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Post by RonD on Apr 7, 2017 8:33:44 GMT
A year on how do people see the current state of the club . . . as was, worse or in a far better place?
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Post by Harry Lime on Apr 7, 2017 9:25:59 GMT
Better.
We've a stability now. Macca has improved most of the players, and brought a consistency lacking previously.
We're developing a reputation for developing young players and giving them game time, that will encourage more young players to sign. Their agents will be happier for them to come too. That is the way we build as a club.
After years of constant squad rebuilding, we have a core set of players and a manager that knows what he wants to build.
Ignore the apparent good and bad spells of form for a moment. This season we've beaten most of the bottom sides, and lost to most of those at the top. That's why we are midtable.
Do we get more player per pound than other teams in this league? Probably. Apparently Bromley have recently reduced their budget to £550k after unloading a couple of players. That puts things into perspective. Southport are reputed a bigger budget than us. As a player who would you rather play for?
Some people seem to have unreasonable expectations.
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Post by Rio Doherty on Apr 7, 2017 9:52:04 GMT
Better.
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Post by Si on Apr 7, 2017 10:32:56 GMT
After the debacle of last season then the goal for this season was always to stay up, especially after losing the likes of Hannah, Rooney and Henegan. I wanted to see a team that are properly prepared tactically, and give their all for the shirt - I think we can say we've had that pretty much. The season almost feels like a disappointment as we overachieved in the first half which raised everyone's expectations but unfortunately we've fallen short since Christmas. The reasons behind this.....lack of recruitment in January, injuries to key players, inevitable dips in form, unnecessary tinkering with tactics, and too much faith in players that hadn't shown enough quality.
Overall I'm happy to see the progress since then but there are concerns for me - we are likely to be losing key players like Hughes and Alabi, and Macca's recruitment success is a little patchy to say the least so we'll have to hope that he can unearth some gems to replace those guys. The noises from the club that the majority of the club will be offered new deals - I'm sorry but there's a few that either don't deserve new contracts or we should at least bide our time and see if we can find improvements in the summer. And perhaps the biggest concern is the home form in recent months, showing teams far too much respect and camping in our own half - it might work away from home but at home our crowds are dwindling and that style of football really isn't helping, especially as it's not yielding any success. I take pleasure in grinding out gritty wins but its not like those tactics are working for us, I'd rather see us play like we did earlier in the season when we'd take the games to teams more.
I think it's important to recognize that we achieved and probably exceeded our season expectations and Macca deserves a lot of credit for that, but we must improve a lot if we're to avoid a relegation battle next season and ideally bring in some decent signings to boost enthusiasm going into the new campaign.
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Post by billyw on Apr 7, 2017 11:30:41 GMT
Well for a start, we are in a higher league than we would have been had Burr not been sacked.
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Post by Dodge on Apr 7, 2017 12:05:46 GMT
After the debacle of last season then the goal for this season was always to stay up, especially after losing the likes of Hannah, Rooney and Henegan. I wanted to see a team that are properly prepared tactically, and give their all for the shirt - I think we can say we've had that pretty much. The season almost feels like a disappointment as we overachieved in the first half which raised everyone's expectations but unfortunately we've fallen short since Christmas. The reasons behind this.....lack of recruitment in January, injuries to key players, inevitable dips in form, unnecessary tinkering with tactics, and too much faith in players that hadn't shown enough quality. Overall I'm happy to see the progress since then but there are concerns for me - we are likely to be losing key players like Hughes and Alabi, and Macca's recruitment success is a little patchy to say the least so we'll have to hope that he can unearth some gems to replace those guys. The noises from the club that the majority of the club will be offered new deals - I'm sorry but there's a few that either don't deserve new contracts or we should at least bide our time and see if we can find improvements in the summer. And perhaps the biggest concern is the home form in recent months, showing teams far too much respect and camping in our own half - it might work away from home but at home our crowds are dwindling and that style of football really isn't helping, especially as it's not yielding any success. I take pleasure in grinding out gritty wins but its not like those tactics are working for us, I'd rather see us play like we did earlier in the season when we'd take the games to teams more. I think it's important to recognize that we achieved and probably exceeded our season expectations and Macca deserves a lot of credit for that, but we must improve a lot if we're to avoid a relegation battle next season and ideally bring in some decent signings to boost enthusiasm going into the new campaign. I don't recall us "taking the game to teams" in the first half of the season whatsoever, I can recall games during that good run of form against Torquay and Braintree where we ground out 1-0 wins against a barrage of pressure, in fact even during the 4-0 win against Sutton and the 5-0 win against Dover we camped in our own half and caught them on the break. In answer to the opening post, we're obviously in a much better position. I think if we were on the exact same points that we are now but the wins and losses were more evenly spread across the season instead of an amazing run followed by a poor run, then it would be easier to be objective about the season. Because we had such a good run of form which raised expectations, then had such a poor run of form which brought us all crashing down again the season feels like a failure when in fact it's not. At the start of the season we all (bar the obvious posters) would have taken being safe with 6 games to go and a chance to finish in the top half and above the mighty goats. |
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Post by sirfred on Apr 8, 2017 7:18:09 GMT
It's a tough one league position wise we are obviously better than last year but if you look at all the empty seats and spaces around you on match day we are struggling - the style of football may be slightly more effective but it's not very entertaining hence 600 drop in home support
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Post by TheTheremin on Apr 8, 2017 10:37:02 GMT
Better.
We'd be in Conference North.
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Post by Arrogant Blue on Apr 8, 2017 11:05:01 GMT
Please see Southport FC for answer.
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Post by CH3STER on Apr 8, 2017 12:40:22 GMT
Better. We've a stability now. Macca has improved most of the players, and brought a consistency lacking previously. We're developing a reputation for developing young players and giving them game time, that will encourage more young players to sign. Their agents will be happier for them to come too. That is the way we build as a club. After years of constant squad rebuilding, we have a core set of players and a manager that knows what he wants to build. Ignore the apparent good and bad spells of form for a moment. This season we've beaten most of the bottom sides, and lost to most of those at the top. That's why we are midtable. Do we get more player per pound than other teams in this league? Probably. Apparently Bromley have recently reduced their budget to £550k after unloading a couple of players. That puts things into perspective. Southport are reputed a bigger budget than us. As a player who would you rather play for? Some people seem to have unreasonable expectations. Top post 👏👏 |
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