Zog1

SS has played 532, 433 and 4231, he tended to play 4231 more at Stoke. Managers are people and they change over time, their understanding of the players at their disposal and their own tactical abilities. If SS is saying we need both strength and pace with wingers in the team, hes going the 433 and 4231 route, as you dont sign wingers to play at the back wing like we did with Sadlier.

As far as i can tell Collins is more of one of those winger/strikers in a front 3 in a 433 or to the side of the 3 in the 4231. I think this is part of the reason he's dropped off there's nobody for him to link up with. Randall did well today, i can see him in a 4231 in the middle of the 3 but nowhere else.

Think people will be blow away with the difference even a couple quality strong and pacy signings would make to this team.

Inwood looked right at home in the defence, makes you wonder where he's been all year.

All depends what formation we'll end up with but here are some of my picks. Jordan Thompson - CDM - young enough - Stoke Sam Bell - left wing - Young, fast, can score Ryan Hedges - left and right winger - lives locally Lynden Gooch - right winger - Stoke Niall Ennis - Stoke Emil Riis - target man - lives locally

I dont think we're shit, i think we're broken.

All our centre backs have a decent records in League 1 before us, if were going to play with 4 at the back, i suggest they're the last place we should be investing in.

Read the first comment again. 2 seasons ago, not years tbf, including the current one. So the 23/24 season for 100% iron clarity. I made the comments questioning our system feeding him goals before our system broke, otherwise i wouldnt have needed to question it, because it would have been self evident.

Yes.

It's the Evatt illusion. The longer we were in the division, the more we signed players better able to play his system, the more we lost strength and pace throughout the team, the more time teams had to work that system out and its faults. The reason we look worse this year is because he took that system after the loss at Oxford and turned the volume upto 11, he doubled down on it. The issue is that the system which produced those goals for him, was broken and without it, i was questioning his abilities as a leading league one striker.

I don't think there really was a hangover, we'd been poor since the start of 2024. I think SS will bring in 3-5 free players quickly, ones he's worked with in the past, after that it'll be a long window.

I should have been clearer i know they dont count towards the squad limit, i was more talking about the budget he'll have for wages.

Think SS might have let Baxter go anyways just to help make room in the squad. Do feel sorry for him a bit becuase i dont think he's really done much wrong.

I was identifying stuff like this 2 years ago but because we were getting some good results by smashing the rubbish teams at the bottom of the league and our league position was "good enough" nobody wanted to hear. I remember questioning if Charles really a normal 20 goals a season goal scorer or was our system basically feeding him goals. Why our loans sucked after Trafford and Bradley, ignorning Maghoma (midseason). I dont think the players really have dropped off, i just think League 1 teams got better at overcoming Evatt's one tactic, coupled with him taking the physicality and pace out of the team.

It's going to be real difficult for SS to decide this, as changing even a few of the players might have a dramatic impact on the likes of Thomason, Johnston and others, maybe all they need is a reliable CDM with some physicality and positioning. Maybe the players people rate now are just the ones that are best at hiding. Who knows.

The reason we do that 11 at the back thing is to try and take advantage of stamina given we have a young team. SS is basically playing a form of early Evatt ball because he has no choice due to the physical quality of the players at hand.

Tbf he never was at Peterborough. I remember people calling Kieran Sadlier rubbish, when he was being forced to play right wing back as a winger. He'll be playing in the championship next year.

If we do go for a 4231 next year. In the 31 part i can see Randall in that AM role and Collins as a sort of winger/ striker in the Diouf role to the right. Playing Collins as an out an out striker and Randall in a similar role to Morley and Sheehan, has just been crippling them. I understand why this has been the case for SS as we need someone to fill those roles with injuries, has to change in the summer.

I think 5 signings is all it would take to turn this team from where it is now to a promotion winning team. left back, right back, CDM (a real one), a fast winger with 2 feet and proper striker (who can hold up a ball). Play 4231 and i think we smash it.

There isnt a football manager on earth that could get these guys to win consistantly, the team is broken, Evatt broke it and SS is going to need a window to fix it. Anyone expecting miracles needs to get a grip.

Not everyone needs to be pacy or be physically strong. The problem with the squad right now is that we totally lack either and other teams are able to take advantage. Our weakest players could be our stars coupled with a properly balanced team.

Think if we end up with 4231 which SS has played in the past, we'll see more of Randall, as he's an attacking midfielder. We can't play that today as we don't have someone strong in the 2 bit of the 4231, so at the moment Randall doesn't really have a space in the squad and is only there because of injuries.

Really impressed he's gone with DA and SSA. Just a sign of the sort of changes we can expect in the summer.

Because of our loss to Oxford, Evatt decided to change how we were playing and the formation, in so doing he essentially doubled down on the style he had already developed by removing our versatility and flexibility to make room in the squad for players with the range of passing etc he wanted. By removing the likes of JDB, CJ and DN he removed all our strength up front, not signing like for like replacements, that was the final nail in the coffin. He did the same thing the year before with Kieran Lee and MJ Williams we didn't sign like for like replacements then either. The longer we've been in league 1, the more we've hollowed out strength, versatility and flexibility, all to better fit the way Evatt has wanted to play. So is it any wonder that all they can do is play Evatt ball? If we currently had better versions of MJ Williams and JDB right now to sit alongside Morley and Collins, no way we're losing those last few games with SS. Half the players that look so terrible now, will look the league above next year.

There's a great big hole right in the middle of our team holding back the weak players from really showing their ability. I think back to the Big Sam days and i see the likes of Diouf and Stelios and i cant help but think they wouldnt have been the players they were for us without Davies. Nobody comes out of this season looking very good but it has to go to Collins, without his goals we'd be in a dire place right now. I also have to give it to Morley for being being out of the team, going out on loan and being called League 1 Pirlo by Wycombe.