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Guitar Ray
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Posts posted by Guitar Ray
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Probably already been mentioned but watching the “highlights” just reinforced how bad our marking has often been this season. Too many players just ball watch.
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Is there anywhere in their blurb to say where they get their figures from?
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3 hours ago, NellyTheValiant said:
Wasn't the 'error' again Boro due to Ripleys ball into him though? The error that cost a goal vs Wigan down to poor chest control. Yak is constantly getting caught coming inside leaving his man free at the far post. He was very slow to react to the runner for their 1st goal yesterday too.
Not a great ball but Balmer should deal with it easily. Certainly shouldn’t have been brushed aside as easily as he was.
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2 minutes ago, Rory said:
Must mean the windmill. It's a Greene King and they've removed the all day brunch from the menu. Sad stuff.
Yes, that’s me done with Greene King now. You could go for an “All You Can Eat”breakfast at the Ash Bank, but only up to 11:30.
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11 minutes ago, Rodge said:
Probably because you know that this squad is capable of so much more but for whatever reason are not performing consistently to the standard they are capable of.The question is though is that all down to the manager, all down to the players, or a bit of both…….or maybe summat else? Flickers, Carol, Kevin, Donno, Robbie, recruitment, the Hamil switch, Railway bogs, new pitch, queues, incomplete new Lorne Street, Hollands pies, fans, atmosphere, aliens……er…opposing teams not rolling over….
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I’m not sold on Crosby but neither do I want him out right now. Nice guy, and I have some sympathy for him following DC who was widely loved by the fanbase. He still falls in the “unproven” category for me. After a decent start and a long barren run we’re ticking along without setting the world on fire, hamstrung by recruitment, and latterly by injuries. Crosby appears to be frustratingly inflexible at times plus after a first half like today I also question his motivational ability but maybe the second half proves he can actually motivate the players. He’s blooded some of our homegrown talent and I think that’s a big plus. I’d give him the window the see how the team are doing come the end of Feb.
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2 hours ago, JoeB2 said:
Picture this squad but with competent management. Wild, or Duff.
We’ve got some good footballers.
Wild is currently enjoying some success so why would he come to Vale, whilst Duff has recently failed so why would we want him? Either way Crosby, Wild, Duff or whoever may have “some good footballers” but they also have an unbalanced squad, which has 2 of our best midfielders currently injured, piss poor strikers and shaky, error prone defenders to contend with.
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1 hour ago, Conrad said:
I agree, but why did Crosby wait till we were 0-3 down before changing it, if he had changed it sooner, before it was too late, we’d have got a point today.Lomax did more than Massey has in the last 3 games, also beginning to think Ripley isn’t as good as he thinks he is, he never moved for the first goal.
I wouldn’t be questioning Ripley for the first goal, their guy has a free header 8 yards out. Maybe question the marking which has been shocking all season.
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Yes, made a difference today and took his goal well. Congratulations to the lad.
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4 hours ago, Hot Rat said:
I think the problem isn't the possession based football, its the pace of the game. We played pacey possession based football with a high press against Wigan and the result was very entertaining. Unfortunately when we take our foot off the gas the same system looks ponderous.
Spot on. Also, you’ve got to match the opposition as a bare minimum. I felt the tempo was far low too against Wycombe until the subs came on, but maybe we were jaded from being given the run around on the Tuesday.
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3 hours ago, darren1810 said:
My Lard mate said about Rowett and Neill.
They were dead men walking once the crowd turned against the manager and the gallows humour chants add to that.
Not a nice environment. Almost waiting to go a goal down and then it's full on boos and pelters.
I get the feeling Crosby is reaching that stage however our owners perhaps aren't reading the room .
The negativity towards Crosby has always been there. It was buried when we were riding high early doors but naturally resurfaced during our barren run. He started the job in a far worse place than any of those two clowns, they were at least broadly welcomed and recognised has having a bit of pedigree, whereas I’d say there was a good percentage of our fan base that would’ve kept Clarke in the role and failing that wanted a “proven” manager. Crosby was seen as a cheap option rather than the best candidate for the job. He may have been both, neither, one or the other, who knows?
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58 minutes ago, Danish Valiant said:
I agree!
Bur let’s stick to what we do know; what AC said after the game.
”Their style suited the conditions better”. Then why insist on keeping to play a style that didn’t, and obviously helped play the game into their hands?
”There was a clash in formation, that gave them the advantage”. Again: for all the preparation, how can this come as a surprise? And given they were so much on the front foot, was he waiting for them to change it, to suit our formation? He should have changed it as soon as it became apparent, we were in no way, shape or form in the game at all!
Those two statements from him, baffled me to be honest.
If you want to take what any manager says after a game as gospel then that’s up to you but in my experience a large slice is waffle. Crosby isn’t alone in this regard, fans of clubs up and down the country will be scratching their heads at their managers comments this morning.
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I’d take the gamble on fitness and keep him til the end of the season. Even as an impact subs he’d do a job if reasonably fit.
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9 hours ago, Danish Valiant said:
Sang - Lowe - Debra - Grant
Of course, that was my mistake!
"This is real life not virtual football manager." I'm sorry, but I find that a bit arrogant, if not condescending. As if nobody knows anything about football? And I don't play Football Manager, just as a bonus information 😉
And I agree, Ojo and Arblaster is a big big miss! But we'll have to get used to it for the foreseeable future...
I’m not suggesting “nobody knows anything about football”, what I am saying is that we know nothing to very little about the fitness of the players, we know nothing about other reasons behind their availability or lack of, Conlon as an example. We also have no insight into the scouting reports that no doubt go into assisting the team selection. So with the greatest respect, without the above information you’ve literally just thrown some names into a random formation. Hopefully this doesn’t sound arrogant or condescending but if it does you’ll notice I’ve used the word “we” above as I’m no more knowledgable than you or anyone else on these matters.
I’ll just add that your back 4 doesn’t look the best……but what do I know?
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7 minutes ago, Danish Valiant said:
What an arrogant comment? But:
4-2-3-1
Sang - Lowe - Smith/Iak - Grant
Garrity - Conlon
Massey - Chis - Devine
Loft
How is it arrogant? The point being that neither you or I know the full fitness of the players or any other reasons for their non selection. I’d say that’s an “interesting” selection which I’m sure will divide opinion. For starters, leaving Debra out is a major mistake in my view, easily our best defender right now. Either way put Ojo and Arblaster in your team and it won’t be weaker, that’s a fact.
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2 minutes ago, Tony Rodriguez said:
…..I really do not understand what all the toxicity is about. We have long term plans of the sort we have not seen before and if you look at the progress on and off the field over the past few years then it is working. You can rearrange the staff employed to carry out those plans but any replacements will be working within the same progressive structure…….
The toxicity mainly stems from the Daryl Clarke love in and the idea that Crosby was the cheap option, which may be true. The long losing streak added fuel to the fire. The philosophy of playing “pure football” is also frustrating, we’re not 1970’s Holland that’s for sure.
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1 minute ago, Danish Valiant said:
With those two out, that sort of carries the system, I found it absolutely baffling that we chose to stay with that system! You don't make the players fit the system, you make the system fit the players available! And I actually think Crosby sounded a bit arrogant in his post match interview. Yes, we have 7 points from 3 games, which is more than acceptable! Nicely stopping his tally, at the end of our outstanding run... And I wasn't there, as I live in Denmark. But using the wind as an excuse for being all over the place? Unless the wind changed drastically at half time, and gave them the wind in the back again after the brake, I fail to see it as a useable excuse, as we were just as bad after the break, as before. And don't even get me started on his decision, to unwind our defence, by moving Lowe to midfield. Baffling is an understatement!
What system would you have played then? This is real life not virtual football manager.
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2 minutes ago, Bobnewtonian said:
Surely that’s common sense and true of most clubs though?
Of course, all teams can be improved upon. The other thing is that pretty much all clubs are on the lookout for strikers. The point is though that we’re looking over our shoulders rather than looking up right now. If, say, Derby don’t recruit well in January it might cost them an automatic place, or even a place in the playoffs, but they’re unlikely to be relegated. It possibly depends on your definition of being “in the <ovf censored>”.
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3 minutes ago, Vtid said:
i can only see us going one way but time will tell 👍🏻
With the right players in and the treatment bench relatively free there’s only one way we’ll go, and that won’t be down. Poor recruitment and/or losing key players in January, either to other clubs, injury or whatever and we’re in the <ovf censored>. It’s that simple.
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6 minutes ago, Brian Johnson said:
You had a couple of responses to your answers but they did not follow your narrative, so, you have chose to ignore them
I had no replies in my “notifications’ brian, care to copy/paste them in below?
I asked a simple enough question, care to expand on what you think my narrative is, or better still explain to us all how you would’ve overcome the loss of Ojo and Arblaster?
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33 minutes ago, Vtid said:
There's more unhappy than happy that's for sure
Most fans are probably somewhere in the middle. Frustrated by the inconsistency of the team, which is largely down to injuries, and the seeming “inflexibility” of Crosby. The fact is that some fans never wanted Crosby in the first place and after our good start the bad run has cemented this view. At the moment we’re unbeaten in the last 3 league games having scored a few goals but only playing well in one. Fans who were moaning when we were losing playing pretty football are now moaning when we’re not losing because the footballs ugly..
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4 hours ago, Guitar Ray said:
Question. Did anyone really expect us to play well with Ojo and Blaster missing?
I put this out there 10 pages ago and got no answer. Common sense would suggest we’d really struggle with those 2 missing, which proved to be the case. Folk are slating Crosby but today you’ve got to look at that team and think a point coming back from a goal down is reasonable.
Summing up the game, we were very poor throughout, although better second half, we defended well apart from the goal, created next to nothing, never gave up, the subs all had an impact.
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Question. Did anyone really expect us to play well with Ojo and Blaster missing?
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7 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:
One thing that I think has been forgotten is that Crosby and Flitcroft spent all summer banging on about us becoming more physical.
We have largely played very unphysical football with 4-5 technical, lightweight midfielders.
Did we recruit for one style and end up playing another, or accidentally recruited for the wrong playing style, or was there no plan in the first place?
Have we been outmuscled that much? I don’t think so. We could put a taller stronger side out but it probably wouldn’t be much good starting Uche and Loft up front every week.
What we really lack is a bit of raw pace and athleticism.
Barnsley (H) match thread - Boxing Day
in Port Vale present
Posted
I can live with the third goal, it was a wonder strike and possibly even a hint of a foul on Loft from that camera angle. Worst of the lot was the second. Debrah initially at fault but the goalscorer is standing in the middle of four white shirts, non of whom seem to care.