Will be tough to make play offs

Really looking forward to the season ahead, don't think we will make the play offs with this current squad, would be happy with mid table, we have a big squad of players at the moment we have a 23 man squad including the youths, with Slade bringing in a LB maybe Sam Hart would fit perfect would play most of the season and would learn a lot playing alongside Clarke and Collins also Ben Davies, so with a GK, LB, winger and FW that would take it to 27 man squad.

RS hasn't made many signings due to players being under contract, so i feel upcoming season might be a mid table finish which is still great and maybe the season after RS can get all the players that he wanted, we have a fresh hungry squad a lot of players new to this level still Collins, Clarke, Davies, McAllister to help push this team forward.

Looking forward to seeing this team flourish over the next couple of years under Slade, can only see Osbourne getting better and better.

We where not that far off last season so even with the squad not being much different but with a stable management team that really wants to be here I am expecting an improvement

I think this squad is going to surprise us this season as players like Jones and Osbourne have league experience now and a full-time pre-season. All the players look leaner and fitter and I am happy with the new additions.
The key will be how we recruit up front and that will be the difference between us challenging for promotion or another comfortable mid table finish.
I am confident Slade can still bring in 2/3 more gems yet

We need a left back and a good striker for starters, then we could easy be looking at play offs.. But play offs mean nothing unless you win it,  we should be aiming higher, and could have done if big nutts haddent wasted money building a team of midfielders that we are stuck with and ph giving two year deals to squad players at best ,

We've only got 2 midfielders that Bignot signed and they're both good (one quite, one very).

Whose to say we can't make the play offs with the squad we have now? Yes we need a striker and left back to replace Bogle and Andrew and it will be difficult to replace two such good players with the same quality, but we weren't a million miles away last term. I'm sure those two positions will be filled in due course.

There seems to be this mad yearning for new players every season, as if this is the best way to move forward. The players we have, with a few canny additions could be well capable of going that little bit extra on what we did last season, if it is managed right and can become a bit more consistent. This is where the manager comes in and if he is as good as people say, then he will be able to mould what we have into an efficient unit. The assertion that no new players equals mid table is a baffling one to me.

have serious doubts about Clarke Collins Boyce- wish Pearson and Toto were still here

Still too early to tell I reckon.

Of course it is. Farcical to be making predictions with any credibility based on such an incomplete picture of ourselves or our rivals.

We should always aspire to be as high as possible in the division and to be happy with mid table mediocrity would show a lack of commitment - something Slade's management team are trying to impress on players and fans alike.A winning mentality ,not complacency, is needed if success is to be achieved. The biggest unknown factor is obviously the new mix of teams ,both promoted and demoted ,into this division.The signs are there that RS is ahead of the game here with the inclusion of Graham Rodger to the management team .Things look brighter than last season that's for sure.    

Depending on who we bring in I think we will be closer to the play offs than last season,

Bring in the right 2 players from now and with what we already have a play off place at least.

I think we have a good mix of experience, flare and hard workers and will be a much better all around team this year. I also think that jones and Osbourne will really kick on with their first full pre season behind them.

I think Slade, although making it a bit slower, has looked to make the defence a bit deeper and more efficient compared to last season and by also adding some pace on the counter attack will bring more goals. My head says be happy with anything above last seasons finish but my heart says we should have no one to fear and should be challenging for automatic

Forget the playoffs I'd take 3rd from bottom now as things stand.

Quoted from Grim74

Forget the playoffs I'd take 3rd from bottom now as things stand.

I've heard of sloppy seconds but that's ridiculous.

There are at least 23 teams who THINK they can make the playoffs and the same 23 teams that think there are at least 2 teams worse than them so they've got no chance of being relegated either.
  

Quoted from Grim74

Forget the playoffs I'd take 3rd from bottom now as things stand.

I'm hardly excited about the coming season but think you are being just a tadge pessimistic there

Quoted from Grim74

Forget the playoffs I'd take 3rd from bottom now as things stand.

Don't knock it, bigger clubs than us have gone into the National League.

Becoming an established Football League team has to be our first priority.

Getting promoted would be great but in reality how many of us think it could really happen ?    UTM

Quoted from promotion plaice

Don't knock it, bigger clubs than us have gone into the National League.

Becoming an established Football League team has to be our first priority.

Getting promoted would be great but in reality how many of us think it could really happen ?    UTM

Out of interest who are the bigger clubs than us who have dropped into non league ?

Luton are a bit bigger than us.

Tbh I want an exciting season, get us close in or around the play offs. I'm not expecting promotion though.

We've made a vast improvement on our attacking wingers and a what looks to be a good striker. We will have to see who else slade brings in on the Striker front, but we seriously need a good LB replacement and possible a younger CB to add a bit of youth in the wise.

If we get a decent LB, Young CB and a prolific striker. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't aim for playoffs, especially with how good our midfield and how exciting our wingers are!

I would love to see a 4-2-1-3 formation with 2 attacking wingers and a central striker. This will utilize the wingers and create/score more goals.

Quoted from Grimsby2012

We've made a vast improvement on our attacking wingers and a what looks to be a good striker. We will have to see who else slade brings in on the Striker front, but we seriously need a good LB replacement and possible a younger CB to add a bit of youth in the wise.

If we get a decent LB, Young CB and a prolific striker. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't aim for playoffs, especially with how good our midfield and how exciting our wingers are!

I would love to see a 4-2-1-3 formation with 2 attacking wingers and a central striker. This will utilize the wingers and create/score more goals.

And probably concede several more!

Won't be any tougher than last season we have had one full season back and despite the disruptions still never looked like struggling with more consistency  would have been in the play offs glass half full as always have faith UTM.

Quoted from Mrs Doyle

Won't be any tougher than last season we have had one full season back and despite the disruptions still never looked like struggling with more consistency  would have been in the play offs glass half full as always have faith UTM.

Agree, we could not have had such a strange season, Hurst wanting away, Bignot made a couple of good signings but was out of his depth tactics wise and would have put us back in non league, lost our talisman goal scorer in Bogle, ticked over with Moore and then signed up the experienced Slade and Wilko,  and still after all that we were not a million miles from the playoffs.

I don't see why a 4231 couldn't be both attackingly and defensively sttong. You be got the 4 further up who can be allowed creative freedom, then 2 defensive midfielders who can help with the transition to attack. With a solid back 4, it could be effective. Interestingly, non of the promoted teams (correct me if I'm wrong) favoured a 442. I think we've got to look beyond that, league 2s moved on since it nearly worked for slade last time.

Quoted from Mariner93er

I don't see why a 4231 couldn't be both attackingly and defensively sttong. You be got the 4 further up who can be allowed creative freedom, then 2 defensive midfielders who can help with the transition to attack. With a solid back 4, it could be effective. Interestingly, non of the promoted teams (correct me if I'm wrong) favoured a 442. I think we've got to look beyond that, league 2s moved on since it nearly worked for slade last time.

He didn't say 4231 - he said 4213!

For a start, I don't think McKeown is good enough for a side aspiring to get promoted and we don't have a proven goal scorer. There's also a plethora of midfielders to choose from and, other than McAllister, I don't see a regular starter amongst them.

It's not really that much of a worry at this point we'll still likely make a couple more signings and who knows what they could turn out to be. The problem last season seemed to be chaos, poor tactics and a lack of consistent performances more than the players themselves that we had. I don't think everyone we bought in was worthwhile but some have shown early signs that they could improve and given a full on pre season may be even better this season.

Even looking at Andrew who turned out to be a standout player last season, who was really all that excited when he signed? You never know how things will turn out.

Codger, how on earth do you make that call on Mcallister? He played about 20 blinking minutes last season! You don't see Osborne as being good enough for a regular start?

Quoted from chaos33

Codger, how on earth do you make that call on Mcallister? He played about 20 blinking minutes last season! You don't see Osborne as being good enough for a regular start?

McAllister has a proven track record at this level and above and, for once, our centre midfield looked really solid against Plymouth until he, understandably ran out of gas. Yes, Osbourne is OK but where are you going to play all these midfielders? Is Jones an attacking midfielder or a striker? Then there's Rose and Kelly and Berrett who Slade seems to like and Clements etc....

Quoted from MuddyWaters

McAllister has a proven track record at this level and above and, for once, our centre midfield looked really solid against Plymouth until he, understandably ran out of gas. Yes, Osbourne is OK but where are you going to play all these midfielders? Is Jones an attacking midfielder or a striker? Then there's Rose and Kelly and Berrett who Slade seems to like and Clements etc....

Not forgetting Harry Clifton.

Quoted from Grantham_Mariner

Not forgetting Harry Clifton.

And Bolarinwa and Dembele etc etc

I'd imagine it will be clements/McAllister with rose in the middle, with Osbourne seen more as an attacking wide man. Don't think you can say he in anyway favours berrett at this point, he was just a useful player who could fill in at left mid last season.

3-4-1-2 is the formation to use. I've used it for Grimsby Town on soccer manager 2017, it's now January 2021 and I'm sat comfortably in mid table in the Premiership.

Quoted from lukeo

3-4-1-2 is the formation to use. I've used it for Grimsby Town on soccer manager 2017, it's now January 2021 and I'm sat comfortably in mid table in the Premiership.

How very selfish of you to keep this to yourself until now.
You had the modern technology to help the club and said nothing.

Hopefully the new stadium will have a gaming suite where the likes of Russell and Wilko will be able to hone their management skills.

P.S. Not challenging for Europe. Boo Lukeo out 😉

I think the key this season is us lacking the 20+ goal striker in Bogle from the off, although I believe Jones will have an outstanding season this year. But the telling factor for me is we started the season against a team we knew would struggle in Newport. This season is slightly trickier in that we face 2 teams back to back that have come down, the first of which is away. If we can come out of those with at least 1 positive result then it sets us up nicely. Lose both and we are playing catch up from the off. I know you can't judge on the first 5 games, but mentality is key. We all need to pull together this term. Can't see why we cannot challenge higher than last season

We will have to defend better that we have done in the 3 matches so far.