by Matt » 02 Jan 2014, 12:01
We have enough good players, realistically if you look at our squad most of our regular players would be taken on by other league 2 teams in a heartbeat. Poke is a solid keeper at this level, Tonge admittedly wouldn't look out of place at Buckland or a team at that level, Downes has to be happy to not have had his knee fall apart this season yet but although his performance at Argyle was in no way his finest he's still a proven performer at this level. Criticism of Cruise is in my opinion a bit harsh, his positional ability is hampered by the fact he spends half his time trying to cover for us not having a left midfielder so he's attacking, defending, pressing, marking, which all sounds reasonable for a professional but let's be honest, there are players in the premier league who can't stick to a position to save their lives also. Mansell would be taken on in a flash by teams in our league even if only for his passion. Mozika has the ability to play some nice football but lacks fitness which doesn't help. Chappell and Bodin are both in the same bracket in that they both possess undeniable ability but for whatever reason aren't displaying it regularly, perhaps a game plan based around not conceding doesn't help their attacking instincts flourish, who knows. Both however are players that when they leave us, as they undoubtedly will, will have strong careers at a bigger and better club and we will all sit and bemoan the fact that they didn't deliver for us. In reality they are confidence players as are so many attackers, and their confidence level is at rock bottom. Hawley would have been a great signing 8 years ago, but unfortunately although he holds up the ball and has a good touch he isn't in a team set up to play to his strengths. So he isn't cutting it with us. All 3 of the attackers listed would easily be signed up once released. I'm not going to mention loanees, because it's obvious that both O'Connor and McCourt will have good careers at a higher level than league 2. Honourable mention also goes to Nathan Craig who, as pointed out earlier, can strike a ball as well as anyone, but the reason his overall game hasn't improved is that he doesn't get any game time! It's like the Dan Sullivan situation. We all get wound up that we never bring through our own players, even Exeter have 5 or 6 youth graduates playing in their squad. We will undoubtedly do to Sullivan what we did to Halpin, and to a degree, Yeoman. These are lads who at 16/17 showed great potential, so we do the right thing and give them a deal. Great, good move. This is what the other clubs do. Then we fall down, because we don't play them! Halpin looked decent at 17, I remember him coming on and skinning a full back numerous times in his cameo, but then never got a chance again. We need to have faith to change the team and play attacking football instead of focusing on not conceding. Get these decent players happy and we will start to turn it around. Sorry for such a long post, needed to get it out.
We have enough good players, realistically if you look at our squad most of our regular players would be taken on by other league 2 teams in a heartbeat. Poke is a solid keeper at this level, Tonge admittedly wouldn't look out of place at Buckland or a team at that level, Downes has to be happy to not have had his knee fall apart this season yet but although his performance at Argyle was in no way his finest he's still a proven performer at this level. Criticism of Cruise is in my opinion a bit harsh, his positional ability is hampered by the fact he spends half his time trying to cover for us not having a left midfielder so he's attacking, defending, pressing, marking, which all sounds reasonable for a professional but let's be honest, there are players in the premier league who can't stick to a position to save their lives also. Mansell would be taken on in a flash by teams in our league even if only for his passion. Mozika has the ability to play some nice football but lacks fitness which doesn't help. Chappell and Bodin are both in the same bracket in that they both possess undeniable ability but for whatever reason aren't displaying it regularly, perhaps a game plan based around not conceding doesn't help their attacking instincts flourish, who knows. Both however are players that when they leave us, as they undoubtedly will, will have strong careers at a bigger and better club and we will all sit and bemoan the fact that they didn't deliver for us. In reality they are confidence players as are so many attackers, and their confidence level is at rock bottom. Hawley would have been a great signing 8 years ago, but unfortunately although he holds up the ball and has a good touch he isn't in a team set up to play to his strengths. So he isn't cutting it with us. All 3 of the attackers listed would easily be signed up once released. I'm not going to mention loanees, because it's obvious that both O'Connor and McCourt will have good careers at a higher level than league 2. Honourable mention also goes to Nathan Craig who, as pointed out earlier, can strike a ball as well as anyone, but the reason his overall game hasn't improved is that he doesn't get any game time! It's like the Dan Sullivan situation. We all get wound up that we never bring through our own players, even Exeter have 5 or 6 youth graduates playing in their squad. We will undoubtedly do to Sullivan what we did to Halpin, and to a degree, Yeoman. These are lads who at 16/17 showed great potential, so we do the right thing and give them a deal. Great, good move. This is what the other clubs do. Then we fall down, because we don't play them! Halpin looked decent at 17, I remember him coming on and skinning a full back numerous times in his cameo, but then never got a chance again. We need to have faith to change the team and play attacking football instead of focusing on not conceding. Get these decent players happy and we will start to turn it around. Sorry for such a long post, needed to get it out.
