Observations for consideration

Can i just say that the biggest problem is the Midfield is pretty much gash!
Sorry but its lacking wide players and most of what we have is not good enough at present.


Mid Centre
Hess is a good average L2 player
Whitehouse, not saying he cant have his good days but so far he has been pretty gash.
Clifton has gone backwards under Jolley, hope its a blip but its a lasting blip and with him being local i hold hope but it is disappearing ral fast.
Robson is not ours and not playing enough to make a great judgement on.
Cook - hard to tell where he is best played and is very much a utility man, not great anywhere but can fill a gap.
Wideplayers
Max Wright - great prospect and proving to be upto the job
Vernum - is he a winger or striker? is he good enough or too much mr inconsistent?
Akheem - not a winger by  a long way but can do a very limited job.


So thats it for me, we have centre mid with 1 player that i rate and 1 wide player. here lays the problem for me.

I actually think the team in other areas is pretty solid. Defence is decent and up front is the healthiest its been for years.

How can Clifton have gone backwards under Jolley when he only made his first start about a week and a half before he took over?

Quoted from monkeyboy

Can i just say that the biggest problem is the Midfield is pretty much gash!
Sorry but its lacking wide players and most of what we have is not good enough at present.


Mid Centre
Hess is a good average L2 player
Whitehouse, not saying he cant have his good days but so far he has been pretty gash.
Clifton has gone backwards under Jolley, hope its a blip but its a lasting blip and with him being local i hold hope but it is disappearing ral fast.
Robson is not ours and not playing enough to make a great judgement on.
Cook - hard to tell where he is best played and is very much a utility man, not great anywhere but can fill a gap.
Wideplayers
Max Wright - great prospect and proving to be upto the job
Vernum - is he a winger or striker? is he good enough or too much mr inconsistent?
Akheem - not a winger by  a long way but can do a very limited job.


So thats it for me, we have centre mid with 1 player that i rate and 1 wide player. here lays the problem for me.

I actually think the team in other areas is pretty solid. Defence is decent and up front is the healthiest its been for years.

Generally pretty poignant points monkeyboy, but to say Hess is a good average lg 2 player is off the mark imo, he has been consistently our best player since his arrival and I'm sure he could slot into most lg 1 as a defensive midfielder and does an excellent job fur us sitting in front of the defence and probably has something to do with why we are generally quite resilient in defence.
Clifton seems to have struggled this season so far, no idea why tbh, but he starred to come on leaps and bounds last season, so to say he's gone backwards under Jolley is wrong, if anything Jolley was bringing him on a treat.
Vernham, he frustrates me, there's definitely a player in there but he's lost his way, either the shin splints have knocked his confidence or they are worse then we are lead to believe.
As for Cook, he's a jack of all trades but a master of none, the one thing he brings to the team though is immense energy and passion, he runs the ball down well, charges at defenders and give the opponent's no time on the ball, best suited working in a 4-3-3 formation.
Whitehouse?...again I'm not sure how much the knee injury has taken out of him but so far there's been glimpses of something of quality but overall the jury is out with me
Wright- destined for playing higher up the lg pyramid but then again, I says that about Jack Macreth and git that catastrophically wrong!!  

Quoted from KingstonMariner

If we’d picked the same team and tactics against a team who sat back against us at BP, we’d end up with a stalemate.

But I was suggesting the same team...I'd certainly suggest different tactics at home (against anyone).

You don't necessarily need to change the personnel to play a different style IF the players can adapt. Winning sides adapt, they have to
- the opposition will soon suss you out if you only have a plan A - and my point is that the XI who played Exeter could/should have earned
themselves at least another 90 minutes and...perhaps...show themselves to be potential serial winners who can adapt.
We don't know that yet.
It would be worth knowing IMO.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

It helps the self belief fetish if in your examples you start with in the first case the offspring of the rich and influential and in the second people who have good physical and mental properties. The selection process in both cases weeds out those unlikely to succeed.

I can't see how this bolsters your argument.

Two institutions who, as you correctly point out, already have an intake of individuals more likely to succeed....both of whom stress the importance of self-belief
in order to achieve that success.

Which is what I was saying about Town.

Quoted from cod_head_doug

Thanks for your views everyone, I also have a conspiracy theory..................
To become a manager or coach nowadays you have to do your badges through the F.A.
Everyone is trained the same way and given the same ideas.
I have noticed that every away team warm up in the same way with the same routines.
The flair and radically new "out of the box" thinking is being stiffled.
The sport of football has changed so much in my lifetime that it is barely recognisable as the same game.
And don't get me going on V.A.R. and players feigning injury !!!!

I can most definitely say that this isn't the case.

Coaching courses don't tell people how to set teams up at all. They develop coaches in the way they coach and develop players (and teams).

The way Managers/Coaches set their teams up to play is down to personal preference or them just adapting to the squad they have at that particular club.

So the way teams set up to defend set pieces, the way teams set up tactically in general, and the line-ups managers choose, is all down to the Managers personal preference, probably underpinned by their ideal philosophy. So while it often is different to what we, as fans, would do or who we would pick in this position or that position, I think there has to be an element of "you can't please all of the people, all of the time" to this sort of thing.