Quote Originally Posted by tommopie8 View Post
Well the weather isn't going to get any better and Palmer isn't coming back any time soon so for me we need to stop trying to fit square pegs in round holes, protect our defence more and stop inviting pressure.

We cannot carry on our style of play with the central midfielders we have at our disposal at the moment. Gosling is still clearly not fit but I don't want us to suffer whilst getting him fit to leave in January so I'd offer him an extension to the end of the season this week and if he says no - thank you and goodbye and have Cissé in the squad in his stead at least he can run.

We have 3 central defenders starting and yet Nemane is left to battle for a header at the back post.

Langstaff isn't great in the air and he struggles to beat a man when squared up; unless we're putting in 20-30 early crosses and through balls in behind a game we're wasting him. He's our best chance of winning a game and I'd say our style of play actually hinders him as opposed to helping him. Last year we thrived in the second half when teams tired against us but I don't see any evidence that we're capable of maintaining that style for 90 minutes at this level with what we have available.

Losing at home to Mansfield - annoying but understandable they looked incredibly sturdy and took a derby game in their stride.

Losing a tight game at home to Wrexham after a fortunate deflection put them ahead - fine.

Losing to a piss poor Walsall team who'd scored the 3rd least goals in the league whilst looking like a bunch of strangers going through the motions should be the catalyst to look at things and ask are we actually setting up in a way which gives us the best chance at winning the game?

4-2-3-1

Slocombe / Stone
Adebayo-Rowling / Brindley
Baldwin / Macari
Cameron / Rawlinson
Chicksen

O'Brien / Gosling
Bostock / Austin

Nemane / Randall / Adebayo-Rowling
McGoldrick / Crowley
Jones / Randall

Langstaff / Morais / McGoldrick
I've just watched the highlights. For the second Walsall goal, a Walsall player runs past our 32, starting from 3M behind, and ending up 6 or 7M in front. Nothing against this new signing, but he shouldn't be on the pitch ATM.