I think we had it about right, in what would appear to have been the original plan for the season.
Solid at the back some potential in the midfield with a mix of skill and grit(Hutch, Riley, Knowles, Kins, Earing). And then were going big on the forwards with the original 2yrs for DJ and the loan (?) of the guy who went to Exeter instead. After some cock ups/injuries and bedding in it began to work, despite being forced at time to use our 2nd/3rd choice players.
With confidence highish we didn’t concede many and DJ would take his chances fairly consistently.
Problem now is that we don’t have the danger upfront, whether it’s from lack of skill or fitness is debatable But, essentially with DJ we looked a lot better, if we’d got him tied down in the summer as originally planned then we’d still be around/in the play offs. People generally don’t mind about style of play if it’s effective ie we’re winning, no-ones bored by winning football.
Pace gives you a hell of a new dimension. We scored a lot of goals like Stevenage’s first on Saturday during that time.
Absolutely. I don’t think you can afford (literally) to be football purists at our level.
It didn’t snow and wasn’t as cold as I expected, and we didn’t concede, so that’s the positives dealt with.
Oh yes, another positive, Riley looked OK, a bit rusty but decent and I would like to see him in midfield.
The two best players on the pitch were Williams and McEachran, I thought, but other than that there was little difference between us.
I thought our “goal” looked offside, probably, and the highlights didn’t show what I felt was our best bit of football, near the end of the first half when Monthe was put through and shot wide.
It was better than some games I’ve seen this season but that isn’t saying much.
Four home games without scoring a goal.
How dam awful of those stats.
I know we see it with our own eyes but to see it on paper Aswell hurts
We suck and even the stats show it!
Where do we go from here!
The only stat that counts is that we have amassed a piddling 12 points from a possible 39 this year and we’re 12 league games without a win. Pathetic.
Players who are confident on the ball, take the ball off our centre backs and can dictate tempo of games.
Joe Riley can play the 8 role next season, which leaves the holding role open. I’d keep Comley as cover as he has shown ‘some’ quality over the last couple weeks
We all know… don’t lose, even though we do, goalscoring is a minor inconvenience to Flynn, gets in the way of his philosophy. That’s why I’m tending towards the Flynn out brigade, we are going nowhere with Flynn in charge, but then again who the hell is going to take on the poison chalice that is Walsall F.C., with an outdated, out of touch board and as it would appear, still skint and unwilling to spend on quality players.
Someone above mentioned a few reasonable quality players, Riley, Maddox, Hutchinson (despite the frustrations), what’s the betting that we may well lose those from our squad by the Posh type vultures offering a few meagre sheckles that our board will snap said hands off?
Good player, surprised he actually dropped down as he was a regular at Charlton even in the championship not so long ago.
When we talk about players over 30 who can come in and lift a team he’s example of that compared to someone like Guthrie.
Yep. With Sinclair, Liddle, Guthrie and Labadie we’ve really been shorted by ‘pedigree midfielders’ since relegation.
It’s a bit like a Dean Smith run isn’t it? Not losing 2 or 3 nil every week and there’s enough draws against top half teams for the optimists to cling onto that things aren’t far from clicking. And in fairness they were pre xmas as a few of these matches would’ve been wins with DJ and Bennett around as say Donny away was (that was 0-0 with 20 minutes left and very few chances created).
Different here is DS generally had bargain basement budgets and so it took years and painstaking recruitment to get in a side good enough to get top 6 in league team were in.
Can we say the same here? Flynn has actually had a decent budget to work with this season when you think of the quality of 4-5 players this season in terms of ability in this league yet it’s all fallen apart with two key players leaving in January so only hope now is fourth round of FA cup will mean in the summer similar level of ability players can be signed up on two year deals instead of six month loans.
What did he do in the game for you to think that. I didn’t notice him setting up chances, any forward runs etc etc etc
There is always the possibility I was asleep For his moment of magic
It’s not just the squad, it’s the tactics and balance of the team too. Midfield is a mess. We are ponderous, painfully slow, boring and when we did go in the lead, incessant time wasting just encouraged the opposition to go for it.
Agree. I can’t believe that we can get rid of Kinsella Labadie Earing Wilkinson Williams etc off the budget and sign actual footballers who can pass to each other (and not be injured).
We can most definitely sign say a holding player of good quality for this level - I don’t see why not.
They must be well run clubs benefitting from coming out of the other side of the pandemic 
You can tell he’s an intelligent player, his first thought is to go forward with the ball.
Alot of other people can see his quality, even though his tired out towards the end. Expected though as he’s been out for 8 months.
Like Flynn said last night, it was a shame White was suspended because we would have been better off playing Riley in midfield, where that’s his preffered position.
He made several attacking forays and looked good. What I liked most however was his calmness on the ball . He is an intelligent player based on last night which will be good for us if he can stay fit .
Have to say that it did look a bit better with the 4 at the back to start the game.Monthe at LB Daniels and Low at CB and I found myself sitting there watching Riley at RB thinking “ I bet he’s wondering why he bothered coming here with how the rest have been playing recently.” Riley looks like he could be a really good player and as I’ve said before next season I’d like to see him play a big big role at this club regardless of who’s playing around him.Low was a big disappointment last night for me, his passing was really poor and apart from being 6ft plus with a bit of pace he doesn’t seem to have much else about him.Maybe he’ll improve over time but it has to be said and I think he’d agree that his passing was poor at best.One final point, you have to say fair play to Monthe for carrying on after that clash of heads because it looked to have knocked him about on first viewing.
I saw a post on twitter saying he couldn’t see at one point 
It shouldn’t be his decision. If he was knocked out or concussed, or suspected to be concussed, he should have been off the pitch and independently assessed by someone properly qualified to see if he was fit to continue. Football is dreadful at treating head injuries. Maybe all sports are but I have no interest in anything else apart from tennis and golf where it isn’t an issue.
The game needs to sharpen up, it isn’t hard to foresee a rake of compensation claims in a few years if they don’t. However, they should be doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not just for financial reasons.
Sorry about the rant, Scooby, but the football authorities seem reluctant to deal with this issue and it annoys me.