Gillingham (H) Tuesday 11th Feb, 7.45pm

Agree with that. Would you look to give game time to the 2 young midfielders we have signed assuming they are of the right quality?

We absolutely need to give Nathan a go at WB and the 2 lads a go in midfield. Probably not both together. That’s the difficult balancing act Mat has to find. We do look a very tired group. Needs freshening up imo. Plus i don’t think Mat wants to give Albert a go at WB from the start because he’s unsure if he has legs to go up and down the pitch for say 70 mins. Again just my opinion

I was really surprised we didn’t see one of the new midfielders last night the side desperately needs freshening up

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Feels like we’ve signed a load of kids for a bit of work experience given they aren’t getting game time. Shocking really given the position we are/were in. Really should have capitalised on it and brought in a couple of proven players.

Hopefully we don’t live to regret it but if so I’m sure many fans will have an opinion on Trivela’s January transfer window and will need to earn a bit of respect back in the summer.

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I was very surprised. Midfield was lacking energy and Connor has been struggling for form through one thing or another for a few weeks imo

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I was told Chang was a really good player he’s probably not fit

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I hope not. If we look at seasons past, we have been let down by stubborn managers who insisted on putting square pegs in round holes. It was our downfall and thankfully not repeated this season…until now.
The midfield has been completely disrupted and unbalanced to accommodate OM and as a consequence some of our most influential players are a shadow of what they were a few weeks ago. The selection of Josh, too, was bizarre. I fear that Mat might now throw the baby out with the bath water and there will be a huge settling-in of the newcomers who have arrived to swell what is a huge and arguably over-sized squad.

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Absolutely needed 1 of the 2 number 8’s we bought in was a proven 8 at this level

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That’s another problem. We bring young players in on loan who their fans say “really good player when fit, if we had kept him fit he’d be in our side”, then they don’t get fit with us. They’re just injury prone players.

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Trouble is if they don’t get in the match day squad then we never will know

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Something definitely odd about the January loan signings IMO - we did such a brilliant job with Lowey that of course will help convince teams to let their young players join us….

However, my question is, has Sadler started to have a few head wobbles with all that unproven talent to work into his squad?

Given a few dodgy results (I’m being kind) - is he now a bit more concerned than he lets on in his interviews and in reality, feeling he has to shore up a flagging team with his ‘known entities’ rather than play a more open and adventurous style?

I’m not a conspiracy theorist but its obvious something ain’t right in and around the squad and why aren’t the loan players being given a chance with us playing so poorly even after the CEO and owner publicly stated how pleased they were with the window etc??

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Makes the selection process of the bench last night really weird.

A goalkeeper
Two midfielders
Four strikers

Obviously Adomah can play on the right side, but he seems to be preferred up top.

The subs we made last night were a striker on for an injured striker, a striker for a striker and a striker for a midfielder.

Midfielders and wingbacks in this system are the most demanding, yet nothing changed last night to give us fresh legs in those positions.

Gordon wasn’t getting any change out of Hutton down our left all night.

On Saturday Adomah started uptop, but then ended up deeper in midfield playing as a wide number 8 on the left, stretching them at the end to get crosses in, baffles me why we didn’t try that again.

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What! Balti?

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If they are not of the required quality, then why the hell are they are here.
Must be more than good enough as January was strong :flushed:

Yes. They must be of the right quality or why are they here…. They should be used but it possible Sadler doesn’t want to bring them in at the same time into a group in a bad spell and low on confidence……my bet is he’d prefer to blood them when he feels everyone is a bit more on it….

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Good point. I’d guess he didn’t see this bad run coming and believed he could introduce each kid into a winning side at different times, now how do you just throw them into this without the risk of them completely crumbling?

I do worry with Trivela that they won’t look to sign players at their peak who will cost more with little to no resale value. They have to convince investors after all.

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It could cost them in the short term. Getting promotion this season is really a must after the first half of the season. A little bit of investment in experience in a key area such as CM was something we should have pushed the boat out on a little. Hope it doesn’t come back to bite them. For what it’s worth i like the look of Ellis Harrison up top. Just the kind of experience we needed. He looks very good holding the ball up and his use of the ball. Like you said they probably wasn’t expecting to be in a run like this.

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Good point I hadn’t thought of that. Perhaps we will see them introduced one at a time .Chang is 22 so hardly a kid !!!

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Chang is 22, and was deemed fit enough to make the bench for Blues the other week. Harrison is in a different league to Gordon. Amantchi according to Sadler…. Is someone he’s wanted for over a year. If Sadler continues his bizarre obsession of picking Flash who would have undoubtedly played instead of Lowe had he not been injured, Osin as a midfielder because it works 1 in 20 times and not utilising the rotations at his disposal, DJ hardly at all and Albert in at least 1 of the positions in which he has excelled for 20?years it will cost us promotion and Sadler his job. It’s that simple. Big decisions and big bollox needed from Sadler this weekend.

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He needs to change it about a bit I d rather he’d try and go for it than just stick to the same side even if it fails because you just can’t see us scoring more than one goal a game at the moment as it is