Streaks

Prior to today, Michael Jolley had taken charge of 53 league matches. Remarkably, 50 of those have fallen within sequences of three or more games either unbeaten or without a win. If we'd have not lost to Forest Green on the opening day and avoided defeat to Cheltenham back in December then literally every game of Jolley's tenure would have fallen under such a sequence.

Given we're talking about more than a season's worth of matches here, it's hard to feel that there's nothing in that. When we're good we're good; when were bad we're bad.

One potential theory is the extremity of age distribution across the squad. The bulk of it is made up of players aged 24 or under and 32 and over - there's not a great deal in between - outside of the back 5 I think there's only Cook and Hessenthaler that fit the bill. Do we have a core of younger, mentally fragile players playing alongside a handful of old timers struggling to keep up with the rigours of League Two football, week-in, week-out?

Maybe that's an oversimplification, I don't know, but we have to crack this if we're to avoid this cycle of ups and downs. My gut tells me there's the makings of a decent side here for next season, but we simply have to do it more often if we're going to have any sniff of success.

refusing to see the obvious faults in and stubbornly sticking to a system that doesnt work at various stages hasnt helped IMO.....today we looked positive, on the front foot and very energetic and the players looked naturally at ease with their roles....the result was a fully deserved 3 points and very little opportunity for the opposition....1 decent shot i think they managed in 90 mins.

The inconsistency in my eyes has come from the constant chopping and changing with both his starting eleven and his formations.  It must be over half the season we've played some sort of system that has required wingers.  Be that 4-5-1 or 4-4-2, even 4-2-3-1.  To my memory the only real wingers we've had on our books are Ben Pringle and Max Wright.  Pringle took forever to be involved and even then wasn't what you would call your traditional white on his boots type of winger, not someone who would stretch the play.  Wright hasn't featured at all in the league having spent most the season out on loan.  

The other half of the season we've played 3-5-2 despite having no wingbacks.  Down the left we've had (at various stages) Fox, Dixon and Ring.  None of whom are wingbacks.  On the right, Hendrie and RHJ.  The right hand side is a better balance than the left but I don't see either as wingbacks, more fullbacks who can push forward.  There's a significant difference between the two positions.

So we have an issue where our system is forever changing so the players can't get any rhythm going and even if they do, we don't have the right players to play the systems deployed.  A big part of that has to be pinpointed at poor recruitment I'm afraid.  On an individual basis I think Jolley has done ok actually.  There's not too many signings he's made that I would say are poor.  Welsh was a disappointment and at the minute the jury is still out on Ring.  I suppose Robles was a gamble that didn't come off but I don't imagine he was an expensive one.   But the balance has been dreadful all season.  No width, no creativity and no physical presence up front.    I don't imagine it's easy to bring in quality players at this level, especially with our constraints but there does feel a bit of a scattergun approach to the way Jolley has recruited at times.

Yesterday was a good, battling and determined performance.  We rode our luck a bit but it was a good win.  But even in the win Jolley still had to tinker about.  Luke Hendrie in midfield...eh?  Mattie Pollock coming on late on to play in that role...again, eh?  7 minutes of injury time with absolutely no outlet up front at all, despite having a young striker on the bench.

Our best spell of the season, in my eyes, came before Xmas when we had some consistency in selection and formation.  It was the 3 of Pringle, Vernam and Embleton behind the lone striker of Thomas.  It wasn't a perfect system and it definitely had flaws.  But it maximised what we had to offer.  We then seemed to just curtail it as soon as we brought the two Swedish lads in just to go with a wingback system we were never equipped to deliver on.

Jolley is still learning, I get that.  But he needs to start remembering some of the lessons.

Not specifically referring to comments on this thread but I think some try to over elaborate our problems.

For me there are two main problems, some of the players are just not good enough and I know for a fact that MJ has realised this and we haven't got any decent wide players (I can't really comment on Wright as apart from seeing him in friendlies I don't know if he has got what it takes to play League 2 football)