In light of what ive seen so far ,not the away games bar Birmingham heres my team 

       Gucci (Amos )

  John Debrah Humpreys 

Gabriel.                      Gordon 

           Ojo Walters 

                Croasdale 

        Curtis Cole 

Paton too come on 63 mins  along with Faal on at 78 mins Paton for Cole and Faal for Curtis if Stockley not ready if Stockleyis  he comes on  not faal...

Birmingham had no on target efforts ,when Debs Henegan and Humpreys started v Birmingham, ,quite a feat as there players are better than all league 1 players 

If it works you continue  with it .

We will win this game .

 

 

Edited September 8, 2025Sep 8 by Dipepa delight

1 hour ago, Raveninblack said:

Hall is so slow and Garrety’s injury problems continue as normal 

Wny Ojo was on the bench against orient remains a mystery to me completely to me sadly 

I'm only guessing, but probably because, at 34 years old, he'd played a full 90 mins on Tuesday against Leeda...??

My worry having read this thread is that practically everyone has a different starting eleven. Which ones make the back three, which wingbacks do you select, who out of Croasdale, Walters, Byers and Ojo are the central midfield duo, what's the pairing upfront and so on...

I think this is an effect of the constant rotation and squad imbalance (i.e. so many wingbacks to select from, so many similar central midfielders, three goalies) that there's no common consensus on our best starting XI. We don't even know who the number one goalie is. Seven games into a season that's a concern...

It's gauci

To be fair you can level alot at some of the things that are going on,but number 1 is gauci and he's on international duty.

13 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

Time to go back to a back 4. Defence is no better with a back 5 and we’re missing and attacking player. 

                      Gauchi

Gabriel Humphrey’s Hall Gordon

          Croasdale Ojo Walters 

                       Hall

               Paton     Cole 

For me if we ditch this back 5, it allows us to pick our strong midfielders and also another attacking option. 

That line up seems a bit attack minded

for Darren but you never know 

In light of what ive seen so far ,not the away games bar Birmingham heres my team 
       Gucci (Amos )
  John Debrah Humpreys 
Gabriel.                      Gordon 
           Ojo Walters 
                Croasdale 
        Curtis Cole 
Paton too come on 63 mins  along with Faal on at 78 mins Paton for Cole and Faal for Curtis if Stockley not ready if Stockleyis  he comes on  not faal...
Birmingham had no on target efforts ,when Debs Henegan and Humpreys started v Birmingham, ,quite a feat as there players are better than all league 1 players 
If it works you continue  with it .
We will win this game .
 
 

Nah. Paton on on 61 minutes and Faal at 72. That's the game winning strategy. You're way off [emoji16]

2 hours ago, Dipepa delight said:

In light of what ive seen so far ,not the away games bar Birmingham heres my team 

       Gucci (Amos )

  John Debrah Humpreys 

Gabriel.                      Gordon 

           Ojo Walters 

                Croasdale 

        Curtis Cole 

Paton too come on 63 mins  along with Faal on at 78 mins Paton for Cole and Faal for Curtis if Stockley not ready if Stockleyis  he comes on  not faal...

Birmingham had no on target efforts ,when Debs Henegan and Humpreys started v Birmingham, ,quite a feat as there players are better than all league 1 players 

If it works you continue  with it .

We will win this game .

 

 

Gauchi could be back, an important part of that defence at Brum.

50 minutes ago, Armers4eng said:

It's gauci

To be fair you can level alot at some of the things that are going on,but number 1 is gauci and he's on international duty.

Is it though?

I'd say Gauci is ahead of Marosi but is he ahead of last season's number one Amos who, apart from getting injured, hasn't seemed to do a lot wrong.

I don't think we can be certain till Amos is fully fit.

If may still be Gauci - but stats wise, Gauci has nine League games in his career and is not even our player. Amos has 300+ League appearances and is our player. Perhaps DM may think experience is key in our situation?

I'm not necessarily advocating for Amos by the way, I'm just trying to point out that three senior keepers on the books has created this sort of situation. For instance, heaven knows what we'll do with Marosi if he drops to third in the pecking order and with a two year deal under his belt.

22 minutes ago, robf said:

Is it though?

I'd say Gauci is ahead of Marosi but is he ahead of last season's number one Amos who, apart from getting injured, hasn't seemed to do a lot wrong.

I don't think we can be certain till Amos is fully fit.

If may still be Gauci - but stats wise, Gauci has nine League games in his career and is not even our player. Amos has 300+ League appearances and is our player. Perhaps DM may think experience is key in our situation?

I'm not necessarily advocating for Amos by the way, I'm just trying to point out that three senior keepers on the books has created this sort of situation. For instance, heaven knows what we'll do with Marosi if he drops to third in the pecking order and with a two year deal under his belt.

that could be the problem to many players on long contrats and new sighing on more wages than them 

13 minutes ago, robf said:

Is it though?

I'd say Gauci is ahead of Marosi but is he ahead of last season's number one Amos who, apart from getting injured, hasn't seemed to do a lot wrong.

I don't think we can be certain till Amos is fully fit.

If may still be Gauci - but stats wise, Gauci has nine League games in his career and is not even our player. Amos has 300+ League appearances and is our player. Perhaps DM may think experience is key in our situation?

I'm not necessarily advocating for Amos by the way, I'm just trying to point out that three senior keepers on the books has created this sort of situation. For instance, heaven knows what we'll do with Marosi if he drops to third in the pecking order and with a two year deal under his belt.

Depends what Marosi was promised in his contract? If Amos is back in form, do we keep Gauci or return him to Villa in Jan which may have been the plan. Or send Marosi out on loan to get his confidence back. 2nd choice goalkeeper is a job in itself. Ward the Wales keeper signed for Leicester from Liverpool for £12M, played no League games for 3 seasons just 20 odd Cup games, still with Schmeichel no 1 what did he expect.

It’s only early days but at the minute Marosi, Waine, Shipley and Faal all look to be mistakes. It’s easy to say this with the hindsight and the benefit of seeing how the first few games have panned out. We also have a squad that is way too big, but we also have the hindsight now of knowing Tolaj has been sold and we have had a windfall to sign Hall and Cole. 
 

One of either Byers or Walters has to be on the pitch. We need someone who wants the ball in the middle. Croasdale for me plays over Ojo and it will be interesting to see who can perform in the other midfield role Hall or Garrity. Shipley is way down the pecking order. 
 

in defence for me John and Humphreys have to start. 
 

Hopefully Stockley isn’t too far off as I think he will be game changing in linking the team up in the final third and give us an aerial threat in the box. Hopefully he will be able to get on the end of some of Paton’s deliveries. 
 

I have never seen a Vale side hit the woodwork so many times. We seem to hit it at least once every match. We also haven’t converted umpteen chances from crosses into the box. Our headers either trickle wide, go straight at the keeper or hit the woodwork. Hopefully Stockley will change that. 
 

it is so frustrating as we have played really decent football this season. We haven’t received the points we have deserved whether that is due to a lack of composure, poor defending, poor officiating or just bad luck. Either way we need to start winning games, playing well or not. 
 

We should never have let Orient have that last goal, let alone the other two. We just aren’t street smart. Ojo should have done a professional foul. I m sure every other team would never have allowed us to do that attack in the last minute. 
 

This game feels like a 6 pointer already.

Edited September 8, 2025Sep 8 by Chopper Harris

I do love Gucci as a nickname for Gauchi, certainly has more class than Super Marosi. 

The centre of the midfield is a conundrum, quite a bit of quality in there and if you want consistency you need to make a decision somewhere who plays and who doesn't. 

But I think the wide play is as much of an issue too, we've had best success in converting chances from wide further up the pitch, and with only one set of wide players when they are penned back we don't get much love of it - mainly because I think we are missing Stockley, who is like a magnet for the longer balls and actually keeping hold it. Instead of Faal whose first touch seems him lose it constantly. 

Ultimately though I don't have loads of confidence until the first XI settles a bit. 

Anyway, as Saturday starts to get nearer again my eternal optimism will creep up and I'll be willing for us to win - but it is a huge game and after last Saturday, I really do feel for the lads who have been through the wringer with late game defeats. Its important that they do not lose belief. 

I think Moore sacrifices some of that "Play your best 11 consistently" for keeping players as fit and available as possible which includes an amount of making changes on the hour mark and squad rotation for its own sake. The narrative amongst those that think he's wrong looks at how we became stronger towards the end of last season and interprets that as a consequence of him picking a stable starting eleven. I'd argue, he was able to do that because he'd rotated and given people 60 mins earlier in the season. Clubs with a different philosophy hadn't been able to do that. I think he sees the season as a whole as a project and he's recruited a squad which includes players he knows he isn't going to get 46 x 90 mins + games out of but who have a little more quality when they do play.

1 hour ago, Valiant62 said:

I think Moore sacrifices some of that "Play your best 11 consistently" for keeping players as fit and available as possible which includes an amount of making changes on the hour mark and squad rotation for its own sake. The narrative amongst those that think he's wrong looks at how we became stronger towards the end of last season and interprets that as a consequence of him picking a stable starting eleven. I'd argue, he was able to do that because he'd rotated and given people 60 mins earlier in the season. Clubs with a different philosophy hadn't been able to do that. I think he sees the season as a whole as a project and he's recruited a squad which includes players he knows he isn't going to get 46 x 90 mins + games out of but who have a little more quality when they do play.

Do you remember the programme on

TV in the 80s called Jackanory 🤔

It was all about story telling 😁👍

I was extremely critical of Moore's rotation early last season, but it arguably kept key players fresh for the run-in where they were all fit and firing.