Angus MacDonald set to return...

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Plymouth Gull

Post by Plymouth Gull »

dannyrvtufc4life wrote:Signing MacDonald just emphasises how defensive Martin Ling is. We've now got; Oastler, Saah, Downes, Nicholson, Cruise, Leadbitter, MacDonald, Mackenzie as defenders, that's 8...8!!!! Why Lingy, why bring in another defender, when we can't score goals, on a terrible run and dropping down the table each week! Completely ridiculous if you ask me!
For what its worth, 8 defenders is something that doesn't bother me. In an ideal squad, for me, it is to have two players per position.

Poke/Rice
Oastler/Leadbitter
Saah/MacDonald
Downes/McKenzie
Nicho/Cruise

Lathrope/Easton
Mansell/
Craig/Morris

Bodin/Thompson
Stevens/Macklin
Howe/Jarvis

Unless I'm missing anyone off the top of my head, that's close enough to what we have. Certainly not too unhappy with bringing an extra body in at centre half, as we were a bit short. Now I'm expecting one hell of a lot of rubbish for a reasonable post, but yeah.
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Post by AustrianAndyGull »

The thing is Nick i'm not saying it is not unreasonable to bring in a centre half such as MacDonald, it makes sense. It is not the priority though and Martin is addressing the wrong issue here, that's the real problem IMO. If he is planning to stick Angus in at York and play Saah alongside Howe then it would make sense to me.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
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Post by Plymouth Gull »

Play Saah alongside Howe? Are you mad? Why on earth would he do that?

From Lingy's point of view, I'm quite sure he's pretty confident the goals will return, when we think about it, how many times this season have we had our first choice front 4 (Craig in midfield, Bodin, Stevens, Howe)? I don't think it's been too many. Yes Bodin is a concern but I'm still willing to give the guy a chance, after all he's only 20 and it's his first full season. But again, that'll fall on deaf ears. I agree with you all that goal scoring is currently a concern, but that isn't so much a long-term problem, I don't think, providing Rene is here and playing regularly for the season. If he goes in January then yes, we are screwed.
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Post by AustrianAndyGull »

Because a priority is an attacker and not a defender so if he brought another defender the only way he could justify it would be to play Saah or Downes up top to add more of a threat. Obviously it's a ridiculous scenario that won't happen therefore we end up with Saah, Downes AND MacDonald as defensive security but still nothing upfront. It was kind of a joke Nick mate but you get my point yes?

Even if Ling brings in MacDonald and NO striker then i'm fine with that but then he MUST play a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 with Jarvo or someone alongside Rene or i'm phoning for the f*cking ambulance. If he brought in Angus and still played Rene up on his own then i'm having a sex change and going to watch Netball instead every week.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
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Post by Dave »

Nick will not be getting any rubbish from me, yes indeed a very good and sensilble post, however and there is one, we all know our club is running off limited funds with the best will in the world clubs of our size and funding can not have squads with 2 for every position there has to be some flexibility.

And this is where my critism lie's, we had LRT in the squad who could cover both left and centre back positions he was released and replaced with Tom Cruise who Lingy has openly admitted can not play at centre back so flexibilty lost, if we had retained the services of LRT the club would not have needed to spend vital funds on bringing MacDonald back to the club.

And for the sake of repeating myself( not aimed at you) Look where our long term injuries are, we all know our club doesn't have money to transfer players in, however there clearly was money in the pot for loan top ups, we are struggling up in the attacking third, again if LRT had been kept we could well have gone out and loaned in a winger/striker which is surely whats required right now to cover injuries.
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Post by dazgull »

The loan window closes shortly so Ling is just covering himself should Downes/Saah both get injured or suspended over xmas. Dont think we would want to see McKenzie/Cruise/Oastler as centre halves do we? By all acoounts after a dodgy first minute at crawley, Macdonald had a really good game.

Technically we need some players in all positions from goalie to forward line but can only have so many. I wouldnt be surprised if there was one more loan player joining for the xmas period.
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Post by Fonda »

Perhaps we're going to 3-5-2...? The extra body in attack would take some of the pressure off of Rene. We could move Craig back into the centre of the pitch and maintain 3 bodies in there. The only problem i could forsee would be Bodin asked to effectively play as a wing-back - not what he envisaged when he signed I imagine. Definitely an option though. Still need a striker in though.
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Post by Jerry »

Fonda wrote:Perhaps we're going to 3-5-2...? The extra body in attack would take some of the pressure off of Rene. We could move Craig back into the centre of the pitch and maintain 3 bodies in there. The only problem i could forsee would be Bodin asked to effectively play as a wing-back - not what he envisaged when he signed I imagine. Definitely an option though. Still need a striker in though.

I've thought for a while that this could be the way to go, keeps the 3 in the middle of the park and allows Rene to play with a partner. Leadbitter seems ideal for a wing-back with his athleticism, not sure who we could play on the left though.
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Post by Plymouth Gull »

austrianandygull wrote:Because a priority is an attacker and not a defender so if he brought another defender the only way he could justify it would be to play Saah or Downes up top to add more of a threat. Obviously it's a ridiculous scenario that won't happen therefore we end up with Saah, Downes AND MacDonald as defensive security but still nothing upfront. It was kind of a joke Nick mate but you get my point yes?

Even if Ling brings in MacDonald and NO striker then i'm fine with that but then he MUST play a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 with Jarvo or someone alongside Rene or i'm phoning for the f*cking ambulance. If he brought in Angus and still played Rene up on his own then i'm having a sex change and going to watch Netball instead every week.
No it isn't. The way he could justify it is that we have a busy period commencing pretty soon, including two local derbies, which will likely see some players suffer either injuries, fatigue or suspensions. Therefore I think he has plenty reason to justify bringing Angus back into the fold. Would you have rather we not bothered getting another defender in, then sometime in the next couple of games we lose Downes to suspension and Saah to injury or whatever. What would we do then? The answer is nothing because we wouldn't have another player capable of playing there (if you say Cruise then realistically there is no chance of him being a CB as he doesn't have the height or anything to be successful), the loan market would be long closed and so we'd have to wing a couple of games with a rubbish back line.

As I said in my past post, we have goals in the team, it just isn't working. The dynamicism isn't quite there, especially compared to last year - something that I think is down to the personnel of the squad. We are never going to do much in midfield when we play both Lathrope & Easton. They are both too focussed on defending. Lathrope wins that battle hands down if it is a choice of the two, but we need one defensive minded, and the other two who can go and support the front 3. Obviously it's going to be difficult now without Mansell for x amount of games (1 or 3?), but we'll have to make do. Howe can score, Stevens and Bodin can chip in with it but they are struggling for any real sort of service, much like Rene. Once we re-establish a successful link between our midfielders and attackers (which could well be Craig's role) then I'm confident we'll start finding the net again.
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Post by AustrianAndyGull »

Nick, the likelihood that we lose both Saah and Downes at the same time is unlikely but if so then we have McKenzie and Cruise or whoever for 1,2 games? We're not likely to win many games nowadays even with Saah and Downes at the back so it doesn't matter if we need to wing it for a couple without them. To add another defender to a back line on the basis of a highly unlikely scenario is flawed.

As i said too in my post, i KNOW we have goals in the team too just that Martin isn't using the players who can get them properly. We NEED an attacker but in reality we DON'T need one if you see what i mean. It is only because Martin is totally p*ssing up the wall any attacking promise we may have by knocking the confidence and life out of them that the need for someone else to come in has arisen. I'm totally with you mate about finding the link from midfield to attack and getting regular service to them but it's not going to happen with the players we have otherwise Martin would have tried it by now. It can work and it will work in my opinion but Martin won't try anything so we are wasting our breath.
Strangely enough it was Pope Gregory the 9th inviting me for drinks aboard his steam yacht, the saucy sue currently wintering in montego bay with the England cricket team and the Balanese Goddess of plenty.
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Post by Plymouth Gull »

Unlikely? Downes is one card away from a ban and all it takes is one mistimed challenge or training injury and they could be out for months. I really wouldn't say it's as unlikely as what you say, and it's better to be safe than sorry. You say about the link between midfield and attack not working as it hasn't been found yet.. again, how many times have we had our front four fully fit and playing consecutive games? It's very rare.
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Post by Jeff »

Fonda wrote:Perhaps we're going to 3-5-2...? The extra body in attack would take some of the pressure off of Rene. We could move Craig back into the centre of the pitch and maintain 3 bodies in there. The only problem i could forsee would be Bodin asked to effectively play as a wing-back - not what he envisaged when he signed I imagine. Definitely an option though. Still need a striker in though.
My thoughts exactly, can't see why else we would look for a centre half as "cover" - very few sides at our level have more than one dedicated back up centre half.

Perhaps the form of Leadbitter - who seems is made for a wing back role - makes this a viable option. The concern would be whether Nico still has the legs for it on the other flank. It is also a formation that has no place for Bodin, Stevens, Thompson - almost seems wasteful to not have at least one of them not on the pitch despite the grief the first two are known to receive.
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Post by royalgull »

a striker would be good but I'd prefer another midfielder or even winger myself. Howe is going to play and if we play 2 then Jarvis has done OK in 2's. Don't get me wrong i would like someone else as well we are short there of 1 more but if we are on a budget and can't afford to cover all bases I would rather we got a ball playing midfielder in from somewhere. Morris is out long term, Mansell is out for 3 games leaving us with not much in there. craig will get shifted inside which is a good thing but being forced into playing Easton and Lathrope in the same team is not good news. Either that or another winger so we could actually take Bodin out or maybe even use him as a striker in a 2. Would just give us more options and more strength off the bench. Thompson is very raw, he doesn't read the game and know where he's supposed to be all the time particularly well but he's got rapid pace and in short bursts could be effective. Stevens back helps but he's another one like Bodin who can be hit or miss. I like Danny and he has to be in the team on Saturday for what it's worth. Would just like something a bit different to add to the attack, be it a ball playing centre midfielder, a winger who crosses and creates or a striker meaning we play 2 up front. Just something different.

I can understand the sense in re-signing Angus as cover as the window closes soon (no idea how emergency loans work?!) but if our budget only enabled us 1 player then centre back for me is the least of our concerns.
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Post by brooker »

looks like its done. herald says hes set to sign today.
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Post by SteveDeckchair »

Who's Harold?
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