Next seasons rebuild 23/24

[theakston2k]

All season long we’ve had the habit of conceding late goals and conceding goals in quick succession. It’s obvious we lack leadership and experienced/game management savvy players.

That said some of our players are just plain spineless, the moment they come under any pressure in games they just fall apart, that’s probably why we look especially bad in the second half of matches. In the first half a lot of it is often spent with the 2 teams sizing each other up, in the second half however the opposition often come on to us more, especially if we’ve scraped a first half lead. We have too many mentally weak players who don’t want to know when the going gets tough.

We only really have Brewitt and FBT who are capable of making a tackle, the rest don’t want to know and prefer to pretty much just run out of the way. This all needs to change or next season could be a disaster.

[UTR]

Apologies if this has been covered previously but as we may lose him in the summer, what are peoples views on Williams?

No doubt that he has the talent to be one of the best players in the squad but does he show it enough to be annoyed if he was to depart in the summer, especially if he’s wanting big bucks wages.

Not that I don’t like him, in an ideal world I’d like to keep him around but if those potential wages can be reinvested better elsewhere then maybe it’s not the end of the world.

Looking at Leyton Orients squad, would he start for them regularly? I’m not sure but then again we currently lack enough quality to afford losing him so heavily dependent on if that would be replaced.

[Mooneyraker]

Williams floating between a hard tackling midfielder and a target man striker would be dynamite in this league. He is brilliant on the ball. But he is currently operating in a sea of dross and being drowned as a result.

[Batch]

UTR - that seems to be a popular opinion from what I read around the forum and twitter.

I don't think he influences games enough. But at the same time I think he'd be great in a better team where he's part of a machine rather than the cog expected to do the heavy lifting.

So I think I'm at the stage where we keep him if
  - he wants to stay, and is affordable
  - we try to actually assemble a team trying to gain promotion

If we are going into the season with much the same heavy bias towards youth, I think we need to replace with on older head "dogger" (oooer) - someone who gets stuck in and kicks people.

[horlock07]

We only really have Brewitt and FBT who are capable of making a tackle, the rest don’t want to know and prefer to pretty much just run out of the way. This all needs to change or next season could be a disaster.

Who have a grand total of 87 league appearances between them so are hardly experienced players, not sure whether its experience or attitude.

[DiV]

Williams comes and goes in games. I’m still not entirely sure what his best position is in midfield. Personal thoughts would be a free role #10 one of the few positions we haven’t played him in.

I’d expect a player of his supposed caliber to be able to run games in this league.
Williams has never taken the game by the scruff of the neck and dragged us to a result.

Payne & McKirdy dragged us to results last season.
Last 10 minutes yesterday Payne would have been every where to hold on. Williams wouldn’t have (appreciate he wasn’t even on come the end but don’t think he would have made much difference)

Player like Doughty could run games at this level.

I wouldn’t be against keeping him (wages permitting) but I see him more as a luxury player than a vital cog to winning games.

[theakston2k]

Who have a grand total of 87 league appearances between them so are hardly experienced players, not sure whether its experience or attitude.

Take your point on Brewitt but FBT is 27 and has done things the hard way with a lot of non league appearances. We definitely lack game management skills be that due to the lack of experience or Judy a lack of footballing intelligence and leadership skills.

But you’re right in that attitude is definitely another factor, too many of them seem to think they’ve ‘made it’ and are above doing hard work at this level as they were once in some PL club’s academy. I’d wager in 2 or 3 years time more than half this squad will no longer be playing league football.

[Bob's Orange]

Williams comes and goes in games. I’m still not entirely sure what his best position is in midfield. Personal thoughts would be a free role #10 one of the few positions we haven’t played him in.

I’d expect a player of his supposed caliber to be able to run games in this league.
Williams has never taken the game by the scruff of the neck and dragged us to a result.

Payne & McKirdy dragged us to results last season.
Last 10 minutes yesterday Payne would have been every where to hold on. Williams wouldn’t have (appreciate he wasn’t even on come the end but don’t think he would have made much difference)

Player like Doughty could run games at this level.

I wouldn’t be against keeping him (wages permitting) but I see him more as a luxury player than a vital cog to winning games.

I think he sees his best position as a #8

[RobertT]

The experience vs leadership thing is interesting.  If the entire dumping of our chips on the stats approach is the root of our problem, the issue could well be the intangibles.  I understand why the approach has the ownership teams eyes lighting up - find a hidden gem, gain the rewards.  The problem we have is we packed out an entire squad this way.

What we seem to have done is find a bunch of players who have stats suggesting they could be better, but managed to miss the one ingredient we have next to none of at all - which is a word somewhere between experience and leadership.  Not one you see on the stats sheet, for sure.  Maybe not one a Manager can actually directly coach either.

I'm struggling for what that word is.

To me, it's a bit like muscle memory.  The more you push your body to do something, the easier it becomes because the muscles "remember" the movements.   Each time is just a little bit easier, you can push your body that little bit further, but it takes time, effort and commitment.

If I use a personal example for the mental version of this.   I am a naturally anxious person when it comes to meeting new people and needing to talk to those new people.  At school age, if I was sent to go get the stapler from Mrs Woodbridge's class, I'd stand outside and wait to be seen rather than knock the door and have an entire classroom look at me.  These days I can stand up in front of 200+ people and deliver a speech without notes.  I still shit myself, but it's not as bad, the mind knows it's stressful but it's also got a memory bank of all the times it went well that I can play.  Instead of being nearly paralysed with fear, I can have a few butterflies and jokes and get on stage.  If I leave it a long time between efforts, it takes a bit more - if I do it a week later, it's much easier.

For our players, this is what we are missing.  Something mentally.  They have not been in the situations they find themselves in very often - either because they were Academy players facing very different situations (nobody forced to win at all costs, teams play the same way you do etc.) or they were non-league, where they may have had the knocks but not the talent to worry about.  Very few players can go into their memory bank and know they will be OK, that they really do have the skillset to handle the situation, or that the other 10 on the pitch do and they will help you out.

That can explain giving away leads, dropping deep (because you are not sure your fellow defenders will be able to cope or you are not used to long balls being played over and over again), not tracking your man (because your memory is of players passing around in front of you), basically, looking fragile.

We need 7-8 players, minimum, on the pitch who have that memory bank to call upon.  We only have two in the squad (excluding Baudry).

[DiV]

The experience vs leadership thing is interesting.  If the entire dumping of our chips on the stats approach is the root of our problem, the issue could well be the intangibles.  I understand why the approach has the ownership teams eyes lighting up - find a hidden gem, gain the rewards.  The problem we have is we packed out an entire squad this way.

What we seem to have done is find a bunch of players who have stats suggesting they could be better, but managed to miss the one ingredient we have next to none of at all - which is a word somewhere between experience and leadership.  Not one you see on the stats sheet, for sure.  Maybe not one a Manager can actually directly coach either.

I'm struggling for what that word is.

To me, it's a bit like muscle memory.  The more you push your body to do something, the easier it becomes because the muscles "remember" the movements.   Each time is just a little bit easier, you can push your body that little bit further, but it takes time, effort and commitment.

If I use a personal example for the mental version of this.   I am a naturally anxious person when it comes to meeting new people and needing to talk to those new people.  At school age, if I was sent to go get the stapler from Mrs Woodbridge's class, I'd stand outside and wait to be seen rather than knock the door and have an entire classroom look at me.  These days I can stand up in front of 200+ people and deliver a speech without notes.  I still shit myself, but it's not as bad, the mind knows it's stressful but it's also got a memory bank of all the times it went well that I can play.  Instead of being nearly paralysed with fear, I can have a few butterflies and jokes and get on stage.  If I leave it a long time between efforts, it takes a bit more - if I do it a week later, it's much easier.

For our players, this is what we are missing.  Something mentally.  They have not been in the situations they find themselves in very often - either because they were Academy players facing very different situations (nobody forced to win at all costs, teams play the same way you do etc.) or they were non-league, where they may have had the knocks but not the talent to worry about.  Very few players can go into their memory bank and know they will be OK, that they really do have the skillset to handle the situation, or that the other 10 on the pitch do and they will help you out.

That can explain giving away leads, dropping deep (because you are not sure your fellow defenders will be able to cope or you are not used to long balls being played over and over again), not tracking your man (because your memory is of players passing around in front of you), basically, looking fragile.

We need 7-8 players, minimum, on the pitch who have that memory bank to call upon.  We only have two in the squad (excluding Baudry).

We need to invent a word for it.

Leaderperience

Experiship

Exleadpershipence

[Nemo]

Nous?

[Tails]

You could probably keep a core of the squad from this season. There's enough talent in there. Our issues have lied in several areas, for me:

1) They're unfit
2) They're ill disciplined
3) They're mentally fragile

A good set of coaches to organise them and keep them motivated is desperately needed. I think that'll be a start. The recruitment needs to be better also (fully on board with Sandro and his buddies being handed their p45's) but if you look at the teams doing well in this league... Organised. Disciplined. Motivated.

[RobertT]

Oh, and Morris is right to an extent.  He can help, but he cannot ensure that a player gains that missing ingredient.  I can certainly work to overcome my fear, or improve my ability, using the coaching of someone else, but it is on me to learn and embed.  I know I can probably overcome a fear of heights, but I have no desire to do so!

[Batch]

You could probably keep a core of the squad from this season.

What do you mean by core? Are you talking "core numbers from those starting/close to starting" or "spine" (key players in key positions).

Has to be the former right?

[Tails]

Yep, the former. Glad you can articulate it better than I Batch!