Thetownend.com

be honest now

I think this thread is shit.

That felt good to get that off my chest, thanks!

please expand?

I've always thought mid table and nothing has made me change my mind as of yet.

This thread is silly.

again flash. explain why

Maybe you've just worded it badly, but the OP and poll seems to imply that we are definitely in for a bad season and people thought otherwise were wrong to do so.

In which case... this thread is silly.

Yeah boi

so you believed from pre season and pre season transfer dealings we were in for something better??

I didn't form an opinion either way, that would be ridiculous.

Just a little  more ridiculous as deciding that we are in for a shit season on the back of a couple of bad games.

Again, this thread is silly.

I remember a couple of seasons ago that we were going great. It was about Xmas time and I posted a thread asking if we could actually do something special.

The general consensus was positive, yet people were quick to warn that it was too early to get excited. They were right.

That was in December. It is now September.

Again. This thread is silly. Very, very silly.

Woooooop

flash this is the TEF which forms 80% bollox. :)

but on topic. this season is and will be a complete hash. A chairman who is treating the club as a milking cow and a squad which can't be half arssed. I'm sorry but i cannot see how we can be anything better than bottom half this season.

We try and adopt a fluid footballing team but can't pass to each other!!. We get caught out too often. make stupid passes (Bury's second) (Oxfords Second) all because we want to play football. Bollox mate. this is league one and we are not good enough to fanny around on the ball.

We haven't the manager to push the players further. no disrespect to Williams but this team is a power team. he pulls the strings and williams is the puppet. It's shit and will be shit until things change.

Put yer hands up...

so you'd rather wait till we are half way through the season to make a change???

Fucking power

sippo i'm probably as pissed as you and am actually putting my hands up :)

What?

have you been at Alan's cider or something? You usually make sense.

I'll leave you to it, I have tanks to blow up.

Snap!

That's a tune

well I agree with this :pint:

Alan partridge?

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

so do we change now or wait?

this is what i was referring too.

p.s. i don't like cider :)

This poll is a definition of confirmation bias. Sorry, I won't feed your existing prejudice. I'm out.

You must be well hammered if you are that confused.

Fair play.

probably Flash. I'm just completely fucked off with our situation. Well and truly fucked off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bihoNRc8GDQ

For L1 we have some decent players - brought to the club because, in Power/Williams' opinion, they suit the present system.

Even allowing for opinions that the system doesn't work often enough, I doubt those same players could succeed as 442 hoofers.

Change is all well and good if it's planned change - not just knee-jerk.

 Tuesday is massive. 

Lose by a few and we sink into the relegation zone, it may be early doors, but Power will have a decision to make about the leadership of the side....

Oh I can't see a poll on tapatalk.

Thought Swindon were good in the second half.  Bury fan I spoke to on the train on the way back to London thought that our second half display was of one of the best he's seen in L1 this season.  I was impressed with Furlong and think Murray will prove to be a good buy.  A bit underwhelmed by Delfouneso, but early days; he just doesn't seem very predatory.  Apart from the sluggish start, I was particularly annoyed by the lack of discipline.  Kasim was lucky not to be sent off for his challenge.  Hopefully the point has been made that lunging into tackles does not equate to showing 'passion'.

We've won 4 of the last 19 under LW. Unless that changes pronto, Power will need to make a decision....that sort of form only leads to one thing in an attritional league like Div3.

Well he would say that wouldn't he ,his team won.

bloody hell, these threads make no sense when you can't see the polls in the app I use!

Fuck is it really 4 from 19? I was actually thinking the same thing he needs a few results, but didnt realise the % win ratio is hovering at 20

Tbf to LW, his overall league record since taking over from Lingy is P 29, W10 D9 L10. Which is OK mid table form. It's just there was a decent run when he took over, but it's faded a bit of of late.

I'd be more convinced if we looked to be improving, but the same problems keep rearing their head....for example only 2 away wins in that lot.

Was having an interesting discussion earlier...

We've had a problem with getting bullied for a few years now. Cooper adressed this problem by having us call otheer teams on it and overemphasise this to referees (a kind way to say play acting).

Is it time to do this again? Will Henry got elbowed in the face yesterday yet got straight back up. Vigs got a boot to the face at Oxford and.. well we know how that ended. If we're getting kicked off the park then maybe its time to play on this...

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24388093

See Jed did do good things......  ;) :D

That tackle by Davies on Thompson was a shocker, experienced player deliberately injuring a young lad, despicable.

We do seem very naive, against the Posh their experienced strikers were putting it about all over the place but going down like a sack of spuds and winning free kicks if they were even touched we need to learn some cynicism in our game.

Personally, I think we're fine. The big problem is the drop off in attendances.  Regular sub-7000 crowds isn't just down to results.

The 4 from 19 comes after the signing of a 5 year contract

cooper out!

Popes on JSW wasn't far off. He went in to hurt him and completely got away with it. His tackle on Thompson at the end was also made with no attempt to get the ball.

I wouldn't read too much into to it. There's only been 3 games. Some figures:

Our average so far has been 7,364. Including Bury and Vale which were never going to see big crowds. Coventry saw a decent crowd.

Last years average after 3 games was 7,910. A bit of a drop, but those games did include Bradford and Sheff Utd. Vale saw a crowd of just over 7k

Last year's average for the SAME games at home was 7,378. An average attendance of just 14 more than the same games his season.

While the figures for this season don't include an evening game, they don't include the rovers game either.

It doesn't look good at face value but with a little digging it's not nearly as dramatic as it first appears. In fact, had the Rovers game not been abandoned we would likely have seen an INCREASE overall for the same games and perhaps also for the first 4, but acts of god and all that.

Good point.

The cynic in thinks that players aften run around a bit for a caretaker, especially a nice guy, as they fear they might end up with a PdC, so better the devil you know.  It's a bit like Phelan at Hull, now he's got the job I expect their performances will bomb.

A canny operator would realise this, play the nice guy to get the job, then turn psycho.

I don't suppose we do much work on the dark arts at all. Tails mentioned the naive responses of Vigs and Henry to getting respectively clogged and elbowed.

Surprising, that! Suppose tomorrow's attendance - minus STs - is free money. If we get, say, 7500 it would mean the equivalent of adding approx 200 to the season's eventual attendance average.

I'm still not sure Williams knows his best midfield combo. I think there should be a spot for Goddard but God knows where.

free money - above covering costs

Our average over the whole of last years was 7.409. At 7,364 we are currently just a smidgen below that.

They're meaningless stats really as the sample size is so small, but that's pretty much the point I am making.

Last season there were no derbys, also of the teams going well, Barnsley were only just above us, having won in mid week when they visited in Jan, Burton only have a few fans, Wigan being the curio as they brought more than you'd usually expect for them.

So this season with derbies, with perhaps the competing clubs going well bringing a fair few, that should compensate for the fall off in Town fans. Scunny look like the team to beat atm....when do we go there...conceded 12 goals on our last 3 visits  :(

October 29th

Hopefully they'll have run out of steam by then.

In our record-breaking 85-86 season after 7 games we had 7 points and were 21st in the league.

I appreciate it was Division 4 in the '80's and the  team played under the threat of being sent by Macari to the Army camp,but the point remains,there's always a place for hope and positive thinking.

You will get to understand Reg

I understand fully my friend.  

Let's consider the analogy...the previous season to 85/86, we had been very modest for long periods, leading funnily enough to a 6 goal drubbing at Scunny, a result along with other factors which provided the Board with reason to sack Macari....we all know he was re-instated after fan protest. Reason, fans could see enough evidence that things were improving albeit slowly.

The evidence presented to fans atm is that things are getting worse....now it's not yet terminal, but some sort of evidence of progress will be needed....lose by a few tomorrow and we slip into the drop zone, now for me I'd still entertain hope that we might get out like last season, and this provides the focus for the season.

I'm happy with that. I support a Div 3 club, that has generally struggled apart from the odd period, when things have been rosier.

It may be however that we'll need a change of manager to ensure our Div 3 survival....I'm not convinced that LW is the man, hopefully he proves he is starting Tuesday.

I think we are where I expected us. Judging Power purely on the time since he's been here you'd probably argue the team on the pitch has gone backwards. A couple of top 8 finishes in the first couple of seasons followed by 16th place last season & based on what we've seen so far I'd say we are likely to finish around the same sort of position. Although I'm aware we are only 6 weeks into the season and there is plenty of time for that to change.

What pisses me off the most is our inability to change or learn from our mistakes. We are now into our 4th season of Power's pretty football and we still continue to make the same mistakes week in week out. You can guarantee we gift the opposition at least 3-4 chances per game because of our sloppy ball retention or passing.

The only part of the team where we are weaker than last is up front.

We are better at the back, have great options in midfield but are, Obika apart, toothless in attack.

I'm convinced it's not the players available that's the problem - it's how Williams sets them up. After so many games using the 352 system it must be apparent it will not get us out of L1 - in the right direction, anyhow.

"we have a way of playing, a style, we won't change that"

No matter how much we as fans want it, its not going to happen.

It probably suits our MO to be honest, where we pick up players that have spent the last few years at some academy playing flicky fanny football.

I think the evidence for this season points to the problem being at the other end....we're the 3rd lowest scorers in the Div.

Have only scored 2 once, one a pen and an OG, and have a leading scorer with 2, one a pen, now out for a while. 

Jon Obika, can maybe help out here, and I'm not sure what's happened to Jordan Young, but if Norris, Delfouneso and Hylton score more than 10 between them I'll be majorly surprised. Obviously hopes are that Goddard can wade in with a few from midfield, as he did for Woking, and you can see he's bright, but like a lot of our lads physically slight, so that's something he'll have to work on.

I'm going for a top 10 finish. Crazy optimism, I know

Then, you have to ask the question is that style intended to progress the club or just some player's careers.

I think it's intended to do three things 1) attract players that have been released from academies 2) make them look good for resale 3) progress the club by making it look like an attractive place to send loans/hoover up rejects of a quality that may have ended up elsewhere had we not done so, and on the cheap too.

I have my doubts about it progressing the club personally. But I can sort of see sense in the philosophy if not fully buy into it.

It's intention is to be successful utilising a small budget. Younger players are cheaper, easier to mould and develop (so a sell on fee is likely) and most young players nowadays are trained to play a certain way. It's the smartest model we've used since I've been a Town fan. Club doesn't generate much income (pretty sure it runs at a loss) so it's our only chance of going up. I understand the frustration of Town fans who are very short minded (well most football fans are tbh) but it makes sense to me. Power invests when he's keen on a player. It makes us attractive to young players too, as they see it as a chance to grow and get a good move. Williams is therefore essential as he is a very good coach and comes with a great reputation which makes us more appealing.

8th and 4th on a shoe string budget was impressive. Blip last year but with all the injuries we had all season and massive turnover of personnel it was always going to be tough. As I've said before, I think we'll be OK this year. We need to try and settle the squad down a bit, but I've seen enough quality in the team.

My only dislike of this plan is it just shows no long term ambition. Whilst I appreciate the need to survive (and I am also grateful for this), we'll never grow as a club and I fear we'll get left behind. The stadium is falling apart and we need to try and tap into a growing Swindon population but Power seems interested in neither of these things. A new training ground will help, but I think he needs to start thinking about the future a bit more.

The problem with this analysis is yes it worked for a while.....the early success due to Sherwood being at Spurs, and there still being a few players knocking around from the previous PdC regime, but the brief vogue for Spanish style possession football in England has gone.  Look at Roberto Martinez. ...it may have some attraction at the very top end with a fella like Pep, but let's see where that ends up.

On the up are Italian pragmatists like Ranieri, Walter Mazzarri, Antonio Conte....get the defence right 4-4-2, although I believe WM flirts with 3-5-2 on occasions. Guidolin at Swansea, I'm not sure if he's moving them away from how they played under Martinez Rodgers etc.

Pragmatists, like athletes, big strong boys who are quick....it's partly why we had no-one to sell other than NA last season. A 20+ goalscorer will always attract some attention, but he had to stay in Div 3, cos he's a short arse.

That we had no-one to sell represents a failure for Power, more so than our struggle with relegation.

A few years ago Kingy insisted that our youth recruitment should go for big lads....we got Tozer, Morrison and Jutkiewicz, who scored for Brum Sat, probably fetched a combined sum of 8 mill in transfers to us and more so others.

Of what we currently have, Yaser is by far the stand out player, yet because of his style being at odds with the zeitgeist we'll get nowt for him.  Miles away from a fee for the rest.

Players who are taught properly can play any system and the point of what Williams is trying to coach is precisely to teach them to solve problems on the pitch, not play set routine or patterns. It is designed to make them more adaptable and so transferable - if they are good enough (and yes, strong enough) No point buying a L1 player who can't pass in L1, they'll be even worse higher up and so on.

Also most of the coaches you mentioned play and have played 352. Most managers will play multiple systems and the significance of formations is hugely overstated.

I'd agree we look short up top but defensively we still gift goals to the oppo.

Posh's 1st goal, Oxford's & Bury's 2nd. 3 goals gifted in the last 3 games. We don't seem to learn from our carelessness with possession.

I'd call Oxfords 2nd a fluke rather than a gift. 90% of the time that goes anywhere but the net