Caldwell out?

[Exehausted]

We'll get a clearer picture looking back. Definitely a big upturn, so done well to recover from quite a dark place. We've still scored the least goals of anyone in the division though, haven't we? It's not all honey and wine quite yet

We're on 21 goals and Cheltenham and Shrewsbury are both on 20. We were the worst, what a difference a week makes. As you say, not in the clear yet.

 

[edwin_price]

We're on 21 goals and Cheltenham and Shrewsbury are both on 20. We were the worst, what a difference a week makes. As you say, not in the clear yet.

Fair dos. I'm still not sure I'm quite ready to put the champagne on ice yet for a great season... A series of tough games. It's looking a lot better now than it did in December though, that is for sure.

 

[Rosencrantz]

The injury situation easing has obviously helped enormously but there’s a few personnel changes that have made a huge difference.

Firstly Aimson getting injured gave Diabate the opportunity to play at CB, and frankly he’s been superb.

There’s also Sonny Cox. He’s come back from Yeovil with confidence and looks a different player. He’s still obviously very raw but he’s now a real headache for defenders.

The other big factor is having the correct players in the wingback positions. Jules looks like a decent player as part of a back three, but watching him play as a left wing-back made me cringe. He hasn’t got the energy to get up and back and he never wanted to receive the ball (in turn making it very difficult for Hartridge to play out). Harper is brilliant there and Purrington looks very comfortable and has a bit of class. Niskanen has the energy to cause problems down the right, as does Rankine. I think through most of the bad patch we never had two players who were effective in the wing back positions meaning that the style of play simply wasn’t effective.

Cheick was already installed at centre back before Aimson's injury. We kept two clean sheets over Wycombe and Portsmouth with Aimson and Cheick in defence alongside Hartridge and Jules. The player to benefit from Aimson's injury has actually been Sweenz coming back into the side. Originally it was Sweenz being left out for Cheick with Aimson moved to the right. Aimson played really well in those games as well.

As for the wing back situation, that has largely been down to availability. All four of them, I would include Demi even if he had been pushed further forward, have had long injury breaks often at the same time. Our poor run actually coincided with both Rankine and Niskanen being out injured leaving us with no natural right sided players. When Harper then got injured, we couldn't even play one of the left sided players on the right. As well as unbalancing us, it also left us without much pace going forward and the ability to carry the ball over a distance at pace, only Demi could provide that. It's just a shame that now we have those players available again that Demi is out.

Add in the striker situation and it's not hard to see why our play became stilted and stodgy during that period and easier to set up to play against. Of course you would still hope the results and performances would have been better than they were but alternate ways of attacking with what we had available were probably as unviable, if not more, as we were trying. Could we have tried them anyway? Probably. Would they have worked with the players available? Probably not.

Now we have the pace back in the side and those players are getting back into a rhythm of playing, with the squad looking a bit deeper, the results and performances have improved. Being able to select players more in form, and not improvise so much positionally has helped. Adding a couple more striking options to go with Sonny up top and have more depth and ability to change things up there is the step we need to take in the next few days.

We are probably seeing more of the way Caldwell wants us to play over the last month, even if it still has been hard going against sides who come to the Park and sit in. It's no coincidence that we look quicker and more direct against sides who are looking to attack us. We did at Reading and only lost because of individual errors at the back. Something that seems to have been rectified in the last two away games. Again, more options up top will help in that development as well as improvements in releasing pressure on ourselves no matter how stoutly we have defended.

I have always thought the way Caldwell wants to play is high risk for himself. It takes time to implement as well as the right players. Add in the upheaval in the summer which was always going to happen regardless, it becomes tougher as the progress made with those players are lost. If one part of the squad is deficient, and we all know it has been, it gets tougher. If other parts of the squad that is integral to the style then becomes unavailable (attacking wide pace in our case), then it falls down. Without having squad depth to then adapt led to what we all saw.

Every style of play has its supporters and detractors who just don't go for it. Results obviously play a big part with those who will tolerate the style if it's working. It happened with Tisdale, both early in his reign and late when the tactics changed. Even Matt had his detractors in terms of style despite it being quite a neutral and pragmatic one. But no matter what style of play, if it isn't working it looks bad and gets boring if persisted with. We got trapped in that situation, some through mistakes (striking options), some through circumstances (injuries in the same position). Where you are on liking the style of play will then dictate your reaction as we have seen.

The next few days will have a considerable effect on the rest of the season. We probably won't be able to judge that effect for a few weeks. Then everyone will be able to reassess their positions. But hey, that's football supporting for you

(Sorry for the essay, got rambling more in general after the first two paragraphs reacting to you Boyo )

 

[Grecianman135]

Speaking from someone who's wanted Caldwell to go since early November, would you not say that IF he turns the ship around, keeping him in would prove to be a tough decision vindicated?

Fair point,and yes that would certainly be a tough decision.

Still massive amount of changes on the transfer front and communication front need to be better and those in the positions of power need to address this and be held accountable.

 

[The 3 United's]

I think everyone on here and all our fans would truly like to know what happened towards the end of the Summer transfer window, as what transpired then has to a large degree defined our season so far.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I just wonder that the fly on the wall heard a conversation along these lines?
ECFC Board says to GC:. We've been offered over £1M for Sam Nombe, though some of those funds have to go to MK Dons as per the original deal. We know it's near the end of the window and haven't been able to recruit any new strikers to replace Stanno, Jevani and Sam( though Jack Aitchison is a similar player to Jevani he may not be so effective without the likes of a Sam and/or Stanno), do you think we'll be ok until the January window having had such a superb start to the season?
GC probably says: yes, we should be ok unless we have a huge injury problem in key positions like we did at the end of last season.
As they say, the rest is history.
It's just a theory, but with a Trust owned club like ours to me this may not be too far from the the facts.
I'm a fan of GC, but can fully understand why others aren't, but I want him and the club to succeed and really hope we can sign at least two strikers to supplement the squad and ensure our survival in L1.

 

[ramone]

Just looking for the Caldwell in thread .....

 

[Antony Moxey]

Add in the striker situation and it's not hard to see why our play became stilted and stodgy during that period and easier to set up to play against. Of course you would still hope the results and performances would have been better than they were but alternate ways of attacking with what we had available were probably as unviable, if not more, as we were trying. Could we have tried them anyway? Probably. Would they have worked with the players available? Probably not.

Could we have tried something different? Well this is down to Caldwell - why not? We literally couldn’t have had worse result so why on earth not try something different and mix it up a bit? This, to me, is one of Calwell’s biggest failings in that he steadfastly refuses to accept what isn’t working and look to change.

 

[Benjisheps14]

Cheick was already installed at centre back before Aimson's injury. We kept two clean sheets over Wycombe and Portsmouth with Aimson and Cheick in defence alongside Hartridge and Jules. The player to benefit from Aimson's injury has actually been Sweenz coming back into the side. Originally it was Sweenz being left out for Cheick with Aimson moved to the right. Aimson played really well in those games as well.

As for the wing back situation, that has largely been down to availability. All four of them, I would include Demi even if he had been pushed further forward, have had long injury breaks often at the same time. Our poor run actually coincided with both Rankine and Niskanen being out injured leaving us with no natural right sided players. When Harper then got injured, we couldn't even play one of the left sided players on the right. As well as unbalancing us, it also left us without much pace going forward and the ability to carry the ball over a distance at pace, only Demi could provide that. It's just a shame that now we have those players available again that Demi is out.

Add in the striker situation and it's not hard to see why our play became stilted and stodgy during that period and easier to set up to play against. Of course you would still hope the results and performances would have been better than they were but alternate ways of attacking with what we had available were probably as unviable, if not more, as we were trying. Could we have tried them anyway? Probably. Would they have worked with the players available? Probably not.

Now we have the pace back in the side and those players are getting back into a rhythm of playing, with the squad looking a bit deeper, the results and performances have improved. Being able to select players more in form, and not improvise so much positionally has helped. Adding a couple more striking options to go with Sonny up top and have more depth and ability to change things up there is the step we need to take in the next few days.

We are probably seeing more of the way Caldwell wants us to play over the last month, even if it still has been hard going against sides who come to the Park and sit in. It's no coincidence that we look quicker and more direct against sides who are looking to attack us. We did at Reading and only lost because of individual errors at the back. Something that seems to have been rectified in the last two away games. Again, more options up top will help in that development as well as improvements in releasing pressure on ourselves no matter how stoutly we have defended.

I have always thought the way Caldwell wants to play is high risk for himself. It takes time to implement as well as the right players. Add in the upheaval in the summer which was always going to happen regardless, it becomes tougher as the progress made with those players are lost. If one part of the squad is deficient, and we all know it has been, it gets tougher. If other parts of the squad that is integral to the style then becomes unavailable (attacking wide pace in our case), then it falls down. Without having squad depth to then adapt led to what we all saw.

Every style of play has its supporters and detractors who just don't go for it. Results obviously play a big part with those who will tolerate the style if it's working. It happened with Tisdale, both early in his reign and late when the tactics changed. Even Matt had his detractors in terms of style despite it being quite a neutral and pragmatic one. But no matter what style of play, if it isn't working it looks bad and gets boring if persisted with. We got trapped in that situation, some through mistakes (striking options), some through circumstances (injuries in the same position). Where you are on liking the style of play will then dictate your reaction as we have seen.

The next few days will have a considerable effect on the rest of the season. We probably won't be able to judge that effect for a few weeks. Then everyone will be able to reassess their positions. But hey, that's football supporting for you

(Sorry for the essay, got rambling more in general after the first two paragraphs reacting to you Boyo )

Always enjoy your considered posts Rosencrantz!!

 

[STURTZ]

I think everyone on here and all our fans would truly like to know what happened towards the end of the Summer transfer window, as what transpired then has to a large degree defined our season so far.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I just wonder that the fly on the wall heard a conversation along these lines?
ECFC Board says to GC:. We've been offered over £1M for Sam Nombe, though some of those funds have to go to MK Dons as per the original deal. We know it's near the end of the window and haven't been able to recruit any new strikers to replace Stanno, Jevani and Sam( though Jack Aitchison is a similar player to Jevani he may not be so effective without the likes of a Sam and/or Stanno), do you think we'll be ok until the January window having had such a superb start to the season?
GC probably says: yes, we should be ok unless we have a huge injury problem in key positions like we did at the end of last season.
As they say, the rest is history.
It's just a theory, but with a Trust owned club like ours to me this may not be too far from the the facts.
I'm a fan of GC, but can fully understand why others aren't, but I want him and the club to succeed and really hope we can sign at least two strikers to supplement the squad and ensure our survival in L1.

Getting £1.2 million for Nombe was bloody good business in my book. Do you think we'd be up in the play offs now if we kept him? I don't, I just think we'd be looking forward to him leaving for nothing at the end of this season.

Bloody he'll, is this crap thread still moaning it's miserable way into bleak eternity? Thought it would have been taken down by now, especially as it's been established that Gary Cauldwell has popular support and will thankfully be with us until at least the end of the season.

End the thread mods and put these sad sacks OUT of their misery!

 

[Grecian in Guzz]

Getting £1.2 million for Nombe was bloody good business in my book. Do you think we'd be up in the play offs now if we kept him? I don't, I just think we'd be looking forward to him leaving for nothing at the end of this season.

Bloody he'll, is this crap thread still moaning it's miserable way into bleak eternity? Thought it would have been taken down by now, especially as it's been established that Gary Cauldwell has popular support and will thankfully be with us until at least the end of the season.

End the thread mods and put these sad sacks OUT of their misery!

OR ............. if we had kept Noms and sod him now we wouldn't be in the sh1t we are / were in and sold him now !