Hurst the tinkerman.

Quoted from Yoda

Was 4 wins at home last season.?

4 wins at home and we still managed to finish higher than we have in years. You'd think the way some people talk we went from challenging for the league championship every year to this when Hurst took over. Got us promoted from the NL at the first time of asking, led us to our highest league finish in how many years? Some people still deluding themselves into thinking we should be in the championship because we were like 25 years ago. Need to change the bar you measure things against with reality for once and not things that happened decades ago. As soon as we win a game most of these people who only post when we lose will vanish and the regulars will overreact positively instead of negative.

I felt setting up with 2 central midfielders at Notts County was extremely naive.

I thought he’d sacrifice the number 10 and move Clifton into a midfielder 3 anchored by Conteh with Hunt the other side.

Conteh looked his best in the final 20 minutes when he was central in front of the back 4 and could dictate play more.

By attempting to play 4-2-3-1 we ended up with the 2 wingers being constantly pinned back by their wing back play and it became a 4-4-1-1.

If you sacrifice the number 10, the extra man in midfielder allows the 2 wingers the opportunity to play 5 to 10 metres further forward where they can be more of a threat and force the wing-backs to do more defending.

As a result of the system Clifton on the left wing fell into the trap where he was ineffective going forward whilst simultaneously offering little to no protection to Glennon/Efete.

And to compound the midfield overload the understanding between Waterfall & Rodgers was non existent.

Last week with Rodgers and Maher we held a good high line throughout. Yesterday Waterfall constantly dropped 5 metres beyond the starting line of defence whilst the other 3 held the higher line. This allowed Nemane the opportunity to cause havoc down our left side as he could go beyond Glennon/Efete before the pass and know he’ll be onside. It just made it easy for him.

We need 4 or 5 additions and 2 or 3 need to be moved on ASAP.

Another left back. Either a right back or another centre back depending your opinion of Mullarkey’s capabilities as a modern L2 full back. Another central midfielder. And another winger- hopefully with a goal threat.

Amos and Holohan should be top of the list of players told their game time will be limited and they can leave if they can find another club.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Another left back. Either a right back or another centre back depending your opinion of Mullarkey’s capabilities as a modern L2 full back. Another central midfielder. And another winger- hopefully with a goal threat.

This isn’t aimed at you. You make some very good points.

However, you have to chuckle, that it was only a couple of weeks ago that Glennon and Clifton were both mentioned on here as the best LB/midfielder outside of the Championship and Mullarkey as the greatest undiscovered talent since Susan Boyle.

The reality lies somewhere in between.

Like shågging in a brothel, Glennon needs protection. When Clifton provided that last season (Brighton etc), Glennon looked a better player.

I must admit, I had hoped and expected that with a full pre-season and with Hurst’s full-back knowledge, we might see a sharper, fitter, defensively savvy, Glennon this season. We still might but it’s not looking good so far.

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

This isn’t aimed at you. You make some very good points.

However, you have to chuckle, that it was only a couple of weeks ago that Glennon and Clifton were both mentioned on here as the best LB/midfielder outside of the Championship and Mullarkey as the greatest undiscovered talent since Susan Boyle.

The reality lies somewhere in between.

Like shågging in a brothel, Glennon needs protection. When Clifton provided that last season (Brighton etc), Glennon looked a better player.

I must admit, I had hoped and expected that with a full pre-season and with Hurst’s full-back knowledge, we might see a sharper, fitter, defensively savvy, Glennon this season. We still might but it’s not looking good so far.

My suggestion that we need a new LB is more to do with it being obvious that Amos has no future at the club and in effect we only have 1 at the club at present.

Glennon is clearly an excellent footballer who is left constantly exposed in our current system.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

My suggestion that we need a new LB is more to do with it being obvious that Amos has no future at the club and in effect we only have 1 at the club at present.

Glennon is clearly an excellent footballer who is left constantly exposed in our current system.

Glennon is paid to defend he couldn’t manage that yesterday it was almost a man against a boy it was that one sided. Perhaps he won’t face another winger like that again all season but I suspect he will , just having a decent delivery from a dead ball situation isn’t good enough.

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

Glennon is paid to defend he couldn’t manage that yesterday it was almost a man against a boy it was that one sided. Perhaps he won’t face another winger like that again all season but I suspect he will , just having a decent delivery from a dead ball situation isn’t good enough.

Folarin and Odoh at Harrogate for starters!  Folarin burned past Amos as if he wasn't there last year.

Quoted from Yoda

Hurst will tinker is to death
Let’s face it he’s good with a small squad on a tight budget , give him money he is useless.
Bought in loads of players on long term deals still doesn’t know his best eleven.
Thank god i never bought a season ticket.
Lower mid table at best.

I'm glad you didn't get a season ticket as well! The thought of you sitting next to me and spending 90 minutes berating PH would make me lose the will to live.

Quoted from dapperz fun pub

Glennon is paid to defend he couldn’t manage that yesterday it was almost a man against a boy it was that one sided. Perhaps he won’t face another winger like that again all season but I suspect he will , just having a decent delivery from a dead ball situation isn’t good enough.

I cannot understood why people continue to rate Glennon.  He has never been able to defend has no positional sense and looks lethargic. The decent crosses he put in his first loan spell have also virtually dissappeared..

FFS

Quoted from chaos33

Yup. Correct. Some people seem relaxed about making themselves look silly via a blend of overreaction, entitlement, selective memory and topped with the cherry of seemingly not really understanding the nuances of professional football.

We’re all disappointed. Truth. We’re probably all a bit concerned about one or two things. 1 point from the first two games isn’t ideal. The thing is, I think, to not allow yourself to extrapolate that to extreme reaches and then spaff a load of nonsense on the internet that disregards all that and makes you look like you’ve been watching football about ten minutes and that reality is a f@cking big surprise to you.

I was concerned yesterday.

The Wimbledon game was a game with not much in it. I thought we should have just edged it but in the end could have lost it with the penalty.

Yesterday even though we twice took the lead I thought generally it was against the run of play. I thought they looked a decent side who play possession football without always looking threatening (but they scored 3 times).

The main concerns for me are the gaps between players and departments. Rose looks isolated as Vernam and Eisa are not close enough to him. Rose is a nuisance but you have to hunt in packs. There seemed to be little continuity between the midfield and attackers and it seemed to be played all on the hoof and positionally we were all over the place at times.

I thought Waterfall looked very rusty and had no rhythm which in fairness is to be expected. It’s not often you can question his commitment but allowing the cross and dangling a foot half heartedly summed up the game. In mitigation he was left exposed when Mullarkey stepped into midfield.

However, individually I think the players we have recruited look better than what we had and all my concerns can be altered with game time and training. It’s virtually a new team and I don’t expect it to happen instantly. If I’m seeing the same 10 games in then perhaps I’ll change my view but in the mean time I’m going to be old fashioned and give the lads some time instead of losing the plot after 2 (two!!!!!!) league games.