Do we need to gel again?

[Antarctic Monkey]

Is this effectively another 'start to the season'? 5 new players, new squad, new system?

Ideally we would have had this many players in August, but that wouldn't have allowed for the development of Peck, Seriki, Campbell et al.

Do we hope for the best for the next 15, or do we have the squad and need to find the formation/style?

 

[Eels]

Formation can stay the same for me but it's either Campbell or Cannon up top - not both. And I wouldn't play Souza and Hamza together unless we're under pressure. Just praying Holding can get up to speed quickly 'cos Anel looked like last season's model today.

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

Cannon plays his best football up top alongside someone else. Campbell also played well alongside Moore. Will Wilder put them together? I highly doubt it.

 

[Stretch]

Yes, I said this last week.

5 new players coming in, almost as many coming back from injuries. It is going to take a bit of time.

Meanwhile, we just have to keep the scoreboard ticking over. That won't please some, but it's going to be a bit of a slog, especially for a team who weren't the most free flowing to begin with.

 

[SwitchBLADE Smiles]

Honestly, no not really. I think it’s fairly obvious that we can’t have Souza & Choudhury playing in the middle as a pair. They’re exactly the same footballer and having them both completely stifles our attacking play.

That being said, I reckon if we pushed Hamer into a number 10 role with BBD & Campbell as wingers - it could work. I’ve seen it for several games now that we get the ball in defence or with the central midfielders and there isn’t a forward pass available. Now this is either because every opposition we play against are positionally superior or there is a giant gap between our midfield and the forwards. I’m leaning towards the latter.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we looked significantly better after Peck came into the side, but we could (and probably should) have been 4 or 5 down at that point. But having someone who would be willing to make runs from a central area with the ball gives us more options - this isn’t something Choudhury or Souza will give us.

It’s frustrating because I think we have the personnel at the club to really run through opposition at this level, but the way we set up is actually holding us back. Portsmouth really should have won today by a handsome margin & other than a couple of bits of individual quality, we created absolutely nothing. We have an embarrassment of riches in attacking areas and as much as results going in our favour is nice, there’s a nasty feeling that this is all going to turn sour unless we can sort these glaring issues out.

 

[Houston_Blade]

We have to give the new lads 5 or 6 games for me, after that if we’re still playing like this we just hope we scrape enough wins to get over the line and then hope we sign 16 new players and employ some actual tactics for next season!

 

[Bell4]

New players need to settle in

Returning players need to get up to speed

We need to gell…

But irrespective of all that … CW , sometimes you set the team up appallingly . And today was appalling for a professional manager .

And I’m a fan of CW

 

[Antarctic Monkey]

Cannon plays his best football up top alongside someone else. Campbell also played well alongside Moore. Will Wilder put them together? I highly doubt it.

Moore? Big man and finisher?

 

[loyalblade95]

Team doesn't need to gel as a whole, it's just the new lads need to get up to speed and gel with the rest of the team who have played together for most of the season.

The big difference today was when Peck, McCallum and JRS came on, and again when Brewster came on, they just clicked straight away where the newer players weren't quite up to speed in the same regard.

Within minutes of JRS coming on, him and Clarke combined on the right to create a good chance for Clarke, when Brewster came on, his first touch was the assist for JRS.

These lads have been playing together all season, whereas the new players are still learning the system, probably a good thing that Holding got 10-15 minutes at the end.

Thought Cannon looked better in the second half (compared to the first half where we kept kicking it long at him and Campbell), a bit more quality on that shot and some anticipation for Hamer's cross, he could have had 2 goals today.

 

[Tony_Kaufman]

Team doesn't need to gel as a whole, it's just the new lads need to get up to speed and gel with the rest of the team who have played together for most of the season.

The big difference today was when Peck, McCallum and JRS came on, and again when Brewster came on, they just clicked straight away where the newer players weren't quite up to speed in the same regard.

Within minutes of JRS coming on, him and Clarke combined on the right to create a good chance for Clarke, when Brewster came on, his first touch was the assist for JRS.

These lads have been playing together all season, whereas the new players are still learning the system, probably a good thing that Holding got 10-15 minutes at the end.

Thought Cannon looked better in the second half (compared to the first half where we kept kicking it long at him and Campbell), a bit more quality on that shot and some anticipation for Hamer's cross, he could have had 2 goals today.

But if the rest of the team have played together all season why are they so poor possession, continually give away the ball cheaply, look lost going forward with no clear idea of what to do and can't put in a decent performance over 90 minutes. By the same argument the players already here still haven't gelled. Why?

 

[Big.Dane.w]

Team doesn't need to gel as a whole, it's just the new lads need to get up to speed and gel with the rest of the team who have played together for most of the season.

The big difference today was when Peck, McCallum and JRS came on, and again when Brewster came on, they just clicked straight away where the newer players weren't quite up to speed in the same regard.

Within minutes of JRS coming on, him and Clarke combined on the right to create a good chance for Clarke, when Brewster came on, his first touch was the assist for JRS.

These lads have been playing together all season, whereas the new players are still learning the system, probably a good thing that Holding got 10-15 minutes at the end.

Thought Cannon looked better in the second half (compared to the first half where we kept kicking it long at him and Campbell), a bit more quality on that shot and some anticipation for Hamer's cross, he could have had 2 goals today.

Learning what system exactly?

If we actually do have a ‘system’ it’s this system that’s the problem.

 

[loyalblade95]

But if the rest of the team have played together all season why are they so poor possession, continually give away the ball cheaply, look lost going forward with no clear idea of what to do and can't put in a decent performance over 90 minutes. By the same argument the players already here still haven't gelled. Why?

Cooper, Anel, Burrows, Souza, Hamer all played the majority of our games this season.

Add Robbo, Brewster, McCallum, JRS and Peck who have played roughly the same amount of games, are all well aware of each others games, Campbell hasn't played as much as them but he knows how Hamer and the other regulars like to play.

Compare that to the new lads BBD (4 games), Campbell (3 games), Clarke and Choudhury (2 games) are still trying to learn how to play to the strengths of the regular first team players like Hamer, Souza etc.

Doesn't matter how gelled a team is or how often they play together, they'll still give the ball away or look lost going forward at times, it just happens sometimes, all you can do as a team is just try to rectify it when it does happen.

 

[Bladesman]

New players need to settle in

Returning players need to get up to speed

We need to gell…

But irrespective of all that … CW , sometimes you set the team up appallingly . And today was appalling for a professional manager .

And I’m a fan of CW

Not his fault though according to him.

 

[CrookesBlade]

Paul Beesley used to have loads of gel in. Get him back!