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Post by fish on Mar 23, 2021 21:44:22 GMT
There was no need to rush into giving them the job. Should've been a decision at the end of the season having evaluated whether or not they were capable of making us into an all round side. Anyone with half a brain could've seen most of our wins in that run were rather fortuitous and we needed to see what happened when the luck ran out.
I was never in favour of them getting the job in the first place and I'm not seeing anything to suggest they can make us into anything more than a mid table league 2 side.
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Post by hobbes on Mar 23, 2021 21:45:57 GMT
See my twitter rant for my thoughts. MTCS far from blameless but formation and personnel aside, their instructions to the players are exactly what the players SHOULD be doing. Maybe they deserve flak for not coming up with a way to compensate for fatigue and loss of Cooke, perhaps they should have been genuinely pragmatic and gone a genuine 451, try to grind a few results out, but they've stuck with what is an attacking formation (don't let any fuckwith tell you otherwise) whilst the players, mentally and physically fucked, have gone into their shells. I'm right and I know I'm right. My two gripes are the formation and the subs. I don’t think the formation has worked since we lost Cooke and we should have been looking for another way by now and the subs are often too late and almost always like for like within the formation. I’d like to see a tactical switch or two both pre match and in game and we can go back to their favoured formation when Cooke’s back. The increase in the hoof is a bit of a worry too. Especially as it almost never sticks up top and just comes straight back at us. Hopefully they can stamp that out on the training pitch and in team meetings though. yeah they should have attempted something different by now but the hoof, the stopping and playing it backwards. Thats all the players not wanting to make a mistake - play it short and forward, lose the ball and we could be in trouble. Hoof it or pass back, its now someone elses fault. Perhaps the mentail weakness we saw in the players under McCall this year has never gone away, they just genuinely did get a new manager bounce and rode on the crest of a wave for a month or too. I thought Crankshaft actually had a good game tonight and tried to make things happen, get past his man and he put in some tasty crosses. He even took a quick throw when AOC was demaning he take it, and that led to one of the gilt edged chances we missed with Cranky got to the byline and put in a great cross. We need more of that, and Wood taking on two men, and less passing the buck and passing it back.
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Post by Hobhead on Mar 23, 2021 21:49:26 GMT
There was no need to rush into giving them the job. Should've been a decision at the end of the season having evaluated whether or not they were capable of making us into an all round side. Anyone with half a brain could've seen most of our wins in that run were rather fortuitous and we needed to see what happened when the luck ran out. I was never in favour of them getting the job in the first place and I'm not seeing anything to suggest they can make us into anything more than a mid table league 2 side. I’d definitely give them at least enough time to see the effects of another window. See what types of players they target and attract, what positions, what level of quality and how they deploy them. Who knows, maybe with better options they’d be more proactive already.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Mar 23, 2021 21:50:37 GMT
See my twitter rant for my thoughts. MTCS far from blameless but formation and personnel aside, their instructions to the players are exactly what the players SHOULD be doing. Maybe they deserve flak for not coming up with a way to compensate for fatigue and loss of Cooke, perhaps they should have been genuinely pragmatic and gone a genuine 451, try to grind a few results out, but they've stuck with what is an attacking formation (don't let any fuckwith tell you otherwise) whilst the players, mentally and physically fucked, have gone into their shells. I'm right and I know I'm right. My two gripes are the formation and the subs. I don’t think the formation has worked since we lost Cooke and we should have been looking for another way by now and the subs are often too late and almost always like for like within the formation. I’d like to see a tactical switch or two both pre match and in game and we can go back to their favoured formation when Cooke’s back. The increase in the hoof is a bit of a worry too. Especially as it almost never sticks up top and just comes straight back at us. Hopefully they can stamp that out on the training pitch and in team meetings though. It doesn't matter what formation we play because we will always have a sub standard central midfield. The ball always got to Cooke via the width of the 4231 and everything good went through him, now nobody has a clue what to do with the ball. The hoof has arrived because of this, it's the Mccardle route knock it up top hopefully win the header and someone with pace run onto it and shoot. Unfortunately we can't find anyone to win a fucking header. There's no formation that will win us a game right now, we need to find some fucker to go in that midfield. There's just nobody left without leaving us even more vulnerable in defence.
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Post by fish on Mar 23, 2021 22:44:10 GMT
There was no need to rush into giving them the job. Should've been a decision at the end of the season having evaluated whether or not they were capable of making us into an all round side. Anyone with half a brain could've seen most of our wins in that run were rather fortuitous and we needed to see what happened when the luck ran out. I was never in favour of them getting the job in the first place and I'm not seeing anything to suggest they can make us into anything more than a mid table league 2 side. I’d definitely give them at least enough time to see the effects of another window. See what types of players they target and attract, what positions, what level of quality and how they deploy them. Who knows, maybe with better options they’d be more proactive already. the attacking side of the game is no better than when Stuart was here. And they have better players than he did. I could get behind this 'the players aren't good enough' line if I saw us having a real go and playing attacking football, and just not having the quality to pull it off. But we're not, we're starting games with the objective of not losing and getting our wingers to play as secondary full backs. Its totally crap to watch and is going the same way as last season under Bowyer.
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Post by hobbes on Mar 23, 2021 22:59:03 GMT
I’d definitely give them at least enough time to see the effects of another window. See what types of players they target and attract, what positions, what level of quality and how they deploy them. Who knows, maybe with better options they’d be more proactive already. the attacking side of the game is no better than when Stuart was here. And they have better players than he did. I could get behind this 'the players aren't good enough' line if I saw us having a real go and playing attacking football, and just not having the quality to pull it off. But we're not, we're starting games with the objective of not losing and getting our wingers to play as secondary full backs. Its totally crap to watch and is going the same way as last season under Bowyer. As per my twitter rant though - listen to Sellars on the sideline, hes telling them to get forward, think positive, push higher all the time. So I dont buy that we're starting 'every' game with the objective of not losing. I think we did on Saturday, but not the other games.
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Post by fish on Mar 23, 2021 23:17:59 GMT
the attacking side of the game is no better than when Stuart was here. And they have better players than he did. I could get behind this 'the players aren't good enough' line if I saw us having a real go and playing attacking football, and just not having the quality to pull it off. But we're not, we're starting games with the objective of not losing and getting our wingers to play as secondary full backs. Its totally crap to watch and is going the same way as last season under Bowyer. As per my twitter rant though - listen to Sellars on the sideline, hes telling them to get forward, think positive, push higher all the time. So I dont buy that we're starting 'every' game with the objective of not losing. I think we did on Saturday, but not the other games. it's one thing being able to deliver verbal communication to the players but its another to be actually able to coach them to do it.
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Post by tetchyarse on Mar 23, 2021 23:44:47 GMT
There was no need to rush into giving them the job. Should've been a decision at the end of the season having evaluated whether or not they were capable of making us into an all round side. Anyone with half a brain could've seen most of our wins in that run were rather fortuitous and we needed to see what happened when the luck ran out. I was never in favour of them getting the job in the first place and I'm not seeing anything to suggest they can make us into anything more than a mid table league 2 side. I’d definitely give them at least enough time to see the effects of another window. See what types of players they target and attract, what positions, what level of quality and how they deploy them. Who knows, maybe with better options they’d be more proactive already. When they took over we were 23rd and in real danger of going out the league. No matter how much the gompers tried to claim it was a false position, we were relegation fodder. So getting us up into midtable was an achievement and I'm not ready to get the pitchfork out just yet. 35 points from 19 games, 1.84 points per game, is a decent haul. Keep it up across a season and you're looking at automatic and a good chance at the title. The goal difference is more of a worry, we've not really dominated a scoreline and dished out a thrashing, but we're generally solid at the back. I'm disappointed it's fizzled out, I was balls-out gomping for the playoffs after we beat Cheltenham, but it's always the hope that gets you. It's a bit of a pisser when you see the runs Tranmere and Bolton are on, and how close we were to them five games ago. Let's see how we go in the summer. I have misgivings about them sticking with 4231 even when the players who can play it are injured, I'd like to see more variety, see what a 442 does as a change. But it's clear that there's no cover for the first 11, nobody to bring on and mix it up. See who comes in. But before that, see how they can get the players motivated for the last 11 games which, really, are pretty much dead rubbers now.
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Post by Hoochy on Mar 24, 2021 0:18:44 GMT
I’d definitely give them at least enough time to see the effects of another window. See what types of players they target and attract, what positions, what level of quality and how they deploy them. Who knows, maybe with better options they’d be more proactive already. the attacking side of the game is no better than when Stuart was here. And they have better players than he did. I could get behind this 'the players aren't good enough' line if I saw us having a real go and playing attacking football, and just not having the quality to pull it off. But we're not, we're starting games with the objective of not losing and getting our wingers to play as secondary full backs. Its totally crap to watch and is going the same way as last season under Bowyer. Can't agree that the wingers are secondary wingers. Our wingers and fullbacks are really positive and always looking to get forward.
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Post by benitocarbone on Mar 24, 2021 1:24:03 GMT
It’s the defence that worries me. They had us looking really solid and then nicking goals to win games but now the defensive solidity seems to have disappeared particularly against Carlisle and tonight where we’ve conceded some pretty soft goals.
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Post by benitocarbone on Mar 24, 2021 1:28:12 GMT
Also I know that a lot of people don’t like him and I’m not his biggest fan either but Clarke was our best option to play in the ten whilst Cooke was injured and it’s just typical that he’s been injured too at the same time. I’d like us to stay with the formation and give Clarke a go in there if he’s fit. Change the formation if he isn’t.
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Post by Hobhead on Mar 24, 2021 5:48:35 GMT
In fact the whole five behind Cook need a game. Crankshaw, Vernam, Sutton, Watt and Scales all need a performance for varying reasons. Well, I thought Vernam and Crankshaw showed flashes. Scales and Watt were terrible and Sutton was what Sutton usually is: ok plus a booking. It wasn’t enough to win, in short.
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Post by Dick on Mar 24, 2021 6:33:10 GMT
In fact the whole five behind Cook need a game. Crankshaw, Vernam, Sutton, Watt and Scales all need a performance for varying reasons. Well, I thought Vernam and Crankshaw showed flashes. Scales and Watt were terrible and Sutton was what Sutton usually is: ok plus a booking. It wasn’t enough to win, in short. You have the odd stinker like Carlisle, but 'wasn't enough to win' is the problem at the moment. We won games by fine margins, now we're losing points to them Conversely, look at the half dozen or so games recently we won by the odd goal - Orient, Mansfield, Morecambe, Barrow etc... we did just enough to win those. Like someone said higher up, we don't give out and thrashings. Not that we're going to win by at least 3 every week, but our biggest winning margin this season has been 3 - once - against an awful Southend side. Even with the good run we were on realistically hardly anyone was bossing games. We've realised what a miss Cooke is, but no-one else has really stood out, certainly going forward.
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Post by Neshead on Mar 24, 2021 6:55:54 GMT
In fact the whole five behind Cook need a game. Crankshaw, Vernam, Sutton, Watt and Scales all need a performance for varying reasons. Well, I thought Vernam and Crankshaw showed flashes. Scales and Watt were terrible and Sutton was what Sutton usually is: ok plus a booking. It wasn’t enough to win, in short. It was a strange game. We had enough chances by the end to score 2 or 3 but then so did what was an average Scunthorpe side. With Cooke the balance isn't there either in attack or defence, its no coincidence Cooke is regularly the top metre maker in the side over 90 minutes. And without him the central two look very ordinary, Cooke allows Sutton to roam about. Without that roaming he has little to his game, he's not a player who can sit disciplined in a two. Not sure what has happened to Watt, his form has fallen off a cliff. For a central midfielder his passing stats are woeful, compare that to Cookes passing retention that is in the mid to to late eighties. Normally i'd be able to see a formation change but i can't with this lot. Our strikers are league 2 at best and thats all of them. Cook looked isolated and doesn't have the movement for a lone striker. We could try two up top but that would leave the midfield two even more exposed than they currently look. I'm not sold on the wide players at our disposal either, Evans is a squad player at best and the other two flatter to decieve. More worrying is the form of the defence which has turned on its head. Now back to the McCall era over the last couple of games with teams running straight through us. Wood looks nowhere near a move to a higher division and the centre backs look glaringly slow if teams can get at them on the deck. With Cooke in we looked solid without being spectacular, the team had a decent shape and we were hard to beat but never looked like dismantling the opposition. The 4-2-3-1 worked to a point. Take Cooke out and i'm not sure what formation works with what we have left although i am expecting Sparks will be seeing what we are seeing. Because the honeymoon period is over for all of them now and the results and performances will now be scrutinised from a more critical angle, something that we weren't reading due to the good run and the goodwill of the fans. Forget the good run, thats gone. Promotion too. The realisation of yet another league 2 season awaits and fans want answers. Which can only really be answered in the summer. Important the transfer window is used well because Sparks is going to come under pressure if we don't start the season well.
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Post by Neshead on Mar 24, 2021 6:58:14 GMT
Mentally and physically fucked? Young uns today eh? Would have been no good in the trenches with my grandad. If my grandad had been in the war. Which he wasn't cos he was Irish. One of my grandads was English, went over with the BEF, got left behind at Dunkirk, had to sneak across France to get to Dieppe or somewhere to get evacuated. His best mate got shot in the head. Went back after D Day in tanks and fought in Operation Market Garden, took some shrapnel in the leg. Other grandad was Irish, drove a bus in Birmingham. My other Grandad was apparently stationed on Blackpool beach, which although sems highly unlikely could be true if our family were anything to go by.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Mar 24, 2021 7:18:48 GMT
Well, I thought Vernam and Crankshaw showed flashes. Scales and Watt were terrible and Sutton was what Sutton usually is: ok plus a booking. It wasn’t enough to win, in short. It was a strange game. We had enough chances by the end to score 2 or 3 but then so did what was an average Scunthorpe side. With Cooke the balance isn't there either in attack or defence, its no coincidence Cooke is regularly the top metre maker in the side over 90 minutes. And without him the central two look very ordinary, Cooke allows Sutton to roam about. Without that roaming he has little to his game, he's not a player who can sit disciplined in a two. Not sure what has happened to Watt, his form has fallen off a cliff. For a central midfielder his passing stats are woeful, compare that to Cookes passing retention that is in the mid to to late eighties. Normally i'd be able to see a formation change but i can't with this lot. Our strikers are league 2 at best and thats all of them. Cook looked isolated and doesn't have the movement for a lone striker. We could try two up top but that would leave the midfield two even more exposed than they currently look. I'm not sold on the wide players at our disposal either, Evans is a squad player at best and the other two flatter to decieve. More worrying is the form of the defence which has turned on its head. Now back to the McCall era over the last couple of games with teams running straight through us. Wood looks nowhere near a move to a higher division and the centre backs look glaringly slow if teams can get at them on the deck. With Cooke in we looked solid without being spectacular, the team had a decent shape and we were hard to beat but never looked like dismantling the opposition. The 4-2-3-1 worked to a point. Take Cooke out and i'm not sure what formation works with what we have left although i am expecting Sparks will be seeing what we are seeing. Because the honeymoon period is over for all of them now and the results and performances will now be scrutinised from a more critical angle, something that we weren't reading due to the good run and the goodwill of the fans. Forget the good run, thats gone. Promotion too. The realisation of yet another league 2 season awaits and fans want answers. Which can only really be answered in the summer. Important the transfer window is used well because Sparks is going to come under pressure if we don't start the season well. My thoughts on the defence are that they're being overworked because the midfield in front of them are doing absolutely fuck all. The only way around it would be to move Paudie into the sitting 2 but that then means filling his gap. That cdm must be the first signing of the summer and it needs to be a belter. Also if Hull came in with any offer with a sell on for Watt I'd bite their hands off.
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Post by edin on Mar 24, 2021 7:33:04 GMT
There was no need to rush into giving them the job. Should've been a decision at the end of the season having evaluated whether or not they were capable of making us into an all round side. Anyone with half a brain could've seen most of our wins in that run were rather fortuitous and we needed to see what happened when the luck ran out. I was never in favour of them getting the job in the first place and I'm not seeing anything to suggest they can make us into anything more than a mid table league 2 side. I think SparksY rushed into a decision because Darragh McAnthony told him to snap them up immediately despite watching 0 minutes of our games.
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Post by Lethal Jizzle on Mar 24, 2021 7:40:53 GMT
There was no need to rush into giving them the job. Should've been a decision at the end of the season having evaluated whether or not they were capable of making us into an all round side. Anyone with half a brain could've seen most of our wins in that run were rather fortuitous and we needed to see what happened when the luck ran out. I was never in favour of them getting the job in the first place and I'm not seeing anything to suggest they can make us into anything more than a mid table league 2 side. I think SparksY rushed into a decision because Darragh McAnthony told him to snap them up immediately despite watching 0 minutes of our games. I said all along just let them get to the end of the season. Sparks took away the dangling carrot and has now left 2 rookies fully exposed. What happens if we don't win another game this season? He will be under massive pressure to change managers again and T&S end up on the same pile as Collins. They deserve a shot with a squad that can compete, Sparks was patting himself on the back and was living the ego stroking that came after January but now it's looking woeful and he himself needs to produce a summer to remember or he deserves to come under pressure. Right now he's looking like Rahic mk2.
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Post by Neshead on Mar 24, 2021 7:49:39 GMT
It was a strange game. We had enough chances by the end to score 2 or 3 but then so did what was an average Scunthorpe side. With Cooke the balance isn't there either in attack or defence, its no coincidence Cooke is regularly the top metre maker in the side over 90 minutes. And without him the central two look very ordinary, Cooke allows Sutton to roam about. Without that roaming he has little to his game, he's not a player who can sit disciplined in a two. Not sure what has happened to Watt, his form has fallen off a cliff. For a central midfielder his passing stats are woeful, compare that to Cookes passing retention that is in the mid to to late eighties. Normally i'd be able to see a formation change but i can't with this lot. Our strikers are league 2 at best and thats all of them. Cook looked isolated and doesn't have the movement for a lone striker. We could try two up top but that would leave the midfield two even more exposed than they currently look. I'm not sold on the wide players at our disposal either, Evans is a squad player at best and the other two flatter to decieve. More worrying is the form of the defence which has turned on its head. Now back to the McCall era over the last couple of games with teams running straight through us. Wood looks nowhere near a move to a higher division and the centre backs look glaringly slow if teams can get at them on the deck. With Cooke in we looked solid without being spectacular, the team had a decent shape and we were hard to beat but never looked like dismantling the opposition. The 4-2-3-1 worked to a point. Take Cooke out and i'm not sure what formation works with what we have left although i am expecting Sparks will be seeing what we are seeing. Because the honeymoon period is over for all of them now and the results and performances will now be scrutinised from a more critical angle, something that we weren't reading due to the good run and the goodwill of the fans. Forget the good run, thats gone. Promotion too. The realisation of yet another league 2 season awaits and fans want answers. Which can only really be answered in the summer. Important the transfer window is used well because Sparks is going to come under pressure if we don't start the season well. My thoughts on the defence are that they're being overworked because the midfield in front of them are doing absolutely fuck all. The only way around it would be to move Paudie into the sitting 2 but that then means filling his gap. That cdm must be the first signing of the summer and it needs to be a belter. Also if Hull came in with any offer with a sell on for Watt I'd bite their hands off. Paudie is way too slow to play in a sitting two. Him and Canavan need that protection in front becuase neither are blessed with pace. The midfield worked to an extent as a three with Watt, Sutton and Cooke. Because allowed the other two to play their game. Take him out and as a central 2 they look bang average. Its why we can't go 4-4-2 we'd be wide open in the middle without a Josh Cullen type sitting midfielder. I've said all along i don't see Watt as a CDM as he wants to be the playmaker.
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Post by bantam147 on Mar 24, 2021 8:11:18 GMT
It was a strange game. We had enough chances by the end to score 2 or 3 but then so did what was an average Scunthorpe side. With Cooke the balance isn't there either in attack or defence, its no coincidence Cooke is regularly the top metre maker in the side over 90 minutes. And without him the central two look very ordinary, Cooke allows Sutton to roam about. Without that roaming he has little to his game, he's not a player who can sit disciplined in a two. Not sure what has happened to Watt, his form has fallen off a cliff. For a central midfielder his passing stats are woeful, compare that to Cookes passing retention that is in the mid to to late eighties. Normally i'd be able to see a formation change but i can't with this lot. Our strikers are league 2 at best and thats all of them. Cook looked isolated and doesn't have the movement for a lone striker. We could try two up top but that would leave the midfield two even more exposed than they currently look. I'm not sold on the wide players at our disposal either, Evans is a squad player at best and the other two flatter to decieve. More worrying is the form of the defence which has turned on its head. Now back to the McCall era over the last couple of games with teams running straight through us. Wood looks nowhere near a move to a higher division and the centre backs look glaringly slow if teams can get at them on the deck. With Cooke in we looked solid without being spectacular, the team had a decent shape and we were hard to beat but never looked like dismantling the opposition. The 4-2-3-1 worked to a point. Take Cooke out and i'm not sure what formation works with what we have left although i am expecting Sparks will be seeing what we are seeing. Because the honeymoon period is over for all of them now and the results and performances will now be scrutinised from a more critical angle, something that we weren't reading due to the good run and the goodwill of the fans. Forget the good run, thats gone. Promotion too. The realisation of yet another league 2 season awaits and fans want answers. Which can only really be answered in the summer. Important the transfer window is used well because Sparks is going to come under pressure if we don't start the season well. My thoughts on the defence are that they're being overworked because the midfield in front of them are doing absolutely fuck all. The only way around it would be to move Paudie into the sitting 2 but that then means filling his gap. That cdm must be the first signing of the summer and it needs to be a belter. Also if Hull came in with any offer with a sell on for Watt I'd bite their hands off. A good offer for Watt and I'd take it, I agree. Though his recent performances will likely have deterred Hull. He ain't ready for League 1, never mind the championship. Sutton is the bigger problem though. He's full of running, which is good because we need some energy in there, but his use of the ball is shocking. He just runs into people. A quality addition or two in midfield would be just the platform that Rowe and Vernam need, because they have quality - they just spend nowhere near enough time around the box. Time for Wood and AOC to fuck off too.
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