Ash Taylor

Ive met Halliday in the flesh.
Shorter than me and a lot lighter.
Why we think we can launch 50 yard diagonals to him on a regular basis and expect him to do anything I really don't know.
Like I said to my son, these players are thick as pig shit

 

Agreed. It's like they can't think for themselves at all. Lump it forward despite an obvious lack of success. It was the same under Hughes. Pass, pass and pass some more even if we haven't got out of our own half for 20 minutes.

 

Isn’t that the captains job? To Marshall the troops on field?

 

It wasn't so much Taylor being poor on Saturday (he was) it was how Alexander hung them out to dry with the line up he went with. To be fair to Taylor he's more suited to playing against the likes of Matt Smith at Salford. But no, our manager thinks its a great idea to lump our slowest three centre backs together behind two pedestrian paced defensive midfielders.What could possibly go wrong....

 

I’m not a fan of players getting singled out for pelters, and to be fair to Taylor it’s not like he is the single weak link in this squad.

However I’ve said over and over again this season, a team with Taylor (at this stage in his career) is not getting promoted. Yes he can suit the physical battle against big lumps 1:1, but even league two has become more smart than this nowadays. The moment teams look to hit you with pace, Taylor doesn’t have the positional sense, reading of the game or any sort of pace to manage it. Stubbs and Platt are void of pace also, but both have a better reading of the game than Taylor.

It’s admirable GA plays players on form and what he sees in training. However for me how Taylor continues to play over Platt (Smallwood the same based on the past 5-6 games BTW) is unacceptable.

 

Stubbs played well, to my surprise, yes Ash Taylor is slow and it shows when players get a start on him or get in behind him. Kelly isn't slow, his stats in training show that not to be true. A lot of it is down to bad positioning, when you play three centre backs you can't really play offside because one of them needs to drop off.

 

I have to agree with you on selection of players on or off form and reading the game. For example if McDonald is fit enough to play I don't see how Richie Smallwood can get picked ahead of him.
At one point in the game on Saturday McDonald was warming up and talking to one of the other subs and at one point he mimicked a player just hooking the ball forward and he was shaking his head, I think I can guess who he meant.

 

I think we lack creativity and individualism across the pitch. We've too many robots who are either unable to take a chance or willing to take a chance. The captain should ensure its not taken too far and we lose shape.

 

What shape would that be?

 

What Captain would that be?

 

Given the recent upturn of the defence without Taylor I thought I'd have a look at some stats.

Defence with Taylor starting,

P 12 GA 19 CS 2

Defence without Taylor starting,

P 20 GA 19 CS 9

I accept that it's clearly not all down to a single player but the team has been roughly the same for the majority and imo those stats are quite damning.

 

I'm not a fan of Taylor by any means, but I reckon the change in keeper has had quite a bit to do with the turnaround as well.

 

That’s spot on. I am getting to really like Walker. Do I ever recall Lewis coming out for a cross and actually catching it? If it carries on like this the whole thing will be a sound bit of business. Make a big profit on Lewis and improve the position by bringing in a free.

 

I don't want to say it too loudly for fear of jinxing it, but I agree.

 

We were a joke of a club for selling Lewis according to some on social media. Best keeper we’ve ever had said some. I think it’s brilliant business getting a good fee and bringing in a decent replacement on a free.

 

It does look excellent business now. At the time never heard of Walker and was expecting another journeyman keeper who would be adequate for the job, but so far he is looking better than that. Very solid so far.

 

People are getting carried away with Walker, he hasn't said "up the f*****g chickens" once yet, the guy is a joke.

 

I haven’t really thought about it too much, however a tall keeper has big merits on what we have seen so far. As long as being tall lets them get down quickly, as last night he proved, then we look like being on a winner.

I thought last night was Lewis’s first clean sheet, then I realised his game was postponed

 

I think Colin Doyle must have had something to do with this transfer. They were both at Kilmarnock at the same time and when Doyle was player / coach there as well. So not many appearances but we knew about him and how he plays.