We have a poor side.

Sitting at H.P last night I frequently lapsed into some kind of analysis of the team, it was a poor game between on the night two poor teams so never going to be a classic was it? There is no doubt that Sheridan is responsible and culpable for the often eratic and ineffective tatics and it's obvious that the side is low on confidence and we could debate all day about the the Brent influence. But I know it seems obvious but we have a very low quality team in terms of footballing ability, skills, creativity, footballing vision etc.
For me Sheridan has to take responsibility for his scouting and buying in of players and if that means he has to go so be it. Hayes for instance smacked of desperation from the first announcement he was coming, and so it's proving.
The only way forward? as people were saying last night we need new players - January window?. Thirteen games in and we already know we will be reliant on two other teams performing worse than us. 

akagreengull wrote:

Sitting at H.P last night I frequently lapsed into some kind of analysis of the team, it was a poor game between on the night two poor teams so never going to be a classic was it? There is no doubt that Sheridan is responsible and culpable for the often eratic and ineffective tatics and it's obvious that the side is low on confidence and we could debate all day about the the Brent influence. But I know it seems obvious but we have a very low quality team in terms of footballing ability, skills, creativity, footballing vision etc.
For me Sheridan has to take responsibility for his scouting and buying in of players and if that means he has to go so be it. Hayes for instance smacked of desperation from the first announcement he was coming, and so it's proving.
The only way forward? as people were saying last night we need new players - January window?. Thirteen games in and we already know we will be reliant on two other teams performing worse than us. 

The specmare will do nothing in january aka, its all over bar the sobbing! the phoney prez and his billy bunter mate will try to rally the gratefuls with tale's of what giants we will be amongst the part time teams.

You just noticed?

We have a poorly run club. Nothing will change until changes are enforced. Brent and his nooligans need to be run out of the club immediately.

Coxside_Green wrote:

You just noticed?

We have a poorly run club.  Nothing will change until changes are enforced.  Brent and his nooligans need to be run out of the club immediately.

Easier said than done though....

Will boycotting games work.

Will stopping buying club merchandise work.

Will protesting in the ground work..

The top two will have a small impact only. The last Will fail.

Only when all true Argyle fans sing from the same hymn sheet will we see a monumental change at HP.

Agree with your last sentence VG.

We missed the boat during administration, that was the time for a good ol' cleansing. Admin may well be our best hope for the future, preferably before Brent gets to finally kill our hopes & dreams of ever being a REAL club with aspiration.

So how can we make the best of a bum deal? No matter how crap things may be whatever happens next has to start from right here and right now.

What strengths do we have? Well we've got two reasonable goalies.

So who do we want in front of whichever one we choose? Another apparent strength is at centre back. We have options all over the place with Blanchard, Wotton, Branston, Nelson, Trotman to choose from there. I'd go Branston and Blanchard if we had a decent right back but we don't so it's Branston and Trotman for me there with Blanchard at right back. Left back is still a problem. It has to be a left-footer so I'd put Hourihane there.

Basically we haven't got a full back at the club that I'd pick so get shot of all of the guilty men and get somebody decent in on both sides as a matter of priority and then re-assess but we are where we are.

That leaves midfield. First name down for me is Nelson. I rate him highly and think he gets nothing like the credit he deserves so he's in to play a Steve Adams role.

Next for me is Luke Young. Get him in wide right. I can't think who to play wide left so I'm plonking Guerrieri there.

I'd then probably have to settle for Bencherif. I'm not over-impressed with him but he's a big unit and we'd need muscle.

Which leaves the front two. My first choice there would be Morgan but he's injured so it has to be Reid. That leaves his partner which would have to be one of Harvey, Boco or Alessandra. Well I've seen plenty of Boco and Alessandra (admittedly each probably playing out of position because neither is midfielder or a winger or, in Boco's case, a right wingback) and I'd give Harvey a go.

So lining up 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 that gives

1. McCormick
2. Blanchard
3. Hourihane
4. Nelson
5. Branston
6. Trotman
7. Young
8. Harvey
9. Reid
10. Bencherif
11. Guerrieri

That gets 5 "locals" (Reid, McCormick, Nelson, Young, Harvey) into the team and as far as is possible leaves out the players who have impressed the least (Alessandra, Rekord, Berry, Blackman, Boco, Hayes).

With what we have I think we can do no better.

Hourihane at left back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry mate, you've got to be having a giraffe. He's the best midfielder in the club at this moment in time. He's also the only player who looks like he might get somewhere near scoring a goal. In fact he is the only player to have scored lately  

Who to put there then?

Hourihane in place of Bencherif if we have someone.

No Berry!!!???

Richard Blight wrote:

Hourihane at left back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry mate, you've got to be having a giraffe. He's the best midfielder in the club at this moment in time. He's also the only player who looks like he might get somewhere near scoring a goal. In fact he is the only player to have scored lately  

FFS, don't mention "giraffe"!

knecht wrote:

No Berry!!!???

No. No Berry. Definitely no Berry.

I don't much like slagging our own players off (and his Mum is a real sweetie) so I'll leave it at that.

we lack strength and depth to this squad but its not a lost cause. If we can strength in the key areas like up front and creative wingers we will turn it around.

Yes but we are where we are and can only pick from what we already have.

My XI might be, probably is, very flawed but if not them in those positions then who and where?

With the players at our disposal, defensively we're second to nobody in this league. Our midfield isn't the worst but could do with a natural winger or 2, we dont have so we play to our strengths. Forwards are clearly our weakest point. It needs strengthening which will mean getting players (unfortunately players like Nelson, Richards etc ) off the books.

All that said, if it aint right at the top...

I think it's flair, width and pace that we are lacking.

OK the forwards haven't scored but they get so few meaningful crosses to go for or measured passes to run onto that they have little chance to show what they can do.

Nobody ever seems to go past his man and hardly anybody seems to even try to. We are nearly always advancing into territory that is being controlled by defensive units happy to stay in their slots.

From what I read our forwards missed chance after chance at Hartlepoole.

Bearing in mind we're 4th division I dont think pace and flair is that much of an issue, sounds more of a luxury? I agree we could use some width though.

Pace and flair is always important in any division.

I haven't seen any of the Hartlepool game and I'm reluctant to base my opinion on someone else's opinion.

I have seen every home game so far this season though and I don't remember very many shots at goal let alone a host of missed chances. In fact I can barely recall a goalkeeper needing to get his jersey dirty.

Fair enough SFD. I still think the main ingredient starts from the top. If we had an owner who gave a flying one the rest would surely fall into place over time. Talk of tactics, players and whatnot just seems pointless at this moment in time.

Blackman is only got a six month deal hope he doesn't get an extension here

Blackman has proven to be a decent player (Swindon away) and possibly the bit of flair SFD alludes to. He has also proven to be a liability when used defensively. An enigma for sure.

While I'm a Tisdale backer, I try not to be as one-eyed as the fanatical opponents and the Tis-can-do-no-wrong factions; so while I would in general say that he's a top-class manager, one of the two black marks against him is his abysmal loan signings.

When I saw Hayes uncanny impression of a total nonentity at SJP, I was reminded of the succession of footballing on-loan cadavers that we were subjected to the season we were relegated from League 1 - Vine, Bignall and so on.

I'm not saying that's an omen, but...

I don't think a player's status makes much difference TBH.

Over the years we've had some excellent loanees.  The chap (whose name escapes me) Pulis brought in got his head to absolutely everything and went on to win POTY if I remember rightly.  Gallagher (sp) from Blackburn scored enough goals to keep us in the CCC.  Our 3 Hungarians all impressed while on loan.  Last season we saw Bryan, Cox and Banton do the business.  We've had our share of crap too.

If a loanee wants to succeed, he probably will.  If he comes reluctantly then he'll more likely fail.  That applies to fully contracted players as well (not forgetting reluctant owners ).

Nobody even attempts to beat their man in our squad. Blackman did a few times away to Swindon but by all accounts the rest of his game is as piss poor as the rest.

Gurrieri is an enigma to me. Stature wise he's reminiscent of Messi and looks the perfect tricky little winger but he just kind of buzzes around showing lots of energy but no end product. From what I've seen the same applies to Bocco as well.

Hourihane is really the fulcrum of the side and it does sound like he has been pushing on himself a bit more and getting shots away in the last few games but these are speculative 25 yarders that are not going to fly in every week.

I know it sounds obvious but a Banton type player is an immediate vacancy that needs filling and a decent winger wouldn't go amiss. The strikers need the right ball played into danger areas and there is no-one with the delivery in the squad as far as I can see. This to me is more important than getting in another striker.

Coxside_Green wrote:

I don't think a player's status makes much difference TBH.

Over the years we've had some excellent loanees.  The chap (whose name escapes me) Pulis brought in got his head to absolutely everything and went on to win POTY if I remember rightly.  Gallagher (sp) from Blackburn scored enough goals to keep us in the CCC.  Our 3 Hungarians all impressed while on loan.  Last season we saw Bryan, Cox and Banton do the business.  We've had our share of crap too.

If a loanee wants to succeed, he probably will.  If he comes reluctantly then he'll more likely fail.  That applies to fully contracted players as well (not forgetting reluctant owners ).

Elliot Ward. Our best ever loan signing.

Coxside_Green wrote:

You just noticed?

We have a poorly run club.  Nothing will change until changes are enforced.  Brent and his nooligans need to be run out of the club immediately.

No I have definitely noticed it was evident from the first home game against Fleetwood, one of the worst displays I have ever seen from an Argyle side. That is a concern that we came up aginst a decent side like Fleetwood who play good counter attack play and we have,nt got a chance. I posted the thread because there is much debate about investment, tactics and players etc but i just made the point it has become so obvious now that we have an inadequate team to get any kind of success in this league.