Hodgey

2 days to prep a team - was always going to play 3 cbs (as do the 21s). Despite a poor performance in a poor game he comes out with credit. Stephens was the right choice, obvious flaws but he is a communicator and fighter, also right to give him the captaincy (and Edwards deserved to be dropped) Robinson was also the right choice, he’s raw but him and Scienza are both direct and give defenders something to think about. Not all positive though, the subs were awful and put us on the back foot and tactically he had no answer to the momentum shift. Baz ? He’s not good enough to be a top 6 gk in this league, but then again neither is McCarthy. There must be potential in there, City are no mugs, so giving him time when realistically we aren’t going up or down kind of makes sense in a sink or swim scenario. I do wonder though if SR put pressure on him to play expensive younger players such as Baz and Downs to try and protect their investment. If he wins Sat he becomes joint most wins behind Martin under SR leadership - so there’s that !

Went yesterday and thought I’d wait to post. The most concerning thing was we are simply doing the same thing so teams know how to beat us, and that thing isn’t exactly threatening in the first place. These teams we are playing are just average, Preston played some tidy stuff but they are clearly a limited squad, however they are very well coached. That brings me onto Still, do we think if we swopped managers for that game the result would be the same ? Sadly I don’t so as a club we need to make a decision, we are not going up this season so do we think Still can learn enough this year to be a force next ?. If that is the thinking I guess leaving him in until Christmas makes sense, would still give an incoming manager half a season to change momentum. Now the players. There are some basics in football every club aims for - firstly a spine, without a competent gk and cf we don’t have one. In the championship power and pace - we even acknowledged this pre-season yet Preston were far more powerful and aggressive than us. Then attitude and mental resilience - now I accept this teams confidence must be on its arse, but I look around the players and they are not encouraging each other at all, Armstrong isn’t a captain but seems to be the best we have. Then you want partnerships - pick your best partnerships (not players) and let them develop a relationship (ie cbs, fb and wg, cms etc) if you keep chopping and changing that can’t happen. Finally pick formation that gets the best out of the players you have - I don’t believe 5-2-3 is it. Finally i noted Preston’s best players were all on loan - it’s interesting that we decided not to go down that route. I get the history (we had to spend £50m to stay still) but ultimately the only reason we went up last time was due to those loans. For example Dobbin looked a right handful, compared to Damien Downs - should we have got him rather than spend millions on a project ?. The saddest thing of all was the apathy - I’ll admit I wasn’t particularly looking fwd to the game, I am a bit older now so thought it was just age, but what has been and continues to be served up on the pitch has just numbed fans. I went to the Northam bar before and I like what the club is doing - live music, quick(ish) drinks and food, footy to watch and the best atmosphere of the day !. Now if they had won or played well then people would celebrate there again post match, but it was empty (rightly so). We have to start getting some of these big decisions right now, we could easily change momentum this year and mount a proper challenge next, but sports republic need to do much much better. That starts with finding football people who have a plan they can execute - now they did this once with Wilcox and Martin (but then decided when Wilcox left that we didn’t need a DOF in the most competitive league in the world) so it can be done.

I think we need to play that same team now for at least the next 2 games, no tinkering (bar injuries). The set up freed Jander and Charles up to get fwd more, Edward’s allows a wing back to bomb fwd, Scienza and Armstrong had more space, Harwood Bellis I thought played some really good fwd passes that the other cbs simply don’t have in their locker (and this was a big strength 2 years ago). On CF - I think the way we set up means the cf has a really tough job, we don’t have anyone capable of doing it well but you need someone as a focal point - Aribo is an interesting shout but presumably doesn’t want to be here and isn’t really a fwd - should be on the bench though as he’ll be shop window motivated. Azaz doesn’t look happy playing this system so he can’t start. Defensively I think the jury is still out, Swansea were very poor, let’s see how they cope against Bristol - I’m concerned that more direct teams with a big man will have a lot of joy against those 3. Let’s see after 3 games if Still has found something that works with our players (even if it probably isn’t the way he wants to play)

Very encouraging, took a while to get going but Jelert and Scienza are creating a lot on both flanks and defensively we look watertight. should be 2-0 up. The concern is if Swansea change tactics, if not it’ll come.

Looking at that team who is the difference maker - we’ve seen Hackney, Fatuwu, Philogene, any number of Cov players own a game and turn draws into wins. Who is that in our squad ? I was hoping it might be Fellows or Azaz but clearly Still doesn’t think so. I’ll go 1-1 - hoping we aren’t going to aimlessly put high crosses in to 3 midgets - it’s also a very small team so worried about defending set pieces.

This game is psychologically significant, win and those 4 away points look great, lose or draw and they look poor. its also significant as we’ll see if Still is as tactically great as we hoped and solves the cf issue (either via formation or personal) and start getting performances from his transfers. I was disappointed to read about poor performances from Manning and Aziz against a poor team with 10 men, and we have Charles who did well potentially exhausted. i think it’s going to be another draw, ramping the pressure up for BC on Tuesday. 1-1, can’t see us scoring more than 1, can’t see us keeping a clean sheet, plus we always seem sluggish after an international break. hoping I’m wrong, and clinging to the fact that we seem to be a bogey team to Swans, putting them away with relative ease in recent years.

Indeed - and if Ipswich win their game in hand (v Blackburn) they’ll be 5 points clear of us (along with Leicester) and they won’t drop too many points. Throw in Coventry who look unstoppable at the moment and you realise the task ahead.

That works if you think Still is about to go on a 20 odd game unbeaten run and create a playing identity. agree you can’t write him off but he’s going to need to improve - lots of worries for me.. Gks not good enough Fwds not good enough Look incapable of keeping clean sheets Cant Seem to create/score more than one Transfers look poor No clear idea of what we are trying to do I don’t think we had the same issues with Martin at this stage last year bar 1 and 3 and this is what I think people are worried about. These aren’t simple tactical tweaks, they are hard to solve problems.

Boro fans are certainly split on him - the general consensus being he is a bit of a luxury player but when on form well worth it but tends to go missing against the better teams. I expect us to have similar opinions and him to split the fan base (which most creative players do). As long as his goals/assists output is something like last season I think it’s money well spent to get us out of the division, but Prem is a step up too far.

Can only assume Fellows at right wing back and a back 5

Meanwhile congrats Abbas - he wins the title with Notts - good move for him ! To win this we are going to have to actually bat like a div 1 team in what looks like a tricky wicket - can’t see it myself but maybe Surrey will phone it in now it’s a dead rubber

Just saw the highlights - if you can’t deal with diagonal long balls into the box in this league expect trouble, and the half chances we created for Downs - I don’t think he is capable of finishing. Agree with others - whatever Still is trying to do, is a puzzle as tactically it looks all over the place. He needs to quickly get across a style so fans can see where we are trying to go - think we can be more patient if we see some kind of goal that we are building towards. Liverpool reserves away with no real expectations is a great chance to show us - I want to see his best 11 playing a style he wants - the result isn’t important, the team he picks, performance and style is. He does need more time though - Christmas is the time to asses. Finally I wonder how much that South coast derby disrupted both teams as Portsmouth were equally dogshit at home which is actually very unusual for them.

Feels like we gave up on red ball cricket somewhat this year - the two Indian recruitment may still keep us up but outside of Abbott and Dawson we mainly look like a div 2 outfit - especially in the batting. the reliance on youth has kind of worked in short form with Albert, Currie and Mays all doing well but Orr/Middleton/Albert/Turner/ Prest have all been found wanting in red ball (as you could argue has Gubbins and Brown) which compounded the loss of Vince and Abbas. Be good to stay up - but only if we invest in the team for next season or it’s pretty pointless.

Good effort - they lost their way 10-15 overs in and had a really poor last over leaving them 20 short where they should have been. Wood I assume was crocked hence couldn’t bowl and Lynn couldn’t run either - neither of those helped but fair play to Somerset - a really good side with strength throughout. What has happened to Prest though this year failing to get into a limited overs team with Orr and a 17yr old preferred….

He’s playing, as is Orr. Lots depending on our top 3 today - at least 2 of them need to fire. Cartrights power will be a big miss as will Dawson guile