Mixu was a wee bit unlucky. It appears ST had signed him up on a long term plan (thus the 3 year contract). When in reality, he had 1 job which he ultimately failed in - which was keeping us up.

I think he had a bunch of players who were in some way lazy due to past management. He was unlucky with some of the players who came in:

Kawashima - a good aged keeper who has 70+ caps for a good national team - he should have won us points on his own but proved to be average.
Demel - had the experience to be an old head to guide others through games - but he couldn't do that from the dugout as he couldn't get fit. Also had that red card where he just went around lathering a very average dee player.
Gunning was proven at this level - thats probably better left there.


Can't help but think that mixus hard line training got the backs up of the players who had a lazy mindset...this bad attitude mixed in with the new players who were dragged down.

Looking back, he wasn't great but maybe his tenure has proven to be as useful as craig brewsters in that it allowed us a chance to clear out and make way for a new man....

Mixus problems were largely down to mcnamara. Thankfully, ray looks like he has managed to get players with the right attitude and turn round those who had a bad one. Keep reading that telfer was overweight and is better. The same is said for souttar.

He was hopeless as our manager, regardless of the multitude of issues he inherited.  A half decent manager taking over when he did would have comfortably kept us up. 

He was a decent player for us, yes, but I'd be surprised if he was in anyone's top 20 EHA.  Don't think he'd make my top 100 TBH.

He lost the players after THAT interview at Parkhead.

We had a young team full of soft boys who needed encouragment and instead he torpedoed them.I said at the time it was a disastrous bit of man management and i stand by that (even Malpas and Hamish Mc said similiar on the radio that following midweek).

I have no bitterness or anger towards Mixu.I believe he tried his best and still holds the club in high-regard.

BUT...

Him saying he has 'no regrets' makes my mind up beyond all comprehension that he had to be sacked.

He should have a list of regrets about his time in charge at Tannadice.

Poor man-management,poor tactics,poor knee-jerk signings (Demel,Riski,FSP),got rid off players who had something to offer imo (Connolly),and played others who had something to offer too late or not at all (Muirhead,Anier,Knoyle,Johnson,Matty Smith,Harry Souttar).

The biggest flaw above all others though was the utterly disastrous January window.We had to strengthen during this window and instead we sell McGowan and Souttar instead and only bring in on loan the utterly atrocious Ristu Riski.

2 or 3 quality signings in this window were needed and this is something we have to get right this coming January window (and early in).

Average player. Shite manager

blackandtangerine wrote:

Average player. Shite manager

 
Second part can't disagree at all.

First part is harsh though.Done well at every club he played at,including 4 bigger clubs than Utd (Aberdeen,Bolton,Wolves,Hibs).

Excellent player in his for us, surprised anyone can dispute that

Piss poor manager of legendary proportions

Hiring a manager who, by his own admission, had never been involved in a relegation battle is a clear blunder by ST. Having said that, had JM been sacked at the end of the season before last, I think Mixu would have been a decent candidate to come in

smedDUm wrote:

Why Paatelainen didn't make a better fist of it totally baffles me to this day.
I thought he'd catapult us to top six, never mind survival.
Brains & brawn I kept saying.
I was so wrong.
Could he have done any worse if he'd tried??
What I get out of this is the job of football head coach/manager is far harder than it looks.

I'm not so sure. I think Mixu and Strachan/Levein with Scotland, have tried to be too clever or over-think things.

Players in their best positions and 4-4-2 would pick up points more often than not.
 

Mixu was a fine player - imagine having him in our current team?  He'd be skittling every central defender in this league all over the place.

AlonsMosely wrote:

He was brutal last season...still get shivers thinking about Hibs league Cup game....OYF

That Hibs game: Mixu was so happy with the players he only introduced one subbie.
 

Tek wrote:

Aaron Kuhl and Adam Taggart just unbelievably bad players.

Aaron Kuhl is a subbie for Borham Wood tonight. Adam Taggart got two goals in his league debut for Perth Glory the other week, but was injured before the hour mark and hasn't played since.

Tek wrote:

That Kuhl was the worst ever.

If his big potential only lived up to be half as big as his hair!