Balance, from a moaner

[Bimbleabout]

It’s not delusions on grandeur though. I’m not expecting us to win the league. I’m expecting mid table, with us getting the best of the players at our disposal, and hopefully playing somewhat entertaining football. 
Currently yes we are mid table. Be are on a run of 3 wins in 14 games or something like that. Recent performances bar 2 have been diabolical. There’s no evidence that the manager can progress with this group. He’s not getting the best out of the players. And it’s so boring to watch. 
Im sick of travelling to Carlisle, Wycombe and now probably Reading to put in meek, pathetic, and frankly performances every week.

I get all that, I really do and it's an absolute mess with the team and gaffer. Brief moments of brilliance and then long drawn out periods of complete gash.
I'll support them no matter tho. We were all there when we were hanging onto league status and protesting a few years back. 3/4k hardcore, we support thru thick and thin, we have no choice as we're all Vale.
I'll take this situation now all day long over that as it was beyond stressful,and cling on to the fact that we must, and hopefully will get better.
I couldn't bare it if we go down. Next few weeks, as always with Vale, are pivotal. I'll get behind the lads and AC as long as he's with us, I have no choice.
UTV

[Powerline]

16 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

I too have played the game of 'X wins in Y', choosing arbitrary cut off points to make it look worse/better to suit the narrative I was going for.

The fundamentals are we have 8 wins in 24.

I recognise that, but it’s the overall trajectory that is the issue. If the 8 in 24 were more mixed together, I’d be happy. The problem is we are on a pretty terrible run and performances are still poor. Who can really see us getting any better?

[JohnJames]

I’m waiting eagerly for the day when we have a manager called Knobbs. 

[Powerline]

6 minutes ago, Bimbleabout said:

I get all that, I really do and it's an absolute mess with the team and gaffer. Brief moments of brilliance and then long drawn out periods of complete gash.
I'll support them no matter tho. We were all there when we were hanging onto league status and protesting a few years back. 3/4k hardcore, we support thru thick and thin, we have no choice as we're all Vale.
I'll take this situation now all day long over that as it was beyond stressful,and cling on to the fact that we must, and hopefully will get better.
I couldn't bare it if we go down. Next few weeks, as always with Vale, are pivotal. I'll get behind the lads and AC as long as he's with us, I have no choice.
UTV

Yes I will get behind them. I went Wycombe, Carlisle, and already have my Reading ticket. Only time I’ve booed this season was end of first half against Barnsley at home. I support the team during the game but I’m really sick of feeling like the club are taking people like us for mugs.

[TJHValiant]

46 minutes ago, MelbourneValiant said:

I love your optimism but we hit a peak and now heading down again.

300 fans lost since last year and still falling

6pts and 6 places worse off than this time last year

Still the worst performing team in league one, albeit after one game this year.

Strangely, I wasn't as downbeat as usual after the Carlisle defeat. Maybe because I had zero expectation. Maybe because we weren't subjected to 90 minutes of footbore....instead we were totally outclassed by a team at the foot of the table which was a new low altogether.

It isn't where we are now that we should be happy with, it where we are heading, I am bricking it that we will be in the bottom four before long and some people just can't see it. Let's hope I am wrong.

I agree with this. A lot has been achieved and kudos to Carol for that, but the momentum is being lost and I think more people believe we are heading back towards league 2 before we see the championship and before last years slump I believed the opposite. 

[blackdog]

6 minutes ago, JohnJames said:

I’m waiting eagerly for the day when we have a manager called Knobbs. 

 

I remember Bristol City having a manager called Alan Dicks.

[CAVALIER]

11 minutes ago, blackdog said:

 

I remember Bristol City having a manager called Alan Dicks.

Arthur Cox was another

[Loggerheads Sage]

35 minutes ago, JohnJames said:

I’m waiting eagerly for the day when we have a manager called Knobbs. 

Love it, lol

[Warren]

Brilliant analysis. I think there is a ceiling at about 10th in L1 we can't go above on a sustainable basis. We haven't got enough supporters and can't have a big enough off field business. Therefore, Carol et al are close to maximising our sporting potential and have invested so much to get to this point. When I'm out of my mind with Crosby ball I should just reign back a bit and reflect on that fact. Joy will come again if we can produce some decent results in January. 

[valeparklife]

Great post Joe, as always! 

Does anyone feel we are underachieving a bit with this squad though? Or is that just me?

I think the players have shown, in spells, that they are good L1 players. But I still feel they're being hamstrung by Crosby's negative tactics.

The tactics most weeks seem to be "keep it tight, don't lose the ball, play for a 0-0, nick a goal".

Our goalscoring stats are so poor:

• 24 league games
• 0 goals = 8 times
• 1 goal = 10 times
• 2 goals = 3 times
• 3 goals = 3 times

That's 75% of the games we don't score more than once. If the opposition score first, it just makes me think the best we'll get is a 1-1 draw.

Also, I can't be bothered to do the stats, but I know a high proportion of our goals are from set pieces - which is fine because goals are goals, but we're not doing much from open play which worries me. 

Would love to see Crosby let the shackles off a bit more, make it more entertaining for us!

[philpvfc]

4 minutes ago, valeparklife said:

Great post Joe, as always! 

Does anyone feel we are underachieving a bit with this squad though? Or is that just me?

I think the players have shown, in spells, that they are good L1 players. But I still feel they're being hamstrung by Crosby's negative tactics.

The tactics most weeks seem to be "keep it tight, don't lose the ball, play for a 0-0, nick a goal".

Our goalscoring stats are so poor:

• 24 league games
• 0 goals = 8 times
• 1 goal = 10 times
• 2 goals = 3 times
• 3 goals = 3 times

That's 75% of the games we don't score more than once. If the opposition score first, it just makes me think the best we'll get is a 1-1 draw.

Also, I can't be bothered to do the stats, but I know a high proportion of our goals are from set pieces - which is fine because goals are goals, but we're not doing much from open play which worries me. 

Would love to see Crosby let the shackles off a bit more, make it more entertaining for us!

I don’t think the squad is much better than last season…..center midfield is stronger and our goalkeeper is stronger although Stevens has done a good job at Cambridge but we are weaker at RCB and RWB, weaker at LCB with the injuries we have had and we are definitely weaker upfront.

Wonder if we would be more direct and attack minded had we got a decent center forward.

[Brian Johnson]

5 hours ago, philpvfc said:

 

Wonder if we would be more direct and attack minded had we got a decent center forward.

I don't think we would. 

Bothe Flickers & AC have been going on all season about the way they want the team to play with a certain ID and philosophy.

It's no coincidence that our biggest win of the season came when we only had 39% of possession in a game when Crosby had no choice to be more direct.

I wished we would mix it up more

[TEXAS]

10 hours ago, Bimbleabout said:

I get all that, I really do and it's an absolute mess with the team and gaffer. Brief moments of brilliance and then long drawn out periods of complete gash.
I'll support them no matter tho. We were all there when we were hanging onto league status and protesting a few years back. 3/4k hardcore, we support thru thick and thin, we have no choice as we're all Vale.
I'll take this situation now all day long over that as it was beyond stressful,and cling on to the fact that we must, and hopefully will get better.
I couldn't bare it if we go down. Next few weeks, as always with Vale, are pivotal. I'll get behind the lads and AC as long as he's with us, I have no choice.
UTV

Pretty much sums up where I am at. Peed off with what we are watching most games but we have to try and stick at it. I'm hopeful more than I am confident we will stay up but like most of us, we will still keep going to watch them as that's what we do. We will always lose some less faithful fans along the way when we are losing and pick them back up if/when we start winning and/or performances improve. 

[philpvfc]

2 minutes ago, Brian Johnson said:

I don't think we would. 

Bothe Flickers & AC have been going on all season about the way they want the team to play so that with a ID and phil0sophy.

It's no coincidence that our biggest win of the season came when we only had 39% of possession in a game when Crosby had no choice to be more direct.

I wished we would mix it up more

Possibly.

I do agree we need to be more direct at times.

Alan Hansen once said (About Liverpool when they were great) “ as soon as we got possession in defence we would look up straight away to see if there was a long ball on for Rush or Dalglish, and if not we would keep possession “.

Be good if we had pace up front where we could have the same philosophy.

[Brian Johnson]

Just now, philpvfc said:

Possibly.

I do agree we need to be more direct at times.

Alan Hansen once said (About Liverpool when they were great) “ as soon as we got possession in defence we would look up straight away to see if there was a long ball on for Rush or Dalglish, and if not we would keep possession “.

Be good if we had pace up front where we could have the same philosophy.

I like that philosophy