Today v Burton | Page 8 | Vital Football

Today v Burton

chris who said:
Too many people rated Jackson and Akindie but the fact is they are both excellent league two players.Add in our loans which have been very average this year at best and half the top 14 players are not up to standard.
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We shop at League 2 player level though as that’s the wages we can afford with the budget we have.
We can’t afford an established League 1 striker or right back, I think Barry was partly let go as he was one of the higher earners.
 
SE knew the budget when he joined. The signings are his. He must take the blame.

Our strikers are not of the right quality, none of them.
 
wxgill said:
SE knew the budget when he joined. The signings are his. He must take the blame.

Our strikers are not of the right quality, none of them.
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Or you could say the buck stops with Scally, as he appointed Evans, and sets the budget.
There does seem to be a lot of Scally apologists on this board though.
I don’t know what the answer is but changing the manager every 2 years isn’t working.
 
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wxgill said:
SE knew the budget when he joined. The signings are his. He must take the blame.

Our strikers are not of the right quality, none of them.
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Samuel is quality. He isn't fit and he has been playing out of position which hasn't helped our current situation.
 
Bromley_GFC said:
If you're counting me as a Scally "apologist" for my post then you're very mistaken, I've called him out on loads of stuff.
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No I’m not and it’s a post out of frustration, I expected some flak from it, perhaps the usual subjects will be out defending him tomorrow.
 
The problem with change every 18 months or so is that there is no real long term strategy understandably at present. But the fact that we only seem to produce championship players and above or non league points to lack of something on long term youth policy. That unfortunately also means there are next to no senior professional footballers living in Kent .That I would argue contributes to our problems.
 
The realistic target for this season is to stay in this division of the EFL. Hopefully with fans back next August and revenue returning we can then start to assess our position. Wage bills will be capped and almost certainly attendances will be lower as we will be facing higher unemployment and a major recession. Coaches who can build a good squad on a shoestring will be worth their weight in gold, Non-League coaches will have their chance to prove their worth and those who need a big budget will fall by the wayside. Million pound a year Championship players and managers will become a thing of the past, even the Premier league will have trouble selling their games for such high prices. We will be facing an uncertain future.
 
Baghdad_Rob said:
One thing that was obvious about Graham's crossing in the second half** is the fact most of the crosses, especially to the back post were high looping ones which drops in an obvious position. I think it is relatively easy for the defenders to predict where to challenge for the ball as it drops. What Graham needs to maybe start doing is fire the ball at pace at face height in order to allow our strikers to try and get on the end of them across the 6 yard box and not just back post.



** didn't realise it was a 2pm kick off
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Think you may we well find that Graham "standing the ball up to the back post" is a ploy for our attackers to attack the ball. The fact they don't is the issue. Too many times when crosses come in the box our strikers are static, they don't even try and attack the cross. As a striker being on the move is key, sadly ours never are.
 
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Bromley_GFC said:
100% spot on. To be fair when you looked at our squad pre season I remember most of us feeling optimistic - the signings of Dempsey, Graham and Samuel were better than I would have expected, plus we managed to keep hold of Ogilvie and Tucker who were two of the better players in the whole of league one last season. Add to that a solid goalkeeper in Bonham and I was actually thinking we'd have a chance of a top 6 place, definitely was confident of top 10 but we seem to be regressing.

I will give Evans credit he came in and had an impact last season, our league position was fairly good and we had a decent FA Cup run and gave West Ham a decent run for their money. I enjoyed last season for the first time in ages especially our long unbeaten run of about 19 matches. I wouldn't say the Evans appointment has been a disaster just standard fare that football managers have a shorter life cycle these days.

I wouldn't sack Evans right now but it does look like his days are numbered and Scally will make that decision if he carries on blaming the budget. The constant excuses are beginning to wear thin now (no pun intended) and "smallest budget in the league" being rolled our after each defeat, I'm sorry but I really struggle to believe that's true.

Scally has actually backed Evans more than Lovell (judging by the quality of players signed) and we are in no better position now than when Lovell was sacked, the difference when Lovell was at the end of his spell with us was entertaining away matches and a club legend status for Gills fans to hold onto, although results were beginning to worsen, with Evans it's just dire football (home and away) poor results, a bloke that most people didn't want in the first place. We are in a pandemic and the biggest objective in the coming months is the club surviving financially and with Scally already having backed Evans more than I thought he would I definitely don't want SE to be able to chuck more money around because let's face it on the evidence of this season he has already wasted what he's been given.

There's been a fair few of us who think Scally has been tight in the past but let's be real at this momment that shrewdness is vital in keeping Gillingham afloat with the pandemic possibly putting the end to some league clubs. Evans has been backed but the players he has brought in are underachieving is my view. 👍🏻
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Top post, Bromley.

Don't think there is any excuses for SE. It's not like last season he had a massive budget and that was whipped from under him in the summer. He made it work last season.

When you have limited players that's where what you do (or don't do) on the training ground shows ( I noticed SE said last week that we'd been moving around training grounds for the first 4 months of the season). Getting your basics right, organising your defence, your set up, your methods, the way you want to play, set plays both defensively and offensively all need to be worked on on the training ground. We just simply aren't as effective as a unit, defensively or offensively as we were last season with what appear to be a better quality of player, certainly offensively.

That has to lay at the door of the management and coaching

On the training ground issue, not sure who's to blame but having contaminated soil put on your training ground during refurbishment is not ideal.
 
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I think most of us expected either, or both of Tucker and/or Ogilvie being sold last summer. We held on to both.
We then added Akinde, Oliver, Dempsey and Samuel as well as the Arsenal lads.
Most of us I believe thought we had a decent, if small, squad.
So I really don’t believe that it is entirely down to backing/budget.
Evans always seems to have the same cycle wherever he goes:
Comes in, gets rid of a lot of players, brings in a shed load of new ones - result - short term improvement.
That improvement then begins to wane. He ships out players and brings in new ones - result - no improvement and decline continues.
He then decides to ship out more and bring in more - result - he gets the tin tack.
It seems he is a fantasy football manager who doesn’t improve players, set them up in a clear, defined system and get them playing with any fluency or cohesion.
We have had the first couple of cycles.
Is it time for the third and say goodbye?
In my opinion yes, yes it is.
 
Love how Danny Cowley has his name mentioned when nearly every job comes up...OK he was successful at Lincoln City, but he is a lump it up the field manager! No idea of going through the thirds!
 
Captainreblue said:
Think you may we well find that Graham "standing the ball up to the back post" is a ploy for our attackers to attack the ball. The fact they don't is the issue. Too many times when crosses come in the box our strikers are static, they don't even try and attack the cross. As a striker being on the move is key, sadly ours never are.
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I'm with Baghdad on this one. These sort of crosses are hard to attack as you have to out jump the defender and generate all the power. I'd like to see him bring the ball into the box and cut it back sometimes or pick out a man with pace on it like Willock did with Johnson late on yesterday when he clashed heads. Just mix it up a bit. Or go for goal himself
 
I think I am with the fans who would keep Evans at least to the end of the season. No budget increase allow him to sign replacements for anyone leaving but only short term deals.This allows rebuilding in the summer by Evans or his replacement. If he wants to leave so be it.More funds unless Scally can find a investment at this stage would be wrong.Evans must show he has what it takes in the remaining fixtures to get a offer of a new deal.Get it right and we all win.
 
Colburn said:
I'm with Baghdad on this one. These sort of crosses are hard to attack as you have to out jump the defender and generate all the power. I'd like to see him bring the ball into the box and cut it back sometimes or pick out a man with pace on it like Willock did with Johnson late on yesterday when he clashed heads. Just mix it up a bit. Or go for goal himself
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I think mix it up a bit is the key.
Also it’s all well and good getting to the line and whipping in a ‘cut back’ cross, but this requires our strikers moving to meet the ball. Not just standing there waiting for the bloody thing.
 
bathnightattheminogu said:
I think most of us expected either, or both of Tucker and/or Ogilvie being sold last summer. We held on to both.
We then added Akinde, Oliver, Dempsey and Samuel as well as the Arsenal lads.
Most of us I believe thought we had a decent, if small, squad.
So I really don’t believe that it is entirely down to backing/budget.
Evans always seems to have the same cycle wherever he goes:
Comes in, gets rid of a lot of players, brings in a shed load of new ones - result - short term improvement.
That improvement then begins to wane. He ships out players and brings in new ones - result - no improvement and decline continues.
He then decides to ship out more and bring in more - result - he gets the tin tack.
It seems he is a fantasy football manager who doesn’t improve players, set them up in a clear, defined system and get them playing with any fluency or cohesion.
We have had the first couple of cycles.
Is it time for the third and say goodbye?
In my opinion yes, yes it is.
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I think you make valid points, bath, especially about the frantic rotation, which IMO, has prevented a more stable back four. But i`m not sure that SE moving on at this time would help us greatly in achieving the main objective - to consolidate. Consolidation in itself is a massive challenge in the current climate so a solvent mid-table GFC come end of season would be admirable as far as i`m concerned.
 
ian08040 said:
Supported Gillingham since 74,and I’m struggling to remember watching worse football than what I’ve seen last dozen games bar odd one,
Seems a football match is not 2 halves of 45 minutes each for us,it’s bugger all first 45 minutes then perhaps 20 minutes we decide to play,but couldn’t hit a barn door from 2 feet.
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Ian, I have to disagree, especially when I think of the incredible dreary, bleak and dour offerings that Peter Taylor offered up on a weekly basis. At least we have a few players who are individually gifted and are entertaining to watch; at least we look like we might actually score a goal or want to win a game. We need a new striker, for sure, and we could/ should be playing better football. We`ve got some good players, not enough, I agree, and in Eric Morcambe musical terms, even though we`ve got it right with some of the notes, we do appear to be having trouble playing them in the right order !
 
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