Are we stumbling across our best team eventually?

O

O4tonygreen

Well-known member
I am hoping that Critchley is becoming a lucky manager. well he's had a couple of big pay-offs then got his old job back :)

I think he may eventually have stumbled across his best team just in time for a play off run, despite his eternal meddling.

The team that finished the game is nearly IMHO the best we can field, with a couple of tweaks. Morgan for Norburn, and Casey for Ekpititeta and I think we are nearly there.

Byers, Coulson, dembele and Rhodes are head and shoulders better than anything we have on the permanent books, so we need to get promoted this year or we could be in L1 for a while

Could it happen (again)?
 
O4tonygreen said:
I am hoping that Critchley is becoming a lucky manager. well he's had a couple of big pay-offs then got his old job back :)

I think he may eventually have stumbled across his best team just in time for a play off run, despite his eternal meddling.

The team that finished the game is nearly IMHO the best we can field, with a couple of tweaks. Morgan for Norburn, and Casey for Ekpititeta and I think we are nearly there.

Byers, Coulson, dembele and Rhodes are head and shoulders better than anything we have on the permanent books, so we need to get promoted this year or we could be in L1 for a while

Could it happen (again)?
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Casey for Ekpiteta?

Madness. Marvin is far and away our best defender, regardless of the odd error.
 
Chunkylad said:
Marvin has pace, heading and tackling. Plus a big heart and courage.

Just need to strap a set of headphones on with the repeat mantra “don’t pass it just pump it forward”.

I’ll take losing possession 10 times a game over defence own goals
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I noticed Husband, Pennington and Coulson making themselves available for straightforward passes from Marv.
 
Mark_GT said:
We were a bit lucky today that they didn't close us down hard. I think it will be different on Saturday and we need to be ready. That said, Marv was brilliant in defence today against a tall physical side.
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Maybe but I think there was also more intent to play.

Not sure what oir record is on Tuesday night game or any night games, but it won't be good.

I think we're actually scared of the dark.
 
O4tonygreen said:
I am hoping that Critchley is becoming a lucky manager. well he's had a couple of big pay-offs then got his old job back :)

I think he may eventually have stumbled across his best team just in time for a play off run, despite his eternal meddling.

The team that finished the game is nearly IMHO the best we can field, with a couple of tweaks. Morgan for Norburn, and Casey for Ekpititeta and I think we are nearly there.

Byers, Coulson, dembele and Rhodes are head and shoulders better than anything we have on the permanent books, so we need to get promoted this year or we could be in L1 for a while

Could it happen (again)?
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'... Morgan for Norburn, Casey for Ekpiteta - and absolutely anyone for C. J. Hamilton ...'
 
find it amazing that people seem to remember Marvs mistakes earlier in the season but forget hw great he has been for us. They seem to forget it's more often than not that it's Marv who gets the tackles in, it's, Marv that gets the blocks in, it;s Marv that gets his headers to the crosses coming into the box and it's Marv that clears most low crosses coming into the box too, And Marv is comfortably the fastest of all our defenders.Sure, Casey can consider himself unlucky at the moment not to be in the team but it was Pennington who Critch brought back in.
 
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It’s a good question you have posted. Coulson has improved in each game he’s played and could become quite influential. Rhodes will be a big plus once he is ready to return again. Joseph is a quality player at this level, he just needs a goal. Byers is also a quality player at this level he just needs a run of games to find his form. Marvin has always been a good defender but going forward he does lack finesse. Morgan is always an asset in a match day squad. If we can bring this new lad Finnigan into the fold we might have a player from what I’ve been told !
 
Yep and all our best players are loan players. Have to admire the long term strategy. It was do or die this season and we have failed.

It will be like the pre-season of the Jose Riga era next season trying to replace the talent and assemble a squad.
 
20togo said:
find it amazing that people seem to remember Marvs mistakes earlier in the season but forget hw great he has been for us. They seem to forget it's more often than not that it's Marv who gets the tackles in, it's, Marv that gets the blocks in, it;s Marv that gets his headers to the crosses coming into the box and it's Marv that clears most low crosses coming into the box too, And Marv is comfortably the fastest of all our defenders.Sure, Casey can consider himself unlucky at the moment not to be in the team but it was Pennington who Critch brought back in.
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I know I’m judgemental and easily opinionated but I’m still struggling to forgive him for Sheff U last season nevermind this season!
 
I’d drop lavery, Cj and norburn.

Grimmy
Pennington Marv hubby
Gabriel. Byers Morgan Coulson
Dembele
Rhodes. Beesley

That’s the team I’d start against Pompey based on performances.
Rhodes comes straight back as Joseph, lavery and kouassi aren’t doing it right now.
Cj was pretty much completely useless yesterday and has been for a while now.
Norburn just does quite a lot of nothing.
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
Yep and all our best players are loan players. Have to admire the long term strategy. It was do or die this season and we have failed.

It will be like the pre-season of the Jose Riga era next season trying to replace the talent and assemble a squad.
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I think every EFL team depends on loans from higher divisions.
If you have a memory think back to previous seasons!

I am sure your generous funding towards the club will make Sadler splash the cash.
 
Coulson has improved with every game, which shows the benefit of a run of games
However he's a loan player playing in a position where 1 of our younger players is out on loan, Thompson
Lyons on the other hand seems to have been frozen out,
Coulson had his best game yesterday, but has the manager given our younger players the same run of games
 
O4tonygreen said:
I am hoping that Critchley is becoming a lucky manager. well he's had a couple of big pay-offs then got his old job back :)

I think he may eventually have stumbled across his best team just in time for a play off run, despite his eternal meddling.

The team that finished the game is nearly IMHO the best we can field, with a couple of tweaks. Morgan for Norburn, and Casey for Ekpititeta and I think we are nearly there.

Byers, Coulson, dembele and Rhodes are head and shoulders better than anything we have on the permanent books, so we need to get promoted this year or we could be in L1 for a while

Could it happen (again)?
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Grimmy
Gabriel Pennington Big Marv Husband Coulson

Norburn Byers
Dembele

Rhodes Beesley

My team for Pompey, Norburn is doing all the dirty work and covers a lot of space so would keep him in there, Morgan off the bench for him Byers or Dembele, Marv at this stage in careers is far far better then Casey he has got his swagger back.
 
A_Tense_Grin said:
Yep and all our best players are loan players. Have to admire the long term strategy. It was do or die this season and we have failed.

It will be like the pre-season of the Jose Riga era next season trying to replace the talent and assemble a squad.
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Isn’t the whole concept of loan players the opportunity to borrow players that are better than what you can afford to improve your team / squad?

What’s the point of loaning players worse than your squad?
 
Northstandsinger said:
I’d drop lavery, Cj and norburn.

Grimmy
Pennington Marv hubby
Gabriel. Byers Morgan Coulson
Dembele
Rhodes. Beesley

That’s the team I’d start against Pompey based on performances.
Rhodes comes straight back as Joseph, lavery and kouassi aren’t doing it right now.
Cj was pretty much completely useless yesterday and has been for a while now.
Norburn just does quite a lot of nothing.
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I’d go with that.

Although my caveat is that I’m not a Norburn fan but perhaps he adds something to the structure of the team that a Morgan / Byers combo doesn’t.

Hes maybe our Keith Southern? Many didn’t want Southern anywhere near the team as his passing was shocking and he didn’t score many goals. However we always won more games when he played.
 
this whole debate about Norburn is very polarised. I think many people on here are failing to accept what his role in the team is. He's the defensive midfield player in the the team whose role is simply to make himself available to get the ball off players usually in his own half and then simply pass it on quickly. Yes, that is more often sideways or backwards but that's his role. To keep possession and keep the ball moving, Much in the same way players like Barry Ferguson and Jay Spearing did before him. Both those players came in for a lot of criticism on here which frankly i thought was ridiculous. Now my ovn view is that Norburn isn''t as good a player as those two bur nevertheless that's his role and he does it reasonably well.
 
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20togo said:
this whole debate about Norburn is very polarised. I think many people on here are failing to accept what his role in the team is. He's the defensive midfield player in the the team whose role is simply to make himself available to get the ball off players usually in his own half and then simply pass it on quickly. Yes, that is more often sideways or backwards but that's his role. To keep possession and keep the ball moving, Much in the same way players like Barry Ferguson and Jay Spearing did before him. Both those players came in for a lot of criticism on here which frankly i thought was ridiculous. Now my ovn view is that Norburn isn''t as good a player as those two bur nevertheless that's his role and he does it reasonably well.
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The problem is 20's he doesn't pass it quickly, he slows the game down too much
 
I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm confident about the rest of the season but I am starting to see the positives. Looking at the past 5 games, we have gained more points than Oxford, Peterborough and Stevenage; the same as Orient but two less than Lincoln. Our run in looks good, albeit we need to do well against Portsmouth and away at Derby. Then there's the team, coming together well on the pitch. It all makes for an interesting run in.
 
Casey for Pennington gives us more height but I would keep Norburn as it allows Byers more freedom and he is some player.

Didn’t rate Coulson at all until yesterday as his positioning was good particularly for the second goal.
 
Too little too late. Critchley is paying for not picking the right players from the start. Ekpiteta is an example of this. He should have played all season.
 
Chunkylad said:
Marvin has pace, heading and tackling. Plus a big heart and courage.

Just need to strap a set of headphones on with the repeat mantra “don’t pass it just pump it forward”.

I’ll take losing possession 10 times a game over defence own goals
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Distribution wise he didn't put a foot wrong yesterday, and the last two or three games he's been singularly responsible for saving at least half a dozen goals.
 
Chunkylad said:
Isn’t the whole concept of loan players the opportunity to borrow players that are better than what you can afford to improve your team / squad?

What’s the point of loaning players worse than your squad?
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Yep and we've had some really good loans ever since SS arrived really.

We do however need to build up our own squad with our own talent, which we are doing but we need it in the key areas of creativity and goals, as otherwise each season we'll be left with the best players all going and its harder to be consistent and then if you do go down feok yhr league above, we're not going down with a championship team really.

It'll take time to build that but next season it looks like we'll have 1 in Apter.
 
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O4tonygreen said:
The team that finished the game is nearly IMHO the best we can field, with a couple of tweaks. Morgan for Norburn, and Casey for Ekpititeta and I think we are nearly there.
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Surprised at the Casey for Ekpiteta - thought he was one of our best players on Saturday. Casey for Husband I would understand.
 
Casey will hopefully develop into our future big CB but at this moment in time Big Marv is in a different class. Pennington too is a cut above. Would not drop him in a month of Sundays for Husband either, Husband covers Coulson’s back well. The defence from Saturday, Gabriel Pennington BigMarv Husband Coulson should remain for the season bar injuries/rest.
 
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