Caldwell out?

[STURTZ]

Quite amusing to see the changes in stance now the bout is over, embarrassed punters sneaking into the ring under cover of darkness to retrieve towels that were thrown when things looked tough.
Our Board wouldn't have that luxury, thank God they had a bit more belief!

 

[manc grecian]

The home games....not enough goals scored, not enough attempts on goal, not enough tempo and a team that seems devoid of any characters.

Sweeney could score a hat trick of own goals every week and still get a pass because he relates to the fans.

Caldwell has earned the right to improve it next season though.

 

[tavyred]

Although post match interviews conducted by club’s in-house media teams are bound to give a slant towards their own side it can still be interesting over the course of a season to compare and contrast the ‘performances’ of the respective Managers.
I always watch ours and frequently hunt out our opponents.
What’s struck me in particular is how unflustered GC appears to have been when speaking even when we’ve been in periods of desperate form.
He must have a high level of confidence in his approach and his coaching staff and players and a very thick skin.
Alternatively and I appreciate Cheltenham’s situation is bleak but their Manager spoke a load of old tripe after Monday’s match.
It’s hard to imagine he even actually believed what he was saying.
Different people react and respond to awkward situations differently I suppose and although GC often appears to me to be excessively and unnecessarily animated on the touchline during matches he seems calmness personified in his interviews, even when things have gone against us.
And that is an admirable and rare quality.

Let’s face it, too many of us ‘bottled it’, unlike the club who held their nerve and backed themselves……

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

[Bridgy 81]

Nicely put Mr Kipling and your post rhymes as well.

 

[Grecian2K]

Nicely put Mr Kipling and your post rhymes as well.

Mr Tavy posts incredibly good rhymes.

 

[grecian-near-hell]

Has Alli been signed to develop into that Nombe role?

Him, Cox and an experienced striker should do us given Caldwell only plays one up top.

Would like to see Harris back for another season as I think he’s started to really find his feet. Would be a shame to potentially see one of our rivals benefit from that next year. He’ll pitch in with a few goals as will Cole and Aitchison.

Re-signing Demi would also add goals.

if my wish list were fulfilled I think we’d have a decent season.

Don’t agree on Eisa, seems disinterested to me.

This, particularly the re-signing of Demi, but I would hope for two more strikers, ones that will fit into or adapt to our style, as has been proved by the signing of Eisa signing a "proven" goal scorer doesn't always work. Hopefully as well Woods to sign on but I think he still has twelve months on his contract so hopefully something could be done.

Who from the youth are likely to be retained, perhaps we may see some of them over the next few matches?

I would also love for this to happen as well (from Devon Live)

"While Sinisalo is with Exeter this season, and has been getting regular contact and feedback from Villa – a club he rightfully says are going places and wanting Champions League football – where he will be pulling on the gloves next season is not yet known. His deal with the Premier League side runs until 2025, so could he be back in Devon for a second spell?

“I can’t say what the plan for next season is as I don’t know myself,” he said. “But I know I will be emotional at the end of the season when we play Oxford at home. I have built a great relationship with the football club, and I would want to play for it again whenever that is, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.”

(Never fall in love with a loan player!)

 

[Grecian Max]

Quite amusing to see the changes in stance now the bout is over, embarrassed punters sneaking into the ring under cover of darkness to retrieve towels that were thrown when things looked tough.
Our Board wouldn't have that luxury, thank God they had a bit more belief!

You’re just a bit of a kn0b aren’t you

 

[MJP_Exeter]

I've said on here before that modern football is "stats led, possession based". Most teams now employ this style because the statistics provide evidence that a possession based approach is most likely to produce wins. Even Liverpool play this way, they are just much better than most at being able to play forward balls in the final third, and also regain possession very quickly. This approach is the England DNA. It's not a trickle down the leagues, rather, all grassroots coaches are taught to coach these attributes. When the style of play is executed well its a joy to watch.



Surely if we have achieved the aim of staying up, then the approach has proved to be effective?

I think everyone will agree that its been hard to watch at times this year. Caldwell has said in interviews, the plan isn't to pass the ball around in our own half, and that he wants us to play forward more and quicker. When it does click however we look really good (the goal against Burton was excellent IMO), but clearly we need to work to produce more moments of quality to increase the chances of scoring. I'm glad Caldwell stuck with the principles during the tough spell and didn't seek short term fixes. If we want to have a genuine sniff of sneaking into the play-offs in the coming years then I think that possession based football is the only way to go.

On point one, I agree that it is the way football is going, I just think it is a very boring and bland style of football. Any style of football will produce moments of good etc. at times, But Overall watching Charlton and us try to play this way on Good Friday was the perfect example of why I dislike this style overall.

It has been effective in terms of the points gained, but not in terms of the football produced off of it, if that makes sense. You can achieve your aims in a poor way and I feel that is what we have done this season. I Won't be remembering this season for long once it is finishes, irrespective of how we finish. I will be at the Stevenage and Oxford games, so hoping we can get wins in those.

In terms of Caldwell, As I have outlined elsewhere, he needs to improve his performance next season, read games better and tactically change things when plan A doesn't work. As a club we need to get our recruitment spot on in the summer and plan for sales such as Nombe much better than we did this season, as if we don't we cannot rely on others being terrible next season again and try to fix it in January. January next season needs to be an enhancing month, not a fix the broken train month, because we got the summer wrong.

 

[Grecian Max]

Thought this was an interesting table to look at

We regularly have more of the ball than other teams but this doesn't translate to league position; possession doesn't necessarily correlate with success, although the very best teams do dominate the ball as you'd expect. And score a lot more goals with it as they have the quality.

I'm sure we're all casting envious glances at Stevenage and Lincoln's overachievements; something that we'd presumably like to mirror but they haven't done that by retaining the ball.

Certainly not my expectation - GC has met that in league position. But this talk of possession is something everyone is doing to gain success isn't black and white.

Many said Derby were excellent (I was less impressed) but they sit on 13th in this table.

 

[MJP_Exeter]

Let’s face it, too many of us ‘bottled it’, unlike the club who held their nerve and backed themselves……

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

The club got the call right, but in essence they backed the principle that investing in players was a better way out of trouble than sacking the manager. For GC Now though, we can never have a repeat of another run like the 100 day winless run. The January window bailed us out this year, next year we cannot be using the January window to fix the broken train like we did this season.

View attachment 15170

Thought this was an interesting table to look at

We regularly have more of the ball than other teams but this doesn't translate to league position; possession doesn't necessarily correlate with success, although the very best teams do dominate the ball as you'd expect. And score a lot more goals with it as they have the quality.

I'm sure we're all casting envious glances at Stevenage and Lincoln's overachievements; something that we'd presumably like to mirror but they haven't done that by retaining the ball.

Certainly not my expectation - GC has met that in league position. But this talk of possession is something everyone is doing to gain success isn't black and white.

Many said Derby were excellent (I was less impressed) but they sit on 13th in this table.

Possession only matters what you do when you have it, not how much of it you have. We do very little for the amount of possession we have.

Like when out of possession, it is all about how you manage it, not how long you are without the ball. Some at the moment are obsessed that possession means prizes and it really doesn't.