It’s bloody weird this season

A proper conundrum. To me anyway.

I don’t feel like we’ve played well for a full game more than a couple of times. Patches here and there otherwise.

We consistently back up a decent half with a much poorer one.

We don’t have an obvious style. We certainly don’t seem to have a plan b or a switch up.

We are defensively questionable, sometimes bordering awful.

We have a number of players who are arguably having, by their standards, pretty poor seasons.

Yet despite all of that, we’ve won a hell of a lot of games, including starting to do so against top half opposition in the last month or so; we are unbeaten in nine and have lost just one league game in fifteen, we find ourselves with three more points and a lot more goals scored than this stage last season, and much closer to the top two.

It’s bizarre to me. It really is. Long may it last as it’s a results game - but the performances I’ve seen (I don’t go away to be fair) haven’t all been that hot.

We can’t slip up against Carlisle Tuesday. They are a poor side, and we need the game in hand to turn into three points. I expect we will win the game; that puts us in a cracking position - and with a big, quick centre half to come into the side (soon hopefully), even though I’ve been pretty underwhelmed all year, I’m actually really excited about the run in and our prospects.

 

Youre spot on. I personally think quality of football is all over the world is just downgrading. I remember players like

Booth
Windass
Jevons
Shuker
Trundell

All at this level. It just don't happen anymore.

 

How bizarre, how bizarre, and lv us to get promoted this year,Collins to get a couple of signings,and we play fantastic every game,just to show he ain't clueless he just struggled missing a few players.

 

Shuker?

 

There’s been a clear style of play all season for me. It’s just not been an entertaining one to cover up the obvious deficiencies in the side. Possession based football but cautious waiting on single clever movements in the final third. Often from one of the wing backs or forwards getting in behind.

The managers scared shitless (rightly imo) of putting the defence under any kind of pressure. We’ve not had the pace or height at the back to cope with it.

To me it’s always been a case of get to January in the mix & then sign the height & pace at the back we need. Hopefully Pines alone can make the difference but ideally I’d like two centre backs in & Williams back to RWB.

I agree the football’s not always been entertaining but from my point of view & I believe Collins has the same view that if we did open up & play a more expansive style or press high we would be wide open for counters.

I still think that to lose an entire back 3 & our keeper in the summer & then to be without Connell & Roberts for so long that we’re in a brilliant position.

I think we were 7th in the league after having a back 6 of Killip, Cotter / O’Keeffe, Williams, De Gevigney, McCart, Cadden & Russell for a couple of months. I don’t think realistically anyone can knock that.

 

I do wish you hadn’t said ‘we can’t slip up against Carlisle……..!’
Not only temping fate but it brought back memories of Morecambe away last season

 

I was looking last night at the form guide and despite what clearly is a good run of form we sit 7th over last 4, 5th over the last 6 games and 6th for last 10 in L1, with Derby, Bolton, Peterborough & Oxford above us form wise.
In short we can’t let up as other teams are also on as good if not better form.

 

couldn’t put it any better myself. It does feel like we’ve been in third gear all season.

 

Great post. In what is a very low quality division we have offensive players who others teams struggle to deal with that extra but if quality that gets us through games. At the same time we struggle to make that quality count for more than a moment or two.

Hopefully that will be enough as I can’t see it changing.

 

Yes!!!!!

 

If we were a car we'd be saying it runs ok but timings slightly off. If we could replace the points and plugs and reset the timing ( with better players) we would pss this league ..
( One for the older posters this ) lol

 

That’s my point when I say no obvious style though - I’d have agreed that what you write here is our style, but then there is the opening ten minutes or so yesterday where we started very quickly, had a very high press and we’re ten to fifteen yards higher to a man than we ended up in the next stage of the first half. So we do something but don’t stick at it.

You can’t go like the clappers for a whole 90 minutes of course - but it seems bizarre to do so for such a short burst.

The amount of times we appear to stop playing or at least regress several steps is a consistent frustration. Collins seems to have no power to stop that.

Yet he’s getting results it’s hard to argue with. The trouble is that even with nine unbeaten and one loss in 15, we haven’t really made a lot of ground or pulled clear even within the playoff places. Everyone, except probably Portsmouth, are in decent form on the top seven or eight.

I think it maybe reflects the quality of the division. No teams are anything like as good as Plymouth and Ipswich were last season - maybe not as good Wednesday nor as good as we ended up either - but the rest of the league is pretty poor as well. The top seven or eight all comfortably beat most of the bottom ten or so with few exceptions. Whoever wins the playoffs this year won’t necessarily be that great a side. They’d have a lot of work to do next season.

I’d love us to get out this season though as I suspect sides like Stockport and Wrexham, if they get up, to be pretty good at this level next time round.

 

Our stile of play..? For me we started the season with the ' play it out from the back' stile that everyone plays. But have tapered that off a bit..We got the ball wide and attacked down the flaks with quick first-time crosses. That worked so well vs Port Vale we got seven. That was the system Collins used at Tampa.. Bet he thought ' wow this is easier than I thought ' ..But that just made other teams in the league take note how we played and work out how to stop us... And most did at our place anyway, so we were less affective.in the games after..
Our plan B then was to bring in Cosgrove and to go more direct..or at least have that option...that has not worked because of Cosgroves fitness/form....

Our best form as been away because teams come on to us and we hit em on the brake with Cole McAtee Cadden and Cotter's pace. . but at home we struggle a bit because McAtee is naturally a 10.. and falls deep and gets involved with the tippy-tappy in midfield,which leaves Cole isolated with three big CBs round him. Plus it's hard to change it up with Watters and Cosgroves form.(two lads who I'm sure have have part to play in this season run in)
So I kind of agree we don't have a plan B and the plan A goes to ferk rather quickly some games.
But what we do have for this level at least, is some really quality players especially in attacking areas and it's that, that gets us through no doubt, but as a team we do struggle at least in part of most game's and I've not even mentioned the defence..
But I will say this if we'd had kept Thomas Mads and Kitch we would have bee 10 points clear by now.. with Collins or Duff

Now a lot of our better players are out of contract (plus loans return )in the summer.
So if we fail to get promoted this season, then with most of our better players will be gone. So if we think this season as been a bit of a struggle, wait till next..no big sales on the horizon so no money to spend.. back to yoof and loans

 

Whilst I agree, I think people often forget that we were having similar discussions this time last season too. People were saying that we were about to have a drop off because, aside from maybe the bottom 6 in the league, we weren't dominating sides, we didn't have a plan b, and we didn't look particularly threatening in attack. It's the same this season, other than our frailties appear to lie more in our defensive options rather than in an attacking sense. It wasn't until Bobby Thomas got up to speed, and James Norwood had an upturn in form that we started to look like a top 6 worthy team. I don't want to put all our eggs in a Pine basket, but if he's the dominant present we've been missing in the air and enables us to be less reliant on Williams at centre half, we'll see a noticeable improvement in performance.

One thing which we do better than we did last season, is take points of the sides you'd expect us to. By this stage last season, we'd lost to Morecambe, Exeter and Lincoln. If we can start winning against fellow top 6 sides, we'll definitely solidify our top 6 spot.

 

Not sure why Collins gets all the stick. He brings players on when winning and trys to bolster the defence. When invariably, when we are in front the entire team go to pot. Not his doing. And they must shoulder a lot of the criticism. Yesterday was not entirely backs to the wall for the entire 2nd half. In which that has been the case on many occasions this season. Although Bristol did have decent chances. Mainly due again to individual errors. But we did press ourselves at times hence the winner.
It'll be interesting to see who else we can get through the door this window.

 

It appears De Givegny and Lopata will not be allowed to start together.

Collins will only play a left footed defender on the left side of a back 3.

Obvious to anyone Williams is a RWB not RH of a back 3, height and positional sense is more of a requirement than pace in that position if we can't have both.

Kane isn't a CDM but Collins has played in that position unsuccessfully a number of times this season either start or in the second half of a game.

I can't determine exactly what Philips position is. Is he in a Midfield 3 or a right side forward or neither just somewhere in between as he sees fit.

Styles position should be left side of 3 midfield where Kane plays but again has been played behind the front 2 but we don't play that formation I don't think or know.
Cadden is our LWB

Cole and Mcatee are our main front 2 but if Watters or Cosgrove play the way we play needs to change as their strengths are completely different to them of Cole and Watters strengths.

Jalo isn't an impact sub.

Questions all over the pitch but our players are easily good enough for this league, Collins need to just get the style of play best suited to get the best out of the players we have and I don t think he has done that for enough of them

Williams, Phillips, Styles, Russeĺl Cosgrove being prime examples all should be regular starters or performing better than they are.

 

Absolutely 100% bang on.

Said the same early doors - Collins has had to do it like this - and most fans can see the defensive issues. It’s not individually, but how it works as a unit.

 

All opinions I disagree that styles should be left of our midfield 3 our best midfield is Phillips kane and connell. Styles has had his chance to play central this season and it hasn't worked. Cadden is the best lwb at the club for me.

Then you say you don't know Phillips best position look at his game yesterday or his stats last season from center midfield.

 

I wouldn't replace Kane with Styles but that should really be his best position.

Shame for Herbie that he hasn't got Hungarian grandparents

 

Opinions again but I don't think styles has the passing ability or strength to play that position.