carl_spackler wrote:It depends how it's done. You're right that only saying 'no comment' would sound odd, and probably defensive. However, if we/he had a consistent policy of not into the nitty-gritty about individual player performances, it would be easier for him to answer such a question with a reasonably friendly 'you know I don't like to comment on players individually, Gwilym, we win and lose as a team and today we collectively weren't good enough.' Such an approach doesn't exclude the occasional acknowledgement of an excellent performance, but it does give you a bit of an out for the awkward times.

Him wrote:Unfortunately, most times I hear Radford make post-match comments he sounds like an inexperienced, naive coach thrown in to a head coach job too early.

There's nothing wrong with being an inexperienced coach, every head coach has been one in their life. But he just shouldn't be head coach in my opinion. He should be an assistant to an experienced head coach who he can learn from.

The comments about Abdul are evidence of this. Those comments aren't helpful to anyone. They don't help the club in the media, they don't buck the team up or challenge them, they don't encourage or challenge the player and they don't make the fans feel any better.
I know it's easy to come up with things to say after the event but then part of his job is to make the right comments at the right time. He should've said something along the lines of:
"No Jordan didn't have his best game today. He struggled with <insert skill/part of the game here> all game but he's a great young prospect with massive potential if he works hard enough and he'll come back stronger next week."

Personally, from an outsiders point of view, it seems a big failing of the management that Radford was appointed in the first place but also that he's been kept on. He obviously isn't ready for it yet. Bring in an experienced Head Coach and demote Radford down to assistant for say 4/5 years, then bring him back.

Keiththered wrote::wink: Yes, you are right, there are many ways of deflecting questions. LR should know he will receive them and should therefore prepare his basic response before hand just changing minor details to fit the actual question. As in many things however he does not seem to be able to learn from experience.

carl_spackler wrote:The thing is, I don't even think this situation is one that should require experience, just common sense. I've never coached any sport at any level and I'm younger than Radford, but I've heard more than enough post-match interviews to realise how the best handle them. Even if he'd just taken a few seconds and thought 'how would I have liked my coach to do with this if it was me?'. It's only last week he was saying what a good lad Abdull is off the field, so it's not like he's a bad lad who needs scolding. He's apparently everything Radford wishes all the young players could be, and he shafted him a bit IMO. That's not a very nice way to repay him.

Staffs FC wrote:He didn't comment when asked specifically about Abdull which was the right thing to do. Had he not been asked specifically he wouldn't have said anything voluntarily. I suspect he would have reacted similarly had he been asked about anyone in the team if they had performed as poorly as Abdull did.

Abdull is young but overweight and playing out of position. He is also in receipt of a full time paid professional contract. It's not a bloody kindergarten although at times 3 year olds would be better at handling the ball than all of our lot. There's much wrong with everything but trying to find fault in a no comment when a specific question was asked about a specific player is missing the point completely.

Abdull was garbage as were many others who turned out last night.

carl_spackler wrote:It was a loaded and difficult question, but he did answer it badly. As I've already said, he was right not to want to answer it, but unfortunately he essentially did. He said that he wouldn't publicly criticise Abdull, you can see for yourself, which confirms he thought he was s**t. He may not have been wrong about that, but it achieved the very thing he said he didn't want to do. It reflected our attack, a sloppy and ill-thought out error.

Staffs FC wrote:Like I say he had no option but to do what he did. Maybe he should ask for a list of questions prior to the interview and spend an hour preparing.

Staffs FC wrote:If he goes tomorrow I'll shed no tears. But it's noticeable generally that the reaction to garbage such as that served up last night more often than not almost excludes any criticism about specific players. As in the case an argument has appeared that criticises the coach for his no comment about a player but avoids criticising the player himself. Just as with Westerman last week Abdull deserves a heap of criticism for failing in any way shape or form to even attempt to influence the game. You can add Rankin to that as his woeful HB partner as well as pathetic performances from Sa, Yeaman, Shaul and some others. Westerman went missing after 20 mins along with most others.