But he is without doubt a quality Championship manager. For 3 years we were challenging for a play off spot despite selling key players every year and having one of the smallest budgets in the division. That was down to Neil's motivational skills, and more importantly his tactical nous and ability which is reportedly up there with the best in the football league. Various players he has worked with, including at PNE, have said he is the best manager they've worked with tactically. We appointed his assistant after he left who stripped things down to as basic as you'll see at Championship level. It was a bit of an insult to the work Neil had done with our players really and McAvoy was gone by early December. I'm not surprised they are no longer working together, there have been rumours at our end of a bit of a falling out.

It was probably the right time for AN to go when he did, but McAvoy was a disaster. Thankfully we now have Ryan Lowe instead.

But all in all he did a very good job, just like he did at Hamilton and Norwich. His initial impact is normally pretty spectacular too so it wouldn't surprise me if you go on a bit of a charge between now and the end of the season, and that would be great to see because Alex deserves the success and deserves to be back as Championship level as soon as possible.
 
north-ender said:
PNE fan here. Alex Neil in my view is as good as manager as you could have got, and a seriously big coup for a League One side. I don't think he would have moved down to that level for any other club, but given the size of Sunderland AFC and your fanbase, he has clearly been tempted by the challenge and the potential.

His final year or so at PNE did not go well. I don't think he was comfortable at all in the behind closed doors games, and various off the scenes problems such as multiple key players not signing contracts clearly affected his attitude and mentality. Most fans sympathised with that predicament but it's something he'll have to learn from because it did spiral into far too many many defeats that season before he left. It felt a bit like he had given up.

But he is without doubt a quality Championship manager. For 3 years we were challenging for a play off spot despite selling key players every year and having one of the smallest budgets in the division. That was down to Neil's motivational skills, and more importantly his tactical nous and ability which is reportedly up there with the best in the football league. Various players he has worked with, including at PNE, have said he is the best manager they've worked with tactically. We appointed his assistant after he left who stripped things down to as basic as you'll see at Championship level. It was a bit of an insult to the work Neil had done with our players really and McAvoy was gone by early December. I'm not surprised they are no longer working together, there have been rumours at our end of a bit of a falling out.

It was probably the right time for AN to go when he did, but McAvoy was a disaster. Thankfully we now have Ryan Lowe instead.

But all in all he did a very good job, just like he did at Hamilton and Norwich. His initial impact is normally pretty spectacular too so it wouldn't surprise me if you go on a bit of a charge between now and the end of the season, and that would be great to see because Alex deserves the success and deserves to be back as Championship level as soon as possible.
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What kind of formation does Neil play and style of football? Cheers.
 
I’m still annoyed at how this played out and not ending up with with Keane coming back.

However, we are where we are, and we all have a choice to either get behind him and hope he does well or just walk away for a bit.

If it was McCann or Neil I’d be so despondent im not sure I’d bother but Neil is the best of a bad bunch.

Good luck to him, hope he makes me look clueless.
 
NorthumberlandMackem said:
What kind of formation does Neil play and style of football? Cheers.
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His preferred formation is 4-2-3-1. He generally wants a mobile target man up front who can press and run the channels. He loved Jordan Hugill and Ched Evans. Two wide players who stay fairly narrow and get into goalscoring areas whilst also doing their fair share of pressing, and a number 10 who also presses from the front whilst getting some goals too. He wanted our two in midfield to take the ball in deep areas and build from the back and play it through the thirds.

He does ask a lot from his forward players in a pressing, defensive sense whilst also contributing goals and assists, but it's for the benefit of the team. Whenever we played against teams who played out from the back, we absolutely battered them with our press and were extremely dangerous in transition. In League One that might be slightly different, as I'm sure you come up against a lot of teams who are sitting back, rather than trying to play and therefore can be pressed, but I'm sure he will be adaptable.

Generally you'll see the 4-2-3-1 a lot but he isn't afraid of changing it for particular games when he sees something in the opposition that he thinks he can exploit by changing it up.
 
north-ender said:
His preferred formation is 4-2-3-1. He generally wants a mobile target man up front who can press and run the channels. He loved Jordan Hugill and Ched Evans. Two wide players who stay fairly narrow and get into goalscoring areas whilst also doing their fair share of pressing, and a number 10 who also presses from the front whilst getting some goals too. He wanted our two in midfield to take the ball in deep areas and build from the back and play it through the thirds.

He does ask a lot from his forward players in a pressing, defensive sense whilst also contributing goals and assists, but it's for the benefit of the team. Whenever we played against teams who played out from the back, we absolutely battered them with our press and were extremely dangerous in transition. In League One that might be slightly different, as I'm sure you come up against a lot of teams who are sitting back, rather than trying to play and therefore can be pressed, but I'm sure he will be adaptable.

Generally you'll see the 4-2-3-1 a lot but he isn't afraid of changing it for particular games when he sees something in the opposition that he thinks he can exploit by changing it up.
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Good to hear, I think he’ll get something from this squad. Let’s just say our forward players are better than our defensive ones at the minute but we’ve just signed a CDM whose mobile (looked good on his debut in a defeat to lower league team) and a young but talented ball playing centre mid in Dan Neil.
 
north-ender said:
His preferred formation is 4-2-3-1. He generally wants a mobile target man up front who can press and run the channels. He loved Jordan Hugill and Ched Evans. Two wide players who stay fairly narrow and get into goalscoring areas whilst also doing their fair share of pressing, and a number 10 who also presses from the front whilst getting some goals too. He wanted our two in midfield to take the ball in deep areas and build from the back and play it through the thirds.

He does ask a lot from his forward players in a pressing, defensive sense whilst also contributing goals and assists, but it's for the benefit of the team. Whenever we played against teams who played out from the back, we absolutely battered them with our press and were extremely dangerous in transition. In League One that might be slightly different, as I'm sure you come up against a lot of teams who are sitting back, rather than trying to play and therefore can be pressed, but I'm sure he will be adaptable.

Generally you'll see the 4-2-3-1 a lot but he isn't afraid of changing it for particular games when he sees something in the opposition that he thinks he can exploit by changing it up.
Click to expand...
It does sound like we have the right squad for him. Missing a CB maybe.
 
north-ender said:
His preferred formation is 4-2-3-1. He generally wants a mobile target man up front who can press and run the channels. He loved Jordan Hugill and Ched Evans. Two wide players who stay fairly narrow and get into goalscoring areas whilst also doing their fair share of pressing, and a number 10 who also presses from the front whilst getting some goals too. He wanted our two in midfield to take the ball in deep areas and build from the back and play it through the thirds.

He does ask a lot from his forward players in a pressing, defensive sense whilst also contributing goals and assists, but it's for the benefit of the team. Whenever we played against teams who played out from the back, we absolutely battered them with our press and were extremely dangerous in transition. In League One that might be slightly different, as I'm sure you come up against a lot of teams who are sitting back, rather than trying to play and therefore can be pressed, but I'm sure he will be adaptable.

Generally you'll see the 4-2-3-1 a lot but he isn't afraid of changing it for particular games when he sees something in the opposition that he thinks he can exploit by changing it up.
Click to expand...
Sounds like will be able to hit the ground running.
 
I think we'll be fine with this guy but he might get a shock with the style of play from other teans and all the BS. Plus the refs hate us.
 
gards2 said:
I think we'll be fine with this guy but he might get a shock with the style of play from other teans and all the BS. Plus the refs hate us.
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Sorry like but you can’t keep blaming the refs. Yes the officiating quality is poor but it’s such an elitist attitude to say “they hate us” when there’s absolutely no proof at all
 
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