Strongest team

Vernam, Vernam, Vernam. If i say it often enough, i'll get the hang of it eventually. Two not very common, but similar sounding surnames around at the same time.  

Alex Whitmore has improved out of all recognition recently. He wins more or less everything in the air, and is by far our most serious threat at set pieces. Could turn out to be key player for the rest of the season.

Quoted from ginnywings

Vernam, Vernam, Vernam. If i say it often enough, i'll get the hang of it eventually. Two not very common, but similar sounding surnames around at the same time.  

Good effort - I stand by my thoughts about your posts. Usually spot on. imo


UTM

Quoted from joe56

Alex Whitmore has improved out of all recognition recently. He wins more or less everything in the air, and is by far our most serious threat at set pieces. Could turn out to be key player for the rest of the season.

now playing centre half

Quoted from joe56

Alex Whitmore has improved out of all recognition recently. He wins more or less everything in the air, and is by far our most serious threat at set pieces. Could turn out to be key player for the rest of the season.

And this is a classic example of the modern trend for utter over exaggeration.

Quoted from chaos33

And this is a classic example of the modern trend for utter over exaggeration.

🤗

I think it's a combination of many things, rather than just one or two.

RHJ has brought some much needed balance and pace to the right hand side of defence.  Equally so Hendrie looks to have stepped up a level as his match fitness has improved.  First few games I thought he looked way out of his depth but he has looked outstanding last few games.  Just proves what can happen once the ring rust is shaken off.  Having two natural full-backs makes a huge difference, when you think we were deploying Davis and Famewo, two centre-backs, in those positions it makes you realise just how imbalanced we were. Both Hendrie and RHJ can and want to get forward which makes a big difference, especially when we've not got any natural wingers in the side.  

In midfield the pairing of Rose and Clifton feels a better fit.  Individually I think Welsh and Hessenthaler are fine players but they're maybe better suited to a 3 rather than a 2, definitely in the case of Welsh.  There seems to be some suggestions on here that he's the root of all evil and a bad egg in the camp. I don't know about that but I do know that whilst he's very good at breaking play up and winning back possession, he also limits the shape of the team to one that ends up sitting deeper and deeper.  If we employ him in a 3-man midfield we end up with 5 across the middle and in a traditional 4-4-2 his midfield partner ends up isolated because Welsh wants to sit just in front of the defenders to shield them.  Hessenthaler on the other hand looks to lack a little bit of positional discipline, which is perhaps harsh as it's based on him trying to do everything from supporting the attack to helping out the full-backs.  I suspect that's more a result of not having developed an understanding more than anything else.

I don't think it's ideal with Hooper and Embleton on the wings.  Embleton is fine and I think he'll cause problems wherever he plays.  Hooper put in a second half display on Saturday that merits a start in most sides in this league, yet the issue is how often can he produce that.  There's clearly something there, not getting it out on a consistent basis is why he's playing for us and arguably in last chance saloon for a professional career.  It feels a bit forced and not really natural but we do seem to have a little bit of width with these two.  It's definitely a better fit than Woolford and Clifton which was, in all honesty, horrible for the majority of the time.

Up top the pace of Vernam is massive.  He isn't just quick but he's intelligent with his runs and is quickly building a pairing with Thomas.

We've also ditched so many long balls which just ended up coming straight back to us and putting more pressure on our defence.   We don't have a target man so to try and play as if we've got one was daft.  

Key things for me; pace, balance and keeping it on the floor.  

I'm not convinced it's completely by design.  Injuries to Welsh and Cook probably forced a re-think for Jolley but in all honesty I don't care.   Dropping Woolford was a surprise as I, along with many others, saw him as Jolleys' go-to player so credit where it's due there, him not in the team allows us to have more a more energetic front six in my opinion but I'm sure he's still got a big role to play for us.  

Does a fully match fit and settled Pringle make the team instead of JJ, as the left sided attacking player?

Hmmm. Probably not.

Pringle looks to have a great cross on him from the little I've seen, but Hooper adds height, size and reasonable aerial ability into the mix.

If we can really take a firm hold of midfield, we might be able to get away with a lack of a biggish bloke up front to offer a physical presence, but I'm not convinced we are quite good enough for this at the moment.

Who knows, Hooper might even find his shooting boots after scoring at the weekend?

Quoted from diehardmariner

I think it's a combination of many things, rather than just one or two.

RHJ has brought some much needed balance and pace to the right hand side of defence.  Equally so Hendrie looks to have stepped up a level as his match fitness has improved.  First few games I thought he looked way out of his depth but he has looked outstanding last few games.  Just proves what can happen once the ring rust is shaken off.  Having two natural full-backs makes a huge difference, when you think we were deploying Davis and Famewo, two centre-backs, in those positions it makes you realise just how imbalanced we were. Both Hendrie and RHJ can and want to get forward which makes a big difference, especially when we've not got any natural wingers in the side.  

In midfield the pairing of Rose and Clifton feels a better fit.  Individually I think Welsh and Hessenthaler are fine players but they're maybe better suited to a 3 rather than a 2, definitely in the case of Welsh.  There seems to be some suggestions on here that he's the root of all evil and a bad egg in the camp. I don't know about that but I do know that whilst he's very good at breaking play up and winning back possession, he also limits the shape of the team to one that ends up sitting deeper and deeper.  If we employ him in a 3-man midfield we end up with 5 across the middle and in a traditional 4-4-2 his midfield partner ends up isolated because Welsh wants to sit just in front of the defenders to shield them.  Hessenthaler on the other hand looks to lack a little bit of positional discipline, which is perhaps harsh as it's based on him trying to do everything from supporting the attack to helping out the full-backs.  I suspect that's more a result of not having developed an understanding more than anything else.

I don't think it's ideal with Hooper and Embleton on the wings.  Embleton is fine and I think he'll cause problems wherever he plays.  Hooper put in a second half display on Saturday that merits a start in most sides in this league, yet the issue is how often can he produce that.  There's clearly something there, not getting it out on a consistent basis is why he's playing for us and arguably in last chance saloon for a professional career.  It feels a bit forced and not really natural but we do seem to have a little bit of width with these two.  It's definitely a better fit than Woolford and Clifton which was, in all honesty, horrible for the majority of the time.

Up top the pace of Vernam is massive.  He isn't just quick but he's intelligent with his runs and is quickly building a pairing with Thomas.

We've also ditched so many long balls which just ended up coming straight back to us and putting more pressure on our defence.   We don't have a target man so to try and play as if we've got one was daft.  

Key things for me; pace, balance and keeping it on the floor.  

I'm not convinced it's completely by design.  Injuries to Welsh and Cook probably forced a re-think for Jolley but in all honesty I don't care.   Dropping Woolford was a surprise as I, along with many others, saw him as Jolleys' go-to player so credit where it's due there, him not in the team allows us to have more a more energetic front six in my opinion but I'm sure he's still got a big role to play for us.  

I think you have highlighted several points about players which demonstrates we have several " strongest teams" depending on which format we choose to play. Up to now , this season, due to injuries and suspensions we have been forced to play some players in not their  "recognised " roles. Now we are over most of these problems MJ can pick " horses for courses " and also change things around during a game if he needs to.