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Consistency, Team Selection and Injuries

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bungle
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« on: October 18, 2014, 16:44:38 pm »

After a fairly promising start to the season, we now find ourselves in 12th with the sixth worst record for goals conceded in the divison.
Clearly things need to change. For me, it comes down to three areas: controlling the injury crisis, selecting the right team and maintaining consistency at all costs.


1. Injuries


This is arguably the worst injury crisis I have seen in over twenty years of following this football club. Virtually every regular member of the team, bar Gregor Robertson and Ivan Toney has been out for a substantial period. The first choice back five have been especially badly hit, with Duke, Horwood, Diamond and Collins all being out for substantial periods.

Some on here have put this down to bad luck, coincidence and an unfortunate glut of supposedly 'injury prone' players. However, Wilder himself has acknowledged that the extent of the problem is abnormal, and in particular the amount of hamstring injuries we're sustaining is ridiculous. Another worry for me is that players like Duke, Diamond and Hornby seem to be constantly on the verge of making a comeback only for their return date to be put back indefinitely. Something is clearly not right with the way we are training and approaching rehabilitation; we will make no progress until this is addressed.

Personally, I think that someone should pick up the phone and get Glen Thurgood back in, a man who acted as a consultant for Real Madrid and boasted in March 2011 of keeping muscle injuries down to single figures.

2. Team selection

 
Notwithstanding the injury issue, Wilder's selections from the players at his disposal have been inconsistent at best and erratic and inexplicable at worst. Today was a case in point. Ben Tozer is arguably a better defender than Robertson, and is far, far more solid than Alfei. Why then, was the erratic Welshman brought back into a defence which was already destablised by the withdrawal of Collins? Tozer has done very little wrong since his recall and his presence today would have kept a degree of consistency and combatted Cheltenham's physical threat. Instead we have Alfei yet again making a mistake which costs us a goal. Not only that, but he has a perfectly good centre back in Langmead kicking his heels and waiting to be thrown on as an emergency kitchen sink centre forward (a 'tactic' we seem to employ in virtually every game at the moment).

The consistency issue is also a problem in midfield. Was K-Mo really so bad against Burton that it warranted dropping him for today? Hackett and K-Mo represent our biggest attacking threat and the balance they provide the side is sorely lacking when one or other of them is missing. D'ath and Nicholls are too similar to play together IMO and both need tougher, more physical players to make space for them.

I also find the continued benching of Carter and O'Toole fairly hard to fathom. The team looked lightweight and imbalanced today and both Carter and O'Toole would have provided some much needed physical presence and nous, which is something we lack without Richards. Carter was arguably our best player in the survival push (in which we showed top 5 form) and O'Toole for all his faults scored 15 goals last year - are we really saying they're not worthy of a place right now?

3. Consistency


Wilder's excellent decision making last year kept us up and has bought him a hell of a lot of goodwill. However, he's not above criticism and for me, he has to adopt a much more consistent, balanced approach if we're going to attain a league position commensurate with our considerable budget. There is an element of bad luck here, no doubt, but I judge a manager on how he plays the cards he's dealt, and at the moment, Wilder is making a pig's ear of it.


 
« Last Edit: October 18, 2014, 16:47:39 pm by bungle » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2014, 17:50:10 pm »


1. Injuries


This is arguably the worst injury crisis I have seen in over twenty years of following this football club. Virtually every regular member of the team, bar Gregor Robertson and Ivan Toney has been out for a substantial period.
 

Hackett has been around for most of them.
Injuries have clearly had a big impact but we have a huge squad and I can't remember a time when we haven't been plagued with key players out.
Let's hope that Wilder is right and that it all starts in January.
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bungle
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« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2014, 19:17:18 pm »

Injuries have clearly had a big impact but we have a huge squad and I can't remember a time when we haven't been plagued with key players out.
Let's hope that Wilder is right and that it all starts in January.

The reason we have a huge squad is a direct consequence of having so many injuries. The likes of Archer, Cresswell, Stevens and Byrom probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for injuries.

There is almost always a very direct correlation between the number of players a team uses and the final finishing position. We used far too many players last season, and the same is happening this year. Making unforced changes like dropping Tozer and K-Mo isn't helping matters one bit. Tactically, this division isn't rocket science by any means - keep as settled side as possible, keep organised and take care of the basics  i.e. defending set pieces. If you do that it gives you the platform for that extra bit of quality (Toney, Richards, Hackett, K Mo) to shine through.
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« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2014, 08:04:53 am »

After a fairly promising start to the season, we now find ourselves in 12th with the sixth worst record for goals conceded in the divison.
Clearly things need to change. For me, it comes down to three areas: controlling the injury crisis, selecting the right team and maintaining consistency at all costs.


1. Injuries


This is arguably the worst injury crisis I have seen in over twenty years of following this football club. Virtually every regular member of the team, bar Gregor Robertson and Ivan Toney has been out for a substantial period. The first choice back five have been especially badly hit, with Duke, Horwood, Diamond and Collins all being out for substantial periods.

Some on here have put this down to bad luck, coincidence and an unfortunate glut of supposedly 'injury prone' players. However, Wilder himself has acknowledged that the extent of the problem is abnormal, and in particular the amount of hamstring injuries we're sustaining is ridiculous. Another worry for me is that players like Duke, Diamond and Hornby seem to be constantly on the verge of making a comeback only for their return date to be put back indefinitely. Something is clearly not right with the way we are training and approaching rehabilitation; we will make no progress until this is addressed.

Personally, I think that someone should pick up the phone and get Glen Thurgood back in, a man who acted as a consultant for Real Madrid and boasted in March 2011 of keeping muscle injuries down to single figures.

2. Team selection

 
Notwithstanding the injury issue, Wilder's selections from the players at his disposal have been inconsistent at best and erratic and inexplicable at worst. Today was a case in point. Ben Tozer is arguably a better defender than Robertson, and is far, far more solid than Alfei. Why then, was the erratic Welshman brought back into a defence which was already destablised by the withdrawal of Collins? Tozer has done very little wrong since his recall and his presence today would have kept a degree of consistency and combatted Cheltenham's physical threat. Instead we have Alfei yet again making a mistake which costs us a goal. Not only that, but he has a perfectly good centre back in Langmead kicking his heels and waiting to be thrown on as an emergency kitchen sink centre forward (a 'tactic' we seem to employ in virtually every game at the moment).

The consistency issue is also a problem in midfield. Was K-Mo really so bad against Burton that it warranted dropping him for today? Hackett and K-Mo represent our biggest attacking threat and the balance they provide the side is sorely lacking when one or other of them is missing. D'ath and Nicholls are too similar to play together IMO and both need tougher, more physical players to make space for them.

I also find the continued benching of Carter and O'Toole fairly hard to fathom. The team looked lightweight and imbalanced today and both Carter and O'Toole would have provided some much needed physical presence and nous, which is something we lack without Richards. Carter was arguably our best player in the survival push (in which we showed top 5 form) and O'Toole for all his faults scored 15 goals last year - are we really saying they're not worthy of a place right now?

3. Consistency


Wilder's excellent decision making last year kept us up and has bought him a hell of a lot of goodwill. However, he's not above criticism and for me, he has to adopt a much more consistent, balanced approach if we're going to attain a league position commensurate with our considerable budget. There is an element of bad luck here, no doubt, but I judge a manager on how he plays the cards he's dealt, and at the moment, Wilder is making a pig's ear of it.


 
Good blunt hard hitting post, agree with all of it, hit's the nail on the head as they say.
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« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2014, 08:34:28 am »

The consistency needs to come sooner rather than later.
We are now ten points off the lead and Wilder is talking about us being a force around Christmas ?
After all the summer euphoria on here it looks like a few chickens are coming home to roost.
We now have a large squad supposedly full of quality players who must be costing an absolute fortune but they are just not firing together.
Injuries are a problem yes but unenforced changes are down to the manager.       
We need to play as settled a team as possible and from that hopefully consistency will come. All this chopping and changing will get us only to where we are now........... Mid table. 
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« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2014, 09:35:09 am »

Any Team at any level would struggle If you took 3 of its most experienced players and Captain out of it.

What we need to do is start grinding out results until we have the "spine" of the team back.

For me Cresswell needs to step up and start showing why everybody was raving about him when we signed him ....... needs to start banging some heads both his own team and the opposition.

In terms of team selection ..... time for experience over youth,  bl00dy expensive bench yesterday. 
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« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2014, 09:38:37 am »

I bet DC is glad that it's someone else on the shitty end of the stick for a change.
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« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2014, 09:44:35 am »

Good post Bungle...nothing to add to it , it's all been covered!
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bungle
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« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2014, 10:52:55 am »

Any Team at any level would struggle If you took 3 of its most experienced players and Captain out of it.



Agreed. There's definitely some bad luck involved and I'm sure that we'd have got a result a result yesterday if Collins, Diamond and Richards had been out there. However, one has to question whether the situation is 100% down to bad luck, or whether the fitness and rehabilitation of Collins, Diamond and Richards (and numerous others) could have been better managed by Wilder, Craig Smith and the physio team.

In any case, it's the unforced team changes - Alfei for Tozer, D'ath for K Mo - which are really killing us IMO. The narrow defeat against top-of-the-table Burton in no way justified CW's decision to make these changes. If he was going to change anything he should have looked at the front two IMO who haven't really been firing on all cylinders for a while. As you say we have an expensive and experienced bench full of players with a proven track record at this level  - Carter, O'Toole, Langmead, Tozer. In contrast, Archer, Alfei, Stevens, D'ath and Toney are all under 25 and barely have 100 first team league appearances between them - no wonder we're being picked apart at set pieces by street wise operators like Cheltenham and Wycombe.
 
Personally, I'd play the following against Oxford:



                       Duke (if fit)

    Robertson Collins (if fit, otherwise Tozer/Langmead)  Cresswell Stevens

          Hackett    Ravenhill  Carter  K Mo

                         O'Toole
                         
                         Nicholls


When Collins and Diamond are both fit I would play Collins as a full back. Wilder needs to sort out a consistent back
four as an urgent priority and as good as Stevens might be, if he's only here for a month then the sooner we
resort to our own players the better. In the long term I think our best back four would be:

Collins Diamond Cresswell Horwood   (with Tozer and Langmead in reserve). 


Neither D'ath nor Toney are pulling up any trees at the moment, so I'd argue that it's time to give O'Toole a run. Wilder should make it clear to him that this is his chance to prove himself and that if he doesn't put the work in then he'll be taken off after 60 minutes and face another sustained benching. 




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« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2014, 11:11:40 am »

Wilders interview after the game was worrying to me. he seemed downbeat and confused.
in this league / standard of football , one of the biggest consistencies is inconsistency . all the teams can beat each other on any given day.
how can you drop a player after one bad game ?
Cloughie in his book, said he built his team from the back . he found a great goalie and built a solid back 4. admittedly he has not had a chance through injuries , but does Wilder know his best back 4 ? his team selections/formations have to be more consistent , I don't buy this we need to have many ways to defeat the opposition, its too confusing and upsetting for limited players.
with regards to the injuries , he needs to take his staff up to the Saints and see how they monitor players fitness etc . just watched a snippet about this on the BBC sports website. very enlightening.
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« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2014, 12:30:19 pm »

It shows how much we need Rico in the team. We don't look even half as good without him.
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« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2014, 12:34:54 pm »

It shows how much we need Rico in the team. We don't look even half as good without him.

We looked ok without him when Langers was up top against Burton. Drop Nicholls to the bench and put Kelvin up top against Oxford.
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« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2014, 12:35:38 pm »

Great post Bungle

On the injuries front just a couple of points -

1) Not a personal crusade (& it's rarely done to one factor) but what an earth is our full time sports scientist doing - there has to be serious questions about methods we are using in training and general fitness here, & to me, since the appliance of science our injuries have got worse.

2) Another possible contributor is out total lack of investment in proper training facilities (actually if the "more seats" brigade got on the case of the chairman on this I would agree) - for years our training facilities have varied from school playing fields to muddy fields at the arse end of the saints and no apparently also to include the west stand concrete concourse - can't help can it?
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« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2014, 12:35:57 pm »

Regarding injuries - at least the club have stayed Ebola-free.  So, that has to be a positive!
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« Reply #14 on: October 19, 2014, 12:50:23 pm »

Regarding injuries - at least the club have stayed Ebola-free.  So, that has to be a positive!

Would that be classed more of an illness rather than an injury?
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« Reply #15 on: October 19, 2014, 13:17:59 pm »

If you got it, you wouldn't care what they classed it as.
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« Reply #16 on: October 19, 2014, 13:26:30 pm »

If you got it, you wouldn't care what they classed it as.

It is clearly an illness. You don't get it from getting a swift kick in the tadger.
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« Reply #17 on: October 19, 2014, 13:46:24 pm »



2) Another possible contributor is out total lack of investment in proper training facilities (actually if the "more seats" brigade got on the case of the chairman on this I would agree) - for years our training facilities have varied from school playing fields to muddy fields at the arse end of the saints and no apparently also to include the west stand concrete concourse - can't help can it?

I always love it when this old chestnut is brought up, takes me back to Graham Carr and the players having to continually go up and down the hill in Abington Park. The training was described as army like, Richard Hill said they didn't see a ball for the first three days.

As for the title of the thread, doesn't one lead on to another then the other?
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« Reply #18 on: October 19, 2014, 13:51:57 pm »

Great post Bungle

On the injuries front just a couple of points -

1) Not a personal crusade (& it's rarely done to one factor) but what an earth is our full time sports scientist doing - there has to be serious questions about methods we are using in training and general fitness here, & to me, since the appliance of science our injuries have got worse.


Did he not study at the same university as the Arsenal equivalent?
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« Reply #19 on: October 19, 2014, 14:23:58 pm »

It is clearly an illness. You don't get it from getting a swift kick in the tadger.

 Grin Grin

FFS Why all the recent scare over Ebola on here? You've all still got more chance of catching AIDS or winning the Euro millions, especially as some here don't leave the cainty or even their front rooms.

Get that Euro lottery ticket buy the club and sort out the injuries. A whacking win bonus (hidden of course) would soon sort out some of the niggles.

Regarding Carrs training, remember Saint and Greavsie having a piece about the training at the time, yes not a football in sight. Clive walker and Carr himself barking at the red faced troops in AP with Quo's "In the army now" as the background music to the clip. Don't remember too many significant long term injuries then?
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