Just Back...on the bus/a127 (merged)

Quoted from buckstown

Interesting listening to the post match. Burns asked PH why he didn't change it earlier and it sounded to me like he didn't believe anyone from the bench would make it better

I wonder after all these years in the game why Hurst does not have a plan B - ie not just make like for like changes but move personnel about and change formation whilst also bringing fresh legs on?

Having said that most subs this season have had very little effect and sometimes made us worse. It's a conundrum that him and his coaches will have to sort out as it is becoming a real problem.  With Scannell JMD and Manny on the bench it surely gives options to really shake things up if it is not going well?

One suggestion would be if we go behind in the second half immediately take the holding midfielder off and change to a more attacking formation.

When I saw Coke was in and Burgess (not injured) out I had a feeling of deflation
Why change a winning team?
Why get rid of pace and energy?
Why not bring JMD on when you need a goal, he's a threat, and had scored three in 3 before injury

It feels like an obsessions some managers have (Jolley was the same) in selecting a team based on the opposition - IMO you are immediately on the back foot and looking for/accepting a point

I do agree with some posters that without McAtee we would bang average in terms of creativity and goal threat

Sousa needs resting - consistently inconsistent and very little goal threat

Having said all of that only 2pts off play offs and right in the mix

Get into play offs and it's a cup KO - anything can happen

Can sort of understand the reluctance to throw JMD in. He’s not played for nearly 7 weeks after a muscle injury and hasn’t trained a great deal in that time. Throw him in & he breaks down you might not see him again this season. Suppose in that sense, what circumstances would we have brought him on? To see out a comfortable win and get some minutes in his legs?

Saw someone last night saying “look at the league table, we’re bang average”, so I did and we’re 1 place outside the playoffs with 12 to play. Bang average we might very well be, but it’s not like we’re treading water in 12-16th. Every loss or bad result turns into an existential crisis for a lot of people, I don’t know how they cope.

A loss at this stage is not the end of the world, it seemed like we never looked like scoring the whole game. My only criticism is the now super predictable lack of subs when players are looking tired and we need to shake things up, give the opposition something to think about and hopefully get that bit of quality to break them down.

The amount of games I've been to where it's the 67th-68th minute and everyone can see tired legs and the fact it's not working and Hurst just stands there like he's waiting for it to get better somehow. 75th minute and still no subs, now the opposition is coming back into it, 80th minute we are now being pinned back as a tired team struggles to contain the threat. By the time we get subs on the damage has already been done and 5 minutes on the pitch is not enough to really get hold of the game again. Hurst's sub phobia is something I'll never understand about him.

Quoted from Kris2

A loss at this stage is not the end of the world, it seemed like we never looked like scoring the whole game. My only criticism is the now super predictable lack of subs when players are looking tired and we need to shake things up, give the opposition something to think about and hopefully get that bit of quality to break them down.

The amount of games I've been to where it's the 67th-68th minute and everyone can see tired legs and the fact it's not working and Hurst just stands there like he's waiting for it to get better somehow. 75th minute and still no subs, now the opposition is coming back into it, 80th minute we are now being pinned back as a tired team struggles to contain the threat. By the time we get subs on the damage has already been done and 5 minutes on the pitch is not enough to really get hold of the game again. Hurst's sub phobia is something I'll never understand about him.

He says he hasn’t got any options. Or he has, but he doesn’t trust them.

The big issue is that we don't tend play as well without Taylor in the team. McAtee tends to buzz around without much effect when Taylor isn't up top linking up play and it hasn't helped that Sousa has suddenly lost his form. Abrahams has an entirely different style of play, looking to turn and run with the ball so we're lacking a bit of cohesion when McAtee and Abrahams are the ones up top.

I think the plan for the season was to have Taylor first choice with LJL as a backup playing a similar role. Unfortunately, LJL's effectiveness has waned so we're a bit disjointed when Taylor isn't playing or is out of form. Giving McAtee a free role is all well and good when we're playing well and everyone is contributing, but it doesn't take much more than having one or two players off their game for us to struggle to create chances.

Makes it all the more frustrating that, despite generally defending solidly, we tend to have an error in us at the back which is invariably punished away from home. It's not as if the opposition are smacking worldies into the top corner every game. Just a poor decision or sloppy mistake is enough to beat us all to often.

Quoted from pontoonlew

You can see why Hurst is getting stick though, the frustration is the fact it’s so predictable. We have only beaten Notts and Wrexham in the top 10 this season (losing the reverse fixtures), granted we’ve not played BW yet but our record against the top 10 is pathetic. The biggest reason for that IMO is that we set up to contain in these games to then nick ourselves a win and that almost always ends in defeat, why isn’t Hurst learning?

Ironically our best performance against a top side was at Notts when we clearly went for it.

At the start of the season this current position would’ve been pretty acceptable to me, but I have a big issue with how easily avoidable a lot of these 1 goal defeats seem to be and it always seems to lead back to Hurst.

I think this can be viewed from two ways. I'd argue that a lot of the 1-0 defeats fall on the players. If Efete doesn't foul his man then we don't lose and we earn a worthwhile point. Errors on the pitch and players not performing to standard is the biggest factor in the outcome of a game.

That said, I think there's a wide consensus that Hurst doesn't attack the game, even when we go behind. He seems to have complete trust in the manner of how the team play and things will come good. By the time he begins to wonder whether a change would benefit us it's often too late. So as much as I think Hurst could do more to TRY and affect a change, I don't think our history of narrow losses directly leads to him as it can't be proven a change would affect the score. If he made attacking changes and narrow defeats became wider defeats.... Depends which side of the stick or twist mentality you fall on.

In some ways I like how much trust Hurst has in his players but I have to confess to often being frustrated - currently and Mk1 - of his haste in reacting. For me, unless something was completely against the run of play I'd twist. A loss is a loss, so if you find yourself in that position do what you need to find your way out of it.

100% agree with the Notts County performance though. I'd like to see that level of aggression in our forward play every week, I'm sure it's tiring but we all saw the rewards it offered. It can't be proven but personal belief is we'd add 9+ points to what would be expected in the current conservative way of playing between now and the end of the season and God knows how many over the course of the season past already.

Other than the win at Notts County, I can't remember the last time we really played well. Maybe Halifax? We've done just enough to beat the likes of Dover, Woking etc but never looked in control like we did in September/October.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Other than the win at Notts County, I can't remember the last time we really played well. Maybe Halifax? We've done just enough to beat the likes of Dover, Woking etc but never looked in control like we did in September/October.

who cares, we've won 5 of the last 7 not playing well. We were playing well and losing games

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I wonder after all these years in the game why Hurst does not have a plan B - ie not just make like for like changes but move personnel about and change formation whilst also bringing fresh legs on?

Having said that most subs this season have had very little effect and sometimes made us worse. It's a conundrum that him and his coaches will have to sort out as it is becoming a real problem.  With Scannell JMD and Manny on the bench it surely gives options to really shake things up if it is not going well?

One suggestion would be if we go behind in the second half immediately take the holding midfielder off and change to a more attacking formation.

Because he has scraped a team together on a shoe string,we started the season short of at least of 3 quality players and he has repeatedly failed to address this deficit.It is the same every season failure to invest and the beginning of the season,costs us every time.And the happy clappers repeatedly say every September don't worry there is plenty of time to catch up.We should not be playing catch but leading from the front.How many times does the lesson have to be learnt invest in the team from July.