D 0-0 vs Forest Green Rovers (H) - League Two - Sat 25th Nov, 3pm

With a slight tongue in my cheek, yes there is on a couple of them!

Coach the team and players to make better decisions in areas of the pitch and patterns of play.

Coach and practice finishing and shooting so their technique and mentality in the situation is better!

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Maybe he should be more obsessed with how to retain and pass the ball more effectively so we actually look like we can attack and score some goals!

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So a point at home to FGR is a positive

I’ve heard managers say this before, “your energy levels deplete quicker when you are emotional” which is true … but the lad has played a bunch of games before!

He’s backtracking over a completely shit decision.

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Amazing what happens when you play players in their best position.

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We ought to have been losing after 15 minutes because FGR were on the front foot and as usual we were rubbish. Yes we improved a little but not much. What I can’t understand is why MS thinks one upfront at home is a good idea.
If I was looking for positives I’d say a clean sheet and Ram who I thought showed some nice touches. In fairness Matt had a go when he came on but why DJ isn’t starting has become a joke now.
I would love to see MS succeed but watching that rubbish today has convinced me that the writing is on the wall. It’s painful to watch.

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It is an odd obsession for a fourth division manager.

Firstly it suggests he’s trying to mimic Klopp, and secondly it shows a naivity in my opinion - league 2 is not the premier league - players will make mistakes naturally, they don’t need to be pressed.

What’s more - you won’t get the fitness out of league 2 players to press effectively, and you’ll end up out of shape if you emphasis the press too much.

We don’t do the simple things right, we are worse than we were last season, with the exception that it’s hard to see where a good run will come from.

Personally I’m sure the question of Sadlers suitability will be on the minds of Trivela and we are definitely moving in to the phase of a managers stint at Walsall where they’re 2 or 3 bad games away from the sack. A poor result on Tuesday and who knows.

With so many issues in the squad, Trivela should be looking at January as a chance to correct a few mistakes and move out a few passengers such as Matt and DJT, so I suspect Sadlers future will be determined between now and Christmas

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What’s that only 5 wins in 23 home games

A whole seasons worth in the bottom league

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FGR’s formation change disrupted all the work we did on the press during the week? dunno whether to laugh or cry.

I have been surprised over the last few weeks at the number of people who still appeared to think the following:

  1. that our performances and league position somehow represented progress
  2. that quite casually and without any apparent evidence, our league position will magically improve and we will be “alright”.

Surely after today no one can think this anymore. We are rubbish. No goals at home v Harrogate and FGR says it all. We either lose or get outplayed by teams who do not have the fantastic resources, personnel and infrastructure that we are supposed to have.
There is no evidence that the team is improving - in fact it seems to be getting worse. Overall, FGR were better than us today and looked like they knew what they were supposed to be doing which we often do not.
We have some difficult fixtures coming up and by time 2024 arrives the league table could look very ugly indeed. If we beat Alfreton and reach the FA Cup 3rd round I hope this does not distract from our league position.
We are in serious trouble. Someone needs to get the place by the balls and do it quickly.
UP THE SADDLERS

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Thats the worrying thing.
Granted, its a point but its that “Happy Loser” mentality again.

Knowles isnt league 2 standard. Hes gone backwards since he joined

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I think that could make a very interesting and reality-smacking email to Boycott if you copy and pasted it into one!

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It was hard earned, two evenly matched sides. I had hoped and wanted us to be better than them but we weren’t.

The real concern is in some ways we are going backwards, the optimism at some really enterprising performances in the first dozen games appears to have evaporated. Confidence is at rock bottom and we seem to have adopted a horses for courses approach to formation and personnel each week where consistency should be the key.

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I don’t see many people thinking we are progressing under Sadler. Quite the opposite. Main supporters are Walsall one. Peel85 and obviously his no 1 fan Completely Saddled plus a couple of others.

A very poor performance today.Key players like Gordon and Hutchinson out of form and Draper not at his best.Knowles was lucky to last 88 minutes.I rarely criticise individual players but he was awful today.
I think we have to go back to plan A and play 3 at the back to enable us to play 2 up front. I would certainly start with Draper and DJ on Tuesday .
McEntee deservedly man of the match. He is becoming our best asset in my view whether he plays at the back or in midfield.
One other point we missed Tierney today as did Stirk. I hope he is back soon and I hope the owners persuade Motherwell to sell him to us.

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Where have all the Sadler defenders gone?

Bit quiet isn’t it ? :rofl:

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It certainly was. :joy:

Part of the problem. Got carried away with a few small spells in a few games where we played a bit of entertaining football. It was nothing more than that. What we are seeing now is more of the norm.

I don’t mean to pick on your post, I probably did the same to an extent. We all want us to do well, time to stop talking around it though, we are shite.

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I largely agree, the big issue we have is that we have a decent squad, but it doesn’t really lend itself to any formation.

If we go 3 at the back we either play 1 up top which is too defensive, or cant fit more than 1 of Hutchinson, Maher and Tierney in. We also don’t have a right wing back at all IMO.

If we play the current system, we can only play 1 of DJ or Draper and only have 1 option to play on the right - Knowles, who is probably the most out of form player in the squad and really needs dropping.

Go 442 and I don’t think we’re strong enough in the middle as we’d have to play Stirk and Comley who are too similar, plus no attacking midfielder - so not using Hutch, Tierney or Maher in anywhere near their best role.

Play a diamond and you’re light in the middle and were already getting demolished there while overloading it.

We need completely new ideas, coaching and patterns of play and for somebody to fix the squad balance in January.

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