Stevenage (H) FAC2R Match thread 12th Dec

[pete vale]

To me Port Vale are summed up perfectly by looking at the anolgy of the barriers 'snaking' towards the till inside the club shop. It appears that 'the plan', science and <ovf censored> have replaced good old common sense on and off the pitch. We are allowing headless chickens/ fantasists to dictate the way forward. This will be at the expense of League One status and the loss of droves of fans. Port Vale have gone mad imo. "Championship Ready" get a grip. Gutted by the unprofessional capitulation last night. Goodbye to £70K.

[osprey]

21 minutes ago, Stockleys_socks said:

To go into the game with a rigid plan to take Devine & Arblaster off after 60 mins and give Grant no more than 45 irrespective of how the game is panning out (because the sports science team have looked into their crystal ball and said they will break down if they play more than that) beggars belief. To replace them with young lads with next to no football league experience is unbelievably bad in-game management. He is obsessed with wrapping the players up in cotton wool; he's created a culture where every niggle is treated with caution. Just focus on winning the game in hand!! 

We should be getting every minute we can out of Arblaster and Devine while they are still here 

[valefan16]

Livid, absolutely livid, cruising to Round 3, real positive week after Exeter as well, I can take losing down to opposition quality or even if we play poor but down to inept management is unacceptable, so wound up, I really wanted Crosby to work out but he's lost me now.

The thing is its not isolated, he did the exact same with the same outcome at Lincoln, which on its own I can take... learn the lessons but he hasn't, hes a great coach but as proven last night doesn't have the tactical nous to be a success as a manager.

30 seconds from good momentum and a fan base starting to feel more positive and again he has blown it, not only that we've had the extra 30 minutes we really didn't need ahead of Wigan.

If he survives until Saturday anything less than a positive outcome and imagine the fan base will be vocal about the need for change, thats potentially cost us 500k plus.

[Warren]

8 minutes ago, Vale Ball said:

I agree, I wonder how many back room staff Stevenage have, how many sport scientists they have, how many recruitment bods they have and I wonder if Crosby is happy having to work with all these people, because DF has come up with this vanity project and Carol has gone along with it because of her naivety in the way a football runs.

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app
 

Carol runs a much larger and very successful business built from scratch. She has, because of her support for the football club, made an investment which is always going to be the antithesis of profit making. But I'm 100% confident she can run the club well in future and is doing now. She faces immediate challenges because an appointment that could have worked out isn't doing so. I think action will come before the end of the month. 

[RPH-KV]

33 minutes ago, Stockleys_socks said:

To go into the game with a rigid plan to take Devine & Arblaster off after 60 mins and give Grant no more than 45 irrespective of how the game is panning out (because the sports science team have looked into their crystal ball and said they will break down if they play more than that) beggars belief. To replace them with young lads with next to no football league experience is unbelievably bad in-game management. He is obsessed with wrapping the players up in cotton wool; he's created a culture where every niggle is treated with caution. Just focus on winning the game in hand!! 

If Grant can only do 45 minutes then you start with him, then you only need one change at HT and not 2 changes.

[RPH-KV]

The last time I felt so deflated at the end of the game was …….dare I say it the 4-4 with QPR.

Totally the managers fault last night.   We had the game won until the disastrous double substitution after 63 mins.  Taking off 2 offensive midfielders & disrupting the back 3 in one go - unreal.   The back 3 had looked pretty solid all night then he brings on the Yak & pushes Lowe into midfield, so Olly & Alfie replaced by Walters & Lowe - what a negative move and we got what we deserved.

I have stopped believing Crosby B/S to justify poor substitutions,  Massey felt his calf Alfie & Olly had knocks - don’t believe you Andy.  Really poor tactical changes which cost us the game.

Agree with other posters that manager has a plan and follows it irrespective of what is happening in the game.

[Raveninblack]

2 minutes ago, RPH-KV said:

The last time I felt so deflated at the end of the game was …….dare I say it the 4-4 with QPR.

Totally the managers fault last night.   We had the game won until the disastrous double substitution after 63 mins.  Taking off 2 offensive midfielders & disrupting the back 3 in one go - unreal.   The back 3 had looked pretty solid all night then he brings on the Yak & pushes Lowe into midfield, so Olly & Alfie replaced by Walters & Lowe - what a negative move and we got what we deserved.

I have stopped believing Crosby B/S to justify poor substitutions,  Massey felt his calf Alfie & Olly had knocks - don’t believe you Andy.  Really poor tactical changes which cost us the game.

Agree with other posters that manager has a plan and follows it irrespective of what is happening in the game.

I don’t think he has a plan at all; when he made the substitutions I walked out and the result was what I expected and Crosby has to be replaced or he should resign before he gets us relegated 

[Vtid]

3 minutes ago, Raveninblack said:

I don’t think he has a plan at all; when he made the substitutions I walked out and the result was what I expected and Crosby has to be replaced or he should resign before he gets us relegated 

although none of us are hardly suprised after he made those subs how the game panned out, to walk out at 2-0 up is either incredibly daft or very wise 😂

Edited December 13, 2023 by Vtid

[Playa Amodores]

33 minutes ago, Warren said:

Carol runs a much larger and very successful business built from scratch. She has, because of her support for the football club, made an investment which is always going to be the antithesis of profit making. But I'm 100% confident she can run the club well in future and is doing now. She faces immediate challenges because an appointment that could have worked out isn't doing so. I think action will come before the end of the month. 

Warren, end of the month.!! That’s too many points to potentially lose. Everyone wants us to succeed, I’m satisfied with a comfortable mid table position. Performances that have you talking for positive reasons after a Vale game, whether it’s win, lose or draw.

[Playa Amodores]

9 minutes ago, Vtid said:

although none of us are hardly suprised after he made those subs how the game panned out, to walk out at 2-0 up is either incredibly daft or very wise 😂

Vtid, I can only presume that this week plans were made should the game go to penalties and practised then in training, probably the reason for bringing Loft on as a sub.

[Hitcher]

I'll probably get pelters for this but I feel like fan culture nowadays only allows people to be 'overjoyed with happiness' or in 'the depths of despair'.

Quite often recently I've felt that we've all been overreacting, but losing from 2-0 up and then from 3-2 is very very poor.

I do buy into the idea of trying to play possession based football and the reasons for it:

- Teams playing possession football more likely to be promoted

- Allows us to develop technical youth players with higher sale value

- Enabled us to attract Premier league youth players on loan.

However it has kind have been sold to us that Andy Crosby is required to run that. I have no doubt that he is a good coach, but I think we are seeing he doesn't yet have the 'in game' management that comes with more experience. How often when we had DC in his pomp would you see him flip a game on its head (often preemptively). In fairness to AC the injury crisis hasn't given him much to play with on the bench.

If we are stuck to our model are we not better off hiring high potential 'flowing football' managers with a bit more experience. If they succeed and get poached it means we have had a good season. I know we'd draw from a pool of lower league managers but the type of thing Swansea used to do where each manager fitted and developed on a consistent style of play.

A final point in defence of AC, but subs last night did feel very much in line with the number of games we have this month. I am gutted about losing out on the cup money but if it helps us get a win against Wigan is it wrong?

[Brian Johnson]

44 minutes ago, Warren said:

She faces immediate challenges because an appointment that could have worked out isn't doing so. 

It was never going to work out. 

DC had to come back early from his leave because we were <ovf censored> up getting into the play offs that season.

AC then had those games in charge at the end of last season and it was rubbish.

The signs have always been their that this appointment was never going to work.

[CambridgeDon]

10 hours ago, Smallthorne clampet said:

Too many cooks  

More like no leadership - when the staff are calling the shots, it’s time for change. And if we don’t change, it’s downhill all the way. Plain as a pikestaff. 

[Warren]

16 minutes ago, Playa Amodores said:

Warren, end of the month.!! That’s too many points to potentially lose. Everyone wants us to succeed, I’m satisfied with a comfortable mid table position. Performances that have you talking for positive reasons after a Vale game, whether it’s win, lose or draw.

The recruitment of someone as important as a new manager requires preparation. I suspect like me she is desperate for Crosby to succeed. But I can't fathom his team management. He seems to have an unmatched capacity for losing games directly as a result of his subs and changes in tactics instructed by him during the second half. Plus I don't believe our team has best practice strength training - reaching this observation during the Derby game. 

If we swapped managers with Stevenage we might well be in the top half of the table. But there are many appointments as we know that could be as bad or worse than Crosby. I think he's fortunate the Middlesbrough game is complicating things and buying him a few more games. Carol goes to every game and can see exactly what we are seeing and I'm confident she won't have a divergent opinion. 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Warren

[Properman]

We all know it was Crosby, not just last night but most of the season he has been crap. The crowd  attendance  should tell Carol fans are not happy. Do I blame Crosby yes, do I blame Flitcroft yes. But that is the problem. Would you come to manage Vale with Flitcroft pulling all the strings? No chance. They both have to go before it is too late.