Quote Originally Posted by the_anticlough View Post
Think back to the period just after we lost Roberts - Nov to early Feb and Halifax away, Chesterfield away win, Wealdstone (win) Woking win, Stockport wins (home and away). And don't discount a) the Daggers performance with 10 men once the midfield was unlocked and those early games with Roberts when it was others shining as well.

There have been games and periods in games where we looked just too good for this league - and although it seems this flew past our own supporters I'm sure it wasn't lost on the rest of the league, who I think will be pretty mystified at our total collapse.

The times we've looked the most creative and potent we had a fluid 4-2-3-1 with Roberts, Boldewijn, Rodrigues, Sam playing behind and in and around the striker (which was Wootton on better form, although it doesn't have to be him, I guess). It fact Wootton seem to thrive when having these creative players around him. I've watched every home game and I know when I've been entertained and when I haven't and it's been when these players were given the freedom to express themselves. It's really not so hard to remember and the film evidence is there.

And the really disappointing thing is that this approach seemed to be what Burchnall was talking about with his 'attacking football' players who like to get on the ball' 'taking risks in the final third'. But no, he wants 5 recognised defenders in a 5-3-2 and the creative players as far away from the team as possible.

Even if it didn't come off, at least we could say we went out having a go instead of the defensive, boring whimper we have gone out with.
I have to say I think you’re remembering some of those games with pretty rose tinted glasses. Of those games you’ve mentioned:

Halifax A - Game they had the better chances in, albeit Turner threw away two points at the end
Woking H - Dull game against a poor team settled by a late goal
Chesterfield A - Deserved to lose, needed two injury time set pieces to bail us out against a team in the relegation zone
Wealdstone H - Good game, but against a team which has conceded about 7 million goals this season and played bizarrely open
Stockport H - Good win, but a game with very few chances
Stockport A - Trophy game against their reserves

I kind of agree that we have the players to be doing much better, and on occasion we have looked fantastic. The problem is that those occasions have generally only lasted for about 20 minutes, let alone a run of games. This suggests to me that there’s a pretty fundamental mentality/structure/whatever problem and it really isn’t a case of just ‘stick those players in those positions and watch us go’.