Retained list

We didn’t unearth Pickford. He was on loan to us...a mere stepping stone!

 

And that sadly is not good enough!

 

Correct - He'd already played about 30 games in the Conference and another 30 in League two before playing a season in league one for us.

 

No doubt we were poor going forward , but having a decent defence got us “ scraping “ victories. Then for some unknown reason RoD was brought back, refused to command his area and the defence lost confidence, and those scraped victories turned into defeats. The defence never recovered, nether did the wins. That’s why some of us recognised the error T&S made instantly. A lack of experience saw them refuse to right the wrong until it was TOO LATE. They paid the price!

 

Chuckle!

 

That's a really bad take.

Fair play for not being embarrassed to share it, that takes balls.

 

Too old and far too smart to be embarrassed son!

 

I know we didn’t and I agree, my point was that Pickford was an excellent shotstopper but extremely suspect on crosses (and still is).. yet he’s not done too badly.

 

Please don’t tell me you are suggesting RoD is a good keeper for L2?

 

Seems pretty accurate to me.

 

Agree with most that overall both keepers not good enough, but if it's a budget issue i'd prefer to stick with Hornby and hope he kicks on, and spend the budget in other desperate areas. Hopefully we can get shut of ROD maybe telling him he's no.2 next season might move him out.

 

ROD is more than good enough to be a prisons keeper for a league two team.

 

Spot on.

 

Just to confirm, no not at all - just merely stating that keepers are often good at one or the other and it is pretty rare them excelling at both areas. My choice based on last season of our current would be Hornby, my point was if we unearthed a shotstopper like we did with Pickford, then I wouldn't complain.

 

Letting RoD keep the captaincy was another poor decision.

 

Yes I’d go with that. Straight away a “ slight” intended or not on Paudie O?
Again , poor management!

 

Personally I think both keepers are OK for L2 and are much of a muchness. For me ROD is a better shot stopper and perhaps better with long distance distribution whereas Hornby is better dealing with corners, is faster off his line (mostly in a good way) and perhaps a bit more comfortable with the ball at his feet under pressure.

Done a bit of stats stuff for the 30 games under T&S to see if there's owt in it...

Hornby =
Played 18, Clean sheets = 6, Goals per game = 1.06, Shots faced per game = 10.61, Shots on target per game = 2.61, Shots on target per goal conceded = 2.47. Points per game = 1.39

ROD =
Played = 12, Clean sheets = 4, Goals per game = 0.92, Shots faced per game = 11.75, Shots on target per game = 3.75, Shots on target per goal conceded = 4.09. Points per game = 1.75

I did wonder if Hornby facing fewer shots per game could be interpreted as evidence that he organises his defence better than ROD but there's probably another reason for that. My hunch was that Canavan made a difference but actually the stats for shots faced are identical for when he was/wasn't playing (although they were less likely to be on target 43 vs 49 when he started), the big difference was AOC or FCD at right back. With AOC at right back we shipped an average 9.6 shots per game compared with 11.6 shots per game with FCD and it's this that skews the numbers for the keepers because AOC didn't play right back with ROD (shots faced per game by Hornby with FCD at right back were virtually identical to ROD's at 11.44)

 

I raise you a paul anderson

 

This is huge for me, we absolutely need to stop signing players who manage 20 games a season if they're lucky. Started with glass back Scannell where the planets had to align in a very specific way for him to be available on a saturday, to guys like Zeli where seeing them in a city shirt became an urban legend. Don't care how good they are, if they're in the treatment room they're no use to anyone.