Brady needs to recall Pollock ASAP and at least try to play with a semblance of a midfield for the remainder of the season.

As with last season, the identity of our forward line is largely irrelevant: we simply don't create enough chances for our strikers in open play so it doesn't really matter who is playing up there.
The only hope for the strikers is to create chances for themselves (as Etete was doing through his capacity to run the channels and to use his strength), but none of the present incumbents are remotely capable of doing this. Chucking on extra forwards is pointless as the supply line problem remains unaddressed.

The only way forward is to play as few of the strikers as possible and to concentrate on building a cohesive midfield with Sowerby and Pollock in the pivot and Pinnock/Hoskins/Lewis and Lubala competing for the three in behind (I was hoping for some genuine competition to develop in this area and for whoever was contributing the least in goals and assists to be dropped).

Pollock is 21 years old, has scored several times in men's football and has clear technical ability. Does Brady really rate him below an 18 year-old rookie and a centre back playing out of position? Has he pissed in Brady's coffee or what? As a former winger himself and famously a supposed advocate of 'bums-off-seat' football, it amazes me that Brady continues to produce such turgid midfield fare. Surely it's time to try something different? 

Adimbola taken off after being subbed on himself after 20 minutes.

Brady's failure to sign a back up central midfielder in January and
his decision to let Pollock go out on loan has really cost us.

Time surely to say to Lubala (he has significant pedigree at this level, if only he could get going) .... you've got 5 full games now son, show me what you can do and at the same time get your career back up and running.

This.

He's surely got to keep the 4-2-3-1 with Lewis dropping back into the pivot to replace McWilliams and Lubala coming in on the left-hand side of the trio behind the striker. I still maintain that 4-2-3-1 is the only formation that remotely clicked for us all season.

Anything else - a shift to 4-4-2, going to 3 at the back with Magloire, God forbid Danny Rose - is not really going to cut it.

                            Robert

                 MacGowan Guthrie. Horsfall.  Koiki
                                Lewis.   Sowerby

                         Pinnock    Hoskins     Lubala

                                      Appere
                     

As soon as Rose came on for McWilliams I think the loss was inevitable.

This. We've proven we can win games playing 4-2-3-1, but as soon as we switch to 4-4-2 we get overrun in midfield.

Rose offers zero goal threat and should be nowhere near the team. If Magloire or Harriman had been brought on we almost certainly would have a point if not more.

No surprise 0-1

Worst half time substitution ever

No surprise 0-1

Worst half time substitution ever

This. Rose isn't even good enough to be our back up striker; but as a midfielder he is utter wank.

When is Brady going to learn that we need something resembling a coherent midfield in order to retain a modicum of possession and to create chances?

Rose on. Going for the point again.

Amazing that bringing on a player who is nominally a 'striker' for a defensive midfielder can be construed as a defensive move! (You're absolutely right though...)

Really wish again Brady had brought in a back up defensive midfielder in Jan. Also think that the likes of Harriman, Magloire and Pollock should be well ahead of Rose in the pecking order as a stand in midfield option and Ashley Seal should be ahead of him as a forward option.

If we could just learn to score the odd goal from open play then we'd
be pissing the league.

Double horse!

Has to be said our set piece threat has been absolutely lethal this year.

Yep.

Starting again to have serious doubts about Brady's tactical naivety.

As I've said, he's taken the best defence in the league and added a pointless (albeit talented) extra centre back to it. Result? We are getting even more outnumbered in midfield.

He also seemingly has no idea how to coach wing-backs or build patterns of play to them because MacGowan and Koiki have diminished as attacking forces since the change in formation. They just end up sitting deep in a de facto 5-2-3 because we don't keep the ball long enough to bring them into play out wide or to get behind teams.

Once again, 4-2-3-1 simply suits our squad. Lewis gets completely lost as a centre mid but does OK as a number 10 behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1. Pinnock equally gets lost as a wide forward in a 3-4-3 but has been our best creative players all year in a deeper role in a 4-2-3-1. Bez could pose teams real problems as one of the attacking triumvirate behind a striker.

He needs to drop Magloire for the next game and either bring back Sowerby (hope to god he gets fit soon) or even someone like Harriman who could probably do a job as a DM in the pivot.

Brady sees we're outnumbered in midfield. Solution? Take off a midfielder for a striker whilst leaving three centre backs on. 

Tactical genius.

Enough is enough. This 3-4-3 formation is simply not working.

The midfield is non-existent. Complete lack of tactical coherence. The players get the ball and just hoof it because they don't know what else to do: no one is showing for it and there are no patterns of play.

He needs to go back to 4-2-3-1 ASAP - the only formation that's remotely clicked this season.

Three at the back again with Mills in for Koiki at LWB.

Hard not to think that JB has taken an already defensively competent/offensively limited team and made it even more defensive by his continued preference for Magloire in a back three.

Magloire is very decent, so I understand the impulse but the fact is the defence is more than adequate as a back four and we could really use an extra body further up the field. Also, for whatever reason our full-backs have actually diminished as an attacking force since their deployment as wing-backs in a 3-4-3. Can understand why Koiki has been rested as he's not really been in form since the switch to 3-4-3.

This is such a poor, poor league.

This. We are second for three reasons:

1. We have a well-drilled arguably L1 standard defence with probably the best defensive midfielder in the league screening it.

2. We are probably the best set-piece team in the league

3. This might be the weakest this division has ever been. When we've been promoted from this division before we've always had some very tough and often well-funded opposition - Oxford with Kemar Roofe, Swindon with Eoin Doyle, Plymouth playing sexy football under Ryan Lowe etc. This year Forest Green are arguably the only side in this division which looks remotely like it could make a fist of it at the level above.

As it stands there are serious question marks about Brady's ability to produce a side with any sort of attacking fluency. What concerns me most is not the lack of goals - every side goes through peaks and troughs on that. What concerns me is that we're not even creating chances.

It was a concern when we got relegated from L1, it was a concern at the beginning of the season before the switch to 4-2-3-1 and the emergence of Etete, and it's a big concern now.

It should have been addressed in January with the arrival of at least one playmaker/attacking midfielder following the departures of Flores and the impending one of Pollock. As it is Brady loaded up on forwards (Appere, Lubala, Eppiah, Zimba, Kanu) and left
the issue of the supply line begging again.

Tomlin might be a chunky monkey these days, but he's apparently nearly scored for Walsall today and would have been a decent short-term signing and game-changing option off the bench IMO.

So what can JB do given the limited options now at his disposal? For me, he needs to drop the ineffective 3-4-3 formation and go back to the one formation which has really clicked for us this season: 4-2-3-1. I though Koiki and MacGowan might thrive as wing-backs, but I think they were both actually more effective as attacking full-backs in a 4-2-3-1. I also think Lewis was beginning to look reasonably effective as a no.10 type attacking midfielder before the switch to 3-4-3. This is what I'd play (with Koiki and MacGowan encouraged to go forward on the overlap:

                                Roberts

           MacGowan Guthrie  Horsfall  Koiki

                        McWilliams   Sowerby

               Hoskins    Lewis/Lubala       Pinnock

                              Appere/Eppiah

Feel once again that changing strikers in this team is just
re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

We simply aren't creating enough chances from open play
and unfortunately we have nobody on the bench who unlock
a defence or play a killer pass. Perhaps Lubala will provide the creative spark
in time, but at the moment he's simply not match fit.

Eppiah has done threatened more in 10 minutes than Rose has all season.

Another point: why do we need to keep three at the back against a side which
have the worst goal scoring record in the division?

Great idea: struggling to string two passes together in midfield? Why not chuck on another two strikers? Straight out of the Keith Curle manual.

You. Can't. Score. Goals. If. You. Don't. Have. Possession. Of. The. Football.

Agreed, at a club that has 3 out and out CMs - if two of them are out and you can’t get some game time against bottom of the league something is wrong…

Yes, and if Pollock is so far down the pecking down that he can't get a start in his position over Danny Rose then Brady should have gone out and got a CM that he actually trusted enough to play in January.

This is one of those games where the team selection is so obviously **** poor that I can't bring myself to blame the players for the performance. Lower league players need simplicity and tactical clarity. They need to know who to pass it to and what the main patterns of play are. You can't blame them for hoofing and panicking given the disjointed system that they're being asked to play.

Our only remotely creative player - Pinnock - is hiding away in central midfield. He needs to change the tactics at half-time or we stand a real risk of getting beat here.

Take Rose off for Pollock/Harriman and take Lubala off for Eppiah. Play a proper formation (3-4-3) with an actual coherent midfield and try playing some bloody football for a change.

If Mysterious Curle is right and Rose is really on to man-mark Grant then that is seriously way too much respect to pay the worst side in L2.

Turgid stuff so far, which is not surprising given the ridiculous team selection. Looks like Hoskins is playing as a lone striker and Rose is in midfield!

Brady's done very well this season, the defensive unit is arguably L1 quality and we may well end up nicking this from the usual set piece.

However, if we have any genuine aspirations to establish ourselves at league one level at some point then a massive tactical upgrade is needed. I'm very sceptical about the notion of L2-level footballers having the tactical flexibility to play out of position and this formation smacks very much of a naive and primitive Keith-Curle-esque 'chuck as many strikers in as possible' mentality. Perhaps it's complacency given Scunny's lowly league position?

We should have signed a decent back up for McWilliams and Sowerby in January. Failing that, it should at least be round pegs in round holes. Does anyone really think we would be worse with Pollock out there?