Caldwell out?

[Radio Free Skaro]

This is true, although it looked very much to me that the players were being "over coached" if that's a term - they weren't playing with any freedom

Lots of over thinking leading to not a lot of fluency

I didn't see much change in effort from the players, they've always tried hard

I mentioned a few months back that I worried that GC wants to play a level of passing and tactical football beyond our League 1 players comprehension... perhaps it is now clicking

At least from where I was sitting

Maybe this was a reaction to losing the 7-0 defeat...

 

[that man again]

Ultimately football is an entertainment business, as is any sport. Stating the obvious I know but, in football, entertainment is usually most found from scoring goals. Yes, there is more to it than that but, the best part of any football game is when your team puts the ball in the back of the net. At home, where it is most important to entertain, we have scored 8 goals in 15 games which, is the worse in the league by some way (Fleetwood are the next worse with 13.)

As Maximus once said - are you not entertained? And the answer is no, and I have not been for a long time. And I can't imagine I am the only one.

 

[tavyred]

So what? We went three months without a win - we literally couldn't have done any worse. We could have played rush goalies and still not got worse results. What Creds is saying is don't play the same plodding style every week because it quite clearly doesn't work. Mix it up a bit, you never know, we might win a game here and there, however to continue in the same vein all season pretty much guarantees we won't.

Despite what you say we are winning games here and there and it’s thought that we’re 12-15 points from safety. GC probably quite rightly isn’t concerning himself too much with the child-like desire for entertainment by some fans as he realises that the priority for a club like ours is to try and buck our historical failure to stay in this league longer than about 5 minutes. BTW if GC decided that a more expansive game was needed and we instead began to lose games 3-2 instead of 1-0, there’d be another group of supporters wanting him to tighten things up a bit.

 

[Devon Red]

Ultimately football is an entertainment business, as is any sport. Stating the obvious I know but, in football, entertainment is usually most found from scoring goals. Yes, there is more to it than that but, the best part of any football game is when your team puts the ball in the back of the net. At home, where it is most important to entertain, we have scored 8 goals in 15 games which, is the worse in the league by some way (Fleetwood are the next worse with 13.)

As Maximus once said - are you not entertained? And the answer is no, and I have not been for a long time. And I can't imagine I am the only one.

This is where I'm at.

My decision on whether Caldwell stays or goes isn't based solely on survival - I want to go to matches and actually enjoy it.

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

Ultimately football is an entertainment business, as is any sport. Stating the obvious I know but, in football, entertainment is usually most found from scoring goals. Yes, there is more to it than that but, the best part of any football game is when your team puts the ball in the back of the net. At home, where it is most important to entertain, we have scored 8 goals in 15 games which, is the worse in the league by some way (Fleetwood are the next worse with 13.)

As Maximus once said - are you not entertained? And the answer is no, and I have not been for a long time. And I can't imagine I am the only one.

Indeed. The odd thing is, how the average attendances are staying significantly higher than at any time in many, many years. Normally, with our kind of record this season, attendances would be showing a considerable decline. Of course, it's a good thing, but hard to explain.

 

[Gordon Dale]

Indeed. The odd thing is, how the average attendances are staying significantly higher than at any time in many, many years. Normally, with our kind of record this season, attendances would be showing a considerable decline. Of course, it's a good thing, but hard to explain.

Indeed it is Pete. There is no doubt that under Trust ownership the Trust has some extremely loyal supporters ...which is SO evident at away games. Also the ground improvements under Trust ownership have vastly improved the ambience of SJP .The latter has been remarked upon positively by a number of visiting supporters.

 

[Antony Moxey]

Despite what you say we are winning games here and there and it’s thought that we’re 12-15 points from safety. GC probably quite rightly isn’t concerning himself too much with the child-like desire for entertainment by some fans as he realises that the priority for a club like ours is to try and buck our historical failure to stay in this league longer than about 5 minutes. BTW if GC decided that a more expansive game was needed and we instead began to lose games 3-2 instead of 1-0, there’d be another group of supporters wanting him to tighten things up a bit.

Despite what you say for three months we weren't so continuing with the same plodding style of play clearly wasn't working. That's why maybe he should have tried something different and mixed it up a bit.

Also, 'child-like desire for entertainment'? What on earth are you on about? What's child-like about wanting to be entertained - that's the entire and only reason for going isn't it? If all you're interested in is results and nothing else then why not just watch the scores ticking over on your phone and save yourself a fortune?

 

[Exiled_Grecian]

It’s not by necessity though is it, it’s through choice.

He plays the same way regardless of the opponent, i’ve no issue with us parking the bus or trying to keep possession against Pompey for example as there a better side than us like we did around Xmas time but the same tactics a few weeks later at home against Cambridge for example makes no sense given there not good enough to really hurt you like a Pompey for example so the opportunity to take the game to them is far greater.

See, this is where I would argue that this isn't exactly always the case.

I don't actually think he's as rigid in terms of game plan as some make out. Yes, he has a defined set of principles, which he isn't ever going to abandon - playing possession based football, system, building from the back etc, however in my opinion there have been games where he's adapted those principles into a larger game plan in order to get a certain result.

I'd argue that at Charlton earlier this season, we attempted to play far more as a counter attacking side in the first half, using the pace of VH on the left and the engine of HK on the right as wingbacks, we seemed to relinquish a lot of our domination of the ball in order to invite them to step onto us and then win the ball and play forward quickly in transition, which is exactly where JS goal came from (if my memory serves me right). A game plan which I personally think worked as we were well in the game until Aimson's sending off.

Compared to Portsmouth at the start of the season, where we really tried to dominate the ball and strangle any atmosphere from the crowd and prevent them from being able to regularly build fluid attacks. I think there was the acceptance that give theirs and ours start to the season, if we went toe-to-toe the game would be too open and they would likely come out on top. Sounds like we potentially tried to do the same around Christmas at SJP.

Stevenage again is a game for me where he altered the game plan with us trying to sit in a low block and focus on defending the box and 'scoring-zone' and have bodies around the ball when it was crossed in or played long towards our backline. Again playing as more of a counter attacking side rather than slower, more meticulous build up that he seems to prefer.

Then looking at two of the more recent games:

Blackpool - game plan seemed as though we tried to limit the spaces for their front three in behind us, sitting in a low-mid block and forcing their wingers to receive the ball to feet with their back to goal and doubling up on them in wide areas, counter attacking at pace when possible. Given that their two goals were both worldy strikes from outside the box again think this alteration to the game plan worked (in the main) although our quality on the counter was poor and once we conceded the second, were playing against a team looking to sit in and conserve energy.

Barnsley - I wasn't at this game like the others, however from what I've heard, (1st half) sounds as though we were much more front footed, sacrificing time building our attacks in favour of more direct forward passes with speed, playing through Barnsley at the earliest opportunity whilst pressing them a bit higher and forcing turnovers in possession as much as possible.

Just to reference a few, I think it is fair to say GC is willing to implement a game plan that isn't always centred around his principle of possession based football if he feels as though the game or team needs it.

I fully agree with most that we need to be much more incisive when we play GC's preferred structure and style of play. This isn't intended to be a complete defence of his tactics as I also feel like we could be much more expansive and that we should really look to play quicker. I've got no issue with us building from the back and it's actually my favoured style of play. However the key to playing predominantly possession based football when you aren't Man City is playing with a high tempo and ball speed, otherwise as we see with our play some times, we play right into their hands as we don't play quick enough to play through the lines when we've opened up the opportunity from playing side-to-side when then results in poor decisions to play into SC and we lose the ball. I'd also like us to try and press a bit higher with higher tempo given that we do now seem to have a number of athletic players especially in forward and midfield areas. Then I think we'd be far more entertaining but still within GC's overriding principles.

Of course, this is a results business and some of the games I've referenced we still lost which is a fair argument, however I don't believe the reasons we lost those games were necessarily the game plan, instead either individual errors, lapses of concentration, lack of quality during the game to properly implement the game plan, high quality from the opposition.

There are some very fair criticisms that can be directed towards GC and performances on the pitch at times this season, however he has also demonstrated (at times) that he can set teams up to win games, I think the biggest thing he needs to rectify is making us more threatening and also sorting the mentality of the players so that we don't always have to score first for us to win a game.

 

[tavyred]

Despite what you say for three months we weren't so continuing with the same plodding style of play clearly wasn't working. That's why maybe he should have tried something different and mixed it up a bit.

So our recent uptick in form was despite GC’s chosen plodding style of play?

 

[milts]

Ultimately football is an entertainment business, as is any sport. Stating the obvious I know but, in football, entertainment is usually most found from scoring goals. Yes, there is more to it than that but, the best part of any football game is when your team puts the ball in the back of the net. At home, where it is most important to entertain, we have scored 8 goals in 15 games which, is the worse in the league by some way (Fleetwood are the next worse with 13.)

As Maximus once said - are you not entertained? And the answer is no, and I have not been for a long time. And I can't imagine I am the only one.

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