The Spine of the Team......

TheTangerinewizard

TheTangerinewizard

Well-known member
I just feel we dont have one. I genuinely dont know who the Captain is. The team looks leader less in my opinion. We are losing points, not thru lack of endeavour but lack of killer instinct and the drive to go that extra mile. FFS Critch, either play CJ on the wing as an out and out forward or drop him.
 
I’ve said it on plenty of threads this season but I don’t see what Norburn, the captain, adds to the team. He doesn’t look to pass forward, doesn’t break up the oppositions play nor start attacks. A central midfielder should be at least one of this things. And he loses possession of the ball too often.
 
Maybe I'm just being delusional at this point, but I still believe that the overall spine of our team is quite strong;

Grimmy/O'Donnell

Hubby/Pennington/Casey/Marv/Connolly
Gabriel/Lyons/Coulson/CJ

Norburn/Byers/Morgan/Carey/Virtue

Dembele

Rhodes/Joseph/Lavery/Kouassi/Beesley

Yes, they haven't performed as well as they should have this season, but do we really believe that's down to the quality of those players?

Gabriel, Lyons, Hubby, Marv, Grimmy all proved to be solid Championship players in the previous two years.

Byers and Norburn were both leaders on League 1 Playoff teams last year.

Rhodes has been a top, proven goal scorer at every level he's been at.

Carey, Virtue, CJ, Connolly, Lavery, Beesley aren't going to light the world on fire, but they are solid role players. In fact, many were confident Lavery would light the league on fire this season before a ball was kicked?!

Dembele is lightning in a bottle and Joseph is growing with every game.

Do we really think that it's the players who are not good enough?

How many of those players I listed above would you switch with on Stevenage's squad? Maybe a couple? Harvey White, Dan Butler, and Roberts all looked decent.

I think the group at large are trying to be molded into something they simply are not comfortable with playing.
 
Everything seems so random. Just before Christmas we seemed to find a working formula, after weeks of up and down performances, or the odd 25 to 45 minutes of sheer brilliance coupled with abjectly poor displays. We're winning at home without being particularly convincing. I don't think critchley knows how to use the squad he has, if I was going to speculate he's watching klopp and pep and their players and trying to replicate it which might be looking fantastic on the training ground, but coming up against shithouse teams in league 1 who play 7 defenders and three attackers and simply pack the defence and hoof it at the first opportunity to three runners it just doesn't work. To not see the problems at the end of the first half and send the players out to do the same thing is tmadness
 
The team can show flashes of brilliance in some games and be poor in others - no consistency which is why we go one forward and 2 back
 
We do seem to be lacking in leadership or confidence. We have faded badly and barely threatened in the last half an hour of the past two league games when we desperately needed a goal.
 
Much prefer a 4/3/3 as apposed to the 5/2/1/2 he seems to be playing.

Grimmy

JLG Husband Ekpiteta/Casey Lyons

Norbs
Morgan Dembele

Joseph Rhodes Hamilton

(preferred line up prior to new signings)
 
I really dont know who the captain is. If it was Marv, fair enough, maybe Grimmy but there is a deffo lack of leadership in that team
 
TheTangerinewizard said:
I just feel we dont have one. I genuinely dont know who the Captain is. The team looks leader less in my opinion. We are losing points, not thru lack of endeavour but lack of killer instinct and the drive to go that extra mile. FFS Critch, either play CJ on the wing as an out and out forward or drop him.
Click to expand...
I think it's a really important point and one worth discussing. Who is the actual spine of this team

GK:
DEF:
MID:
STRIKER:
CAPTAIN:

So Grimmy clearly the GK, I don't think we have that one commanding defender )in the mould of say Keogh), Midfield I struggle to come up with that Adam/Southern player, Striker is obviously Rhodes but he hasn't scored in 8/9 and am not sure we do have a Captain.
So do we have a spine? Probably not.
 
Maths said:
I think it's a really important point and one worth discussing. Who is the actual spine of this team

GK:
DEF:
MID:
STRIKER:
CAPTAIN:

So Grimmy clearly the GK, I don't think we have that one commanding defender )in the mould of say Keogh), Midfield I struggle to come up with that Adam/Southern player, Striker is obviously Rhodes but he hasn't scored in 8/9 and am not sure we do have a Captain.
So do we have a spine? Probably not.
Click to expand...
Its always been a problem with Critchley teams, was the same during the start of his first spell
 
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