Why hasn't this squad really clicked?

If you say so, most of these players wouldn’t get into a league 1 team and have played mainly league 2 football. Doesn’t scream walk the league to me. Sometimes they can barely get the ball under control let alone walk a league.

 

Like most seasons, Feb - March will be a pivotal period of the season. If our league position remains around where we are right now, I genuinely believe we have a real chance of success this season. I hope this is where we will see the true strength of this squad and manager, together with quality returning from injuries and perhaps an odd new face in areas we are maybe struggling.

But back to yours and Gary Jones point, this is exactly how I feel. By now we shouldn’t be still ‘gelling’ and this is what I mean when I say I expect more by now, cause at times we look like we still are......

 

I really like East from what I have seen. He is everywhere and looking to get the ball forward.

 

But why not East? He may not have the same engine but Gilliard can come to replace.

 

I think the team apart from Andy Cook has gelled we play some good football at times, Cook seems to be just getting slower and slower and has been AWOL over the last few games, the most immobile player I have seen in a long time.. never seems to work to get into the right positions.

Over the last few seasons we've had issues with keeprs and strikers, we have fixed the keeper issue, O'Donnell has gone, just need to drop Cook and let Angol play in his preferred position and all good!

 

In my opinion the problem with that is if we play Angol we need the others to be scoring even more. For all his skill Angol isn't a very good goal scorer.

 

For all the good players in the team we have a couple that are poor but continue to be picked and that's all it takes to lower performance. That and an obvious lack of a team plan and terrible set plays means it's hard for the team to gell round a confident plan

 

The number of people saying mix it up will be broadly equal to the amount moaning at us playing hoof ball if we did. Derek Adams was a pragmatic manager who sacrificed our footballing principles and look where that got us.

 

I think that's a massively over optimistic assessment of the squad. I think many of them have big potential, but relatively few if any have the numbers to back it up in previous seasons. Apart from Andy Cook, have any of our forward line scored 20 goals in a season prior? I think even Cook's only done it like once if at all. Or of the wingers/AMs, how many have contributed 10+ goals or assists in a season prior?

 

And the best teams are adaptable I am not saying going kick and rush is the answer but neither is three times back and forth at the back and then a suicide ball into crowded out midfielders and the percentage goes up for a mistake such as Gillead on Saturday. I am desperate for Hughes and the club to get promoted not to is unthinkable with this squad

 

I'd suggest Cooks been in the right position at least 13 times so far this season that not counting when he's missed chances you must try harder .

 

Do you still believe discontent is our biggest threat to this season?

 

Because its not suited to 4231

 

We still asking the same Question from the first post on here which was on 23rd October and probably well before that.

 

I'd probably say yes.

There probably are supporters out there who believe our supporter base is absolutely to blame whenever we criticise or show discontent.

 

We clicked to an extent then fell away when the grounds got heavier:
July-September
13 games 22 goals Average 1.69 goals a game
October-December (so far)
15 games 12 goals 0.8 goals a game.
Last 4 games 1 goal 0.25 goals a game.
I keep going on about having a team of light players who are fine on hard grounds but not on heavy ones in winter. But it seems to happen to us every season with different players so I'm beginning to wonder if it's something to do with the location of our training pitches ie. next to a river. Could it be that training on heavy ground takes too much out of our players making them lethargic on match days. Who knows?

 

The irony is, our performances were better when Hughes was forced to work with Adams squad. Having reshaped the squad in the summer he's imposed a different playing style that's less convincing.

 

I remember the Tranmere game last season the game where had a man set off and somehow they got a point out of it so why oh why was there any need for such a system change when it was clearly working last season with a poorer squad ???????

As for gelling you can normally see it from October onwards ............ I will be decked if we gell at all this season