What the Tables tell us (so far)

2 games against “established” league 2 teams and we have struggled to get a result in each game. This is a concern for me, any team that has aspirations to get out of this league needs to be able to get results from this type of game. By now we should be wise to teams that play this way.
Looking at the table for me, so far it doesn’t lie.

 

It was a bad day at the office on Saturday. Something that all the promotion winning sides from last season experienced early on, but they didn't have many after that.

The hope is that we can do the same. However, looking at the number of central defensive permutations and again in midfield (barring Richie Smallwood), it feels like we are still working out what our strongest team is.

 

You are right we don’t appear to know who to play and in what position. If I have any advice choose the best players in the squad then see what system you can play with those players. You stick to that for a few games just to see how everyone settles in. Pushing players into positions they don’t normally play is not getting the best out of the squad. Play the young ones. They have everything we didn’t on Saturday enthusiasm, no fear and usually bounce ability if things just don’t go to plan. GA should have sorted this in preseason rather than trying to get fit 22 players all at the same time.

 

I bet there aren't many times a top 3 at the start of September had many or any teams that were still there at the end. DMAC has said on his pod before he doesn't even load up a table until about 10 games in because it's not really something that's a good base until everyone has gotten into some kind of stride.

As said above, Salford was more concerning. If we are totally honest, that MK game we absolutely robbed them and if they had a fit striker, we would have been comfortably beaten. Salford, we just gave little all game. You'd like to think we would still have taken apart Bromley even without the red? And Grimsby, we just got a lot wrong. I'm worried that i still don't know what the plan is to get us going forward? Hoof hasn't really worked so far. Keeping the ball better worked against Bromley, but we had the man advantage all game. We seem to want to play on the counter, but the legs in midfield don't really back that up and this half attacking mid half striker role Kav is playing doesn't really suit the strikers or midfielders. There seems to be little balance on show so far and we just don't look fluid at all which after 4 league games, a cup game and maybe 10+ friendlies including behind closed doors ones, we really should be.

 

Thankfully I missed the whole lot this weekend regarding City as I was away for the weekend in Salou with my wife and 2 sons, in which we went to see Barca destroy Valladolid. Anyhow as regarding so far I don't think we've learnt anything new as yet, everyone's different opinions on here good and bad up to now have all been present in the games so far, we'll struggle for goals, no plan B, defence looks weak, we will get good results, we have some good players and so forth all these opinions so far are valid, I'd say so far the only thing we can be sure on about us so far this season is that we look a typical box standard L2 team, good result, average result and poor result....Rinse repeat.
This unfortunately imo isn't going to be good enough to get us where we all want to be as it stands.

 

Looking through the stats over 4 games so far, which isn't hugely relevant with such a small amount of the season. But so far, from the stats we don't really have much to show to paint a picture. Like even at this point, you can tell that MK, Notts and Chesterfield want possession and passes. Those 3 are far and away the head of passing and possession compared to the rest, you can start judging patterns so far to predict how a teams playing.

But for a lot of ours, we're just sort of middle of the pack. So for average possession per games, we are 13th so we aren't showing that we keep the ball, but also we aren't sitting back and countering. Pass completion, we are 9th. Winning aerial duals we are 18th, showing that we aren't winning as much in the air. Long balls per game, we are 13th averaging 75 per game. Short passes per game we are 5th with an average of 343 short passes per game, but to show how far up those passing clubs are, top are MK averaging 600 passes per game and Notts average 545 per game. Crosses per game we are 18th. Dribbles per game, we are 13th.

Offensively, we are 6th for average shots per match, 4th for shots on target per match but 12th for goals, showing that the finishing is there yet this season. Defensively, we are 17th for shots against per game. We are 21st for tackles per match. Interceptions per game we are 18th. We are top of the league for fouls committed per game.

 

We could go way back to 1998 and how we started that season but even during that spell you could see signs that we could come good ..........i bet the same was said about Stockport and Wrexham last season but sorry to be a doom monger ..............we look nothing but an average league 2 side that will win a couple more than is loses i really hope im wrong but 5 games in rhat including the cup we look an average side at best

 

I appreciate it was only a pre-season game but seem to recall we played very well against Sunderland...
what did we do differently in that game that we are not managing to repeat now? Maybe too much of a simplistic question but just putting it out there.

 

It is the quality of the opposition that screws us. Most teams who come here just are grateful for a draw and will not challenge us. Higher opposition give us a proper game and it frees up space for us to do our thing.

Unless we get over this problem we will stay where we are. It isn’t just talent and skill olone that gets you out of here, it is how tough are we approach, to never give in. Tactics should always be at VP, go all in from the start, don’t let them settle, then we might have a chance.

 

I still don't think we really have a style of play that works with the 11 we are sending out every match. As said above, we have the 5th most short passes in the league, but we are 13th in the league for average possession. Which to me says we are probably having far too many sideways passes in the middle third, and don't really know how to go through the gears. We want to keep the ball, but we don't really know how to do it and progress up the field which means we struggle to look convincing. That's whats annoying me a lot this season, even when we do something well it's not really been convincing.

 

The worrying thing is that despite this being our sixth season in this god forsaken league, we don't appear to have grasped this very simple fact.

 

I've got to be honest, I'm a bit gutted we've got GA.

Ryan Lowe is available and 100 percent the manager we should be looking to bring in, and setting long term goals with.

A wasted opportunity IMO.

Not a massive fan of GA, just seems so mid.

 

I am just fed up with the contrasting messages we keep getting tbh. I don’t like it, look at his messaging throughout the recruitment window. First we had the 2/3 players, then 5/6, then we had the one in one out message, then not a problem funds have been made available etc etc., Now it could well be he is being short changed on the messaging front, but it is not a good look that he apparently keeps changing his mind. Then we had the Young saga, first he is like a new signing, two new players, this morning he was more or less pushing him through the door.

 

So where exactly is our money going? It feels like smoke and mirrors, look this way then look that!! I know the pitch has a serious upgrade well at least that is what we are told, once again I don’t trust what is coming from the club. I didn’t get the impression that would impinge on the squad expenditure?

 

Look over his career, regardless of how well he does, his teams always want to make that next step and GAs style of management is limited. You know what you hire when he comes in.

I don't think he'll be here this time next year. If we don't get promoted, he'll be gone but if we're mid table in November he'll probably be gone too. He was like the 4th choice wasn't he when we were linked to many men over a few weeks. The people in charge didn't really fancy him, I feel like he was the best hand at the time after waiting for so long.