Injury update: Clough & D.Johnson press conf, Tue 7 Feb

[Sharp]

Well that just negates this entire page of the thread then Rob, unless of course we have researched each and every player in those squads and determined their experience, and value to that team is greater than those we aren’t allowed to count.

In the meantime despite the claims of dreadful transfer business, a woefully short squad, players out of position, no defence for half a season and no goal scorer we remain in 6th.

[MTFCMusings]

Exactly. Has Cleveland Stag scrutinised every teams first team squad as to who should and shouldn’t be there?

[MTFCMusings]

Of course we have an ‘ average ‘ amount of squad depth.

The figures are there in front of your eyes that prove we don't For your benefit, the average outfield players in League 2 is 26 4, we have 22. I think we should have 24, which is still below average at this level, a level where our aim is top 3.

Thanks Cleveland Stag.

Just Lewis Page to go until you’re a happy camper then

Not really, you are clearly including a player who isn't a regular first team squad member to get to 23 - in fact if the squad was of a decent size the likes of Knowles, Gale and possibly Law would be out on loan. We have had to keep them because .........

Just those listed on the club website, the same as every other team.

[Rob]

OK I'll give you 23, still one of the smallest in the league, yet we have one of the highest budgets in the league and of course several injuries, one long term. Some folk appear happy with 6th, 8 pts behind Carlisle, I bet JR isn't.

[Tomwh]

Difficult to compare any team against another. Stevenage look to be doing OK, A team could have 30 players but our budget could still be more than them.. People on here been constantly moaning about Wallace as they did with Gordon. They wouldn't be happy until we have 26, 28 quality players. Like I stated earlier, that doesn't happen in our league. The teams with 30 players could have more youth players, players that wouldn't even get on our bench.but I suppose some on here would be happy with young inexperienced lads or players who are average as long as we got the numbers..
A lot of the teams with more players are below us in the league. .
I'm more than happy with with our squad and the size of it. As stated by someone else, we could have three left wing backs and all three could be injured..
We have just been unlucky.

How long have we been unlucky for?

When you have as many players as injury prone as we clearly do, I'd argue it isn't luck.

How can we have sufficient squad depth, when one injury effectively leads to Bowery at left wing back? I know Wallace started, but he does not have the attributes to play there.

[halifaxstag]

Depends who you count. Transfer market has us listed as 26 players including 2 keepers but also Jimmy Knowles and Lewis Page.
Swindon,for example, have 5 players listed who are 18/19 but not sure how many games they have played.
661 players at the 24 clubs which is an average of 27.5 including keepers. Some clubs have listed 3 or4 in their squad so the average number of outfield players is around 25
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/league- ... bewerb/GB4

[MTFCMusings]

OK I'll give you 23, still one of the smallest in the league, yet we have one of the highest budgets in the league and of course several injuries, one long term. Some folk appear happy with 6th, 8 pts behind Carlisle, I bet JR isn't.

I’m not, top 3 is the ultimate aim but still a long way to go yet.

[Dan]

So let me get this right. The manager of Stevenage who it’s claimed on here just signs hundreds of players and still doesn’t get it right is actually sat in second place, 13 points ahead and with a plus 17 goal difference on us despite playing a game less, and having a smaller squad than us?! Blimey that will put the cat amongst the pigeons

[Rob]

So let me get this right. The manager of Stevenage who it’s claimed on here just signs hundreds of players and still doesn’t get it right is actually sat in second place, 13 points ahead and with a plus 17 goal difference on us despite playing a game less, and having a smaller squad than us?! Blimey that will put the cat amongst the pigeons

I suspect Evans has edited their website

Be interested to know how many players they've used this season and how many who have played for them, are still in the squad, but not listed on the website.

[Sharp]

OK I'll give you 23, still one of the smallest in the league, yet we have one of the highest budgets in the league and of course several injuries, one long term. Some folk appear happy with 6th, 8 pts behind Carlisle, I bet JR isn't.

I’m happy that the team has progressed from looking like relegation fodder to a team that is now challenging for promotion 2 years on the trot in the space of just over 27 months. JR may or may not be happy but it was his 2 or 3 previous decisions in the managerial department that left us looking like a team heading back to the conference and I’d hope that he remembers that and considers the bigger picture and the progress we’ve made.

[Rob]

OK I'll give you 23, still one of the smallest in the league, yet we have one of the highest budgets in the league and of course several injuries, one long term. Some folk appear happy with 6th, 8 pts behind Carlisle, I bet JR isn't.

I’m happy that the team has progressed from looking like relegation fodder to a team that is now challenging for promotion 2 years on the trot in the space of just over 27 months. JR may or may not be happy but it was his 2 or 3 previous decisions in the managerial department that left us looking like a team heading back to the conference and I’d hope that he remembers that and considers the bigger picture and the progress we’ve made.

One day, in the future, you'll look back at our time with JR as our owner and wonder just what might have been. Still in League 2, still a 3 sided ground whilst clubs with fewer resources continue to outperform us (Morecambe, Vale, Cambridge etc) . That's why I'm so flipping frustrated, we are missing an opportunity here, quite possibly the only one in our lifetime and its mainly down to under-performing managers.

[Sharp]

Let’s hope both of us end up looking at an eventual successful period that just took a bit more time than any of us would have liked

I don’t think there is an easy solution to managers . We’ve tried club legends, those with previous history of promotion, promising young coaches internally and from the league above and now a manager with a 1000 games in football with the latter being our most successful so far.

Those clubs you name as winning promotion would have done so on a much smaller budget than we have, so money doesn’t guarantee success and to a degree neither does squad size (i’d argue ad nauseam that a settled 11 with minimal changes is more important).

I wonder if the pressure to win promotion within the club, and from ourselves is often a major barrier, other clubs such as Portsmouth have suffered similar issues in the same league.

The one thing we’ve not tried is sticking with one manager for more than 2 years, maybe it’s the last thing left to do.

[MTFCMusings]

I would argue we’ve not tried the promising young coach route, a well qualified one in any case.

[broomo]

Those who have analysed squad numbers, did you look at how many in those squads who haven't played a minute of League 2 football this season?

I'd be keen to see how we compare on number of players actually used.

[Rob]

Let’s hope both of us end up looking at an eventual successful period that just took a bit more time than any of us would have liked

I don’t think there is an easy solution to managers . We’ve tried club legends, those with previous history of promotion, promising young coaches internally and from the league above and now a manager with a 1000 games in football with the latter being our most successful so far.

Those clubs you name as winning promotion would have done so on a much smaller budget than we have, so money doesn’t guarantee success and to a degree neither does squad size (i’d argue ad nauseam that a settled 11 with minimal changes is more important).

I wonder if the pressure to win promotion within the club, and from ourselves is often a major barrier, other clubs such as Portsmouth have suffered similar issues in the same league.

The one thing we’ve not tried is sticking with one manager for more than 2 years, maybe it’s the last thing left to do.

Can't disagree with you there Rich, I still think the biggest mistake was sacking DF but for gods sake don't tell Dan I said that

[Dan]

You’ll realise one day that you’re wrong mate

[Bradders]

OK I'll give you 23, still one of the smallest in the league, yet we have one of the highest budgets in the league and of course several injuries, one long term. Some folk appear happy with 6th, 8 pts behind Carlisle, I bet JR isn't.

I’m happy that the team has progressed from looking like relegation fodder to a team that is now challenging for promotion 2 years on the trot in the space of just over 27 months. JR may or may not be happy but it was his 2 or 3 previous decisions in the managerial department that left us looking like a team heading back to the conference and I’d hope that he remembers that and considers the bigger picture and the progress we’ve made.

One day, in the future, you'll look back at our time with JR as our owner and wonder just what might have been. Still in League 2, still a 3 sided ground whilst clubs with fewer resources continue to outperform us (Morecambe, Vale, Cambridge etc) . That's why I'm so flipping frustrated, we are missing an opportunity here, quite possibly the only one in our lifetime and its mainly down to under-performing managers.

I agree, but we've had more than a fair share of bad luck.

Evans would probably have won promotion, but for whatever mysterious reason jumped ship at the crucial moment.
Flitcroft seemed to lose the plot at crunch time.
Injuries happen at all clubs, but we seem to get them at key moments to key players.
We've had a whole host of top strikers pass through, and they always seem to struggle to stay here, or hit bad form after a couple of matches.
We've been plagued by defences that seem OK most of the time but make individual errors at important moments.
We just have a "Mansfield Town way", that appears to be the size of it.