Echo News Southend United boss Mark Molesley admits it is hard to keep large squad happy

[Evening Echo]

SOUTHEND United manager Mark Molesley admits it is not always possible to keep his large squad happy.

Read more on this story


Help with Echo links

 

[RobM]

Maybe try keeping the fans happy?

 

[Tampa Blue]

22 players and not one goal scorer amongst them.

Great testament to an extremely poor recruitment policy.

 

[mfurok]

One goalscorer who is rarely selected but never played anywhere near the goal or with any support........but otherwise of course you are spot on.

 

[LBBlue]

Someone should have told him that it’s not SIZE of squad that matters - it’s what you do with it.

That list of 22 doesnt have Bwomono, Klass, Kyprianou, Phillips or Walsh in it. Then there’s Lennon, Ralph, Gard. How much are all that lot costing us. It’s not good having lots of footballers not getting a game of football.

His recruitment policy has been like a little boy in a sweet shop buying all the cheap rubbish sweets with a mum who doesn’t stop him.

Nearly everyone who has come along and said can I have a game has been given a contract.

This is where the CEO if we had one should have intervened.

 

[Strykr]

He is a midfield/winger hoarder.

Not 1 striker. Even one that could score 5 goals in league 2.

:(

 

[Shrimper]

22 players and not one goal scorer amongst them.

Great testament to an extremely poor recruitment policy.

Yeah, you can thank Ron for that. Dragged our name through the mud

 

[Jay_SUFC]

Yeah, you can thank Ron for that. Dragged our name through the mud

Really, so midfielders don't have a problem signing, but forwards do?

It's not as if we can't sign players, is it!

 

[Barling Magna]

Really, so midfielders don't have a problem signing, but forwards do?

It's not as if we can't sign players, is it!

Successful strikers aren't easily come by though and exert a premium. So far this season only one League Two striker has scored over 20 (Mullins of Cambridge). Two more have scored over 15 (Vaughan of Tramere and Matt of FGR). Down among our relegation mini-league only Walsall and Barrow have had strikers who have scored 10 goals, Quigley for Barrow and Adebayo for Walsall. Adebayo was sold to Luton in January and has scored three goals in nine appearances for them. Since then Walsall have managed only five goals in ten matches.

 

[Shrimpersfan]

I had forgotten we signed Walsh. Has he even made an appearance yet?

 

[jimmy55]

I had forgotten we signed Walsh. Has he even made an appearance yet?

One for the process.. when the academy folds.

 

[Strykr]

I had forgotten we signed Walsh. Has he even made an appearance yet?

Walsh isnt real, it was all a hoax.

 

[onceknownasrab]

We have goals scorers. We do not have a consistent selection of a front line that can learn to gel. Players lack confidence in front of goal due to in and out selection process. We also need two strikers that interchange in the middle and don't have to chase back to the halfway line to get the ball. Played right this side has goals in it.

 

[OllieSteph44]

Even I have to admit, this has been MMs biggest area of weakness for me. The squad is huge and too many are like for like or no better than what was already in place. It’s unbalanced and there are very few I see as long term. I do understand that long term wasn’t necessarily a priority right now as right now means staying up, but I still don’t understand the balance of some of those signed.

Rotation and rest is important but so is consistency and continuity and too many players isn’t healthy.

 

[Holy Joe]

I had forgotten we signed Walsh. Has he even made an appearance yet?

Didn't he come on as sub a while ago?

 

[sufc4life21]

I had forgotten we signed Walsh. Has he even made an appearance yet?

Couple of sub appearance against orient and vale. But didn't have long enough to show what he can do.

 

[thenobster]

A sign of a good manager is keeping your squad motivated and communicated to. You'll never keep everyone happy, humans never are...

 

[blues exile]

One day when we have a bit of perspective on this crazy season perhaps some things will become obvious.
1) Martin took a punt on a rookie manager who had been helped to success by his Bournemouth connections which disguised his shortcomings. The Redknapp factor?
2) Embargo and injuries obviously played a part in the awful sequence of early results but the style of football Molesley persisted with for far too long made matters worse.
3) The run of good results towards the end of the year coincided with the abandonment of tippy tappy academy football, rather than as a result of shrewd recruitment. Only Olayinka could be counted as an unqualified success, the others only contributed fitfully.
4) The regression in January as a result of unnecessary change of formation and tactics.
5) February and March hard to beat but goals dried up completely. The 3-1 win at FGR begins to look as much a freak result as that 6-1 at Scunthorpe all those years ago and we know what happened that season.
6) Recruitment in the January window was bizarre, over stocking midfielders and wingers and neglecting the one crucial and blindingly obvious need for a reliable goalscorer, evident from the first game of the season. Result, a bloated squad of players who are either way over the hill or no different or better than we already had, all of which underlines poor judgement on the part of the manager.
7) A particularly ugly style of football, anti football in many ways, the essence of which seems to be to stop the other side playing, break up the game as much as possible and engage in the full range of the dark arts from the childish to full on cheating.
8) Whether we go down or not, who would want to watch another season of this rubbish with no reason to suppose that lessons have been learned by Martin or Molesley.

 

[mfurok]

Even I have to admit, this has been MMs biggest area of weakness for me. The squad is huge and too many are like for like or no better than what was already in place. It’s unbalanced and there are very few I see as long term. I do understand that long term wasn’t necessarily a priority right now as right now means staying up, but I still don’t understand the balance of some of those signed.

Rotation and rest is important but so is consistency and continuity and too many players isn’t healthy.

Agree - if it’s tweaked to ‘one of his biggest areas of weakness’.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Our squad is bloated but it is bloated with players that Molesley doesn't fancy and inherited.

Molesley's signings

Green (loan) - injured and gone
Hobson - first team regular
Akinola - first team regular
McCormack - a Ron signing but a first team regular when he's available
K Taylor (loan) - injury and covid hit but he's played more often than not when available
Nathaniel-George - been regularly involved
Sterling (loan) - desperation signing and gone
Olayinka (loan) - first team regular when fit
Hart - been involved regularly
Halford - squad player signed to add experience
Walsh - u23 signing and one for the future
Hackett-Fairchild - first team regular
Ferguson - first team regular
Cordner (loan) - signed for depth, which he's provided
Mellis - been injured but now fit and has appeared in last 2 matches
Ranger - desperation signing predictably injured and out for season
Holmes - not fit but has been involved
Bass (loan) - injured and gone
Montgomery - (loan) gone (for now?)

So who does that leave?

Inherited regulars - Oxley, Bwomono, White, Lennon (long-term injured), Ralph (long-term injured), Dieng, Demetriou, Egbri(?)

Inherited but not sure where they stand - Goodship and Clifford



Academy products Molesley doesn't fancy - Acquah, Kyprianou, Klass, R Taylor, Phillips, Gard, Howard, Seaden, Kinali, Mitchell-Nelson, Rush etc

Take out the u23s and the long term injured and it's actually a squad of 20 and about half of those aren't fully fit (McCormack, Halford, Olayinka, Clifford, Mellis, Holmes, Egbri, Oxley, Akinola, K Taylor)!