Graham Alexander should be sacked

It will continue to fail if Sparks is around any of this Sharpe should be left alone to get on with rebuilding the football side of things not reporting back to someone who in all honesty has helped to create this mess

Sharpe clearly has a long term plan something that we aint done for god knows how many years ....... our olan was to throw bang average players together hoping that a manager could get us out if this league only for it to fall flat on our faces yet again.

Not one of us wants to be at this level its rank and if it does take us a couple of years to get out then so be it ........ would rather go down this route with a structure that will get us out of this league rather than the boom and bust of disappointment year upon year

 

He was pulled to bits by folk who knew more and magically like Young they pee off elsewhere and do well

 

Both excel playing on the ground, neither excel when the ball is coming down with snow on it. Both hard to mark as a result , the latter is easy to defend against . With one up top against two big defenders and a high ball, an abject waste of time in modern football.

 

Starting 11 players I'm on about.

Walker GK
Platt
Kelly
Walker
Pointon
Pattison
Kavanagh

2 x wing backs
1 x CM
1 x new strikers
1 x CB

Yes by all means, 4 more quality squad players who can play when needed and not drop the standards.

 

judging on how poor this league is, we most certainly had the firepower to go up. We had an abundance of wingers an strikers. The problem was the midfield. Partially down to injuries to Walker an Pattison an the other half on poor recruitment which left us with Gillead, Mcdonald an Smallwood. Also, our defence has been dogshit. Also down to injuries but poor recruitment put us in that position as well. We had one of the strongest defences in the league last season an now we're taking on more water than the titanic on a weekly basis.

A forward line consisting of Cook, Young, Kavanagh, Smith, Pointon, Chapman, Odour, Wislon was enough to get us up. From that, Young was on loan an then injured (twice), Cook, Odour an Smith go from purple patch to dogshit (or overweight in Cook's case) and Chapman, Wilson and Pointon have been stuck on the bench all season thanks to our manager

 

If we stick with GA, the template will most likely be a 3-4-3. From that, here is who we have that is decent enough for a promotion side
GK : Walker
CB :
CB : Platt
CB :
LWB :
RWB : Halliday
CM :
CM : Pattison
LW/LF : Pointon/Walker
RW/RF :
St : Cook/Young (depending on whether were gonna play the ball in the air or on the ground)

Richards for wing back cover.
Gillead can play CM and Wing back.
Kelly for CB cover
Odour for cover on the wing
Smith for an additional striking option
Kavanagh also for attacking option

Get rid of :
Doyle
Hendrie
Odusina
FCD
Taylor
Stubbs - Id keep but I dont think hes gonna stay
Ridehalgh
Smallwood
Mcdonald - Good player but legs have gone.
Chapman - Personally id keep but doesnt fit the system an GA doesnt rate him
Oliver
Derbyshire
Wilson - has potential but no point keeping him if GA wont play him

 

I think that we’re more likely to play 352 than 343.
I mostly agree with your player decisions although I’d keep Stubbs and Wilson.

 

Where is Halliday?

 

In a 3-4-3 we need better unfortunately.
Flat back 4, every time yes, but we need more goals and assists from the wing backs.
Specialist positions and he's a right back.
Keep him but as part of the squad, and by the way, I really like him.

 

We’ve been playing 3-4-3 / 3-5-2 most of this season and he’s been superb pretty much every game.
He’s now scored three (more than most of our midfielders, centre halves and some forwards) this season and is one of a handful of players who actually gets to the byline going forward
Problems are elsewhere for me

 

Those on here who wanted those self publicists, the Cowley brothers, at Valley Parade might be interested in their stats as the Colchester United management team. Played 15 and masterminded 2 wins.

 

Only so much any manager can do if they inherit someone else's s**t. And whilst I remain very on the fence re GA I think we have to give him a chance through the summer and into the early part of next season - as he inherited the MH s**t. Part of our longer term vision and plan should be to try and get stability/continuity

 

Letting him bring in his own players over the summer and then giving him a chance into the early part of next season, but then getting rid if it isn't working out isn't stability/continuity, it's rinse and repeat.

 

The point I was trying to make is getting rid of him now is also not stability/continuity so no advantage in changing things now. Agree no guarantees if he hangs on into next season but equally no guarantees someone else would do any better

 

When is the “ retained” list made public? Any ideas? . I just hope it a short list

 

Not sure but yes, hopefully very short!
I know the policy is not to offer new contracts before the season ends but I do wonder if we might get an earlier announcement this year in respect of Bobby and/or Brad to try and boost season ticket sales?

 

So who will be dictating the style of play that we are to adopt going forward with our 4-5 year plan, the manager or the Head of Football, i.e. Alexander or Sharpe? If it's the latter then what if the managers style doesn’t align with Sharpes? What would be the point keeping the manager? That said I'm not convinced Sharpe will be here that long. How long will he be prepared to play secong fiddle to RS? Can't even see him sharing the fiddle with RS long term unless he's desperate for ajob.

 

Oh I don't know, remember we are such a big club that he might just see the potential...............

 

The deadline for the club to inform players of decisions is the 3rd Saturday in May so we should know by early w/c 20th May at the very latest but I'd expect it to be before the end of the w/c 6th May as most announce it a week or 2 after the season ends. With us only having Platt and Chapman who we'd have to negotiate with if we want to keep them it should be a straight forward list and no need to hold it up as we just tell the players we want to keep if we are exercising the year option or not. If we then want to extend any of them past 1 year then we can do that after.

 

You’d like to think the likes of Halliday and Bobby would be offered new deals rather than just the option to tie them down for longer and as reward. Especially Bobby if he’s only a few hundred quid a week