Torquay United Fans Forum

I had a quick scan and Forest Green (-20) are the only team to have a worse goal difference than us (-19) across all top 5 divisions in the U.K from National League up AND there is only one goal in it!!

I’ve read this thread repeatedly and still don’t understand how we are quite so poor!

Well well well, looks like Mr Ellis is back!

Regarding defending, at free kicks and corners...all the players should be aware of what's going on around them. Open their eyes and mark the opposition..not just form a queue on the 6 yard line!! B****y Hell it's not rocket science!! Just the basics of defending what you were taught when you first started playing

Would have thought Aaron Downes would know that wtf!!

Chris Todd?

Would love to see Mark Ellis back here, however we’d have a tough job on our hands convincing him to move back to the area. If he was willing to relocate, Yeovil would probably have a better chance of landing him due to his history with Cooper.

The fashion seems to be zonal defence, especially from corners: everyone on the six-yard line, goalkeeper blocked from coming off his line to dominate in the air, no-one on the edge of the penalty area leaving the opposition 2 or 3 players completely unmarked for the inevitable loose ball.
This style of defending was repeatedly shown up by Altrincham taking short corners and being able to penetrate the penalty area for a shot on goal; even the BT Sport commentators couldn't believe that we had not countered this tactic because apparently that is standard practice for Altrincham, and yet we didn't seem to know about it...
For Altrincham's 4th goal they had 2 defenders together towards the back of our defensive line, we had 3 players, including our newly-brought on sub centre half, marking one another and lo and behold the cross went over them all onto a goalscoring head.
We just do not seem to learn from our copious mistakes or poor positioning, and have all season relied upon last-ditch blocking or poor opposition finishing to hopefully not concede.

toastkid wrote: 28 Oct 2022, 12:04 You must all admit, this season is ruddy exciting! Saturdays 4-4 was a classic. None of this mid table obscurity for me, the roller coaster than is TUFC any day! Back GJ, back the team. Hold tight and scream if you wanna go faster!

Ahhhhhh!

You must all admit, this season is ruddy exciting! Saturdays 4-4 was a classic. None of this mid table obscurity for me, the roller coaster than is TUFC any day! Back GJ, back the team. Hold tight and scream if you wanna go faster!

To partner Moxey in the centre of defence I meant to add.

Yes opposition get far too much room in midfield and in the last third to play the ball around and get crosses in.
With Wyatt and Martin out we need a decent left back for starters and as everyone keeps saying an experienced centre back.

I think the problem is far deeper. I’ve had a look at the statistics and unsurprisingly we give the opposition on average far more shots than any other team. We are giving away 18 shots a game. This is a big outlier with most teams giving around 8-10.

I do wonder if the club have any performance analysis going on as I’m sure we would be a clear case of how not to play the game. The statistics basically back up what I’ve seen on the pitch. We are far to easy to play against and leave our defence exposed far too often.

UnitedinDevon wrote: 27 Oct 2022, 20:34 Torbay weekly article indicating that experienced signings being made

Will be all on eyes on the team sheet Saturday

sincerely hope so, much needed for sure.

Torbay weekly article indicating that experienced signings being made

Will be all on eyes on the team sheet Saturday

Build around the spine of the team first. Enquire about Mark Ellis or put Dean Moxey in as a centre back. Stop the ball coming in from wide areas or thru midfield exposing the centre backs. Its symptomatic of a poor team in most positions.

Simple solution.....as I have said before a no nonsense, experienced centre half would be a start....surely there must be one available on loan
for us.