The Real Plan A 2.0?

Evatt said the above in June 2024:

With the appointment of Schumacher, I figured we now have the Real Plan A 2.0.

Q - What do we think about targets for the second half of the season?

Just looked through our fixture list and fuck me, it’s got potential to be spicy!

Upcoming Fixtures:
Sat, 1 Feb – Reading (A) (10th)
Sat, 8 Feb – Crawley Town (H) (22nd)
Sat, 15 Feb – Shrewsbury Town (A) (24th)
Sat, 22 Feb – Leyton Orient (H) (6th)
Sat, 1 Mar – Wrexham (A) (3rd)
Tue, 4 Mar – Birmingham City (H) (1st)
Sat, 8 Mar – Burton Albion (A) (21st)
Tue, 11 Mar – Bristol Rovers (A) (19th)
Sat, 15 Mar – Stockport County (H) (5th)
Sat, 22 Mar – Rotherham United (H) (14th)
Sat, 29 Mar – Blackpool (A) (13th)
Tue, 1 Apr – Wigan Athletic (A) (16th)
Sat, 5 Apr – Bristol Rovers (H) (19th)
Sat, 12 Apr – Barnsley (A) (9th)
Fri, 18 Apr – Wycombe Wanderers (H) (2nd)
Mon, 21 Apr – Lincoln City (A) (11th)
Sat, 26 Apr – Peterborough United (A) (18th)
Sat, 3 May – Stevenage (H) (15th)

I've underlined some of the tougher runs. It starts off fairly chill, so maybe we can build confidence before the Wrexham and Birmingham games. Then from 15 March - 1 April, we’ve got a local derby bonanza (plus Rotherham).

Q2 Are automatics on the table?

14 points off 2nd-placed Wycombe with 18 games remaining!?

I’ve run the numbers, and if Wycombe kept up their current 2.07 PPG, we’d need a ridiculous 2.9 PPG just to catch them—basically winning every game. But factoring in a 10-20% drop-off and leapfrogging the teams below them, we’d still need 2.4-2.7 PPG—that’s at least 14-15 wins from 18.

Doable? Maybe. But it leaves zero room for slip-ups.

Can we finally put together the kind of ruthless run we’ve been waiting for? Or is it playoffs again?

3 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

We need to be realistic. It's a deeply flawed squad with no wide players, three forwards who don't fit in the same team and two senior players (Baxter & Rico) who are seemingly on their way out.

Evatt went mad and had to be potted, but the idea he was holding these players back to the point they're now going to get 50 of the next 54 points and go up automatically is absurd.

It'll be a battle from the playoffs and a decent salvage job if we make it. From there who knows.

Schon left, Tutu right are plenty good enough wide.

Edited January 31, 20251 yr by Steejay

3 hours ago, gonzo said:

 hated the man from the beginning.

Some did and werent going to be happy til he went

4 minutes ago, Casino said:

Some did and werent going to be happy til he went

Interesting with Schumacher now. Apart from TroySwoosh, there shouldn’t be any I told you so’s if he gets it wrong.

Same if the football becomes a bit shit. But that won’t happen because we’re all looking forward to aggressive, getting the ball forward, winning football 😊

11 hours ago, Steejay said:

Schon left, Tutu right are plenty good enough wide.

 

Not sure what that's based on. Tutu's record is a goal or assist every 10 games - he wouldn't start as a winger (let alone be the only wide option) in any of the top sides in this division.

Also, if we did do that there'd definitely be no regular place for one or probably both of McAtee or Randall - which isn't going to happen given the level of investment in them.

A similar level of investment (£750k) was made to bring Schon into the club. If transfer fee is a criteria for selection, then Schon’s case is as strong as Randell or McAtee.

I can’t really understand some of the pessimism on here about us making the play offs. I’d be amazed if we didn’t because whilst the squad isn’t completely fixed we’ve surely enough to challenge most of those above and around us. If SS can get a couple more in before Monday night it could improve everything. Even if not, I’m convinced that what we have is better than most and we now have a manager who can use it. All systems go now for me.

45 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

I can’t really understand some of the pessimism on here about us making the play offs. I’d be amazed if we didn’t because whilst the squad isn’t completely fixed we’ve surely enough to challenge most of those above and around us. If SS can get a couple more in before Monday night it could improve everything. Even if not, I’m convinced that what we have is better than most and we now have a manager who can use it. All systems go now for me.

That's right. I've said before this squad is good enough. The new bloke has nearly half a season to prove it and I'm sure he's as keen to grab every point as we are.

He's got more than a point to prove.

1 hour ago, Whitesince63 said:

I can’t really understand some of the pessimism on here about us making the play offs. I’d be amazed if we didn’t because whilst the squad isn’t completely fixed we’ve surely enough to challenge most of those above and around us. If SS can get a couple more in before Monday night it could improve everything. Even if not, I’m convinced that what we have is better than most and we now have a manager who can use it. All systems go now for me.

I think most of us thought we'd probably limp into the play-offs even with Evatt ballooning about - at least until his last couple of games.

Should be an expectation now surely.

Biggest difference by far is I now think we can actually win them.

1 hour ago, Whitesince63 said:

I can’t really understand some of the pessimism on here about us making the play offs. I’d be amazed if we didn’t because whilst the squad isn’t completely fixed we’ve surely enough to challenge most of those above and around us. If SS can get a couple more in before Monday night it could improve everything. Even if not, I’m convinced that what we have is better than most and we now have a manager who can use it. All systems go now for me.

Seeing as there are so many teams in the mix, we really need to go on a run and especially not give points to our rivals, starting today at Reading.

Nothing is cast in stone - we just need to focus on what we can control and maybe in a few weeks' time we'll have a better understanding of where we're really at in the scheme of things. Hopefully we'll have clawed our way back into a strong position - but we ain't there yet and until then we can't look too far ahead.

That's not pessimism - it's simply saying that we are where we are and shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves.

17 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

We need to be realistic. It's a deeply flawed squad with no wide players, three forwards who don't fit in the same team and two senior players (Baxter & Rico) who are seemingly on their way out.

Evatt went mad and had to be potted, but the idea he was holding these players back to the point they're now going to get 50 of the next 54 points and go up automatically is absurd.

It'll be a battle from the playoffs and a decent salvage job if we make it. From there who knows.

A bit strawmannish.

Yes, automatic promotion is for the birds. But Evatt was holding back the players significantly, that's been shown already, and missing the playoffs from here would be pretty disappointing.

2 hours ago, Rival Son said:

A similar level of investment (£750k) was made to bring Schon into the club. If transfer fee is a criteria for selection, then Schon’s case is as strong as Randell or McAtee.

 

Who's mentioned dropping Schon?

10 minutes ago, maaarsh said:

A bit strawmannish.

Yes, automatic promotion is for the birds. But Evatt was holding back the players significantly, that's been shown already, and missing the playoffs from here would be pretty disappointing.

 

The opening post in this thread classify's automatic promotion as 'doable' and it's been raised in other threads. Which part is the strawman?

We need to move past the arrogance and entitlement for the Evatt era. Regardless of who they were playing for, we've all seen enough of these players to know they aren't going to start blowing the division away. Even the 'significant improvement' you mention was us winning a tight game at home against 20th placed Northampton.

2 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

 

The opening post in this thread classify's automatic promotion as 'doable' and it's been raised in other threads. Which part is the strawman?

We need to move past the arrogance and entitlement for the Evatt era. Regardless of who they were playing for, we've all seen enough of these players to know they aren't going to start blowing the division away. Even the 'significant improvement' you mention was us winning a tight game at home against 20th placed Northampton.

The strawman is attacking a ridiculous position and then applying the same shade to a much more reasonable one. Automatics is ridiculous. But from here the playoffs is not an outside bet.

Saying you know enough about the players when you've only seen them headfucked by Ian is literally begging the question.

1 hour ago, maaarsh said:

The strawman is attacking a ridiculous position and then applying the same shade to a much more reasonable one. Automatics is ridiculous. But from here the playoffs is not an outside bet.

Saying you know enough about the players when you've only seen them headfucked by Ian is literally begging the question.

 

I didn't say it was an outside bet (which is a strawman), I said I expect it to be a battle for the playoffs and getting there will be a good result. Any expectations above that are, to me, unreasonable.

We'll be closer to 7th than 2nd come the end of the season.

Every team down to Rotherham in 15th is within touching distance of the final playoff place and will believe they can do it.

The time to start a winning run is now.

 

17 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

 

I didn't say it was an outside bet (which is a strawman), I said I expect it to be a battle for the playoffs and getting there will be a good result. Any expectations above that are, to me, unreasonable.

We'll be closer to 7th than 2nd come the end of the season.

 

Looking less of a straw man after yesterday's result!

This squad would have finished mid table with Evatt, so is Schuey can get the same squad into the play offs it will be impressive. The points gap makes it look straightforward but there's so many teams in the mix and we know this squad has struggled in any kind of 6 pointer game.

20 hours ago, maaarsh said:

 But Evatt was holding back the players significantly, that's been shown already,

That is a questionable premise. It's more an assumption made by the section of the fans who wanted Evatt out when the players couldn't string 3 passes together, made daft mistakes and were demotivated when opposition teams didn't just lie down and accept a beating.

The shake up and Jules remotivated them to try harder both in effort and focus, but at the end of the day they are the same players who have limitations.

It's not as if they have whole new levels of unexplored quality that Evatt was deliberately suppressing.

 

We're talking about players who were good enough to finish 3rd last year - there's no assumption needed to show they were performing below capability for most of this season however much the Evatt-truthers want to believe otherwise.

Leave aside even more direct demonstrations like Morley who wasn't good enough to get minutes under Ian's leadership and was player of the season candidate elsewhere.

1 hour ago, Wanderlust said:

It's not as if they have whole new levels of unexplored quality that Evatt was deliberately suppressing.

You reckon?

Whilst it would be crackers to suggest he deliberately made people shite he certainly made people play 'the Evatt way' & implemented his solo plan which had been found out & exposed.

Take just Forrester as an example. Highly rated, young, athletic & has shown his capability in the recent run. Evatt barely considered him & it was becoming known that he wanted out for want of opportunities. No way was he getting in as it meant 'the best defender at the club'* being rested or changed.

*except this title was be increasingly shown to be questionable.

2 hours ago, Stig said:

Looking less of a straw man after yesterday's result!

This squad would have finished mid table with Evatt, so is Schuey can get the same squad into the play offs it will be impressive. The points gap makes it look straightforward but there's so many teams in the mix and we know this squad has struggled in any kind of 6 pointer game.

Yes, the points gap isn't much but IE used up most of the easier fixtures, we aren't suddenly going from losing by 3, 4 and 5 game after game against top teams, to winning game after game.  Yes we hope to improve obviously and I'm sure we will, but we need to improve just to stand still with the fixtures left.

These players just aren't used to winning the bigger games, its going to take a huge turnaround, we weren't losing them narrowly, we were getting embarrassed.  And we still have IEs / Markham's players (its concerning that SS has clearly had the Cardiff loan player given to him, no way was that his idea).

52 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

it was becoming known that he wanted out

This isn’t true.

We had a good chat with Forrester’s parents in the hotel after the Barnsley game.

I was actually surprised there wasn’t discontent with Forrester/Evatt.

They were pretty clear that he was happy at the club, he’d been unfortunate with his freak injury, he’d got a renewed confidence after his display at Wycombe and was relishing having a run in the side.

They did say a couple of things that were controversial that I’m not going to post on here

But what was clear, was that a few weeks ago (while Evatt was still here) Forrester wasn’t looking for a way out of our club.

 

1 hour ago, maaarsh said:

We're talking about players who were good enough to finish 3rd last year - there's no assumption needed to show they were performing below capability for most of this season however much the Evatt-truthers want to believe otherwise.

Not to go over old ground and clearly confidence/being sussed out are factors, but the squad is weaker this season.  Most of it IE/Markham's doing (stripping out any physicality, offensively), but no blame for losing our best player Maghoma (and effectively Dempsey).  

We're also talking about players that clearly weren't good enough to win the bigger games last season, and we've deteriorated from that low starting point.

1 hour ago, maaarsh said:

We're talking about players who were good enough to finish 3rd last year - there's no assumption needed to show they were performing below capability for most of this season however much the Evatt-truthers want to believe otherwise.

 

The league is stronger this year than it was last year, and we're without two of our better players in Maghoma and Dion. And now the keeper and captain are on their way out too. 

So it's not the same team, and not the same teams around us. None of this absolves Evatt of anything. He took us backwards building a squad that could only play one way, and we've spent all season showing that way doesn't work.

Sharon/Markham have to take a lot of blame too, this month has been a farce. Selling Dion, buying Randall, sacking Evatt, signing Murphy and Etete with no manager.

The whole thing is a bit of a mess and it's Evatt's fault, but it'll take more than just getting rid of him to fix it. I'm sure we're on a better path now, I just wouldn't expect miracles.

2 hours ago, desperado said:

This isn’t true.

...

But what was clear, was that a few weeks ago (while Evatt was still here) Forrester wasn’t looking for a way out of our club.

Then I apologise. I'd misinterpreted what someone (probably you) had written.

Anyway, I'm pleased he's getting his chance & is taking it well.

Edited February 2, 20251 yr by Dr. Feelgood