Use of the loan market.

[Richinns]

Matt - I am pretty sure the person involved paid the price for her mistake and no longer works for the club. This is very much in the past and to be honest your derogatory comment made towards her are uncalled for at any time in this episode.
I know it is said a bit tongue in cheek but sometimes please just think before posting as although I enjoy many of your ramblings - they can on occasions cross the line (as is the case here).

[Richinns]

Anyway - back on subject - seems Ling is going to try Thompson before rushing into the loan market:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19356173" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am going Sat so for me it will be even more interesting to see how he gets on as the PSF shows he has talent and pace to burn. I hope the crowd do not start getting on his back if he has a few bad touches early on, as he is bound to be nervous.

[Yellow4life]

Thompson was always the stand out player whenever I refereed the U18 team, his pace and strength is the real bonus but if there was someone I thought he could work on; since I've last seen him, it would be his crossing.

[Richinns]

Thompson was always the stand out player whenever I refereed the U18 team, his pace and strength is the real bonus but if there was someone I thought he could work on; since I've last seen him, it would be his crossing.

The thing about Thompson is he looks ready for league football. He has filled out already and just looks like a footballer.

[Behind-the-Gulls]

Agree with giving our youngsters a chance first-rather than dipping into the loan market straightaway.
Relieved Macklin may only be out for a month given that he's got a ruptured hamstring.
Hopefully Danny and Damon could be back next week ?

[Dave]

Martin Ling has allways said from the moment he arrived here that he viewed football as a squad game, and that everyone in the squad would get a chance to prove themselves, so it does not surprise me one bit he is talkng about giving Thompson a go.

Agree with the above posts, from what I saw of Thompson in pre-season he does look ready, admittly he did look very raw, thats understandable however considering he has no senior games under his belt, can't think of a better way for him learn.

[DevonYellow]

Anyway - back on subject - seems Ling is going to try Thompson before rushing into the loan market:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19356173" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am going Sat so for me it will be even more interesting to see how he gets on as the PSF shows he has talent and pace to burn. I hope the crowd do not start getting on his back if he has a few bad touches early on, as he is bound to be nervous.

Amen to that. Some of the stick the pop side started to dish out when we had to defend some Cheltenham pressure was uncalled for and unhelpful. They were whinging when we hit it long, whinging when we played it short. No wonder some of the lads started to make mistakes as the crowd were on their backs straight away if they miscontrolled the ball or god forbid misplaced a pass.

As someone near me shouted "here's an idea why not support them?"

Surely even our bunch of complaining fans wouldn't dish it out to a youngster on his league debut, would they?

[Jeff]

Good shout to give Thompson a chance. He's certainly been talked up and looked pretty good on that YouTube show-reel somebody posted (although I am well aware that anyone can be made to look half decent via YouTube!).

I would say that we should start with Thompson and if we are good enough to be in a winning position, we have some options from the bench to shore things up - we could put Jarvis out there straight swap, put Cruise on and swap flanks with Bodin, or put Easton on, Morris out wide.

Ling said last year that when things got bad the answers were within the club, let's see of lightening can strike twice.

[brooker]

Has anyone heard any solid news on Damon and Lloyd? know someones probably said it somewhere, but i can't find it!

[Yellow4life]

lloyd is out for 3 to 4 weeks

source: @insideplanmoor (twitter)

[SteveDeckchair]

Pleased with this if it's true. Could have been so much worse.

[ferrarilover]

Imagine, purely hypothetically, that Damon Lathrope is out for the rest of the season (I ask about DL because I think the answer with Lloyd is too obvious). How would you look to remedy the situation? Change of formation back to a traditional 4-4-2? Craig Easton? Loan market?

Matt.

[stevegull]

Imagine, purely hypothetically, that Damon Lathrope is out for the rest of the season (I ask about DL because I think the answer with Lloyd is too obvious). How would you look to remedy the situation? Change of formation back to a traditional 4-4-2? Craig Easton? Loan market?

Matt.

Easton. Some people (you, I think) would prefer him in the team ahead of Lathrope anyway. I wouldn't even think we'd be desperate for loan back up as I'm sure Manse could do a job there, or even Oastler for a spell.

[ferrarilover]

Not necessarily Easton over DL, I like the work that DL does, even if I STILL don't notice it, just I've been really impressed with Easton and think he should, perhaps, be considered ahead of Morris, who STILL makes enough silly mistakes in a game (among some other excellent stuff) for him to be ranked as frustrating rather than erratically brilliant. I would certainly like to see Easton ahead of Jarvis in the substitutes line up.

Bearing in mind I'm talking, hypothetically, about DL being out for the season, are you sure you want to be moving Manse around for a whole year?

Matt.

[brucie]

I have not been Lathrope's greatest fan but he played really well on Tuesday and was a big miss when he went off. If we are relying on Easton though we are really in the shit.
So far our big players are peforming well I would say. Howe is peforming well. Downes and Saah at the back looks solid enough behind Poke. Bodin looked a right handful on Tuesday night - thats the best I have seen him play.
The ongoing problem seems to be that we lack any real options though.
A midfield containing Mansell,Morris and Easton doesn't seem anything like good enough and with Easton and the youngster playing against Rochdale we look a couple of players short in my view.
Personally I would play Jarvis with Bodin and Howe as he has looked pretty sharp when he has come on as sub.
Hanging on for a 1-0 just isn't going to work because only Mansell looks remotely able to tackle anyone in midfield.