Well another season is nearly here so where do you think Gills will end up. With Gills best player sold and Cody gone aswell on paper we look weaker than last season where we just stayed up. With Holy looking pretty poor in goal pre season and Nelson still transfer listed this looks like a problem Ady needs to sort out quickly. A lot of new signings coming in mostly young hungary players started pre season pretty well. I think 6 wins 1 draw and no loses is great. Although only Ipswich were higher level. I am expecting us to stay up but really cannot see us challanging for promotion. So i think we will come 11th
Hard to guess as I have not seen the newly assembled squad during pre-season. I saw something on Twitter via 442 which suggested we would finish bottom, yet i've not read or heard anything so far that would constitute that being our fate. I am going into the new season quite positive minded, no reason why I shouldn't as everything that has been reflected from the team on the pitch suggests a positive attitude, so question left is will we be good enough? Firstly i hold the view that the big boys height wise are for L2 not L1, clubs that spring to mind as way of example are Chesterfield or was it Cheltenham, able to hold their own but reality still saw them back in L2. When we did well a couple of seasons back, we played the ball on the ground, that was a few of the best performances I had ever seen since following the Gills, yes it went wrong but that was nowt to do with the two contrasts. Personally, I'm not overly confident that the big boys are right for L1, I just see some of the more athletic teams pulling us apart, lessons of old call it, ask Mad-Dog it called time on his style in the climb from 2 to 1. So positive yes, apprehensive also.... But neck on the block time, i predict play-offs....ok, ok alwaysright, grumpygit and peggyleg, you can get up off the ground laughing now .... ps. think i'll leave this as sticky thread at the top of the board, so come on lads (and lasses) let's be having yer.
brb We needed 'stronger' defenders. We appear to have them. Most teams ( in all leagues ), have one or two big, strong central defenders. Last season Cody desperately needed a 'big' striker to 'feed off'. We appear to have recruited 'target' men - as well as having smaller players, like Nash - who hopefully will profit from the [anticipated] more times we may win the ball played to the 'target man.' The likes of Martin, Garmston, Wright and Hessanthaler are not 'big', and have enough mobility to be able to cover defensively, or to join the attack. I am sure that we have a better mix than last season. I'm not sure that we have the class or ability [on paper] to be top 6.... but I also think we may have more than enough to stay out of the bottom 6. I hope to see more effort, and fewer poor performances. We may have to wait until [if] we get any Centreplate money (( used on players )), before we' ll see any major progress. I would think we might end up around 10th. edit --- and for a 'big' man, John Egan wasn't bad with the ball at his feet !......... and Simon King
Looks like we have signed players to play in right postions so hopefully not to many injures to unsettle that. Glad we have signed some 6ft plus as we were to weak last season especially at set pieces. Although most people dont like long ball you have to play it sometimes. Need Nelson to start season in goal or get another keeper as Holy and Hadler are not good enough.
Not so sure about that, Wright has been playing CAM, Garmston CB, Chapman at RB and also Parker at RB in preseason. That's still square pegs in round holes to me. As for the prediction, I successfully predicted right last season that we would finish in the top 24 so I'm going to stick to my instincts and predict we will finish in the bottom 24 this season.
Somewhere within the bottom 10. Not sure exactly where but will depend on a bit of luck and injuries.
Not going to stick my neck out too far, but more optimistic this season. It's all about getting the balance right and with a decent defensive line up....the first few games will give an insight into this. A half decent set of results and some belief go a long way to forging a successful team. After last year's debacle I am reasonably optimistic. I'll go for top half. Who'd have put money on Burton at the start of the season two years ago or on Barnsley in October last year? Neither side had 'big' names...just a decent team and management ethics.
We have looked better this pre-season than last, I am a bit worried that some of the opposition have been a poor test, yet last season had equally poor opposition and we looked dreadful, at least this year we haven't looked quite so disorganised and lacking ideas. The defence have shown a bit more fight/speed yet still prone to mistakes especially in the keeper department, I do worry that the quality of league 1 strikers could open them up more than Canvey Island strikers did. People will probably think I'm mad here, but, young Hadler filled me with more confidence than either of the 2 front runners, both Nelson and Holy made some poor decisions/saves, I also thought we looked a lot more fluid going forward when some of the youngsters were playing, Chapman was the player of pre-season for me, yet I doubt he will be in the starting eleven. Overall I'm more confident than last year and see no reason why we couldn't finish in the top twelve, playoffs a outside chance.
Forecasts at this time are pure speculation. The best gloss that can be put on things is that at the end of last season most fans would say Gills looked certs for relegation but since then more things have gone right than wrong and the good sense of Taylor is shining through into the actions of the three terribly inexperienced guys sitting on the bench. The positives are there to be seen. a decent bunch of economical signings with Zakuani looking a class act, lacey looking right on paper and Wilkinson and Eaves looking capable of worrying opposition even if it will not be pretty to watch. We have real competition at left back with Garmston and Ogilvie looking the real deal if Garmston can stay fit. On the other side, goalkeeping looks like the achilles heel. Why Holy was not put straight on a ferry after the Dover game is beyond my comprehension and Nelson, who we all know can be superb for 2 or 3 games, has inspired little confidence. Right back may still be a big problem with few options and it is not obvious that anyone can drop high crosses onto the 6 yard line for our new "big" men. So, we can expect lots of inconsistent results from the team of strangers in the first 3 months and maybe enough consistency for mid table after that which will be real progress. To better that needs the goalkeeping dilemma to be sorted and one of the front men to score regularly. On the other hand it must be 50% likely that Taylor will be in sole charge by Christmas. Overall my guess will be 15th by the end of season.
Moggy we had blood and tears last season but not enough sweat. This season things will be much different. Mid table with lucrative cup run would be nice.
Man Utd have now got the tallest team in the premiership only Mkhitaryan apart from Mata is under 6' according to talksport, and they are one of the favourites for the title. Millwall were a big team last season, and all of Tony Pulis sides are big.
After today's home defeat to Shrewsbury it is going to be a long hard season and I reckon that we will finish around 28th!! Ha......at least we won the second half. :-(
Windyrog How the hell did we not win this game ? - well probably because we just couldn't convert our possession and attacking football of the first 30 minutes - and took too long to get going in the second half. I'd be surprised if we don't play a lot worse this season and win ! - I know it's a 'results business' - but, apart from the finishing, we didn't do too badly today. We didn't deserve to lose.
We were good for 25 minutes . Defense forgot to defend for next 20 mins and conceded 2 goals (last season anyone) played well last 15mins but not enough to get a draw. Still work in progress. Think their will be 4 or 5 teams worse than us for us to stay up.
I was at the game in the Medway stand, and I couldn't really be specific about whether anyone was at fault for the 2 we conceded, but watching it on C5 in slow mo, really O'Neil and /or Lacey should have got closer to the two players who scored, but having said that, they were two extremely good crosses and I think most teams in our division would have surcumed to one of both.
We are definitely closer to win than we were, that said I see a few problem area's. Midfield allow the opposition far too much time and space to make a pass, stop backing off and get stuck in. Defence allow too much time and space for the opposition wing/wingback to get his cross in, get in their faces. Stop marking empty zones in our box, mark the player. Ade get someone in the team who is fast, opposition defences are exploiting our lack of speed by pushing ever higher up the pitch, play someone who makes them worried.
