National League 20/21 and 21/22 squad

I thought both his and Wright’s interviews were good. Hopefully they will strike up a good partnership. I see Exeter played 4-3-3 this week, could we do the same with Whitfield and Nelson either side of Wright and Hall being Little and CLE? Would be a very competitive starting XI imo.

link - Real shame about Liam, who has suffered a setback in his recovery, possibly during his initial training last week and I wish him a speedy recovery.

Good news is that we have a ready-made experienced replacement on hand in Moxey who is that bit more versatile able to play wing back, left back and left sided centre back, the latter position including for Palace in the premier league. When Liam is fit gives us that bit more cover in defence.

Nice to see that he has plenty of promotions on his cv and is looking for our squad to challenge for the title.

On that technicality front, could we “loan” Moxey say to Exeter for 28 days 😉 and back in time for the start of the season?

Did not realise that Moxey spent 7 seasons in the championship plus one in the premier league during his prime. Compare that to Davis with four in the Championship but three of them were as a youngster with Coventry and just a handful of games played in these seasons. Both born in the same year in 1986 but at either end with Moxey having 10 months seniority.

I suppose our weakness last year was an inexperienced back line and this has been rectified with Warren, Moxey and to a lesser extent Kerr but would still like to see Cameron feature as think he is the quickest out of them. As always, it is getting the blend of youth and experience right. We still have 14 under 25s in the squad, 7 with bags of experience playing for us, plus Nelson elsewhere and Buse with that very good spell last autumn.

link - great summary by Dom at Torquay Talk of the tactical options that Johnson has got this season.

He looks at various formations including 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-5-1 / 4-4-1-1 and 4-3-3. Probably can be summarised as to how to accommodate a midfield three of Hall, Little and CLE by either playing just one striker or no wingers. Of course tactics and injuries will dictate but with just two established strikers and three wingers then for me that is the main emphasis for Johnson with goals and entertainment the objective.

We have the added problem of no left back for the first three games. Devon Live podcast suggested 3-5-2 with Andrews as left wing back which is an option but personally would prefer to see the sheer work rate of Ben Whitfield charging up and down the wing.

Longer term would like to either see Whitfield and Andrews either side of the 3 man midfield engine room or even a front three of Whitfield, Wright and Nelson.

link - brief update from Johnson on how the week’s training has gone with the build up to the Hemel game next week.

Spoken like a true Torquay fan with a unseasonably bit of realism.

I suppose the advantage we have is a settled squad now with experience of this league and with relatively few to integrate. Lots of variables and some teams have spent big but with this crisis I think there will be generally much smaller squads so the key even more so is keeping enough players fit and being able to rotate them due to the shorter season.

Even last year after a so so start and many players in a new division and finding or unable to find their feet and a load of injuries we managed to get into the play off positions from one good run so certainly is potential there.

Talking with my son about formations earlier, he came up with another option with four at the back, midfield three of Hall, Little and CLE with Whitfield playing in the hole behind 2 strikers with his added goal threat but also with his work rate able to get into wide positions to supply those assists.