Match Thread Home V Southend United - Tues 3rd Nov 7pm

You have to wonder how heavily incentivised Stuart's contract is in terms of working well within a budget, because you're absolutely right, Jim O'Brien was a bang average player who'd been out for a while, but ultimately was what we lacked and made an impact in very little time. Caddis was a much higher quality player, but still getting on a bit, and he looked a revelation pretty much straight away if I recall correctly.

The striker situation was a joke prior to injuries, and now it's a shocking state of affairs.

But judging by the way Stuart prefers to let injured players play regardless of how it's affecting their performances (this is something he's done in previous stints, too), I imagine he doesn't want anyone at the club who can't play 90 minutes whether they're 18 or 36.

I wish he'd be more pragmatic, but a more pragmatic manager would have already brought in a fourth proper striker.

 

Boyd, overlooked by Stuart, was on Salford’s bench tonight, despite only being signed a few hours earlier.
Professional footballers keep themselves fit. I could understand Stuart’s remarks, if he was giving Samuels gametime, but what’s the difference in bringing in an out of contract player who hasn’t played for a few weeks, to a player signed and doesn’t get a match.

 

His stubbornness will be his downfall. We struggled to score when he had 4 fit strikers, we’re now down to a kid who can’t get on against Southend. Rupp or Rhodes need to have a word with him. Stop dilly dallying and get someone in. The quicker they’re in, the quicker they’re fit, the quicker they can help out.

 

Especially given we don't have a league game for 10 days.

 

Exactly, now is the perfect time but I'm guessing Stuart's thinking will be 'we don't have a league game for 10 days, plenty of time for Donaldson and Guthrie to get over their injuries', completing ignoring the fact that those 2 players are part of the problem rather than the solution.

 

Pritchard had the same number of shots on target in that one game as the whole team has managed in the last two games against Barrow and Bolton. That's a pretty damning statistic considering the starts Bolton and Barrow have had.

 

Would AOC be better suited to any position other than centre half?

I watched him closely yesterday (as much as the cameraman allowed) and he constantly ended up second best against his man, be it in the air, in a one on one situation or just failing to close his man down. POC won header after header, I don’t think I’ve ever seen AOC remotely dominate at the back. I think he’s one of the reasons we’ve been so defensively poor for the last few seasons. Take him out of there and push him further forward.

 

Or just drop someone who doesn’t perform in their natural position, does he need to be shoehorned in somewhere if he’s playing crap?

 

That goal by Elliot Watt, was a thing of beauty. Nice assist from The Don.

 

Bang on the money @jon Butterfield I posted this at half time, we're struggling to get frontman fit and as you say keeps Donaldson on tor 80 minutes.

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?threads/home-v-southend-united-tues-3rd-nov-7pm.4383/page-9#post-417162

 

McCall looks to have finally found a balanced midfield trio in Cooke-Watt-Pritchard. No more tinkering there please Stuart, especially when its windy. It was an insult to Watt to suggest he couldn't be effective in the conditions at Barrow.

 

Massive difference in keeping fit and being match fit when many free agents havent played a competitive game since March he explained that, the mystery is why did he prefer a wideman who has shown little in previous games against a player he said completed the jigsaw.

 

Was one of the more bizarre comments I’ve heard by a professional manager, guess our tactics revolve around the weather now. You wouldn’t think he’d lived and played in Britain all his life.

 

I text West Yorkshire Sport Daily and asked if they would question the DMH sub for Donaldson, when Samuel's was on the bench, mybe after the good result they didnt want to rock the boat.

 

Just shows how views differ. AOC was mom for me at Barrow while POC was poor.

 

Must be just me but i'm not quite getting this dislike of DMH,granted he's no Mark Marshall or Kyle Reid but I don't think he's any worse or better than the average level of the rest of the squad at this time...

 

That's not my point mate, we've debated the square pegs in round holes for most of the season so far and lo and behold the first time he gets chance to go like for like he plays DMH up top we were 3 - 0 up nothing to lose IMO another bizarre change, that's besides the fact Donaldson was injured but played on until the 80th minute, let's hope Clayton hasn't aggravated an old injury and wont be fit for Tonbridge.

 

AOC is our best centre half by some distance.

 

I think over the season so far AOC has been the most consistent apart from maybe Watt. The three centre halves system suits him.