Masking Our Vulnerability | Vital Football

Masking Our Vulnerability

PWould

PWould

Vital 1st Team Regular
Interesting range of opinions recently ranging from wheels coming off and blowing a once in a lifetime chance etc to temporary blip and all to play for. I suspect we can all agree though that we have shown far too much vulnerability of late. Midfield being overrun, defensive shakiness, fear of playing at home, slow starts to games, conceding the first goal etc, the list goes on . The question is how do we best address these or at least mask them more than we are doing? If I could pick one to start it would be more midfield solidity. Only Mcgrandles currently is playing up to form. Time and time again teams are playing through or over us and we struggle to bandage the gaping wound. Hopefully getting Bridcutt back and up to speed ASAP may stem the bleeding?
 
A top ten finish is MAs first full season would be a good achievement but, as others have said, it would be disappointing to drop out of the top 6 having been up there so long.

There's no doubt in my mind key injuries have hindered us but I also think teams have worked out how to play us, to an extent.
 
NottyImp said:
A top ten finish is MAs first full season would be a good achievement but, as others have said, it would be disappointing to drop out of the top 6 having been up there so long.

There's no doubt in my mind key injuries have hindered us but I also think teams have worked out how to play us, to an extent.
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And we haven't adapted to counteract that
 
We haven’t got a big enough squad to deal with missing three of the key players in the team, at the same time. We ran with quality over quantity due to our budget constraints - rightly in my opinion. For the first 25ish games we showed it works if you get lucky on lack of injuries.
 
nlondonimp said:
We haven’t got a big enough squad to deal with missing three of the key players in the team, at the same time. We ran with quality over quantity due to our budget constraints - rightly in my opinion. For the first 25ish games we showed it works if you get lucky on lack of injuries.
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This is the crux. In truth, he has done a more than admirable job in a short space of time, with very limited resources. Injuries finally caught up with us.
 
It's probably a mix of things.

Losing what I'd consider our strongest players in the 3 positions through the spine of the team isn't great, especially around the same time and them not being a couple of week injuries.

Having to play Grant deeper, then losing him to injury, more recently moving Edun, rotating the full backs in what's already an unsettled side, individual loss of form etc. All seems to have come at once over the last few games.
 
So why haven’t we changed our style/system to the players we have fit.
Fill the midfield and be more defensive at times and stronger through the spine of the team , we have the past to create chances at any point , really think we needed 1 or 2 more experienced players who been around even if only for the short term just to sure things up but easy to say that now.
 
Norfolk-Imp said:
So why haven’t we changed our style/system to the players we have fit.
Fill the midfield but be more defensive at times and stronger through the spine of the team , really think we needed 1 or 2 more experienced players who been around even if only for the short term just to sure things up but easy to say that now.
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Fill the midfield with who? Bridcutt, Grant and Sanders are all injured. The reason we're moving Edun is because of lack of numbers. At one point we had Johnson in midfield as well.
 
Luke Imp said:
Fill the midfield with who? Bridcutt, Grant and Sanders are all injured. The reason we're moving Edun is because of lack of numbers. At one point we had Johnson in midfield as well.
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We have soft centre last few weeks/month so what we are doing isn’t working so maybe try pushing Montsma into holding roll and sacrifice 1 of the front 3 Johnson or Rodgers or have 3 centre backs and give roughan a try.
It’s not working at the moment so try something else
 
Luke Imp said:
It's probably a mix of things.

Losing what I'd consider our strongest players in the 3 positions through the spine of the team isn't great, especially around the same time and them not being a couple of week injuries.

Having to play Grant deeper, then losing him to injury, more recently moving Edun, rotating the full backs in what's already an unsettled side, individual loss of form etc. All seems to have come at once over the last few games.
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It is an extremely unsettled side through injury and everything else. Look at the number of appearances made and how quickly the numbers fall away - these are starts only, from 34 games:

Palmer 34 (probably because we have no one else)
Grant 30 - 88%
Hopper 30 - 88%
Johnson 29 -85%
Montsma 28 - 82%
Eyoma 26 - 76%
Jones 26 - 76%
Edun 25 - 73%
McGrandles 25 - 73%
Jackson 23 - 67%
Bridcutt 16 - 47%
Walsh 16 - 47%
Scully 15 - 44%
Rogers 12 - 35%
Anderson 11 - 32%

Therefore we only have six outfield players who have started more than three-quarters of our games, and that may become four after tomorrow night. That is terrible for consistency. That does not take into account the positional changes you mention, which has further impact. We also have eleven players who have started less than ten games each, showing just how inconsistent the line-ups have been.

Compare that with 2016-17 when six outfield players started 40+ league games each - the core was stable and very consistent. This season, we will probably have none making 40+ starts.

This season has been different to any other of course, with a large number of injuries and rotation dictated by the compacted schedule. We should admire how much they have achieved despite those things.
 
I really think this season is our best chance of going up with what’s happening in the world.
Hope am wrong but just us being a mid table team when normal times come back but hopefully proven wrong.
 
Bridcutt and Walsh 16 each, make explain how we got them, injury prone but boy have we missed them!
 
As has been said injuries to three main players who player in the centre has cost us, particularly Grant.

Walsh has been superb and Bridcutt is badly missed. Even the fact of losing Anderson and Sanders who looks promising is a kick in the teeth.

McGrandles has been superb since he has come back, but we are so short of other quality players to go in the middle to go with him at present. Edun is an option on the left side of midfield but that exposes the weak left back position.

I am surprised Roughan hasn’t been given a bit more of a go, he had the one bad game at Blackpool and has hardly played since,after looking good. Another thing Roughan offers is a bit of height, we were incredibly lucky not to go behind to Rochdale when they had a series of corners early on, on Saturday .

I would bring TJ back for Poole tomorrow night partially for the same reason as well as I think he is a better player. All this is said without seeing what’s happening behind the scenes which we are not privileged to. I would probably bring back Hopper to start for the same reason, height in defence, while doing a good hold up job up front.

Tactically for me, a lot of our home defeats have come against teams that do a high aggressive press. We struggle to get the ball out and particularly on Saturday seemed to defend incredibly deep.

I thought the moment Grant went down at Plymouth the best we were looking at would be a play off place. I would be surprised to see him playing at the same quality before the end of the season if he plays at all,however we live in hope.
 
usually these type of threads appear at the end of the Season. Who knows what the outcome will be come May. Either way I won't be over analysing and pulling to pieces a team that have so far provided such a great experience
 
oldgaurd said:
usually these type of threads appear at the end of the Season. Who knows what the outcome will be come May. Either way I won't be over analysing and pulling to pieces a team that have so far provided such a great experience
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Your ability to never analyse anything is deeply valued on here. ;)
 
NottyImp said:
Your ability to never analyse anything is deeply valued on here. ;)
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Thanks Notty. I'm going to leave the team selection and tactics with The Big Apple for now.Although with our current form he could be on borrowed time.This thread has a hint of menace .An under current. I am concerned the fans are growing restless and need answers .
 
oldgaurd said:
Thanks Notty. I'm going to leave the team selection and tactics with The Big Apple for now.Although with our current form he could be on borrowed time.This thread has a hint of menace .An under current. I am concerned the fans are growing restless and need answers .
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What is to be done?
 
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