Recent form, teams etc

[hector]

WE have played six games since Knill left P6 W2 D1 L3 F8 A7. The previous 6 games, under Knill, produced an almost identical record P6 W2 D1 L3 F5 A9. Of our next 8 games SIX are at home. We simply must accumulate points and start getting them at home.

I don't blame CH at all for this but his team selections so far, hint a little at someone who still has not quite worked out which is the best team or system to play. That is probably fair enough. He has inherited a shambles, a roster of players who come and go, loanees from other clubs, players of our own out on loan. Yet there has been - to complement this picture of unsettledness, an influx of players e.g. Cooper/Stevens/Mudge/O'Brien who have not yet appeared or have barely appeared, whilst others like Nicholson have come in and gone again, Mansell was dropped, put at RB and now back in midfield, while Downes was - perhaps harshly - dropped after a clean sheet at Wimbledon and one goal conceded at Oxford, since when we have now conceded FIVE goals over the last two games without him.

The spine of the team needs addressing as we are playing like a team with a slipped disc. To my mind that is Poke/Downes/Pearce/Labadie/god knows (up front)...

I have not seen enough of the FOUR forwards we have on loan to know if they are any better than Benyon/Hawley...but they cannot be much worse. Ferrarilover is making a good case for the lack of goals costing us and he has a point. Who do we have up front, other than two journeymen, low scoring forwards of our own and a bunch of kids from the youth teams of other sides? Yeoman isn't the answer and neither, I suspect, is Sullivan just yet - for the future he may be.

So, to address the spine we need some solidity in the team and ideally, some experience.

My defence, when all are fit would be O'Connor, Pearce, Downes, Cooper. I would even consider going for 5 in defence and have Tonge, Pearce, Downes, O'Connor, Cooper; We need to become hard to beat. We are not scoring very many regardless of the system/personnel we play, so let's at least stop conceding the silly goals.

Midfield - Chapell should be in the team. He is our most creative and potent attacking threat and in the spirit of being hard to beat, Lathrope and Labadie can bolster midfield, with perhaps Bodin on the other flank when recovered.

That only leaves a place for one up front...and we the sort of team I have picked, someone like Benyon would be pointless in that role. Stockley is about the biggest we have , so possibly him.

We would not score many with this line-up but then we are not anyway and hopefully we would not be conceding 2 or 3 a game.

[stefano]

WE have played six games since Knill left P6 W2 D1 L3 F8 A7. The previous 6 games, under Knill, produced an almost identical record P6 W2 D1 L3 F5 A9. Of our next 8 games SIX are at home.

Strange things statistics. 5 games played under new manager 6 points. Last 5 games of old manager 7 points. Seems to suggest you were just a little too hasty forming the lynch mob.

[Dave]

Could do a same last 6 games Ling/Taylor v Knill comparison and come up with much the same result. As is the case with many new managers, can take a few games to get there views across, Chris Hargreaves is, like every other coach/manager his own man, with his own ideas, which will be different to Alan Knill's. Once Knill got things running his way he picked the points and we stayed up, sadly he couldn't build on it, going to be interesting how the next few games pan out under CH, especially at home.

[stefano]

..... going to be interesting how the next few games pan out under CH, especially at home.

Essential to turn our home form around with 6 of the next 8 games at home. I am sure this sequence of games will decide our destiny. One good win, hopefully starting with Accrington next week, will hopefully renew confidence and spur the team on. They are all winnable but I would hope for home wins against Accrington, Burton, Bury, and Newport (who should be knackered by then catching up with their games!), and would be happy with a home point against Fleetwood and Rochdale. Away, Hartlepool and Cheltenham, both winnable. Get through that lot with a good points haul and we shouldn't be far off Exeter City in the table.

[hector]

Strange things statistics. 5 games played under new manager 6 points. Last 5 games of old manager 7 points. Seems to suggest you were just a little too hasty forming the lynch mob.

It is knill's team that we are still
Having to put up with.

[SuperNickyWroe]

It is knill's team that we are still
Having to put up with.

dont see how you can say that when CH has brough in so many loanees.............

[stefano]

It is Knill's team that we are still having to put up with.

It isn't but don't let a fact get in the way of your viewpoint. You have stated several times that we would definitely have been relegated if Mr Knill had remained as manager and presumably you have said it so many times in order to convince everybody that it is a fact. It isn't. It is possible that we would have been relegated, but it is something we will never know.

One thing we do know though is that the one season Mr Knill was the manager of Torquay United in an end of season relegation scrap, the club did not get relegated. That is a fact!

[hector]

It isn't but don't let a fact get in the way of your viewpoint. You have stated several times that we would definitely have been relegated if Mr Knill had remained as manager and presumably you have said it so many times in order to convince everybody that it is a fact. It isn't. It is possible that we would have been relegated, but it is something we will never know.

One thing we do know though is that the one season Mr Knill was the manager of Torquay United in an end of season relegation scrap, the club did not get relegated. That is a fact!

We stayed up in spite of Knill, not because of him. Furthermore, if say we agreed on your idea that he saved us, there is a certain irony that he did better with Martin Ling's team last season, than he did with his own this year.

You cannot really argue with the league position and mess Knill left us in. It's not like Hargreaves has made it any worse and there was no basis for thinking Knill would turn it around. The facts of Knill's tenure suggest he was one of our WORST EVER managers. A rookie in Chris Hargreaves is not going to turn that around in 5 games.

[stefano]

We stayed up in spite of Knill, not because of him. Furthermore, if say we agreed on your idea that he saved us, there is a certain irony that he did better with Martin Ling's team last season, than he did with his own this year.

You cannot really argue with the league position and mess Knill left us in. It's not like Hargreaves has made it any worse and there was no basis for thinking Knill would turn it around. The facts of Knill's tenure suggest he was one of our WORST EVER managers. A rookie in Chris Hargreaves is not going to turn that around in 5 games.

I did not say he saved us as that would be an opinion not a fact, just as your assertion that we stayed up in spite of Mr Knill not because of him is an opinion and not a fact.

I said that the only time Mr knill was involved in an end of season relegation struggle as manager of Torquay United the club did not get relegated. That IS a fact!

[SuperNickyWroe]

re the above posts.....

who gives a sh*t about then? he kept us up as he was the manager at the end of the season.

it would be very ironic if ac stayed up with him there and we went down...........


which looks more and more likely unfortunately.

however, I will still believe we can survive.

[ferrarilover]

re the above posts.....

who gives a sh*t about then? he kept us up as he was the manager at the end of the season.

it would be very ironic if ac stayed up with him there and we went down...........


which looks more and more likely unfortunately.

however, I will still believe we can survive.

Not sure how you come to this decision. Northants didn't have a single shot on goal until the hour mark (on or off target) against Fleetwood. They only had three against us and they looked a truly, truly dreadful side.

Vast amounts of opinion stated as fact in here. Upsetting really, since we'd got rid of a lot of that in recent weeks.

Matt.

[Gullscorer]

Seems to be a growing trend everywhere: opinions, assertions, feelings, even outright lies: repeat them often enough and they'll come to be accepted as facts, verified only by references to other people's opinions, assertions, feelings, and lies...

But all opinions are welcome on torquayfans.com

[Pringlejumperman]

I thought Northants were a cricket team or a county ????

[ferrarilover]

I thought Northants were a cricket team or a county ????

That's because you didn't pay attention at school and your mum and dad were first cousins.

Matt.