Bigger budget

Quoted from Zmariner

My observations, defensively, we do not look like a Hurst team at the moment. My solution, would be Effete right back and Amos at left back. Round pegs in round holes. Mullarkey has been ok but we look worse than last season. Maher and Roger  as centre backs. Midfield , Clifton reverts to left side where he was effective last season.
We are porous and so this is where I would start to plug the holes. Mullarkey poss comes in as a centre back of 5 at the back. We concede far too many. I always feel that we will concede at the moment.
I am certainly not despondent and don't expect 5 star entertainment . I am 100% with Hurst, what is different at the moment is normally I get his logic but at the moment a few strange calls. He is a good manager and will work this out. Accrington Stanley , who are they. Actually pretty good whenever I have seen them utm
Utm

on the one hand i agree Z. What happened to the 1-0 backs against the wall Hurst away win? What happened to the durability, the hard work, the diligent tracking, the determination not to concede or be beaten?
But that's exactly why PH was criticised, the defensiveness, the lack of flair etc etc.
He's try to resolve this, but it's obvious Eisa, for example, can't do a defensive job, so you sacrifice durability for his skill, creativeness, and goalscoring prowess.
The other problem is that many L2 clubs have spent as much, if not more, and we are probably still (upper?) mid table in our budget. Add into that all the added extra time which is making the goals tally significantly higher than previous seasons. As PH said our defensive record isn't that bad compared to the rest of the division, yet to my untutored eye, we are leaking goals, mainly due to poor defensive discipline, which is so un Hurst like.

God knows how we resolve this, but have to say ( as a v. big pro Hurst fan) it's looking very like  amid table team and finish

Hurst has provided a very solid defence for the last 2 seasons. For some reason this season they seem to have fallen apart and shipped in silly goals. We have excuses for players playing out of position, injuries, formations etc. All of this happened in the last 2 seasons as well but coped.

As I mentioned in other threads, and a poster above, we do not seem to have the team spirit we once had, the do or die attitude and the reputation of the 'come back kids' has dwindled into the past. To me, we need to sort out the defence and attitude of the players.

Let the players not forget it is the supporters that pay their wages and we look on them, as professional footballers, to do their very best when they cross the line, both physically and mentally.

Quoted from ginnywings

I'm finding it hard to fathom that some don't think we have improved massively up front since last season.

Last seasons top scorers, and don't forget this is for the entire season.

Clifton-7
Lloyd-5
McAtee-4
Taylor-3
Khan-3

We currently have Eisa on 5, Rose 4, Wilson 2 and Pyke 1, from a quarter of the season.

The current problems are at the back and stem from the injuries to Maher and Amos. The stats with those two in the side gulf the stats when they are missing. The whole defence becomes unbalanced, with Rodgers having to shuffle over to the left side, and Efete playing on his wrong side because Glennon has fallen off a cliff with his form.

It will be interesting to see if there is an uptick in points gained once we get a settled defence and have a less onerous set of games.

Oh there you go…being all rational, and balanced and patient and pretending things aren’t black and white and actually simple when they are. I mean, it’s not even as if you’ve watched much football over 50 years or something is it!  Stop shouting people down! Take off your rose tints you happy clapper. Something else about B Corp, a million pound budget…… blah blah….tails off…..

We are attacking better, and we are struggling defensively.

If anyone knows how to improve a defence, it'll be Hurst, and I'm sure he'll be holding players to account. The more players we have fit, the more he can exert pressure by dropping folk who aren't busting their balderdash to get a block in etc. A handful of games out of the team might turn some around, and if we can build on the 4 points in 6, the confidence will certainly grow.

I'm hoping we can get Amos and Wilson back and fit, keep Maher fit. It could help use massively.

Some very good points made here.  

I'm with ginnywings in regards I'm keen to see what we're like once the defence is settled again. The loss of Maher has been massive in my eyes, only compounded down the left flank as Rodgers has had to switch to cover and in turn he's not got an in-form/natural left-back next to him.

Maher coming back should resolve a lot of our problems, I think/hope.  But the left-back slot really remains an ongoing concern for me and I'm disappointed it wasn't resolved in the summer.  Throughout the whole of last season it was clear that Hurst didn't feel he could trust either Amos or Glennon on a consistent basis.  There's no real justification for not addressing that position and the fact that he's used Efete by choice rather than via a forced hand suggests he knows that he made an error by not addressing it (I'd add probably not through a lack of trying).

Good point from forza about Eisa in the team. Defensively he's very limited and that does leave an already exposed left hand side even more vulnerable.  Switching Eisa to the left would remove his ability to cut inside when he's most effective, we also saw in the early stages of the season that playing in a central No 10 type role doesn't really suit him.

The midfield is one I can't get my head round.  Conteh started like a train but has slowly tailed off, his recent games I think he's looked anonymous.  But ahead of him it's constant chopping and changing.  Holohan plays well but seemingly isn't in Hurst's first XI plans, Clifton still hasn't recovered his form of last season but yet we still look a lesser side without him, I really like the look of Andrews but can't work out if he's a sitter or needs to be further forward and as much as I want Hunt to succeed, I just don't think it's going to happen for him here.  There's a temptation in my mind to think that we're lacking Kieran Green's steel in midfield, but that would completely go against this early season approach of keeping possession and building out from the back.  But then again we look to have abandoned that anyway.

Once everyone is fit, or near enough everyone, in-form and we've got a bit of confidence I'm not concerned in the slightest.  Few tweaks in the January window and I think we'll be ok with a view to pushing on.  But the lack of depth worries me.  Maher's out and we're shot at the back.  Conteh's tailed off and we can't control games.  Clifton's levels drop slightly and we lack our energy.  Wilson's out and the lack of pace is painful.  Rose is inured and there's no-one to lead the line.  I've said a few times that this continuous improvement will see the best players of today become the back up of tomorrow, that's happened with the likes of Waterfall, Holohan, maybe Efete from last season struggling for game-time.  However I'm not convinced we've the strength in depth to say we've improved, not yet anyway.  With better players coming in, there's a natural evolution of our style of play.  But the back-up players seemingly can't play that way so we revert back to type.

Listening to Hurst's last few interviews I get the impression that he's disappointed with a good number of the players and without a turnaround from them, it wouldn't surprise me if we see quite a few going out in the transfer window.

Quoted from Spurn boy

It’s difficult for the defence to gel when for whatever reason we don’t have the same players playing their best positions on a regular basis, we have 2 left sided fullbacks in Amos’s and Glennon but they are overlooked and a right footed player Efete is played in that position. Hunt and Holohan don’t seem to be able to justify their  selection in midfield and I think Hurst still is unsure what his first choice starting 11 is and is definitely a more defensive thinking manager. I’m sure everything will work out fine and probably finish much higher up the league than where we are now.

Do keep up old chap.  Amos is injured and Glennon is absent due to personal reasons.

Quoted from 123614

Do keep up old chap.  Amos is injured and Glennon is absent due to personal reasons.

I do try to keep up with team news but every time I watch a Paul Hurst interview I fall asleep .😔😔

Both Amos and Glennon were on the bench against Swindon yet Efete started at left-back.  

Efete also started at left-back against Barrow with Glennon on the bench.

Hurst's hand might have been forced in the last two games but let's not kid ourselves that he's happy with either of his natural left-backs and isn't overlooking them.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Some very good points made here.  

I'm with ginnywings in regards I'm keen to see what we're like once the defence is settled again. The loss of Maher has been massive in my eyes, only compounded down the left flank as Rodgers has had to switch to cover and in turn he's not got an in-form/natural left-back next to him.

Maher coming back should resolve a lot of our problems, I think/hope.  But the left-back slot really remains an ongoing concern for me and I'm disappointed it wasn't resolved in the summer.  Throughout the whole of last season it was clear that Hurst didn't feel he could trust either Amos or Glennon on a consistent basis.  There's no real justification for not addressing that position and the fact that he's used Efete by choice rather than via a forced hand suggests he knows that he made an error by not addressing it (I'd add probably not through a lack of trying).

Good point from forza about Eisa in the team. Defensively he's very limited and that does leave an already exposed left hand side even more vulnerable.  Switching Eisa to the left would remove his ability to cut inside when he's most effective, we also saw in the early stages of the season that playing in a central No 10 type role doesn't really suit him.

The midfield is one I can't get my head round.  Conteh started like a train but has slowly tailed off, his recent games I think he's looked anonymous.  But ahead of him it's constant chopping and changing.  Holohan plays well but seemingly isn't in Hurst's first XI plans, Clifton still hasn't recovered his form of last season but yet we still look a lesser side without him, I really like the look of Andrews but can't work out if he's a sitter or needs to be further forward and as much as I want Hunt to succeed, I just don't think it's going to happen for him here.  There's a temptation in my mind to think that we're lacking Kieran Green's steel in midfield, but that would completely go against this early season approach of keeping possession and building out from the back.  But then again we look to have abandoned that anyway.

Once everyone is fit, or near enough everyone, in-form and we've got a bit of confidence I'm not concerned in the slightest.  Few tweaks in the January window and I think we'll be ok with a view to pushing on.  But the lack of depth worries me.  Maher's out and we're shot at the back.  Conteh's tailed off and we can't control games.  Clifton's levels drop slightly and we lack our energy.  Wilson's out and the lack of pace is painful.  Rose is inured and there's no-one to lead the line.  I've said a few times that this continuous improvement will see the best players of today become the back up of tomorrow, that's happened with the likes of Waterfall, Holohan, maybe Efete from last season struggling for game-time.  However I'm not convinced we've the strength in depth to say we've improved, not yet anyway.  With better players coming in, there's a natural evolution of our style of play.  But the back-up players seemingly can't play that way so we revert back to type.

Listening to Hurst's last few interviews I get the impression that he's disappointed with a good number of the players and without a turnaround from them, it wouldn't surprise me if we see quite a few going out in the transfer window.

Many sensible points but Holohan has started 11 games so I’m not sure that he’s a back up.

Well it's 10 and two of them were in cup games  

But yeah, back-up isn't perhaps the right term.  What I meant was more that Hurst probably sees him as someone we need to evolve on from.  Wasn't even in the squad for the opener, only got a handful of minutes in the second game.  After that I thought he was our best midfielder but Hurst dropped him for Swindon (7 days after he got a goal and an assist against Crawley), back in for Barrow and then out against for Tranmere.

As I've said a few times, I'm a fan of Hurst and whilst disappointed I'm definitely not screaming for him to go.  However the one big question mark that remains for me is his ability to improve squads.

For the majority of his first spell it was just a case of build a squad each season with the hope of getting out the Conference.  Of course over time we did see improvements; Tait for Magnay, Toto for Miller, Amond for LJL.  But it was very much a year-on-year project.  The summer of 2016 he was hampered by a excrement budget, that much is clear now.  But the squad, in my opinion, was weakened despite going up a level.  Arnold, Amond, Toto, Nolan, Clay and a few others all went out.  The likes of Chambers, Vernon, Boyce, Summerfield, Berrett...all downgrades on what left.  The only upgrade was Danny Andrew for Gregor Robertson.  When Hurst left we were in a decent position in the table, but I'd have fancied that the side we ended 2015/16 with would have beaten the side of 5 months later.

Summer of 2021 was a bit different as the majority of the squad were out of contract and it wasn't exactly hard to improve on Rag bottom Rovers.  

2022 - I'm not so sure.  We needed to upgrade and I think he was arguably a bit too loyal to certain players.  Taylor was one we needed to improve on and we didn't.  Did we get better than Fox?  Probably not.  I don't think we replaced Sousa, I'd have taken Sousa over Kiernan if I'm honest probably Khan as well.  

This summer it looks an improvement on paper, but it hasn't clicked yet.  Conteh, Rodgers, Mullarkey, Rose, Eisa should all be improvements on Morris, Waterfall, Efete, (if those two fall down the pecking order rather than leaving), Taylor and whoever we ended up playing on the wing later last season.  

I know it's not always a case of just buying a better player than the one you've got, but at each opportunity I'm sceptical if he's actually improved us and that is what I think has the potential to be the thing that stops him progressing with us.