Michael Doyle - you miss him when he's not there, and how.

[Woodwardfan]

We go into the game with four full backs across the back four. The least they deserved was protection from midfield and yet the gaps in our midfield were chasms in those first 20 minutes. As if the gaps were not bad enough the gap between midfield and defence was massive.

Michael Doyle is a busy player, positionally very good and a leader who keeps everybody else on their toes. There was a silence between players on that pitch tonight with no leaders anywhere to be seen.

I have to say that Neil Collins is also an experienced central defender and a good defender and he is also a leader and an organiser.

 

[chesblade]

Think we are going to miss Doyle, someone has tweeted that he has been on 1 of the coaches
Saying he is leaving and wishing us luck, hope it's not right, we should offer him another year
I

 

[bertieblade]

Doyle is not a leader, he hurries and scurries but never creates and never finds a red and white shirt. I will not miss him

 

[robbiez666]

I would have started with Doyle and Basham. We needed to harry them and win that battle.

 

[Cyprus Blade]

Loyal servant, legs have gone. Good luck to him. As for Coutts - I wish he had never come. Shadow of the player he was.

 

[Kenilworth]

Doyle's contract will not be renewed. He has several clubs after his signature and good luck to the feller. Always gave his all each game.

Having said that this was no game to protect the back four. They needed to do their job for the others to go forwards. Unfortunately .……

 

[Blade82]

He's been here 4 years in this league. Clough only had one. Yet we would rather replace clough than Doyle.

 

[Bladesman]

I would not call him a leader but he would have offered some extra protection to a very weak back 4.

 

[boo radley]

Woodwardfan. No I will not.

 

[wizadry]

We don't miss Doyle, we miss players who can actually play that position full stop. While ever we don't get anybody in for that position then Doyle will be our best player for that job, which says a lot about the job Clough is doing.

 

[Woodwardfan]

Doyle's contract will not be renewed. He has several clubs after his signature and good luck to the feller. Always gave his all each game.

Having said that this was no game to protect the back four. They needed to do their job for the others to go forwards. Unfortunately .……

The game always has a number of phases, my comments about protecting the Back 4 were mainly about the opening 30 minutes.

Just to show this is not hindsight, I'll bore you with my my pre-match post:

As everybody is asking me what I would do I'd play 4-5-1 for half an hour switching to 4-4-2 that early.

I'd pick the following team: Assuming Brayford, Kennedy and Done ( semi) not fit:

Howard

Alcock Collins McEveley Harris

Flynn, Basham, Doyle, Reed , Murphy ( pushed up front after half an hour to go 4-4-2)

McNulty


Subs: S.Davies, Freeman, Adams, Done, Diego, Baxter. B.Davies

Alcock is the better defender than Freeman.

If need be,at half time I'd go 3-5-2 with Harris coming off for Done and Murphy dropping into midfield again.

If need be after an hour I'd swap S.Davies for McNulty and stick with 3-5-2

After 70 minutes I'd go 3-4-3 with Murphy back up front and maybe Freeman or Adams for Flynn or Doyle.

Playing 4-5-1 until the last 20 minutes and then going a half and half 4-5-1 /4-4-2 does not demand enough from the situation. Better to go down fighting than hoping something will happen, make it happen I'd say.

Too much chopping and changing? Tough, needs must and if the players are well prepared and ready and willing they will adapt their roles as the game develops. Swindon will have to respond to the changes as they unfurl, hopefully they will be well on the backfoot after the first half hour which has to be tight.

As it turned out Swindon were a lot worse than we ever thought. If we had kept it tight early on we could have strolled it.

 

[sheffielder]

We will miss Doyle. We miss a manager capable of replacing him. See Maguire and Collins

 

[Bladesway]

2 good quality centre halves and we will be saying who? in 6 months time. If we don't do that however Clough will be seeking new employment come October. This team is good enough if he gets 2 centre halves in and stops falling out with them. For this he is responsible and next season it must improve.

 

[sheffielder]

We will miss Doyle. We miss a manager capable of replacing him. See Maguire and Collins

won't!

 

[sheffielder]

2 good quality centre halves and we will be saying who? in 6 months time. If we don't do that however Clough will be seeking new employment come October. This team is good enough if he gets 2 centre halves in and stops falling out with them. For this he is responsible and next season it must improve.

We really don't have time to give Clough a 'chance'. Either we believe in him and give him next season, or we sack him in October and have a similar season to this.

 

[Bladesway]

We really don't have time to give Clough a 'chance'. Either we believe in him and give him next season, or we sack him in October and have a similar season to this.

In that case we believe in him. But we don't have time? Time for what? We want to get up next season and I believe Clough is the man to deliver that but we actually have all the time in the world. It won't stop spinning if we don't get promoted trust me.

 

[wisewoodblade]

Think we are going to miss Doyle, someone has tweeted that he has been on 1 of the coaches
Saying he is leaving and wishing us luck, hope it's not right, we should offer him another year
I

Yes its true michael came on our coach last night and wished us well. I thank him so much for that and all that he has given us. He's another monty. You dont realise wat he offers until he aint there. With 4 bloody full backs across the back they needed help. Doyley would have done that. Cant believe now NC says we need 2 centre backs. Wheres he been for rest of the effin season when we were desperate for a Collins (dont get me goin on that one) or a maguire. Im pissed off with excuses and its not bloody good enuff. End of

 

[DronnieBlade]

I could not blame Clough for the side he picked last night.

And hindsight is a wonderful thing.

But Doyle for Alcock last night is the one change I would have liked to have made (Bash back to CB). Might just have been the difference.

UTB

 

[coaxingstar71]

The first few times I saw Doyle play I thought he was awful, his passing was atrocious and seemed to regularly give the ball away in dangerous positions. This season, I think he's actually improved in his overall passing ability (though he's hardly Glenn Hoddle), unfortunately though his legs have gone and to keep him would mean us playing 5 in midfield all the time. I'm hoping his leaving is a positive sign that Clough intends to have a more attacking line up and maybe even play 2 up front at home. I firmly believe that given the chance, Sparky and Che could form a formidable partnership and this needs to be worked on in pre-season. However I have no confidence this will happen and expect we'll still be seeing a big lone striker at home games next season. I still say Clough deserves one more season but we should be challenging top 2 otherwise I feel it's time to move on. We also need to sign two solid centre backs that Clough can get along with - an achievement in itself!