If Michael Jolley was to leave..

I passed my driving test and got a licence long before I got a car and when I did I'm sure I was a bloody awful driver for some considerable time

Quoted from 123614

And you would know better than a man who is one of only 16 Managers in the UK who holds the UEFA Pro Licence, the highest-level managerial qualification in association football in Europe.  I doubt very much that he need any advice from you.

I wonder why we have not seen much if any tactical nous then? Seems a bit odd that a man so highly qualified cannot seem to get attacking players in the box, have a non-competitive midfield lacking in creativity, and very few chances created for the strikers.

Budget no doubt comes in to it, because we don't get the better players, but these players, on paper at least are better than last years so why isn't he getting better performances?

Quoted from Ipswin

I passed my driving test and got a licence long before I got a car and when I did I'm sure I was a bloody awful driver for some considerable time

But I bet you thought you was Stirling Moss??......

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

But I bet you thought you was Stirling Moss??......

Many many times (still do occasionally!)

After the Exeter game (and on other occasions) posters on here have been saying how great we are.  Now we are terrible.  Jolley is the first to say that neither extreme is true.

In the squad we have 5 types of player.

1. Solid players who have been around for years - Macca!

2. Young players that MJ is bringing through into the first team in a careful way but avoiding playing them too much too soon.  In this respect Jolley is being very sensible even if it annoys some fans when Pollock or Wright etc don’t play every week.  We have more young, local, exciting players than we have had for years and that has to be a good thing but it takes time and players dip in and out of form and favor, but with Pollock, Wright, Rose and maybe Clifton and Vernam we have the foundation for a team of the future.  And more to come with Buckley, Burrell etc.

3. Players brought in by MJ who have become stalwarts if the team - Hendrie, Hessenthaler, Ohman - who will play nearly every game If fit.

4. Players brought in previously by MJ who haven’t worked out - not many of these but maybe Ring is in that category now.  There will always be some of these but I’d say MJ has done ok in this respect.

5. Players who are new this season.  Most have impressed on some occasions and some more than others.  It will take time for them to fit in and for MJ to learn how to get the best out of them.  However with the budget he probably has, he seems to have done an ok job.

Overall, I think MJ is managing well in each of these groups.  Tactically he has had some success and some failures and probably on some days the players haven’t performed how he wanted.  We’ve have some good luck and some bad luck.  In particular, losing Wright and Robson to injury has been unfortunate.  

We are mid table and I think most people said at the start that top half with a chance of the play offs was what they hoped for this year, and that is where we have been for 90% of this season so far.

Let’s try and be a bit more proportionate!

Does the manager make the best use of his playing resources?  I would say “no” for quite a few matches.  Does Jolley learn from his mistakes?  Again, sometimes not.

These are key issues that can be improved.  

Big question for me remains what is MJ’s preferred style of play?

Most teams have an identity and recruit the appropriate players to deliver that approach with back up players who can a) continue to deliver that style when teammates are injured, suspended and/or out of form plus the odd player who allows for Plan B where required.

After 18 months I really don’t know what MJ is trying to achieve on the pitch other than the obvious of winning games. We rarely, if ever, dominate home games and very rarely have periods of extended pressure on the opposition and struggle to maintain possession.

Those first home games appeared we were getting an increased number of crosses in the box and getting additional players in and around the penalty area to try and capitalise on this approach, however, that lasted about three or four games and has been replaced by a non-existent style of play which has been pretty average and frankly boring to watch.

Accept losing Robson & Wright May have hampered things but when he was planning his season did he have these two as key elements of his preferred style? I would suggest not but he would not be the first manager to stumble upon his best eleven.

Nucleus of players is there with two or three additional signings an opportunity to move further forward but to do so I would suggest MJ needs to get a playing style and commit to it.

What is Cheltenham’s budget this year? In his GT interview Jolley praises Duff for their progress from virtually bottom to virtually top in a year. If Duff can do it, why can’t Jolley?

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

What is Cheltenham’s budget this year? In his GT interview Jolley praises Duff for their progress from virtually bottom to virtually top in a year. If Duff can do it, why can’t Jolley?

Maybe because Jolley is a Duff???🤔🤔

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Big question for me remains what is MJ’s preferred style of play?

Most teams have an identity and recruit the appropriate players to deliver that approach with back up players who can a) continue to deliver that style when teammates are injured, suspended and/or out of form plus the odd player who allows for Plan B where required.

After 18 months I really don’t know what MJ is trying to achieve on the pitch other than the obvious of winning games. We rarely, if ever, dominate home games and very rarely have periods of extended pressure on the opposition and struggle to maintain possession.

Those first home games appeared we were getting an increased number of crosses in the box and getting additional players in and around the penalty area to try and capitalise on this approach, however, that lasted about three or four games and has been replaced by a non-existent style of play which has been pretty average and frankly boring to watch.

Accept losing Robson & Wright May have hampered things but when he was planning his season did he have these two as key elements of his preferred style? I would suggest not but he would not be the first manager to stumble upon his best eleven.

Nucleus of players is there with two or three additional signings an opportunity to move further forward but to do so I would suggest MJ needs to get a playing style and commit to it.

Without being certain I suspect that Jolley’s ideal style of play is what he said when he walked through the door, high tempo high press.

I also think that he has realised that at our level it is difficult to get the players to be able to do this and therefore he is trying to adapt from his ideal, to what he feels will work. Whether we like it or not, a more direct style of play usually (not always) is the best way of being successful without a large playing budget.

I doubt he has done this before and so is making mistakes like we all do, but I think he deserves the time to try and get it right. Not many object to direct football if we are winning games. Ideally we would all like to football the Buckley way, but lots got bored of even that style (not me by the way) so you cannot please all of the people all of the time.

We won at Exeter because we were able to play on the counter attack with quick players. That suited the opposition at the time. People were saying that those same players should have played against Mansfield, a team who were on a bad run, playing poorly and under pressure. They were never going to be all over us and attacking at every opportunity under those circumstances, they were going to try and snatch a win at all costs and we were not going to be able to get anywhere against them with a counter attacking style. I know the option he tried didn’t work, but I understand why he went back to Hansen and that style, because he thought that was the best chance of getting a win. It didn’t happen but reports indicate we shouldn’t have lost either. Then we have 2 poor games and then he does whatever he needed to do to get a result, a la Mansfield, against Cambridge, and we could of easily snatched a win but it didn’t happen.

He is probably trying to over think some games but it doesn’t look like he is stubborn and only prepared to do the same thing week in week out. Whether that will work with these players is anyone’s guess, but he is in a better position than any of us to judge that because he is with them day in day out.

Give him a break and let him get on with it for now at least.

UTFM