rooster wrote:Bring back Ling, may have been boring but at least we didn't get dicked every week, against poor opposition..........he must be laughing his socks off.............
I don't think sacking Knill will help us right now (even though I didn't want him in the 1st place). We did alright in our previous 2 games, even if the result in Newport was bad. Today's result is poor but having a new loan signing at CB with TC can't have helped. Give Alan the opportunity to turn things around in the next few games.
Now I am worried,I am trying to take some positives from this game.our centre of defence was taken away by injury and illness and replaced by a new recuite and a guy playing out of position so we were allways up against it but its now ten games and we are dropping like a stone.We need an old head in the centre of midfield to help the young players but we ain't got no money so a very long season ahead ,just hope that there are two worst teams in this division but not sure there are.
From the last 3 games I thought that 7 points (at least) were very possible. Would have helped shape the season and get sniffing around the play off zone. Taking only 3 is not good enough. As Torquay dont tend to do mid table security, it could be a long season looking over the shoulders. Especially with some tougher games coming up.
I don't see how todays result can be defended. Regardless of anything else, and no disrespect to York, but a home game against a side who have started even worse than we had had to be one we were looking to win.
I don't buy into the "but we played well........." line. I seem to recall our relegation years we were rarely beaten off the park. In fact in League 1 we put in a number of very good performances which went unrewarded. But dominating games and playing pretty stuff doesn't necessarily equate to points unless you stick it in the net.
I for one thought that Knill had assembled a good little squad pre-season, but its not working out at the moment. The centre half situation is worrying, as I always thought we were a little light in that position and today our worst nightmare came true. Clearly Hutchings isn't an option as he couldn't even make the bench (I will retract that statement if someone tells me he is injured) and McKenzie seems to have been absent for an absolute age, struggling with the diabetes. A make-shift defence was always going to be a danger.
Just got back, first 30 minutes was good even game with some nice football then everyone seemed to turn off, it was shocking. York were no masterclass we made them look better than they were. The only positive of the game and someone doing something was azeez and taking him off was a shocking descision and I'm a fan of Knill but that was pure crap. I thought in all fairness that oconnor played well and played more useful passes than lee mansell. All in all sh*t
PlainmoorRoar wrote:Posts about how people didnt want knill and knew this would happen- incoming
I've made my feelings about him fairly clear throughout - certainly since his appointment.
That aside, you won't be getting an "I told you so" post out of me....
People will be saying yeah we played well against Newport, we dominated early against York but can't you see the pattern, we keep coming away with zero points. Knill wants to play this free flowing football yeah that's great if you can defend. We are leaking goals at a terrible rate. Why did he change the formation again just because we were at home and he didn't want to look negative. He should have given the center backs that bit of protection having Lathrope in front of them. I now want us to be tight and shut up shop and get some 1-0 wins and move up the table otherwise were in the shit big time.
Quick review for those who were lucky NOT to be at Plainmoor today:
- First 20 minutes we were fantastic, created 6/7 good scoring opportunities and York could not get out of their third.
- Slowly they crept into the game forcing some corners but no real shooting opportunities.
- Half time came around and we'd failed to find any rhythm after the 20 min opening spell.
- Very lacklustre start saw York take the lead, their lad held off O'Connor and drilled past Rice on the turn.
- We didn't really start after that, gave away a freekick which seemed very dubious as O'Connor and their lad were both pulling and all that. Resulting free kick curled in, through Ricey's hands, hit the post and hit Rice on the back of the head and went in. Shocking keeping, unfortunately.
- Heads went down, we passed nicely but once Azeez went off we had no aerial threat (so what did we do? pump it forward!), then their third goal comes from a corner. Ball comes in, defender has the freedom of the bay to meet it, hits the bar, and Jarvis knocked it in from the line.
I was one of the unlucky ones Agree with the above posters that we started off really well then faded horribly, had numerous chances (mainly in the first half) but just didn't take them. Our best player was probably Azeez so I'm also baffled as to why he was taken off.
Why shouldn't anyone say "I told you so". If we win the next game 2-0 or whatever watch the rose tinters start saying some rubbish like "let's push on for a play off place".
It was plainly obvious from the start that our attack and central midfield is dire and lacks any creativity. Some people dream and think this was a good squad, based on what.
Its a poor squad and a poor set of players. Maybe its all we can afford, so be it, and thats probably why Ling went for boring football to eak out enough points to survive.
As stated several games ago its one of the worst forward lines I can remember.
So after 10 games have we now "gelled", well yes we have, into a losing team.
Playing free flowing football with players who are not capable of doing it is the problem. You have to have at least 2 or 3 special players to pull that off and we haven't got 1 so no point.
Major surgery required but we probably havnt got the money now. But Ball should be sent back asap. Knills signings poor, and yes we should be thinking about a replacement, or we will go down. Someone mocked my suggestion we would be relegation candidates, mm mm.... We will be without a huge turnaround.