Positives of season (23-24’)

Right, my positive. I only got to see 4 games, including the Mansfield, Notts County and Harrogate drubbings last month. The positive was in the Notts County game when young Oyegoke brought the ball out on a crazy run of about 70 yds up the right wing and put a lovely cross in and Chapman hit the post with a diving header. The only bit of football I saw that got just about everyone up off their seats.

 

Not many positives for the season but a few reasons to be optimistic for next season. As some have noted, the signings in January were all good bits of business and the addition of Sharpe upstairs give me optimism as we move into the summer and hopefully can build on the momentum from these last few weeks.

The other thing is that GA seems to know what he’s doing and has settled on a system that has shown (on the whole) it is able to provide us with a solid defence and enough attacking intent to deliver consistent results. We need to sort the squad out as our two dips in form coincided with injuries in CM and then CB. If we can retain the key squad players we have and add a bit more depth/quality then I’m pretty optimistic.

 

Good explanation

 

No more Ridehalgh that's a big positive, surely GA isn't stupid enough to offer him another contract

 

CeO’s / Senior staff do in most businesses. Depends how it’s staged / allocated.
Not meeting targets is a sure sign bonuses won’t be paid , unless one worked at senior level in for example the P.O.
His package set by the owner might be based on , and this is an educated guess.

Commercial Income
Season Sales
Profitability
On field performance , inc trophy revenues.

Each business owner for those individual areas will also be subject to targets individually , normally set by the CeO.

 

Some positives:

We have some of most exciting young players we've had for a long time. Young, Pointon, and Kavanagh are all great prospects.

We're no longer dependent on one goal scorer. We hade several players capable of delivering 10+ goals a season.

 

Did you attend the protest? Don't think you've answered that one yet?

 

That's incorrect. We had to win at Barrow, otherwise our play-off chances were over. That was a real 'six pointer' - as if they'd won, they were in the play-offs.

You make it sound like all the matches have been some end of season stroll. Yes. Prior to the Walsall match - there was no pressure, but there has been since.

 

Positives, end of season form, the fact there are some solid players who should (hopefully) be here next season-less of a re-build needed. There’s a few young prospects in the team and by all accounts the youth setup is still producing gems.
Sharpe and the changes at the top-still pending the impact of these but looks a positive.

big negatives-how involved is Rupp going to be? GA seems slow or stubborn to change when things aren’t going right, the team’s mentality is terrible-especially when backed up by stats-sports psychologist needed at the club? Fitness and injuries been an issue again-another review and probable recruitment needed here

 

What about those that have stayed away for months until yesterday?

 

Including those fans who stayed away. We all have our opinions on the best way to make change happen.

 

Let’s hope Young is a) fully recovered from his injury b) still wants to be here next season. He’s like a new signing. A £500k one (or whatever we value him at?).

quite where he fits in, i don’t know, but Kavanagh is one of the first names on my team sheet as he scores goals, works hard and puts himself about.

 

ignore this post if stats aren't for you....... but after looking at the stats for the season against the Who Scored stats site, just because that's the one most shows and podcasts pull from discussing such things i've looked to see where our players ranked against the league. The rankings are done by playing a minimum amount of minutes, to save one lad playing once really well and statistically being the best full back in the league or something like that.

Keepers - Lewis was statistically the worst keeper in L2 when he left. Walker came in and did very well, was the 8th best keeper in L2 overall with the 4th best save percentage in the league. Hopefully there's another good spell for him next season.

Defence - I must admit, I'm not really a huge fan of any of our defenders. They aren't bad players, I just don't think they mesh very well. I think they are all the secondary man, and they need a strong head aside them. They are all McArdles and the back line is missing a Davies if that makes sense? One who organises, sorts the shape, vocal etc. But 3 of our CBs made the top 15 performers with Stubbs (7th), Kelly (13th) & Platt (15th). Stubbs stats are really impressive, but he's another who plays half a season at most. No surprise, Halliday is the best RB in the league this season, he hast the most successful tackles in 82, and most interceptions at 47 in the league, miles ahead of 2nd place in both. Massive drop off on the left side, with Ridehalgh ranking in 28th and Richards in 31st place. Would imagine that's a no brainer area to improve on.

Midfield - No great midfield performers over the season. Smallwood is our highest ranked at 35th which if every team players 2 or 3 CMs means he'd still get in most teams but a massive drop off from him after ranking 3rd last season. Gilliead ranked 63rd, again not a huge surprise as he just doesn't put up the numbers. McDonald didn't play enough minutes to register a rank, if you remove the minutes filter so every player who ever played 1 minute counts, he came in at 115th. Needs improvement and depth adding in the summer.

Attacking mids - Jamie Walker was statistically the 3rd best attacking mid in the league behind Keillor-Dunn and Dan Kemp. Walker played 54% of possible minutes this season and still managed 13 goal involvements. Pattison is another who didn't play enough minutes to rank.

Wingers - With the amount they were chopped and changed, it's not surprising we don't have any ranked highly. Pointon is the best at 28th, just ahead of Odour at 31st. Chapman another who didn't play enough to be listed.

Strikers - Andy Cook finished the 3rd ranked striker in the league, behind two Smiths of Salford and Sutton. Young was 26th, his finishing was really good with just Olafe at Stockport having a better shots to goals ratio in the league, but ranking in the top 30 after only playing half a season is really good. Kavanagh came in at 44th which might seem low but he only had 11 starts for us and his games he's either really good or really forgettable. Smith ranked 88th.

 

When the minimum requirement is the play offs and it’s not achieved then the season has to be classed as a failure.
The positives to be taken are the emergence of probably our best prospect since Stuart and the good signings in players like Kavanagh and Kelly. And Alexander’s stats which show had he been here all season we would have been at least in the play offs with another managers team. So the season was a major disappointment but good reasons to be positive about the near future.

 

Guilty as charged, I've hardly been this season, only been to 2 away games too ( 1-4 and 0-3 drubbings).
Sorry for attending the last match, as I always will, to pay my respects to all those who died in 1985, and to remember my old man, who started me on my City journey.
The fact there was (almost) something to play for was a bonus.

 

Very good assessment, but your description of Rory McArdle is very harsh. He was far far better at his peak (with us) than anything we have now and was the bedrock of that defence. Yes Davies was good, but he often missed 10-15 matches a season through injury and suspension. McArdle glued the whole thing together and to the point where we managed better with McArdle and AN Other, than we did with Davies and AN Other.

I accept the rest, but refuse to accept that Rory McArdle isn't EXACTLY the type of defender we need now.

 

I think you've misunderstood my meaning. I'm talking purely in that partnership stance, especially in L2. Davies was the clear setter, McArdle was the sweeper. Davies was the rock, McArdle did more of the work. They didnt ever have the same role in the partnership, both knew exactly what the other had to do.

McArdle was a fantastic defender and i've not knocked him or knocking him at all in any of this. I feel our current defenders are more the sweep up, do the tracking types but they are all that type. We need that setter, the vocal guy to keep it all in line and make sure everyone is switched on and doing their role. Stubbs is probably the closest but is never ever fit.

 

Fantastic post

 

Possibly, but if it came to a straight choice between Andrew Davies and Rory McArdle, I'd have to take Rory McArdle.