Manse at Right Back?

[CP Gull]

... never again please, Greavsie!

I must admit I have never rated him in that position as he is far too easily skinned. It was obvious, early in the first half when their winger waltzed around a statuesque Manse, like he was a training cone, that it's just not his position. He was indeed "horrific" last night, to quote him, and whilst being an admirer of his battling qualities, his distribution last night was truly dreadful. If he is to keep his place in the team then it can only be in central midfield and yet with the likes of Labadie, Lathrope, Harding, Cooper, Rudge (where was he last night?) and Craig all fighting for a place in the team there, you have to feel that his days may be numbered.

It is now a huge call for Greavsie as to how many of his "mates" he chooses to keep in the team as it was clear that Northampton deliberately targeted the area between O'Connor and Nicholson on the left side of our defence and consequently benefited to the tune of two goals last night. This has happened all too often over the course of the last couple of seasons and needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, certainly in the case of the second goal, Nico was let down by some poor defending by young O'Connor and like others have said, I felt Pokey could have done better with both goals last night too. Unfortunately, I don't think Cruise is good enough defensively to warrant a place in the side either.

As for young O'Connor, excellent though he is most of the time he is prone to the odd costly error and personally feel he would be better off being played at Right Back where he has been excellent every time I have seen him there.

I also feel Downesy, should be restored to our defence as although he hasn't had the best of seasons, not helped by injury, he is surely too good to be left on our bench.

I feel we still have the makings of a decent enough side if some BIG decisions are made. We still have the options of Harding, who we haven't seen the best of yet and Cooper to come back into the side and they will feel like TWO new signings. We also have young Rudge, who we really don't know enough about to judge whether he could improve us and to a certain extent young O'Brien needs to be given a chance too as 10 minutes off the bench is not enough. He scored plenty of goals at the level below, for Aldershot, in the last few months and should at least be fairly confident in front of goal which is more than can be said for some, if not most, of our current strikers!

As for Lathrope in midfield, whilst by no means our worst performer last night (there was plenty of competition for that!) I know he has been largely excellent in our recent performances on the road but I am not sure that such a defensively minded central midfielder is what is required at Plainmoor where the emphasis has to be on taking the game to the opposition.

I thought Stockley battled valiantly up top last night and was, along with Chapell and Pearce, someone who could at least hold their head up high after last night, but was disappointed with Elliot alongside. Benyon seems to have lost his touch in front of goal since he last played for us and you have to ask what he brings to the team(other than admittedly a huge appetite for hard work) if he isn't delivering where it counts most. Time to give young Chapell or indeed O'Brien a run out up there, or recruit another loanee if they are not up to it.

It's time for Greavsie to make some big decisions and for the sake of his fledgling managerial career I really hope he gives it his best shot and makes the calls that are needed to get us out of this mess, otherwise I fear our time may be up (again).

No sentiment, no regrets.

[teeboo100]

extremely good posting there cp i agree with almost everything there changes have to be made and made now old guard on bench young hungry pups in and stop playing with so much fear go out and express yourselves roll up the sleeves and fight cos last night the older guard started waiving that white flag

[Richinns]

Just cannot be jobs for the boys anymore. Why drop Tonge when we kept a clean sheet away from home in the previous game?

He talks about the importance of team morale but what message does this give?

[CP Gull]

Just cannot be jobs for the boys anymore. Why drop Tonge when we kept a clean sheet away from home in the previous game?

He talks about the importance of team morale but what message does this give?

I too was surprised at the "dropping" of Tonge, having assumed that he would stick with the same XI that had done so well at Pompey. By all accounts, he gave one of his best performances in a TUFC shirt and must surely have felt a little hard done by.

I can only assume that Greavsie picked the side that had been prepared in training. From what we can gather Tonge was a major doubt for the game on Saturday against Bury but was fit to play last night, but probably not having trained all week and with Manse due to deputise in that position on Saturday we can assume, I guess Greavsie went with the same side that he would have picked if the game had gone ahead last weekend.

[gullno4]

he's just too inconsistent wherever he plays, I'd drop him 100%!

[Oil Beef Hooked]

... never again please, Greavsie!

I must admit I have never rated him in that position as he is far too easily skinned. It was obvious, early in the first half when their winger waltzed around a statuesque Manse, like he was a training cone, that it's just not his position. He was indeed "horrific" last night, to quote him, and whilst being an admirer of his battling qualities, his distribution last night was truly dreadful. If he is to keep his place in the team then it can only be in central midfield and yet with the likes of Labadie, Lathrope, Harding, Cooper, Rudge (where was he last night?) and Craig all fighting for a place in the team there, you have to feel that his days may be numbered.

It is now a huge call for Greavsie as to how many of his "mates" he chooses to keep in the team as it was clear that Northampton deliberately targeted the area between O'Connor and Nicholson on the left side of our defence and consequently benefited to the tune of two goals last night. This has happened all too often over the course of the last couple of seasons and needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, certainly in the case of the second goal, Nico was let down by some poor defending by young O'Connor and like others have said, I felt Pokey could have done better with both goals last night too. Unfortunately, I don't think Cruise is good enough defensively to warrant a place in the side either.

As for young O'Connor, excellent though he is most of the time he is prone to the odd costly error and personally feel he would be better off being played at Right Back where he has been excellent every time I have seen him there.

I also feel Downesy, should be restored to our defence as although he hasn't had the best of seasons, not helped by injury, he is surely too good to be left on our bench.

I feel we still have the makings of a decent enough side if some BIG decisions are made. We still have the options of Harding, who we haven't seen the best of yet and Cooper to come back into the side and they will feel like TWO new signings. We also have young Rudge, who we really don't know enough about to judge whether he could improve us and to a certain extent young O'Brien needs to be given a chance too as 10 minutes off the bench is not enough. He scored plenty of goals at the level below, for Aldershot, in the last few months and should at least be fairly confident in front of goal which is more than can be said for some, if not most, of our current strikers!

As for Lathrope in midfield, whilst by no means our worst performer last night (there was plenty of competition for that!) I know he has been largely excellent in our recent performances on the road but I am not sure that such a defensively minded central midfielder is what is required at Plainmoor where the emphasis has to be on taking the game to the opposition.

I thought Stockley battled valiantly up top last night and was, along with Chapell and Pearce, someone who could at least hold their head up high after last night, but was disappointed with Elliot alongside. Benyon seems to have lost his touch in front of goal since he last played for us and you have to ask what he brings to the team(other than admittedly a huge appetite for hard work) if he isn't delivering where it counts most. Time to give young Chapell or indeed O'Brien a run out up there, or recruit another loanee if they are not up to it.

It's time for Greavsie to make some big decisions and for the sake of his fledgling managerial career I really hope he gives it his best shot and makes the calls that are needed to get us out of this mess, otherwise I fear our time may be up (again).

No sentiment, no regrets.

I don't think Manse should play at right back. Especially as we already have Tonge and O'Connor who can play in the position.

I believe that for CH to understand his best 11, he has to play the squad to give them a chance to feature in his future plans. The problem with this is that we don't really have the time to experiment.

I would like to think that CH has seen enough now to start the rebuilding process and to understand who plays where and when. Labadie coming in was a coup and an excellent signing for us.

CH has got to make some hard decisions over the next few weeks. Decisions that could make or break our league status. As others have said, we can't rely on sentiment to preserve our status as a league club. Everyone should be given a clean slate and fight for the shirt. No-one should be guaranteed a starting place, even the old guard.

[Southampton Gull]

Some of us have been telling Scott for months that Manse is no longer the player he was......................

[bobby93]

... never again please, Greavsie!

I must admit I have never rated him in that position as he is far too easily skinned. It was obvious, early in the first half when their winger waltzed around a statuesque Manse, like he was a training cone, that it's just not his position. He was indeed "horrific" last night, to quote him, and whilst being an admirer of his battling qualities, his distribution last night was truly dreadful. If he is to keep his place in the team then it can only be in central midfield and yet with the likes of Labadie, Lathrope, Harding, Cooper, Rudge (where was he last night?) and Craig all fighting for a place in the team there, you have to feel that his days may be numbered.

It is now a huge call for Greavsie as to how many of his "mates" he chooses to keep in the team as it was clear that Northampton deliberately targeted the area between O'Connor and Nicholson on the left side of our defence and consequently benefited to the tune of two goals last night. This has happened all too often over the course of the last couple of seasons and needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, certainly in the case of the second goal, Nico was let down by some poor defending by young O'Connor and like others have said, I felt Pokey could have done better with both goals last night too. Unfortunately, I don't think Cruise is good enough defensively to warrant a place in the side either.

As for young O'Connor, excellent though he is most of the time he is prone to the odd costly error and personally feel he would be better off being played at Right Back where he has been excellent every time I have seen him there.

I also feel Downesy, should be restored to our defence as although he hasn't had the best of seasons, not helped by injury, he is surely too good to be left on our bench.

I feel we still have the makings of a decent enough side if some BIG decisions are made. We still have the options of Harding, who we haven't seen the best of yet and Cooper to come back into the side and they will feel like TWO new signings. We also have young Rudge, who we really don't know enough about to judge whether he could improve us and to a certain extent young O'Brien needs to be given a chance too as 10 minutes off the bench is not enough. He scored plenty of goals at the level below, for Aldershot, in the last few months and should at least be fairly confident in front of goal which is more than can be said for some, if not most, of our current strikers!

As for Lathrope in midfield, whilst by no means our worst performer last night (there was plenty of competition for that!) I know he has been largely excellent in our recent performances on the road but I am not sure that such a defensively minded central midfielder is what is required at Plainmoor where the emphasis has to be on taking the game to the opposition.

I thought Stockley battled valiantly up top last night and was, along with Chapell and Pearce, someone who could at least hold their head up high after last night, but was disappointed with Elliot alongside. Benyon seems to have lost his touch in front of goal since he last played for us and you have to ask what he brings to the team(other than admittedly a huge appetite for hard work) if he isn't delivering where it counts most. Time to give young Chapell or indeed O'Brien a run out up there, or recruit another loanee if they are not up to it.

It's time for Greavsie to make some big decisions and for the sake of his fledgling managerial career I really hope he gives it his best shot and makes the calls that are needed to get us out of this mess, otherwise I fear our time may be up (again).

No sentiment, no regrets.

Several fair and rational points here, thanks for posting.

I also felt last night that although we were not helped by several 'external' factors, we lined up very strangely. Chappell on the bench is an odd one, he showed why he deserves a start when he came on in my opinion. Far too good for us, really.

[gullno4]

there's a 37 year old running in the men's 60 metres athletics final, nichos got no excuse!!!!