Ryan Taylor

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Made more noticeable by Miller’s performance for Donny. We had no focal point to play off, and before anyone compares this week to last, Plymouth played a high line, Donny left no space for us to get in behind.

This

Well at least the Taylor haters can't blame him for today

I doubt Taylor would have made any difference today considering how crap the rest of the team were.

Quoted from Norseman

Well at least the Taylor haters can't blame him for today

Not sure who the Taylor haters are.  I love the bloke but he hasn't been doing as good a job as he was last year.  Is it because league two defences are more savvy? Is it the lack of McAtee? Or is it his age?  If you play a player because you like him, I'd have Paul Groves in the team. The fact that Grovsie can't doesn't mean we all hate him.

Quoted from Mayaman

Not sure who the Taylor haters are.  I love the bloke but he hasn't been doing as good a job as he was last year.  Is it because league two defences are more savvy? Is it the lack of McAtee? Or is it his age?  If you play a player because you like him, I'd have Paul Groves in the team. The fact that Grovsie can't doesn't mean we all hate him.

We play a guy up front on his own with no runners anywhere near him, loop high balls that are a defenders dream and expect him to bring it down, hold it for 5 seconds until somebody gets remotely close to him and then play a meaningful ball.

He's not even that sort of target man. He plays clever passes and flicks when the ball is to his feet or at least a flat long ball. I agree he's looked poor and seems to foul most of the time, but he's having to play a role that nobody at this level can. If he could, he'd be playing way higher up.

Donny largely had a 6 man back line , all big physical units, dealing with a single "striker" ....even if it wasTaylor he wouldn't have stood a chance.

Quoted from moosey_club

Donny largely had a 6 man back line , all big physical units, dealing with a single "striker" ....even if it wasTaylor he wouldn't have stood a chance.

Weren't they just! They were a huge side overall, and their 6 was a giant!

Quoted from Phil the cod

Should of done more to keep desi and Abrahams. Surely better than the current situation apart from Kieran and Richardson who are decent imho, but we need that big hold up player who will rough up opposition defenders and not just bounce off them like our lightweight midgets seem to.

Desi & Abrahams wanted first team football, they came in and did for us last season and put themselves in the shop window I sure Paul may have wanted them both to stay as squad players, but ultimately they wanted more than being impact subs.

How are they both doing at their respective clubs?

Mani's scored 7 in 18 for a lower mid-table Halifax side.

The issue with him is that he didn't want to come here and be second choice, he wanted to be the main man somewhere and we couldn't have offered him that.  

I thought he showed the form and attributes that defied his previous stats and history.  Whilst he went down in folklore because of his goals in the play-off quarter and semi-finals, I thought he actually proved he can be a really effective No. 9 when coming on and held the ball up really well.

Clearly Hurst wants more than just holding up and bringing it down and values the link-up play that Taylor brings.  

We only really saw Mani in short bursts so it's impossible to determine how effective he would have been as a main man here.  As well as he's doing at Halifax, the expectations are different there and the standard is significantly different.  But using the beauty of hindsight, perhaps we might have been better asking him to stay here and fight for his chance to be the main man.  

His goalscoring record here was incredible, with the only ever so slight blot on his copybook coming away at King's Lynn where he missed a hatful.  With shooting boots on that day, I wonder if he could have made it impossible for Hurst to not make him the main man...