Maidstone v Torquayunited 10/3/18

[nickbrod]

Owers put together a decent Bath City squad for this season and currently they're in the top ten in National South. If Owers was sacked just who do we think would take over?

[Yorkieandy]

Owers put together a decent Bath City squad for this season and currently they're in the top ten in National South. If Owers was sacked just who do we think would take over?

Ridiculous statement.

Owers joined Torquay with nearly a full season left. So if Bath won the league it's due to Owers then?

Maybe if Torquay stay up then we should thank Nico? Mmmmm. Not sure about that one.

Who do I think would join Torquay if Owers was sacked? Dunno. Let's keep him then shall we incase we can't get anyone else in.

[nickbrod]

The point is let's see the squad Owers puts together in the close season and then judge him in National South. The initial squad before a new season starts is crucial.

[Plainmoor78]

Ridiculous statement.

Owers joined Torquay with nearly a full season left. So if Bath won the league it's due to Owers then?

Maybe if Torquay stay up then we should thank Nico? Mmmmm. Not sure about that one.

Who do I think would join Torquay if Owers was sacked? Dunno. Let's keep him then shall we incase we can't get anyone else in.

Its no more ridiculous than your assertions that Owers is trying to deliberately relegate the club.

[Yorkieandy]

The point is let's see the squad Owers puts together in the close season and then judge him in National South. The initial squad before a new season starts is crucial.

Dear oh dear.

He's had nearly a full season in charge and brought in God knows how many players, most of which have been useless. As a result the club are only better than bloody Guiseley at the minute and will be going down.

Judge him in the national south? Just can't get my breath tbh.

Sorry nickbrod.

[Yorkieandy]

Its no more ridiculous than your assertions that Owers is trying to deliberately relegate the club.

How do you work that out?

My assertions are based on opinion so they could be true but then again they may not be.

Nickbrods is based on tangible fact. The facts are like I've said, owers has brought in loads of players, had nearly a full season and the club are already as good as down. These are facts. Only one man is responsible and that's the manager. We can argue all day about whether Owers is gutted or whether he's pleased so I don't see how having an opinion either way on that particular topic is ridiculous. Both assertions are purely hypothetical and therefore I could be right. I could be wrong. Neither are ridiculous.

What is ridiculous is stepping back at the end of the season and saying judge Owers NEXT season!! CO may as well have appointed a random 6 year old plucked from the family stand as manager all season and paid him / her in Lego sets or something if there is to be no accountability for gross failure.

[nickbrod]

Well lets face it the squad put together during the last close season was not a "winning lottery ticket". A new season is defined by the squad which starts it - yes or no?

[Yorkieandy]

Well lets face it the squad put together during the last close season was not a "winning lottery ticket". A new season is defined by the squad which starts it - yes or no?

I'm sorry nickbrod but it's a no.

Basically what you are saying is that any manager who comes into a club to replace a new manager isn't accountable. Common sense must surely prevail here? Take Garry Monk at Birmingham. He's come in a few weeks ago and barely got 5 minutes to turn round a sinking ship before the end of the season. He's had no time to assess his players properly, bring in new ones or get any cohesion together so if they go down then he cannot take any blame for that IMO.

However, if he'd taken over in October for example then absolutely, he's responsible. 7/8 months is more than enough time to be able to get your side sorted so they finish above 3 other terrible clubs. If a manager cannot achieve this then it's his fault and he's failed.

Owers has had more than enough time to be able to galvanize a squad of players sufficiently so they are able to finish above such distinguished giants of the game as the likes of Guiseley, Solihull, Chester and Barrow.

I accept that Nico left him with a lot of dead wood yes, but it's not as if he's had to go the whole season just with those players.

Nobody is asking Owers to go and win the FA Cup or even finish top 6. All fans have expected this season is for him to be able to guide a team to 5th bottom of league in which half of it contains teams like Maidstone who can go 17 games without winning and still not be in trouble. I think that's a more than reasonable expectation to have for a club like Torquay. He's not even met that low expectancy level and there are fans out there who think it's fair to give him more time before holding him accountable?

[brucie]

Yes of course it is. The squad was assembled by the previous manager and was the worst in living memory. Owers may have failed miserably but suggesting that Owers (or Osborne) deliberately got us relegated is just plain daft - if he had wanted to do that he would just have stuck with Nicholson.

It might be ridiculous but I bet any money that Owers will still be here next season. Actually I don't care anymore and I am past caring or getting angry about it.

Defeat was inevitable today - a side who havn't won for 17 games were nailed on to beat us. I was more annoyed about England losing the rugby and I don't even like the sport.

Its all very well saying that Owers should galvanise the players but most of the players he inherited are ingrained losers, shirkers or just plain useless.

There isn't much he can do if the useless Pittman misses an open goal or if Gowling reports in sick again on Monday for another three weeks.

Even our so called better players ie Mcginty and Young are just about worse than hopeless.

I honestly cannot see myself ever attending another Torquay match -I am just ambivalent to it completely. Whether its Owers, Harrop, Osborne, Nicholson or the players fault I'm not realy bothered. Bunch of useless tossers - the whole lot of them.

[merse btpir]

Its all very well saying that Owers should galvanise the players but most of the players he inherited are ingrained losers, shirkers or just plain useless.
There isn't much he can do if the useless Pittman misses an open goal or if Gowling reports in sick again on Monday for another three weeks.
Even our so called better players ie Mcginty and Young are just about worse than hopeless.

I stood and studied their demeanour as they came off at the final whistle and they just don't care. There is no fight in this squad, (as you say) the ingrained losers, shirkers and useless.

Young is the worst of the shrinking violets; withdraws from the vital areas of combat when the going gets tough and then they get too deep and hand the initiative to the opposition. [s]Vicki Pollard[/s] George Dowling is the most ridiculous poser in a footbal kit I have ever seen with his over barbered hair and silly tatoos all over the backs of his thighs ~ what the **** does he look like? Lemonheigh-wotsit is another kid in a mans' game and his first touch today was non existent, Davis is on an extended holiday down by the seaside by the look of it and is no help to the younger players at all. In a good side, the more experiened players lend that experience and guide the younger ones, not with this character they don't.

Williams has been around a bit and doesn't help anyone else besides himself and any manager is going to have a huge problem getting much by the way of application, mental toughness or passion out of this bunch of pansies; most of whom will have left town within 24 hours of the final whistle of the season.

They might as well have run up a white flag as they slunk off today; relegation fight? The relegation I see; but the fight? Not a bit of it.

[MellowYellow]

Set up to win ~ we lose
set up not to lose ~ they win

Gary Owers sent his side out to play 3-5-2; and they did ~ with wingbacks who didn't have the pace to finish the opposition off. If Jay Saunders sent his team out to do the same you could have fooled me; they lined up 5-3-2 ~ a plan to avoid defeat at all costs.......and then they went and won it!

Well you could have fooled me too Merse, because from my angle it looked like Owers set up the normal 5-3-2 defensive counter attack that we see both away and at Plainmoor week in week out with our backline a hotbed of indecision which never gets off the ground from minute one.

Before the match I thought to myself, is Owers really no more than a 'one trick pony' or can he break the mould and set a attacking formation. This game was crying out for a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 to allow our primary attackers to drive forward without having to wait for support from the midfield just to give us a smidgen of a chance to get the 3 vital points we needed. But no! Mr 'One Trick Pony' stuck to his tried and tested model of 'failure' the predictable 5-3-2. Now it was clear that this Maidstone team were no Dagenham or Sutton and were not going to outmanoeuvre us in any formation, even if they played till midnight. This team had not won a league match since Nov. since they beat Torquay's 5-3-2 formation - and OK they won a FA Trophy round 4-0 in Dec against Torquay's 5-3-2 formation. So why O' why stick to our failed 5-3-2 defensive counter attack.

As for it being all the players fault - I am not having that - the 40 players that have stepped through Plainmoors doors this season
cannot all be incompetent and inept (that also includes the 22 players Owers has signed) in fact I think some of them are half decent. If you wont to know why I think the 33 players selected to play this season consistently lose or fail to perform its because they play to position and managers instructions in a formation they have never got to grips with. If the process is consistently failing then it is down to our Managers atrocious lack of managerial tactical awareness and lack of game plan.

I await Owers response on todays game. No doubt he will have the audacity to lay all the blame on either the ref, the players, cancelled scouting trips, the fans because we deserve it or maybe the tea-lady for not putting two sugars in his tea. But rest assured he will not take sole responsibility (if any) for this total shambles.

Merse you were quick to plunge your venomous fangs into Nicho shortcoming after #greatescape2. (your entitlement to do so). But what of Owers? Other than the players, you lay no blame at his door in your match analysis for today's dismal display. Not a whisper! Surely you must see the dilemma - Owers arrives to a fanfare after our seventh defeat of the season, bottom of the NL table and already eight points adrift of safety, and now in his 6 months in charge he has subsequently made 22 signings, keep us in the relegation zone with the second worst goal difference in the league and now nine points adrift from safety. His record to date is to say the least - underwhelming. You may wish to defend him like Osborne as being the new 'Messiah' for next seasons Southern National League fixtures, but it is beyond me how he has clung to this job till now, other than the skin of his teeth being made of titanium.

[TUST_Member_Rob]

Owers has had

Time
Money
Games

and - failed, miserably.

How anyone could want this inept manager to continue is beyond me.

[lucy6lucy]

Owers must be relieved of his duties at the end of the season there is no defence in him staying. Merse is also correct in that the players have no spirit or commitment to the club. I watched them walk off at Wrexham it was embarrassing how they didn't care. It has to be a clear out in management and players. The only problem is who the hell would come here. Being in national south is not a selling point and then there is harrop and Osborne.

[merse btpir]

Merse you were quick to plunge your venomous fangs into Nicho shortcoming after #greatescape2. (your entitlement to do so). But what of Owers? Other than the players, you lay no blame at his door in your match analysis for today's dismal display. Not a whisper! Surely you must see the dilemma - Owers arrives to a fanfare after our seventh defeat of the season, bottom of the NL table and already eight points adrift of safety, and now in his 6 months in charge he has subsequently made 22 signings, keep us in the relegation zone with the second worst goal difference in the league and now nine points adrift from safety. His record to date is to say the least - underwhelming. You may wish to defend him like Osborne as being the new 'Messiah' for next seasons Southern National League fixtures, but it is beyond me how he has clung to this job till now, other than the skin of his teeth being made of titanium.

Have I 'defended him'?

I don't see me as defending Owers in any shape or form; where my analysis differes from yours is that you see it as 5-3-2 whereas I say they were set up to win with 3-5-2. A 3-5-2 that unravelled and became 5-3-2 because of the abject surrender of the midfield in being bullied onto the back foot. Looking at the facial expressions of the players in the first half, I don't think they are turning anything but a deaf ear and a negative mind to him and Kuhl in particular anyway.......that is a damning enough reason for any management to be replaced as it is!

But it matters no a jot when your midfield fulcrum jacks it in when the physicality gets turned up; when he has three kids and an old lag playing beside him and in front of a returning influence who can't/won't head the ball properly. Maidstone smelled blood and they morphed from out and out defenders to a team that was bound to get a goal before the final whistle.

I agree with you the signings have been largely dreadful to go with the largely dreadful signings he inherited. The whole squad lacks pace, inventiveness and resilience.

I didn't either play or hear any fanfare when Owers arrived ~ and as has been accurately told on here by Dave Floyd ~ he was not the first choice; so your accusation of my defending him and seeing him like Osborne (that's a bit of a weird one isn't it?) as being the new 'Messiah' for next seasons Southern National League fixtures, is way off the mark.

I have categorically said that his points return is untenable; what more needs to be said of any manager in that situation?

[Southampton Gull]

Owers put together a decent Bath City squad for this season and currently they're in the top ten in National South. If Owers was sacked just who do we think would take over?

That's stretching it a bit far. Bath have been totally revamped by a manager they rate much more highly than Owers and one who encountered players not too dissimilar to those Owers has signed for us.

Perhaps instead of massaging his ego just because you can speak to him like a proper brown nose you'd be better off pointing out the obvious, he's a shit manager and should bugger off asap.