are we better than last season ?

Quoted from mariner91

It’s spectacularly poor planning because we’ve played 8 league games already and we’re yet to have 2 fully fit strikers available. Injuries are bad luck and happen but if you only have three to start with then you’re always only two injuries/illness/suspension away from the bare bones. Furthermore both Wilson and Pyke were injured relatively early in pre-season so this wasn’t a situation forced upon Hurst with little time to plan and rectify it. I accept that he’ll have been trying to get people in but when you’re struggling for numbers and as toothless as we are at times I’d expect something in at least even if it’s only third or fourth choice. He’s had three windows since promotion but our attacking options in the play-off final were significantly better both in quality and quantity than at any time since then. That is not good management.

If we lose our first 2 CB's we have Waterfall and who? If we lose our first two goalkeepers, what do we have? If we lose Conte and Clifton, who have we got defensively? If we lose 2 rb's or 2 lb's what option do we have? 2 wingers? What do we have?

Ultimately, you're constrained by budget, and you cannot have too much quality as a third choice. Budget wise, we're probably already hit it. When everyone's fit, having great players outside the squad isn't a good thing.

Wilson was injured, but due back around now. Pyke was fit to deputise. Unfortunately we lost Rose for Saturday, which was a real kick in the balls. With Eisa gone too, it could not have been any more painful from an attacking sense.

When we have Khan battling Eisa and Gnahoua, and Wilson battling Rose for a place, and those players making an impact off the bench, this could be quite a different picture.

But looking into it. I'd say we have improvements in:


Morris -> Conte
Smith -> Rodgers
Cropper -> Mullarkey
Wearne -> Gnahoa
Taylor -> Wilson
Crocombe -> Eastwood
Ollie -> Cartwright

Out of our hands, but looking alright:

McAtee (last seasons on loan McAtee, that is) -> Eisa
Lloyd -> Rose
Scannell -> Vernam

Jury is still out on:

Orsi -> Pyke

Just going on defence smith a rolls royce if compared to maher same as rodgers to waterfall , is mullarkey better than michee ? left back continues to be an issue max or jake jury out on that as well at moment

Quoted from mariner91

It’s spectacularly poor planning because we’ve played 8 league games already and we’re yet to have 2 fully fit strikers available. Injuries are bad luck and happen but if you only have three to start with then you’re always only two injuries/illness/suspension away from the bare bones. Furthermore both Wilson and Pyke were injured relatively early in pre-season so this wasn’t a situation forced upon Hurst with little time to plan and rectify it. I accept that he’ll have been trying to get people in but when you’re struggling for numbers and as toothless as we are at times I’d expect something in at least even if it’s only third or fourth choice. He’s had three windows since promotion but our attacking options in the play-off final were significantly better both in quality and quantity than at any time since then. That is not good management.

I would suggest that not getting the strikers he wanted is just bad luck.

Quoted from fishcake63

Just going on defence smith a rolls royce if compared to maher same as rodgers to waterfall , is mullarkey better than michee ? left back continues to be an issue max or jake jury out on that as well at moment

Smith left, Rodgers came in.

You cannot compare Maher to Smith as he was here last season so isn't technically a replacement. Technical Rodgers replaced Smith. Maher displaced Waterfall.

Secondly, Smith is not our player. He is contracted to a bigger club, in a bigger league with a bigger budget. We have to ask if we loan a player off them. If Hurst loaned Smith twice, it's unlikely, he wouldn't want to do that again unless there was good reasons (budget or availability).

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Do you know I'm not sure we are better. I can't imagine this team reaching the heights of last, think about how we played in the cup, and despite not being exhilarating in the league we still had a very respectable league position.

My gut feeling is that Hurst himself isn't too impressed either - so many times he talks about what he expects the players to do but they are seemingly not doing it. Yesterday he highlighted the quality of the crosses and lack of bodies in the box and not long ago mentioned the January window so I think we might see more changes than we first thought then.

I do agree the league is more competitive than ever but we keep saying we are not here to make the numbers up so we will have to find a way to combat that.

I don't think any Grimsby Town team within the next 50 years is likely to do that again. What happened last year was against the odds, which made it more special but you could have several improvements year on year and I don't think we could repeat that feat of knocking out 5 teams in higher divisions in a row. We'll also have to wait until the end of the season to compare league finishes. Even then I don't think that's always the ideal barometer of improvement. Conceding less and scoring more would be improvement, but can be skewed by improvements elsewhere in the league, the same can be said for more points. We may score more points, more goals, fewer conceded and still finish a couple of places below if the quality of the league has improved.

I agree on the Hurst front, but he's never fully impressed and rightly so. The original question was 'are we better than last season?', PH will be asking after every game whether we can be better still. He will constantly be looking for players who he believes are better than what we have already. It's his job to constantly want more and even if we were top and he could sit back and say 'I've done a good job here', that wouldn't be enough and that's how it should be.

Quoted from moosey_club

We have 5 less points than this time last season
We have scored less goals than this time last season (8 v 10)
We have conceded more goals (5 v 8 )
We have won less games than this time last season (2 v 4)

If we are better it isn't very apparent is it ?

Last season, apart from the first 2 games, we had a much easier start.  

1st L Orient 0-2
3rd D Northampton 1-1
24th W Rochdale 1-0
14th D Sutton 0-0
16th W Walsall 1-0
15th W Newport 2-0
17th D Gills 1-1
20th W Colchester 1-0

Quoted from bedders78

Last season, apart from the first 2 games, we had a much easier start.  

1st L Orient 0-2
3rd D Northampton 1-1
24th W Rochdale 1-0
14th D Sutton 0-0
16th W Walsall 1-0
15th W Newport 2-0
17th D Gills 1-1
20th W Colchester 1-0

On paper maybe, but Salford and Gillingham were shocking, Walsall and Wimbledon average when we played them and Wrexham have (had) a shocking defence. Bradford down to the bare bones and have had a poor start.

We were also supposed to have a better team this season, and still might with a fully fit squad but injuries being such an integral part of the game I don't put much store on that.

I don't see any easy games on the horizon so we might be in for a bumpy few weeks until the team gels, if it does.

“Gillingham were shocking”. They’re top of the table ffs, they can’t be that bad. Maybe, just maybe, we made them look bad that day?

Which I think highlights the issues with the team this year. Fully fit and firing, this team is better. But I don’t think the strength in depth has improved really. If we’re missing key individuals or those key individuals have an off day, the rest of the squad isn’t good enough to carry them.

For me there’s no doubt we’re better than last season man for man.

Eastwood
Mullarkey
Rodgers
Conteh
Eisa
Rose

All undoubtedly better than what we had in those positions previously. Are we playing better though? It’s hard to tell given the very tough start we’ve been handed but I feel last years squad may have lost some of those draws.

What does concern me though is the way we play hasn’t improved one single bit, it’s pretty much exactly the same. It’s laboured & toothless in the most part. Either the players aren’t doing what Hurst is asking (which he seems to allude to) or Hursts tactics just aren’t working. I think it’s a mix between the two, the players need to take some responsibility but at the same time our record from winning positions is dreadful & that part for me falls solely on the managers in game tactics.

I’m still excited about the season, but we’ve got to kick on now.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

On paper maybe, but Salford and Gillingham were shocking, Walsall and Wimbledon average when we played them and Wrexham have (had) a shocking defence. Bradford down to the bare bones and have had a poor start.

We were also supposed to have a better team this season, and still might with a fully fit squad but injuries being such an integral part of the game I don't put much store on that.

I don't see any easy games on the horizon so we might be in for a bumpy few weeks until the team gels, if it does.

In the next couple of months we play nearly all of the current bottom six who have lost 30 games + between them already and have only won  about 6  , I struggle to see how we have not got easier games and with our start would hope we go on a decent run .