We are a L1 team who have had three good seasons, improving each year and getting rewards above the odds and for me if we don't get relegated anything over and above that is gravy.
The mosquito whine of 'But the chairman said he wants blaaaaaaaaaah...' is all just noise to me. The myth that GA has anything 'in the bank' with some fans is laid tediously bare every season/transfer window and is just becoming a bore. Same arguments with the same people...myself included.
Bit of a stretch to blame chaos at Manchester United for ‘damaging’ our club and to assume that Nathan Bishop (and only Nathan Bishop) has been the target can only be described as speculation.
As for your second sentence, suggesting that the Chairman had described Bishop as “a done deal”, I am at a loss to recall any statement by the Chairman or anyone else to that effect.
Call me old-fashioned but it seems to me unnecessarily disrespectful to refer to our well respected Chairman as Bobby C. 😉
Interesting comment. I hadn’t thought of it like that but, thinking back to the relentless outpourings of discontent over something which would probably have been seen as a marginal issue (compared with the diabolically length ‘injury’ list) if we’d not all those weeks ago been led to expect a particular goalkeeper to be signed, I can certainly see the validity of what you say.
I may be slightly prejudiced when it comes to Jack Young because he’s so clearly seen by GA and Dobbo as a future star (and perhaps also because of the way he controlled the midfield against Long Crendon!!) but I thought he did just fine when he came on for a few minutes.
100%, We'll finish where we can and probably where we deserve, and like usual probably ahead of where we sit by wage/fees/attendance numbers, it might be 2nd, 3rd or 12th, but it'll be building sustainably to being even better and still being he here next year, it will also be a mix of entertaining, thrilling and gutting. That's football.
If people wanted to guarantee success they'd probably have chosen Man Utd and be crying anyway.
I don't think we are actually miles away, thought we bossed the first half. The games will come thick and fast now and people will have the chance to step up.
Mawson clearly isn't match fit but filled a gap where needed and showed a nice pass or two, people can moan we should have sorted it earlier although it's unlikely he considered us until those with ability to pay much more had been excluded. Hopefully he'll show over a year or maybe two that it's worth it.
FFS, it’s quite clear there are 2x camps on the keeper thing, in that case on the one month / emergency loan / whatever then we need a proper GK in for longer.
Personally, the camp that feel there is no problem need to watch a bit more off the ball football rather than follow the ball around the pitch for 90 mins.
You are aware that we scraped into the playoffs last season aren’t you? Every point throughout the season is just as valuable and this genuinely could cost us in the same way as having Stewart on the bench and shipping 5 against Cheltenham.
He’s isn’t ready for this level end of, and whilst he wasn’t directly at fault for either goal he was nowhere near commanding enough throughout and that puts a hell of a lot of pressure onto your outfield players.
I don’t think the first goal would have happened with a better keeper based on couple of minutes football played before it and how our defensive unit were set up off the ball at that point.
… awaits 3x thumbs down from the 3 people have disagreed with every negative goalkeeper post this weekend!
Watch our defenders and GK closer throughout 90mins and not just when the ball pops into the box. Even watch their communication, body shape / language and positioning when the ball enters our final third, then you may understand where some of us are coming from.
I may be wrong (it has been known) but I got the impression from Alfie’s interview with @bluntphil that he’s here to stay. Even at the relatively young age of 28 there may not be a huge amount in the tank if the knee problems are chronic (and it does sound suspiciously as though that is the case).
Crikey, I was just wondering how I would feel if I was a highly experienced and successful professional footballer and some old boy was discussing my future on a fans’ forum.
just shows how much we love ya, Alfie, and how much we hope you stay beyond this season.
Not to put words into @ReturnToSenda ’s mouth but if he is similar to me, then the point is nothing to do with cutting Tyla some slack and I fully understand, accept and agree that ALL players need to be given the opportunity to make mistakes so they can learn from them and become better.
We all do as people in every day life.
The point is though, the lad should not be put in the position that he is in right now as he isn’t ready. When the keeper situation is sorted, I’d bet he doesn’t even get a loan to the Conference (or whatever it’s called). If he did, he will struggle to play unless it’s an emergency loan.
Will he be a better keeper in the future for this experience? Yes, more than likely.
Is playing him now when he is out of his depth (in lots of peoples opinion near me yesterday) making it harder for us to get promoted this season? Yes, more than likely.
Their "woefully sub-per keeper" earns £375k per week, Tyla reportedly £460 per week. Which keeper is the better value! And incidentally remember we are trying to sign the 4th ranked behing their woefull keeper!
By the way, surely responding to my original post IS giving me the time of the day. I would suggest that you get off your high horse occasionally!
And how many people said Stockdale was finished and AllDrop was rubbish and Scott Brown even worse every time a goal went in...
The main point being it's obviously not wether we need to get a new Goalie or not, Its wether there is value in waiting (gambling) presumably about a month for the one you want if you rate your up and coming reserve. He hasn't played badly tbh but if he did then maybe it becomes a mistake but you should be able to see why.
It's not like we are going to go to a L1 team and nick their best goalie.
If we'd taken a chance or two in the first half we probably would have been out of sight but I don't get how people think we can either attract or afford a proven striker just to fill in if Vokes and Hanlan are injured.
We can knee jerk and get better for the next game or trust the guy that gets you better for a decade. Or are we at risk of going out of the league? Must have missed that.
How has he had all summer btw, goes from 2 transfer lists if we get up or stay down not including Goalie as no need to agreeing the signing of his target who gets held up.
@Micra The Bishop deal was 99% done but stopped at the very last minute by one individual at United. We could not have forseen this but perhaps should have looked at other options as the situation dragged on.
Bobby C was certainly not meant to be disrespectful, he is certainly one of us when it comes to the desire to succeed. Some people are very easily offended these days. I am old fashioned but clearly not as old fashioned as you Mr Micra.
If we can’t put away teams like Shrewsbury at home we are really going to struggle to make the play offs again. They were a really poor outfit and like Burton will probably end up in the bottom four.
Dickinson does not inspire me with confidence yet, I have the same feeling watching him as Alex Lynch.
Forino was excellent again and improves every game. I am always quite impressed when JJ deputises as a centre back as he reads the game well, and is good in the air. The downside to his game, exposed again yesterday, is his slow turning circle and poor pace…if he had been quicker in this department he would have surely played at a higher level. The defending that gave away the penalty was horrendous.
Scowen Mehmeti and Wing were excellent, as was McClearly, but we seriously lacked a target man…Mellor is not the answer in that department, lacks physicality and didn’t win any headers that I recall, but did well to wrestle the ball away from the defender prior to McClearys goal. He’s obviously a promising player but not a centre forward.
Wish we could get to Exeter but the road networks at night are a nightmare with so many closures can mean a very long trip home. We went away to Morecambe for an evening game a few years ago and ended back at home at 5.30am because of closures and diversions everywhere.
Early days still…we went from 6th at one point yesterday after McClearys goal to 18th at the end of the game!
The GK issue does seem to have become an unnecessarily divisive issue and it’s a little disappointing that we seem to have become increasingly disrespectful of each other’s opinions and comments on here of late.
It isn’t a binary issue - we are all probably at different shades of the spectrum between ‘Tyla’s doing great, leave him alone’ and ‘the club have really f****d up leaving us with an incompetent kid in goal’ viewpoints.
I do find it a little disappointing how angry some of the, usually sane, calm and balanced posters appear (in the context of their posts) at the moment.
We are talking about football. It’s a game for our entertainment (sometimes). We may get promoted this season. We may not. We may get relegated this season. We may not.
Unless something serious happens in the world beyond football, hopefully this time next year we (or most of us) will still all be on here discussing our prospects in League 1 (probably), the Championship (hopefully) or League 2 (potentially).
That’s enough for me to feel happy about.
Chill and enjoy this years ride on the roller coaster. Just close your eyes for the scary bits of you don’t like it.
And just take a look over your shoulders to the Oblivion ride. There are always some clubs fans halfway down that vertical drop to lift your spirits (hello MK & MU!)
I think we played well yesterday. We were undone by two soft goals but that's the nature of the game. If we continue to perform to that standard I believe we'll be fine. Mawson looked assured when he came on, so I hope he starts at Exeter.
a) what has happened to cause experienced senior defenders to keep making the sort of mistakes we have seen in all 3 games so far this season. I am particualrly concerned with JJ and am worried that his legs have gone, but maybe its just the shortened pre-season.
b) Tyla has been thrown in at the deep, but the management clearly trust him to do a job, however his defenders do not yet as they are over compensating for his lack of experience and ending up getting in each others way. They need to learn to trust him or he and they will ultimately end up failing.
The whole transfer saga with Bishop is a royal pain in the arse, but it is not why we have lost twice so far this season and as others have said the management seem happy with Tyla as the Plan B.
Mawson's signing was a masterstroke, much like Vokes was previously & if he turns out half as good as Vokes we really will have a solid CB line up. As for Taffs I really do wish people would stop making up their own stories or relaying what some no-mark down the pub said; Taffs was sat in the stand, just in front of the commentary position yesterday, as @bluntphil mentioned on a number of occassions during commentary, he even said he was happily chatting with fans...
Bit harsh that. JJ was largely majestic at centre half yesterday. Like a lower league Cannavaro in the way he used his experience and guile to outfox younger and physically bigger opponents
Yes it was a bad error for the penalty. He simply shouldn’t have done it, but given his age and heat I’m quite happy to put it down to tiredness. There’s no need for a narrative about seasoned players suddenly making mistakes or his legs having gone which I’m not sure there’s really much evidence to support.
Comments
We are a L1 team who have had three good seasons, improving each year and getting rewards above the odds and for me if we don't get relegated anything over and above that is gravy.
The mosquito whine of 'But the chairman said he wants blaaaaaaaaaah...' is all just noise to me. The myth that GA has anything 'in the bank' with some fans is laid tediously bare every season/transfer window and is just becoming a bore. Same arguments with the same people...myself included.
Bit of a stretch to blame chaos at Manchester United for ‘damaging’ our club and to assume that Nathan Bishop (and only Nathan Bishop) has been the target can only be described as speculation.
As for your second sentence, suggesting that the Chairman had described Bishop as “a done deal”, I am at a loss to recall any statement by the Chairman or anyone else to that effect.
Call me old-fashioned but it seems to me unnecessarily disrespectful to refer to our well respected Chairman as Bobby C. 😉
The makeshift defence hasn't helped, but the 'keeper also has to protect the defence in a way. Same principle applies to all lines of the team.
What would you call De Gea's keeping recently?
You clearly have a personal issue with Tyla's ability, but it is a shame you can't cut him a bit of slack in view of his age and lack of experience.
What's Man United's woefully sub-par goalkeeper got to do with this?
I'm not gonna give your nonsense accusations the time of the day.
Interesting comment. I hadn’t thought of it like that but, thinking back to the relentless outpourings of discontent over something which would probably have been seen as a marginal issue (compared with the diabolically length ‘injury’ list) if we’d not all those weeks ago been led to expect a particular goalkeeper to be signed, I can certainly see the validity of what you say.
I may be slightly prejudiced when it comes to Jack Young because he’s so clearly seen by GA and Dobbo as a future star (and perhaps also because of the way he controlled the midfield against Long Crendon!!) but I thought he did just fine when he came on for a few minutes.
100%, We'll finish where we can and probably where we deserve, and like usual probably ahead of where we sit by wage/fees/attendance numbers, it might be 2nd, 3rd or 12th, but it'll be building sustainably to being even better and still being he here next year, it will also be a mix of entertaining, thrilling and gutting. That's football.
If people wanted to guarantee success they'd probably have chosen Man Utd and be crying anyway.
I don't think we are actually miles away, thought we bossed the first half. The games will come thick and fast now and people will have the chance to step up.
Mawson clearly isn't match fit but filled a gap where needed and showed a nice pass or two, people can moan we should have sorted it earlier although it's unlikely he considered us until those with ability to pay much more had been excluded. Hopefully he'll show over a year or maybe two that it's worth it.
FFS, it’s quite clear there are 2x camps on the keeper thing, in that case on the one month / emergency loan / whatever then we need a proper GK in for longer.
Personally, the camp that feel there is no problem need to watch a bit more off the ball football rather than follow the ball around the pitch for 90 mins.
You are aware that we scraped into the playoffs last season aren’t you? Every point throughout the season is just as valuable and this genuinely could cost us in the same way as having Stewart on the bench and shipping 5 against Cheltenham.
He’s isn’t ready for this level end of, and whilst he wasn’t directly at fault for either goal he was nowhere near commanding enough throughout and that puts a hell of a lot of pressure onto your outfield players.
I don’t think the first goal would have happened with a better keeper based on couple of minutes football played before it and how our defensive unit were set up off the ball at that point.
… awaits 3x thumbs down from the 3 people have disagreed with every negative goalkeeper post this weekend!
Watch our defenders and GK closer throughout 90mins and not just when the ball pops into the box. Even watch their communication, body shape / language and positioning when the ball enters our final third, then you may understand where some of us are coming from.
I think you are forgetting the camp that listened when the manager said he was trying to get someone in and they should be along soon.
They should have been along three weeks ago
I may be wrong (it has been known) but I got the impression from Alfie’s interview with @bluntphil that he’s here to stay. Even at the relatively young age of 28 there may not be a huge amount in the tank if the knee problems are chronic (and it does sound suspiciously as though that is the case).
Crikey, I was just wondering how I would feel if I was a highly experienced and successful professional footballer and some old boy was discussing my future on a fans’ forum.
just shows how much we love ya, Alfie, and how much we hope you stay beyond this season.
Hi @mooneyman it’s quite clear I’m also in @ReturnToSenda ’s viewpoint on the GK.
Not to put words into @ReturnToSenda ’s mouth but if he is similar to me, then the point is nothing to do with cutting Tyla some slack and I fully understand, accept and agree that ALL players need to be given the opportunity to make mistakes so they can learn from them and become better.
We all do as people in every day life.
The point is though, the lad should not be put in the position that he is in right now as he isn’t ready. When the keeper situation is sorted, I’d bet he doesn’t even get a loan to the Conference (or whatever it’s called). If he did, he will struggle to play unless it’s an emergency loan.
Will he be a better keeper in the future for this experience? Yes, more than likely.
Is playing him now when he is out of his depth (in lots of peoples opinion near me yesterday) making it harder for us to get promoted this season? Yes, more than likely.
HAD ALL FUCKING SUMMER!!! It is possible to have more than 1 GK in your squad over the age of 20! Wasn’t long ago we had Alsopp AND Stocko
Plan B should have been an experienced 3rd choice type Premier League or Championship keeper. Tyla was always going to be number 2
Their "woefully sub-per keeper" earns £375k per week, Tyla reportedly £460 per week. Which keeper is the better value! And incidentally remember we are trying to sign the 4th ranked behing their woefull keeper!
By the way, surely responding to my original post IS giving me the time of the day. I would suggest that you get off your high horse occasionally!
And how many people said Stockdale was finished and AllDrop was rubbish and Scott Brown even worse every time a goal went in...
The main point being it's obviously not wether we need to get a new Goalie or not, Its wether there is value in waiting (gambling) presumably about a month for the one you want if you rate your up and coming reserve. He hasn't played badly tbh but if he did then maybe it becomes a mistake but you should be able to see why.
It's not like we are going to go to a L1 team and nick their best goalie.
If we'd taken a chance or two in the first half we probably would have been out of sight but I don't get how people think we can either attract or afford a proven striker just to fill in if Vokes and Hanlan are injured.
We can knee jerk and get better for the next game or trust the guy that gets you better for a decade. Or are we at risk of going out of the league? Must have missed that.
How has he had all summer btw, goes from 2 transfer lists if we get up or stay down not including Goalie as no need to agreeing the signing of his target who gets held up.
@Micra The Bishop deal was 99% done but stopped at the very last minute by one individual at United. We could not have forseen this but perhaps should have looked at other options as the situation dragged on.
Bobby C was certainly not meant to be disrespectful, he is certainly one of us when it comes to the desire to succeed. Some people are very easily offended these days. I am old fashioned but clearly not as old fashioned as you Mr Micra.
My take on yesterday for what it’s worth.
If we can’t put away teams like Shrewsbury at home we are really going to struggle to make the play offs again. They were a really poor outfit and like Burton will probably end up in the bottom four.
Dickinson does not inspire me with confidence yet, I have the same feeling watching him as Alex Lynch.
Forino was excellent again and improves every game. I am always quite impressed when JJ deputises as a centre back as he reads the game well, and is good in the air. The downside to his game, exposed again yesterday, is his slow turning circle and poor pace…if he had been quicker in this department he would have surely played at a higher level. The defending that gave away the penalty was horrendous.
Scowen Mehmeti and Wing were excellent, as was McClearly, but we seriously lacked a target man…Mellor is not the answer in that department, lacks physicality and didn’t win any headers that I recall, but did well to wrestle the ball away from the defender prior to McClearys goal. He’s obviously a promising player but not a centre forward.
Wish we could get to Exeter but the road networks at night are a nightmare with so many closures can mean a very long trip home. We went away to Morecambe for an evening game a few years ago and ended back at home at 5.30am because of closures and diversions everywhere.
Early days still…we went from 6th at one point yesterday after McClearys goal to 18th at the end of the game!
COYB.
The GK issue does seem to have become an unnecessarily divisive issue and it’s a little disappointing that we seem to have become increasingly disrespectful of each other’s opinions and comments on here of late.
It isn’t a binary issue - we are all probably at different shades of the spectrum between ‘Tyla’s doing great, leave him alone’ and ‘the club have really f****d up leaving us with an incompetent kid in goal’ viewpoints.
I do find it a little disappointing how angry some of the, usually sane, calm and balanced posters appear (in the context of their posts) at the moment.
We are talking about football. It’s a game for our entertainment (sometimes). We may get promoted this season. We may not. We may get relegated this season. We may not.
Unless something serious happens in the world beyond football, hopefully this time next year we (or most of us) will still all be on here discussing our prospects in League 1 (probably), the Championship (hopefully) or League 2 (potentially).
That’s enough for me to feel happy about.
Chill and enjoy this years ride on the roller coaster. Just close your eyes for the scary bits of you don’t like it.
And just take a look over your shoulders to the Oblivion ride. There are always some clubs fans halfway down that vertical drop to lift your spirits (hello MK & MU!)
You're talking bollocks with these 'personal issue' accusations
The big takeaway for me from pre-season is how little credit GA seems to have with some sections of our support. It’s very disappointing.
The value of quality players is in every aspect of their game. It's not just about necessarily costing us a goal.
When we have a quality keeper and the first choice 10 on field,.we'll be an absolute beast of a team.
I think we played well yesterday. We were undone by two soft goals but that's the nature of the game. If we continue to perform to that standard I believe we'll be fine. Mawson looked assured when he came on, so I hope he starts at Exeter.
My concerns for the team at the moment are
a) what has happened to cause experienced senior defenders to keep making the sort of mistakes we have seen in all 3 games so far this season. I am particualrly concerned with JJ and am worried that his legs have gone, but maybe its just the shortened pre-season.
b) Tyla has been thrown in at the deep, but the management clearly trust him to do a job, however his defenders do not yet as they are over compensating for his lack of experience and ending up getting in each others way. They need to learn to trust him or he and they will ultimately end up failing.
The whole transfer saga with Bishop is a royal pain in the arse, but it is not why we have lost twice so far this season and as others have said the management seem happy with Tyla as the Plan B.
Mawson's signing was a masterstroke, much like Vokes was previously & if he turns out half as good as Vokes we really will have a solid CB line up. As for Taffs I really do wish people would stop making up their own stories or relaying what some no-mark down the pub said; Taffs was sat in the stand, just in front of the commentary position yesterday, as @bluntphil mentioned on a number of occassions during commentary, he even said he was happily chatting with fans...
Bit harsh that. JJ was largely majestic at centre half yesterday. Like a lower league Cannavaro in the way he used his experience and guile to outfox younger and physically bigger opponents
Yes it was a bad error for the penalty. He simply shouldn’t have done it, but given his age and heat I’m quite happy to put it down to tiredness. There’s no need for a narrative about seasoned players suddenly making mistakes or his legs having gone which I’m not sure there’s really much evidence to support.
Lol, how did this get a thumb down?
If the heat taken that much of a toll on him, shouldn't he have been subbed off?
Possibly, but they were all absolutely knackered by the end. How could we have known who to take off without a crystal ball.
It was a bad error, but it doesn’t make me worry at all about JJ. He’s got plenty to offer still.