Have We Made The Best Use Of The Squad?

No.

I guess the main accusation of "not being adventurous" in home selections would lay in the preference of "wide midfielders" to wingers.................Carlisle and Dsane to Stevens and Caryol ~ would that be a fair assumption?

Yet I believe the manager's preference comes from the problem that MOST teams who come to Plainmoor set their stall out to attain a point by flooding the midfield and in particular they will "double up" on the likes of Stevens and Caryol.

So the dilemma then is "what do we do?" Do we play with the young wingers irrespectively and almost certainly get out gunned and out numbered in midfield or do we go with the method we have, yet in my opinion have STILL struggled to win at home enough times to satisfy the fans.

At the end of the season we have only fallen short by a couple of extra home wins to be on a par with challenging Burton for the title on Sunday, and (maybe) lost a couple of extra games that making draws out of would have been more acceptable.............after all, no team wins ALL it's home games!

Away from home, we have an almost unimpeachable record ~ with 43 points, way ahead of anyone else's and that just goes to prove that almost without exception; when sides open up and take us on they are much easier to play against................even if our use of the out and out wingers has still been limited!

Now another thing concerning the home record......................will I be pilloried for claiming that OUR crowd have become the most critical and hardest to please of those supporting the sides at the top of the BSP? I would say emphatically "YES, THEY HAVE", and to that end the Plainmoor crowd are reaping what they sow. The relentless criticism of the manager from far too many people, the diminishing numbers, a local rag that far too easily allows the loony fringe to post scandalous comments on their website without challenge, and the unforgivable singling out of certain individual players for the wrath of the terraces and stands match in, match out.

Some of this criticism reflects directly the manager's policy of preference to midfielders over exciting young wingers during the aforementioned home games where the dilemma is how best to overcome the stultifying opposition. Of course, there are dreamers amongst the faithful who blithely say "oh use the wings and to hell with the consequences, we want to be entertained" but in my opinion NOTHING EATS INTO THE AVERAGE GATE MORE THAN FAILING TO WIN AT HOME!

There is criticism too of the manager's efforts to change the approach from last season when the accusation was of an unacceptably low level of cultural football. Yet in reality he was merely reacting to that howl of protest by trying to instill a more constructive pairing at the heart of the defence so that the ball was played out with more emphasis on care and precision yet when those players showed a difficulty with the nuts and bolts of defending that the more limited traditional type of central defenders take to with ease; there was a distinct lack of patience amongst the critical masses then Pete. Eight games into the season and we were "going down" according to many, "Buckle must go" cried some "you don't know what you're doing" sang others.

This is the damnedest and hardest league to get out of, unless you want to do it the "Weymouth or Woking Way" ~ keep changing your managers and the rest will follow................Northwich, another example. Consistency and patience with the manager is everything in my opinion................Nigel Clough and ten years at Burton Albion a fine example; so I say leave the manager alone to get on with his job regardless of whether or not we qualify for the Play Offs on Sunday..................play offs that are but a complete "cup tie" gamble anyway. Building this club up is an ongoing task and won't finish merely at the successful conclusion by winning promotion this season. There will be players to move in and those to move on. There will be the pressures of the intrusive financial situation to withstand and there will also be the relentless criticism and dissent of those who seem to know what they want but don't really have a constructive alternative to put forward.

Yes, managing any football club is a hard job, but managing OUR football club a virtually thankless task in my opinion!

My only slight concern, and its not a criticism, has been over use of key players.

The players may say they have plenty left in the tank. But it is a big ask to expect the likes of Sills & Hargreaves to keep the dirty work all season without a decent break.

I feel we missed opportunities against lesser opposition or when a game was dead to sub key players. not easy I know as PB would get the blame if it back fired in a game.
It also has a negative affect on the fringe players only getting the occasional game then getting dropped again.
buster

I would like to point you in the direction of a very astute use of the squad - namely in having Christie on the bench. Buckle has worked out that having Christie on the bench is the balanced option. Christie sits on one side whilst the other four sit on the other! The only problem is when Christie gets up for another Mars bar all the others tumble off the other side!

Merse; please amend your post because I'm sure you don't really want to 'impeach' our away record.

To be serious for a smidgen; I've always said that we do not use our subs early enough. We have been tentative in bringing on the likes of Carayol to chase a game and flummox tired defenders and short-sighted in not bringing off a knackered Hargreaves who has spent an hour trying to kick everything that moved for the cause. Honi et decorum est pro TUFC mori. Or something like that.

Of course it should have been unimpeachable and I can only refer you to the fact that it WAS four o'clock in the morning when I made ethat error!

Of course there is precedent of midfieders 'retreating' into the defence when 'their legs became less energetic'. But if that was the reason for Greavsie's hasty repositioning, should he subsequently have been asked to play virtually every minute of every game since?

Regarding the players you mention, i thought Wes Saunders was a defender, that looked like a fish out of water when asked to play in midfield, and was rapidly reassigned to the defensie role he knew so well?

As for Hodges, he might be 'the best distributor' from the centre of the defence - but there are other, possibly more important aspects to playing in that role. I think we have better defenders at the club than him, and whilst he performed well alongside Steve Woods, i've yet to see a decent performance from the Todd/Hodges combination. They don't seem to communicate well and neither have the pace to make amends when mistakes are made.