Lennon, four months in.

[Enoch]

Four months in the job.

What do you like, what don't you like?

What's he good at, where are his weaknesses?

[TANGODANCER]

He's certainly made a difference in attitude and seems to understand football management to a high degree. His substitutions seem thoughtful and not just a case of throwing fresh legs on. In that I think we're lucky to have landed him considering our limited resources. His dealings in the transfer market are heartening and there's a good feeling that's been missing for a while. Be interesting to see how we shape against Dougie's lot on Saturday.

[Vertigo]

I like that he seems to know when and how things have gone wrong, and how to fix it.

[Bijou Bob]

I was happy until Saturday when his tactics just seemed very naive to me going into that second half. We are conceding a shed full of goals at the moment and whilst I think we're heading in the right direction and I think he's undoubtedly the right man for the job, this needs to be addressed and quickly.

I think we're too quick to judge in football these days and what Lennon inherited has to be viewed as a long term project. I think we can only properly judge him at the end of next season, once he has had time to sort out the squad, bring his own players in and get us playing the way he envisages.

[Beefheart]

I like that he seems to know when and how things have gone wrong, and how to fix it.

I'd agree with this, both in terms making changes to the team/formation during games but also in his dealings in the transfer market. It's clear he isn't a fan of diminutive defensive midfielders so he's got rid and replaced them with players who, I assume, fit his style of play. He actually gives youth a chance rather than simply paying lip service to the idea.

He also comes across more intelligently that most managers in this press conferences and post-match interviews and nobody can argue with the guys passion for the team!

Edit: He's managed to get performances from the team despite an injury list so long that Matt Mills played upfront against Liverpool.

[Prufrock]

My only real concern is that he seems a bit wedded to this 3 at the back business (which I've never liked, and despite being trendy at the moment, I don't think suits us). People might say it worked against Liverpool, but 5 at the back worked against a Liverpool team where there was no real onus on us to attack. Save it for big cup games.

Otherwise pretty close to full marks. Spirit is back, recent wobble aside we're organised, the place seems lifted, he's brought two of the kids through and actually into the team. If it wasn't for a hefty injury list, I think the pipedream of the playoffs would still look doable.

[Loyal White]

A bit worried about the injury situation. Not sure whether the players are being overworked/rushed back given our high intensity style and relucance to rotate, but it seems too much to be a coincidence.

On the other hand, this might be a consequence of Dougie's rotate for the sake, so no one has built up any fitness.

All in all though, very pleased with what he has done since his arrival.

[Peter Thompson]

Awesome manager and we are lucky to have him - the football is entertaining, he wants to attack but everyone knows that we need to get much better defensively.

He inherited a brittle, mentally weak side with a losing mentality with some very average players and has already improved them all significantly - still a long way to go but he will stamp his winning mentality on this side even more over the summer.

I still think we need more steel in midfield & a few more winners in the side but NL will get this right I've no
doubt, whether we have enough to go up next season may depend on how much if any money he's given in the summer, but the play offs are certainly achievable next season.

He has returned the feel good factor on & off the pitch, and the fans believe in him and his backroom team

[General Mannerheim]

i dont like that pez black bubble jacket

[malcd1]

i dont like that pez black bubble jacket

Seconded.

[TKIZ!]

I think this season was always going to be tough.

If we manage to keep NL then I look forward to seeing the rebuilding job he'll do in summer and also watching a decent team compete against every single team in the division. I see a lot of Rioch in Lennon and I think that is exciting

[danardif1]

Thoroughly impressed at how he's done.

- Results. We were on just 5 points when Lennon came in and in danger of being cut adrift in a relegation battle. To get us into lower midtable he's basically had to bring us into the kind of form expected of playoff contenders instantly, and has done that with a squad that's increasingly affected by injuries.

- Squad. He has trimmed and augmented a squad that despite our limited funds Freedman had managed to over-stock in certain positions. Not been afraid to let players previously thought of as important go (Spearing, Chungy) whilst bringing in a mixture of experienced quality (Heskey, Eidur) and young guns.

- Vela and Clough. These two academy products were in danger of being lost to us under Freedman, neither being given even a slight chance in the first team. Lennon brought Vela in right from the start and has used him in several positions to useful effect. Clough has been a complete revelation and the previous regime should hang their heads in shame that they did not find a place for him in the team. We've got two stars in these guys and we should thank Lennon for having the faith to put them in the team.

- Tactics. Lennon has tried to make us into a more modern side that presses high with intensity and utilises width. Some unexpected players have stepped up to the mark (Pratley especially) and others flourished in new roles imagined for them by Lennon (moving Chungy into the mobile playmaking position was a masterstroke and revitalised the player, shame he's not at the club now to carry it on). He's also tried to add some flexibility to the team with admittedly some mixed results (I feel like most that three at the back is perhaps just being a bit trendy rather than giving solutions to problems) but crucially when there's been issues in a game he tends to know how to fix them. Taking Liverpool to the wire with a threadbare team across two games was proof that Lennon still knows how to plan for the big game (Celtic's heroics against Barcelona have not been forgotten). It feels now like we have several different methods for approaching a game rather than the dour, predictable tactics we suffered through under Freedman.

I called him as a suitable candidate before his name was even mentioned and I'm glad we got him, because from what I saw when he was in charge at Celtic was enough to convince me he'd land on his feet in the Championship and continue to progress. He seems a smart guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and has given a lot to the club already... I just hope we can keep hold of him for a relatively long time. The comparison with Rioch is apt in my opinion and as I feel that our momentum under Bruce was halted when he was poached by Arsenal, if Neil was to be pinched by a Premier League team offering a bigger buck we'd struggle to find a replacement as good.

[Hoboh]

I like him but I hope he has a better eye for decent defenders because I don't really rate any of ours, it's like playing with four or five Knights at times just waiting for the goal mistake!

[twilight]

I love him!!! He says things as they are, no bull in his pre and post match interviews, and I like that. Yes he has made small errors, but nobody's perfect and after Freedman, he's my knight in shining armour!!!!

He the man (I just hope he stays here for a long time to come)...that's my only worry

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

A bigger name than I imagined us getting - something of a surprise, even. Certainly a breath of fresh air after the fetid staleness of Freedman's failed regime.

Lennon has done many things right. He has continued the financial restructuring which marked Freedman's reign, and - as is the way - cleared out a few of the previous bloke's overpaid/underplayed extravagances. Unlike Freedman, he has done it without apparently causing strife: compare the exits of Eagles and Chungy, or even the way Beckford, having been given a run, was quietly and quickly ushered out of the building.

But he hasn't just been clearing the decks. Busily bringing in a fair few – albeit mostly loanees, presumably due to finances – he seems to have an eye for a player, judging by the early performances of Le Fondre, Bannan, Janko. He has also rehabilitated older heads (Heskey, Eidur) like a latter-day Allardyce.

Some of Lennon's most welcomed introductions have been invention fathered by necessity or desperation; had we had a fit right-back, Josh Vela may not have got his crucial run in the team, and had we had enough fit strikers, there may have been less temptation to throw in Zach Clough - a player of whom Freedman spoke very highly but didn't give a chance, whether through timidity or alternative options.

Timidity is not a word associated with this boss. Perhaps the best thing is that unlike Freedman, who seemed to prefer to calculatedly steal points, Lennon wants his team to play with a boldness that pleases most fans of British teams.

There are downsides with the sort of high-tempo approach that tore apart Wigan in the home league game with 20 minutes of football whose pace and fury recalled the Rioch and Todd years at their best – the highest praise you'll get from this Wanderers fan. It worries me that we still don't, perhaps can't, play well for all or even most of a match. In a not unrelated point, he seems much more keen to rotate formations than he does players, even when it's his own signings being kept on the bench (notably Slavchev and Twardzik).

Not that I'm one to complain about formational flexibility, and I'm glad to see we've finally got a Plan B. I would, however, like to see us find a way to stop conceding a goal every 30 minutes, as we have over the past five league games. It's the kind of thing that would have earned Freedman (deserved) pelters, but Lennon's leeway comes because the vast majority of Wanderers fans (including me) are more confident about the future.

I'm intrigued to see how we'll do next season, assuming he's still here. And if the true test of how much you like something is how much you'd miss it when it's gone, perhaps it's informative that the rumours that followed Nigel Pearson's recent sacking-that-wasn't at Lennon's old club Leicester had me worried that we might lose our manager. He didn't go, and I'm glad. Long may he give us hope.

[StaffsTrotter]

Given a majority on this forum were still arguing that freedman needed more time at the time he was potted and that it needs far longer than 4 months to form any kind of proper judgement I think the question is somewhat premature.

However taking out the new marriage effect, I think its a mark of NL as regards the quick impact he's had in turning around the atmosphere on and off the pitch. From what I have seen and heard so far, I'm confident that we have a guy (and his team) who give us the best possible chance of being successful in our set of circumstances and doing it in a manner that makes going to the game something to look forward to rather than a chore.

[Bruce Rioja]

Given a majority on this forum were still arguing that freedman needed more time at the time he was potted

That's not how I remember it. Far from it in fact.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Given a majority on this forum were still arguing that freedman needed more time at the time he was potted

That's not how I remember it. Far from it in fact.

Very far from it.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I think the question is somewhat premature.

The question "Should he be sacked or knighted?" might be premature, ST, but:

What do you like, what don't you like?

What's he good at, where are his weaknesses?

[Little Green Man]

Given a majority on this forum were still arguing that freedman needed more time at the time he was potted

That's not how I remember it. Far from it in fact.

Very far from it.

Yup.

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