Some Positives?

We survived a dire season and just avoided relegation.

We should have another healthy total of season tickets sold.  Money up front for new players, good support and a good atmosphere.

Thus is a positive as this level of support/income is better than many Div 2 clubs.  Even if we struggle the club still has the income.

Because we were so poor there will be a wholesale clear out of players.  This gives us a great opportunity to start afresh.  Massive pressure to get the recruitment right.

Stevenage and Crawley had massive improvements after being in the same position.

Finishing mid-table and the temptation is to stick with the same average players.

We have gone the longest without a 20 goal striker in the league.  Chesterfield paid good money for a striker and were clear at the top 2/3 years ago. When he got injured their season imploded.

Blackburn might get relegated.  Yet they have a striker on 31 goals - no one has scored more in the 4 divisions.

It is more important to spread the goals around the team. Reduced risk of injury to a key striker.  Keeps the opposition guessing.

To add:  we had to wait until June, when we won the Promotion Final, to know what division we would be in the next season.

We know this 6 weeks earlier, giving more time to plan and look at players.  Knowing the budget as well.

We have a last game without any pressure.  Can say goodbye to some players and/or play some youngsters or fringe players.

To be honest, I feel that if you remove some of the context from the situation - we’ve survived relatively comfortably.

I think that some of the performances post Doncaster have been positive & will stand us in good stead for next season.

However, you don’t always realise that when in the midsts of a prospective dog fight!

Quoted from bradzmilne

To be honest, I feel that if you remove some of the context from the situation - we’ve survived relatively comfortably.

I think that some of the performances post Doncaster have been positive & will stand us in good stead for next season.

However, you don’t always realise that when in the midsts of a prospective dog fight!

Agreed, but we do have to consider the likelihood that DA will abandon the 3-5-2 over the summer and revert to something more in keeping with his philosophies and the 'game model'. The change was needed and provided some much needed improvement to what clearly wasn't working at the time but I'm confident he'll want to get back there with the players he feels can play. In that vein of thinking we have to revert to the context of the Donny game and previous.

For me this is where the biggest improvements within the club are coming from, planning. JS has alluded that the game model they had in mind was knocked back under PH and they obviously gave him time to see if it worked and if our assumptions are correct then they also effectively handed PH the rope with which to hang himself. Continuing some assumptions further, in that DA is in sync with the owners and the game model then you'd like to believe that between DA, Joe and other supporting staff there is a plan in place to bring the 'right' players in to play according to the model.

Time will tell whether it works out but football doesn't work in straight lines and I'm sure there'll be some setbacks, hopefully at least we can see something a little more consistent over the course of the season which hopefully sees us flirting at the play off end rather than the relegation one.

Quoted from gtfc_chris

Agreed, but we do have to consider the likelihood that DA will abandon the 3-5-2 over the summer and revert to something more in keeping with his philosophies and the 'game model'[b][/b]. The change was needed and provided some much needed improvement to what clearly wasn't working at the time but I'm confident he'll want to get back there with the players he feels can play. In that vein of thinking we have to revert to the context of the Donny game and previous.

For me this is where the biggest improvements within the club are coming from, planning. JS has alluded that the game model they had in mind was knocked back under PH and they obviously gave him time to see if it worked and if our assumptions are correct then they also effectively handed PH the rope with which to hang himself. Continuing some assumptions further, in that DA is in sync with the owners and the game model then you'd like to believe that between DA, Joe and other supporting staff there is a plan in place to bring the 'right' players in to play according to the model.

Time will tell whether it works out but football doesn't work in straight lines and I'm sure there'll be some setbacks, hopefully at least we can see something a little more consistent over the course of the season which hopefully sees us flirting at the play off end rather than the relegation one.

Genuine question.
I'm no tactical genius, but isn't it possible to use this base, which the players are obviously comfortable with (and half of them are contracted next season remember), and tweak or adapt it to make it more pleasing on the eye?

Quoted from forza ivano

Genuine question.
I'm no tactical genius, but isn't it possible to use this base, which the players are obviously comfortable with (and half of them are contracted next season remember), and tweak or adapt it to make it more pleasing on the eye?

Very much so I would have thought and to be honest it’s a formation I like. When a wing back bombs it should be relatively easy to cover the space he leaves behind either via one of the three central defenders or a midfielder moving out. Don’t like formations that are too rigid and always feel it should be played like you do in a 5/6 a side game. Pass and move, it’s not rocket science get in the space to receive the ball and move it on, player moves out of position another one fills in. Over simplified I accept but what have lacked, Thompson & Conten apart, is midfielders who are comfortable at receiving and controlling the ball and moving it on quickly. I appreciate Swindon weren’t really competing too hard on Saturday but the difference Ainley, Khouri and Andrews made was noticeable and this was, IMO, that they all do the basics well and having them on the pitch together helps demo what is possible.

Quoted from forza ivano

Genuine question.
I'm no tactical genius, but isn't it possible to use this base, which the players are obviously comfortable with (and half of them are contracted next season remember), and tweak or adapt it to make it more pleasing on the eye?

I am not picking a fight with you just joining in the debate..

I hope 'pleasing on the eye' is not the key factor in next season's team - we need to do the basics, be more compact and competitive in midfield, move the ball quicker and be more incisive when we attack. Some of that will make us more pleasing on the eye but I'll take a very organised team who are difficult to beat and dangerous going forward. I'm not sure Thompson is pleasing on the eye (in a football sense, I'm not qualified to comment in other respects...) but he's been the first name on the teamsheet after Danny Rose since he got here.

Pleasing to the eye is nice if we can move the ball forward.  We played some good passing at times but it often ended with somebody turning back. I'd like a player like Mullin, without the cheating.  As soon as he gets the ball he's only got one thing on his mind. He doesn't care if he gets tackled or plays a bad pass in the end.  The next time he goes again.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

I am not picking a fight with you just joining in the debate..

I hope 'pleasing on the eye' is not the key factor in next season's team - we need to do the basics, be more compact and competitive in midfield, move the ball quicker and be more incisive when we attack. Some of that will make us more pleasing on the eye but I'll take a very organised team who are difficult to beat and dangerous going forward. I'm not sure Thompson is pleasing on the eye (in a football sense, I'm not qualified to comment in other respects...) but he's been the first name on the teamsheet after Danny Rose since he got here.

perhaps should have phrased it differently; presumably it's possible to mix this system with the way Artell and 1878 want the team to play?

I think Thompson is pleasing on the eye, to my football mind anyway.  He uses the ball well, creates space for others and is intelligent with when and how to give the ball.  If we're talking pleasing in that purest form of neat little triangle passes, I think he does that quite well too.  Very good at playing his way out of trouble as opposed to just hoofing it.

I think attractive football will definitely be on the agenda, I don't think 1878 have attempted to make a secret of that.  Of course attractive is subjective, I found Russell Slade's second season (first spell, definitely not second!) entertaining as hell but others found it dull as ditchwater.  I loved Alan Buckley's pass and move in both his first and second spells, but it also became dull and predictable towards the end of both reigns.

Formation wise, I'm not convinced that Artell will ditch 3-5-2 or a variation of it at least.  A lack of options largely dictated that 3-3-3-1 formation on Saturday but I think that has some legs too.  As with any system it's if you've got the players to make it successful.  4-4-2 is what everyone always wants to revert back to (especially when a side is struggling) but it's only effective if you've got the players, namely two midfielders who can dominate and compliment each other.  In the modern game that's rare, hence why a lot of teams don't use it anymore.  At our level one good central midfielder is hard to find, two is near impossible.

Second half I really enjoyed watching our 3-3-3-1 system in flow.  But it worked once Thompson was supported by the other 3 midfielders.  First half they were miles apart from him and he was fighting a one-man battle.  It also required Wilson to bully the defence, which he didn't do first half and that meant the ball just came back.

At Crewe, Artell heavily played 4-3-3 but he had two really good full backs in Perry Ng and the left back who's name escapes me.  Both absolutely dominated their flanks.  Further forward he had the likes of Callum Ainley and Charlie Kirk, players capable of genuinely unlocking teams.  How much Artell thinks we've got in the building who can do that or how well he can recruit in the summer will absolutely dictate what system we play.  I imagine he's got an idea in his mind now but nothing will be set in stone.