Sack the manager

Completely agree, I would make one distinction between GB and PP I would make is the players they had available. Midfield of Jones, Doyle, Atkinson and Thompson was functional. It did exactly its job in battling for the ball retaining and retaining our shape.
GB has signed technically good players who need to be on the ball and use their intelligent link up play. The players we have are, imo, overall technically better than the McCall team that made it to the lg1 playoff final. We should be playing like that with these players.

What I will say for Bowyer though is that he has certainly instilled a resilience and toughness to the team. All good teams need to have this before you add anything else. This is something that is very welcome and has for too long been absent from VP. I'm impressed that we have shown this from the go this season, but there is significant work to be done on the rest of our style of play.

 

The wins under a 4-4-2 have masked over the facr that we haven’t really played well yet. An Oldham team that were better first half despite having no game plan whatsoever and a win at Stevenage determined more by our keepers efforts than our creative, or lack of, efforts. Its early days but i’m yet to be convinced this squad has what it takes. Our front two continue to impressed (although were well marshalled today) and our defence on the whole looks solid. But until we work a system out that fits the midfielders in the squad and stick with we will continue to struggle. We continue to pick at Akpan or Anderson but in truth not one midfielder has done anything of note, there is no cohesion between any of them and no one really knows what the two new players will bring in terms of skillset.

 

That is just it, they are not a good side, in my view. They could pass it around but had little to offer going forward, and we allowed their defence a relatively easy afternoon. It was truly awful to watch, their shoves, shirt pulling, forearm jabs, and general time-wasting. They may well have managed to get into the playoffs playing like that, but they are not a good team. They came with a plan of action that didn’t involve playing football and would have been very happy with a draw.

I agree, we did not have our best players playing in their best positions yet again. I would push AOC into midfield to provide some strength in the middle, Akpan can stay on the bench and we will keep our fingers crossed we don’t get an injury. Not sure where the players we have brought prefer to play, but both looked good when they came on. Vaughan and Donaldson need to be upfront and as near as possible to each other. We need width, in my view, and if we play 442 Scannell and Wood on the wing. Paudie at the back and Longbridge as full back.

Somebody explain to me why GB did not want the players to challenge that goal keeper, for the life of me I don’t understand, they just played in our half without a challenge. Very dissapointed.

 

Henley was in the suite before the game, he said Scannell had felt a twinge in his back earlier this week...and we all went s&&t not again...

 

Disagree from a coaching perspective. They didn't play simple balls out many times, 8 out of 10 they kicked it long and it went to our defenders, went out of play etc. They wanted us to press high to draw us out and give them that extra space in midfield but we sat back and let their keeper have it to kick it out of play!!

 

That's correct, however they did the opposite to us - they would not allow O'Donnell to play the short pass very often, and where we let them effectively play 40 yards up the pitch (even if each time the keeper was launching it aimlessly), we had no such opportunity.

It meant our narrow formation struggled to get the ball up the other end of the pitch without resorting to a long ball, largely down to a lack of width - several times we had to turn back because there was no winger to act as an outlet.

By half time, Bowyer had to recognise that we were struggling to get the ball forward, regardless of how ineffective their goalkeeper's encroachments up the pitch were, as they pressed us right back. Unfortunately we still lack a pacy winger, and suffered as such. But it doesn't stop me believing that a flat 4-4-2 with Vaughan and Donaldson up front all game and Scannell and Gibson (better yet, Wood) might have done the trick.

I really think Bowyer got his tactics, formation and personnel wrong today, and the fact we actually got beat rather than simply failing to beat FGR really needs looking at. I don't know if Bowyer has held his hands up yet, but he should have done by now.

 

I guess that part of Bowyers problem is that rightly or wrongly he is associated to the shambles last season. Despite the fact that he couldn't make any personnel changes last year as he came in after the window closed.
This means that goodwill appears to be in relatively short supply compared to a fresh manager with no such history.
When he plays certain individuals associated with last season in a formation where we play consistently badly in possession then it’s not going to take long for the grumbling to begin.
We need to give Bowyer time BUT he needs to address what many of us see as a key weakness in the middle of the pitch. Oldham dominated possession the previous week in central midfield. We had a cutting edge. They didn’t.
Yesterday it was the same however FGR we better at the back. Our play needs to develop but the CM presently offers little in way of ball retention and maintaining possession. It’s more go back and hoof it up to the front or prey on opposition defenders for mistakes. We won’t get the best from the front two if that’s all we can do in possession of the ball.

 

I could understand this tactic in the first half but not late in the second. It looks like Bowyer identified he would prefer the keepers lack of accuracy in picking a pass as opposed to the no 5. I hadn’t realised it was Matt mills until later in the game. Mills showed excellent distribution from the back on many occasions and you can see that he had played at a higher level. He didn’t want mills to pick us off in possession.
But we should have changed to pressuring the keeper earlier in the second half as a statement of intent as the crowd was getting frustrated and that transfers to the players.

 

Not in favour of sacking Bowyer at all.... But what's that saying Two head's are.....
Following on from some recent management desions Bowyer would benefit from having a quality number two...with a good football brain....someone to bounce decisions/ tactics off....
But please....not a reject from a non league club...Sorry Mr D

 

Uriah Rennie was there judging the standard of reffing. I’m sure he’s going to giving the ref a lot of negative feedbac after that performance.
I hope Rhodes was there doing the same for the man he’s in charge of. Someone needs to inform Bowyer that in order to win games (and ultimately the league) he needs to get his team and tactics selection correct AND get the fans onside. Didn’t do either today.

 

Stroud is like Bradford in the Cotswolds. Except full of vegans and z listers like Keith Allen with Zara and Mike Tindall popping in to Waitrose.

 

It's interesting to note that folk are saying GB got his tactics wrong. There wasn't any tactics to get wrong.

 

Sacking is a bit excessive but I do think we need to start approaching the games in a much more positive, authoritative manner.

I know we don’t want to take games for granted and think we’re going to walk over teams but we have a good squad of players who have the quality to compete with anyone in this league. Why not go out there and start on the front foot, press and attack. Our approach to every game this season has been negative and we’ve rarely put opposition teams under pressure in their own half. Hopefully GB sorts this out because we have one of the better squads in this division and so far we’re playing like we’re one of the worst.

 

Calling for a managers head after 1 defeat in the first 5 games is nothing short of pathetic.

We’re gonna lose games here and there like every other team - accept it.

 

I think Bowyer still has a few weeks to see if 4-3-3 works with better midfielders but our current squad is now crying out to play 5-3-2. Vaughn and Donaldson would play a bit closer together than in a 4-3-3. Mellor and Wood look more like wingbacks than out and out fullbacks. They and O'Connor could push up a bit from a back 5 against weaker sides. If we still struggled, there would be a couple of decent wingers on the bench (when Ismail fit?) to swap straight in or to switch to 4-4-2 and open things up a bit. I'm open to trying 4-3-3 for a few more weeks with a new midfield but Vaugh and Donaldson are strong attributes that have not been utilised well so far. I'll give Bowyer and his 4-3-3 until the end of next month with Cooke and Devitt in. If performances don't improve, Bowyer will have to change the formation to suit the players better or we will have to change to a new manager that suits the players better. Let the players play where they are best suited!

 

To have a thread talking about sacking a manager after the first defeat of the season is totally ludicrous and an indictment of modern day football in the digital age.
It was poor yesterday against a spoiling side but whether we like it or not there will be many more matches like this. It’s fine margins ww need The highly paid individuals to produce moments to get the edge but there are to many @Fordy117 out there who think all we have to do is turn up.

 

I very rarely post but feel I need to address this. I agree wholly with your first paragraph but your second one reflects the attitude of the set-up and performance yesterday.
Whether we win or lose, and we will lose, we should go into every game with the attitude of arrogance that we should be steam-rolling such teams. Whether this attitude is mis-placed is irrelevant, allowing us to implement such tactics as yesterday sends out a signal to the other teams and gives them a blueprint of how to play us.
We are at home in front of a massive crowd, for the 4th division, why roll over?

 

Completely agree. We gave them far too much respect. The game plan was totally wrong, we should have been on the front foot from the start.

 

We really have a soft under belly about is. I hate to harp back as you should really look forward BUT look at this team against Parky's team that got us out of this division. You could say quite luckily as we got the last play off spot. No where near the automatic for most of the season so never really favourites.
Not one of the current crop would get near that side.
Dispite my early season optimism , I came away yesterday bitterly disappointed.

 

Next week I want to see us actually attack Crewe, not go there sit back and hope the front two can bail us out as we have done so far. Its time we started acting like the big boys in this division.