Bring on the Shrimps

That was the last line from a ITFCPTC post from earlier on Gaffer. Why is he not getting the first 11 out tonight? Missed opportunity for on the field time.
Hopefully we will get 3 points at Burton on Saturday.

 

Oh right, I was under the impression from Spanish we’d just signed a team of world beaters.

 

Only listened to the match but disappointing not to get a result. Oh well, that's less fixtures for us now

 

Think you will find he already stated he has little interest in this tournament and the side he put out shows that!!
World beaters hey, yeah I'm sure i said that....twat!

 

Same as ever then. How not to foster a winning mentality.

 

I honestly don't give 2 ****s about the league cup, FA cup yes but league cup....yawn yawn.
What I saw on highlights we were quite impressive, just couldn't score, one of them nights, that will come, we move on to the important game!!

 

Ive seen some sniping at the club here and in Twitter after two games. I’m not sure though what these people do want in terms of a strategy for winning matches. If they could be clear how it would be better done I’d be interested to know; tactics, style, coach, board room. What would they do differently?

a comment above said we should go out to win v Newport in a minor cup. No one goes all out in every league and cup competition. No one. Everyone prioritises.

Did we play ****e and create nothing like last few seasons? No, on the contrary.

So here’s the scenarios and our options:

We could go all out in the cups and then, towards the tail end of the league campaign, fall away as fitness and injuries kick in. And the accusation would be ‘we spread ourselves took thin’. So those fans, with the benefit of hind sight, did want us to prioritise then? Only it’s too late. And they’ll never admit they were wrong unless we win a cup. Which we won’t. So what’s the point pursuing it seriously?

We could play 451 with a reliance on long ball and beat Newport and half the teams in L1 1-0 which is what MM ended up doing to keep us vaguely competitive. But fans didn’t like that either.

So we try and develop a progressive and attacking style of play that also wins football matches and enjoy a crop of players we’ve not had for many years which, by any objective standard, are superior in technical ability than most of our previous squad, the best of whom did no better than a move to Colchester aside from a couple of decent ones who moved up to fund a rebuild. This approach doesn’t yield instant results and takes time.

We can sack the manager but fans are quick to say no one has time or patience in football anymore. BR and fergie took a couple of seasons to get going following their appointments. We’re turning around a decade or more of regression.

 

Paul Cook is going to manage how he manages. So far he’s got shocking results and the bad start puts pressure on the next few games. The cup game aside, not winning the first league match is not a problem but not winning the first three or four definitely will be for our ambitions for the season.

The signings on the whole look to have been good ones although we are all very concerned by the defence. The main thing I’m seeing that I don’t like is treating people like crap.

 

If you are referring to me then I did not say we should be winning a game like this, but surely if you are trying to gel a team of just recruited players then this would have been a ideal game to get some pitch time.
it,s going to be a long old season again,but there will be international breaks along the way ?
again, what do I know !! hopefully Paul will reveal his master plan & we will all be happy bunnies (apart from hampy)

 

Why the assumption that we had to keep the same XI? We’ve signed 13 players. Goalkeepers don’t need a rest but apart from that we should have been able to come through that match with the second string.

 

I’ve never bought this argument that cup games can be thrown away. They are important for momentum for the league. Beating Newport would have bred some confidence for our league campaign and coming up against top sides is a good experience for everybody.

 

I've been trying not to lose sight of the bigger picture, but a decade of constantly falling short leaves its mark. I used to be optimistic almost to the point of blind naivety. This is the bigger picture I'm seeing.
- we've got new owners and new pots of money for investment.
- we've overhauled the backroom and on pitch squads
- there's a refreshing professional feel about the club's output
- the turnstiles have had a new lick of pa... Sorry, the stadiums had a clean and a facelift
- we're still not winning games

The point about the turnstiles is tongue in cheek, but the basic parallels I'm drawing is with 09-10 season.

I'm still hopeful and want to get swept away with optimism again. It will also take a lot more than a juddering start while 12 new players become a team to turn me against Paul Cook, the owners or the current players but I really sympathise with fans who are judging by the results on the pitch. We've been promised the sunny uplands again, but have barely seen a victory in any competion since January.

 

I'm one trying to keep my feet to the ground, nearly everyone on here and the bookies have predicted us to get promotion (same as every season really) but I don’t see it yet, there's alot of strong teams now in this division with players who've been together for years.

I'm a fan of Cook and what's gone on off the pitch but ultimately its what happens on the pitch which counts and so far his tenure has been awful (there some glimpses of front foot football coming).

I'm fully supportive of what is taking place (even if the transfer policy has been high risk) but I'm not caught into thinking we'll get promotion this season and don't understand at the moment why we are favourites for it. Plus we're a fans forum and if we can't be critical of some of the decisions or have concerns what's the point.