Romared Match Thoughts Exeter City v Barnsley

[animallittle3]

……. ‘So now you've gone from the Barnsley style to interchangeable’.

Clearly you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, have you ???

Neither have you .

Your knee jerk YN .

Calls for Tedic to start up top for weeks on end last season .

Then when he does wants him pulled off at half-time away from home in the first leg of a Play Off semi final with the score at 0-0 .

Knee Jerk Nudge .

[Barnsley Chop]

Not seen the game but another good 3 points on the road.

Pompey and Oxford Utd doing a Ipswich and Plymouth?

Still early days but from the games I have seen, we are as they say a mixed bag, impressive to mediocre.

[Shadrack the Red]

I enjoyed the game today & for a long time I thought it was going to end up as one of the better 0 v 0 games but despite Exeter hitting the woodwork twice I thought overall we created the more opportunities & eventually one got taken , as usual it appears to be our midfield that created most debate & for my four penneth I thought Russell had one of his poorer games & Styles being pretty ineffective did not influence the game ,although his movement managed to get him on the end of a couple of chances which he will be disappointed that he did not do better with but the one who has consistently been under par this season is Philips , I keep waiting for him to effect a match but he comes on the pitch & seems to go instantly missing , a lot of our fans seem to cut him some slack because he did well for two thirds of last season but to me he has not been at it since last March & I look forward to Connell taking his slot in the near future., back to the actual game & once again our much critiicised defence did the business & I know we defend as a team but the fact that we have only conceded 2 goals in 6 away matches is outstanding,so well done to the lads & the fans who made the long trip , onwards & upwards ,

[animallittle3]

I enjoyed the game today & for a long time I thought it was going to end up as one of the better 0 v 0 games but despite Exeter hitting the woodwork twice I thought overall we created the more opportunities & eventually one got taken , as usual it appears to be our midfield that created most debate & for my four penneth I thought Russell had one of his poorer games & Styles being pretty ineffective did not influence the game ,although his movement managed to get him on the end of a couple of chances which he will be disappointed that he did not do better with but the one who has consistently been under par this season is Philips , I keep waiting for him to effect a match but he comes on the pitch & seems to go instantly missing , a lot of our fans seem to cut him some slack because he did well for two thirds of last season but to me he has not been at it since last March & I look forward to Connell taking his slot in the near future., back to the actual game & once again our much critiicised defence did the business & I know we defend as a team but the fact that we have only conceded 2 goals in 6 away matches is outstanding,so well done to the lads & the fans who made the long trip , onwards & upwards ,

Thought the defending was better today , caught Exeter offside countless times today which shows a level of understanding is emerging .

The French lad looks a player , good spot by the recruitment team on that one .

[perkytyke]

I have to finally credit De Gevigne! He was a class act today and plays out from the back like John Stones. He gets better with each game.
Styles wasn't brilliant today but ran down their attacks and put in a good couple of crunching tackles which we need some times, his off the ball work was solid.
Phillips looks lost when he comes on, like he doesn't know what his role should be?
Once Connell comes back that Midfield should improve massively.

[SBRed48]

Result reminds me of the Fleetwood away game last season with a late winner.

It's the kind of result, with the home team hitting the woodwork twice and probably deserving a draw according some measured reflections on the game, that may well prove important when points are totalled at the end of the season.

Sixte en points out of eighte en possible away from home is outstanding.

Well done Neill and Jon's rampant Men's Team.

[Young_Nudger]

On reflection.
Defence looks solid enough and improving game on game.

Midfield - looks talented but is still all over the place.
Russell - had a solid game in centre midfield - although as the only defensive midfielder he was sometimes bypassed. Taken off during 2nd half to allow Phillips to provide more to the attack.
Kane had a good first half - but when Russell went off he looked lost - as tho he didn’t know from that point what his role was.
He definitely isn’t a central defensive midfielder.
Styles - isn’t a number 10 - good defensively but provides little going forward - and IMO is more suited to playing a central midfield defensive role.
Phillips - again ineffective.

Attack - disjointed.
Individually they all had a decent game but played as tho they had never seen each other before.
Time and time again the passes between our strikers never reached its intended target.

Generally - the players are there to take this league by storm - but we still arn’t clicking as a team.
The slow sideways crab tactics has more or less disappeared - thankfully.
And we are improving slightly each game - but still not as good as what we were last season.

[animallittle3]

I'm as puzzled as I was back in August as to what our best line up and set up is .

It doesn't bother me tuppence whether Collins moves away from the so called " Barnsley Way " that YN consistently alludes to " as I'm not sure it even exists because the recruitment has delivered a squad containing so many different kinds of players .

All I'm interested in is that Collins finds a starting team that consistently wins games of football in a style that suits their attributes .

There is no Barnsley Way or at least if it existed the players brought in this summer wouldn't be here if there was .

Three examples would be O'Keefe , John Mac and Cosgrove .

We play with wing backs , O'Keefe isn't a wing back , he's a right full back .

We play with two up top , John Mac is a ten .

Our two forwards are expected to press , Cosgrove doesn't fit that narrative in my opinion .

You could even argue that the physical presence we had in Thomas , Andersen and Kitching which is a huge attribute in league one hasn't been replicated with the new recruits .

Not saying they are pyss poor by any means that's not what I'm saying but they are different to what we had last season .

Given the evidence I've presented then how can they be a Barnsley Way ?

However as I say all I want to see is the best team out on the pitch that best suits their attributes and consistently wins games of football .

For all that we are getting away with It , we are getting away with It because ..

A , The League is absolute shyte .

B , We probably have the best keeper in the league .

C , There's enough individual ability to just about cover the flaws .

D , Fortune has shone on us at key moments away from home .

For all that we could win the league , we could miss out on the play offs too .

It's that kind of scenario so far .

[Young_Nudger]

Animal = this is the way.
Obviously you haven’t heard a thing the club has been saying.

https://youtu.be/Fs72G3fIlog?si=EXKcU7x0UYK0GqXZ

[animallittle3]

Animal = this is the way.
Obviously you haven’t heard a thing the club has been saying.

https://youtu.be/Fs72G3fIlog?si=EXKcU7x0UYK0GqXZ

Where you and I differ is that I don't take the club's word as the be and end all .

I look at the evidence and the evidence says there's is no link between recruitment and the so called Barnsley Way .

Now you can post ridiculous YouTube videos until the cows come home to support your view but I'll stick to the evidence thanks .

A scatter gun recruitment policy producing a patchwork quilt of players giving a HC a problem finding a consistent winning hand and formation .