Swindon Town FC vs Barrow AFC pre match chat and matchday thread

[BambooToTheFuture]

I don't think anyone is having to brief the players that Morris blames them and thinks they are not good enough, he is pretty clear in his post match pressers that the problem isn't down to him.

The thing is, what if that is absolutely true and the majority of these players do need telling exactly that? Maybe Morris has accepted that the quality available to him really is incredibly poor (by 'incredibly poor', I mean in the sense that they are incapable of being a squad hunting for auto or even being kind, the POs) and is trying to force as many of the contracted dross out as possible - basically the ones he deems not good enough for an auto promotion push next term. This way, next season means he has got a pretty much almost clean slate; albeit one in which he would definitely have to hit the ground running or by about ten games.

Let's face it, and it's not super entitled to think this but every time STFC are in the basement division the priority and expectation should always be to be promoted automatically; especially when there are three bloody auto spots up for grabs. POs should always be considered a convenient runner up bonus. Anything else is a fucking disaster and for this season it is clearly a compounded group failure and particularly in the area of recruitment on the pitch.

Does that make sense, at all? In relativity to the current recruitment shambles at STFC

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Anyway, I'll go for an outlier and say Town will win by a goal - probably an own goal but anything will do at the moment. Any superstition or any dream will do; I really hope we get to see Jody's coat of many colours tomorrow 

[horlock07]

Maybe Morris has accepted that the quality available to him really is incredibly poor (by 'incredibly poor', I mean in the sense that they are incapable of being a squad hunting for auto or even being kind, the POs) and is trying to force as many of the contracted dross out as possible

An argument which would hold considerably more water if much of this dross had not formed the guts of a team who were 6th in the table before the lower league Guardiola took over.

[JoeMezz]

An argument which would hold considerably more water if much of this dross had not formed the guts of a team who were 6th in the table before the lower league Guardiola took over.

They weren't though realistically - teams immediately below had multiple games in hand and that was a squad with Reed, Gladwin and MacDonald who are all better than what we've got.

[Mooneyraker]

An argument which would hold considerably more water if much of this dross had not formed the guts of a team who were 6th in the table before the lower league Guardiola took over.

Weren't we actually 10th/11th on PPG at that point?

[Peter Venkman]

what are those funny symbols next to the scores Venks? look a bit like a "wubble-u".?

Its something you will never know the meaning of again, mwah hah.

[BambooToTheFuture]

An argument which would hold considerably more water if much of this dross had not formed the guts of a team who were 6th in the table before the lower league Guardiola took over.

A true point but I still say that if any manager had been dealt the kind of delays, selling of key players and unable to obtain their own, as well as a raft of injuries, suspensions and his number two being a protracted appointment they too may have taken a good number of games to settle properly.

I think right now, that probably can't be justified as much as previous as some time has passed but maybe the unsettled period was enough time for the damage to have well and truly been done?

I would say that right now Morris probably has about one arm cable tied to his shin and a blunt Stanley blade in the other hand. As opposed to when he arrived and it dawned on him ''My God? What have I done?'' - see Talking Heads - realising he was about to be waterboarded and SdM was waving the Stanley blade in front of him.

Just for clarification btw horlock07, I've never stated he's the LLG and my initial thoughts when Town appeared to be after him was that I thought he should be here as a very good number two and not as the number one.  Maybe someone who could transition into the number one role here in the future. Alas it feels as though Town's recruitment policy on and off field this season has been less about experience and fast tracking inexperience into roles that require a bit more gravitas and previously mentioned experience

Weren't we actually 10th/11th on PPG at that point?

Nice but he's talking about JM, not RW. I don't think it was a reference to a visual interpretation a la Ben Garner but more in JM's approach as to how he would like Town to play the game.

[Mooneyraker]

Nice but he's talking about JM, not RW. I don't think it was a reference to a visual interpretation a la Ben Garner but more in JM's approach as to how he would like Town to play the game.

Not sure I follow. I was saying that whilst we were 6th in the league when JM came in, if you re-ordered the table on PPG, as other teams had games in hand, we were actually well below that. In other words it was a false position.

[DMC]

Would still only had been 4/5 off playoffs though. I do understand though that his hands were tied slightly but that is no excuse imo for every single player getting worse since he walked in

[BambooToTheFuture]

Not sure I follow. I was saying that whilst we were 6th in the league when JM came in, if you re-ordered the table on PPG, as other teams had games in hand, we were actually well below that. In other words it was a false position.

Right I gotcha. Apologies, I thought you was referencing the Covd PPG season as RW used to mention Pep Gwardiolewar in every other sentence, and mashing it up with Ben Garner looking like a lower league waxwork of said Spaniard Master.

I think the set of circumstances that were emerging as Morris' delayed appointment meant he had no real impact on a full or even part transfer window, along with several other factors is that any manager appointed would have struggled, even Lyndsey probably would have struggled. The downward spiral was already in place as Morris arrived. Those things are difficult to arrest when nearly everyone in post hasn't experienced it or doesn't have the gumption to deal with it. The scenario has been much more than not ideal - it's been a fucking shitshow.

My reckoning, forget this season ever happened and any way in which the recruitment has been approached. Start afresh season end or before once the maths have made it impossible to get out of the division - in either direction...

Give Morris an opportunity to build his own squad and he should be going to Clem now to ask for such an opportunity. That way, next season will almost be completely on his head. Give him until October/November or fifteen league games, whichever comes first and if Town aren't in the Top 6 then we look at damage limitation in terms of mutual consent. No doubt if he is doing better than Top 6, clubs will be in for him. In this respect, the current Town hierarchy has very recent form in allowing managers and players to go/speak to other clubs at the first bid.

[Mooneyraker]

Would still only had been 4/5 off playoffs though. I do understand though that his hands were tied slightly but that is no excuse imo for every single player getting worse since he walked in

We don't know if Kadji has got worse. He might have been that bad to begin with!

[Nemo]

RHM has got better. That is the full list of those who have improved under Morris though.

[BambooToTheFuture]

Would still only had been 4/5 off playoffs though. I do understand though that his hands were tied slightly but that is no excuse imo for every single player getting worse since he walked in

But if even more other factors are at play like some sneaky beaky underhanded backstabbing, there is not a lot Morris could do about that in terms of personnel other than effectively trying to start planning for next season.

It's difficult because the players should be professional enough to ignore all of the fluff, especially the experienced few, although this can be just as bad. Therein lies a big juicy problem that there is simply too little experience across all departments, even Morris at this junction. A theme that we all spotted right from the moment Garner was allowed to go, even he was evolving in management at the time but nearly everything since then has effectively been a deprecated or inexperienced version of what went before it. In that instance, it lays mostly with the owner in terms of poor senior appointments. But I think many of us are still trying to figure out who our owner is and who our front is.

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Apologies, Matchday Fred

Town will win by a goal, an own goal in off Robbie Gotts bollock.

[RobertT]

I think  Morris may have done a better job had he arrived on the same day as Austin.  Instead, he arrived after the Transfer Window (in reality) when we had gutted a team that was already going into reverse.  We layered a little more inexperience on top of a rapidly declining squad.  He has, it seems, done little to arrest that decline by continuing to try and implement the Academy way (at least that is what it looks like to the naked eye).

While I do not think the Gunning/Mildenhall period was anything a Manager could ever replicate over a prolonged period (no consequences to their actions - like playing in a casino with free money), it did show that the players could get a tune if something different were tried.  Morris would have been better served taking stock on his later arrival and being much more pragmatic about how to get results.  Review what he has at his disposal - a centre forward who can score in the box, a wing back who is useless at defending but can put a good cross in and a midfielder who can put in some decent runs and passes through the middle but is useless at defending and holding a position down.

Figure out how to get those three involved, then everyone else just does the simple stuff of their role.  Instead he has continued with the pass it out, play it around, probe, try and open spaces etc. approach.  I'd just be getting the ball to Williams and Hutton, who I'd have at right wing.  Tell Austin not to worry about pressing and tracking and dropping in to help - keep your focus on being in the 6 yard box when needed, hold up play and pass off to Williams who gets a free role.

Or something like that.

[Mooneyraker]

I think  Morris may have done a better job had he arrived on the same day as Austin.  Instead, he arrived after the Transfer Window (in reality) when we had gutted a team that was already going into reverse.  We layered a little more inexperience on top of a rapidly declining squad.  He has, it seems, done little to arrest that decline by continuing to try and implement the Academy way (at least that is what it looks like to the naked eye).

While I do not think the Gunning/Mildenhall period was anything a Manager could ever replicate over a prolonged period (no consequences to their actions - like playing in a casino with free money), it did show that the players could get a tune if something different were tried.  Morris would have been better served taking stock on his later arrival and being much more pragmatic about how to get results.  Review what he has at his disposal - a centre forward who can score in the box, a wing back who is useless at defending but can put a good cross in and a midfielder who can put in some decent runs and passes through the middle but is useless at defending and holding a position down.

Figure out how to get those three involved, then everyone else just does the simple stuff of their role.  Instead he has continued with the pass it out, play it around, probe, try and open spaces etc. approach.  I'd just be getting the ball to Williams and Hutton, who I'd have at right wing.  Tell Austin not to worry about pressing and tracking and dropping in to help - keep your focus on being in the 6 yard box when needed, hold up play and pass off to Williams who gets a free role.

Or something like that.

Totally agree.

I'd like to see:

Austin up top
Williams as a floating 10
Hutton wide of a front three with a sole brief of beating a man and banging 20+ crosses in per game
Brewitt or Clayton in DM

[BambooToTheFuture]

That makes sense on paper RobT and for the most part I agree.

But also Morris had or thought he had at his disposal a squad mostly of young academy punts, so maybe he can be forgiven for thinking that several of them might be able to play the ''academy way''. It turns out that quite a few of them can't even do that so they'd be screwed with suddenly having to play a more traditional way.

Yes hindsight might say well change it up if it isn't working but if half or more of the team have had their heads turned and/or are already on their way out/signing pre contracts elsewhere the approach does have more factors making it difficult to adapt. And we are talking League Two here so that's going to be an even more rare gem to develop upon.

An almost blank canvas/clean slate of players for next season seems like the only realistic and sensible approach available to all parties concerned. We live in interesting times