Torquay United without Mansell

Post by **SuperNickyWroe** » 22 Feb 2014, 22:57

AustrianAntheaGull wrote:Poor game today, poor season. What we need to remember is that there are others. Many others.

Drop Mansell and bring in who exactly? Nobody who can make a difference. I'd rather have effort than not no matter how ineffective. If the players around him gave as much effort then perhaps we might have a few more points on the board.

Like I said, not impressive at all Manse this season but neither is anyone else.

andy, he didnt play at pompey and guess what?

leetufc · Post by **leetufc** » 22 Feb 2014, 23:03

AustrianAntheaGull wrote:Poor game today, poor season. What we need to remember is that there are others. Many others.

Drop Mansell and bring in who exactly? Nobody who can make a difference. I'd rather have effort than not no matter how ineffective. If the players around him gave as much effort then perhaps we might have a few more points on the board.

Like I said, not impressive at all Manse this season but neither is anyone else.

I admire effort from all footballers, but it's not effort that is going to create the chances and score the goals we need to stay up, it's creativity and quality, something which Manse has been lacking for quite a while

Rjc70 · Post by **Rjc70** » 22 Feb 2014, 23:06

I was delighted he was not played at Portsmouth and really thought it might have been the key defining moment in our season. If we go with a central midfield three Lathrope, Labadie when back from suspension, Harding and Craig should be before him in the pecking order. In a central midfield two, it is too much to ask of the other player to pair him with Mansell and we'll lose the game.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 22 Feb 2014, 23:07

I've checked the rules on the FA website. Apparently, they still don't give points for effort, so all his 'trying his best' ( as if he's the fat kid at sports day) means precisely three fifths of two thirds of **** all.

Berbatov is a lazy motherfucker. Him or Manse, your choice.

Matt.

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 23 Feb 2014, 00:20

Lee Mansell has been a great player for Torquay United for many seasons - a good professional on and off the pitch. I find some of the postings on this thread highly objectionable. However, Mansell has struggled this season in a struggling team and no longer merits an automatic selection. I think he himself is frustrated with his lack of form - you could see that in his reactions today when his passes went astray which, unfortunately, was fairly frequent.

okehampton gull · Post by **okehampton gull** » 23 Feb 2014, 12:27

I have watched Mansell for the last season and a half run around putting a foot in,(you could find a player to do that in the devon premier league ,) I wont say headless chicken. it is obvious he is doing his utmost to get the ball, but when he does ,,,,,,, he passes it to ,, Nicholson every time , which means he is passing sideways ,backwards all the time.
has he made I assist in that time ? , he hasn't had a shot on target, and summed it all up when he missed that penalty against Portsmouth. blasted miles over the bar, he should have been left out then. he must feel embarrassed playing .. we need a midfield who can pass the ball on the deck forwards , cut this hoofing forward out (that is all Nicholson did all second half) reading the managers piece today ,, hes accepted his fate already... were ****..

Burnhamgull · Post by **Burnhamgull** » 23 Feb 2014, 15:07

AustrianAntheaGull wrote:
Like I said, not impressive at all Manse this season but neither is anyone else.

Nobody else has been given a chance because Mansell is a regular no matter how poorly he plays.
Lathrope, Harding (when fit), Labadie, Craig are all capable of forming a partnership but Mansell, as captain, has been guaranteed a place every week.

Others have said it but at Fratton Park, nobody missed Mansell............

Fonda · Post by **Fonda** » 23 Feb 2014, 16:03

Of course an unfortunate byproduct of continuing to pick a player who isn't performing is that fans ' frustrations grow, and you end up with seemingly disrespectful comments on message boards (and at games). I doubt any of us gain any satisfaction in being so critical of the skipper - a player who has been a brilliant servant for this club. But at present he's proving a hindrance.

AustrianAndyGull · Post by **AustrianAndyGull** » 23 Feb 2014, 16:15

It's not just a question of simply picking out Mansell because we won at Pompey without him and saying that will work the oracle. We have a large group of players that 2 or in some cases, 3 successive managers have not been able to get the best out of. I don't believe they are particularly poor footballers so what is it? Bad attitude? That Ling, Knill and Hargreaves are all not very good? Picking out Mansell isn't going to make a blind bit of difference because he isn't the only one performing consistently poorly. They all are pretty much. If dropping Manse provides the catalyst for a surge in good form then fine, give him the cold shoulder but all I'm saying is that we have humongous problems not caused by one player. Neither can anyone coming in make much a better difference unless it is Messi. Chris has to get the team all fighting for the cause and showing urgency. We aren't creating anything because our attacking players aren't dynamic enough. It's all well and good saying we need a midfield maestro to pick a pass but from what I've seen the attacking players just don't give them any options. It is predictable and so easy to play against. Yesterday a lot of the play was centred around Hawley holding it up but then we had ineffective wingers and attackers offering nothing. Chappell did what he could but he looks so blunt and short on ideas that he could become the new Danny Stevens. We have Chappell, Bodin and now Stevens who are bereft of ideas and on top of that we have strikers who cannot score or don't even look like scoring. Stockley is really really poor from what I've seen, Benyon is the only one who can offer energy and a poachers instinct but we never gat balls in to him around the area. I say just whack Downes up top and pump balls in all day long. That is what it has come to and if anyone thinks by dropping Mansell we'll see an upturn in form then I think they are very much mistaken. One man doesn't make a team good and one man doesn't make a team bad.

Post by **SuperNickyWroe** » 23 Feb 2014, 16:41

AustrianAntheaGull wrote:It's not just a question of simply picking out Mansell because we won at Pompey without him and saying that will work the oracle. We have a large group of players that 2 or in some cases, 3 successive managers have not been able to get the best out of. I don't believe they are particularly poor footballers so what is it? Bad attitude? That Ling, Knill and Hargreaves are all not very good? Picking out Mansell isn't going to make a blind bit of difference because he isn't the only one performing consistently poorly. They all are pretty much. If dropping Manse provides the catalyst for a surge in good form then fine, give him the cold shoulder but all I'm saying is that we have humongous problems not caused by one player. Neither can anyone coming in make much a better difference unless it is Messi. Chris has to get the team all fighting for the cause and showing urgency. We aren't creating anything because our attacking players aren't dynamic enough. It's all well and good saying we need a midfield maestro to pick a pass but from what I've seen the attacking players just don't give them any options. It is predictable and so easy to play against. Yesterday a lot of the play was centred around Hawley holding it up but then we had ineffective wingers and attackers offering nothing. Chappell did what he could but he looks so blunt and short on ideas that he could become the new Danny Stevens. We have Chappell, Bodin and now Stevens who are bereft of ideas and on top of that we have strikers who cannot score or don't even look like scoring. Stockley is really really poor from what I've seen, Benyon is the only one who can offer energy and a poachers instinct but we never gat balls in to him around the area. I say just whack Downes up top and pump balls in all day long. That is what it has come to and if anyone thinks by dropping Mansell we'll see an upturn in form then I think they are very much mistaken. One man doesn't make a team good and one man doesn't make a team bad.

i think the point posters are trying to make me old derbyshire ponce is that we actually won without him any where near the team....

so for a start why not try it again???

AustrianAndyGull · Post by **AustrianAndyGull** » 23 Feb 2014, 17:07

Thing is Chris had it not been for Poke we may have won at Chesterfield who were top of the league. Mansell played then and every player did really well. We can't win every time we drop Mansell so when does the point come when we say drop someone else because we won at X team when they didn't play? We just have a load of players that have underperformed on a consistent basis for in many cases 3 different managers. Why should things get any better with the same players under Chris? We actually do need miracles from Jesus to stay up now because we look possibly the worst side in the league not only in terms of points but in terms of performances. Dropping Mansell won't make much difference.

okehampton gull · Post by **okehampton gull** » 23 Feb 2014, 19:24

the sum total of all the posts ,, apart from one ,, is get rid of mansell, he is shite...

Gullscorer · Post by **Gullscorer** » 23 Feb 2014, 19:34

In a sense it matters not who else is in the team, the important thing is that we play Danny Stevens for a full 90 minutes. He's bound to score, as these highlights indicate: http://www.footytube.com/video/sheffiel ... ec03-98019
Note that Mark Ellis scored against his own team and Bobby Olejnik gave away a goal, but lil' Danny scored a consolation goal..!!
And we're going to need consoling in the months ahead..

That's if we're not celebrating..

Oh, and come back Rene, please...

Sunnysideup · Post by **Sunnysideup** » 24 Feb 2014, 09:55

Burnhamgull wrote:Others have said it but at Fratton Park, nobody missed Mansell............

And anyone that thinks we played better at Pompey than we did at Wimbledon 2 weeks earlier is ****ing deluded. Backs against the wall defending compared with controlling the game?
Oh, mind you, Mansell played at Wimbledon so it must have been a crap performance.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 24 Feb 2014, 10:42

Those two matches were almost identical. An excellent first half effort to restrict the opposition to very little while raiding down the flanks (utilising an overlapping O'Connor). Second half of much increased opposition pressure which was withstood, partly through resolute defending and partly through woefully inept forward play by the opposition.

Picking one random game that we happened to win while Manse happened not to be playing is a daft line of attack. It is easily defeated by pointing to any match we have won this season with him playing (a la Wimbledon).

If you don't want him to play, just say so. Anyone who knows anything about anything can see that he's a notably weak link among a team full of weak links. If anyone stands out as especially poor in this team, how bad must they really be?

I don't dislike Manse. I have spoken to the man as recently as last week about his performances. As people, he doesn't especially like me, because I made a quip about his wife and because I make no secret of the fact that I think he's not a good enough footballer anymore. But I'm not an habitual 'hater'. I don't dislike him on principle. It's nothing personal. Indeed, I couldn't care less about the man himself. I'm sure we wouldn't be friends if we knew each other socially, we aren't each others sort, but that's irrelevant here.

I've known, and been friends with, an awful lot of people who were terrible at their jobs. I'm sure we all have. It is possible to think that about people. I think my mate Steve is an enormously fat bubble of wasted talent, but I love him like a brother.

Manse's time has come. His style of balls out, gung ho midfield play is no longer a part of the game. Football has moved on. It's an organic thing and it changes with time. Fashions come and go. Tactics change. Manse is carpet bombing in a cruise missile age. A Walkman in an iPod world. A Hillman Imp among a sea of Ferrari 458s.

His best bet now is to go out gracefully. Step aside quietly and allow the new generation to come in and attempt the seemingly impossible task of saving us from the drop. If he does that, those who matter, those who think about things a bit more carefully will point to him and say he played a key role in preserving the league status of this proud and noble club. He took the hardest decision of all, to sacrifice himself for the good of others, and it worked.

Alternatively, he could hang around, clawing desperately at the shredded tatters of a once fine footballing career. Refusing to submit to the inevitable and inexorable passage of time and space that comes to us all in the end. He could lumber on, being endlessly beaten for pace, guile and skill by men nee boys who weren't fit to lace his boots a few short years ago.

Your choice, Lee.

Matt.

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