cardiffexile

Id go 3-5-2, as nothing else seems to be working. Ripley Burgess Gerrard (Wilson if gerrard not signed) Clarke Wingbacks of dummingham and reckord Midfield trio of green, Winchester and flynn. With flynn further forward. Erwin and mackay up top. Hopefully flynn might have a good game as it's the cup and he's our only chance of winning at the moment. Hopefully its his 1 good game in 5.

It's looking likely with the withdrawals that we could get Blackburn, Aston villa, Stoke or Everton. What a joke of a competition they have made of it. Good job Bolton downgraded their academy last year otherwise they could have drawn their own reserve team!

As bury appear to be quite adventurous this season it would make sense to hit them on the counter as such I would go with. Coleman Dieng burn wilson brown Kelly Jones philiskirk Poleon turner forte Our backline would be solid and lots of pace on the counter. Dunn unlucky to miss out but I think the extra industry of phili would allow forte and Poleon more freedom to join turner.

With the current squad i would go with Coleman Dieng elokobi wilson Poleon Jones Kelly forte Winchester Turner philli Away games change Poleon for wilson and forte for mills

Ave attendance in 2006-07 was 6300ish. Ave attendance in 2007-08 was 5300ish. Lee hughes was signed in august 2007.

Attendances will decrease as so many people will disagree with the signing. Just as it was with the Lee hughes signing where the ave attendances dropped by 1000 and have never recovered. We can't afford for a similar drop just when there was starting to be some positivity around the club.

When will Turner be back from injury? Hopefully he will be the finisher and the guy with genuine movement in the box.

Missed the last 2 games thankfully. But feel the bigger picture needs to be looked at. We need to make sure we are playing to the strengths of our key players and not trying to fit loan players in where not needed. We did the team bonding at the start of the season to get the players all knitted together and then johnson has been trying to replace a lot of them ever since. I think this has undermined team spirit. As such to restore this I would go with the following. chubs Wilson dieng wilson mills Mellor Winchester Jones Phili forte Poleon Although not convinced about Poleon at least he is one of ours and there is an absence of alternatives up front. I like Mellor in that holding role as not sure he really has the engine to play a different role. Although he would always be behind Kelly due to Kelly being more defensively sound. I like the look of johnson but don't think he does enough defensively so would be either him or Phili for the central role or him or forte for wide left. He would lose out in both of these for me

Chubs Wilson dieng wilson mills Mellor tidser Jones Johnson philiskirk forte 4.3.3 with 2 holding midfielders and Jones in a free role in midfield and look to counter attack.

I think the signings are a great move as Mellor and Winchester between them can cover every position apart from keeper and forward. it should therefore mean that the squad size can be smaller and money can be directed towards quality rather than quantity. Both players have also shown potential, it is just getting them to do it on a regular basis, which has been difficult with wes and Smith quite rightly in the way.

Getting my first season ticket since lookers was knocked down. Been regular long distance floater since. But now back in the area and looking forward to promotion push - fingers crossed. Do I get first dibs on new seats in the new stand or do those who kept there season ticket going in other stands have first choice? I assume the latter obviously, but u never know. :-)

Getting my first season ticket since lookers was knocked down. Been regular long distance floater since. But now back in the area and looking forward to promotion push - fingers crossed. Do I get first dibs on new seats in the new stand or do those who kept there season ticket going in other stands have first choice? I assume the latter obviously, but u never know. :-)

4-3-3 - Full backs creating the width and playing off smiths knock downs. Bouzy Smith Tarky Mvoto Grounds Wes Mellor (holding in front of centre backs) Winchester Millar Smith Barnard

Can't believe they are trying to change the only game of the season that might be close to capacity! Why would the bank holiday game be at 7.45? Surely a 3 o clock kick off is the norm. I for one, could have made it on the monday, but i am unable to make tuesday nights and that was a big factor in not getting a season ticket as i would miss too many games to make it worthwhile.

I agree totally with limiting the amount of loan signings as it is a farce seeing a different team every other week. I would make exceptions for injuries, if there are no alternatives in the development squad/youth system. Also if there is a gem of a player that we could get for a season, this would also be worthwhile, as long as this was not at the expense of a promising player in our own youth. Additionally i would like to see local lads (esp those that have come through the youth) ala taylor, smalley etc.. playing. If we could get the majority of the team as local lads i would be more inclined to support the team more as it would feel more like my team and hopefully these players are not looking as oldham as a stepping stone to a better club, but would be aiming to play in a higher division with oldham. I for one would prefer to see the likes of rickers, mcniven twins, allot playing for us (as they have an affinity with the club) rather than the parkers, worthingtons, Holdsworth (im not saying these shouldnt play for us, but the amount of turnover of players is destroying the soul of the club).

I reckon he has some good attributes, but as with all players if you don't play to their strengths they look average at best. He came into his own when he was linking up with whittaker (has gone missing since alles stopped playing) and taylor playing one touch football around the box. This was creating the space for hughes to take advanatge of any opportunities which came along. One of the biggest reasons allesandra wasn't scoring enough IMO was that hughes is a greedy striker (although i would still like him here) and quite often shot when he should have laid on an open goal for Alles. Although the strikers who are greedy and shoot on site, rather than playing the team game are considered and are often the best (ala hughes and beckford).

Ollerenshaw (cant do much worse than brill) Lee Timar/Hazell Gregan Jacobsen :censored:/Goodwin Stephens Smalley Whittaker Taylor Abbott Give whits, taylor and smalley licence to get forward to support abbott and as we are at home, attacking fullbacks in Lee and Jacobson should be used.

Brill eardley Holdsworth gregan jacobson smalley worthington furman taylor parker abbott I have only seen the sunderland game and last season and thats why we can't start with the same central defence, therefore hazell goes as might help with ball retention, to take pressure off the defence.

I reckon Taylor will be on the left and purdie on the right, as i expect purdie to help out the centre mid a bit more and allow eardley more freedom to go forward and taylor to push up sometimes into a front 3 with abbott and smalley.

Fleming Eardley Hazell CB Jacobson Purdie worthington Whits/allessandra Smalley Taylor o'grady/CF Bench ollenshaw/GK Black Lee Brooke Stephens

How about Matt Richards at left back. Tommy Miller at Centre mid - Goal threat and has the experience and been booted out of the door at ipswich. Mangan (from forest green) out of contract but under 24, so would be looking at compo if we could afford it. scored 26 goals in a struggling team!

GK FLEMING RB EARDLEY LB JONES (IF WE CAN GET ON THE CHEAP, IF NOT GIVE BLACK/LOMAX A RUN) CB HAZELL (WITH CONFIDENCE, AS IT IS SHOT AT THE MOMENT) CB BIG QUICK DEFENDER (IN THE TROTMAN MOULD) CM ALLOTT CM WESTLAKE (OR SIMILAR) CM WHITTAKER / ALLESSANDRA / LEE / STEPHENS ST SMALLEY ST TAYLOR ST O GRADY / BIG STRIKER WHO CAN SCORE (IN THE KUQI MOULD) Subs ollenshaw (why sign him as a pro if he isn't good enough to sit on the bench) lomax (can cover several positions) hazell (can cover several positions and if the budget allows would prefer two new centre backs) one of the attacking mids as above o grady (as hopefully will sign a number 1 striker) i would give the full backs as much chance to go forward and therefore would need pace at the back and a combatitive midfield. I would look for the front three to all get 10+ goals in the season, with the attacking midfielder also getting similar and the rest about 5 each. Giving about 70 goals. therefore we need to sign a big quick centre back, a big target man striker who will get on the crosses from eardley/jones and a combative midfielder. I think a squad of 22 is ideal, with injuries and suspensions being covered by loan market signings when necessary. We already have 16 of those signed up with allott offered a deal, so we would be looking at signing a further 5 players on top of what we have.

I cant believe people would actually want to build a team around our worst liabilities in hazell and gregan. Our defence has shown constantly that they cannot cope with the strikers in this division, as shown in the fact that we have one of the worst defensive records in this division (eighth worse). I also think in allot they have in front of them one of the best defensive mids in the division (although i do think by having allot we suffer going forward due to his reluctance to pick up the ball from the centre backs), but he cannot compensate for gregan and hazell making mistakes every game which has cost us so many goals and i think a play off position this year. If we are to be a success next season, the first thing joe has to do is bring in a central defensive partnership, so then the midfield are confident enough to go forward without worrying they are leaving gregan and hazell at the back. I especially think this has effected eardleys and more recently jones games as until joe came they became less and less likely to venture forward, due to the risk of leaving the centre backs against a break away and with eardley and jones the attacking play is their strongest part of the game. Therefore i would build my team around Fleming (from what i have seen is a decent player) eardley (great attacking player, given space to use his pace and stamina) two solid centre backs needed (ruben with confidence might fit bill) left back needed (although havent seen much of black) midifeld hasn't shown much apart from taylor, although i think whits could do a job, provided he has the right players surrounding him. Up front - We lack a threat in front of goal, since the departure of hughes although i do think ogrady, allesandra and smalley could do a job i think we would be too heavily reliant on goals from other areas of the team, to challenge next season. Joe has a lot of work on his hands to shape a team to challenge for the top two.

Fleming Eardley hazel Stam Black Whits Lee Smalley Allesandra Taylor O grady Crossley Lomax Stephens Eaves Defender (hazel) Looking at our players who are definately here next season, we have a basis of a decent team to challenge for play offs (not sure on black or lee as haven't really seen either although lomax could do a job at LB). We need to keep a CB (my preference would be stam as i see gregans pace as too costly despite his other good points, we would have height for corners with this team in COG, smalley and taylor and therefore we don't have to rely on big centre half) and to sign a CB (would love trotman to come on loan). I would keep crossley if royle (if here) wanted him as a coach (past it as a player, but can do a job off the bench as a temp replacement). I think a squad of 18-20 tops should be the most in this economic climate, with youth players / temp loans filling in if we have injuries, as i can see crowds diminishing next season.

I have always thought that our players would suit a 3-5-2. We have attacking fulls backs in jones and eardley who are weak defensively but can get forward and whip the ball into the box. We struggle for pace at the back (gregan) which means our full backs are uncomfortable leaving gregan at the back in case we have a counter attack against us. The addition of an extra defender should give the full backs freedom to do what they do well and get forward. Also means if eardley is further forward he can't just lump it forward when no one in midfield wants the ball. My team would be Supple Hazell Gregan Stam Eardley Jones Taylor Westlake Whittaker Hughes Allesandra We might actually see some decent passing football with this team