The Squad List (2023/24 Edition)

[RobertT]

Of the players we have, only McCarthy wants to be a defender first, and he is going back.  We don't have a single defender who has a real desire to be a defender, they are all ball players or attacking from deep types.

Our entire midfield has no defensive ability.

Our attackers are a bit flashy at time, not ours, or out of legs.

Overall, I'd bomb the place and start again if I thought we would try and do it properly.  As it is, we can't or won't, so it will be a mess most likely.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

If you take each player individually most of them are decent at this level and I can’t see this regime getting much better replacements. As we’ve been saying all season it’s the structure, tactics (or lack thereof), leadership and general tardiness of all  aspects of being a professional football club that’s been the problem.

[RobertT]

If you take each player individually most of them are decent at this level and I can’t see this regime getting much better replacements. As we’ve been saying all season it’s the structure, tactics (or lack thereof), leadership and general tardiness of all  aspects of being a professional football club that’s been the problem.

You see, I fundamentally disagree.

Glatzel has some potential, but not much more than Wakleing offered for me, not yet.

I haven't seen the new lad too much, there is a reason every other league club gave him a hard pass though, it's a risk to bank too heavily on him, and not fair on him.

The rest are a bunch of nothingness.  Managers alone are not the reason we have had such a shit season, two in a row.  Lets be honest, bar a late good run and the context of the pre season in 21/22, Garner would have been toast as well.  We've been not much better than OK at L2 since our rteurn, and we were shit in L1 as well.

While Managers have not helped, the reason for such extended malaise is because the squad is simply not good enough.  Fans tend to give the benefit of the doubt to players on their teams, nobody stays long enough at our club to get turned on these days.  Aguiar is the longest serving, and he's clearly not a L2 player.  Just because he can shoot, doesn't mean he is any good.  The game passes him by - give the rest two more seasons and people will say the same about the majority of them.  As an example, Cain is hanging by the fact he hasn't played often enough to cement the fact he really isn't good enough.

[UTR]

I don’t think this squad is anywhere near good enough to go up even with the best structure and I also don’t think we’ll get much better replacements if they depart.

Lovely.

[Nemo]

Dion Conroy and Ronan Darcy are currently a major part of a team that are in the playoff hunt. We won the league with Ellis Iandolo at left back. You can get away with okay players in a good system in this league - it certainly helps to have better ones, but structure is so much more important than talent (mostly because talent gets sold at the earliest opportunity).

[RobertT]

Oh, I agree - I have said it before, the talent level divide isn't big.  I am not calling our players out based on the skills, I am calling out the fact we committed the cardinal sin in L2 of putting together a squad with nobody willing to fight for a clean sheet.  Flitcrofts team wasn't good enough, but it wasn't far off.  They'd beat us.

Were Dunne and Linganzi any better than our current midfield, not on the ball, no.  Talent wise, in the sense we think about it, they were technically inferior players to what we have.  They did however fit the job they were asked to do.  One of them needed to sit, one needed to run around a lot.  Defend first, support the attack when needed.  The back four were terrible on the ball vs what we have now, but they were all defenders, even if only average.

The front four of that team was a bit cart horsey, but they also could battle, which was needed given our approach.

Overall they were a bit shit, not good enough for promotion.  That is still a better composed squad than what we have.  Anyone can find a twinkle toes rotting in an Academy, we haven't found L2 players to impose that sense of shape and discipline on.  Even if we did, we should still be expecting more than that as well - if we expect less, we'll get what we are getting now.

[adje]

Dion Conroy and Ronan Darcy are currently a major part of a team that are in the playoff hunt. We won the league with Ellis Iandolo at left back. You can get away with okay players in a good system in this league - it certainly helps to have better ones, but structure is so much more important than talent (mostly because talent gets sold at the earliest opportunity).

QED

[Berniman]

I am going to be that really harsh fucker who people thinks is saying it for attention but we should be getting much better than Bycroft

Agreed - Bycroft should be pushing a No.1

[DiV]

Bycroft for me - just looks like exactly what he is.
Young keeper making his first foray into proper men’s football. Same as Mahoney in that aspect.

Hopefully he can kick on a bit next season.

Not sure there is abundance of better keepers at this level.

I can’t think of any keeper I’ve seen this season and thought ‘yeah, he’s a bit good’ but that probably hasn’t been helped by some of our attacking play or lack thereof.

[Riddick]

Compare to our most recent successful league 2 seasons. I would say Wollacot was a bit better than Bycroft and that Benda was a lot better.

Is Bycroft good enough for a promotion team? Maybe, if he kicks on. This is his first league football experience.

Note the previous two mentioned keepers had either Ward or McCormick pushing them, something i think is often overlooked. There is a school of thought that says run with 1 GK, and spend the money elsewhere and use the emergency loan when needed.

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

Dion Conroy and Ronan Darcy are currently a major part of a team that are in the playoff hunt. We won the league with Ellis Iandolo at left back. You can get away with okay players in a good system in this league - it certainly helps to have better ones, but structure is so much more important than talent (mostly because talent gets sold at the earliest opportunity).

Constant budget cuts and watering down our talent has finally caught up with us.
A team full of young cheap kids alone won’t get you out of a brutal League Two campaign.

[Peter Venkman]

Bycroft for me - just looks like exactly what he is.
Young keeper making his first foray into proper men’s football. Same as Mahoney in that aspect.

Hopefully he can kick on a bit next season.

Not sure there is abundance of better keepers at this level.

I can’t think of any keeper I’ve seen this season and thought ‘yeah, he’s a bit good’ but that probably hasn’t been helped by some of our attacking play or lack thereof.

I agree totally on Bycroft, hes a young kid who I think could become a very good keeper, hes been rushed into our first team and done well for probably 90% of the time, I like him but he should probably be a number 2 at this stage to a more experienced keeper.

As for other keepers, the only keeper who really impressed against us this season was the Salford keeper Alex Cairns who looked extremely capable at all aspects and who possibly had the game of his life against us a few weeks back and he made at least 5 or 6 great stops in our draw with them, but hes 31 and very experienced.

[DiV]

I get the point about maybe he should be a #2 keeper right now but he won’t get any better sitting on the bench and (obviously) keeper is the least subbed position.

I guess it’s the age old debate whether it’s worth trying to upskill a young keeper or just keep signing aging veterans and bin one off for the next one every season or two.

If you’re #2 left back you’ll play throughout the season. You’ll get bought on as sub. You’ll swap a bit of the fixtures get congested. Rarely happens with keepers.

[Nemo]

I guess it’s the age old debate whether it’s worth trying to upskill a young keeper or just keep signing aging veterans and bin one off for the next one every season or two.

Or the STFC method - upskill a young keeper and bin them off for the next one every season (or twice a season, if we're really lucky)

[DiV]

Or the STFC method - upskill a young keeper and bin them off for the next one every season (or twice a season, if we're really lucky)

…upskill someone’s else’s young keeper*