TorquayFans.com | Torquay United Fans Forum

I posted the same in another topic, knill and brass are clearly the better duo for the job, shame that the board can't see what we all can! the only way that we will get fans through the gates next season is by playing attractive attacking football, something that won't be offered by a Martin ling side!

When Martin Ling gets the Gulls promoted next season there'll be a lot of fans feeling very foolish.! :Oops:

On the other hand...

I know what kind of football I want to watch................

Eight goals scored in the last three games, with a newly-restored positivity among the players, would appear to indicate that we should not have too much to worry about in terms of entertainment value and determination to win games.

However, the goals conceded, as a result of poor defending, may require Martin Ling to give priority to this area of the Gulls' game before we can hope to make any kind of serious challenge next season.

Alan knill has mad a statement saying " I am officially unemployed and open to offers" so can we finally put this to bed that Martin is coming back and knill is not going to stay ???

I want to be entertained with attacking football, not stood there biting my nails for 85 minutes watching us defend a 1 goal lead in our own half!
Winning is not everything as we will never be the top team but being able to enjoy goals and attacking play is what most of us want from our team!
I and a fair few others were unhappy with Mr Lings football before his illness so I dont see why we should welcome him back with open arms now.
Entertaining football will put more on the gate and he will not provide it!
The club needs a fresh start with new ideas. I see the season ticket sales slumping if Ling returns. Personally I will be there whatever but I know a lot of people, even ones who have had season tickets for decades wont renew theirs.
I hope we can move into a new era next season otherwise Plainmoor will be a depressing,dreary place!

Benners to end up wherever Knill does then I reckon...

Sometimes you have to go with what you have got, ling never had the forward options that knill had i.e Benyon so he was forced to play 4-5-1. Hopefully we get benyons signature and then we can continue to play a more attacking formation.

supergulls wrote:Alan knill has mad a statement saying " I am officially unemployed and open to offers" so can we finally put this to bed that Martin is coming back and knill is not going to stay ???

Was this on the radio super? I cannot find it anywhere.

supergulls wrote:Alan knill has mad a statement saying " I am officially unemployed and open to offers" so can we finally put this to bed that Martin is coming back and knill is not going to stay ???

Where?

supergulls wrote:Sometimes you have to go with what you have got, ling never had the forward options that knill had i.e Benyon so he was forced to play 4-5-1. Hopefully we get benyons signature and then we can continue to play a more attacking formation.

That's an awful and totally inaccurate view in my opinion supergulls.

Mattpuma a few posts above hits the nail on the head. All Ling needs to do is open his narrow mind to the possibility of different possibilities, for example, that he CAN send a team out to destroy the opposition from the off and that occasionally it will work. We won't get relegated, we won't get promoted but we'll be entertained now and again, more fans would come to watch and the feelgood factor would still be there.

Martin only knows how to play one way. In his first season his one way plan of defending, nicking a goal from nothing and hanging on worked and we got in the play offs. It was successful football but totally rigid and horrible to watch and many of us didn't complain at the time (myself not included) but noticed it and kept on going to games because we were winning.

The problem with his tactic is that when it fails to work (like this season) for whatever reason ie: players not good enough blah blah then he STILL continued to adopt the same tactics regardless and hence the alarming slump that i believe he wouldn't have been able to stop had he still been here. It needed a change in attitude and tactics which Knill brought and although Knill was allowed to bring players in, i still hold the belief that a positive change in team selection and tactics would have had Ling seen us safe WITHOUT the need for new arrivals.

So in a nutshell, winning, drawing or losing - we don't play football under Ling and i hated it and dreaded going to games because of the predictability of the performances. If he managed Barcelona he would be the same.

If he comes back then it's quite simple what needs to be done, do what Knill did.

The comment Alan knill made is in today's sun on the match report page 25 of the goals section

Martin only knows how to play one way. In his first season his one way plan of defending, nicking a goal from nothing and hanging on worked and we got in the play offs. It was successful football but totally rigid and horrible to watch and many of us didn't complain at the time (myself not included) but noticed it and kept on going to games because we were winning.

So how many of Leyton Orients matches did you watch then when they got promoted ???
Because I watched lots of them and they played open attacking football resulting in a fa cup run and beating fulham at craven cottage 1-2

Andy no disrespect mate but you have made a massive generalisation saying he only knows how to play one way, I will agree with you Martin did play defensively in his time at Torquay, but he was playing to his strengths, he had the best goalie he had ever worked with his words not mine and maybe built from the back. I have seen various teams of martins play and I can assure you they have not all played this way.

supergulls wrote:Sometimes you have to go with what you have got, ling never had the forward options that knill had i.e Benyon so he was forced to play 4-5-1. Hopefully we get benyons signature and then we can continue to play a more attacking formation.

Sorry Super, but Martin Ling only has himself to blame for that situation. He should have addressed it in the summer, or perhaps even before when he allowed Billy Kee to leave early into his reign. The fact he chose to blow all his budget on midfielders/wingers was his choice and his alone. He knew he was short of strikers but still chose to sign the likes of Easton, Bodin et al.

The squad he built is totally unbalanced in my opinion, with far too many wingers and definitely lacking in out and out strikers. Thank goodness we were able to get Benners when we did as otherwise our season could have ended very differently I feel.

Looking back on what i said supergulls i suppose i should have stated that my views were primarily based on away performances which are the games i go to most often so perhaps it's a little unfair of me to say what i did. However, based on away performances i still believe i have a case. Under Ling especially this season in the 13 or so away games i've seen we were awful in every one and lost most. We never even created any opportunities never mind score and this pattern would have continued under Ling. If Ling had approached some of our away games like we did under Knill then we wouldn't have even been in a relegation battle. There are games when yes, it is appropriate to send your team out at a tough away venue and keep it tight and look for a draw but to do it at EVERY away ground is unforgivable. That is what Ling did away anyway and there was just no need for it. Once this way of playing is entrenched in the players it becomes almost impossible to change mindset and attitude when we conceded and so we had the scenario i experienced at most away games where when we conceded it was 95% certain we wouldn't get back into the game or more worryingly even LOOK like we could. It was 1-0 game over. It was really sad to be seeing performances like that and it was upsetting if i'm honest, especially like i say when there was absolutely no need for it.

I take your point above but Poke is an able replacement for Olejnik, Downes and Saah generally are superb. It's just both flanks that have let us down big time and Martin refused to drop poorly performing players. He then signs defensive minded midfielders and when we needed players like Yeoman to be given chances he didn't, he failed to add any attacking players when the side was crying out for them and he signed Bodin, i don't really need to go on but i take your points mate, no probs.