I haven’t been following us pre season too much. Who’s been the standout performers? Good formations etc?

Looks like we will be adopting either a 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1 formation with wing backs.
In the 2 games ive seen so far, Clee Town and Rotherham, Mitch Rose, Harry Clifton and Akin Famewo have stood out for me and liked the look of Ali Koiki during trial from Burnley. Still hopeful we can bring him in.

The games so far certainly show we are greatly missing that strong, physical striker but adding Vernam to the squad is certainly a welcome signing. 2/3 more bodies short yet before season starts

Where is it set in stone that we must have a big physical no. 9?

Barcelona managed to have three small forwards but it didn't hamper their goalscoring.

I think that Jolley is trying to get away from big target men for more mobile faster clever players that use pace and movement to create chances.

Center haves at this level generally have problems with these types of forwards. They tend to be big and physical to combat the Lincoln's of this division.

The third Saturday of the new season should be interesting.  Our football verses Lincoln's more traditional physical approach.

The fact that you said Barcelona manage with small strikers says it all. This is league 2 England.

Was suggesting really that we need another striker as we still short of forwards and its looking unlikely that Cardwell will not be fit and Akheem Rose not ready

"Barcelona managed to have three small forwards but it didn't hamper their goalscoring".

League 2 is hardly La Liga but I get your drift!

Quoted from mimma

Where is it set in stone that we must have a big physical no. 9?

Barcelona managed to have three small forwards but it didn't hamper their goalscoring.

I think that Jolley is trying to get away from big target men for more mobile faster clever players that use pace and movement to create chances.

Center haves at this level generally have problems with these types of forwards. They tend to be big and physical to combat the Lincoln's of this division.

The third Saturday of the new season should be interesting.  Our football verses Lincoln's more traditional physical approach.

I get your point but we need a plan B if plan A is not working.

Problem with having a big target man is that in a tight game it's easy to just lump it and miss out the midfield. It use to happen when Peter Crouch played for England. We stopped trying to pass it through midfield and tried to hit it to Crouch,s head.

Having smaller faster players you can either play it in to their feet or through the defender to run on to. Keeps defenders guessing which.way to go.

The fact there were reports saying we’ve had a bid rejected for Ryan Bowman shows to me that Jolley was and is still going to be looking for a big hold up type of striker

Quoted from Mighty_Mariner

I get your point but we need a plan B if plan A is not working.

Aha the mysterious "plan B"raises it's ugly head once more.

This has been thrown at every manager here since god knows when.

Hurst had no Plan B Bignott had no plan B, Slade (spit) Had no plan B.

Now apparently Jolley has no Plan B lol. If anyone knows what this devastating "Plan B" his get in touch with GTFC ASAP.

Maybe it means if we are losing abandon the match and get the frigging marbles out lol.

Quoted from mimma

  We stopped trying to pass it through midfield and tried to hit it to Crouch,s head.

Surely that was the whole idea of bringing Crouch on.  To get the ball forward quickly and for others to feed off his flick ons.

Quoted from 123614

Surely that was the whole idea of bringing Crouch on.  To get the ball forward quickly and for others to feed off his flick ons.

Can't understand why it was not successfull!!! I know England had a supposedly easy route but when we try to play pass and move we got to he semi's.

How desperately must we have a "plan b" and a big unit striker to go direct to???

Maybe we'd be better off having faith and belief in our playing philosophy. And if it's not working one week, make little tactical tweaks or a change in formation, rather than throwing the whole philosophy we've worked on at Cheapside all summer down the shitter and throwing on Jimmy Lankyfuck to toss it up hopefully towards and hope something happens.

I know everyone obsesses over the "plan b" but I'd prefer us to be patient and stick to a way of playing that MJ/AL will be coaching them to, and if it's not working, we either do it better or we find little tweaks to make or opposition weaknesses to exploit.

Said it before on here but a target man doesn't have to be a big unit striker, there's nothing wrong with the target man being a smaller stronger player who can just hold the ball up and lay it off when its played into his feet (Rees). He's still a target in the final third, you're just finding him differently, with different service.

Quoted from Tommy

How desperately must we have a "plan b" and a big unit striker to go direct to???

Maybe we'd be better off having faith and belief in our playing philosophy. And if it's not working one week, make little tactical tweaks or a change in formation, rather than throwing the whole philosophy we've worked on at Cheapside all summer down the shitter and throwing on Jimmy Lankyfuck to toss it up hopefully towards and hope something happens.

I know everyone obsesses over the "plan b" but I'd prefer us to be patient and stick to a way of playing that MJ/AL will be coaching them to, and if it's not working, we either do it better or we find little tweaks to make or opposition weaknesses to exploit.

Said it before on here but a target man doesn't have to be a big unit striker, there's nothing wrong with the target man being a smaller stronger player who can just hold the ball up and lay it off when its played into his feet (Rees). He's still a target in the final third, you're just finding him differently, with different service.

Agree. Kenny Daglish for all his other attributes was excellent at holding the ball up and he was short. It helped having an enormous bottom!!

Quoted from Mrs Doyle

Aha the mysterious "plan B"raises it's ugly head once more.

This has been thrown at every manager here since god knows when.

Hurst had no Plan B Bignott had no plan B, Slade (spit) Had no plan B.

Now apparently Jolley has no Plan B lol. If anyone knows what this devastating "Plan B" his get in touch with GTFC ASAP.

Maybe it means if we are losing abandon the match and get the frigging marbles out lol.

I didn't say Jolley hasn't got a plan b at all!

I was merely generalising the need for a different type of striker in case our game plan is not working for any reason.. .. it's good to have a variety of options available to keep the opposition guessing and/or combat their defence!

Football is a multi-dimensional game and I'm sure Jolley will want all based covered going into the season!

Thought Hooper did an honest job as target man but Tommy is right in that Rees, Dalglish et al often received passes on the deck. JJ is much better facing the goal. Also noticed that Marquis and Wilks had licence to play across the full width. Flexibility is key.

The idea is for when the ball is played into the forwards, the keep it and move it on to another Town player. Tony Rees was the master at it. Didn't matter who or how big or how many, the defenders couldn't get the ball off him.

Too often last season the ball was played up to our front players, only for them to loose it and it came straight back at us. We were always under pressure because of it.

Being able to move forward and keep possession is the aim of the game. Jolley seems to understand this the most and we now look a lot better going forward.

It's about time we did away with referring to our manager as Jolley and called him Michael like the City creeps up the road with their darling for now Danny

Agreed!

We don't copy anyone, we are GTFC and when it comes to football in Lincolnshire we lead not follow.

Quoted from Garth

It's about time we did away with referring to our manager as Jolley and called him Michael like the City creeps up the road with their darling for now Danny

And why would we want to be like that bunch of cretins?

Quoted from Mighty_Mariner

And why would we want to be like that bunch of cretins?

Tongue/cheek ;)

It’s definitely better watching some pass and move but how long before some idiot in that Main Stand responds to Macca passing it out with ‘kick it into their half’.

I remember the days when neat flicks from Woods and Rees used to infuriate my fellow ‘fans’ in the Constitutional Ave corner.  In this respect Buckley’s stubbornness and lack of love for the fans meant he was never tempted to change tactics.