On another forum, a Gills fan has stated that the team is less than the sum of its' parts !... and that's probably about right.. what new recruitment is needed to help the maths ? I think that the team is lacking in certain areas - such as a 'natural' striker who can score (fairly) regularly - but - overall there is (on paper ), a decent amount of skill amongst the whole squad to... expect better ! - and that is despite the usual consideration that we're a L2 club with L2 players etc...yet, as a complete unit, we're not delivering to our collective potential. There can be very few reasons for this underachievement...Most of them must lie with the fault of tactics and / or formation...and that's the remit of Harris - who, as we hear so often, employs tactics that are so negative. I can admire his 'clean sheet' mentality - but - if all you're doing is defending, eventually you'll concede and lose the game... His defensive mindset means that the players are passing sideways and backwards ( at snail pace ) - too afraid to commit to more dynamic progress upfield... ....and what happens ? the team gets 'squeezed' by the opposition - and retreat - quickly passing back to Turner - who gets 'chased down' and has to lump the ball into the grateful laps of the opposing defenders. We saw against Morecambe and Mansfield, where Gills are able to play the ball to feet - and move a bit quicker.. It was pleasant to watch ( even if we didn't score many.) We looked as if we were able to at least get into positions where there was a chance to shoot - and if you don't shoot, you can't expect to score. I understand the mentality of clean sheets - but does that have to be the height of our ambition? - it certainly didn't work at Grimsby - where we only decided to be adventurous from minute 88 (( far too late.)) The squad needs a different mindset if we're going to really trouble the opponents - instead they've nearly fallen asleep by the time we have taken the ball over the half-way line. That mindset starts with the manager - maybe that's the only new recruitment that is needed to make to make things add up ?
I paid my £10 and watched live on ifollow last night, I could have waited until the freebie replay sometime today, but it's good to guage the game before people can influence your opinion on the result. I can see nowt in alwaysrighgt's comment that I'd disagree with, it's also put constructively - whatever I saw last night falls into one of two categories, it's either not working OR we are just very unlucky in front of goal, so let me expand on that... What I saw was us often frustrated, but I also for the first time, saw us starting a move, but the player that starts the move, ie passes the ball, but then freezes in position, instead of following on for a good ole one two. I was like, what is going on here! Maybe a tactician can explain it to me? So then you are left with a player in limbo, and as none of them are Jude Bellingham, they are unlikely to beat five opposition players. Our movement seemed stale for want of better words. I'm also not convinced we have a natural goal scorer, maybe Nadesan is the closest we've got, but he didn't come on until the 75th minute. Hence it brings me back to tactics, do we need to be building the team around Nads, but we can't do that if Neil Harris has him or the bench, or thinks its not what he wants, which is fine, but what does NH want tactically, and how does Nads, Nicols and Bonne all fit into this bigger picture, have we overloaded for the sake of overloading. I'm not really sure what the Alexander substitution was about, can someone explain it to me please? I was also amazed Jonny Williams hadn't started, he's our engine room in the middle. I know some players such as Lapslie and Jefferies are coming back, but from what i've seen previously, some players have to be nailed on starts, no?...but my brain is still stuck on the Alexander substitution, so as you can see, I haven't got a clue what is going on. In a sense I can't criticise the gaffer, because I don't know what he is trying to do, and what his logic is for what he's bought into the team regarding players. So none of this should be seen as criticism of Neil or the players, I just want to know what we are trying to do, because at the moment 1-0 to the Gillingham is no longer working or will our luck change? Anyone? Edit: Oh btw aside from Jonny, Mahoney would be my other nailed on starter, forgot to add that (not forgetting Jake Turner but that's a given anyway).
Not Harris biggest fan but in last 3 games we have actually created a lot of chances. The problem is scoring goals. Bonne. Lapslie and Coleman all had really good chances again yesterday. J Williams has not scored a goal not even an assist in 10 games definitely not a starter for me. Been very disappointing so far. Thought he was an excellent signing. If we beat MK Dons on Saturday we will still be in top 4 so not all doom and gloom yet.
gioblues - I can accept that in very recent games we have created a few more chances ( & failed to score - hence my comment about lack of 'real' striker. ) - but the pace of our play (( for the most part )) is turgid! ... Oppositions are able to easily get 'into position' to defend against our lone striker. I mentioned the Morecambe & Mansfield games - because in them we actually moved a lot quicker etc -- which definitely caused problems for the opponents - whose defence had to think a bit quicker.... and in those games, if we had a more 'natural' striker, we might have troubled the scoresheet a bit more. I think that - despite the lack of a ' natural ' striker, the team should have enough collective quality for goals to come from several in the side.... ... But - if we're playing sideways, backwards, hoof to a midget with L plates, the 'Goals For' column won't add upwards.
The Macauley Bonne experiment is starting to frustrate me somewhat. I can understand why Harris has been pursuing with the 4-2-3-1 shape as he wants wide players whilst also protecting the defence, however, surely we also have players that can do the box-to-box midfield side of things if we need them to? No reason why Jefferies can't come into the middle next to Williams, or Jonny Williams, or George Lapslie. Bring in Clarke from the start if needs be or drop Shaun Williams altogether (he won't do that), but we need to be playing with 2 up top. Bonne simply can't do it on his own and when we've got someone as quick as Nadesan available, why not play them together. Or drop Bonne and reignite the Nichols-Nadesan partnership that worked in the first few games? I get once Bonne gets firing, he could be a real threat at this level, but lets be honest, he isn't really firing. 1 goal in 12 games isn't exactly ripping up any trees.
I don't know if anyone has looked back on previous games, but the last three league games of September saw Mahoney get one goal and two assists. And gioblues I'd just like to point out that Jake Hessanthaler played for us 159 times, I'll leave you to look up how many times he scored. But I will give you a clue, if Jonny didn't score for another 10 games, he could still beat Jakes record based on the law of averages. As for the assists, Jonny Williams wasn't even on the pitch for over an hour, and we didn't look as if ANYONE would get an assist if we kept playing until Saturday.
Johnny Williams is an attacking midfielder not a defensive one. Look it up. By the way how many games has Clarke now started?
It's a bloody good job we support the same team !... with all this 'bromance', I reckon me and brb could partner up against gioblues and Pegleg in a tag wrestling bout..... (( I 'd fancy 2 angry camels in a small car. ))
Yeah NH dropped Clarke like you wanted, and we lost! He also didn't play Jonny for over an hour and we lost, there's a pattern here... ignore gio! Although the best was earlier, when gio said he wasn't Neil's biggest fan, lol like we needed telling, but he's still here and going to get us promoted, like I said he would. please log in to view this image
Dropped Clarke. He started one league game so far all season. I didn't want him dropped Harris did. I was just stating the obvious lol.
I have only managed to watch 3 full games this season. Crewe, Doncaster and Grimsby. I have stated clearly that Neil Harris was not for us, his negative tactics are not what we need. I would rather see us at the bottom playing to save a life than being at the top waiting for the ref to put us out of our misery after 90 minutes of boredom. Just realised the three games I watched we lost them all, maybe I am better off for the team not watching lolol lets see what harris has planned for today
