12 minutes ago, rob1983 said:

Smith's always been awful. No pace crap in the air crap on the ball. Gets away with it cos 'he's one of our own' interesting how no one has ever come in for him.

give over you pleb! he hasn't always been awful, in fact one of our most reliable over time albeit a lot in league 2. Agreed he's been poor at this level & as much as i like Smith he's just not league 1 standard. Don't think any of our defenders are 

10 minutes ago, Walka003 said:

13 minutes ago, Sam Kelly said:

Pushed further out wide and is asked to play a role where he actually has to play football. Smith is an old fashioned CB who likes a tackle and wins a header, he's no ball playing defender.

Clarke played this exact formation with Smith in the middle and he was rock solid last year. Why continue to play someone in a position he's not comfortable with, just to accommodate Jason Lowe?

I don't know.

Maybe another manager... another "head coach" lets be honest... would come in and play Smith in the centre, seen as the DoF insists we play this formation.

8 minutes ago, Nippy Naylor said:

The dynamics have changed nelly can you honestly say you think Crosby is the right manager for the vale , do me a favour .  

What dynamics?  Can you tell me that he isn't?

8 minutes ago, werstayinup said:

Surely Carol wont be happy with how we play in these games

I’m sure she’s not but as long as he’s keeping our heads above water, he’s staying. And even if we sank into the drop zone and got relegated, I have this sinking feeling that she’d hold on to him as the man with the vision to bring us back up. I suspect only one thing would change this and that is money, which may prove to be in short supply. So we’d better get used to it 🙁

1 minute ago, Wrex said:

I don't know.

Maybe another manager... another "head coach" lets be honest... would come in and play Smith in the centre, seen as the DoF insists we play this formation.

I don’t think Flitcroft sets the tactics more like it Crosby tells him what he wants to forfill his desired formation. It’s just bar Arblaster and Devine the recruitment has been unbalanced and up top it’s been woeful . I don’t think we getting a striker in January as we taken Wilo on.  I expect a quiet January with a couple out and no one in .

6 minutes ago, NellyTheValiant said:

What dynamics?  Can you tell me that he isn't?

Do you really think Crosby is the man for the job? He isn’t a manager. He’s a coach. That’s been evident on so many occasions this season 

9 minutes ago, SuperHuman said:

Think it’s time we cut ties with Jones now. He goes AWOL for months every season. He’s also another calamity waiting to happen too.

Whilst I’m on this subject - I am sick to death of the number of players that just go missing for weeks and months through the season over recent years. We hear nothing most of the time. 

Some might be genuinely injured or just rubbish but I’m sure some just go completely missing out of the picture too.

Jones and Cass (every single season), Conlon, Clark, Thomas. Whilst last season it happened to Benning, Politic, Mipo, Holden, McCarron, Robinson.

2 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

Do you really think Crosby is the man for the job? He isn’t a manager. He’s a coach. That’s been evident on so many occasions this season 

Can you give me some examples?

The short answer nelly is No Crosby has got to go The majority of the fans want him gone as well , maybe when the crowds tumble at home, carol will act , who knows.

1 hour ago, darren1810 said:

Let's calm down eh. 

Charlton next.  8 without a win. Easy 3 points 🤣

Well that’s a banker away win if ever there was one.

17 minutes ago, Vtid said:

give over you pleb! he hasn't always been awful, in fact one of our most reliable over time albeit a lot in league 2. Agreed he's been poor at this level & as much as i like Smith he's just not league 1 standard. Don't think any of our defenders are 

I'm prepared to give Debrah more time. 

20 minutes ago, Vtid said:

give over you pleb! he hasn't always been awful, in fact one of our most reliable over time albeit a lot in league 2. Agreed he's been poor at this level & as much as i like Smith he's just not league 1 standard. Don't think any of our defenders are 

You enjoy your love in with him 

Years ago I decided stop going away games cause he was in  the team 

I can count 3 times today is non marking should have  resulted in goals for them .

He as no more than 5 good games a season 

Hoodwinked the lot of you 

Crosby OUT Smith Out 

UTV 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 20242 yr by Devine intervention

37 minutes ago, Walka003 said:

40 minutes ago, Lornelounger said:

I don't think it is that simple to be honest. Out of position or not, when you are defending in your box deep into the game, you don't do what he did today. We can look at tactics and formations, and I don't doubt Smith can have his good games (mainly in League 2) - I just think at this level we need a player who isn't a liability. 

But my point is he's never been a liability for us, ever. Why suddenly under this manager has his form dropped off a cliff? For me it has to be on the training ground.

A player of his experience shouldn't have to rely on the training ground to do the basics in my view - he's played a lot of games in 7 seasons with us, and I'm not sure he's going to get any better. I hope I'm wrong, because he has been a rock when we have needed him in the past.

I just think he is being found out at this level.  To give this some context:  His first season was in league 1 with a team that got relegated.  Not his fault, but he played in every game as we got relegated. He spent the next 5 seasons becoming a rugged defender in a league 2 team that finished in the bottom half of the table for a lot of that time, often flirting with relegation out of the league - we finished 20th two seasons running.  He is one of our heroes because we knew exactly what we would get from him, week in, week out, in the crap teams we fielded back then.  He's become. "legend" in a period when we were in the division below, fighting for our lives, playing Pope ball, and he must have played alongside dozens of defenders by now, good, bad and indifferent.  Fair play to him for standing and being counted back then and helping get us out of that league. Top man - I wrote an ode to him and Gibbo after Wembley.  I like the guy but...

The question when he returned to League 1 was can he cope at this higher level?  He didn't really get the chance in his first season, because he was new and still learning the game. This time round, up against better players, his lack of technique is being found out more often, which is why I think we need better defenders. I'm just not sure how much better Nathan is going to get from here - defenders tend to get wiser but slower as they age, compensating for lack of pace by reading the game better (eg Jason Lowe). Smudge has never been that quick in the first place, so will we get any better with him in the side, being bypassed by pacey strikers, and having no option but to commit fouls?

I know it's not all Smith's fault, it's a team game and if the ball had been in the Carlisle box, he couldn't have conceded that penalty. But I do wonder whether we have to now look beyond him to move forward. When your name is no longer the first one on the team sheet, you either have to change what you are doing, or accept that you may actually be a very brave and committed League 2 defender at the end of the day, but rather error prone in League 1. I really want him to become a better footballer with fewer errors; at his age, this ought to be the peak of his career. If it is the system, and he is really van Dijk in disguise but we keep playing him in the wrong part of the defence, with the wrong tactics, I'll hold up my hands and accept I'm wrong. Is he a good enough defender for a middling League 1 side? Is he able to go beyond that consistently, because that's the sort of player we surely need - isn't it?

Edited January 1, 20242 yr by Lornelounger

12 minutes ago, Bycarsbill said:

We've also lost points by yet again conceding goal after 90th minute! When will we ever learn?

Not as often as you would think (in the league) it’s twice - today and Lincoln, that’s 4 points dropped, tempered only by a 90+ winner at Oxford.

We lost today because Kofi Balmer didn’t compete well enough for a header in the 6 yard box. We needed the substitution but I’d question should he have come on instead of Walters or once on should he have been in midfield rather than pushing Lowe into there instead.

We are the gift that just keeps on giving. The Vale have played 3 clubs (Burton, Cheltenham and Carlisle) who at the time we played them they were bottom of the league, and they all beat us. Like many others I am baffled by the way we are set up and the (lack of) game management when we are actually leading. How anyone can keep on changing things to a defensive setup when the stats must surely prove that it just does not work, is beyond me. I must admit that I cannot make my mind up whether Smudger is just not league 1 quality, or whether it really is that he is out of his comfort zone anywhere but centre half. On the positive side we look to have a really good crop of young'uns coming through, so if they keep on getting game time and we manage to avoid the drop it could be a season where we begin to push on. If we maintain the current rate of 40% of available points we will finish on 55 points, squeaky bum time. If however we can maintain the rate of the last 6 games of 55% we will finish on 76 points, comfortable mid table.

Fingers crossed for the latter scenario.