If it's not broken -why 'fix' it ? We were doing OK & winning & looking likely to add to our tally - when Taylor changes the team & formation. In his post match interview he said it was because we were having problems down our left - - really ! So what did he do - he took off a recognised RB and moved Egan to that position, from the centre of defence - where he was having another great game. He brings on McGlashan ( not a defender ). He takes off Cody and brings on German - who I think lost the ability to do any work. In the meantime the absence of Egan from the middle created problems where they didn't previously exist. Well done Mr.Taylor - a pig could have done better............YOUR tactics cost us two points - still it wont matter to you when we get relegated and you move on to another unfortunate side. And yet again we were extremely negative for far too much of the game - especially in the first half - not that there was any motivation from Taylor - as he just stood in front of the dugout -holding his jaw all the time. I'm actually less annoyed with my neighbour than Taylor's tactics
yeh,think hes been watching a tactics by Kevin Keegan video .He always seems so cautious and then at 2-1 up brings on Mcglashan ??.As for German,cant see why hes even in the squad,Taylor keeps believing he will come good,cant see it myself,badly in need of a goalscorer,our defenders are embarrassing our so called strikers.
if hoyte was not injured then Taylor did cost the Gills a win.Also Egan should have stayed in the middle and one of the new defenders on the right. or Davies oh dear hes been loaned out,crazy.
All points raised above I agree with. Taylor is tactically clueless and I have said as such for a good few months. There are multiple examples of baffling tactical decisions which have in some form of capacity cost us points. I think the January transfer window is very important for us, we need to sign an experienced and proven striker at this level. I think another striker on loan would be good to have aswell as German isn't an option as far as I'm concerned, he's useless and doesn't put any effort in whatsoever!
It was a huge disappointment to lose two points which seemed to be in our grasp. However that was very little to do with tactics and 100% due to a catastrophic goalkeeping error by the normally reliable Nelson. To attribute a bad error to managerial tactics is just nonsense. It seemed totally sensible to replace a tiring Macdonald with fresh legs and Hoyte had had the runaround from N'Guessan from the first minute. Okay, German was awful and does not seem to have improved one iota in the last two seasons, but he should have offered the most mobility in the last 20 mins of trying to pressure the Port Vale defence. The reality is that Taylor knows exactly what he is doing with a very young squad and a modest budget. Yesterday, only Hoyte looked inadequate from the starters and the weaknesses are getting solved week by week. The big remaining issue is the lack of any goal threat up front. Taylor knows it as do the fans and I have little doubt that he is concluding that the only fix is to bring someone in which boils down to money. Taylor cannot build a team in 3 months, it would be remarkable to do this in a year but the indications are that there are plenty of signs that this squad will improve year on year, something which has not happened at Priestfield for years. The other thing to say about yesterday was that it was superb entertainment. attractive football from both teams and thirty odd shots equally shared. Both sides could argue they deserved to win but a draw was probably fair.
Still,if he can persuade kedwell to go, he may have enough budget to get a decent target man in to play alongside Cody. Problem is, keds will probably refuse to go, as he's unlikely to find another club likely to take him on,with the contract he's on with us.
"The reality is Taylor knows exactly what he's doing" where's the evidence for that? Allen left us in 16th and we finished the season in 17th, now we're above the relegation zone on goal difference! There's nothing to suggest progress is being made or that Taylor knows what he's doing. This squad is better than last season's yet poor tactical decisions mean we've got worse under Taylor. It wasn't Taylor's fault that Nelson made an error but it was his fault that he brought German on instead of Kedwell and we ultimately couldn't get out of our own half because German is lazy and useless. If the chairman carries on with this blind assumption that PT is the man then we've every chance of going down. If we stay up this season and Taylor stays then next season I highly doubt will be much better.
But Taylor isn't expected to build a squad in 3 months, he had a squad capable of staying up from last season and the "improvements" seem to be having the team going backwards at present. You can blame Nelson all you want but as the manager the buck stops with Taylor, before the changes we seemed comfortable after the changes we sat further back and invited more and more pressure on ourselves, this was a tactical decision and to many people it cost us two point. As a result we are still perilously close to the drop. I think things are picking up but I fear they may not be picking up quick enough to avoid the drop
bristol407 We've had our agreements as well as differences -this thread shows that we may not agree. Nelson may have made an error for the Vale equaliser - although the ball was greatly deflected. Taylor may not have been able to control this individual mistake -- but my OP is saying that we really didn't have problems until Taylor decided to change the personnel and formation. He then put round pegs into square holes. Made holes where they hadn't existed and created the environment where the team suddenly looked vulnerable. This was not made any easier by him employing politics - by not selecting Kedwell - who would have worked a damned sight harder than German - who should be embarrassed for his 'effort.' I'm not expecting that Taylor has the team challenging for promotion - but I know it is good enough to be much further away from the relegation places. For too much of the time Taylor has not employed tactics that are progressive enough - and now he chooses to put on German in preference to Kedwell because of internal politics.......if it is raining, does Taylor walk and leave his car in his garage ?
People can overlook the Nelson mistake if they like, unfortunately if he hadn't made that mistake we would have won and this thread would be way different. It is true that Taylor made changes, but equally, so did Vale make changes that also affected the play. Our young team have now gone 4 games unbeaten, I would think this is showing improvement over a few weeks ago, once again our possession and shot stats were good. With time and patience this team will continue to improve as the season unfolds, lets just hope the level of support improves at the same time.
grumpygit I wish I could have your optimism ! Life is full of ifs. We might be unbeaten in 4 games - but I doubt if many of our members would bet against us avoiding relegation. The overall performances still is well short of giving most of us any real comfort against watching Gills v Barnet next season. In threads relating to a lot (too many) previous games this season, the same theme has arisen - that Taylor's tactics have been too negative. Now we have him deliberately avoiding using a better player - to prove a private point. My Point still remains that we ultimately lost 2 points because Taylor's tactics spoilt the balance of the team - Nelson's partial blame is coincidental - and even if we didn't concede the Vale equaliser I would not have left Priestfield with the feeling that we were out of any real danger. It might have been a slightly fortunate victory - in the same way that a 93rd minute equaliser at Bradford was flattering, in the same way that a 95th minute winner against Orient was (just about deserved) luck. In the 'unbeaten' run we could easily have been looking at just a couple of points - and a continuation of the much longer sequence without a win. To be honest I'm not quite sure how we're not bottom - and several points 'adrift' of 23rd. I am afraid that if Taylor retains his current tactics, we will be relegated - no ifs or buts. edit - as for the stats we only had 44% at home. This has been a consistent level of possession in our home games - where a huge amount of that possession has been sideways and backwards. I accept that the shots stats were reasonable - as they were for the Orient game - both these games could so easily have netted us far less than 4 points -- and yet these are 'highlights' in our season so far ! We will not come out of too many games with such fortune - to the point that I do not see us escaping relegation - despite these 'bright' moments - and ALL of the time it has too much to do with Taylor's negativity.
Let me explain how i see it. For the last ten years or so, Gills have survived using "mature" imports (***an, Barrett,Burton,Frampton, Lawrence, Bentley, Lomas, I could name 20 more) generally good blokes and decent players but this has brought one huge weakness....the certainty that they would be less good next season than this season and much worse the year after. There is a dim chance of long term success adopting this strategy but only if the club has real money to replace these guys before their legs give out. The only time in the last ten years that there has been any cash (Gazza sale and Jarvis sell on fee) was 2012 when MA just blew it with the most cynical short term approach. He duly got promotion and left the club in a desperate mess immediately afterwards, just as many of us predicted beforehand. So last season PT just about steered Gills to safety by adopting the same short term approach to recruitment but at the end of the season he tried to adopt an alternative strategy of rebuilding a team from scratch using youngsters--a brave but high risk strategy. If that strategy works we might expect a season of transition, a season of consolidation, followed by hopefully a few seasons of success. Of course, building on youth will result in some erratic performances (consistency only comes with experience) and some players will not develop and the best of the crop will get poached by bigger clubs. Signs of success in the first few months of adopting a youth strategy are going to be unclear and after 3 months they will be almost non existent. So yesterday, as far as the outfield players were concerned, I think there was just Macdonald surviving from last season. this is momentous stuff for a club like Gillingham and brave stuff for a manager like PT. This sort of adventure has never been tried at Gillingham in my lifetime of watching and obviously there is risk of failiure. In my humble opinion I reckon PT is on target The midfield and defence look strong if a bit consistent. The attack is plainly toothless and like many, I reckon Kedwell and Macdonald pose more threat than the current alternatives but I can see the logic in persevering with the youngsters up front for a bit longer. PT will, I am sure make a forward acquisition in January if funds allow. What I think is really pointless is to fail to recognise the total change in strategy that is taking place and to compare with the short termism of the past. We might as well compare chalk and cheese.Patience is needed.
bristol read my thread on Taylors signing. not very good except for Egan and loft . made better loan signings which if i remember you don't believe in so no Taylor has not done a good job.
bristol407 I am not short in the patience department - I've been watching Gills longer than probably nearly all the members of this forum. I am in favour of utilising younger players if they are good enough. I keep on saying that the individual talents of most of the side are good enough for the club to be occupying a much higher league position. I still refer to my OP - 'Taylor's Tactics' ( not the age of the squad ) Taylor can have players in their teens if he likes - I haven't got any problem with that - but it doesn't matter how young or old the players may be if Taylor employs tactics that are too negative - or makes the ridiculous changes that he made yesterday - to totally destabilise the playing positions of the side.
gioblues, You claim Egan and Loft are Taylors only good signings yet have Dickenson in your top 3 "star player" ratings. alwaysright, My own preference would have been to make no substitutes, however, McGlashan, German, Dack, can hardly be described as negative.
Let's try and keep to the original theme of the post I.E. Taylor's Tactics. Other themes keep slipping in. If you don't agree that the tactics are too negative and invite too much pressure please explain why. Players and errors aside. Thanks guys.
Taylor's tactics to me, were frustrating to watch earlier in the season. How annoying is it when you see the ball being switched across the back line six or seven times in less than five minutes but not progressing forwards at all? In later games though I have come to terms with us keeping hold of the ball and with the likes of Doughty offering a broader vision of passing believe we now have a more penetrating attacking sense. I have tried to single out what what other differences have led to me being more content with our style of play over the past couple of matches and I believe it's down to the midfield. The times I have seen heavy passing along the back line pay off is when it is higher up the pitch, with the midfield and forwards closing in on opposition players. Cody, Keds and at points Norris have done this but have always been isolated with nobody supportong them. We have been too easy to pass through in the middle of the pitch, Hess (unlike his father) doesn't seem to press players and nobody else did other than Loft and that was done haphazardly. I think that's why PT keeps on rambling on about players pytting in all their effort he is happy. Our midfield and for me our forwards should be running themselves into the ground and offering our opponents no time or space. I still have absolutely no idea about the tactics with our corners, I can only immagine we were so diabolical on them last season that PT believes we need to flood it. I don't understand why people keep on mentioning Allen. Don't get me wrong he was a likeable man but when I went to Molineux last season I felt worse than any time I have felt this season.
I think at this moment in time I would prefer to Hessenthaler as manager than Taylor. Least they actually attacked games and produced some very entertaining performances (both games against Hereford spring to mind) and for anyone who remembers my posts when Hess was in charge, I slated him regularly aswell. It just shows how dark and gloomy our chances and performances are at the moment.
