First home match for SS and his team.

It will be interesting to see what if any changes are made by SS after he has had a week to work with the players.

Crawley gave Wrexham a game on Saturday and were only beaten by a 95th minute winner. Although they are in the bottom four it won’t be as easy as some folk think or hope it will be.

A scrappy 3-2 victory 

1 hour ago, desperado said:

Yeh I’m looking forward excitedly and curiously.

I think at some point soon we’ll see a 4 at the back, although I think this game is too soon. Then again if he has success with 5 he might just stick with it.

Maybe a bit further down the line or in the EFL trophy we’ll see him experiment. Would love it if he did as I reckon Schon and Tutu would make better wide midfielders than WB’s.

And we’d be fine at FB with Cogley, Jones and Murphy.

But this week I’m thinking he might go with this:

                  Southwood

          Toal.  Forrester. Johnston 

Cogley.    Sheehan Morley.    Schon

                          Lolos

                 Collins.   Mcatee

Reasoning behind Schon, Morley, Lolos and Mcatee is that none of them started last week, so while he’s in part experimentation mode, it’s a good way to demonstrate to the players that they are all going to be given their chance to show what they can do starting a game 

Swap Lolos for Randell imo

1 hour ago, 1969 said:

Swap Lolos for Randell imo

Randells gone to Leyton Orient, we do however have Randall 😁

17 minutes ago, TroySwoosh said:

Randells gone to Leyton Orient, we do however have Randall 😁

Pedunt.

44 minutes ago, TroySwoosh said:

Randells gone to Leyton Orient, we do however have Randall 😁

Now I can understand how the ref got kachunga and Charles mixed up 

1 hour ago, 1969 said:

Swap Lolos for Randell imo

I’d swop McAtee for Lolos up top and Matete in the middle. I just think with Sheehan and Randall we’d be a bit lightweight in the middle.

We've a few "either / or but not both " players.

Sheehan or Morley ( Sheehan for me )

Thomason or Matete or Dempsey if he's ever fit ( Thomason, Matete at his best but too often not at his best )

Lolos or Randall ( don't mind )

Collins or McAtee ( can't carry 2 "luxury " players, so Collins with Vic )

Etete might become an option for Vic but clearly not yet.

All opinions, but for me:

1 hour ago, bolton va va said:

Sheehan or Morley ( Sheehan for me )

Our best two midfielders. Both start with A.N. Other.

1 hour ago, bolton va va said:

Thomason or Matete or Dempsey if he's ever fit

If he’s fit, no contest, it’s Dempsey.

1 hour ago, bolton va va said:

Collins or McAtee ( can't carry 2 "luxury " players

Collins is a (possibly the) key player in our squad. Anything but a luxury.

Sheehan Matete Morley when available

2 hours ago, 1969 said:

Now I can understand how the ref got kachunga and Charles mixed up 

sickening

Keep doing the same then!

Unless there's a dramatic change in formation and physicality, then I just can't see how 2 out of three midfielders being lightweight, attack minded types will yield the consistency we need.

2 hours ago, Zico said:

Sheehan Matete Morley when available

Yes please. I’m not sure who plays furthest forward but you could make a case for any of them (it’d be interesting to see Sheehan released a bit if you’ve got Morley playing quarterback and Matete’s energy behind him.

Same back 5 (maybe Schon back in for Murphy).

Same front 2 - Vic’s doing alright for me and I’d like to give the partnership with Collins another couple of games.

1 hour ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Keep doing the same then!

Aye.

We won 2 on the bounce and then should've won comfortably on Saturday. No drastic changes needed.

4 hours ago, bolton va va said:

We've a few "either / or but not both " players.

Sheehan or Morley ( Sheehan for me )

Thomason or Matete or Dempsey if he's ever fit ( Thomason, Matete at his best but too often not at his best )

Lolos or Randall ( don't mind )

Collins or McAtee ( can't carry 2 "luxury " players, so Collins with Vic )

Etete might become an option for Vic but clearly not yet.

Genuine question, how is McAtee a "luxury" player but Vic isn't?  Don't we need as many potential scorers/creators as possible?  (and yes, McAtee has to stay well away from our own box, in case he results in us conceding).

3 hours ago, Rival Son said:

All opinions, but for me:

Our best two midfielders. Both start with A.N. Other.

If he’s fit, no contest, it’s Dempsey.

Collins is a (possibly the) key player in our squad. Anything but a luxury.

Agree on Dempsey and Collins.  If fit, the first 2 names on the teamsheet.  I'd personally have Matete as 3rd must pick but accept there are plenty valid options from our many midfielders.   

Not really arsed about trying to predict who he’ll pick, or worrying about it

Leave him to it and see what happens 

First home game. Pick it apart after it happens and tell him what he should have done if we don’t batter them

1 hour ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Genuine question, how is McAtee a "luxury" player but Vic isn't?  Don't we need as many potential scorers/creators as possible?  (and yes, McAtee has to stay well away from our own box, in case he results in us conceding).

My idea of a "luxury "player is someone who is capable of doing something special but is anonymous & contributes very little for long periods. Collins has done enough to justify his place in the team....McAtee not so much yet & sometimes looks as though he's trying to look busy but is playing to the crowd. I don't think a team can carry 2 players like that.

Vic is very different, less skilled but works so hard that he makes us a more effective team. Someone compared the results of games that Vic started against games he didn't & found that points per game with Vic starting were well ahead of games without him. Same as last season.

15 minutes ago, MancWanderer said:

Not really arsed about trying to predict who he’ll pick, or worrying about it

Leave him to it and see what happens 

First home game. Pick it apart after it happens and tell him what he should have done if we don’t batter them

Funny one with us football fans isn’t it?  Crowd-noncing, data analysis/XG, old stuff, Foreign footy, tactics/formations,  transfer talk, manager talk and much more.

We have our lovers and haters on all those topics.

I’ve personally always been a lover of predicting our team. Not so I can say I told you so, or set myself up as an expert, or use it to bash the manager when it’s different. 

I just like the anticipation and excitement of the build up to the game, wondering who we are going to see play, how we set up, who plays where etc. A little discussion on who we think will play and how we will set up is always a good one in my book.

But each to their own, I’ve certainly no problems if someone thinks different. I’m not overly keen on the foreign stuff  (I’d rather tune into the rugby, cricket & darts if it was on at the same time 😊).

But never a problem for me when the farmers leagues get analysed 😂

On 02/02/2025 at 21:47, Wanderlust said:

No excuses for this one. We'll see what we've got seeing as we really can't afford to drop any more points if we seriously want to get into the playoffs.

95 points required for 6th place? Tough league this.

BWFC 2

Crawley Town 1.....

 

Really don’t see what Evatt and Markham saw in Macatee to spend a million on him but let’s see if SS can get a tune out of him

10 hours ago, Whitesince63 said:

I think you might be missing my point lusty. Of course the 18 starters and bench will always be below the 22 squad number but of course it doesn’t include keepers or U21’s. If we include Baxter and Murphy alone in the match day squad it still leaves 6 others who might have expected to play some part. If we hadn’t moved out Williams and Arfield it would have been even worse. I suspect this may have been one reason why SS didn’t push for signings because his jobs going to be difficult enough. I know you have to cater for injuries, suspensions and loss of form but when everybody’s fit it can become a bit of a concern keeping everybody happy.

I got what you are saying but it comes back to having two players for every position which invariably means some will miss out - which I don't mind if they're competing for a place.

It's not the managers job to keep everyone happy - it's to win games. Ideally everyone will compete, every week and if they're left out they should train harder - much better than the complacency that being picked every week brings. And if they aren't happy at being left out they need to accept the manager's decision that they are not best suited for the tactical selection he makes for a particular fixture or that they haven't been good enough and need to up their game, whichever is the case.

Hopefully SS will bring that back and make the fuckers work for the honour of wearing the shirt.

Edited February 6, 20251 yr by Wanderlust

Can’t wait for Saturday, but nervous at same time.  We really need a good performance and victory to maintain and build on the new wave of optimism.  Anything else will deflate the balloon.  Refreshing to hear the players talk about simpler approaches (eg JDC in BN today) - hopefully it’s even stronger feelings than this, but the PR folks are being careful not to slag IE off too much.  Similar to others not really bothered which players/formation are on the team sheet - more about attitude and desire on the pitch. COYWM.

7 hours ago, Rizlar said:

Really don’t see what Evatt and Markham saw in Macatee to spend a million on him but let’s see if SS can get a tune out of him

Played out of position for most of his time.

Not given time to play as a striker alongside another and form an understanding.

Plus Evatt ball buggered up the players in the end.

Hopefully we'll get to see what he is about-one way or the other.

8 hours ago, desperado said:

Funny one with us football fans isn’t it?  Crowd-noncing, data analysis/XG, old stuff, Foreign footy, tactics/formations,  transfer talk, manager talk and much more.

We have our lovers and haters on all those topics.

I’ve personally always been a lover of predicting our team. Not so I can say I told you so, or set myself up as an expert, or use it to bash the manager when it’s different. 

I just like the anticipation and excitement of the build up to the game, wondering who we are going to see play, how we set up, who plays where etc. A little discussion on who we think will play and how we will set up is always a good one in my book.

But each to their own, I’ve certainly no problems if someone thinks different. I’m not overly keen on the foreign stuff  (I’d rather tune into the rugby, cricket & darts if it was on at the same time 😊).

But never a problem for me when the farmers leagues get analysed 😂

Don’t get me wrong. I’m similar to you. Just not really bothered with it being the first home game. More interested in how he sets us up than trying to predict it for this one 

Part of the intrigue for me: the first game at home and the first he's properly had time to prepare for.

Hopefully, there will be signs of what he wants for the rest of the season.

It became stale under Evatt, with more of the same, with results inconsistent and performance levels well down.

Additionally, whilst we do have a chance of the play-offs, I'd like to think the squad will be going for it, now the shackles have gone.