theAnticlough

Yes @McPie those points stood out. Actually I don't think MP got his phrasing quite right on that - I'm sure Aljofree, Norburn, Cotter and maybe others have been trying and it should be perfectly natural for players to come in and out according to form when the squad size is 25+. We can vent on places like this, but the coach should be a wee bit more diplomatic. He said it right later - anyone not performing well is under pressure. That's just a small detail, the forum and whole panel were great last night, MP especially, who spoke very well on the team. One point that got my interest is the Bros still mulling over what management structure they want. That tells us there will be no appointment any time soon, if what the actual post is hasn't been decided yet :) Hopefully, there won't be any fans banging on about giving recruitment to MP - it's not going to happen. The choice is a) Head of Recruitment b) Director of Football or c) some other structure we haven't seen before. Personally I hope it's a) MP doesn't need a boss between him and the bros but could do with an equal in that other dept, either a Montague figure or Montague himself (I still haven't given up hope of him coming back).

Derby County 1-1 Southampton Swansea City 1-2 Leicester City Huddersfield Town 1-0 Stockport Port Vale 1-1 Northampton Town Bromley 2-0 Tranmere Rovers Joker Salford City 1-2 Grimsby Town Braintree Town 2-1 Sutton United Wealdstone 2-0 Altrincham I keep predicting against Salford, hope it's not my heart overruling my head

@Piethagoram Andrew Whitaker is spot on

What strikes you is how different MP is to the rest of the panel, temperamentally. We need what he brings. Maynard probably fitted in more in terms of temperament but being too uniform like that won't help to keep players and fans interested and motivated. As long as it's controllable (by the provider :) ) , the club needed that injection of nervous energy a la Mad Dog which MP brings.

Chris and Alex also repeated what MP said recently that we have kept the club's playing philosophy - attacking and possession-based, but obviously making adjustments, 'tweaks' as necessary. Dunno why podcast numpties have to keep telling us otherwise.

Just watched that from start to finish. I don't think fans could ask for much more from a forum. I thought it was great. Two full hours almost, such a wide range of topics and questions, without dodging the difficult ones. One thought was how useful watching that would be for our rivals. We seem to have such good governance though, so hard to copy some of what we do and how we do it.

MP's headaches will be 1 or 2 up front and who to pick for the problem No.10 position, which nobody can claim a shirt like Didzy and Crowley did. IMO we're desperate to see if Dennis can play that role while still providing his goal threat and output. Seems like Luker might be injured, in which case go Dennis and Hall behind Jatta and see how that works. I wrote at the beginning of the season that Iorpenda is dangerous player for us - one that looks good, offers height, strength, athleticism but just won't make the key contributions for goals and assists you have to insist on from your No.10 if you want to challenge for promotion. I don't think he's ready and we don't owe Huddersfield anything to develop their player at the expense of our promotion challenge.

You could look at it as he's gone on loan because he's closer to the first XI than you think - only 1 injury to either Palmer or Norburn and he's in the matchday squad. He needs game time, but I'm sure the loan includes a recall. At only 22, he's not the finished article as a CM. I'd say he's L2 level not NL, but not promotion level L2 without taking a leap forward.

Good comments. Yes, I thought the defenders defending the 6-yard box were more culpable for the 1st goal. Even Jatta at the near post. Also that Roos has been improving. I don't have a problem with him but I know it's important for a goalie's presence to spread confidence in front of him. I don't think we have that and that will be a problem even if Roos maintains an OK level. We have a bigger problem than GK IMO and that's indifferent play from the inside-forward No. 10 positions. Nobody has made one of those shirts their own and we can't build a promotion challenge if that doesn't happen.

Agree with those points @Robbie, but even with practical changes it may still happen because I think we are actually mentally fragile at the moment. Maybe part of averting it can be the massive hurt that the players feel when condeding at Barrow and Crewe deep deep into stoppage time. Hopefully, it can make them stronger rather than weaker. It has to really, or it'd soon lead to wholesale changes.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but there is something really gut punching and disturbing about losing so ,so late in the game, just like we did against Barrow at 90+7mins. If your team keeps losing when the chips are down in stoppage time, you can't help but think they're mentally weak, fragile and that it bodes ill for all the crucial times yet to come in the season. It's a cliche that winning teams often score in stoppage time, so what is the opposite of that? And not only the timing, crucial moments in the penalty area, we spurn sitters, the opposition regularly exploit panic to score.... I told you it was going to be a downer :) I believe MP is trying his best to instill a toughness and to overcome the weakness left over from the Maynard days and a tendency for young, inexperienced players not to know how to win games. It'll take time to transform us into one of the teams meting out late defeats on teams rather than being on the wrong end of them.

Yeah, I'm with you on that @Robbie Luker looks to have more goals and assists production in him and if you don't get goals and assists from those attacking positions your promotion challenge has a ball and chain around it.

That's the 10 game mark. Iorpenda has played every game and he's 0 goals from 10 with not much sign of registering, despite having a prime shirt for most of those. I think he has to stand aside now.

I think we've had a few games recently @Robbie, where the MoM has been pretty clear - this time, Jodi Jones - maybe for the first time this season? He ran them ragged on the left, such a pity we didn't have better finishers in the box. Apart from JJ, I though Palmer had yet another 7/10 and I thought all of the back 3 played quite well. We're getting good WB performances now, but maybe it's because we were spoilt by Didzy and Crowley, I think we keep getting indifferent No.10 play (apart from Hall and Luker coming on v Crawley). It's any 2 from 5 at the moment Dennis, Iorpenda, Grant, Hall and Luker. Next week I'd like to see Dennis and Luker...we need someone to grab one of those shirts and make it theirs.

Sure @liampie, but I focus on Jodi going down in the box in the first half because it was like for like with their penalty - a shirt pull in the area.

Too right @liampie, another bitter defeat to jammy Crewe. I think Dennis did something incredibly stupid in grabbing that shirt - better not come on if you give it away like that. But referee, shame on you, the defender who was booked had a handful of Jodi's shirt in the first half. If one's a penalty, the other has to be. And we had other good penalty claims too. Cheated, again. Jatta going 0 for 2 from 3 yards didn't help though.

Going behind gave the team chance to prove they could get on top of Crewe. We deserved to equalise. Please don't do anything crap at the back again, we can win this.

I'm not sure that's possible BT, can you really lose 77pounds or 35kgs in 2 months?

Yes, I just about remember them! Actually I'm grateful I had a couple of decades at a healthy weight I made my weekly target but face a tough week ahead....I'll try not to have a mini-night out this week. Best wishes and good luck to all who are fighting the same fight.

Another point is that Big Sam gets misrepresented. I watched a lot of his Bolton side, they were skilful and entertaining. A midfield of Campo, Okocha and Nolan, Diouf ahead, Matty Taylor? They had more of a no nonsense approach at the back though, including the RB Hunt who played for us for a few games. But that midfield was absolute class, they were a joy to watch

Fascinating subject. Clearly there's a trend away from risk-taking at the back in response to sides improving the press. As always the direction will be shaped by who wins. Any big change will only take off if it proves itself at the highest levels. Pace, hard running and pace of play seems to be where the top sides can eke out marginal gains that win - Liverpool's title last year? While still demanding high technical ability and quality on the ball to be able to keep it. @Robbie mentions Paisley and Liverpool. I don't remember those dominant sides being true to those words at all. But I do remember Hansen Lawrenson Souness Dalglish, Lee etc passing the life out of the ball and the opposition. They never hoofed it long. But fast forward 6 or 7 years and they'd evolved into something different. McMahon and co got it forward to Barnes and Beardsley more quickly and they relied more on their forwards' individual brilliance. But even then they still had cultured defenders and the likes of Molby who could dominate the ball. That's a bit like the trick we're trying to pull off in L2 now, injecting more pace and purpose but still trying to keep within the overarching philosophy.

MP revealed his hand when Jatta was out by saying how much he missed having such a tall player available to counter that threat. This will be one of the reasons Jatta will be picked every game and won't be taken off all that often. It'll make it more challenging for Dennis to play the maximum amount of minutes. Hopefully he can prove himself as a No10 as well as a 2nd or 1st striker. I'm OK with this because Jatta is worth his place (and we need to boost his value). I know Wootton is a proven L1 player now, but he really should have been dropped at times with us, when he was having one of his lean spells, but was kept in all the time for just this reason.

Ipswich Town 2-0 Portsmouth Watford 1-2 Hull City Burton Albion 0-2 Plymouth Argyle Mansfield Town 2-1 Rotherham United Joker Bristol Rovers 2-1 Salford City Crawley Town 2-0 Barrow Halifax Town 2-1 Aldershot Truro City 1-0 Morecambe Completing that I realised I hate Salford more than Bristol Rovers, and yes it did influence my predication, ship ahoy pirates put them landlubbers to the sword

Tantalising fixture in that the form suggests we can nick the 3pts. I actually think the team picked to start last Saturday makes even more sense for tomorrow. Robertson and his MoM performance has potentially changed the equation for us, and will even allow us to play 2 up top more often. When you have 2 holding CMs, you don't ask for much in the final third but you have to get something to keep the opposition under pressure numbers-wise. That's never going to come from the Palmer-Norburn combination, but Robertson does offer that thrust and threat in the final third that makes all the difference to the balance of the team. Now we have Robbo (the old one) and Ray Wilkins rather than 2 Ray Wilkins

Me too @Fan of Big Tone I'd like to see it unchanged. And that's with Grant and Iorpenda not being great last week, but they seem like a good pairing to start away at Crewe. The best time to re-introduce Dennis, as a 2nd CF or Inside-forward would be at home, it might backfire if he had a difficult away game. As for Hall and Luker, their time will come and they'd better be ready. I doubt Grant and Iorpenda will be able to produce the goals and assists to be able to hold down those positions, to guarantee themselves regular starter slots all season.