Play Off Prospects?

[DutchBantam]

It seems pretty clear that Todd is here till the end of the season minimum.
With that in mind what do we need to do to have a realistic chance of getting into the play offs? Assuming finances will only permit us to have 6 loans in at any one time to make that big push and no permanent transfers...
Is it even close to being feasible?

What moves do we make in January then?

I think the next 2 games are absolutely crucial. 2 points or less and we are looking to simply get the points we need for safety and nothing more can be hoped for.
6 points and we'll be up to 10th spot and have a glimmer of hope for the play offs as we'll be on a good run and possibly only 4 or 5 points off the play offs. Still a tough ask though.

So can we do it? And if not then what strategy would you take with regards the January window?

[ChuckleBantam]

No chance. We simply haven't got a squad good enough to worry the top six. Same as last time and same as next time.

[DutchBantam]

Personally I can't see Todd getting us into the play offs. Never, no way, not in a million years.
I also don't see us being relegated, we may have had 2 seasons of crap under Todd but I think the teams below us are just too poor to catch us up.

With that in mind my plan would be to build the squad around our own players. Give our kids a chance to prove they can cut it and if they can't at least we have an idea what to do in the summer.

The current policy is not helping us long term. It is only helping us if we have 5 or 6 loans in who will get us into the Championship.

So our bare bones squad consists of:

GK: Ricketts, Saynor, Howarth = Fine, not a priority to change anything here.

LB: O'Brien, Clarke, Edghill = I'd like to see O'Brien get his chance like Parker got his based on nothing more than Luke had proven. Every reserve match report seems to indicate the goals we let in come down the other wing and O'Brien's references always seem positive. I've seen one reference to a mistake by him in 2 seasons. At 16 he was good enough to be taken with the 1st team squad and he's our young player of the year. If he can cut it even as backup to Clarke then we need to give him his chance to grow into a first teamer.

RB: Edghill, Swift, Ainge, Bentham, Hopkins = I think this is our weakest link. Edghill doesn't seem like he's good enough so why has he been given such a long contract? Swift has never been given a long enough run in the team and has been treated poorly. However he is 22 now and perhaps he's simply not good enough or perhaps his development has been hampered by poor management. That is irrelevant now though. He is probably heading for the exit door whatever. Then we have Hopkins who is not ready for the first team and we have Bentham and Ainge who are not right backs so only listed as they can do it as real emergency backup. I think Doyle should probably stay as otherwise this is a real weak area for us.

CB: Wethers, Bower, Clarke, Ainge = Assuming we don't get a major crisis then this position is well covered.

The Wings: Colbeck, JJ, BMW, Muirhead, Penford = Picking 2 from 4 with Penford as backup. Looks like we should be well covered here too.

Centre mid: Bentham, Schumi, BMW, Penford, McGuire, Windass = Again we are picking 2 from 4 with McGuire and Windass as backup. This is fine as long as we don't get a major crisis.

Up front: Windass, EJ, Brown, Osborne, Smith = Very threadbare. Windass is not the youngest and however well he is doing for his age we really cannot expect to rely on him all season as first choice. EJ is injury prone and Brown hasn't grabbed his chance hard enough. I'd be bringing in a new striker in January.


The loans: I'd be keeping Doyle and sending the rest home. I'd be bringing in a new striker on loan, somebody with either pace or height to compliment Windass, Brown or EJ.
We would have 2 lads in on loan with our own players getting the chance to prove themselves one way or the other.

Now this leaves us with a very very small squad... so have I accounted for a major injury / disciplinary crisis? Of course I have. There is such a thing as a 1 month loan, an emergency loan if you will. We can cover the squad depth by calling on this sort of loan. We may need to do so once or twice till the end of the season. Which means paying 1 or 2 months of loan fees. Which means we are saving a lot of loan money rather than having 5 full time loans till the end of the season plus the one or two one month loans.

And as we have seen consistently throughout the last 2 seasons, playing our own boys has not had a negative effect on the teams performance. Quite the opposite, good runs have come from our own boys so lets encourage them, give them backing and keep the faith.

And we'll be looking far more rosy in the summer as we'll actually have a better idea of who can cut it and who cannot. And we may have found ourselves a few players who can hack it in the first choice 16.

[tony d]

Dutch, very interesting and viable post mate...

Out of that i would say Doyle and Parker are musts to stay..

I would keep Holmes as well to be honest to give us a player to keep Ben on his toes....

Parker is a very very good left back and if Leeds stay up he is the one i reckon we could end up getting for nowt.....

The striking side of life you mention is one of our real weaknessess and it needs addressing

But you cannot score goals if you do not get the ball and that's the other problem....Central midfield...We need a ball winner old fashioned get stuck in and dominate players....

I keep harping back to this but we need a Dennis Wise style player a Paul Ince......

Not many of em around anymore but if we could get one we would be a totally different side...

We always have a chance in this League as it is always so wide open...

Never say never....

I said 7 points from the next 12 prior to Yeovil ... We have 1 with 9 more to play for....I still reckon we can get two wins from the next three so who knows....

A good xmas may see some changes ...Not the one the usual suspects wnat but some fresh faces....

[Macca Ha Ha Ha]

7 points from the next 4 games will keep us flirting outside the playoffs - we should eb able to push further but with Safety First dictating play........

[baldbantam]

I think the playoffs will stay temptingly within reach for most of the season, but we'll end up 5 or 6 points short. Throughout, we'll be able to say 'If we can get decent points out of the next X matches, we'd be in it'. It's a poor league, but we're not quite good enough to be in that top 6.

[briggus]

Dutch, very interesting and viable post mate...

Out of that i would say Doyle and Parker are musts to stay..

I would keep Holmes as well to be honest to give us a player to keep Ben on his toes....

Parker is a very very good left back and if Leeds stay up he is the one i reckon we could end up getting for nowt.....

The striking side of life you mention is one of our real weaknessess and it needs addressing

But you cannot score goals if you do not get the ball and that's the other problem....Central midfield...We need a ball winner old fashioned get stuck in and dominate players....

I keep harping back to this but we need a Dennis Wise style player a Paul Ince......

Not many of em around anymore but if we could get one we would be a totally different side...

We always have a chance in this League as it is always so wide open...

Never say never....

I said 7 points from the next 12 prior to Yeovil ... We have 1 with 9 more to play for....I still reckon we can get two wins from the next three so who knows....

A good xmas may see some changes ...Not the one the usual suspects wnat but some fresh faces....

Spot on Tony I've been harping on about this for some time now - we need to get the engine room sorted out. Since Stuart went we have only had Wallwork who seemed to be able to make a difference and stamp their mark on a game.
The combination we have at the moment (unless things improve) is far too often hit and miss.
The side looked better balanced with Bentham (allows the central partner a liitle more license to get forward - whether he can be the answer - will Todd let us find out?

[Jantje]

Spot on Tony I've been harping on about this for some time now - we need to get the engine room sorted out. Since Stuart went we have only had Wallwork who seemed to be able to make a difference and stamp their mark on a game.
The combination we have at the moment (unless things improve) is far too often hit and miss.
The side looked better balanced with Bentham (allows the central partner a liitle more license to get forward - whether he can be the answer - will Todd let us find out?


Well said Briggus, thats why i was annoyed posting on Tony's Yeovil thread about Todd dropping Bentham just to accomodate Schuey.
Bentham provides that defensive stability that allows MBW or whoever the freedom to get forward and support the attack.
Schuey should have come back on the bench & let Craig show us if he is good enough, he's never let us down yet

[Macca Ha Ha Ha]

spot on