Just Back

Quoted from Maringer

We'll never have a successful passing team with the two centre backs who played today. Practically every single pass that Maher made to Glennon (all 4,756 of them today) was either slightly behind him or forced him to check his forward motion to collect the ball. Rodgers ran forward with the ball when there was space in front of him on quite a few occasions, but he rarely managed to find a player with his pass or just whacked it at them too hard.

Hunt lost possession of the ball almost every time he received it and it really was one of his worst games for us. Conteh wasn't really much better.

Harrogate really, really well organised, tidy in possession and outmuscled us across the field. The number of overloads they managed to create without really trying was very worrying and it certainly didn't help that we just passed it straight to them no end of times. Very lucky to only lose by a single goal.

I’m wondering if we’ve made ourselves a bit easy to play against.

DA seemed to advertise that we’re going to play through Hunt and both Newport and Harrogate have snuffed him out. Certainly been ineffective in the last two games and looked disinterested and frustrated today.

You know your bad when you make Harrogate look like Real Madrid.
A relegation performance we could be in trouble some tough games coming up.

Think we have problems in every area of the pitch with how Artell wants to play. Conteh is a very good anchor point but Hunt is very ying and yang. Harry isn't technically good enough but does a lot of the dirty work well and his energy is irreplaceable. Arthur is playing well but without Pyke on the right we have nobody that gets anywhere near Rose and leaves him so isolated. Mullarkey was torn to shreds by Odoh today, the sort of winger that in Sunday League your manager tells you to put him into the air 5 minutes in yet Mullarkey couldn't get anywhere near him. I'm hoping CV can come back and be the winger we've been crying out for, we need someone direct that consistently beats his man. A lot of depth out wide but a lot of them that do the same thing. I said we need 3/4 new players through the door for the squad, but I actually think we need 4/5 new players in the first 11. Think the only one that has shown his marbles is Cartwright, made 3/4 good saves today and dealt with some very dodgy passes back to him from Maher well. Getting better game by game.

Quoted from barralad

Hyperbole right there.

Keep on happy clapping div

Created next to nothing, deserved nothing and got nothing.

Football is about details and moments, which we invariably get more wrong than right, and the opposition seem to get more right than wrong. It is a source of constant bafflement to how other teams seem to be able to get the basics mostly right and we don't. We find ways to lose possession constantly, with over hit, under hit and mis-directed passes. We can't even get throw ins and free kicks into the right areas.

Our midfield were bullied and harried out of the game, with Hunt being particularly bad, but none of them looked comfortable on the ball.

I get what the manager is trying to do, but the players either haven't got there yet, or aren't good enough to do it, with me leaning more toward the latter for a good number of them. We need some more technical players in the squad if we are to play this way going forward.

Half way through the season, but not yet half way to 50 points is a bit of a worry, but Artell has just nailed his colours to the mast and says we are in no danger of ending up in the bottom 2.

We'll need some better players before I am as confident as he seems to be.

Too many individuals were absolutely dreadful today, a shame to have a bad day at the office just as we looked to be kicking on a bit.

I have absolutely no issues with playing out from the back, because I think our style of play will slowly get better the more the players get used to it. Today it didn’t work well, but the groaning in the crowd every time it went wrong really didn’t help that. You could see the players confidence visibly sapping throughout the first half, and then for some absolutely mental reason they then got booed off.

I’ve seen enough so far to know we’re heading in the right direction, today was a blip but some fans really do need to understand the affect the boos have. To do it in Artells second home game is ridiculously stupid.

Quoted from ginnywings

Created next to nothing, deserved nothing and got nothing.

Football is about details and moments, which we invariably get more wrong than right, and the opposition seem to get more right than wrong. It is a source of constant bafflement to how other teams seem to be able to get the basics mostly right and we don't. We find ways to lose possession constantly, with over hit, under hit and mis-directed passes. We can't even get throw ins and free kicks into the right areas.

Our midfield were bullied and harried out of the game, with Hunt being particularly bad, but none of them looked comfortable on the ball.

I get what the manager is trying to do, but the players either haven't got there yet, or aren't good enough to do it, with me leaning more toward the latter for a good number of them. We need some more technical players in the squad if we are to play this way going forward.

Half way through the season, but not yet half way to 50 points is a bit of a worry, but Artell has just nailed his colours to the mast and says we are in no danger of ending up in the bottom 2.

We'll need some better players before I am as confident as he seems to be.

I don't think we will go down. But I felt sick when he said we definitely won't.
He didn't change anything all game other than the subs. Was a real worry

Quoted from Yoda

You know your bad when you make Harrogate look like Real Madrid.
A relegation performance we could be in trouble some tough games coming up.

Not a chance of relegation. I'm quite relaxed, interested in seeing how we progress this season under Artell without any preconceived idea of where we need to be by the summer. Can shrug off a poor performance against a limited Harrogate side. Maybe even a blessing in the long term if it identifies a few shortcomings in the squad, better sooner than later. Welcome back Yoda. Haven't seen much of you during our unbeaten run..

I’m not sure i share his confidence

5 mins in, Town played the ball from their own corner flag and passed across and out the back, into midfield and then transitioned into attack superbly.

Alan Buckley sat in the Directors section near me and purred like a cat sat in front of a newly lit real fire.

Unfortunately, shortly after this positive start (and illustration of what Arter is trying to instil) the players muscle memories of several years under Hurst slightly different approach, overran the new orders and things went downhill from there.

Harrogate were very comfortable on the ball as well, but seemed more confident and well drilled in their shape and approach that Town. Perhaps due to having their manager longer than 6 weeks (or perhaps having players specifically recruited to be able to play that way) and have at least some players who could use more than one foot.

I have seen enough in the short time Artel has been in, to feel optimistic about the future, and he was absolutely adamant that this inherited squad was in no danger of going down this season.

I did see a lack of penetration again by our wide players today and Clifton once again ran and ran but just lacks quality.

Strangely, Harrogate seemed sharper in midfield and Hunt, Conteh, Clifton and latterly Holohan all seemed a yard slower to the ball than their midfielders at time.

We deserved to lose today and 2 tough away matches to come now until New Years Day.

Maybe a dose of reality not a bad thing and I am sure the January transfer window re loans and signings will be at the forefront of our new managers thoughts after today.

UTM