"If you want to play football, recruit footballers"

[arthur]

Well worth a watch, especially if you're Matt Taylor

 

[Boyo]

Great video.

It does pose the question about our own philosophy and style under MT. I've never been able to work out how we are trying to play.

 

[milts]

Agreed Boyo. I think there is confusion on Matt's part between how he says he wants us to play football, but then how he sets the team up and players he brings in.

We lack an identity of any sort at the moment.

 

[onemansview]

Enjoyed watching that- lot's of food for thought. It seems that Pep's influence is reaching far and wide. Finding footballers to match the style of play you want to achieve will always be the fundamental key. like us though, due to both our geographical locations and small budget restraints it will might be hard to attract players that will take them onto the next level

 

[arthur]

We do have a built in advantage though, in that we can and do develop footballers, via the academy...

 

[memoman]

What a shame that Taylor decided to drop one of our best footballers, and one we produced, to the bench on Monday.

All that stuff he said after the game about needing more physicality is total nonsense, as Barrow have proved.

 

[InMyBlood]

He will improve, he's still learning.

Matt Taylor Dealing with the unexpected

 

[Redarrow]

I genuinely believe MT feels every player needs to play like he did ‘physical’ and lets not forget Taylor himself wasn’t a great footballer, if he wasn’t as physical as what he was then he would still have been studying at Team Bath rather than playing in the professional game!!

In my opinion it’s a real shame MT wants more physicality over technical ability because as much as you need to compete physically the game of football is played at your feet, I hope MT has a philosophy that will make him last as a manager and be successful but I’m nervous for him that he is focusing on physicality due to the fact that’s his comfort zone.

 

[Rosencrantz]

The best teams who get out of league two are those with a mix of physicality and technique. That goes for all league's now to an extent. But you can still get out of league two by being physical and direct as we have just seen. However you want to get out of the league, you have to be able to cope with those kinds of sides.

In the early Tis years the perception was that we were a good footballing side. Indeed too much football for some people ("tippy tappy nonsense") even though it brought us results and a double promotion.

Along with our football though, we had physicality in the right areas. Taylor and Seaborne (and later Troy) at centre back. Hard running full backs in Tully, Friend and Moxey, later Golbourne. Muscle up front with Logan and Phillips (later McAllister) along side hard running and working Stanno and Mackie. Midfielders who stuck their boot in such as Gill and Cozic. The all round solidness of Rob Edwards. Energy in midfield from Andy Taylor, later Sercombe and Dunne.

All these players in their own way had good physicality. Most of all though they had the mentality of still playing their own game and being very adaptable. There would be games where it went pear shaped (Chesterfield at home) but overall the mentality was right. This is, as much as physicality, what Matt is looking for.

In any league you play in, you have to earn the right to play your own game. Against Northampton (twice) and at Cambridge and Scunthorpe we didn't have the right mentality to do that. That is what Matt was annoyed about. That is something we have to fix.