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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2014 10:30:39 GMT
Well huzzah and huzzah, a better night than expected! I thought Northampton would have walked it when Wimbledon went down to ten men...especially with that old campaigner, war horse and leader of men Allan Knill now 2ic there! No ground as such lost so the old status quo pretty much the same.
Again it seems that Hargreaves will insist on playing his old mates, and yet again it seems the left side of our defence was targeted, and where yet again we concede another goal! There isn't another position that Nico can play in, but there is another position that Mansell can play in! It seems that tonight Mansell played and Lathrope was dropped to accommodate him! So if Mansell has to be in the team (which he obviously has to be...not on merit I might add) rather than him running around like the proverbial headless chicken and doing nothing to assist our forwards (ahem) then we might as well play him as a striker...and then we can bring Lathrope back! Let's be fair, Mansell has only scored one goal, but that's better than 99% of our strike force.
Looking forward to Saturday where i'm sure my dominance of the PL (I've predicted our last two results) will continue and the fortunes of Torquay United will take a remarkable... |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2014 11:48:11 GMT
I prefer this one pete, if they played this when the teams walk out it would show that everyone behind the scenes at Plainmoor has not died of a mysterious plague and are actually alive and well!
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petef
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Post by petef on Mar 26, 2014 15:02:06 GMT
Like it Reg It would give everyone a lift and we could all sing along with the words on the big screen.
God we need something to put a smile on our faces.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2014 20:31:05 GMT
Two of last night's one-hundred-and-nineteen:  |
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Post by Ditmar van Nostrilboy on Mar 26, 2014 22:49:34 GMT
Lathrope was hardly dropped to bring Mansell in. He was dropped to try Harding out.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Mar 27, 2014 0:13:55 GMT
Well I had thrown in the towel, but I see that ingenious members of this forum have come up with not one but two cunning plans offering possible routes to salvation: I'll dig out a map, create a ley line that links Adams Park and Fratton Park, make a ritual sacrifice, urinate on the spot and brew a magic potion from the remains of my homemade Yorkshire fish cake supper. Gods of Relegation spew forth vile-coloured mushy peas upon our rivals. So if Mansell has to be in the team (which he obviously has to be...not on merit I might add) rather than him running around like the proverbial headless chicken and doing nothing to assist our forwards (ahem) then we might as well play him as a striker I think Reg's plan is a bit far-fetched to be honest, so I'll go with Barty's. It's not much of a plan, but at least it's a plan. |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Mar 27, 2014 0:33:33 GMT
Lathrope was hardly dropped to bring Mansell in. He was dropped to try Harding out. That's as maybe. Harding and Lathrope would have been another option for said 'try out', of course. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 6:32:27 GMT
I think Reg's plan is a bit far-fetched to be honest, so I'll go with Barty's. It's not much of a plan, but at least it's a plan. Thank you for the encouragement. It's always rewarding to receive high-profile backing. I've extrapolated the Portsmouth-Wycombe ley line in a north-easterly direction so that it comes reasonably close to Sheffield. It passes, as near as dammit, to Spurn Head. That's the place I reckon. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 8:18:30 GMT
Lathrope was hardly dropped to bring Mansell in. He was dropped to try Harding out.
So why wasn't Mansell dropped to try Harding out?
Oops, I see Rob has already asked that question!
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Post by Ditmar van Nostrilboy on Mar 27, 2014 10:08:54 GMT
Lathrope was hardly dropped to bring Mansell in. He was dropped to try Harding out. That's as maybe. Harding and Lathrope would have been another option for said 'try out', of course. Which Greavsie had already tried against Burton and Hartlepool had he not? (and presumably decided to try something else). Personally speaking, I would suggest Lathrope is perfect for a 4-1-4-1 sat deep. He doesnt look as comfortable in a standard 4-4-2 where he needs to be a bit more advanced. You and Reg are happy to slate Mansell for his lack of passing ability yet how many defence splitting passes has Lathrope produced? None that ive seen. Mansell is slightly ahead in the ball winning/tackling category in the matches ive seen recently so its no suprise that he remained in the starting eleven. Given Greavsie has already shown he's happy to drop Mansell (although hampered by lack of another fit left back to do the same with Nico) his reappearance in the team is obviously not based on "old boys" reasons. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 11:03:01 GMT
Register
Well thank goodness I'm here to provide the answer haha. When Chris rang me up last night asking for some tactical advice ahead of the Southend game, I decided to ask him about the midfield pairing he selected at York, and he told me you're barking up the wrong tree in concluding that the object of the exercise was to 'try Harding out'. The main objective was to give Damon Lathrope the evening off.
Looking at the bigger picture Chris explained that from the moment Thea made that fateful Sunday evening phone call to the Ling residence, the underlying plan was to ditch Ling's short passing game whereby you let the ball do the work, and replace it with a good old fashioned whack it long style, and, of course, always fielding a couple of wide men. Whack it long and then make your legs do the work chasing it. Never an easy task, but sitting in front of the back four as the holding midfielder is a darned sight easier and involves a lot less running than being a box to box runner, particularly if there are just the two of you with the wingers predominantly staying out wide. In short, Damon's old position had been abolished and you therefore either send him out on loan or tell him he'll have to get used to running a marathon in midfield every game.
With all the postponements, and a number of fixtures being rearranged for March, there was a lot of talk concerning our having to play 8 games in 29 days during this month.
That's a little under one game every 3 days, plus you can add in the factor that we do a lot more travelling due to our location, and that our pitch has been exceptionally heavy on the legs due to it being turned into a bog because of the rainfall and poor drainage.
Yet throughout March, leading up to Tuesday night the midfield shows game in and game out Lathrope playing the full 90 minutes. If, as is claimed on Merse's site, Guy Branston was on the radio bemoaning Lathrope appearing to be 'one paced' during the Newport game on Saturday, that might in part be due to the lad being out on his feet. But of course we gave him the whole of Sunday off to recover before the long journey north on the broken down bus on Monday before the Tuesday night fixture. There's no Labadie to share the workload, and who knew just how match fit Thompson would prove to be when attempting to return to Football League tempo football ? Billy wide on the other side means it was never certain what help the central midfielders would receive from the wide men, so the fresher legs of Harding were good to be able to call upon.
While Damon has been plodding through the whole 90 minutes of each of our congested fixtures recently, Captain Manse has just gone over a month (15-2-14 to18-3-14) without playing a single full 90 minute game, and for many of the games during that period he didn't play at all. He should be far fresher than Damon to cope with last Tuesday's fixture, and rather than continue to flog a dead horse, the Mansell/Harding combination had common sense written all over it from a fresh legs point of view, especially bearing in mind that the post Ling days demand that there be two wide players at all time, and consequently a hell of a lot of running for the central midfield guys.
It's been a tough season, but we have at least been successful in banishing all traces of Lingist influence from our play. Good luck to the lads at Southend.
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petef
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Post by petef on Mar 27, 2014 11:07:32 GMT
That's as maybe. Harding and Lathrope would have been another option for said 'try out', of course. Which Greavsie had already tried against Burton and Hartlepool had he not? (and presumably decided to try something else). Personally speaking, I would suggest Lathrope is perfect for a 4-1-4-1 sat deep. He doesnt look as comfortable in a standard 4-4-2 where he needs to be a bit more advanced. You and Reg are happy to slate Mansell for his lack of passing ability yet how many defence splitting passes has Lathrope produced? None that ive seen. Mansell is slightly ahead in the ball winning/tackling category in the matches ive seen recently so its no suprise that he remained in the starting eleven. Given Greavsie has already shown he's happy to drop Mansell (although hampered by lack of another fit left back to do the same with Nico) his reappearance in the team is obviously not based on "old boys" reasons. Now when did we last see one of those? In Eunans time here perhaps. Plenty off huff and puff from the midfield in the shape of Harding Mansell and Lathrope but very little for the forwards to feed off. Surely the fact we have tried so many forwards without success and consistently failed to create clear cut chances, this is where our problems stem. Billy Bodin was for all intents and purpose was to be the "creative" link going forward. His form or lack of it and failure to develop into the player we all thought he would be is another key reason why we are where we are. He was a huge gamble or our club at 70k sadly it hasnt paid off and just serves to emphasis how easily it can be to bankrupt yourself even when your think you have done all your homework. 57 goals conceded you would also be lead to believe we have a dreadful defense. Yes there are weaknesses personally I think the back line has been generally ok its in the vitally important midfield area that we have failed being unable to retain possession, protect or supply the forwards for the goals that would take the pressure off. We always end up on the back foot after conceding and have lost so many games by a single goal. Rarely have we been in a comfortable winning position and teams come to us knowing that we are of little threat. On the rare occasions when we have managed to raise our game and get the opposition back pedaling we have usually had a favorable result. For what ever reason we have never been able to do it two games in a row. Greavsy and Hodges are now assessing what they have and what they need for a campaign in the Conference and it will be interesting to see who is retained and who wants to be here. Unless there are some honest decisions we could end up just going around in circles for years to come with Mans Nico and Danny still playing for us in the Conference South, but then again maybe that's all we will be able to afford. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 12:44:35 GMT
Which Greavsie had already tried against Burton and Hartlepool had he not? (and presumably decided to try something else). Personally speaking, I would suggest Lathrope is perfect for a 4-1-4-1 sat deep. He doesnt look as comfortable in a standard 4-4-2 where he needs to be a bit more advanced. You and Reg are happy to slate Mansell for his lack of passing ability yet how many defence splitting passes has Lathrope produced? None that ive seen. Mansell is slightly ahead in the ball winning/tackling category in the matches ive seen recently so its no suprise that he remained in the starting eleven. Given Greavsie has already shown he's happy to drop Mansell (although hampered by lack of another fit left back to do the same with Nico) his reappearance in the team is obviously not based on "old boys" reasons. Now when did we last see one of those? In Eunans time here perhaps. Plenty off huff and puff from the midfield in the shape of Harding Mansell and Lathrope but very little for the forwards to feed off. Surely the fact we have tried so many forwards without success and consistently failed to create clear cut chances, this is where our problems stem. Billy Bodin was for all intents and purpose was to be the "creative" link going forward. His form or lack of it and failure to develop into the player we all thought he would be is another key reason why we are where we are. He was a huge gamble or our club at 70k sadly it hasnt paid off and just serves to emphasis how easily it can be to bankrupt yourself even when your think you have done all your homework. 57 goals conceded you would also be lead to believe we have a dreadful defense. Yes there are weaknesses personally I think the back line has been generally ok its in the vitally important midfield area that we have failed being unable to retain possession, protect or supply the forwards for the goals that would take the pressure off. We always end up on the back foot after conceding and have lost so many games by a single goal. Rarely have we been in a comfortable winning position and teams come to us knowing that we are of little threat. On the rare occasions when we have managed to raise our game and get the opposition back pedaling we have usually had a favorable result. For what ever reason we have never been able to do it two games in a row. Greavsy and Hodges are now assessing what they have and what they need for a campaign in the Conference and it will be interesting to see who is retained and who wants to be here. Unless there are some honest decisions we could end up just going around in circles for years to come with Mans Nico and Danny still playing for us in the Conference South, but then again maybe that's all we will be able to afford.
Haven't Mans, Nico and Danny already signed new two year contracts?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 12:52:29 GMT
Register Well thank goodness I'm here to provide the answer haha. When Chris rang me up last night asking for some tactical advice ahead of the Southend game, I decided to ask him about the midfield pairing he selected at York, and he told me you're barking up the wrong tree in concluding that the object of the exercise was to 'try Harding out'. The main objective was to give Damon Lathrope the evening off. Looking at the bigger picture Chris explained that from the moment Thea made that fateful Sunday evening phone call to the Ling residence, the underlying plan was to ditch Ling's short passing game whereby you let the ball do the work, and replace it with a good old fashioned whack it long style, and, of course, always fielding a couple of wide men. Whack it long and then make your legs do the work chasing it. Never an easy task, but sitting in front of the back four as the holding midfielder is a darned sight easier and involves a lot less running than being a box to box runner, particularly if there are just the two of you with the wingers predominantly staying out wide. In short, Damon's old position had been abolished and you therefore either send him out on loan or tell him he'll have to get used to running a marathon in midfield every game. With all the postponements, and a number of fixtures being rearranged for March, there was a lot of talk concerning our having to play 8 games in 29 days during this month. That's a little under one game every 3 days, plus you can add in the factor that we do a lot more travelling due to our location, and that our pitch has been exceptionally heavy on the legs due to it being turned into a bog because of the rainfall and poor drainage. Yet throughout March, leading up to Tuesday night the midfield shows game in and game out Lathrope playing the full 90 minutes. If, as is claimed on Merse's site, Guy Branston was on the radio bemoaning Lathrope appearing to be 'one paced' during the Newport game on Saturday, that might in part be due to the lad being out on his feet. But of course we gave him the whole of Sunday off to recover before the long journey north on the broken down bus on Monday before the Tuesday night fixture. There's no Labadie to share the workload, and who knew just how match fit Thompson would prove to be when attempting to return to Football League tempo football ? Billy wide on the other side means it was never certain what help the central midfielders would receive from the wide men, so the fresher legs of Harding were good to be able to call upon. While Damon has been plodding through the whole 90 minutes of each of our congested fixtures recently, Captain Manse has just gone over a month (15-2-14 to18-3-14) without playing a single full 90 minute game, and for many of the games during that period he didn't play at all. He should be far fresher than Damon to cope with last Tuesday's fixture, and rather than continue to flog a dead horse, the Mansell/Harding combination had common sense written all over it from a fresh legs point of view, especially bearing in mind that the post Ling days demand that there be two wide players at all time, and consequently a hell of a lot of running for the central midfield guys. It's been a tough season, but we have at least been successful in banishing all traces of Lingist influence from our play. Good luck to the lads at Southend.
I know that Jon has already poo pooed my notion of playing Mansell up front ( I must admit I do like the lay-line idea also) but as we are now playing hoof-ball, and totally bypassing the midfield, now is the perfect time to play a 4:2:4 formation. Can it be any worse than the way we play at the moment?
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chelstongull
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Post by chelstongull on Mar 27, 2014 14:33:15 GMT
Haven't Mans, Nico and Danny already signed new two year contracts? I think Mansell and Nico are out of contract come the 30th June and Inch Eye is on a pay as you play type contract or a short term peanuts contract. |
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