I know I am alone with my views re Aneke & I accept that. What I don't accept is that CBT can't start a game. He used to & he only missed a couple of games through injury. If he is now fully fit he should be back to where he was at the start of the season.....starting games, not coming on for 15/20 mins. And dont say he's more effective coming off the bench as teams are tiring then.......because I dont remember Giggs, Kanchelsis, Ronaldo in their prime not starting games due to this. Its bollox.Start with your best players.
Today was unfortunate due to us missing 3 of our usual back 5. Even our GK gets injured in the warm up ! It's all been said before. We shouldn't have started the season with no left back. We shouldn't be playing Chin there. We should have effective back up to Stockley THAT CAN START.
But I didnt expect much at the start of the season & nothings changed. We are still is a slightly false position & if we dont beat Port Vale next week we will be mid table & amongst the also rans like Fleetwood & Cambridge.
Chin was at right-back yesterday, although I agree that the lack of a left-back is crazy.
I think people arguing for Stockley to leave in January are probably unrealistic, on financial grounds alone. No Championship club will want him and no League One or League Two club will pay his wages. It’s not worth losing him as an option.
Either money needs to be spent on an alternative or we will spend the whole season paying for the release of Washington, which I believe was personally driven by the Sandgaards. Whether you think Washington was good enough is kind of academic - he would add to this squad. We didn’t replace him.
The game yesterday followed the same pattern as Morecambe last season - even Kirk’s second goal was similar to the one scored by Washington, chipping their keeper after receiving the ball from our keeper (possibly via Stockley’s head). It’s pitiful really that we are struggling to get a point against a club of Burton’s resources.
I actually enjoyed the game and the trip but we’re just treading water at best.
January definitely not given we are short up top and Stockley is captain, but if this season continues in the same vein for him, he absolutely needs to be moved on in the summer. We can’t have another season with him up top next year if this form continues. Who he will go to is a tougher one, as I can’t see anyone else other than League 2 teams being interested.
For me, my mind is already focused on the deadwood we need to remove in the summer, as it has been for the last 2 seasons. Crazy. Lavelle, Mansfield, Stockley, McGrandles, Morgan, JFC. They’ve definitely all had their time here. Treading water is correct. We haven’t kicked on at all after finishing 7th in 2021, and I even thought that team was pretty average.
It’s quite literally going to be yet another summer we will need wholesale changes
All the vitriol normally directed at him as nominated Charlton Life scapegoat seems to have flowed in Lavelle's direction.
You're not wrong! Isn't it enough just to say a player isn't good enough or up to it if that's the opinion you've formed (not you personally Len), rather than resorting to posting abusive comments that are unnecessary and offensive and say far more about the poster than they ever will about the player they are intended to denigrate.
All the vitriol normally directed at him as nominated Charlton Life scapegoat seems to have flowed in Lavelle's direction.
Is Lavelle being scapegoated or performing badly? I personally haven’t seen many OTT comments, just people slating him for a poor performance. I’m guessing you didn’t see the game?
I know I am alone with my views re Aneke & I accept that. What I don't accept is that CBT can't start a game. He used to & he only missed a couple of games through injury. If he is now fully fit he should be back to where he was at the start of the season.....starting games, not coming on for 15/20 mins. And dont say he's more effective coming off the bench as teams are tiring then.......because I dont remember Giggs, Kanchelsis, Ronaldo in their prime not starting games due to this. Its bollox.Start with your best players.
Today was unfortunate due to us missing 3 of our usual back 5. Even our GK gets injured in the warm up ! It's all been said before. We shouldn't have started the season with no left back. We shouldn't be playing Chin there. We should have effective back up to Stockley THAT CAN START.
But I didnt expect much at the start of the season & nothings changed. We are still is a slightly false position & if we dont beat Port Vale next week we will be mid table & amongst the also rans like Fleetwood & Cambridge.
Chin was at right-back yesterday, although I agree that the lack of a left-back is crazy.
I think people arguing for Stockley to leave in January are probably unrealistic, on financial grounds alone. No Championship club will want him and no League One or League Two club will pay his wages. It’s not worth losing him as an option.
Either money needs to be spent on an alternative or we will spend the whole season paying for the release of Washington, which I believe was personally driven by the Sandgaards. Whether you think Washington was good enough is kind of academic - he would add to this squad. We didn’t replace him.
The game yesterday followed the same pattern as Morecambe last season - even Kirk’s second goal was similar to the one scored by Washington, chipping their keeper after receiving the ball from our keeper (possibly via Stockley’s head). It’s pitiful really that we are struggling to get a point against a club of Burton’s resources.
I actually enjoyed the game and the trip but we’re just treading water at best.
January definitely not given we are short up top and Stockley is captain, but if this season continues in the same vein for him, he absolutely needs to be moved on in the summer. We can’t have another season with him up top next year if this form continues. Who he will go to is a tougher one, as I can’t see anyone else other than League 2 teams being interested.
For me, my mind is already focused on the deadwood we need to remove in the summer, as it has been for the last 2 seasons. Crazy. Lavelle, Mansfield, Stockley, McGrandles, Morgan, JFC. They’ve definitely all had their time here. Treading water is correct. We haven’t kicked on at all after finishing 7th in 2021, and I even thought that team was pretty average.
It’s quite literally going to be yet another summer we will need wholesale changes
It seems to me that TS and perhaps the coaching team, believe that replacements are within the club already in terms of the youth coming through. If you look at the 'out of contract players' brought in during the summer window then Wollacott, Egbo and O'Connell would be considered good replacements, both McGrandles and Payne have not really shown that they are good additions but that may be almost certainly down to early season injuries hampering their progress.To continue to scour the free market will be very hit and miss and the term 'free' does not really cut it due to cost of a contract on a player who may not add quality to the squad. We need to address the striker problem, which in my opinion is entirely self inflicted and the left back situation which once again was an own goal, if we take a chance on another player who may or may not make it, then it will be seen as another failure.
Lavelle is a young lad and might develop but at the moment from what he has shown the last few games he is below what's needed. I'm not just talking about his defending as his distribution out is terrible, on countless occasions yesterday he passed the ball forward straight to an opposition player and they were straight through on us. I would prefer to see if Deji can show if he would be a better option as from what I remember his distribution was pretty good. JS is just the wrong player in the wrong team he is far to slow ! The ball slotted through to him where he didnt even bother going after reminded me of my 12 year old labrador giving up after 1 stride when chasing a ball with my 2 year old one leaving him for dust. Positives were Kirk getting a brace will do his confidence good and Chucks coming through another game without injury
Anyone else constantly keep thinking of Oshilaja when people say Deji
Yes. We perhaps shouldn’t have sold him. He looked as good as, or better than, our CBs yesterday.
Sad but true. I don't think Oshilaja is very good at all but he's probably better than Lavelle. He's at least got some strengths to his game, like his athleticism and aggressiveness in the tackle.
Anyone else constantly keep thinking of Oshilaja when people say Deji
Yes. We perhaps shouldn’t have sold him. He looked as good as, or better than, our CBs yesterday.
He looked really good, but only when he was attacking. His defending was not great. He'd be really useful as cover for Egbo and I'd say he's clearly better than Lavelle but he's not what we're looking for at CB
Anyone else constantly keep thinking of Oshilaja when people say Deji
Yes. We perhaps shouldn’t have sold him. He looked as good as, or better than, our CBs yesterday.
Sad but true. I don't think Oshilaja is very good at all but he's probably better than Lavelle. He's at least got some strengths to his game, like his athleticism and aggressiveness in the tackle.
I think he was underrated here, and had a purple spell when he was MotM once or twice. Very good squad member as he was a decent RB as well.
Anyone else constantly keep thinking of Oshilaja when people say Deji
Yes. We perhaps shouldn’t have sold him. He looked as good as, or better than, our CBs yesterday.
He looked really good, but only when he was attacking. His defending was not great. He'd be really useful as cover for Egbo and I'd say he's clearly better than Lavelle but he's not what we're looking for at CB
No I agree, if we’re in the market for a CB we’d want better. But if we hadn’t sold him he’d be a decent back up, and cover for Egbo, as you say.
Anyone else constantly keep thinking of Oshilaja when people say Deji
Yes. We perhaps shouldn’t have sold him. He looked as good as, or better than, our CBs yesterday.
He looked really good, but only when he was attacking. His defending was not great. He'd be really useful as cover for Egbo and I'd say he's clearly better than Lavelle but he's not what we're looking for at CB
No I agree, if we’re in the market for a CB we’d want better. But if we hadn’t sold him he’d be a decent back up, and cover for Egbo, as you say.
We should have the cover for Egbo because we should have sighed a left back. Then we could play Sess on the right.
Anyone else constantly keep thinking of Oshilaja when people say Deji
Yes. We perhaps shouldn’t have sold him. He looked as good as, or better than, our CBs yesterday.
He looked really good, but only when he was attacking. His defending was not great. He'd be really useful as cover for Egbo and I'd say he's clearly better than Lavelle but he's not what we're looking for at CB
No I agree, if we’re in the market for a CB we’d want better. But if we hadn’t sold him he’d be a decent back up, and cover for Egbo, as you say.
We should have the cover for Egbo because we should have sighed a left back. Then we could play Sess on the right.
Interesting comments from BG afterwards, has he been promised funds for January and has signings lined up, or, as I suspect, he was sending a message to TS?
high scoring draw .. does this mean that our attack is vastly improved and our makeshift defence is not up to it .. or neither ? We are still well in touch with the play off zone
A masterclass in defensive ineptitude, with the exception of Sessegnon and MacGillivray, and I thought we were fortunate to come away with a point. Burton outplayed us for most of the game, although we still managed to score three good goals, including two very neat lobs - something I can’t remember happening twice before in a game.
Clare will be back next week and I do wonder whether it’s time to give Deji Elewere a go in central defence. Inniss and Lavelle were both very poor and we are missing O’Connell in a big way.
Burton seemed to outnumber us in midfield and really should have put the game to bed after they went 3-2 ahead. Our substitutes had their customary impact - with CBT repeatedly roasting their left back - but the last 10 minutes were end to end and either side could have won it. We were incredibly open throughout and fortunate to come away with something from the game. In fairness, Burton played very well and looked anything but a bottom of the table side.
Frustrating in many respects but a good day out and we enjoyed the Burton pubs - the Devonshire Arms and the Coopers Tavern before the game and the Burton Bridge Inn and The Last Heretic post-match. Leaning on a terrace bar behind the goal also made a pleasant change.
It’s fair comment from Garner to say that we’re down to the bare bones with 7 or 8 players out but the reality is that the team and the squad are well short of what’s required to mount a serious challenge.
With a lightweight 4 man midfield of Campbell, Fraser, Dobson and JRS there is a good chance of being outnumbered and outplayed in midfield. It might have been better to have started Payne instead of Campbell. Having two lightweight wingers leaves the mid 2 really exposed.
Playing a 442 with 2 lightweight wingers, the worry was always that Dobson and Fraser would be overrun. Up until now, it hadn't happened, but with both being perhaps slightly leggy, we really struggled in that area on Saturday, which contributed to our awful defence.
Thoughts on Stockley. If Stockley had been up front, there isn't a hope in hell that he would have got anywhere near the threaded ball from Chuks for the third goal. As a person I like Jayden. I think he is a great competitor and works his balls off, however the system we are playing does not play towards anything positive that he can offer. As such he is a no show each week. His impact on games is less than Chuks or CBT, who are perennial subs. I think he needs to go for his sanity and the progress required. Oh for a Washington type player. He is beyond us now of course. League 2 fodder (or lower) are now our hunting ground. There may be some gems there, but would they strengthen our strikeforce in League One. If strengthening is going to cost, then I'm very doubtful TS is going to listen.
Interesting comments from BG afterwards, has he been promised funds for January and has signings lined up, or, as I suspect, he was sending a message to TS?
Doubt anything promised ... probably a 'public' reminder to TS
Comments
All the vitriol normally directed at him as nominated Charlton Life scapegoat seems to have flowed in Lavelle's direction.
Positives were Kirk getting a brace will do his confidence good and Chucks coming through another game without injury
What does still being in 4 competitions tell us:
- depth of squad: our youth/bench/fatigued players can come back from losing positions
We can take hope from this, even if we drew against bottom of the table away.
We are still well in touch with the play off zone