Swindon Town Vs Franchise Matchday Thread

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I think Byrne could get a few bids in. But I think a few players would be let go from their contracts like Rodgers...

Yeah, who knows. You're probably right. I think I was just trying to console myself with the fact that we wouldn't be starting completely from scratch next season.

[RobertT]

Assuming the worst, that's a keeper (usually ok to replace), 2 x central defenders and 2 x central midfielders away from being a pretty good side still.  It's a sizeable turnover but quite do-able.  If we get some good money in, again assuming the worst case, we should be able to achieve that and balance the books for Power as well.   I'm not sure it's that much more radical than what we needed to do last year.

We lost (from peak):

Pritchard
Mason (now plying his trade for England)
Stephens (who we got back)
Ajose
Ranger
N'Guessan
McEveley

[JayBox325]

Yeah, who knows. You're probably right. I think I was just trying to console myself with the fact that we wouldn't be starting completely from scratch next season.

Haha. Fair enough. I'm usually Mr. Positive of the group, too. Hopefully MK and United will face eachother in the play off semis. But as I posted a bit earlier, 2nd still isn't completely off. It's just getting harder and harder...

[4D]

Two week breaks don't appear to suit us.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

3 points worth noting after today's game

1. MK got their tactics spot on. When did any of our players get any real time on the ball? The pressing was brilliant. I wish we could press like that. If we could we would be top now. They deserved to win on the day. The better side by a long way.

2. Coopers selection. What was all that about? The formation fair enough but he got the personnel all wrong. Why go with 2 defensive minded players in midfield with only 1 striker? Pick one or the other but not both. He should have started with Toffolo and Willo in my opinion. Smith isn't good enough and Gladwin isn't a wing back. Cooper has to take sole blame tonight.

3. Did the players want it enough? I think no. Now don't get me wrong the effort was there. I'm not saying they didn't try but to win promotion you have to really want it and go for it. We didn't today. We can't go into the play offs with that attitude. We have to win at all costs. Do I think we can? Yes. Am I worried we don't have the right mentality? Yes, very.

[kerry red]

....and then there's Sheffield United.

What's all the Blades phobia about?

we stuffed them 5-2 at home and really should have beaten them away

[CalRed45]

As many have said, even if we did go up, next season would involve a massive amount of rebuild. When Wes, Willo, Stephens, Turnbull, Swift have gone and Luongo has gone to QPR then it is always going to be a tough job rebuilding. But if anyone has proved they can do it, it is Power.

[Benzel]

Cba to read back but whatever happens we've proven what we're about with this model so will be able to bring in players of equal if not higher quality than we have this season.

Ok first half, went backwards in the 2nd but that was largely down to them. Gladwin was great down the left and then was switched to try and get the anonymous Byrne into the game. Shouldve started with Willo or at least got him on at half time.

Onwards, the fight for 2nd continues.

[Pax Romana]

MKD are a good team as proved by their results over the season, losing to them doesn't make failure inevitable.

For me, the game that did make failure inevitable for us was Crawley which was the most dispiriting match I have ever seen watching Swindon.  

Playoffs are won by teams with attitude and the one thing about this team, maybe because of their age or maybe because Cooper is no great motivator is that they are completely and utterly gutless.  The skill and ability are there in abundance, and I'm sure will produce a great performance or two over the last 8 games to give some supporters renewed hope, but it's an illusion.  

It was interesting to read the various analysis on this thread of our potential core squad next season and hopefully we can have a competitive team.  I certainly had my usual "maybe next season can be our season" hope when I renewed my season ticket last week.  But this season died abjectly on Feb 21st and I haven't been since.  There is no such thing as resurrection.  

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

What's all the Blades phobia about?

we stuffed them 5-2 at home and really should have beaten them away

I can just see them coming good for the play offs and playing like they did against Spurs in the Cup. In front of 30,000 Blades fans at Brammall Lane they will be formidable opposition. I think that if we come up against them in the play offs those two games will seem like a life time ago.

Maybe I'm reading too much into yesterday's game but to me, we seem to be way too far away from where we need to be at this stage of the season. I don't see us being able to make up that gap in such a short time frame.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Cooper has done brilliantly this season and I rate him highly. HOWEVER, where he has gone fundamentally wrong (in my humble opinion) is in making too many unforced changes to the starting XI.

The team below played week in, week out over and over again for Ardiles, so much so that it is still etched on my memory now. OK, we got a little bit lucky in terms of injuries and suspensions and I suspect Foley was getting pumped full of Cortisone before every game just to get him through. Even so...

1990 Play Off winning Team
Digby, Kerslake, Bodin, McLouglin, Calderwood, Gittens, Jones, Shearer, White, McLaren, Foley

And look at the '93 play off winning team...
Digby, Kerslake/Summerbee, Bodin, Hoddle, Calderwood, Taylor, Moncur, McLaren, Mitchell, Ling, Maskell

Not quite as settled as the '90 team but not far off. The main change would have been Kerslake going on deadline day and being replaced by Summerbee. Hazard and White played a fair few games as well and McLaren missed a fair bit of the season but once he was fit, he was a fixture in the side. Overall though, it was a pretty settled side.

And the the '10 team (yes we lost in the Final but were easily good enough to have won the play offs. God knows what went wrong)...

Lucas, Amankwah, Sheehan, Greer, Jean-Francois, McGovern, Ferry, Douglas, Ward, Austin, Paynter.

The point is, those teams largely picked themselves and that's what you need for a successful tilt at promotion. We've not been close to that this season.

[Batch]

Maybe I'm reading too much into yesterday's game but to me, we seem to be way too far away from where we need to be at this stage of the season.

That's not a ridiculous analysis, but I will say that I thought that when we missed on promotion under Wilson, and when we played Brentford.

Yes Millwall dicked us, but I didn't think we'd beat Charlton. When we went down to 10 men it was game over. Except the opposite happened.

Playing Brentford I thought we'd end up totally outplayed. Our "last 10" record was W3 D2 L5 . In the end IMHO we probably edged the ties, yes we went out on pens - but we could have won it.

Not the best examples given they ended in failure, just saying its not always obvious how the playoffs will go.
--------
Totally agree about the team tinkering though.

[Costanza]

What's all the Blades phobia about?

we stuffed them 5-2 at home and really should have beaten them away

It's not a phobia but Sheffield United (and Bradford) have proved themselves to be more than handy within cup scenarios over the past couple of seasons. 

[kerry red]

Anyway, if Preston lose at Bradford tomorrow, it's as you were.

And don't forget, the 82ers aren't playing that well at the moment.

We have to go for it Tuesday, properly this time - not like yesterday's damp squib - as Cooper promised.

I'd be happier if he knew his best team and stuck to it. Shouldn't have shoehorned Ricketts into the side yesterday.

If he wanted him to start should have dropped Branco.

Next season, without Turnbull, I reckon we'll see a right good CB in Branco. He's copped a lot of unfair flak being constantly played out on the right and given next to no cover.

[normy]

I think we really missed the injured  Toffolo, which  caused the unfortunate re-organisation of the side.