brucie wrote:I am not sure on what basis you think we will beat Exeter. Ling just seems to have a healthy obsession with winning games 1-0. He cannot seem to grasp that last year we had better defensive players and the team was generally more solid.
You say that the goals will come? - but really will they with Craig and Stevens playing out wide and the likes of Lathrope and Easton in midfield.
I can't agree with that Brucie. Obviously we had Nico and Oastler who have not been as good as last season for whatever reason and we still had Saah. Ellis went but Downes is equally as good and Pokey is proving to be a life saver in many games. He'll never be as good as Bobby but my God he has kept us from the wrong end of some horrendous scorelines so far this season.
The second part is correct, we were more solid last season but i think whenever we play with either Stevens or Bodin or both, they may create a chance or two for others and chip in with a few goals ( nowhere near enough from either this season ) but they totally disappear from the game for long periods and we just can't afford to carry players. Stevens yesterday had returned to his old ways of jockeying an opposition player probably to make it look like he is making an effort but it is unacceptable and pointless as when he does it he is so far away from the player that all the opponent does is have loads of space to whack it upfield or just choose a pass to a team mate. Danny, if you are bothering expending energy to actually get into a position to put pressure on the defender then do it. Put pressure on him by way of a push or an attempt at a tackle. Don't get there and then fidget on the spot a yard away like a rabid lemur! Get your foot in man for Christ's sake!!
People could say that we started with both Bodin and Stevens in the win against Gillingham but i argue that we conceded and the goals we scored were a dead ball free kick from Craig and a 25 yarder from Nico. Where was the input in terms of setting up goals or scoring goals from them both then? We got lucky with two shots on another day wouldn't have registered. I just think that our midfield doesn't retain the ball as well as last season and that is due in part to players like Danny panicking in possession and losing it or not making use of the space he often has to run into. He will run for a bit towrds the touchline, get closed down, panic a bit and then come back on himself and lay it back. With Danny it is always the simplest option that he takes unless he is forced into an option he has no choice but to go for like the goal he made for Jarvis at home to Northampton. Craigs ball across was so precise and hit with momentum that all Danny had to do was knock it forward to the bye line and try and get a ball across. He did this well to be honest and Jarvo scored.
When he has to make a choice he invariably chooses the easier option. Maybe he doesn't want to lose the ball as he will have to try and get it back by jockeying for the best part of half an hour i don't know but if we are to get dragged into a scrap then we can use Danny from the bench and Bodin we can't risk using at all as he has offered us very little injuries aside this season and we neeed strong heads and battlers. We have Thommo, Howe, Jarvo, Mackers, Yeoman and Danny from the bench if things get tight. I don't think Bodin is the answer for a battle in all honesty as the frequency with which he loses the ball it will put pressure on the defence as it has done at times this season.
I think we are all scratching our heads at the minute as to just what the hell is going on and how we can best address the issues of conceding all the time, not scoring more when we are top
and who is best to play where. We've just got to hope that Ling now has some answers and plans to arrest this gradual slide. I wouldn't usually be too concerned but it's the fact that most of the teams near the bottom have installed new managers and are picking up results at a rate of knots. It would only take defeats v Exeter and Chesterfield ( who are also picking up ) and we could be just off the bottom two come the Exeter away game and i wouldn't want to rely on getting a win there either. Plus we have Cheltenham away after that who are hard to beat and have a real goal threat and it suddenly will become clear that things could start looking pretty grim pretty quickly.
Once you are down the bottom and all confidence has been extinguished then it is a mountain to climb to get back above water again.
I like to think that we will beat Exeter and then Chesterfield ( as i hate them ) and we will be just off the play off spots but this all highlights what an incredibl tight league this really is and any sort of run good or bad can see you rise or fall at the drop of a hat. I just hope there is someone ready to pick it up should we continue our bad run.