Crawley v Exeter City match day thread

[Rosencrantz]

You don't often get gushing praise from Northerners.
But MT was talking in riddles a bit yesterday. Why doesn't he let some of his backroom staff do the interviews occasionally? Or even match reactions from a player..

We always get match reactions from players. If Matt wheeled out one of the coaches to do the after match reaction, that would immediately be questioned, analysed and frowned upon as well by some. Really it is the manager's responsibility unless there is a really good reason.

 

[Langer]

If you’re not playing with Bowmen you need to alter your tactics accordingly more through ball passes on the deck to the strikers.

 

[Legohead]

I think you can get into being over analytical of everything that a manager says and look for meanings that are not there or meant. Matt saying "long time coming" could just as easily have been more to say Ben's reward (of a league goal) was a long time coming in terms of the hard work he puts in on the training ground and promise he shows. After all if Matt rated Ben the same as some on here, he would have been out of the door by now, at least on loan.

As to fitness, there is general fitness and then there is match fitness. And modern thinking and analysis into fitness and performance levels is a mile away from all those "in my day" anecdotes. They are all wearing monitors with the stats downloaded and analysed. I'm sure Ben could have ran around a lot to some degree for 90 minutes. But the coaching staff would have known his levels coming off his first 90 minutes for ages.

With a constant two games a week, a lot of travelling time, staying overnight, I doubt the squad has had a normal training week this year. Picking your best eleven every match becomes more than subjective. The squad has to be managed in terms that will get the squad in the best shape throughout the season. How often do we see that the squad who are finishing strongly at the right time go up? So it's more a balancing judgement to keep in touch but keep energy levels up.

Jake Taylor and Joel Randall have both just come back from muscle injuries that come from fatigue, particularly for Joel. Williams has a stress fracture which is a wear and tear injury. Professional sport fitness is a long way from general fitness and we have a professional strength and conditioning coach advising Matt on that side of it. Although Matt himself has a background in fitness himself from his university days as well so is probably very aware and qualified to speak about all things fitness.

This is a really interesting post Rosencrantz and highlights lots of alternative points that i hadn't really thought of. Much of it makes sense. I think from my point of view, i have an natural tendency to question what i don't understand, or what doesn't make sense and what i am not given answers for and thus this does create doubt and suspicion. For example, Matty said that Seymour was low and tired and i think the question we all want to ask is why?

If Matty gave us an adequate explanation as to why a 20 year old footballer who had just scored the winning goal in the match previous is low and tired then we'd accept it i guess. However, then you get into the argument about how much does a manager need to tell us. He's the manager and we don't really need to know every minutiae of what he does and what he's thinking.

Maybe it's a case of overkill with the constant insatiable media appetite for quotes, comments, explanation and information when in actual fact all we want as fans is for the manager to do his job properly. If we went the entire season not hearing anything from Matty but ended up getting promoted then nobody would question why he played Fisher against Crawley or why he signed Ajose etc etc because overall it wouldn't be important.

Maybe there is a lot to be said for letting a manager just get on with his job and manage and let his managerial performance over the course of season speak for him.

 

[Colesman Ballz]

You don't often get gushing praise from Northerners.
But MT was talking in riddles a bit yesterday. Why doesn't he let some of his backroom staff do the interviews occasionally? Or even match reactions from a player..

Match reactions by a player ARE done for pretty much every game. On Saturday it was Jake Taylor. Don't knock our Social Media Team, it isn't their or (KMT's) fault if you can't be arsed to watch them.

 

[Rosencrantz]

This is a really interesting post Rosencrantz and highlights lots of alternative points that i hadn't really thought of. Much of it makes sense. I think from my point of view, i have an natural tendency to question what i don't understand, or what doesn't make sense and what i am not given answers for and thus this does create doubt and suspicion. For example, Matty said that Seymour was low and tired and i think the question we all want to ask is why?

If Matty gave us an adequate explanation as to why a 20 year old footballer who had just scored the winning goal in the match previous is low and tired then we'd accept it i guess. However, then you get into the argument about how much does a manager need to tell us. He's the manager and we don't really need to know every minutiae of what he does and what he's thinking.

Maybe it's a case of overkill with the constant insatiable media appetite for quotes, comments, explanation and information when in actual fact all we want as fans is for the manager to do his job properly. If we went the entire season not hearing anything from Matty but ended up getting promoted then nobody would question why he played Fisher against Crawley or why he signed Ajose etc etc because overall it wouldn't be important.

Maybe there is a lot to be said for letting a manager just get on with his job and manage and let his managerial performance over the course of season speak for him.

I don't think it is overkill, certainly not at our level anyway, for the manager and a player to give their thoughts on the game just gone. But they are never going to be that much in depth and detailed, only a few minutes, generally between 3 and 5 minutes. I think our media team do a good job and Matt and the players generally give their time generously and give honest views in that moment. I think the difference is those comments after a game get viewed much more by supporters and then read into much more than other interviews given, often pre match a couple of days before, which can be more considered and insightful.

An adequate explanation of modern day fitness and physical conditioning in professional sport is probably a question more for a fans forum or extended interview (maybe with Conor Durbridge) than a post match interview. Matt gave a shorthand explanation in saying Ben had his first 90 minutes for a while on Tuesday. Obviously that wasn't detailed enough for or understood by many supporters. This season in particular must be an absolute challenge beyond what is normal for the S&C coach and management in terms of balancing as close to the ideal fitness of the squad and overall performance on the pitch over an entire season.

 

[Benjisheps14]

I don't think it is overkill, certainly not at our level anyway, for the manager and a player to give their thoughts on the game just gone. But they are never going to be that much in depth and detailed, only a few minutes, generally between 3 and 5 minutes. I think our media team do a good job and Matt and the players generally give their time generously and give honest views in that moment. I think the difference is those comments after a game get viewed much more by supporters and then read into much more than other interviews given, often pre match a couple of days before, which can be more considered and insightful.

An adequate explanation of modern day fitness and physical conditioning in professional sport is probably a question more for a fans forum or extended interview (maybe with Conor Durbridge) than a post match interview. Matt gave a shorthand explanation in saying Ben had his first 90 minutes for a while on Tuesday. Obviously that wasn't detailed enough for or understood by many supporters. This season in particular must be an absolute challenge beyond what is normal for the S&C coach and management in terms of balancing as close to the ideal fitness of the squad and overall performance on the pitch over an entire season.

Agree with these comments and I'm not sure why everyone is reading too much into Matt's post match interview. He said Seymour was playing tired. Totally understand this comment, as it doesn't matter how old or young you are if you play your first 90 minutes in months you are going to be fatigued and at a low if you are then asked to play again in less than 4 days.

I know people will say he is 21 and buzzing after Colchester etc, etc, and I get that, but what MT said was true it was inevitable that the affects of Tuesday would have taken a lot out of Seymour. That was probably why Fisher (although very ineffective) played alongside Ben to give him some support in a front two as opposed to him having to lead the line on his own again.

Yesterday it was a poor first half with nothing in the game. I actually think we had the best moment of the half when Seymour was played in behind and just had to square it to Fisher who would have had a tap in to score, but he unfortunately messed up the cross! This was a big moment in the game. However; there was nothing in the game and I'm sure MT had in his mind at the 60 minute mark to introduce the likes of Randall and Willmott to then win the game. I don't think this is a bad tactic and how the 2nd half transpired shows the fine margins in football.

Obviously the red card changed everything and although some have criticized MT's subs I can see why he made them even if with hindsight they didn't work out. Parkes gets sent off so McArdle comes on to replace the CB we have just lost. Seymour who played the 90 minutes on Tuesday is 'sacrificed' and Fisher is left on due to the fact that he should have been able to still offer us a physical presence up the pitch and with the team now inevitably going to be under pressure also offers some height to help defend set-pieces.

Atangana comes on to give some freshness in midfield and again some height to help defend set-pieces. Jay is taken off for similar reasons to Seymour.

People have argued that Randall should have been brought on sooner and I would probably agree with that, but at 1-0 down with 10 men we were still in the game and could have nicked something from a set-piece etc. Incidentally when MT did make his changes in the 82nd minute to 'give it a go' we then conceded a minute later and it was game over! This is no fault of who was brought on, but again just highlights the fine margins in football.

Yesterday was a poor game but if we had ground out a 1-0 win with 11 on the pitch we would have all been saying "those are the games you need to win if you are going to be successful" etc. Obviously it didn't go to plan with what happened 2nd half and now becomes a poor performance which we are all disappointed with. Have to say that some of the players that were supposed to bring freshness and energy to the team specifically Sparkes (who I am normally a fan of) and Fisher did not show well yesterday and didn't take their chance.

A big week ahead though with two home games coming up and things could be very different this time next week!!

Afram City!!

 

[dontpassback]

Loving the utter randomness of your commas!

I went to John stocker school in Exeter mate,education about life but not necessarily punctuation or other finer skills !

 

[Rosencrantz]

I went to John stocker school in Exeter mate,education about life but not necessarily punctuation or other finer skills !

John Stocker...the most physical games of the season for us softies from Whipton Barton . Happy with two 2-2 draws.

 

[dontpassback]

John Stocker...the most physical games of the season for us softies from Whipton Barton . Happy with two 2-2 draws.

The pride of st Thomas went to John stocker,the clever ones who passed the 11 plus went to heles !

 

[Hants_red]

What a load of bowloks these TOTWs are Two Creepy players included (including a former City player) and former Exeter City assistant manager is the manager of the weekend in L2.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1366086010963038212