Match Thread City vs Harrogate | League 2 | 12/10/20

Had not Stuart have left and Parky brought in there was a real chance he would have got us relegated to non league, Parky had a huge job to save us from relegation and replace the poor players McCall had brought to the club, It is looking like history may repeat itself and is only a matter of time before we get another manager in, Lets hope we give him enough time to rescue the club

 

I fear you're right, but the problems go higher.

 

I thought he replaced Jackson and quite a few of the players he inherited were not recruited by Mccall

 

Not at all, I'm not in the know. What I do know however is that Evans usually gets what Evans wants. Only a few weeks ago Paul Scally the Gills owner was saying they would go bust, then Evans pipes up and they sign one or two players and then the rumour about Connor and an alleged bid of £200k turned down and an alleged value of £400K.
Evans will have taken that as an indication the lad is available and will be working on it. No cat out of any bag but I've seen enough of Evans at close quarters and spoken to enough Chairmen, some of whom employed him to know how he operates. In my view if he is real in a desire to get Connor he will be in the owner's ear several times a day until it happens.
Totally distasteful character but gets results which seem to satisfy at least some of his employers.

 

He did and Jacko in turn replaced Peter Taylor.

 

He’s been tried and didn’t do much. He showed early promise, but this season he just seems to drift in games. We just don’t have any driving midfielders sadly.

Yesterday just highlighted that we don't have anyone who can either take the game by the scruff of its neck, or have the spark and creativity to do something gamechanging. As mentioned, Wood had probably his worst game I've seen for a long long time. When they were apparently targeting our left flank, I was laughing at the telly, telling them that they are trying to phase our best player. Unfortunately it worked out. I'm not sure if it's because he didn't have any cover further up the pitch, but I can't remember him looking so flustered and making so many unforced errors. This in part, was Wood also having one eye on Staunton, who in my opinion (not the views of FCW Andy Kiwomya) also had a shocker. Again, misplaced passes, poor clearances and getting caught out of position. French to be fair, at least tried to be involved, but looked rusty on the ball, with a couple of first touches leading to loss of possession, and a lot of hit and hope balls towards to the box. I don't think their byline was touched once.

And that's just the defence. I really can't be bothered typing out many lines about how poor our midfield was. You all saw it. Levi Sutton running with the ball then taking one touch too far, Watt playing too deep, Evans playing on the wrong wing, Clarke being outmuscled and outthought, Cooke being a former player of the one we first had bla bla bla.

At least Donno did ok I thought. Thankless task, especially when his striking partner was trying to do the same. Gurthrie is the new Brunker. Runs on, runs into people , gives away fouls. And Samuels - I have a bad feeling about this one. As much as I want him to succeed, I don't think he's the goalscoring machine we're looking for. I hope I'm wrong!

 

The other thing that was missing last night was leadership on the field. I just cannot get my head around having the goalkeeper as team captain. How on earth can he instil any leadership on the field? Ok, have him as club captain doing the leadership in the dressing room/on the training ground etc. but on the field of play when it is all happening around the outfield players no way. No one was taking charge/ giving any orders last night. everyone was just left to get on with what they were doing even though as Stuart later said the majority of the time what they were doing was wrong/not good enough.

 

Still reeling from the standard of our play.

French just blasting aimless balls.

Clarke, Sutton unable to control the ball under pressure.

Evans-not a left sided player-so lets play him left side.

O'Donnell distribution shocking.

Novak and Donaldson wouldn't scare a sunday league team.

That performance has definitely opened a few eyes to how we set up and how we react to a high press. We don't is the answer.

The management team need to look at last night and learn from it asap or else we are in for a long hard season.

 

Has McCall, at any stage in the 3 spells, given you any indication that he's learning?

Or we still see multiple players played out of position, constant rotation of formations and shoehorning of players into a system that completely negates their supposed attributes?

Last night we had yet another formation change from the FGR game. We had a seemingly one footed Evans playing left midfield and once Clarke was subbed, Novak used as an attacking CM? We started with two target men up to and a system that allowed for absolutely no width.

The worst thing is though that we've seen it all before and it just continues to keep happening. He just can't help tinkering when in reality it's often doing more harm than good.

 

ref Evans. I know the "Gaffa" has the final say, but I wished he'd had suggested that it's not his position (maybe he did at half time, hence his no show).
I'm right footed, and was once asked to play left back. It was bloody awful. You feel totally unbalanced, almost running sideways. Once the oppo realise that you're going to cut inside each time, you're done.

 

Stuart has not learnt from the past and nor will he learn in the future, He is stubborn and believes he always knows best regarding football, It is the main reason sadly he will probably fail again.

 

I know I’m probably going to kop some flack but I must have been watching a different match to everyone else. Thought Harrogate looked a very good outfit, I’d tip them for promotion and deserved to win but I didn’t think we were as bad as some of the comments in social media have made us out to be and think we contributed to a good game. I remember watching us under Bowyer when we couldn’t string two passes together and looked totally disinterested. I saw a City team that put in effort but lack a bit of guile. Levels dropped in the 2nd half but I think some of the flack aimed at the younger players is unfair. I thought French and Sutton did ok, they’re going to make mistakes. Maybe my expectations have dropped after the garbage I’ve witnessed since Yeovil but as I say, I thought it was an entertaining game and I think the group of players Stuart has there are an improvement on what we had a year ago and there’s the foundation to build a promotion winning team. Just my opinion and acknowledge it goes against current mood.

 

I think you were watching a different game, we were awful first half but slightly improved in the second half for me. French defended ok but in possession he offers absolutely nothing but a badly placed hoof? Suttton had as many missed placed passes as Billy Clarke. Maybe entertaining for a neutral watching Harrogate batter us but we offered very little.

 

I personally can’t see Harrogate winning promotion. They were organised and looked quite good on the ball and as a team but I think they will do what Salford did last season. Mid table flirting with top 10.
It’s a game of opinions of course but we didn’t play well last night. Not even in spells

 

I agree, I do think many of the players struggled with harrogates style of play too. I do think this squad is the best we have had since stuart was here. But its not quite there yet. Just think we need to wait. Next window we get some good wingers who can get past their man and I think we will be play off contenders.

 

Yeah, listen I accept I’m in a minority and I’m not trying to make out we were something we weren’t, but I’ve seen worse dross from City, with players I don’t believe deserves to wear the shirt. The criticism aimed at the likes of Sutton won’t be doing their confidence any good and that’s a shame because I think Stuart is right to stick with these lads, because there is some raw talent there that needs developing and I think we need to get behind them instead of getting on their backs the second they make a mistake.

 

He will fail again, just you watch it happen. Instead of getting Bowyer in when we got relegated, we should have looked at the rise of Harrogate and thought, they play good football and are a progressive team. We'll have some of that and brouty Weaver in, who's local, a modern day manager and will know our club. However we all know what our regressive board is like don't we.

 

In which alternative reality did this happen?

Completely wrong.

 

Yep, you were watching a different game

The amount of misplaced passes was astonishing. I wonder what the incomplete passes ration was. A stat Stuart should be looking at on his ipad for sure. I found myself closing my eyes many times during the match, just out of sheer cringeworthiness.

 

Why did you bother with the 1 comma ?