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Matt Taylor - What do we think so far?

IndoMike

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I feel Matt has done an okay job over the past 2 seasons. He's really tried to change the back room staff to a more modern set up with S&C coach and sport science side influence.
Tactically he has had his ups and downs. Sometimes seems to willing to go with safe option and trusted more experienced players. Mid season this year Matt Jay seem to be having an influence on games when coming on and was more in form than Nicky Law for example. Selection got a little stale and predictable which may have led to us being "found out". We've generally been solid in defence but prone to the occasional blow out and conceding 3+ in a game.
Attack wise main feeling I get from watching is the players just dont seem to believe in Bowman or whoever is in the box to actually get in to space or onto the end of crosses. Being solid at the back but not scoring goals is not going to get us out of this division. We need a goal scorer or at least a tactical approach that doesn't revolve around a single striker working hard.
Signing wise has been the usual hit and misses you get in league 2. Ajose could of stayed fit and scored the goals we all expect but he's just been a flop so far. Bowman has been okay, massive boots to fill after the strikers/Attackers we've had in the past 4/5years (Watkins, Stockley, wheeler and possibly even Reid). He's too willing to work hard and often out of position by this. Need a lazier striker who plays between the width of the box and a focal point. Bowman is not this for me he needs a partner or at least runners from midfield. Atangana, A Martin, Law, Maxted and Ward have been good. L Martin, Parkes have done what I'd expect. Jayden Brown, the young Bristol centre back (went to Torquay after us) and the Aussie right back were total flops. Warren was brought in to do a job and got injured loved a Torquay by all accounts
This new season I truly believe we will see what a true Taylor team may be. No need to even think of changing manager, the fact Lincoln came calling earlier in the year says Matt is doing well. we are over achieving compared to what our history as a club.
The trust model is what it is and provides stability and no need to buy our way to a position in a league for someone to get bored walk away and club to implode in debt.
IINM Sparkes freshened things up for us and did well, but then got injured . Maybe our stats men Andrew Long or Harris can confirm if we got good points during that brief Sparkes period
 

Antony Moxey

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what’s the point you only like living in the past as your opening post in this thread shows!
The point is you said “he has been given a larger budget to work with over two of those three seasons”. So presumably if you’re able to make such a statement you must know what those budgets were, so given that can you tell us what those budgets were please?
 

i8cornwall

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The point is you said “he has been given a larger budget to work with over two of those three seasons”. So presumably if you’re able to make such a statement you must know what those budgets were, so given that can you tell us what those budgets were please?

I believe it was reported that we had made a budgeted loss due to tbe rise in Playing budget or is Ajose working on a zero hours contract now?

Anyway back to what you enjoy, Please tell me more about the past?
 

TSW1389

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IINM Sparkes freshened things up for us and did well, but then got injured . Maybe our stats men Andrew Long or Harris can confirm if we got good points during that brief Sparkes period
We definitely were affected by the loss of sparkes on boxing Day. Gave more balance with sparkes on the left and Williams on the right.
Still selection was still pretty rigid with Sweeney, A Martin, Bowman and Williams playing week in week out. 3-5-1-1 or 5-3-1-1 which ever way you look at it. Think Ajose was meant to be the difference maker but just couldn't get fit. Left us with a squad of very similar players.
Injuries you can't blame the manager for but maybe rewarding form you can.
Still maintain Matt is is doing okay this season during/post covid is going to show responsible and we'll run clubs from sugar daddies and chancers
 

Antony Moxey

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I believe it was reported that we had made a budgeted loss due to tbe rise in Playing budget or is Ajose working on a zero hours contract now?
Ah, so basically you don’t know. is there anything else you’ve made up that you’re passing on as fact?
 

malcolms

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He’s young, inexperienced and learning the ropes. He’ll make mistakes along the way but by and large I think he’s getting more right than wrong.

It’s funny but before Tisdale turned up we’d never got anywhere near the play-offs, had a mere three promotions in 90-odd years of existence and had to apply for re-election twenty plus times - more than any other club in the league, yet now it’s apparently a national disaster to get to three play-off finals in four years and cause for a public enquiry because we haven’t gained automatic promotion in a number of years when the gap between previous promotions was at least twice as long.

People expect too much too soon - expectation has shot through the roof while tolerance has dropped through the floor.
You're wrong on the re-election stats Mox... In the old 3rd Div South we were one behind Walsall and in the 4th Division era, we were way behind lots of clubs including last Saturday's opponents..
 

Antony Moxey

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You're wrong on the re-election stats Mox... In the old 3rd Div South we were one behind Walsall and in the 4th Division era, we were way behind lots of clubs including last Saturday's opponents..
Fair enough Malcs, thanks for the correction. However, it doesn’t take away from how poor we were in general pre Tis. I think a lot of people seem to take it for granted that we should regularly be getting promotions or at least challenging for them when by and large we’ve been a struggling mid table bottom division team with occasional flirtations with the division above.
 

Moomin Grecian

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Pete. A ban on spectators attending matches definitely had an impact on attendances.
However, in those glorious pre -covid days
when the words "self distancing" weren't mentioned in every sentence our average home attendance this season is around 5k, IINM That compares very favourably with our previous attendances in L2.
Anyway, can't stop, going fishing ....
I think this is nail on head....

The fact that our average attendances have improved under MT shows the general consensus from the fans is that we’re happy for him to be in charge.

And Pete, to say that our win vs Colchester was a damp squib is laughable. We approached that game excellently and got 3 goals, what more do you want? And to say Colchester “couldn’t get around very well” is ridiculous. They had some dynamic players such as Poku and Senior who made it difficult for us, so I think that performance deserves so more credit.

We are in L2, not the Premier League you know? I sometimes wonder what people expect....
 

IndoMike

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Regarding Matt Taylor. In a way when a new manager comes in he's starting from zero .The players are not his players and you don"t know how they will react to the new bloke as manager, especially since it seems they loved Tis, even though they
knew Taylor
Taylor didn't have the benefit of having Stockley, Watkins, Wheeler, JMT and Storey : those are 5 top players at Div 2 level.
And although money came in for transfers Taylor's budget was not increased massively. Unfortunately and allegedly the Ajose signing cost us a pretty penny. He was what we needed imo but not recovered from injury and contributed little. This you could say was a mistake or you could say bad luck
Overall I think fans got a run for their money the last 2 seasons. Two seasons ago we were always in with a good chance of the playoffs and this season we got to the final and did so well; n the U23 Cup or whatever it's called .
I think to expect any manager to replace a long-standing one and get promotion within 2 seasons is pushing it a bit.
Next season I hope Collins, Sparkes Randall, Seymour ++ are given a fair chance to prove themselves. If 4 or 5 youngsters can settle in the first team and we can finish top half I would be happy with that.
 

grecian-near-hell

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What a boring thread this is going to be, and has the potential of turning into one of those Tisdale threads we have seen over the years.

Matt Taylor is our manager and will be until the end of his contract (which ends whenever???), as we cannot afford to cancel it having lost at least over half a million in income through the pandemic in the five cancelled matches.

Despite people believing he has one of the best budgets in the division I haven't seen any figures or comparisons, only generalisations. One thing is for sure he hasn't had the budget the greenies or Swindon have had this past season and neither (I am led to believe) are we massively in debt like Northampton (released 13 players) or Colchester Utd (released 16 players), so to make a comparison against other clubs is difficult. I believe that through the prudent sales in the past he has a mid range budget for the division although this may appear a large budget compared to previous managers of the club.

We also have to take into account that prior to this past season it was a players market, or more accurately an agent's market, which we witnessed first hand with the lad from Blackburn on the verge of signing for us last season only to sign for Mansfield after a call from the agent.

Matt is currently about to start the third year of his management career, he inherited a strong squad and has made some sound signings and also some less sound which is only to be expected from a rookie manager, unlike Tisdale he hasn't had the backing of a seasoned ex international with contacts, he has had to manage on his own with the help of a team of coaches which he has chosen. He doesn't bemoan about the lack of funds and accepts what we as a club are- Trust owned. He gives realistic interviews (does tend to repeat phrases occasionally ("this group of players") but generally gives an honest reflection of how he sees the situation (he did own up to making mistakes on Monday -although not explicit you wouldn't expect him to be).

So despite having an average budget and inheriting a good squad he has added to the strength of the squad, and in his first two seasons we have been challenging right up to the last match of the season for a play off spot. Crowds are up and we see more emotion from him on the touchline than we ever did from the previous incumbent with honest and open reaction at the end of the match. I am pleased with him and of course it would be nice to have achieved promotion this year but it was better than previous years as Mr Moxey pointed out where we had to wait decades for a whiff of success or even Keith Curle waiting 18 years to get a team promoted
 
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