Thoughts on a McCormack type mate?

Good shout. Hylton aside, we have no players over 30 and you need experience to manage games at L1 level. An experienced McCormack style enforcer would be a very good idea.

Last time we were in League One I was struck by how many teams play possession-based, pass-it-out-from-the-back football.

For me the shopping list in priority oder will be as follows:

1. Centre forward/number 9 to replace Bowie
2. One or two paces wide forwards to provide competition/bench replacements for Appere and Hoskins
2. Centre mid to replace Leonard
3. Attacking central midfielder/playmaker to challenge Pinnock and give us another option
4. Centre back

Hopefully Koiki will sign up again and we won't need to sign a new left back too.

The centre forward signing will be the key one. I second the calls for Umerah, but we would probably have competition there. Bowie back in would be the dream but probably extremely unlikely. Hopefully JB will have learned after getting his fingers burnt with Hylton and we'll avoid veteran wasters on their way down the leagues.

I would be taking a look at Abraham Odoh from Rochdale as a midfield prospect - he's always impressed me when I've seen him and would probably thrive at L1 level. Again would love to get Leonard back in some capacity as his ball retention would be a massive asset at L1 level.

Would be great to raid MK Dongs for some of their assets, but will probably face stiff competition there too.

The last few seasons have seen us make some astute signings from off-the radar markets (Scotland, Prem loanees). The few times when we have made obvious signings it hasn't really worked out (Hylton, Eppiah). Suspect this year will go a similar way.

Good luck to Hartlepool next season, we didn’t need the result in the end but it was good to to see a team with integrity.

This. And to Tranmere who gave us a proper battle. Proper football clubs and proper managers with professional integrity and respect for the competition. Keith Hill take note.

For me this is one of the greatest promotions we've ever had from this level. This team haven't shown the attacking flair and individual brilliance of Wilder's title winners; it hasn't always shown the clinical sheer defensive dominance of Calderwood's second place team either; a career-best season from Hoskins apart, we haven't had an outstanding figure like Ricky Holmes or Jamie Forrester catching the eye. 

What we do have, though, is possibly the most resilient, hardworking, selfless group of players we've ever had at this level. Brady and the players have shown incredible resilience to come back from the 7 goal swing debacle, to survive season-ending injuries to our entire first choice back four (Guthrie, Magloire, Koiki, Macgowan) and several other key players (Sowerby) and to keep going and going when many had written us off. We've got players playing through the pain barrier for each other, youngsters like Dyche and Lintott pitching in and fighting like warriors for the cause.

Sam Hoskins typifies and embodies that spirit of resilience: a late bloomer who has finally found the composure to compliment his imperious work rate, pace and control at the late age of 30 after years of being doubted.

That kind of team spirit can take you a long way. Most of these lads are under contract for next year and if we can add some quality in a few key areas then we could more than hold our own at League One level.

We need to get a bit more of a grip of the midfield.

I'd be tempted to bring one of Appere or Bowie off and put Hondermark on at some point fairly soon.
Tranmere play a 4-5-1 and are hard to break down.

[1. Brady got the tactics wrong in the first half IMO.]

A few thoughts:

1. Brady got the tactics wrong in the first half IMO.

He abandoned the 5-3-2 system which had just about been keeping our makeshift defence in a cohesive unit in order to bring McWilliams back into central midfield.

McWilliams had a good game, but playing him in centre mid rather than as a sweeper in the back three (ala Sowerby) meant that we were essentially in the position of playing a flat back four with Sam Hoskins as a right back!

The flat back four arrangement completely neutered Hoskins and Haynes as attacking threats/wing-backs and we were only able to cause Bradford problems when Brady played them further up the field after we went behind and had to chase the game.

TFAMH is right: Hoskins has to play further up the field from the start on Monday, whether that's as a very attacking right-wing back or one of the three up front in a 4-3-3 (with Lintott hopefully replacing him at full-back).


2. Agree with others about the ref- the worst I've seen this season by a mile.

It wasn't a case of making a single horrific decision - a missed peno, a dodgy red card etc. It was more that he was incredibly weak and inconsistent and completely failed to stamp his authority on the game from the get go. He was completely oblivious to constant shirt-pulling, play-acting, shoves in the back, fouls off the ball throughout the game and the players clearly believed they could get away with murder cos he didn't book anyone until the 75th minute.

He failed to play advantage on several occasions and allowed a Bradford player to charge down one of Burge's drop kicks.

Don't get me wrong: we didn't lose because of the ref - our defending from set pieces and JB's tactical mistake in the first half were the key factors there. However, the referee's ineptitude definitely disrupted our attacking fluency. 

3. Hylton

Another completely anonymous cameo from the bench from our big summer signing.

I regard the rest of the squad as essentially immune from criticism at the moment: they are all fighting courageously for the cause and playing through the pain barrier in many cases.

However, Hylton did the square root of f*** all again when he came on and barely touched the ball. The moment that really irritated me is when he failed to chase down their keeper Lewis from a back pass. In a game of fine margins those things matter. Imagine where we'd be if he'd contributed even a measly 5 goals this year or been remotely as advertised?

I personally wouldn't be putting him on at all against Tranmere. Eppiah's been disappointing but his pace makes him ten times more threatening than Hylton. Even Yengi has shown more threat as an option off the bench.

Despite all this, we deserved to win the game and I've rarely seen a more dominant second half performance. We are more than capable of beating Tranmere and it's time to do again what Brady has done all season - to use adversity as further fuel for the final fight.

Interesting:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12003345/Burnley-investigation-EFL-potential-match-fixing-draw-Reading.html

We have witnessed a miracle before our very eyes .
Surely one of the best results in our history and a truly memorable night .
I hope the lads that have had to play a full game only half fit are okay and Sowerby hasn’t done lasting damage .
Anyone moaning about the standard of football , struggling to get out the half or the manager on here needs to get re educated on football because that was truly unbelievable .
This matches the Wilder years for achievement .

This.

Time to put all criticisms aside and embrace a truly heroic backs-to-the-wall effort. Players playing through the pain barrier for each other; running themselves into the ground for the shirt; throwing themselves in front of crosses; Appere playing as an auxiliary left back throughout the second half. The team spirit and level of organisation of a defensive line devoid of defenders is absolutely immense.

There will be a time to apply a critical lens to things, but for the moment lets express some pride and gratitude for what Brady and the squad are doing.

Sherring back and Dyche on the bench. I thought Dyche was out for the season so that's a bonus.

 I suspect JB will need to manage Sherring's minutes but will need to manage this against the need
to combat Sutton's aerial threat.

Three at the back with Sowerby as a reassuring presence/sweeper is probably the best way forward again.

Club just tweeted that Guthrie is out for the season. 

Has a club every suffered as many injuries to defenders?

We are in full-on backs against the wall siege mentality now folks.
I have some serious questions to raise, but let's save all that for the season post-mortems.

Confirmed that McGowan and Odimayo are out for the season, bringing the total to 7.

In a weird way I think the injury crisis has helped us over the last few weeks by enabling Brady to create a 'siege mentality' and to frame our form as surpassing expectations.

Brady has done a great job in the circumstances.

He's the oldest and most experienced player in the squad. Along with Hoskins, he's also had experience of winning promotion from this level. Definitely a big role for him to play if he's used right.

It's pretty clear that Hoskins, Appere and Bowie have earned the right to be the first choice front three with their energy, pace and movement over 70-90 minutes. However, Brady's task with Hylton is to get more out his 30 minute + cameos off the bench. I think Hylton's issue is that it has taken time for him to accept his limitations: the poignant recognition that his body can no longer do what it used to do 3-4 years ago. As many have said, his speed is all but gone, as evidenced most poignantly a few months ago in his attempt to knock it past a clogging Mansfield (or was it Swindon?) centre back only to be comprehensively outpaced. He's also not great in the air. There is zero point in bringing him on and expecting him to run the channels in the style of Appere and Bowie.

If we're going to get the best out of him then we need to switch up the style of play so that he receives the ball to feet and then has lots of willing runners around him to receive his cunning lay-offs. I get the impression that at lot of his goals for Luton were 'poachers' strikes, so it would be good to see him hanging on the shoulder of the last defender for through balls and getting on the end of some low crosses from the likes of Pinnock. For all his general ineptitude, Yengi has managed to get himself in more clearcut goalscoring positions than Hylton simply by hanging on the shoulder of the last defender and having the desire to 'be in the right place at the right time' when the ball breaks in the box - he would have 4-5 goals now with better finishing. If Hylton stopped focusing on winding up the opposition and trying to relive his glory days as an all-action centre forward and started remembering his selfish poacher's instinct then we could really be in business. 

Hylton needs to accept his limitations and turn them into strengths. He doesn't have the pace or stamina to be the main striker anymore, but he can absolutely be the 'Alan McCormackesque' galvanising hero catalyst we need to push us over the line this year. 

8th clean sheet in 12. Only 1 defeat in 12, 5 wins in 7. In many ways the injury issues seems to have galvanised the squad and Brady is doing a good job of playing down expectations whilst also creating a siege mentality. Magowan was excellent as a makeshift centre back and is experience will be really important in the run in (fingers crossed he's fit).

A few other points:

1. If we had had Burge - or King - in goal in that Mitchell L1 season then I think we would have stayed up
2. I think Yengi is being preferred to DWP as a bench option because of his physical presence. He made a few decent defensive headers, but I reckon DWP might have finished one of those one-on-ones and might be the better option in future if we really need a goal

Good goal from Pinnock. Nice to see a successful bit of set piece variation for a change.

I suspect Brady's told them to shoot on sight against Mitchell. Hoskins even had a pop from the half way line.
We just need a bit more composure in the final third to get some more shots away.

The defence have been OK but we really need to be putting these games to bed and getting a second goal.

This is getting beyond a joke, what is going on with our club?

I think there are a few factors: play-offs extending the season last season + early start to the season this year, signing 'explosive' players like Magloire etc. However, we had hardly any injuries last year so the rapid increase is worth some investigation - have our training/rehab methods changed?

Sherring out.

Not sure what this means but if you consider our successful sides of the past there were barely any changes and the starting line up was nearly always the same. I can name the starting line up from 86/87 even now. To that end does this add merit to the argument that injuries apart sticking with a consistent line up trumps constant meddling to accommodate those in form? This is a genuine question rather than an opinion by the way.

Wilder's 2015/2016 team changed quite radically from January onwards. Rico got injured; Collins and Marquis came in; we started playing 4-4-2 with James Martin on the wing; and most importantly, Ricky Holmes returned from injury and absolutely dominated the league.

IMO keeping consistency in terms of tactics and personnel is generally a good idea at this level, but only if your tactical system is actually working and your personnel are actually performing to their potential.

In our case, 4-3-3 was working really well until Xmas and we were the division's top scorers. Then Pinnock lost form, Bowie (the best no.9 in the system) and McWilliams (midfield lynchpin) got injured and suddenly we weren't creating chances anymore.

Now we've just produced one of our best performances of the season against a promotion rival playing 3-5-2 and I'd say it's time to shift semi-permanently to a system which suits the remaining members of our squad. If we can keep the starting line up against Mansfield relatively settled with a few areas of healthy competition (Bowie vs Appere, McWilliams vs Leonard, Dyche vs Magowan) then we could really see the side grow into the new formation. Effective wing-back interplay takes time and many hours on the training pitch - Lintott and Haynes have a high ceiling and if we can improve their crossing we could really be in business.  




 

Great post.

On paper, Brady's persistence with Pinnock has made sense to me: he's been short of the high standards he set last season but he's still got 10 goal involvements (6 assists and 4 goals) which puts him in the top 5-6 attacking midfielders in the division.

Pinnock is our best set piece taker and probably remains the most able creator in the squad.

However, there's no doubt that we played better without him yesterday. The 3-5-2 formation suited the players we had available and the likes of Appere, Hondermark, Haynes and Lintott seemed liberated by the switch in system.

Hondermark is more effective than Pinnock as the most advanced of the central three, primarily because he is far better defensively and therefore leaves less of a burden on his deeper-lying midfield partners. I think it's no coincidence that Sowerby and Leonard played so well: without Pinnock they had a bit less defensive work to do and could get on the ball and dictate things from deep. Hondermark is also more effective at carrying the ball with pace and getting us up the field, whereas Pinnock tends to want to drift out wide (which is far and away his best position).

Haynes for me is a natural wing-back rather than a full back and if he is going to have a run in the team then that is the best place to deploy him. Lintott is also showing signs of developing into an excellent wing-back. If time is spent on the training ground working on their crossing ability and link up play then we could pose a real threat out wide.

Hopefully Brady will stick with the 3-5-2 for now, with the main points of competition being Bowie vs Appere to start as one of the front two, and McWilliams (when he returns) to compete for a central midfield starting berth.

I suspect, however, that he'll be tempted to put Pinnock straight back in. 

Great win.

Bowie immense when he came on - could be like having a new signing up front.

Decent, solid performance so far.

Mansfield playing a dangerously high line with strikers for wing backs. They carry a threat going
forward but it's nice to play a side who don't park the bus for a change.

Sowerby has been the best player on the pitch IMO. Excellent weight of passing for the penalty and other chances and solid defensively - has been one of most consistent players this season.

I haven’t seen the stats recently but I remember a stat in late October that had Sammy as the joint highest player on goal per shot ratio- joint top with Haaland.
Where would he be now? Not sure if that’s tactics, confidence, luck or what?

You're right: he's definitely been missing a few, but I wouldn't say he's missing 'good' chances - it's more that he is sometime taking wild pot shots from distance when a composed pass to a better-placed teammate would be the best option.

My view on Sammy is that it was always unrealistic to expect him to maintain his Haaland-level scoring rate over the course of the season (even Haaland himself has tailed off recently!) Brady was always going to need to find ways to create chances from other areas in the team.