Crawley away in the pizza trophy

Well this policy of not competing in Cup competitions " so the p[layers don't get burnt out " has hardly stood us in good stead over the God knows how many seasons has it ? We are still a 3rd divisuion Club last time I looked so this policy would appear to be bloody useless.

 

and just the same thing with loans fieldmarhsall. We keep failing with successive managers. All the coaching and tactics and detail is worthless if we don't get big strategic decisions right.

 

I can't stand the b/s to be honest with you hampy, we are a 3rd div Club posturing and posing as though we are Premier League or as we used to say fur coat and no knickers. Let's try something completely different next season like trying to win every game we play and see what happens, it can't be any bloody worse !

 

It’s that creativity and ambition that we have missed since McCarthy joined with the exception of a very short stint for Hurst, Lambert is back to the Status Quo. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Playing crap and saying we played well post-match even though we lost (again). That’s frankly bizarre.

 

Both the management and playing staff seem to be stuck in this comfort zone rut with no passion or ambition to break out of it.
Watching the Wembley 2000 film it made me really sad that we’ve lost that drive to go at teams and refuse to roll over,it’s just this collective shoulder shrug of “that’ll do”

 

I think you're right BA, no drive or ambition from above ie the owner has led to a " if he doesn't care why should I " attitude, we have attracted players because we have some of the best facilities in this division so its a cushy number without any pressure so our current position has become comfortable, we have been waiting for years for some passion, energy, and an attitude that means we fight to improve our league status every match but it doesn't happen, we are desperate for new ambitious owners but that seems a long way off.

 

You have more confidence than me that our squad can handle it. We are high in numbers and I would say high in quality for league one but our injury record is abysmal, we have multiple players who have had major injuries keeping them out for more than a season at a time and a real history of being injury prone, we have players who seem to have only become injury prone since they joined us, we have a high number of players in their 20s who haven't made 100 professional appearances..we really lack players who have experience of playing consistently week in week out and we have very few players who have performed consistently above this level (as majority haven't played above this level bar getting relegated with us), many of our players are still trying to prove themselves at this level.

I guess people look at our squad and think we should walk this division as we do have quality in depth unfortunately we lack experience and resilience with the majority still trying to prove that either they can make it as professional footballers, they can make it at this level or they still have something to offer returning from long term injury.

Our squad has potential but its not proven and won't take many more injuries for the wheels to seriously come off.

 

I agree, our injury record has been nothing short of shambolic over the last several years. It is evident this club is still struggling to modernise its approach to sports science. I wonder how proactively we even track players' fitness levels. Match day injuries are going to be more common this season with the increase in fixtures over a shorter period of time, particularly those clubs that go on a deeper cup run. This should benefit us, because in theory opposition teams - hopefully the good ones - will be more likely to lose first team players. I'm hoping that's where the deeper squad depth will benefit us.

As you say, a lot of these players don't have a lot of first team minutes or experience, but players like Wolfenden, Dozzell, and Bishop have demonstrated over the last year that if they get a run of games, they can stake a claim at being first team regulars. My main concern with this squad is how it is managed and our poor record against in-form, 'big name' clubs at this level. Since being in League One, we have not beaten Peterborough, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Doncaster, or any of the three promoted teams last season (Rotherham, Coventry, and Wycombe). This may support the theory that the players are just not good enough and I think there is a tendency in our fanbase to over-rate the young players we've got coming through. But there's an inherent lack of gameplan against the better teams. As a team, we cannot handle when teams press us, and these teams are typically the better ones that can sustain it over 90 minutes. We show an inability to revert to a plan B, when things are not going our way. Lambert has consistently demonstrated a reluctance to make substitutions in matches until it is too late. I don't think we can walk the division, but it is my opinion that if this team actually had an innovative manager who made better in-game tactical decisions, we would be able to beat some of these good teams and make a more credible claim for automatic promotion.

 

There's also probably the point that we have probably taken a risk on injury prone players due to our recent transfer policy.

I also get what you mean about the coaching side and tactical decisions and I think we can be critical of all the managers under ME's reign for this, so Lambert certainly isn't exhumed from that and last year we didn't seem to have much of a progression in style of play, whereas this year it feels like we've gone too much the other way and lack that bit of pragmatism.

It almost feels like as we've got quite a few youngsters in the team and we try to play the way academy teams play, good football, its about development first above results.

But on the other hand I also think it may have something to do with the fact that because of that inexperience we haven't got players who have that understanding around game management. In good teams you have a bunch of players who in a game situation don't need much instruction, they can take decisions themselves on the pitch. I was thinking about that after watching Wembley 2000, we had a good team then but we also had experience, good players technically but they also understood game management, when they needed to up the tempo or when they needed to take the sting out of the game but also that confidence in their own ability and determination. Its something I really think we are missing and have been missing for a while, we lack those characters and that may just be down to inexperience but may also be down to the character of the players (not saying they are bad characters) which is why I think a player like Ward was a good signing and think we need 1 or 2 more like that.

The 2 players from the academy who look like they might have that character to me are Downes and Woolfenden, whether that's anything to do with the fact they went out on loan and played mens football for a couple of seasons or not I don't know.

 

Very good points ITFC, and of course some of those experienced senior players are constantly injured. And yes, both Woofly and Downs do have the character, as does Wardy and in the making with more games, young Dozzell I believe. A big disppointment for me this season has been Huws. When he first arrived on scene, we all thought, ah, a playmaker we need at last.

Maybe , just, maybe with a good long period of no pressure and no games, no more injuries, we could kick start our season with a good run before Xmas. But thats me the optimist.

 

Funny old league aint it. Crewe giving Peterborough the run around, 2-0! And MK Dons holding Sunderland.

 

Agreed about Huws he's been a massive disappointment and nothing like the player he was before injury, if he doesn't improve it might be time to get rid. Don't know if Downes is still sulking but once again if when fit "his heads not right " move him on as well, we can't have players deciding whether they are going to give 100% today or not it shows bad character and a bad example.
What's happened KVY ? I thought he was more or less fit and well and ready to start a few weeks ago, since then there's been nothing.

 

Not bad results today, win next 2 home games, go on a run. Peterborough & Sunderland losing.