Have we improved the playing positions...?

Discussing with a friend last night, and based on the first quarter of the season, does it look like we've improved the playing positions?
This is my opinion only and theres a long way to go, but just looking at peoples thoughts in the first few games.

Eastwood for Crocombe - No
In my opinion this is tight, but personally I would just take Crocombe over Eastwood.
Despite his kicking, I feel Crocombe was a better shot stopper, more comanding in the box and communicated better.
He's started 9 of Burtons games in the league above, so shows their manager rates him aswell.

Mullarkey for Efete - Only Just
People won't like this, but defensivley Mullarkey is not much better than Efete. Its apparaent by the amount of times players have got round the back of him.
I think he is just a little bit better in an attacking sense, however Efete used to get some unfair critisism and in my opinion theirs not much between them.

Rodgers for Andy Smith - No.
Tight one this, but i think we have to remember than Andy Smith is still very young and is learning his trade.
He recieved some unfair critisism last seson when he had a few poor games, but he clearly had something about him (and thats proven with his improved contract at Hull).
I think honestly, people wouldn't be too concerned if we were to bring Andy back on loan and Rodgers was left out.

Conteh for Morris - Yes
Conteh has shown some potential in his first few games but he seriously needs to improve his disciplinary record.
At this rate, hes going to miss more games that he plays for us, with suspensions and internaitonal call ups.

Abo Eisa - Yes (but no real comparison)
Abo has easily brought us something else on that left hand side, but its difficult to say if hes improved us, as we never had a continuous left winger.

Rose for McAtee - Undecided
Difficult one to say as McAtee towards the end with us wasn't the same player. But that may be to do with the rumoured fall out.
He's clearly doing well with Barnsley in the league above.
Rose is good and maybe abit unfair as hes quite isolated up front but he needs to concentrate on linking up play more than throwing himself to the floor.

Wilson for Orsi - No (Slightly Unfair)
A little unfair this one, because Wilson looked sharp in the couple cameos hes had, but there has to be concerned about his fitness.
Orsi didnt get a run of games for us last season, despite putting in some good performances (mostly in the FA Cup) and its showing that with a run of games, he can find the net.

Pyke for George Lloyd - No
A little unfair on Pyke has he hasnt been given a run of games, but without a shadow, Lloyd has a far superior work rate that Pyke.
Not only that, he chipped in with a few goals, more than i think Pyke will do.
Would I take Lloyd pushing Pyke out the squad. Without a shadow of doubt I would

Fom the above, I believe we havent improved certain positions greatly, which is worrying based on our rumoured 'vastly improved budget'.
Its a long way to go, dont get me wrong and I hope that im fully proved wrong, but at the minute i dont see how this team improves on our position last year.

I'd love to see what others think.

Quoted from Corkyefes

Discussing with a friend last night, and based on the first quarter of the season, does it look like we've improved the playing positions?
This is my opinion only and theres a long way to go, but just looking at peoples thoughts in the first few games.

Eastwood for Crocombe - No
In my opinion this is tight, but personally I would just take Crocombe over Eastwood.
Despite his kicking, I feel Crocombe was a better shot stopper, more comanding in the box and communicated better.
He's started 9 of Burtons games in the league above, so shows their manager rates him aswell.

Mullarkey for Efete - Only Just
People won't like this, but defensivley Mullarkey is not much better than Efete. Its apparaent by the amount of times players have got round the back of him.
I think he is just a little bit better in an attacking sense, however Efete used to get some unfair critisism and in my opinion theirs not much between them.

Rodgers for Andy Smith - No.
Tight one this, but i think we have to remember than Andy Smith is still very young and is learning his trade.
He recieved some unfair critisism last seson when he had a few poor games, but he clearly had something about him (and thats proven with his improved contract at Hull).
I think honestly, people wouldn't be too concerned if we were to bring Andy back on loan and Rodgers was left out.

Conteh for Morris - Yes
Conteh has shown some potential in his first few games but he seriously needs to improve his disciplinary record.
At this rate, hes going to miss more games that he plays for us, with suspensions and internaitonal call ups.

Abo Eisa - Yes (but no real comparison)
Abo has easily brought us something else on that left hand side, but its difficult to say if hes improved us, as we never had a continuous left winger.

Rose for McAtee - Undecided
Difficult one to say as McAtee towards the end with us wasn't the same player. But that may be to do with the rumoured fall out.
He's clearly doing well with Barnsley in the league above.
Rose is good and maybe abit unfair as hes quite isolated up front but he needs to concentrate on linking up play more than throwing himself to the floor.

Wilson for Orsi - No (Slightly Unfair)
A little unfair this one, because Wilson looked sharp in the couple cameos hes had, but there has to be concerned about his fitness.
Orsi didnt get a run of games for us last season, despite putting in some good performances (mostly in the FA Cup) and its showing that with a run of games, he can find the net.

Pyke for George Lloyd - No
A little unfair on Pyke has he hasnt been given a run of games, but without a shadow, Lloyd has a far superior work rate that Pyke.
Not only that, he chipped in with a few goals, more than i think Pyke will do.
Would I take Lloyd pushing Pyke out the squad. Without a shadow of doubt I would

Fom the above, I believe we havent improved certain positions greatly, which is worrying based on our rumoured 'vastly improved budget'.
Its a long way to go, dont get me wrong and I hope that im fully proved wrong, but at the minute i dont see how this team improves on our position last year.

I'd love to see what others think.

Sounds about right to me  FWIW

We don't have a choice on Smith, McAtee, Lloyd. They aren't our players. Can get a begging bowl out, but I think it's against the law to knock out their chairman and use their hand to sign the loan agreement.

We lost Lloyd, and McAtee. We brought in Rose and Wilson for them.

We let Taylor and Orsi go and brought in Pyke.

We brought in Rodgers as we had a Smith shaped hole to fill.

We let Wearne go and brought in Eisa.

Morris out, Conteh in.

Emmanuel left and we brought in Mullarkey.

The decisions we had was to allow Crocombe be a guaranteed starter and hope he signs whebever we choose or make a decision in time to replace.

So technically, Morris, Orsi, Wearne were the choices we really had.

Pyke vs Orsi, and Wilson vs Taylor are fair comparisons. Wilson, hands down. Orsi, I don't know yet. I'll let it play out. Hurst doesn't play folk if you don't train well. Orsi did good stuff and then disappeared. Hurst says he was lovely, so we can only assume something wasn't quite right in training. I personally think Pyke will come good. He just needed some time and was thrown in the fire too quick when retraining  back to striker.

I personally think the decisions Hurst was spot on.

My doubt was Mullarkey being our forth choice CB, and not having a player who can play up front as a forth choice if we get injuries. Which has kicked our bottom a bit.

I don’t think max and jake is tight at all, max was far better

Quoted from denni266

Sounds about right to me  FWIW

I don’t think it really matters about a player’s individual merits, it’s surely more important that they gel as a team, isn’t it? I notice Stephen Wearne mentioned as a comparison for example. He only played 10 times for us, mostly in the Trophy so I’m not sure we saw enough of him to express an opinion.

Quoted from Neilo83

I don’t think max and jake is tight at all, max was far better

I agree with that. I think our goalkeeping recruitment has been very poor if Cartwright can't get a look in either.

Quoted from AncientExiledMariner

We don't have a choice on Smith, McAtee, Lloyd. They aren't our players. Can get a begging bowl out, but I think it's against the law to knock out their chairman and use their hand to sign the loan agreement.

We lost Lloyd, and McAtee. We brought in Rose and Wilson for them.

We let Taylor and Orsi go and brought in Pyke.

We brought in Rodgers as we had a Smith shaped hole to fill.

We let Wearne go and brought in Eisa.

Morris out, Conteh in.

Emmanuel left and we brought in Mullarkey.

The decisions we had was to allow Crocombe be a guaranteed starter and hope he signs whebever we choose or make a decision in time to replace.

So technically, Morris, Orsi, Wearne were the choices we really had.

Pyke vs Orsi, and Wilson vs Taylor are fair comparisons. Wilson, hands down. Orsi, I don't know yet. I'll let it play out. Hurst doesn't play folk if you don't train well. Orsi did good stuff and then disappeared. Hurst says he was lovely, so we can only assume something wasn't quite right in training. I personally think Pyke will come good. He just needed some time and was thrown in the fire too quick when retraining  back to striker.

I personally think the decisions Hurst was spot on.

My doubt was Mullarkey being our forth choice CB, and not having a player who can play up front as a forth choice if we get injuries. Which has kicked our bottom a bit.

I don't think the original post was criticising PH for losing those players, it was just a comparison of our squad last season to this, so comparing what Hurst brought in to replace the ones that left

Whether players left after loan deals or were moved on by our own choices is irrelevant really. What's important is how we've replaced players. How we're evolving and developing as a squad. Because if we're not improving our squad with recruitment we're not progressing and will either stand still or drop behind in our L2 standing.

I think everyone accepts that no manager ever gets a 100% success rate with signings. At any level. But there needs to be a general upward trend with it, particularly when expectations are raised with increased budgets and fees paid out for players etc.

As a side note, I wouldn't compare McAtee to anyone we have in our squad. Unless Ainley is going to be a no.10, I don't think anyone else plays that particular role in the team, so it's difficult to try and compare Rose or any other forward to McAtee and judge them on that.

Think a more telling/accurate comparison could be made between some of the players who were retained & how they’ve done this season:

Glennon - miles off it. Was one of the standouts at the start of last season but had been limited to 3 league appearances this season, being pulled after 30 mins at Notts County then arguably at fault for 2 against Crawley.

Waterfall - was a real leader at the centre of defence last year & carried on his great form from the conference. This year looking out of place in a disjointed & unsettled defence.

Maher - much better when he’s played, game plan seems to suit him in possession and been strong defensively. Missing him through injuries though, limited to just 6 league appearances.

Efete - done well & showed versatility slotting in on the left, but think we’re all still waiting for him to really kick on. Think he’s a 7/10 most weeks and hasn’t really been at fault for anything so far this year.

Holohan - a bit hit & miss but think he’s done well at times, benefits from having a holding midfielder sat behind him. Not sure he’ll match the 51 appearances he made last year.

Clifton - was probably playing well above his level last year at times and hasn’t really come close to those heights this year.

Khan - again impact limited through injury, playing just 5 times so far, but seems less impactful and not as direct as he was last season. Had always been in & out of games, but seems to lack the bit of dynamism he had last year at times.

Hunt - consistently inconsistent, would be a major shame if he lets this season pass him by.


So in all of that lot, there’s only really Maher who’s improved on last season whereas 3 or 4 who were really key players last season have gone backwards.

Lloyd was only brought in on loan in January so he can't be used as a comparison to our season starting team now.

Pyke replaced Orsi and is definitely worse so far

Wow ..To be honest  an interesting  thread !!
"A BIG IF!" = IF fans bought players/ voted on who they wanted.
Then there would be no moaning etc..Coz we bought / brought them in.
It would be a different  team
Lets enjoy the rest of the season Who knows what January coul bring in - send on their way
UTM 2023-24