Now the nice stuff is over.

[DTS]

Now all the fun and games of the Chelsea tie is over and done with I feel Tilly has some serious work to be done if he wants to save this season.

Having seen all but one of the homes and most of the aways until my daughter was born I really cant think if many times that we have looked very impressive.

Losing the likes of Gower,Maher, Bailey and Flavs (all be it out of choice) I think has been a hard pill to swallow. The Hammell/Mulgrew departure was papered oer with the arrival of Harding but again I feel is a real area we are lacking.Herd has done well but is too much of a novice to be counted on at this early stage is wat looks like a promising career.

The only time I really think we looked good this season was a 4/5 game spell where we had all the loanees playing. Since then we have scrapped wins and lost games against weak sides taking a few thrashings along the way.

My main issue is the real lack of quality in the side. Looking at the side last night who was really ever going to be a threat. Dont even look at the Chelsea game think back to the home games recently (Northampton and Huddersfield) only Junior looks like he has any spark of creativity in him and he like a lot of our best players is a loanee.

The summer signings were poor in my book. Granty is a decent player, Sankofa I dont see as any upgrade on Hunt, Joyce is no better than Collis was all be it maybe cheaper, Furlong last a few games never to be seen again. With the exception of Freedman I think the side has gone backwards.

Add to this the cronic loss of form of class acts Francis and Macca ( Who is fairness seems to be coming back to form slowly). JFC who i thought was poor last night is I think a good signing but again he is not going to unlock defences.

I really feel either now of in the summer Tilly needs to be given funds to strengthen and a decent clear out is in order. Of the current side Scanell, Foran, Sankofa, Walker, Joyce, Masters etc all add very little if you ask me. Moussa and Grant do the same job. Ademeno has been loaned out here and there and yet we have seen the sum total of one start from him since he fisrt came on what three years ago.

There is so little balance in the side. Only two signed wingers in Betsy and Scannell. No issues with Betsy apart from the fact we dont play him at the moment and Scannell is a waste of space so far. We have a holding midfielder currently playing right side midfield which is an place you need a bit of spark or a decent crosser.

I hope Tilly can put things right soon as if not I fail to see how we can mount any sort of push. Our attacking tow of Barnard and Freedman should be about as good as it gets at this level give or take the Leicesters and Leeds of this world but without any form of creativity from the flanks we will never reap the real benefits.

Here hoping Tilly has a master plan akin to last Jans reshuffle up his sleeve. I will be at Stockport with my fingers crossed.

 

[ShrimplyTheBest]

Great summary Dave I agree with all of it... we are crying out for creativity and some players with some ability to do something out of the ordinary! Unfortunately Junior will never be our player!!! Heres hoping T&B have the funds and the targets in mind otherwise I fear we will be relying on set pieces for the largest proportion of our goals! Ever the optimist but realistically I feel we may have to wait until the Summer for the real activity in the transfer market...

 

[Rob Noxious]

Good & most relevant subject for a thread I've seen in a while re. the team/squad- this will be quite a defining time for Tilly, ie where we go over the next few months. He needs to be busy over the next two weeks with full-back cover & some creative midfield 'nouss' (?spelling); some extra pace up front would not go amiss following loss of Laurent, but will RM back him with the dosh from the Chelsea games?

 

[Kris]

Very good thread, Dave. I posted this on another thread but I thought it was worth copying here as well:

We desperately need a creative player in the Sawyer mould because I had a look back at our recent fixtures and the stats reveal we haven't scored from open play since Luton in late November - eight games ago, and in the league two games before that at home to Oldham. Shocking.

 

[seany t]

Yeah I agree Dave. This has been a great distraction that'll long live in the memory but as I wrote earlier in the "Any complaints thead":

"As I've already said you have to be proud over the 180 minutes. But if I was being super critical and neglected to take into account that it was Chelsea we were playing, then I'd say the usual things came back to haunt us once more:

Inexperience in midfield to link up with the front players, defensive mix up for the first goal, sloppy losing of possession for their third and fourth goals, weaker second half display

But it was Chelsea, so the players get a let off this time around. However they are still all things we DO need to improve on if we want to finish in those play off spots - something i think may be a little beyond us this season..."

I believe in Revs, we've got a good target man who'll run all day. In Freedman, we've got an intelligent space maker who'll set up people and not lose his cool in front of goal. In Barnard, we've got a great finisher and dribbler of the ball. In Laurent, we've got an unknown and hard to contain quality. In Walker, a terrible penalty taker but a guy who has shown heart and some quality pace.

But we have no one in midfield as yet that can play the decisive ball or fool a defender into running the wrong way to allow these guys to show us what they're capable of. Sawyer was great at it, Macca has his moments at it (but perhaps we thought this part of his game is actually better than it truly is due to Bailey being alongside), Moussa may develop into this player but isn't there yet. We are missing the links that were Bailey and Gower, and their spatial awareness.

In my book, its got to be our number one area for improvement this month.

 

[DTS]

I believe in Revs, we've got a good target man who'll run all day.

And that I am affraid is all that he offers. Great work rate but nothing else. I dont even think he is that effect as a target man as he rarely ever owns the central defender.

I wonder if he had ginger hair if he we would have got the same amount of stick as Harrold did. I dont know the stats but I suspect they are not dis-similar in terms of goals to games ratio.

Revell is slow, he does not connect with the ball when he hits it, he can only play the way he is facing and has almost no creativity.

Work rate - Untouchable but everything else in his game is poor is my book. He rates up there in my book as one of Tilly worst signings despite the fact that I cant help but like him for his effort.

 

[seany t]

And that I am affraid is all that he offers. Great work rate but nothing else. I dont even think he is that effect as a target man as he rarely ever owns the central defender.

I wonder if he had ginger hair if he we would have got the same amount of stick as Harrold did. I dont know the stats but I suspect they are not dis-similar in terms of goals to games ratio.

Revell is slow, he does not connect with the ball when he hits it, he can only play the way he is facing and has almost no creativity.

Work rate - Untouchable but everything else in his game is poor is my book. He rates up there in my book as one of Tilly worst signings despite the fact that I cant help but like him for his effort.

Well I always rated Matt Harrold and to this day argue that the reason Clarke scored so many for us was due to his hard work to free up lose balls and get in peoples faces. Is Revs better? Time will tell and I'm not sure either, but my point is that he offers us a type of player that will be of use in some matches. All of those above strikers have differing aspects to their game that can be tailored to the style of our opponent.

But without a decent cross or through ball to feed off of, they might as well all be Charlie Mac...

 

[seany t]

I also think the love of Revs comes largely down to his columns and some Zoners over compensating for the abuse they got for their detrimental views on Harrold.

Had he got that effort in yesterday though...

 

[BoyWonder2]

We aren't that far away from having a squad that can compete for the top 6 to be honest. Mildenhall, over the 2 Chelsea games, has been very impressive. Sankofa has done a brilliant job replacing Francis, Herd has now play 6 competitive games for us and looks to be a real prospect, Granty has been our man of the match in both the Chelsea games.

This season, for me, was always going to be a frustating one. I said I'd be happy with mid table and a cup run, and getting to the 3rd round and playing Chelsea home and away counts as a Cup run in my eyes. As for the rest of the season, I don't think its going to be brilliant but a decent end of the season will look promising for next season. Also, blooding the likes of O'Keefe, Herd, Moussa, Hazell into the first team squad will save us signing players next season.

Yes we do need to strengthen some areas, but not a great deal to be honest, in my opinion.

 

[shrimperstubbs]

Its simple, a win this Saturday is what we need now.

 

[DTS]

We aren't that far away from having a squad that can compete for the top 6 to be honest. Mildenhall, over the 2 Chelsea games, has been very impressive. Sankofa has done a brilliant job replacing Francis, Herd has now play 6 competitive games for us and looks to be a real prospect, Granty has been our man of the match in both the Chelsea games.

This season, for me, was always going to be a frustating one. I said I'd be happy with mid table and a cup run, and getting to the 3rd round and playing Chelsea home and away counts as a Cup run in my eyes. As for the rest of the season, I don't think its going to be brilliant but a decent end of the season will look promising for next season. Also, blooding the likes of O'Keefe, Herd, Moussa, Hazell into the first team squad will save us signing players next season.

Yes we do need to strengthen some areas, but not a great deal to be honest, in my opinion.

Of the current first team squad Boy Wonder how many do you really consider to be good enough to challenge for the top six.

 

[BoyWonder2]

Mildenhall, Barrett, Grant, JFC, Stan (Even though his not ours), Laurent, Barny, Freedman, Macca, Francis, Clarke.

Yes we do have some players who I don't consider good enough like Foran, Scannell and a couple of others but we aren't far off.

Maybe next season, with a half a season behind them, the likes of Moussa, Herd, O'Keefe will progress along and be considered good young players.

 

[Beefy]

Of the current first team squad Boy Wonder how many do you really consider to be good enough to challenge for the top six.

I agree, Dave. But I just don't think that the funds are there right now to build a top six side like the one that we had last season. Tilly can't be expected to keep pulling rabbits out of the hat like he has done with the likes of Sawyer, Harding and Stanislas.

I think we have a mid-table squad and that we'll finish mid-table.

 

[Beefy]

And that I am affraid is all that he offers. Great work rate but nothing else. I dont even think he is that effect as a target man as he rarely ever owns the central defender.

I wonder if he had ginger hair if he we would have got the same amount of stick as Harrold did. I dont know the stats but I suspect they are not dis-similar in terms of goals to games ratio.

Revell is slow, he does not connect with the ball when he hits it, he can only play the way he is facing and has almost no creativity.

Work rate - Untouchable but everything else in his game is poor is my book. He rates up there in my book as one of Tilly worst signings despite the fact that I cant help but like him for his effort.

Rightly or wrongly, Tilly always likes to set his side up with a targetman and for a lower league targetman Alex Revell is as good as we're going to get. He's good in the air, he's strong and as we all know he doesn't stop running. He'll also get us 8-10 goals a season which isn't prolific by any means but which isn't a bad return for a secondary striker.

Is he a better player than Matt Harrold? I think he is, but there wouldn't be much in it. But then the biggest problem with Harrold was the complete lack of confidence that he had in his last year here. When he first arrived he was getting into the box, causing Championship defenders to panic and got the odd goal. By the time he left he was lurking on the edge of the box afraid to shoot. The likes of Revell and Harrold are rarely going to be crowd favourites because they often look like complete donkeys on the field and they don't score many goals. Revs looks like he's a big enough character to accept that he's going to get stick from the fans. Harrold didn't and wasn't.

 

[Reg Martin]

Our squad has a strange lop-sided look to it at the moment - only 5 defenders but 4 central midfielders and 7 forwards and the 2 first-choice forwards are very injury-prone
Some of the players look good at times but very ordinary at others - Francis, Barrett, Clarke, Grant to name but 4 - so I find it hard to make up my mind what we need.
I think you could put up a case for saying that if we are going to challenge next season we would need 3 new defenders, 2 widemen in midfield and maybe even another forward who is going stay fit and score regularly.

 

[Rob Noxious]

Our squad has a strange lop-sided look to it at the moment - only 5 defenders but 4 central midfielders and 7 forwards and the 2 first-choice forwards are very injury-prone
Some of the players look good at times but very ordinary at others - Francis, Barrett, Clarke, Grant to name but 4 - so I find it hard to make up my mind what we need.
I think you could put up a case for saying that if we are going to challenge next season we would need 3 new defenders, 2 widemen in midfield and maybe even another forward who is going stay fit and score regularly.

...& in the here & now:- full-back cover, at least one creative MF player and some pace up front pending Laurent's return. Whoops, said this earlier...

 

[DTS]

Rightly or wrongly, Tilly always likes to set his side up with a targetman and for a lower league targetman Alex Revell is as good as we're going to get. He's good in the air, he's strong and as we all know he doesn't stop running. He'll also get us 8-10 goals a season which isn't prolific by any means but which isn't a bad return for a secondary striker.

Is he a better player than Matt Harrold? I think he is, but there wouldn't be much in it. But then the biggest problem with Harrold was the complete lack of confidence that he had in his last year here. When he first arrived he was getting into the box, causing Championship defenders to panic and got the odd goal. By the time he left he was lurking on the edge of the box afraid to shoot. The likes of Revell and Harrold are rarely going to be crowd favourites because they often look like complete donkeys on the field and they don't score many goals. Revs looks like he's a big enough character to accept that he's going to get stick from the fans. Harrold didn't and wasn't.

If Revell is to give you the 8-10 goals that you think he can get then he really needs to go some. I can count at the moment Millwall Away, Swindon at home and Tranmere away. Three in half a season.

Barnard and Freedman despite being made of glass both have more already. Junior I think has the same amount from six or seven games on the wing.