Since Della-Verde joined and Balanta fit enough to join the matchday squad........ Martin hasnt been seen (not even on the bench). Since Blissett, Goldberg & Wall joined us.......... Harrison hasnt been seen (not even on the bench). Since Sinclair returned from injury, he hasnt been needed to go out wide due to having more options out wide thanks to Della-Verde/Balanta. As a result.......... Clarke hasnt been seen (but did make the bench last night though). Leadbitter just hasnt been seen full stop (not even on the bench). Since Puddy got injured we havent had a sub keeper. DC has said he wont chuck youth keeper Preston into the deep end after Mildenhalls injury. Would have thought Preston would be on the bench though just to get use to the match day squad. Good experience for him. However, Preston hasnt been seen. With Della-Verde out injured for an unknown length of time at the moment and Balanta playing more minutes last night than what DC wanted so may not be risked to start this Saturday, will we see any of these players make the starting 11 or even the bench this Saturday? We will get a keeper in on loan but surely Preston will get on the bench. Who will replace Della-Verde at RW? Leadbitter has been used RW before. Martin can play RW. Harrison can play RW. Will Gosling get another chance after failing to impress recently and was dropped last night altogther. With Bath in the cup coming soon, that would be the idea game to give these forgotten players a game to get valuable game time ready for the xmas run in, where we play 4 games in just 10 days!!! (26th Dec, 28th Dec, 1st Jan & 4th Jan). What do you think gasheads?
I think they'll be seen more if Della Verde's ankle is as bad as it looks. It's good to have some decent strength in depth...
So, despite our injuries no Harrison, Martin or Leadbitter even on the bench. I'm not too worried about the latter but I definitely think that Martin and Harrison have something to offer. Martin for his experience and Ellis for his undoubted ability to unnerve defences. What's going on?
leadbitter was on the bench yesterday but still no harrison/martin. i was surprised DC went without a spare keeper on the bench leaving preston behind. thought he would have learned his lesson from wrexham.
I agree very much with this. The new lad was an unknown quantity and it could all have gone t*** up. Thankfully it didn't but DC was definitely taking a chance.
DC admitted after Wrexham that not having a GK on bench was a mistake and it was all part of the learning process. So, we move on to Saturday v Welling and........ he didn't have a GK on the bench, am i the only thinking that surely means he's a little slow on the uptake (putting it politely) ..and i mean that respectfully. i just can't figure that out.
you are not the only one JTS. maybe though he thought what was the chances of something happening to his keeper again 2 games in a row and then gambled on that! just a guess.
I have other worries about our manager.Why does he seem to want to change the side every time we play when this should have been sorted in training? The confidence in many must be damaged by this constant changing, I just wish he would pick and stay with what he thinks is his beat for more than one game.
I daren't say this on the other sites, 'cos I'll get howled down as a trouble-maker! However I'm still not totally convinced by DC. It's hard to argue with being 2nd/3rd, but I haven't seen us play really well yet and we're getting by as most of the other teams are much of a muchness.
injuries, international call ups, suspensions (had 5 reds cards already this season), keeping fringe players match fit, players not scoring, new players joining being given a chance (and we have had a fair few loans join us and balanta recover from injury) is just a few reasons why DC hasnt been able to keep a settled side.
I'm sure now that DC has had a chance to see all of his new and existing players in action, he should be able to sort out which players fit with others and have more than one option of who plays with who on match days. Giving him plenty of room for Plan A & plan B. One thing in his favour is that his man management skills seem good. All the players are putting in a decent shift, even if they are not playing tactically as well as we would all wish. As I've said elsewhere, the only way to get our final third difficulties sorted out is on the training ground. Back to Gary Payer's comment "The more I practice, the luckier I get"!
I don't get to many matches but from comments I read on the forum and in the press we generally don't appear to be playing to badly, so just think how we will fly up the league and back into league 2 when we do start scoring goals and play well. I said last season that I thought DC could be the Gases Sir Alex but like Man U did at the beginning we need to give him a fair crack at the job
