Highs :
White
Cordner
Clifford
Al played well , Hobson to an extent until his error
Halford done ok and Demi had his best game
Lows:
never looked like scoring all week let alone all game
Holmes , ANG and Acquah were poor and passengers if you ask me
If we had rolled the dice and had a bit of a mix in defensive and attacking options from the start we could of nicked a win as Cheltenham were no better than us
For me the 5 players who must start every game are .....White & Hobson as a pair , Ferguson , Akinola and Taylor .
with 3 on the bench for whatever reasons we played into their hands and cost us the win IMO
I don't disagree with the effectiveness of the five players you've named, but if last night showed us anything it was that, arguably at least, Elvis is our most indispensable player.
If you work through the squad, there are viable alternatives in just about every position on the pitch currently:
*If Oxley is injured, Seaden was capable on 45 minutes' showing on Saturday, plus Bass and Montgomery both did well on emergency goalkeeper loans;
*If White or Hobson are injured, Cordner has shown he can step in, and Dieng is an option at centre-back as well;
*If Clifford is injured, Hart comes in;
*If Ferguson, Dieng and Kyle Taylor don't play, there's JD, Macca, Olayinka (soon) and Mellis (at some stage);
*If ANG or Holmes can't play, there's RHF, or Akinola/Olayinka out wide, plus Goodship;
*In the forward position, none of the candidates have been prolific in the league over the course of their career, so if one is missing, another can easily step in. Acquah fits the formation best, but Halford could step in to play that role (albeit less effectively).
With Elvis, now that JD has been converted into a central midfielder and Halford is viewed as a utility man, there's the inexperienced option of Rob Howard or Reiss Chandler (which we've seen with Seaden not being entrusted long-term with the gloves is unlikely to be MM's favoured choice), or the option of playing a centre-back in Hobson out of position, where he doesn't look anywhere near as comfortable.
For me, at least on recent performances, Elvis doesn't quite get the credit he deserves. He was immense at the end of last season, even when asked to play at centre-back (a position he'd never played in his career previously), and there was a little dip at the beginning of this campaign. But even when he wasn't playing well, he was working hard and the ratio of goals conceded down our left compared to our right would be quite stark.
At times he's struggled with injury this season (most noticeably in the defeat Port Vale when he had to go off, but he had to play on in one of the home games this season as well), but I think he is a crucial player in these final 9-10 weeks of the season for us, for the performances he puts in, the character he shows and the leadership he provides, particularly to the younger players in the squad.
