I know it is still early days yet, but are you happy with him being manager, i would have to say yes because if you play badly like against Oldham away from Home but still come away with a point surely that can only be a good thing.
I believe at this early stage he has to be measured by points on the table...what is it now 7/8? 4/5 more than MA at this stage having played a game less...so i guess... Regardless of my opinions....he is doing the job...so the answer is yes i really cannot speak any fairer than that
What is the realistic alternative? We are still missing a couple of important players. I don't think we are in any danger at the moment.
I'm not sure if there is a simple Yes / No answer. It might depend on other factors. It looks like that he has opted for very defensive (negative) tactics in away matches, although we're hardly setting the world alight at home. I would accept a 0-0 draw at places like Oldham - but the entertainment value is very low. Not sure if it is worth a round trip of a 18 hour day (plus the monetary expense) to watch a load of drivel. - but we'll take any 'away' point. The real problem is, not so much Taylor, but that the squad is not very talented. We'll be lucky to retain L1 status if we continue to play as poorly (on average - thus far this season ) for the rest of the season....and yet, in the second half against Coventry we showed that we can pass the ball and create chances - it was a pity that we were so wasteful. If we hadn't won against (bottom of division) Crewe we would be in the relegation zone - having played a game more than half the other teams - with the prospect of games against 'high flying' opponents in the next home and away game. We need to 'up' our game - but I'm not sure that we have the players with season-long 'consistency' in terms of quality - the same would apply if Tommy Trublue was manager !
I'd say he's kept us up last season (fairly comfortably) and he's started us off ok this season. But the biggest two plus's in my book are that it looks like we're trying to play some decent football at times (not often said about gills teams) and we are certainly much younger and pacier. It looks like we might have a few real gems among these younger players who have the potential to help us progress in the short term and maybe fill our coffers in the longer term. And this seems to be down to PT and his recruiting and coaching if it works. Resounding yes from me.
He is doing a terrific job with very limited resources and relying on a young team who should improve annually for the next few years. The key issue is can he keep them up this season whilst they are still learning. It will be tough and he needs backing because there will not be many points from fixtures in September and October but prospects get a lot better after that. The quality of football is immensely superior to the dross we suffered with MA.
I'm not quite sure why people are complaining about the style of football that we are playing? We are playing much better football than what I have seen for years and we are playing the ball well on the ground.. We could always get Bayo back and lump balls at him.. That's real entertainment that is
BarmyArmy I wouldn't want to just see long balls 'lumped' up front (unless we profited every time). We do need to use all options - because we do not have the quality to prefer ONE style of play. I admired the 2nd half performance v Coventry ( apart from the missed chances ). I would like to think that our young players will 'bed in' as the season progresses. It would be nice to create as many chances as v Coventry -- but convert a few more, because, otherwise the style of play wasn't unattractive. Sadly our tactics have been too negative (especially away from home)-- for fear of conceding -- which we eventually do ! We don't seem to be able to defend successfully for 90+ minutes on enough occasions to gain the necessary points without involving a fear of relegation. I can understand a degree of caution - especially in away matches - but usually we have at least one slip that can lose all 3 points and make other 'good' defending ineffective. Watching this style of football can be very tiresome - once in a while it would be nice to see more dynamic football - which, now and again, might involve a small amount of hoofball. - some form of 'progressive' play has a chance of scoring a goal to win a game - which is a damned sight more entertaining than slowly regressing into our penalty area to eventually concede the goal that loses the game.
This a very tricky question. If you look at his objective last season; keep us up, then yes he has has done a good job. So far this season he has improved the playing squad, the results have been ok and will he keep us up again... probably. All positives. Now for the negatives; I am not enjoying the performances at present, I can understand the style and whilst I can admired some of our better periods of play, I find it frustrating that that we aren't being more effective with the ball. Playing nice little triangles on the ground in your own half in is all well and good for the football purists but they aren't winning us games, and happy purists isn't what keep you in the league, it is points. For me it is a matter of ambition, going to places like Coventry and Oldham playing one up front is all well and good to avoid defeat but shouldn't we want to try to win games? Undoubtedly the players Taylor brought have improved the squad, but I don't think he is getting the best out of them. Playing Cody up front on his own is pointless, it s like having bullets but no gun, you can throw the bullets as hard as you want but they won't do any good, we found that out against Coventry but we still played the same system against Oldham with the same result, no goals; so there have to be question marks over Taylor's tactics. So I think Taylor is a good holding position, to cement the team but I don't think he is the right man to take us to the next level.
Really good managers are like really good players......hard to find and expensive. Our time in the Championship......as wonderful as it was, was the BLIP on Gills history. We need to nurture young talent in the hope of building for the future and not having to sell all of the time. PT with his connections is going to be as good as anyone we can afford and has a decent 'pedigree'.
I can't even understand the reasoning behind this thread, where exactly do people expect us to finish this season? Yes Saturday, wasn't great, but i'd rather play like that away from home if it means getting points, leave the more open and progressive football for Priestfield where throughout pur history we have always been much more comfortable. I expect us to be just below mid table come the end of the season (13th, 14th or 15th) having played a much better brand of football with good young players, and above all with PT still at the helm.
id say he is doing a decent job and this is a work in progress. we have to let it run its course. There was a case for not bringing him in the first place but once the appointment was made he should be given our full support and more importantly time. This is a period of transition and there are positive signs for the future. With the team he inherited and the limited resources at our disposal keeping us up this season will be a success if it allows the new team to bed in and create a platform to push on next season. If we start next season in this division , and find ourselves not being amongst the bookies favourites for the drop then that will be solid and tangible progression and a job well done.
Surely the point behind this thread is to start a debate, which is the point of the whole message board in general. You can't view the thread as pointless just because you disagee with the topic, the world would be a pretty boring place otherwise. Going back to your point, I would like to ask do you think we have played a more expansive style of football at home? Even after the victories we have had I get the sense that no one is happy with the style of football being played (we sit back too much etc. etc.), so are we achieving you criteria?? Also as I said before isn't it a matter of ambition; should we be happy to accept us seting up a team not to lose as opposed to trying win? Should we be happy with being mid-table?? Of course it is a matter of balancing realistic goals and ambition, but have we drawn the right balance or are we being too reserved. As for Saturday I would have prefered us to lost trying to win the than the no score bore I witnessed.
So BSG, something more in the style of Andy Hess's 2011/12 side? The division's top scorers, more 4-3 games than you could shake a stick at but ultimately failure - which for us in league 1 would equate to relegation surely? Personally I'd rather be a bit bored and stay up, than see us try to entertain beyond our current level of competency and slip back into L2. If you can only afford Go-kart components, you're not going to build an F1 car.
LSC, well it can be debate that with the better players we have at our available would being more offensive would definately lead to relegation but I uinderstand your point. SOmetimes we do need to be more negative but not all the time, bothj Oldham and Coventry weren't great sides and we could have taken more than a point if we were more attacking. People laud Cody as one of the better strikers inthe league, but we don't give him the ball what can he do, he becomes a specator and we are not getting the most out of the team. Of course there is more risk in attacking but it is better to die a lion than live as a mouse
To be honest I don't actually think we set up to be more defensive/boring on Saturday, i just think that's what happened in what appeared to be on off day. To pick up on a few of your points, yes i do think we are playing much better football at home this season, even the first half at MK was much better than anything in the previous 2 seasons, footballing wise. Also yes, i do think settling for mid table this season is adequate, you forget we were very close to releagtion in what was a traumatic season last season, so i'd be overjoyed with safety and continuity in this league, with the odd big result for us all to be happy with. On to your final line, which i find shocking if i might add. I would never, ever prefer us to lose than get a point. If we're losing 1-0 then yes i'd prefer us to have a go at getting the equaliser back and if that results in a 2-0 then you still end up with the same amount of points. However to say at 0-0 you would rateher throw that away just to have more of a go far away from home when we had already offered them a number of chances then i'd have to question any manager that adopts that policy.
I don't think we tried hard enough to win the game on Saturday though, we came to stiffle and did it well, but we never attacked with any real purpose, I can recall only 2 or 3 shots on target. As for my final comment, surely it is a matter of risk. Obviously you can't go gun ho all the timebut against teams in and around us, away from home we need to be looking for mre than a draw. In these game if we push on more, we have a better chance of winning and a greater chance of losing. Assuming the teams are equally matched you can estimate the chance of winning as 50-50. So you always gain more points than you potentially lose (one win and one lose 3pts; two draws 2pts). You can fall to a 30% win rate before you lose out points wise. It is not shocking it is simply maths
I always want us to win, I always want us to be top of the table, then reality sets in. We are from our fan base and playing budget a mid table club, results so far:- Yeovil (16th place) 2 - 0 win..........Swindon (6th place) 2 - 2 draw..........Crewe (24th place) 2 - 0 win........... Coventry (5th place) narrow 1 - 0 defeat...........Oldham (11th place) 0 - 0 draw)....... Barnsley and MK were both terrible results against teams above us. If Taylor were to go who would do better with the current players and budget, it's a work in progress and should improve over a couple of seasons.
i've written my support earlier in the thread fro PT, however, this is where i struggle, PT has adopted us a style to gain points, boring to say the least. Yet i actually feel the style regardless of the points tally is not working. Now that could be for a number of reasons. The tactics don't work (unlikely with PT's experience), or the players are still adapting. I don't think it is acceptable by any measure to concede eight goals in two games, then another two against Swindon, if we are adapting the type of style i believe. We are restraining players from performing at their potential, while adopting something that holds us back against Coventry at accepting gracefully a 1-0 defeat. It's not saying we didn;t do well, it's not saying it was that bad a result, i'm just saying i believe we could have done so much better. I know they were not...but sometimes it felt Coventry were laughing at us...i said i know they were not. It's like u guys can play keep ball in your half, you can have 74% possession at a certain period of time, but we are winning 1-0 and u aint getting past us. I just feel we have lost the metal we used to have, some times u just need to get physical and stuck in, after all this is lower leagues.
BSG i wouldn't say that is simple maths, that doesn't work in that scenario at all, you could quite easily lose all of those games, maths doesn't come into it
