Some are suggesting the headcoach has' lost the dressing room' but anybody who watched us last season knew the forwards who remained(, I'll not name names) were not up to it. They were not last season so why should a change of headcoach make any difference. Our forward line of Cole(the finisher), McAtee(worker bee) and Cadden (left wing back) and Williams (a right back with some pace) all left and were not adequately replaced. Yes Clarke has made mistakes but poor recruitment has not helped either and he is trying to find a formation which best suits the squad.
You’ve named 4 players there. McAtee was on loan, so not our player. Out of the other 3, Cole had pretty much lost his mojo for a good chunk of the second half of the season, had he not done, we may have been promoted. Cadden wasn’t the same player he’d been the previous season, and Williams was played out of position and most peoples whipping boy. Cotters got plenty of pace up that side.
McAtee’s work rate, unpredictability and ability to net the odd worldie is sadly missed. Cadden wasn’t the same player as in Duff’s season like you say. That said, he’d still be a better option than what we have now. Cotter is definitely a threat down the right and has improved a lot, especially fitness wise. His final ball is still woeful though.
And for all those issues you've listed with those players we were a worse side than Duff's but scraped the play offs, we've replaced them with worse, that tells you why we are where we are.
But where are we though? 10 games played and a couple of points worse off than previous seasons at this point.
Agree about Caddens position. Said the other day we almost wholly depend on our right wing back for width. When you look at Lee Johnson, he had a good team propping up the league for months under similar ‘fannying about’ circumstances to Clarke. Hopefully Clarke will also get the hard word, or have an epithany, and things will improve?
We live in hope but from what I have witnessed so far, I am not filled with confidence. Performances so far have not been good and need to improve vastly if we are going to finish in the top half of the league let alone the top six.
We've won against Bristol Rovers, Burton, Crawley and only Lincoln in the top half, were 10 games in without a settled side, formation or any consistency
Lee Johnson’s team had the likes of Mawson, Scowen, Hourihane, Winnall and eventually Hammill. This squad has nowhere near that quality in it. We live in hope but we’re so dodgy at the back, lack pace in every department and have too many square pegs in round holes for me. DKD is a player we’ve chased all through the summer window without us actually knowing how we can best fit him into our side. Mind boggling when we’re shelling out £700k for him. Would love to be proved wrong but I’ll be amazed if we make top 10 if I’m honest.
Mate, I have rarely felt ‘full of confidence’ for the vast majority of the last 2 seasons. The mood on here was similar at this point in both. It took us 2 attempts to beat flipping Horsham and the clamour for Collins head was evident most of the season.
Easy to know they had that quality In hindsight, but how confident did you feel stood in the rain at Altrincham mate? Plus Hammil wasn’t signed until mid season. Re top 10. I can’t remember which season it was but I bumped into you and you said same about that team as well.
I’m not known for my optimism mate to be fair Yes, I remember coming out of Altrincham’s ground soaked to the skin and thinking we were heading for L2! Mind you signing Hammill a couple of weeks later lifted my spirits.
I get that, but you said ‘where we are’. I want to know where we are in relation to the last two seasons. My whole point is if we’d been great under Duff or Collins, I’d be worried, but we weren’t, so I’m not. Would I like to see an improvement? Of course.
Points wise not far off, but that's propped up by 3 wins against teams that will be in and around the bottom 6. Compared to Duffs team ? Miles off Compared to Collins team ? Weaker can you honestly see any of our strikers scoring 15+ goals ? We still can't defend but we're far less creative. Nearly 25% the way through the season and we've used 6 formations and still can't settle on one, no identity whatsoever
