Retained list

[halifaxstag]

While I'm happy that perch and Bowery have agreed to remain, we drastically need to improve across the park.

We need to score more goals. We need our Centreforwards to do better than 12. We need our midfield to contribute with more goals, we need to reduce the average age (and so increase fitness and athleticism) of the squad. We need to be less reliant on loanees from other clubs.

Massive amount of work to do this.close season.

Im actually hoping for a bit of a squad overhaul.

We need better and younger defenders, midfielders, forwards and strikers.

Whilst I don’t disagree with your point, there were only 4 clubs scored more than us this season and we had 18 different scorers in the league. Oates didn’t really get going until the end of October and then scored 8 in 18 games that he played with 5 assists before he had an unlucky spell in front of goal along with his injury.
We need to keep him and get him a partner so that he can be a 20+ goal scorer.
With Clough’s style of play we should be scoring more but also the defence needs to be more disciplined so we are on better goal difference than the clubs around us.
It’s fine margins. As Clough has pointed out we were only 7 points off the top of the league.

[Sedgwick]

Would like to see kellan do well with us.

Certainly think he can go on to be a very good attacking full back

[SeanieStag]

Could we get Tyler Walker back? He was a big disappointment on loan at Pompey last season but having been at Mansfield and having played under Clough at Burton previously, maybe we're the ones who can help him get his career back on track. He has the pace and power we need.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport ... r-23887553

"Disappointment" is an understatement reading that:

Yeah, that summed up everything I've heard about him lately. He'd be a risk but if it worked out, it could be a bargain. I feel like it'll be his last shot before non-league beckons.

[Tippy Tappy Football]

It sounds like Farrend Rawson has had a tough year.

[MTFCMusings]

It sounds like Farrend Rawson has had a tough year.

What makes you say that Darren?

[Stagspur]

Clap along if your happy with another season in League 2
Clap along if your happy and Perch & Bowery will do

I notice that your last but one post was calling for Clough and his team to be cleared out alongside Sharp and Ian Holliway to be appointed

I think I've just been told off by the Headmaster

Baggey Trousers! It's Madness

[Cockney Stag]

Let's be honest we scored enough this season

Even on our winning streak our defense was porous. Winning 3-2 is a lot of fun, but eventually you need to figure out a way to shut up shop.

[Class of 02]

Don't know if I misheard it but during yesterday's interview with Stevo, Cloughie mentioned wanting to bring in another midfielder. My first thoughts are that I'd love to keep Stirk but we have got a few vying for places so are we expecting any of the midfield to be shipped out?

[oldweststander]

I can’t believe Nigel thinks we only need one more defender. He must be confident of everyone staying and be happy to sit on the bench.

I think we need two central defenders or at least one to partner O’Toole with Rawson as backup. For me, despite his obvious heading ability Hawkins is too slow and cumbersome for a regular centre half role and gives far too many fouls in dangerous areas. Teams will also exploit his obvious short fuse. I acknowledge Ollie has stepped into the gap this year but he is not a natural defender in my opinion and we need better to achieve promotion from a very competitive league.

I thought that too about the defence. I'll wait until the retained list is released to put my two pence on it properly. He's got 2 players he plays at right back (Gordon and Hewitt) plus Perch can cover as well as Akins (it was said he can play everywhere) but the issue with squad building like this is the issue I tried to point out back in August. It's alright having 1 player who can play 2+ positions, it's when they are needed to in both positions at once. How many times was Hawkins our "best CB and best CF" and Perch was our "best CB and best RB"

We have 1 left back, He's a former winger/midfielder and turns 32 years old 2 weeks tomorrow. We need more options. It was said Wallace is backup but Clough played Hewitt, Perch and Akins there ahead of Wallace when Macca picked up an injury. Who here can honestly say they like those backup options full time if Macca picks up a longer term injury? We need another left footed option there that isn't also a 1st choice starter elsewhere where we don't have good cover.

Out and out natural CB we have Rawson (now released!). Perch and O'Toole more than capable though. I don't think Perch has the legs for a Clough RB and played well overall at CB. Not enough.

Main Concern for me is he wants an attacking player wide on the right. Isn't that what Akins is here for? Bowery too. In my opinion, we've also got Gordon if he's talking out and out winger. Who is the attacking option wide left in that case?

Also, after news of Rawson being released, we need 1 defender to replace Rawson. Did Clough have a chat with him and offered him lower terms and now it's 2 defenders.

I do not want a repeat of "offer me a forward or a defender and I'll take the forward again" when it was so obvious we needed at least 1 (I got shot down for questioning that saying we needed another CB, we then signed O'Toole, pretty good move)

A well presented argument that is extremely hard to disagree with.

[cassellswasmagic]

The lack of pace in the squad is frightening. Even Oates was blowing out his backside for the last month. If he doesn’t sort the defence and add a few more pacey players I can see little improvement. That said, just playing Clarke, Maris & Lapslie would be an improvement on Longstaff, Murphy and Akins. Akins has improved though. Murphy and Longstaff got worse and are a big reason we were rubbish at Wembley.

[James]

Could we get Tyler Walker back? He was a big disappointment on loan at Pompey last season but having been at Mansfield and having played under Clough at Burton previously, maybe we're the ones who can help him get his career back on track. He has the pace and power we need.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport ... r-23887553

"Disappointment" is an understatement reading that:

Think the £7k a week rules us out.

[georgefostersbeard]

Let's be honest we scored enough this season

Even on our winning streak our defense was porous. Winning 3-2 is a lot of fun, but eventually you need to figure out a way to shut up shop.

I agreed with this post so looked at the league table to find out where we stood in terms of goals scored and conceded against other teams.
Happy for my maths to be wrong but I think we were the fifth highest scorers and the eight lowest conceders. This really surprised me
If that is right then it is as much about stopping those ridiculous goals (which often involved Faz) as setting out to be like Northampton which is not Clough's style. We need go start with having a back four that doesn't have brain farts and concede ridiculous goals

[Martin Shaw]

Don't know if I misheard it but during yesterday's interview with Stevo, Cloughie mentioned wanting to bring in another midfielder. My first thoughts are that I'd love to keep Stirk but we have got a few vying for places so are we expecting any of the midfield to be shipped out?

Clough:
“We have 13 or 14 outfield players in place at the moment, so we need four or five to add to that. But they will have to be good ones in order to improve the squad. We know the areas we need to improve in.

“We are happy with the majority of the squad. We just need to tweak it a little bit.

“We definitely need one in each department, depending on who stays and who goes.

“We only need one defender. We are happy with our defensive options at the moment. Then a couple of midfielders and a couple of attackers, maybe one attacker outright and one who just plays off a little bit.

“That will be the aim. If we can get five in those areas then we will be happy.

[BH_Stag]

Definitely need at least 2 defenders so surprised to see Clough say otherwise.

A first choice CB to challenge with Perch who will be rotated more to partner O’toole is obviously a must. Hawkins should only be seen as 4th choice at the back next season.

It would be mad for us to go in to another season without a proper cover at left back. When so much of your attacking output comes from that area, to potentially go from that to a makeshift option in the event of an injury is a risk not worth taking.

Ideally we’d have been able to move Gordon on and find somebody else to challenge Hewitt but doesn’t look like it will happen. Not a huge fan of Perch at right back, he’s much better at CB.

[gazza1988]

I heard outright as out right. I did think it was odd.

[zod]

If Hawkins can be utilised as a striker to hold the ball up I think Oates could score more.
It will be interesting to see if he's not bringing any more defenders in is he thinking of sticking with Macca, Gordon, JJ, Perch, and Hewitt?

[tillydog123]

I like Oats a lot but agree he needs strong partner and Hawkins may fill the role but Oats is very lightweight and not a burly striker of the Alan Shearer mould albeit different level

[arsene wengers coat]

While I'm happy that perch and Bowery have agreed to remain, we drastically need to improve across the park.

We need to score more goals. We need our Centreforwards to do better than 12. We need our midfield to contribute with more goals, we need to reduce the average age (and so increase fitness and athleticism) of the squad. We need to be less reliant on loanees from other clubs.

Massive amount of work to do this.close season.

Im actually hoping for a bit of a squad overhaul.

We need better and younger defenders, midfielders, forwards and strikers.

Whilst I don’t disagree with your point, there were only 4 clubs scored more than us this season and we had 18 different scorers in the league. Oates didn’t really get going until the end of October and then scored 8 in 18 games that he played with 5 assists before he had an unlucky spell in front of goal along with his injury.
We need to keep him and get him a partner so that he can be a 20+ goal scorer.
With Clough’s style of play we should be scoring more but also the defence needs to be more disciplined so we are on better goal difference than the clubs around us.
It’s fine margins. As Clough has pointed out we were only 7 points off the top of the league.

And this is where stats and opinions will differ.

For me, I see individuals with low totals, the odd goal coming from several players indicating a chopped and changed, largely unsettled team.

The stats will back this up, but it was clear as day to anyone who watched us last season that despite our overall goals tally looking ok, we actually missed an absolute hatful, and I dare say that our conversion of chances:goals was probably as low as anyone in the league. We probably had to create 20 odd chances to score a goal. If we could improve on that by half, we'll win way more games.

So how do we do that? We need individuals to do better. We need a more settled side with the players that do play contributing more goals. FGR only used 14 players this season.

if Oates plays all season with a better partner, i'd want 15+ from him. Hawkins, Bowery and Akins should be getting 10+. Goals from the likes of Macca and Hewitt, etc are all bonus goals. nice to have but cant be relied upon.

What I'd say from that season is we weren't ruthless or savage enough.

In addition, cutting out the 5-10 calamitous goals we conceded a season, with the 10-15 more goals we should be scoring, we would easily claw-back the 7-10 points we would need to get in the autos.

[wink68]

Definitely need at least 2 defenders so surprised to see Clough say otherwise.

A first choice CB to challenge with Perch who will be rotated more to partner O’toole is obviously a must. Hawkins should only be seen as 4th choice at the back next season.

It would be mad for us to go in to another season without a proper cover at left back. When so much of your attacking output comes from that area, to potentially go from that to a makeshift option in the event of an injury is a risk not worth taking.

Ideally we’d have been able to move Gordon on and find somebody else to challenge Hewitt but doesn’t look like it will happen. Not a huge fan of Perch at right back, he’s much better at CB.

Started the season needing a right back and centre half. Finished the season needing a right back and centre half.

[MTFCMusings]

They don’t back up your opinion AWC. Expected goals for over the course of the season was 67.5, we scored 67 so pretty much bang on. The xG against was 52.7 and we conceded 52.

We averaged 12.9 shots per game, the 7th most in the league.

12.5 shots per game over 46 games is 593.4 total. Given we scored 67 that works out around 9 shots needed per goal. It’s very similar to most of the others teams at the top of L2.

[Cockney Stag]

I think Wallace is suitable LB cover.

Bishop, O'Toole, Macca, Maris, Lapslie, Oates

Those are the only 6 I would pencil in as starters next year (if Bishop comes back)

Hewitt RB/CB, Gordon RB, Perch CB, Wallace LB as backups/challenging for places

Clarke DM, Law AM, Quinn LM as backups/challenging for places

Bowery CF, Hawkins CF, Johnson CF, Akins RW as backups/challenging for places

[kevin kents tasce]

They don’t back up your opinion AWC. Expected goals for over the course of the season was 67.5, we scored 67 so pretty much bang on. The xG against was 52.7 and we conceded 52.

We averaged 12.9 shots per game, the 7th most in the league.

12.5 shots per game over 46 games is 593.4 total. Given we scored 67 that works out around 9 shots needed per goal. It’s very similar to most of the others teams at the top of L2.

Good post Musings.

A perfect example of why using both data and the eye test is essential if you want to draw accurate and sensible conclusions

[broomo]

Just a question for those commenting on how poor we were in certain areas of the pitch.

How many teams won more games than us?

How many teams had more clean sheets than us?

How many games did we not score in? How does that compare?


I haven't looked so genuinely interested.

My own view is we were close, mighty close and that was with that 14 game run.

I don't think we need an overhaul.

Replace Rawson with someone slightly better and stop Quinn, O'Toole and Hawkins from having their moments of madness.

I think the Port Vale no show has clouded the views of some.

Just for clarity so folk know where I stand.

I don't trust Elliott. Even though he improved massively. I'd love to see us sign a more reliable right back but also need to remind myself we're a League Two side and it's not fair or realistic to expect Trent Alexander or Rhys James quality.

[Conker]

Hawkins Quinn and O’Toole ain’t changing now, fantasy to think otherwise. Unfair to suggest Elliott Hewitt not been reliable for a while now, he’s probably more reliable than the other theee mentioned because he doesn’t throw a occasional tantrum on the pitch.

[arsene wengers coat]

They don’t back up your opinion AWC. Expected goals for over the course of the season was 67.5, we scored 67 so pretty much bang on. The xG against was 52.7 and we conceded 52.

We averaged 12.9 shots per game, the 7th most in the league.

12.5 shots per game over 46 games is 593.4 total. Given we scored 67 that works out around 9 shots needed per goal. It’s very similar to most of the others teams at the top of L2.

So 13 shots a game? that doesnt surprise me I'd imagine we had a few much higher and several lower, but that's quite good over a season. 9 shots for 1 goal however does surprise me, I thought it would be a lot worse.

What we don't have is 'missed opportunities to shoot' or quality of the chance that was missed. There's a difference between a speculative 35yarder and the missed tap in from 1 yard. However you cut it, for me, we didnt score enough, we were wasteful of good chances, and we werent clinical enough. we didnt take advantage of our chances and we should have scored more.