To me there are only a handful of real battlers in the side who will give their all week in week out and this MUST BE addressed by Austin. He himself has said that graft and hard work over the full 90 minutes is a pre-requisite but we don't always see it and in some cases it is shockingly obvious at times (Powell and Matt Crooks for example). CW always used to say that quality only makes a difference if you are at least as physically competitive as the opposition. DA says these are a hardworking bunch with a first class attitude but we don't always see that on a Saturday afternoon. Why not?
These are the only players I've seen in recent times who ALWAYS seem to care, regardless of how well they play: Hoskins, Buchannan, Cornell, Taylor, Foley and McWilliams. I don't care what DA says about the attitude of the rest, if we can't see it there's sometjing wrong. At the moment I think those mentioned should all start every game because we need some fight. Of these, I would say that only Buchannan and Taylor are potential leaders, but even their heads seem to go down at times. I totally agree that we need a real leader who will still be geeing the players up when we go 2-1 down to sides like Cheltenham because the way things are at the moment it won't be the last time.
It's not about geeing players up IMO, there is a pervading lack of backbone throughout the side. Slotting in a player to gee them up is going to be pretty pointless. Truth is they shouldn't need any geeing up. I don't see other teams having this problem. We've got too many players of the wrong personality types. Going behind in a league game shouldn't even register with them IMO. If they were going to score before conceding anyway then why get so disheartened so easily?
As to the team, we've got some very good midfielders for this level: Foley, McWilliams, O'Toole and Crooks. Bar perhaps Crooks though the other three are of a particular type. They won't work well together, certainly with only 1 up front.
People attribute this to a lack of 'width', but what I sense they really mean is we lack midfielders that can attack defenders, beat their man and pick out killer passes i.e. genuine creativity. It doesn't matter so much whether this players position is to play centrally, out left, right, or all over the park, but we need to get more of them in the team.
VV is a player who can do this for us. He's wasted playing as alone striker. I'd play him a little deeper and give him a licence to roam. Morias is another who can provide this option, so hopefully his injury isn't too bad. Williams need to be given a run up front as I'm convinced the goals will come from him. Crooks can play in the midfield along with O'Toole and McWilliams. Taylor needs to be dropped and possibly Buchanan as well. Depending on Morias' fitness I'd try:
Cornell
Facey Pierre Barnett Turnbull
Crooks McWilliams Foley
Morias KVV
Williams
Give the full-backs licence to push forward a well. Bar JJOT these are possibly are best players IMO also.