Until the curtain raiser v Morecambe......

To achieve the takeover as reported.....

To bring in any remaining signings.....

Let’s hope we’ve got something to smile about with the latter two!!

UTM

I want to be excited and positive but my normal pre season wave of optimism has dwindled away over the last few years. Last time I looked we were third favourites for relegation and the bookies rarely get it badly wrong, so I fear another long hard battle near the drop zone.
I'm sure Hanson and Green will take more of the chances we make, but the issue for me remains creativity at one end and keeping clean sheets at the other. Hope I'm very wrong

Goals against wasn't actually a problem last season. In the bottom half only one side let in fewer than us and we also conceded the same amount as second place Bury. We actually had the 11th best defence in the league. Our issue was we had the 21st worst attack. Only three teams failed to score more than us and one of them went down.

We have basically the same defence. McKeown is a good goalkeeper for L2. Hendrie is an excellent right back. Ohman and Davis are both okay and hopefully Gibson will be decent. I think we could do with a centre back who is better than Ohman and Davis but neither Whitmore or Collins were particularly spectacular last season to the point where they are huge losses.

Up front we've lost Thomas who scored almost a quarter of our goals which is a blow. But we've added a proven player at this level in Green who will, if he stays fit, probably get us around the same amount of goals that Thomas did but will also work much harder than he did. Hanson will be a big improvement if we can keep him fit as not only do we suddenly have an aerial threat but the ball might also stick a bit more up front which was half the problem last season. He'll create space for others which we didn't have last season. The other positive is Ogbu and Max Wright who both have the potential to be quite exciting, attacking players. They might both flop but I'd be willing to bet that at least one of them proves quite useful. They're certainly different to anything we had last season as they're willing to run at their man and beat them. We could definitely do with another central midfielder although I think Hess is a great player to play the holding role at this level and Clifton and Whitehouse aren't bad players either. If we sign a good centre back and a good central midfielder I think we'll have a good season.

Well the bookie's certainly got it wrong about Notts. 😜

Quoted from mariner91

Goals against wasn't actually a problem last season. In the bottom half only one side let in fewer than us and we also conceded the same amount as second place Bury. We actually had the 11th best defence in the league. Our issue was we had the 21st worst attack. Only three teams failed to score more than us and one of them went down.

We have basically the same defence. McKeown is a good goalkeeper for L2. Hendrie is an excellent right back. Ohman and Davis are both okay and hopefully Gibson will be decent. I think we could do with a centre back who is better than Ohman and Davis but neither Whitmore or Collins were particularly spectacular last season to the point where they are huge losses.

Up front we've lost Thomas who scored almost a quarter of our goals which is a blow. But we've added a proven player at this level in Green who will, if he stays fit, probably get us around the same amount of goals that Thomas did but will also work much harder than he did. Hanson will be a big improvement if we can keep him fit as not only do we suddenly have an aerial threat but the ball might also stick a bit more up front which was half the problem last season. He'll create space for others which we didn't have last season. The other positive is Ogbu and Max Wright who both have the potential to be quite exciting, attacking players. They might both flop but I'd be willing to bet that at least one of them proves quite useful. They're certainly different to anything we had last season as they're willing to run at their man and beat them. We could definitely do with another central midfielder although I think Hess is a great player to play the holding role at this level and Clifton and Whitehouse aren't bad players either. If we sign a good centre back and a good central midfielder I think we'll have a good season.

Very fair assessment imo

Long Season Ahead 😢
Come on Town!!

League Two is notoriously difficult to call; not many would have had Notts County to go down or Accrington to go up in the past couple of seasons. That said, the core of our squad (roughly two thirds) is made up of what we had last season, and the reality is that's a core that finished 17th last season.

I'd argue that 17th was probably below par and based on the ability in the squad we should probably have been pushing closer to mid-table; had it not been for a dismal start we probably would. That said, I'd probably counter that by suggesting that the league as a whole looks stronger this year; the likes of Salford who came up have been spending and will continue to spend big and I think three of the four sides who came down from League One were touching mid-table points-wise with only a couple of games to go and were only relegated on the final day.

From last season we've lost experience in Danny Collins, our best striker in Wes Thomas and our only real creative outlet in Embleton. We do certainly seem to have a stronger looking attacking options this season which as already called out, and Hanson in paricular gives us a dimension we were so obviously lacking last year. As it stands, we haven't replaced Collins (or Whitmore for that matter) and we have a solid looking midfield but one devoid of any standout creativity. Still time for that to be addressed of course.

On the whole, I'm relatively pleased with our recruitment without being wildly excited by any singing in particular. The likes of Ogbu, Wright and Rose could all prove to be wildcards though at the same time all three are as of now unproven in senior English football. Vernam didn't fulfill his potential last season so there's something else we could add to our threat if he can stay fit and on form but already as early as pre-season there are signs he may not be able to.

I'd love to predict a promotion push this season but if you compare our squad to those of the favourites this season we look some way short to me - the likes of Bradford, Scunny, Mansfield, Salford and Northampton all look particularly strong.

On balance, we look marginally stronger I'd say, but in generally more competitive division. My prediction: somewhere between 12th and 15th. Probably loosely in line with where our budget sits in the league. A couple of big signings between now and deadline day might change that prediction, but as it stands things appear to be quiet on that front.

Lost Embleton but gained Whitehouse so, to me, that balances out.

Some are saying that he won't be match fit, but nobody will, it's the close season and we haven't had a game for a couple of months.

We have a proper league 2 centre forward who can hold the ball up. A proven goalscorer who has pace, and I think that Max Wright is going to come in and will be a star for us. All of this is what we lacked last season, so adding to the good bits we had will make us a force to be reckoned with.

Have faith

UTM

Still think we are a few players short of a squad to provide some form of consistency never mind be competitive and we’re going to have the annual last minute scramble for free agents again I reckon.

Looking at the overall picture in reality that is to be expected all I hope is that MJ has improved the mid field and attack so that we can get more players and quality balls into the opposition penalty area.

On paper we look stronger in some areas, overall I’m optimistic and would settle for some more goals, less runs without scoring/winning and a top half finish.

L2 is a funny league to call but I still think we are a couple of years and a takeover away from being in a position where we can be competitive for promotion.

Try comparing the team that started against FGR last August with likely starters this time.  Only McKeown, Clifton and Cook are still at the club.  I’d like to think we will not start with a 1-4 defeat this year

Only thing that worries me is the same as last year, no one in centre mid that can spread the ball around.

But at least we have the option of Hanson if we need to change upto long ball if not creative enough.

Last season we had two good months and the rest was fairly poor. So the 17th is fairly misleading because it's an average of two extremes. Ever since Jolley came we seem to either be on a good run or a terrible one. I expect more of the same but let's hope for a good run first  ;)

Quoted from GrimRob

Last season we had two good months and the rest was fairly poor. So the 17th is fairly misleading because it's an average of two extremes. Ever since Jolley came we seem to either be on a good run or a terrible one. I expect more of the same but let's hope for a good run first  ;)

He's a streaky manager Rob, just hoping for more consistent performances this season...
Be good to see some more of our youths come the fore and kick on this season too, certainly Wright, Rose and Pollock...

I'd like to think that experience Jolley will undoubtedly have garnered last season will stand him, and us, in good stead this year. If we get rid of the really poor runs there's no reason at all to think that we should not be an upper half of the table club, build on that again at the end of the season, and move on to being promotion contenders for 2020-21?

I'd like to think that experience Jolley will undoubtedly have garnered last season will stand him, and us, in good stead this year. If we get rid of the really poor runs there's no reason at all to think that we should not be an upper half of the table club, build on that again at the end of the season, and move on to being promotion contenders for 2020-21?

think we are definitely lacking some midfield creativity unless he's expecting Ogbu (with Wright as back up) to be the main creator, just in a different way to Embleton.

Quoted from forza ivano

think we are definitely lacking some midfield creativity unless he's expecting Ogbu (with Wright as back up) to be the main creator, just in a different way to Embleton.

Would agree with that and think Whitehouse will get up & down the pitch, score a few goals but from what my Imp supporting mates say will not be the creative midfielder we require. I half expect that as with Embleton this role will be filled by a loan signing towards the end of the window so let’s hope we get the right guy in once again.

As I've noted before, do we really desperately require a creative midfielder? Most teams at this level don't have a playmaker type (the likes of Sweeney shows what can happen if you try this!) but, providing the midfielders can pass the ball accurately and quickly to the more attacking players and get up and down the pitch well, that's most of the job done.

You could never claim that the Cockerill/Cunnington combination were in any way creative but they were pretty effective in what was an excellent passing team.

Clifton, Hessenthaler and (I assume) Whitehouse are all decent with the ball at their feet so I'd hope that better attacking players and a higher-tempo to our play will make us much more of a threat next season, even if we're not threading intricate passes through defences. Heck, that's not Hanson's game in any case. I assume we'll be trying to get into the corners behind the opposition defence to either put crosses in or attempt to win corners/long throws. When we have players who are as strong in the air as Hanson and Ohman, you've got to expect that set pieces are going to be a big part of things this next season.

I’ve seen some great midfielders for Town - Waters, Groves, Pouton etc but were they creative.  The had great engines on them, played box to box, strong in the tackle, bags of desire and scored goals.  They weren’t a Glen Hoddle, picking out the masterful pass.  In any case, that kind of player needs forwards smart enough to anticipate with a run.

We need midfielders who can win the ball, push play up the pitch, pass out wide to a wing back or winger who can put in a cross and forwards who know where the goal is.

Let’s not over complicate it.  We are Div 4 not Champions League.

I'd rather gave grafters who do the simple stuff right, not a Sweeney-like lazy showboater. Let's face it if they're highly skilled creativity wise and plying their trade in League 2, there's gotta be flaws in other parts of their game. Usually application, determination, fitness etc. See Scott Neilson also.

Quoted from Rik e B

I'd rather gave grafters who do the simple stuff right, not a Sweeney-like lazy showboater. Let's face it if they're highly skilled creativity wise and plying their trade in League 2, there's gotta be flaws in other parts of their game. Usually application, determination, fitness etc. See Scott Neilson also.

And Dom Vose - classic example of a highly gifted player who just didn’t quite cut it. Shame really because on his day he looked like a proper footballer.
The legendary Dis is another example of a highly effective but maybe less creative player. I know which one I’d rather have in my team.
I tend to agree with previous posters that a creative midfielder is more a luxury at this level, and if they are also effective, as was Embleton, they will probably be destined for higher things sooner rather than later.

Quoted from jock dock tower

I'd like to think that experience Jolley will undoubtedly have garnered last season will stand him, and us, in good stead this year. If we get rid of the really poor runs there's no reason at all to think that we should not be an upper half of the table club, build on that again at the end of the season, and move on to being promotion contenders for 2020-21?

If the dreadful runs of form can be eradicated then there's reason to hope for a promotion challenge in the coming season. At the end of February the play-offs didn't seem out of the question but three points from the next nine matches scuppered that. Like you I'd be disappointed if Mr Jolley isn't a better manager for last season's experience. There are streaky managers as someone said earlier in the thread, Lee Johnson is a prime example. I'm confident that the streakiness will be confined to last season.

I'm a bit concerned at the lack of numbers in defence. Davis played right back a few times last season but I assume Hewitt is backup right back and we have 2 left backs until January.

We currently have 3 centre backs competing for what we assume are 2 places. We need at least another CB.

Assuming it is a midfield 3 we have Whitehouse, Clifton, Hessenthaler, Hewitt, Buckley and maybe Cook. Again we probably need another body in there as a couple of injuries will see us struggling.

Why concerned though as MJ has said he expects to make two further permanent signings plus I expect at least one further loan player will appear. I am not concerned about numbers more they will be an improvement

I assume we may look to get another one or two loanees in from higher division clubs. Seems to be the way it has gone in recent seasons. Hopefully of similar success to Embleton/Henderson.

Just because players are creative doesn’t mean they’re lazy ffs (although Sweeney and Vose do fit that criteria).