We should be approaching the endgame in Carlisle United’s hunt for a new manager.
It is a third week since the sacking of Chris Beech and the Blues are understood to be narrowing down their search.
Here we look at the top priorities for the new boss when United confirm their decision…
1…Survival Plan
In an ideal world, United’s next boss will have a long-term vision of how the Blues can progress. He will know how to nurture youth, build on a budget, play progressive football and make Brunton Park a more embracing place.
But stop right there. Unless this manager first has a clear-sighted plan for keeping Carlisle in the Football League, he should be turned away at the gates.
This is primarily a job of crisis management, and the time for thinking United are not in a serious relegation battle is long gone. If they are starting 2022/23 a non-league club, they’re going to have a new world of problems that make the current ones seem trivial.
So: let the new boss come with the contacts, an immediate strategy and, primarily, the hardened skills to make an underperforming team better. The more distant future can wait.
2…Get goals
The above theme includes several details, and the main one is this: Carlisle will sink like a stone into the National League unless they can be much, much better at the point of the game.
A long winter awaits Blues fans if the next manager cannot find ways to make United more deadly in the opposition third.
This is an obvious point but sometimes you don’t need to look for more subtle ones. Why look past a paltry record of 11 goals in 14 games, and five of their last six in the league without scoring?
If the next gaffer doesn’t believe it possible to get goals from the current squad, then he must know where and how to acquire them from elsewhere – and before January, ideally.
3…Rise above the politics
United’s current ownership regime is moving into further unpopular times. Home support is gradually dwindling. A thick dark cloud hangs above Brunton Park with no apparent sign of it shifting.
And so: a new manager somehow needs to be both aware of this, and separate himself decisively from it.
Any fresh face in the dugout will get patience, but increasing numbers of fans are associating everything that happens on the pitch with the issues up above.
Laborious “succession” talks, criticism of those in significant executive positions, debates over who’s really pulling the strings: serious matters which cannot sidetrack a manager or head coach too much amid the gritty and essential job of making Carlisle’s team safe.
4…Add big voices
It was telling when Mark Howard, United’s experienced new goalkeeper, spoke to the media a few days after joining the Blues.
Carlisle, he said, had players with ability, but lacked aspects of “nouse” that others in their division more clearly possess.
He spoke of Tranmere’s Jay Spearing and Peter Clarke as examples, and how they are able to run and “referee” games.
Howard by all accounts is already a big voice in Carlisle’s dressing room. Good. A young and, in places, fragile squad won’t fight their way to safety without a fair bit more of that.
5…Make the big calls
We have gone far past the point where there can be any sacred cows in this Blues line-up.
Other than Howard, who has started well, and Joe Riley, the outfielder in best form right now, can anyone else expect his name to be written on the teamsheet as a matter of course?
United’s form says not. So: if a new boss feels the need to think the unthinkable, there cannot be any persuading him otherwise.
If the captain needs to be dropped, so be it. If a midfielder with a goalscoring record isn’t performing, out he goes.
If a supposedly reliable senior defender is not appearing as such, there is no law saying you must persist with him. If it’s time for the kids, why not?
The hunt for solutions can’t be deemed over until things are working better.
6…Isolate the strengths
Gavin Skelton, the caretaker, can be given his due. He hasn’t remained wedded to Chris Beech’s tactical approach.
No, Carlisle haven’t won yet since he stepped up, and Saturday’s second half against Oldham saw the Blues back to their old sterility.
But in better spells against Newport and the Latics there was at least some flickering signs of how to get the best out of this underperforming group.
It involved more passing football than Beech had been prepared to play. It saw some good, interchanging moves involving the likes of Riley, Zach Clough and Jordan Gibson.
Without an addition of emergency personnel, this route offers United at least a glimpse of something in the way that more direct, lumpen play clearly does not.
7…Inject some confidence
Easier said than done, naturally. But a squad in delicate order needs to be taught to think better and brighter, not just be at the mercy of another crushing.
The idea of simply moving on a host of low-performing players might appeal, but it isn’t realistic.
In which case, a manager capable of making a player feel a million dollars would be much appreciated right now.
A figurehead who can do the micro man-management to put minds in happier order. Someone who can help Clough be the crowd-pleaser of old, encourage Tristan Abrahams to emerge through current criticism, restore defender Jack Armer to his front foot, make others feel less flimsy and more expressive.
This is the job for a motivator as much as a manager.
8...Be comfortable front of house
United’s hierarchy is not replete with spokespeople. From the top table, only Nigel Clibbens and David Holdsworth speak with any sort of regularity.
In the main, though, it is the manager who fronts up to the media. Being the public face of the Blues in a time of trouble is not a job for someone who prefers to refer questions up.
He must be comfortable tackling them head-on, engaging clearly and presenting a credible face of Carlisle United, at a time others higher up choose silence.
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