Adkins vs Clough

[Canterbury Blade]

Clough is a crab, looking sideways and limited forward motion....

Adkins is a scorpion, more dangerous but currently vulnerable at the rear....

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Are we all united, together?

Bit like a United Reformed Church . Open to all

UTB

 

[Bladeian]

Adkins = it's not working... let's fix it
Clough = it's not working but I know better than you lot and fullbacks can play centreback when you don't have any cos they're all out injured... orstracised... sold.... what do you mean I've had all season to fix it?

 

[Dkc]

Adkins knows that even the playoffs would be considered mild failure and he accepts the challenge.

Failure in the play offs would be a total failure and given the board's previous form, result in the sack

 

[Bladepicker]

Under Adkins my 'nil nil half time bet money making scheme' is out the chuffing window.

 

[Dkc]

The above poster has nailed it. Upgrades on Collins and Baxter (and Howard) are absolutely essential to effectively executing Adkins' game plan. Baxter simply cannot operate in a four man midfield, I'm not sure how high his stock is right now, but I'd consider shipping him out if we can get a decent fee and find a decent box-to-box player (a la Coady, not sure Basham or Wallace are the answer for different reasons). Collins is always going to struggle against the better strikers of this league, he shouldn't be at this club anymore, certainly not as a starter.

I can see us kicking on quite a bit when Matty Done and John Brayford (our two best players) return to fitness. I also think the way we're setting up could really suit JCR, we all know he's wildly inconsistent, but with this open style we're playing he might just have a bit of room to cause some damage in the last twenty minutes of matches. I also don't think his crossing is as consistently bad as some make out, it'll be interesting to see how he gets on with some options in the box for him to aim at because he rarely had that last season. Bob Harris will also be an upgrade on McEveley at left back, despite my big criticisms of him.

As it is I don't see us being anywhere near the top two with the squad as it is, at least not until Christmas when our better players are back and finding fitness. I'm just hoping we can stay in and around the top 6 and within striking distance.

Good post. With Done, Brayford, and Bob Harris back we'll have a very good team. Add another quality midfielder and possibly a goalkeeper and we might just do it this season.

Regarding Baxter and Collins - Collins should be at least a squad player this season, we don't know what injuries we're going to suffer. I'd only want to see Baxter shipped out if we could get a decent fee. It's early days and he's showed commitment to the cause by getting in shape. He probably knows it's make or break for him this season, and he's got to put in a shift or he'll be back at a lesser club. He's still young and may come into his own under Adkins. Agree about JCR being a potential impact sub. We can definitely expect to see players shipped out though, and JCR, Higdon and possibly Baxter may be among them.

 

[dingledog]

Adkins- You need six big strong players in your side

Clough- I need another midget to complete the set

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

It's early days and he's showed commitment to the cause by getting in shape.

He has. He went on a surging 40 or 50 yard off the ball run/gallop on Saturday which was a revelation.

 

[metalblade]

I think Adkins team will play with a lot more freedom than they did under Clough, towards the end of last season half the team looked terrified to make a mistake and so took the easy option all the time rather than making the run or pass that would hurt teams.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Those words above are the key element to how the game should be actually played.

What makes the difference is if you have a STRONG and SOUND defence.

There is nothing wrong with being open and with quality defenders you will lose only a few.
That is why some of us have banged on about CH for ages and why, if we need to be brutally honest, Collins ideally needs replacing.
It isn't anything personal - a strong defence doesn't concede many stupid goals and therefore doesn't lose.
If you lose games make sure you lose them to goals that actually makes you think...wow........not, fuck me, just another simple ball into the box.

UTB

You been reading my posts?

 

[Deleted member 875]

Only going on one game but defensively we look a lot stronger with the addition of David Edgar, who has the look of a proper big brute at the back, who will be commanding in the air, and whose priority is to defend as if his life defended upon it.

Midfield seems a lot more open as we now seem to play with a lot more width, under Clough the middle third of the pitch seemed to be often congested as we attempted to play a brand of football that picked it way through the oppositions defences.

We tried to hard to use a false number 9 to break teams down, at different periods last season we used Scougall, Holt and Baxter in this position, and there ended up with a tendency for them to play too far back in midfield, effectively we have replaced that with a second striker whose job it appears to effectively be a battering ram.

 

[Guesty]

I've seen two of the three games so far. At Gillingham it was very hard to tell our style of play but United had precious little to do with how the game unfolded! The only thing we contributed were a litany of mistakes at the back!

Some from the very limited evidence of one home match I noticed that we got the ball forward very quickly. Every pass was an attempt to fashion an opening. This contrasted quite strongly with Clough's teams who would keep the ball more and knock it around a bit. Consequently we didn't end up having a great deal of possession on Saturday despite being clearly the better side.

It worked well and it looked good but against better sides I guess we're going to need to take care of the ball a bit more. Still as I have this is based on the tiniest slither of evidence.

 

[Fulwood Blade]

You been reading my posts?

nope - just a mind reading.........spooky

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