Team for port vale

We can fart about with formations and players but in the end we have to face a very daunting fact - there are 10 games and we need at the very least 15 goals, assuming the defence does not capitulate. That Is a desperate situation.

Now, there are some very good ideas on this thread for making a team to creat chances but .......... hand on heart ........ who if anyone do people think is going to turn those chances into goals? To me that is the crucial issue. Not one of the strikers has looked as though they are genuine goal scorers.

In fact there is a lot more chance of getting a decent striker from a box of Swan Vestas or signing Bryant and May on loan than finding one  in the Town squad.

So Jolley has a very difficult task. However well he gets the side to push up and pressure, it is still down to goals in the end. Is there anyone, anywhere in the club who might be better than the ones we’ve tried?

Nah, 3 or 4 goals might be enough to do it if we somehow could learn how to grind out some 1-0 victories overnight.

Not overly likely, the way things have been going, but you never know.

Pretty simple, really - we've got to make it more difficult to score against us and then make sure we take more of our chances when they come our way. Easier said than done, obviously!

Seriously 3 1-0 victories against Port Vale, Chesterfield and Barnet would do the trick I'm certain. It won't happen because we can't score 1 goal a game even.

We all know about the upturn is results and performances when MJ took over rat AFC Eskilstuna, and however it would be interesting to know if he dramatically changed the starting XI when he took over OR did he use largely the same team that had been so poor previously but managed to get more out of them?

Someone mentioned Carvahal at Swansea and he's a good example of a manager who's come in and turned results around without changing the personnel too much. Sometimes it just take a change in thinking/system/motivation/mindset to get that extra 10% out of players that could prove the difference.

I don't necessarily think we'll see a massive overhaul of the starting XI on Saturday, but what we will see is a different system that plays to the strengths of the players we have whilst exploiting the weaknesses of the opposition.

One things that's very clear about Michael Jolley is that he's a diligent, highly educated manager with an emphasis on attention to detail.

You can bet he'll be watching hours of footage of the opposition and forensically analysing them, identifying trends and weaknesses and devising game plans around that, rather than what seemed to be Russel Slades tactics of a 'one size fits all' approach with very little differentiation from game to game.

It all points to an exciting future for GTFC in my opinion 😁

If we can survive I will be happy. It is amazing what a new season can bring when you have forward thinking manager. Let's hope we can get some positive results under Jolley I want him to succeed.