lb0603

Surely clubs with a supposedly smaller budget have to try and be clever in order to compete?

You're the one who brought up January - I'm just saying that someone will be willing to give us something for him. And don't you kid yourself that if a Championship club comes in that Winchester will turn around and say "no, it's alright I'll continue at Latics for now, thanks" Also, he will have played one full season once this one ends.

Yeah but the difference is now that they have 3 months to negotiate a proper price rather than rush one through in a month. International footballer who plays every week, is a reasonable driving force in the middle and has age on his side. Somebodies going to take a punt.

So basically the one thing they all have in common (bar Winchester, who won't start the season with us next season) is that they're soft. The thing Kelly and Mills have in common is that they don't fancy it when the going gets tough - they're mentally weak footballers and that's the reason they won't play at a higher level - that, coupled with the fact that they aren't technically good enough (If they were they would have been able to drag this team into the play-offs). What people seem to forget is that the standard of League 1 this year is atrocious. If these players were really that good and could comfortably play at a higher level we'd have been with the top 5 who have run away with it. Judgment of them is being clouded and elevated (as it was with Johnson) by how poor the division actually is.

Then why aren't they?

I was.... granted not on here, but still

al_bro. I agree with you, if you're using statistics incorrectly. You wouldn't have a blanket analysis to fit every player. Using you're example of holding midfielders vs. creative midfielders the dominant KPIs that would be built into the analysis would change depending on what you're expecting from them tactically. For example, for your holding midfielder you'd be maybe looking at interceptions made and general position play (because performance analysts do get this information) whereas with your creative midfielder you'd be looking at chances created and where he has possession, possibly. To determine whether they're successful or not wouldn't be down to subjective opinion; their performance would be analysed against relevant KPIs that should be obtained from a large pool of data that is readily available. If statistics are used correctly from a large enough pool, the numbers just don't lie. The data is available and it should be utilised (correctly).

It would if he's bringing in people above him as well.

Just an alternative view on the three reported candidates (mainly referring to Ashworth).... Is it not possible that Corney has seen sense and is going for an approach that is more FC Midtjylland and Brentford (of next season) where decisions are going to be made through the use of statistical analysis and having several people involved in the decision making process (re. signings, tactics, post-match press conferences etc.)? Because if that's the case, Ashworth may well have the most experience in man-management (which would be his main role) and therefore would actually stand out as the ideal candidate. I know there'll be a lot of you who disagree with this approach because "that's not how football works" but, in truth, it should be. To paraphrase Billy Beane: In what other organization other than sport do you leave the fate of the company entirely up to a middle manager?

Every good team, during a season, has a bad run of 3 or 4 games. Every bad team, during a season, has a couple of good runs of 3 or 4 games. Latics took 9 points from a possible 9 against Southend, Carlisle and MK Dons. This adds to us taking only 12 points from another possible 48. Being nearly halfway through a season this strikes me as those 3 games being our good run of games thus meaning we're a bad team... and the results before those games included the injured lot and we still weren't picking up enough points. I think this shows that the return of our injured players as being the savoiurs of the season is unfounded, and ignore the hope of getting them all playing together regularly because it won't happen this season because injuries don't clear up at the drop of a hat. Plus football nowadays is a squad game and to quote Penney: "I'll have the squad in place by 29th June" - didn't he made his last signing on Thursday? Onto his squad and signings... 9 permanent signings of which 5 were playing a level belowthis league last season, 3 were playing in League 1 but for arguably worse teams than us (and not regularly) and only 1 was playing to the same standard expected... and he's not made an appearence for us. His loan signings... :censored: = very good Blackman = not really done anything for me Sheehan = presumably would have stayed if he'd wanted to? Hills = meh Flahavan = very good goalkeeper but, to me, underlines Penney's problem in viewing players. He's had to sack his own signing within 3 months because he got it wrong... who's to say he's not done that with the other 8? Just a quick note on Heffernan too. He's not the solution to our goalscoring problem because you have to be creating chances to score. My point here, really, is that the team's very poor and in a relegation fight and Penney's to blame for it with his idea of a "squad". And before I get the old resources argument back in my face... apart from Leeds, Charlton, Norwich and Huddersfield whose budget can't we compete with? And why wait before you're deep in the s**t before getting rid of the problem?

Do Doncaster not train then?

He signed Parker and Colbeck to be starters. You can't say he's got limited talent to work with when he's brought in the vast majority.

The ball should never be able to get AROUND the wall and end up in the net with a couple of yards to spare. It doesn't matter if you expect it or not, it should still be covered. The only reason the left footer took it wa because Brill had given him all that space to work with.

So you're saying he wasn't at fault for the goal?

Pogliacomi Eardley Fitz Hall Clint Hill Bertrand Liddell Neil Kilkenny Matty Appleby © Eyres Wijnhard Hughes Bench: Chris Armstrong, Gary Kelly, Richie Wellens, Chris Porter, Haining, Taylor, Andrews.

Hughes' about 7/1 to be League 2 top goalscorer - more likely than last year.

No, I play on Saturday.

Not when he's got 7 after about 10 games

Oh yeah, I forgot all those goals he's scored in his career

Feel free to disagree with me on this as I am usually quite harsh when it comes to football but I feel this team, potentially, could be in for a long season. Why? Dean Brill - of what I've seen of him he's one of the best goalkeepers in the world... if the balls nowhere near him. He's big and loud but, unfortuantely, has shown, to em, a lack of ability. The defence, as has been mentioned in many other topics is certainly a major concern. Especially if Lomax is in it. The midfield and attack is an area people seem to be overlooking a little to me. There's, on paper, not alot of goals coming from midfield (and potentially the attack); Furman... only scored 6 in 30+ games playing at Bradford (who weren't the worst team in League 2). Whittiker... I'm hoping won't play but if he does will only bring a couple of goals to the team. Taylor and Smalley... never really been prolific enough for wingers. Worthington... don't expect goals from his role. Purdie... don't really know enough about him to comment. Holdworth... a right back on the wing never works going forward. Abbott... will score alot of goals if he stays fit but, personally, I'm not holding out much hope for him playing all season. Parker... averages 1 goal every 5 games which will gve him about 10 league goals which I don't believe is enough for a striker. O'Grady... couldn't hit a cow's backside with a banjo. Byfield (if he signs)... could go either way. If the goals tally this season follows what the players previous records have been then I believe we aren't going to score enough (coupled with how many we're looking like conceding) to push ourselves into the top half of the table. It only takes a couple of players to show me I'm wrong, however, and who knows. A bad start though and we could potentially find ourselves in a bit of trouble.

The problem with changing your team every week is that the players don't get into a rhythm and the team will become disjointed. Also, say Penney does do this (which I don't think he will). The team suitable for playing the passing teams wins, say, 3-0 but the following game we're playing a hoof ball team. Do you change the team?

United reserves/youth would beat our first team.

Why did United play him in CM then? I'm sure they have a better idea than anyone of us.

Reading this makes it seem like he's injury prone... which is a bigger worry than if it had just been one long standing injury

But Hughes scored 15+ last season. Abbott's not done that recently.