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

Shrimpet steve · Mar 23, 2021

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

Yes 2 I think, first was at orient away! I wouldn't worry about him tho another one not good enough!

South Bucks Shrimper · Mar 23, 2021

I thought I heard in match commentary that we have used over 50 players this season. Is there somewhere those stats can be viewed, other than in the printed programme?

RHB · Mar 23, 2021

Shrimpet steve said:
Yes 2 I think, first was at orient away! I wouldn't worry about him tho another one not good enough!

Why's that then?

Danshrimp1 · Mar 23, 2021

Shrimpet steve said:
Yes 2 I think, first was at orient away! I wouldn't worry about him tho another one not good enough!

How can you judge him on a couple of 5 minute appearances??

Kris · Mar 23, 2021

blues exile said:
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.

Interesting...

1) Possibly
2) and 3) I keep reading this and it baffles me. We definitely played tippy-tappy against Harrogate, to disastrous effect, but I can't remember seeing this since. We didn't against Carlisle, Morecambe, Exeter, Salford, Bolton, etc. As far as I'm concerned we abandoned it after that game.
4) Possibly. I think it was changed after the 2-0 defeat at Orient when Sam Hart was taken apart by Wilkinson and we were stretched all over the pitch. Could be wrong. It may have coincided with Clifford's absence through injury. Hart is useless at left-back but is more comfortable as a wing-back so that may be why MM changed the tactics.
5) Agree but we weren't prolific scorers before that either. To be honest I think MM realised that we needed to be tighter to win points and has stuck to that game plan, with reasonable, if ugly, success.
6) I agree to an extent. Failing to get a striker in was disappointing. Did MM try hard enough? I'd like to think so: Akinde would have been a fantastic signing. Instead we were left with Ranger. Regarding the 'bloated' squad, given the circumstances, the unprecedented run of games, etc, I'd rather this than overly thin; in recent years we've struggled badly with squad depth.
7) It's hard to watch, definitely. The lack of composure on the ball is particularly disappointing but...
8) It will get better next season, regardless of which division we are in. This has been an unprecedented season for football as a whole and for me MM deserves the chance to play his way, get a proper pre-season under his belt, build his own squad and hopefully have the benefit of a crowd behind him. Not always a good thing of course but I think we'll see strong attendances initially. iFollow has been a reasonable substitute but only reasonable. Nothing beats the walk from Prittlewell or Westcliff to RH on matchday.