Cheltenham v City 17th Sept

I don't understand why we just didn't pay Drury off and got some proper folk in. Especially after the McBurnie windfall too.

 

Disjointed shit-housery with careless gifting away of possession and free kicks, whilst occasionally getting the ball behind the opposition full backs seems to be the style from what I can see.

 

Your conclusion isn't necessarily true - the decision was Vaughan was a priority, whereas centre mid was not. We can't assume we had tons left over for the perfect .midfielder, when we signed a big name striker.

 

The not so obvious hopes of January are already being touted.

Now, it just may be me but relying on January for a huge change in playing personnel may be wishful thinking. I can't get away from the fact that we have an expansive squad which needs reducing in terms of physical numbers and financial numbers. I really feel the loan market will continue to be used come January.

 

It’s a little funny that so many people on here were demanding that we play 442 and slagging GB off for trying 433/352 and now countless of the same people are moaning that we get overrun in midfield.

You can’t play 442 against an opposition who play 3 men in the middle of the park and expect to control the game. 442 is all about going long and bypassing the CM or about getting it wide and crossing into the box. So people need to decide which then want, more control in midfield or 442.

 

Yet we're meant to believe that either way, Bowyer is getting it wrong.

We lost a game against a decent League Two team. Narrowly, as well.

We can't just boo and complain about every loss without looking like demented arseholes.

 

Had Todd been kept alongside Bowyer I'd like to bet we would have beefed up that midfield by now ? Todd played the game at a good level in his career; Bowyer had a flicker of a career by comparison. Todd would have had Bowyers ear for how the games were panning out. If Bowyer cannot see we are short of composure and influence in that midfield then he needs his specs upgrading. Drury is the "cone organizer" and has no professional match experience to draw from. So he is not going to be telling Bowyer what to do. That said I've no professional match experience and I would have had this conversation with Bowyer before we kicked a ball this season !

 

I think going 442 was our best option whilst waiting for cooke to get fit. However now he is we should be going back to 433 and trying to get some control in midfield and starting to dictate the pace of games. The way we've been playing in a 442 is just not sustainable over the course of a season.

 

The system Bowyer played last night was very similar to what both McCall & Parkinson played many times, in Bowyer's case Pritchard was not an out and out winger he played wide on the left, just the same as McMahon was not a winger in Parkinson's formation or Law was playing under McCalls time at Valley Parade.
We were very much in the game (and actually had better chances than the home side) until that stupid bit of defending from Everton, our back 5 have done very well in aerial duels unfortunately last night Tozer was not challenged and put Cheltenham 3-2 up, but we still had chance to equilise unfortunately Vaughan could not beat the keeper.

 

Why did Vaughan need to be priority though?

Defence/mid was

 

We needed a captain and leader and Vaughan has been just that. He’s doing fine, save for four yellows which are soon gonna turn into a suspension.

 

He'll have a couple of them over the season and maybe throw in a petulant red. Will miss a few I think

 

We’ve taken the lead in all 5 away league games and only won twice.
We really need to learn how to stifle the game when we are in front away from home.
With a better manager we’d have won all 5

 

Good point.

We never seem to have a team that can play the spoiling tactics type of game away from home to frustrate other teams. We see it so many times at VP

 

So we're relying on Cooke to change the whole midfield and start dominating games? Wonderful.

 

Only thing he perhaps got wrong was not bringing on an extra defender at 2 apiece to see the game out,

 

He'd used two of his subs by the time we made it 2-2 and had he then brought on Paudie for Donaldson he would have been accused by the mob on here of being too negative. Not Bowyers fault that Richards-Everton gave a stupid foul away near the end which we failed to defend.

 

I understand what you are saying but we needed to defend the free kick however given away, Another 6ft plus centre back in there may have not have left an unmarked Tozer a free header for the winner,

 

I don't think he should've gone to a back 5 at that point, it would've been inviting pressure on ourselves. But bringing paudie on, moving AOC to midfield would've made us tougher to break down and then they may not have been in the position to get the free kick in the first place. If he would've done something like that and settled for a point at that stage I don't think anyone could've complained.