We had a decent thread a while back discussing Evatt’s philosophies and approach to the game (think it got tainted and pulled)

So not a bad time to start it up again at the beginning of the season.

In the main he’s done a fantastic job. A minority lost patience round about Xmas/New Year in both seasons. 

But surely now he has the large backing of the majority of fans and the brand he talked about implementing here is now well and truly established.

Good article above highlighting how he’s using Sport Science to get the squad performing to it’s optimum level.

A young, meticulous, intelligent and passionate individual, who we are very lucky to have leading our club.

I hope he gets what he deserves with promotion to the Championship. 

24 minutes ago, ZiggyStardust said:

I'm adamant that if Derby had played their full team in that game, they would have battered us.

Because thats who we are.

Blaming injuries is only a valid argument, if other teams up there didnt suffer. And they did. Possibly worse than us.

 

Did our injury list contribute to us not getting promotion?

Yes or No

28 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Did our injury list contribute to us not getting promotion?

Yes or No

No

So he is ditching the mad system he came up with 3 strikers and only 2 midfielders which is great

and going back to the same system that failed last season but with the addition players bought   in the summer .

May be hopefully less fanning about at the back only problem is we still don’t have a player who we can play to more direct so I can see us reverting back to pissing about at the back again to draw the opposition out .

We’re going round in circles 

We're not blaming having injuries on not getting promoted are we lol

Every fucker has injuries 

We bottled big games including the most important one..the final which was disgraceful display.

We also played like a set of absolute fannies against our local rivals which cost us a bunch of points and has been a pattern under Evatt

13 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

We're not blaming having injuries on not getting promoted are we lol

Every fucker has injuries 

We bottled big games including the most important one..the final which was disgraceful display.

We also played like a set of absolute fannies against our local rivals which cost us a bunch of points and has been a pattern under Evatt

Another set of contributing factors.

Injuries were one of them.

Same for every club but pretending they had no impact is just ridiculous.

Nobody is blaming Dion or Bod for missing open nets. But those misses were contributing factors.

 

Injuries, the number of them and their nature, were a factor but others had them and found ways to win more football matches than us, including when they played us. 

Derby had no fit strikers at a point after Jan window has closed. They had to drag in an ageing free agent in Dwight Gayle. They found a way. We didn't. 

They are all contributing factors.

Same factors that would have cost other teams.

Part and parcel of football, and we'll never know for sure if results would have been better without those injuries- just sensible conjecture that they would.

Ultimately, two of them coped better, and went up directly.

History now.

3 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Another set of contributing factors.

Injuries were one of them.

Same for every club but pretending they had no impact is just ridiculous.

Nobody is blaming Dion or Bod for missing open nets. But those misses were contributing factors.

 

Of course they were contributing factors but the point is every club has them including Derby but it didn’t stop them. All these things are part and parcel of a season but the fact is we didn’t turn up for certain games, most notably Wembley and that’s why we weren’t promoted so no use looking for convenient excuses.

8 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Of course they were contributing factors but the point is every club has them including Derby but it didn’t stop them. All these things are part and parcel of a season but the fact is we didn’t turn up for certain games, most notably Wembley and that’s why we weren’t promoted so no use looking for convenient excuses.

Nobody is looking for convenient excuses.

Cheese said injuries stopped us going up. 

Which they did. Along with many other things like. But they did.

12 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Nobody is looking for convenient excuses.

Cheese said injuries stopped us going up. 

Which they did. Along with many other things like. But they did.

To be fair, it's all counterfactual and they only might've done

We were shit at times even with a full strength team

53 minutes ago, Farnywhite said:

So he is ditching the mad system he came up with 3 strikers and only 2 midfielders which is great

and going back to the same system that failed last season but with the addition players bought   in the summer .

May be hopefully less fanning about at the back only problem is we still don’t have a player who we can play to more direct so I can see us reverting back to pissing about at the back again to draw the opposition out .

We’re going round in circles 

No surprise that he went back to that system given the squad he has is it?

The new problem is that the "old system" had been worked out by many teams and they simply won't let us pass it out from the back like we used to when they backed off and gave us space pre-Christmas.

We can still expect the opposition to close us down and try to force us to hoof it long which will be breakfast for their CBs.

So Evatt has to work on ways of beating the press and playing through the midfield with crisp tight passing and movement and/or dribbling past players in midfield to get through them. That means risking losing the ball a bit more in the middle and the defence needs to be up to dealing with that when it happens. Ultimately success or failure will hang on the quality of the players we have.

For me, if they at least try to play through quickly or beat a man in the middle of the park and lose possession, I won't be too harsh on them because at least they are trying to do something different.

But if they go back to backwards, sideways, hoof, lose it I'll be pissed off.

Spending in the order of £1m on both Collins & McAtee & having them on the bench till 75m isn't great is it ?

No-one has the slightest question over Collins' ability. McAtee still to settle.

But where do they fit ?

5 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Spending in the order of £1m on both Collins & McAtee & having them on the bench till 75m isn't great is it ?

No-one has the slightest question over Collins' ability. McAtee still to settle.

But where do they fit ?

Who cares as long as we're winning.

It's up to the both of them get play their way in to the team.

I liked the fact Evatt kept Dion and Vic on for so long. Normally likes a striker tinker earlier

32 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Spending in the order of £1m on both Collins & McAtee & having them on the bench till 75m isn't great is it ?

No-one has the slightest question over Collins' ability. McAtee still to settle.

But where do they fit ?

Exactly what I thought when the teams came out on Saturday. They were recruited for a different system.

But Evatt says they can both play in a 532 and may need a little more time to adjust.

But where? They aren't centre mids and whilst they could both play wide we have plenty who can do that especially if we're using Tutu, JDC, Schon etc in the current set up.

I reckon they'll be getting bit parts as striker or wide man depending on the opposition and state of the game. The good thing is that they offer something different and both have a goal threat so it does provide options if needed. How and when they'll be used is Evatt's dilemma.

3 minutes ago, Wanderlust said:

Exactly what I thought when the teams came out on Saturday. They were recruited for a different system.

But Evatt says they can both play in a 532 and may need a little more time to adjust.

But where? They aren't centre mids and whilst they could both play wide we have plenty who can do that especially if we're using Tutu, JDC, Schon etc in the current set up.

I reckon they'll be getting bit parts as striker or wide man depending on the opposition and state of the game. The good thing is that they offer something different and both have a goal threat so it does provide options if needed. How and when they'll be used is Evatt's dilemma.

To be fair to Collins he played pretty effectively last season in the 532. McAtee still adjusting, maybe needs a little time to settle in.

Wonder if both start on Wednesday?

2 hours ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Injuries, the number of them and their nature, were a factor but others had them and found ways to win more football matches than us, including when they played us. 

Derby had no fit strikers at a point after Jan window has closed. They had to drag in an ageing free agent in Dwight Gayle. They found a way. We didn't. 

we started off well v Derby

then Gayle went off injured 

forced them to change shape and got them back into the game!

53 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Spending in the order of £1m on both Collins & McAtee & having them on the bench till 75m isn't great is it ?

No-one has the slightest question over Collins' ability. McAtee still to settle.

But where do they fit ?

I'd like to think we can switch and rotate our way to 100+ goals again in all competitons

I'm happy spending that much on having the quality to bring off the bench and finish teams off after the starting 2 have ran the defence ragged

as long as it works, I don't care how much they cost

fact is we have 4 decent strikers

sort the rest the out behind them and get it to them, and we'll be reet

Be nice chucking 2 of Dion/Vic/Collins/McAtee on to change the game in the depths of winter rather than Bod and Jerome that's for certain.

Got CMG and Lolos back in the mix soon as well.

 

4 hours ago, gonzo said:

We literally tried to win promotion with JDB and Cameron Jerome as our attack.

 

Which games did we start with those 2 up front?

4 hours ago, gonzo said:

Don't blame them solely in anyway shape or form. 

But you simply cannot say they weren't a contributing factor.

I'm adamant we'd have beaten Derby away with a full team for starters.

We played on sat like we were playing last October/Nov. Back to basics.

 

We played on Saturday how we played v Reading in April didn't we?  No need to go back to Oct/Nov, our 2024 home form prior to this season has been superb.  Collins hat-trick last time (and 2 from JDB).  

Toal, Santos, Sheehan, Tomo and Cogley the only one's that started both games.  

1 hour ago, Wanderlust said:

Exactly what I thought when the teams came out on Saturday. They were recruited for a different system.

But Evatt says they can both play in a 532 and may need a little more time to adjust.

But where? They aren't centre mids and whilst they could both play wide we have plenty who can do that especially if we're using Tutu, JDC, Schon etc in the current set up.

I reckon they'll be getting bit parts as striker or wide man depending on the opposition and state of the game. The good thing is that they offer something different and both have a goal threat so it does provide options if needed. How and when they'll be used is Evatt's dilemma.

I'm happy to see how IE deals with it, but the loss of Maghoma, and then not starting with Collins as well, looks like a significant reduction in creativity from that attacking line up of last season.  It was good to see Schon having a decent game, but we are seeing less crossing and shots from him than even Williams and Ogbeta provided last season.

As @gonzo says, CMG & Lolos might provide the creative spark against better teams than Reading, hopefully Tutu too.

14 hours ago, Cheese said:

Yes it was. We were 90 minutes away from promotion, and would have finished in the automatics if it wasn't for injuries.

Worryingly Evatt thinks the same as Cheese in the BEN today:

"But there wasn’t a great deal wrong with Plan A. I think if we didn’t get the injuries we got in the second half of last season we’re promoted. We were still one game away and we didn’t perform at Wembley."

It's just such a weak excuse for me.

Anyway the bit that's more alarming is now he seems to be suggesting we just stick with last season's formation and style. That's fine 75% of the time. It's the other 25% when we play a decent team or high pressure game and the opposition press us when we need a different way of playing.

So instead of working on an effective plan B for this season Evatt spent the summer changing plan A, which we've now scrapped, and don't have a plan B. 

For me, it was the draws against Exeter, Stevenage, Pompey at home, Shrewsbury and Peterborough that put paid to it. 

6 minutes ago, Stig said:

Worryingly Evatt thinks the same as Cheese in the BEN today:

"But there wasn’t a great deal wrong with Plan A. I think if we didn’t get the injuries we got in the second half of last season we’re promoted. We were still one game away and we didn’t perform at Wembley."

It's just such a weak excuse for me.

Anyway the bit that's more alarming is now he seems to be suggesting we just stick with last season's formation and style. That's fine 75% of the time. It's the other 25% when we play a decent team or high pressure game and the opposition press us when we need a different way of playing.

So instead of working on an effective plan B for this season Evatt spent the summer changing plan A, which we've now scrapped, and don't have a plan B. 

We're right though.