2 points from the last 5 games (13 lost)

Time for a new manager thread?

 

Christ Rod. How many times could you have posted this thread in the last 4 seasons??

Give it a rest and give the young managers a chance for goodness sake.

Too much drama on here today. Hurry up for the end of lockdown so we all stop living in our individual echo chambers with social media showing us loads of stories that just reinforce our own view of the world.

 

We've been sussed. Oldham, a team with three wins in 16, worked us out and perfectly negated the little we have.

Vernal and crankshaft offer nothing. Evans is shot. Rowe an enigma that is becoming a luxury.

Not sure where we go from here, but its certainly not up a division this year.

 

We were never going up this season after the start we made. Mainting the form we were on , required a lighter schedule than two games almost every week . A stronger squad and less injuries to key players. What we need to do though, is show enough to convince future players and the supporters, that we might be a force next season.
The last four matches , we have looked decidedly average.

 

The thing that I don't get is that all the talk from the players a few weeks ago was about how well T&S do their homework on the opposition and how much info they give each of them individually about what they need to do and which players they need to watch out for in each specific game. The last 3 games we've looked clueless so what's changed? Are T&S not being as thorough anymore or are the players not listening?

 

I'm not starting the next one. HA

 

Look we have been sussed out. Other teams keep pushing very high on s not enabling us to lay our little tippy tappy footy out from the back. No forward no matter how good will score goals if there is no service. Doyle/Vaughan are a good example. Our front line is good our defence usually is sound so we are just short of a good midfielder and maybe another fast forward. We aint going down so this season is a build season. On the evidence of playing Oldham a few times they should not be struggling. Something internal is wrong there. They have the players and looked really good on the ball and lots of effort. Positives we have. We have good team to build around for next season.

 

The latest WOAP report sums up the situation very well. I think a good summary is we've steadied the ship and will not go down. The stats in the report show this run was always coming, the 4-2-3-1 is a popular line up and has made us defensively strong. What their next thing to work on is how to get firing going forward and this will take more than one transfer window. A line up of our back six plus Cooke does have a fiar bit of merit. But since the Exeter game, in ten games our wide players, who are essentially there to supply assists and weigh in with goals when only playing one upfront, have only 2 goals and one assist to their name. And that assist was a Sutton pile driver at Walsall where an assist doesn't really count on the stats. And the xG stats alluded to this weeks ago. It shows mainly Evans, Crankshaw and Vernam have offered very little in the last ten games. And if we persist with that formation then is where T & S need to start looking at viable replacements in the summer. Because whatever formation they choose to go with, the balance in that final four doesn't look like a promotion winning side.

 

When tinkering McCall was around he was roundly criticised. Stop messing with the formation and keep it simple with everyone knowing their job. Two people come along and do just that and we start getting results. A couple of poor results later and everyone wants tinkering again.

 

Talk about missing the point and a lack of understanding.

Yes, McCall's tinkering was out of control. T & S come in and did what most on here would do which is play players in their right places.

However, Cooke being out should have resulted in a change of formation because Evans isn't good enough in that position. Rowe looks like hes struggling and overall we are not creating enough.

What we are doing isn't working and changes need to be made.

If you think its acceptable for bloody Oldham to come here and have 20 shots at goal when we are playing a defensive boring formation then you seriously need to sort yourself out. Shake that head.

 

From our point of view yesterday for us to go forward yesterday was unacceptable. Sticking Evans at ten was never going work, if we don't have suitable replacements then a formation change should be considered.

 

I agree the WOAP is very good and sets out the conundrums facing Trueman/Sellars very well. It also paints the picture of having to operate against a backdrop of a fanbase expecting to sweep aside every league 2 opposition that they face. A few weeks ago that fanbase was confidently predicting relegation. A key player lost and a couple of dodgy performances and the fanbase are back ready to have a pop. If ever there was a 'mono' approach it's the monotonous predictability of threads like this.

 

It would appear that the loss of Cooke has had a greater impact on our playing ability than people expected. Evans, Vernham and Rowe have all been tried there with little success. T and S could maybe give Shanks a run there but it is asking a lot of a young lad to come in and dictate the game. IMO there are two other options they could try, 1 - bring Staunton in and play him alongside Sutton moving Watt up to the 10 position. Being left footed Staunton would bring stability to that side of the field and maybe could link up with Wood down that flank. Watt likes to spray the ball about so can he do the same in a more attacking position?
The other option that I have mentioned before is to tweak the system to a 4-3-3. The back four the same as now, bring Staunton into the left side of midfield alongside Wood and Sutton, play Cook as the main striker with Rowe playing off him and use one of Vernham, Crookshank or Stevens as the wide man giving width and pace. To me none of these three have yet done enough to show they are capable of gripping a permanent place in the team. All of them have ability but their decision making is generally poor. One can be accommodated and hopefully learns with another on the bench to come on as replacement if it is not working that day.
Having Watt as the central midfielder would enable either Sutton or Staunton to push up if the action is their side of the field with the other two sliding over to cover.

 

it sounds like a plan, but unfortunately I think Staunton is still sidelined?

 

Thats the issue though Rod, we now have a better core first team than we did but not that many viable options when they start mis-firing, fatigue etc. In some ways not the worst thing as the past few matches will have shown those at the top that we are still lacking true promotion potential with what we now have - have heard prep is well under way for the summer

 

I’d love to see Sutton given the number 10 role, trouble is unless Staunton gets back to fitness I’ve no idea who we’d put alongside Watt!
Sutton’s got a fantastic turn of pace, not afraid to shoot, will tackle back, and has an abundance of energy, don’t know if Scales could play next to Watt. Maybe put FCD back in at right back and push AOC into a midfield holding role. Shows how threadbare we are in central midfield though definitely need to strengthen in the summer.