Swindon v Fleetwood pre match chat and matchday thread

[suttonred]

Unfortunately a team resembles the "manager", take a look at Liverpool under Klopp - vibrant, charismatic and brimming with energy. This team is lethargic and monotonous (which wasn't the case at the start of the season), which reflects how the manager comes across in his interviews

Not a fair comparison, their kitman probably gets paid more than Our squad cost.

[pauld]

We are short of quality upfront.
If we can’t add to that we are in serious trouble Mate.
No structure or purpose to our play and the addition of Jonny Smith lifted us. We simply don’t have a League One standard forward.

Yeah, don't disagree. Just trying to argue the case that you can see what Sheridan is trying to do, albeit not sure Wellens left him the squad to do it with. (He says in hindsight, I was quite optimistic about the squad at the start of the season)

[welshred]

Today was very meh.

Only positives were Zeki and Dion coming back and looking decent.

We seem to have lost all the creativity we had in the first few weeks of the season when we genuinely looked dangerous every time we went forward. today it was all too slow.  I know Sheridan has tightened us up a bit but hopefully if we can get Dion and Zeki back we can afford to be a bit more gung ho in attack. We are still lacking a striker, preferably one who can hold the ball up properly and knows where the net is. We don’t have this person at the moment. Not from what we’ve seen so far anyway.

Bit of a shutter that Lyden is injured again. Grant really does look spent at the moment. A shadow of last seasons player.

As someone said earlier. January could be interesting if we have a pot to piss in.

[Saxondale]

One further thing to note.  Our bench looked pretty sad today.  Barton and his cronies seemed to have energy about them, life and spirit.  We seemed to have a depressed looking Sheridan and the other bald geezer.  Was all a bit sad.  Seemed to infect the performance.

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

One further thing to note.  Our bench looked pretty sad today.  Barton and his cronies seemed to have energy about them, life and spirit.  We seemed to have a depressed looking Sheridan and the other bald geezer.  Was all a bit sad.  Seemed to infect the performance.

Communication is not one of Sheridan’s strongest attributes unfortunately.

[BambooToTheFuture]

Just watched the highlights (again) on Quest...they showed the wrong L1 table. Must've been from last week as they had us in 20th and Pox in 21st. The best bit was Colin Murray saying "Oxford move out of the bottom four and are replaced by Swindon..."

Probably one of the few times that would be a benefit of being blind.

[Audrey]

Looking for somewhere to live rather than delivering sound bites to the Adver. Disgraceful!

Hope he’s not looking at somewhere anyway near Swindon.

[NotHarryAgombar]

It was good to be back in the CG yesterday, even though we couldn’t sit in the Arkells as normal.  Certainly beats iFollow.

I thought Fleetwood looked a competent side - passed the ball well and a lot of pace and movement of the ball when in possession. Up front Madden is a proven goal scorer at L1 / L2 level. After an even first 15 mins I thought they were in control, and it felt as though a goal was coming in the few minutes before it did - there were a couple of moves where our midfield didn’t t track runners giving up shooting chances. The goal was another piece of poor defending- failure to track the run of Madden, who has a free shot from inside the 6 yard box.

We were better after half time - slightly more goal threat, although not many clear cut chances and again their keeper had too few saves to make. They also had experience on the bench - whilst ours looked a bit stronger this week, I’m not sure some of them were totally ready to play a full game. Also thought the foul on Hope was another stonewall penalty not given.

Some positives - Conroy and Fryers both coming back to fitness, playing well and having the opportunity not to rush them into playing 90 mins too early in their recovery.

I am worried about the possibility relegation though - yesterday was yet another game like last week at Gillingham in one respect -we aren’t getting anything at all from games we ought not to lose. On the balance of play we deserved a draw again yesterday But they took 3 points. It comes back to defensive mistakes and clean sheets being critical.

[Briggany]

For me the problem is blatantly obvious... we have no midfield.

Tyler smith has prove he can score goals if you can get him into the box, he isn't a target man and struggles to hold up the ball.  Pitman can score goals if you get the ball in the box, he can knock on a header but again you need chances.

All to often we play down the wings and then meet a dead end as there are no options in the middle of the park, so we have to pass back up the same wing and recycle possession.
 
On Saturday there was a gaping hole in the middle of the field, grant held back to protect the back line but there was nothing in front of him to pass to. So we got left Matt smith trying to wonder pass his way through the game or a lot of very muted runs down the wings.

If we had a decent midfield for the defenders to rely on I am certain that we would see less mistakes. At the moment its 10 oppositions players attacking 4 /5 town defenders whilst the rest of the town squad wait for the ball to be won back.

[Flashheart]

For me the problem is blatantly obvious... we have no midfield.

Tyler smith has prove he can score goals if you can get him into the box, he isn't a target man and struggles to hold up the ball.  Pitman can score goals if you get the ball in the box, he can knock on a header but again you need chances.

All to often we play down the wings and then meet a dead end as there are no options in the middle of the park, so we have to pass back up the same wing and recycle possession.
 
On Saturday there was a gaping hole in the middle of the field, grant held back to protect the back line but there was nothing in front of him to pass to. So we got left Matt smith trying to wonder pass his way through the game or a lot of very muted runs down the wings.

If we had a decent midfield for the defenders to rely on I am certain that we would see less mistakes. At the moment its 10 oppositions players attacking 4 /5 town defenders whilst the rest of the town squad wait for the ball to be won back.

I'm inclined to agree.

Too often teams just go through our midfield as though they are not there. We were close to conceding another from that on Saturday when one of their players got the ball in their own half and came forward unchallenged. That obviously then puts the defence under more pressure. We're also not pressing up high, which often works well for us, and I think this might be down to the gaps in midfield at the back.

As for attacking play - we're not creating enough in terms of chances on goal but we are still getting into good positions around the box. I reckon we might need some physicality up front and Broadbent caused problems against Oxford and in the first half against Crewe. I'm not suggesting Broadbent plays there, but a striker with some physicality. Maybe even Pitman. I know he's not being doing well so far but I'm sure there's a player in there.

I think it was Tommy Wright who was talking about a few tweaks to the squad in the window. I reckon we already have a decent enough squad but need a couple more pieces to hold them all together as a team. Wellens did leave us rather unbalanced.

[kirky69]

For me the problem is blatantly obvious... we have no midfield.

Tyler smith has prove he can score goals if you can get him into the box, he isn't a target man and struggles to hold up the ball.  Pitman can score goals if you get the ball in the box, he can knock on a header but again you need chances.

All to often we play down the wings and then meet a dead end as there are no options in the middle of the park, so we have to pass back up the same wing and recycle possession.
 
On Saturday there was a gaping hole in the middle of the field, grant held back to protect the back line but there was nothing in front of him to pass to. So we got left Matt smith trying to wonder pass his way through the game or a lot of very muted runs down the wings.

If we had a decent midfield for the defenders to rely on I am certain that we would see less mistakes. At the moment its 10 oppositions players attacking 4 /5 town defenders whilst the rest of the town squad wait for the ball to be won back.

Spot on this. From the current squad our midfield options are Anthony Grant, who is playing every game with an injury so is at best operating at 70% of last seasons form , Matt Smith, who has done tremendously well, has certainly made a positive impact but is hampered by having a lack of support around him, and  finally Jordan Lyden, who seems to be permanently injured. Haines is clearly not fancied by Sheridan, otherwise would have had a game or 2 by now.

We need a 3 in midfield in this league, so are making do with Jack Payne, who flatters to deceive in the more attacking midfield role. We have not replaced Doughty who imo offered much more than Payne does. Until Lyden gets fit, I feel we may either revert to the Caddis experiment to play alongside Grant or indeed try Odimayo in that defensive central midfield position, freeing up Smith to play further up the pitch, as he will offer more assists/direct goal threats than Payne.

As many have said on here, we have a very lopsided squad with loads of defensive and wide forward options when all are fit, but a lack of midfield players. Also if T Smith is going to play, you have to play another forward up top with him. All in all it's a buggers muddle!

[DV]

What we don’t have in midfield is someone who can dictate games & retain possession, control the tempo, pull the strings.

Grant can protect. Smith can create. We just don’t have the number 8 to go between the 4 and the 10.

[Batch]

At times Grant looked barely mobile on Saturday. Doesn't look fully fit to me. Think it was recently mentioned he was carrying an injury/playing through the pain.

[RobertT]

At times Grant looked barely mobile on Saturday. Doesn't look fully fit to me. Think it was recently mentioned he was carrying an injury/playing through the pain.

I think they hinted at an ankle problem causing him pain that he is playing through - it's not fixable through surgery was how it was described, so maybe something like Tendonitis?

[tans]

Is lyden injured again