Just Back

Quoted from MuddyWaters

I agree with most of this. I’m hoping that, when we get Tharme and Thompson back, we’re a bit more defensively sound and we can get towards the top of the bottom half.

My question is what constitutes a good season?

Artell has already churned out the line that improvement isn't linear a couple of times, which feels like an excuse for we may go backwards again this season. We can't regress too much in terms of league position without getting relegated, so that line does worry me when we desperately need to take a step forward this season.

For me, a good season would be finishing around 12th.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

I agree with most of this. I’m hoping that, when we get Tharme and Thompson back, we’re a bit more defensively sound and we can get towards the top of the bottom half.

My question is what constitutes a good season?

Probably not having to pay off a manager again, 'the game model' not breaking down for a second time + being abandoned  , having a settled group of players were only 5 or 6 need to be added rather than 12-15 come season end   ; which seems the norm and a finish upwards of 16th would do for me .

Quoted from jamesgtfc

Artell has already churned out the line that improvement isn't linear a couple of times, which feels like an excuse for we may go backwards again this season. We can't regress too much in terms of league position without getting relegated, so that line does worry me when we desperately need to take a step forward this season.

For me, a good season would be finishing around 12th.

It might be a bit early in the piece , but I  actually think we can almost take relegation off the table to be honest I can see Morecambe and Accrington getting seriously low point totals they have dire squads .

All options are on the table at this point.

The way we played against Bradford gives me hope but this side is equally capable of looking frail and clueless, as against Barrow.

A win against Bromley will steady the nerves.Even a valiant defeat would be acceptable, just not the whimpering surrender we saw last Saturday.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

Artell has already churned out the line that improvement isn't linear a couple of times, which feels like an excuse for we may go backwards again this season. We can't regress too much in terms of league position without getting relegated, so that line does worry me when we desperately need to take a step forward this season.

For me, a good season would be finishing around 12th.

I don't worry that he's suggesting we'll go backwards, I think he means that we've made this style of football work better than the first time around, so we're moving forward in that regard, but within that it doesn't mean we outplay Bradford one week, we're going to maintain that every week. That's how I would take linear, each game will be an improvement on the last, so if we have a blinder one week you'd be expected to match it which is highly unlikely because of so may variables. There'll be games and periods that go well and some that don't go so well. I don't think we'll necessarily regress to the point of being in the bottom 2, or even the bottom 8 come the end of the season.

Quoted from gtfc_chris

I don't worry that he's suggesting we'll go backwards, I think he means that we've made this style of football work better than the first time around, so we're moving forward in that regard, but within that it doesn't mean we outplay Bradford one week, we're going to maintain that every week. That's how I would take linear, each game will be an improvement on the last, so if we have a blinder one week you'd be expected to match it which is highly unlikely because of so may variables. There'll be games and periods that go well and some that don't go so well. I don't think we'll necessarily regress to the point of being in the bottom 2, or even the bottom 8 come the end of the season.

The many variables so far has been the individual errors & the goalkeeping issue for me (or footwork issue) . Apart from Notts you could make a case for us being worth more than we have got especially from Fleetwood and Chesterfield - we were on the front foot for decent spells in both really, even if not so threatening in the Fleetwood game  .

We probably have better players than Bromley, they will come to frustrate and nick something - I hope the main message this week will be concentration and an emphasis  on  making sure players make the right decisions defensively; the killer has been when a team scores one  , invariably it leads to two and kills us  . If we do those two things better we win the game imo . I think going forward we are good in spells , much better than a good few teams at this level .

Quoted from Mappers

It might be a bit early in the piece , but I  actually think we can almost take relegation off the table to be honest I can see Morecambe and Accrington getting seriously low point totals they have dire squads .

I know what you're saying here and your logic is sound but after 6 games we can't settle on 'we won't get relegated because there are 2 teams worse than us'. That isn't good enough. We need to go forward.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

I know what you're saying here and your logic is sound but after 6 games we can't settle on 'we won't get relegated because there are 2 teams worse than us'. That isn't good enough. We need to go forward.

Completely . I think it's more my mindset - I'm a pretty positive & ambitious in general , but it's telling when it comes to Town and season start my first thought is look for how many teams I think will be worse than us so that we won't go down out of the league once more and it's been like that for 15 years + it's more a judgement based on the historical context of how bad we have been in the league over the last 2 decades .

What's unfair with  that thought process is based largely on not what Artell, these players , this board , the model etc etc have done /are doing  but the historical context of that 20 years of abject systemic failure -  they are almost guilty by association and are taking the brunt to a degree , of something they played no part in .

We just need to hope they are the one's to make us believe on the field a  bit again i guess .

Quoted from Yarborough Vaults

All options are on the table at this point.

The way we played against Bradford gives me hope but this side is equally capable of looking frail and clueless, as against Barrow.

A win against Bromley will steady the nerves.Even a valiant defeat would be acceptable, just not the whimpering surrender we saw last Saturday.

there is nothing acceptable about losing at home to Bromley

Quoted from chaos33

Yep. If you’re hopeless at defending and you can’t pass the ball forwards with purpose, there sure will be many weeks where it ‘doesn’t come off’.

Look at how Barrow set up, as described by Acko.
Just a vastly superior, more productive blueprint than ours. I mean, set aside that we can’t seem to grasp defensive basics; our fitness is a major concern. We’ve got many players that look visibly very unfit once we get to 70 mins. Now, a porous defence and an unfit team points to major trouble given that most goals are scored in the last third of games. Artell’s model has huge holes in it for me and basic fitness and a solid defensive platform are the two biggest.

We will be a bottom 6 struggler like this. Just my opinion, but I’m pretty sure of it.

We’ve conceded 2 goals post 70 minutes and won both of those games…

We weren’t hopeless and not passing the ball forward with purpose against Cheltenham or Bradford. We weren’t even that on balance at Chesterfield either, just two brain dead moments cost us the game.

We can’t just make sweeping statements on our abilities when we’re still so inconsistent with it IMO. In the same way Bradford didn’t mean we were champions in waiting, the Barrow game doesn’t mean we’re a bottom 6 side.