What can be changed?

[WestYorksRoyal]

Put yourself in Richardson's shoes. We have 5 games between now and 4 Jan where new signings are not an option. Even hanging our hat on January transfers is too risky given it means more time to integrate and gel. What can you do immediately to get us performing better?

I would say we have a few structural problems that can only be solved by transfers:
- We don't have a CF who can lead the press and hold the ball up. Marriot is a great finisher at this level but doesn't offer the all round game compared to Smith or even Wareham. He's a Cureton/Le Fondre. Kelvin does work hard, but being blunt he's not good enough. Once his contract expires with us, he'll end up in L2/NL.

- We have no real pace or attack building ability at the back. That means we can't push up or bring the ball out, leading to Wing and Savage being hopelessly deep. POC got slated for the 2nd goal yesterday, but it was a weakness everyone knew existed when we signed him; why did we allow him to be so exposed there? Which ties in to our third key weakness.

- None of our full backs are particularly good. Abrefa and Dorsett aren't the answer; they're just probably the best available (or taking a bigger punt on Yiadom's fitness).

I'm sure these will be priorities in January; CB is the hardest as do you really get mobile, ball playing CBs at this level? There's a reason Mbengue and Bindon are in the Championship.

But for now, what would you do? It's not easy when defence and attack have both been highlighted as key weaknesses.

It makes midfield the obvious place to start. With the options we have, it's inexcusable how badly it's been doing - it's our one outfield area genuinely good enough to challenge for the top 6. We have to accept that Wing cannot play the same deep role without Bindon and Mbengue behind him. He needs Fraser behind him with Rinomhota off to AFCON (it's partly why I'm baffled he's barely featured - hopefully Zimbabwe go out early and he's back in January). But the challenge is midfield also needs to support probably Marriot, as he'll be hopeless as a one man attack. This means dropping Savage, or potentially asking him to push up as a number 10 as he has the pressing game. Or dropping one of Savage/Wing to retain Doyle, who also looks lost but was signed as the Knibbs replacement (who we desperately miss). He did well at Crawley, so he's not a bad player.

I also wonder if, particularly away, 3 at the back and a low block has legs. We have pace in Kyeerwa and R Williams, plus Doyle is not a slouch. Can we play a bit of compact anti-football, hit long and let pace run in behind? O'Connor and D Williams will eat up a physical challenge all day. You'd then drop Savage, and have a midfield 3 of Fraser, Wing and Doyle, with Kyeerwa having a free role to attack. This is not far off what we tried yesterday and it worked for the first half, but when Bradford raised their game we couldn't respond and could not chase the game when 1-0 down.

No easy options really. We really messed up recruitment this summer; they're not bad players, but they didn't fill the gaps we needed.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

If we go down it could be the great reset we need

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Is it time to slay some sacred cows?

Switch up the midfield - the current recipe isn't working

Change the formation... to better suit the players we have...

Change the Captaincy...can a different voice make more of an in-game impact....

[morganb]

One issue I see is that Richardson has openly said he's waiting for the January window to change the squad

How does that make the existing players feel? Depending on their character are they going to try harder to prove they are not going to be one of the ones replaced or will they just think what's the point in trying too hard if I'm out the door in January (especially loan players who have no real allegiance to the club)?

The other thing is how do managers/players prepare for a match? How much do they look at the opposition and how much is based on playing their own game? Have we ever tried to stifle and nullify the opposition (do we have the players to do that?) And also how well do we adapt to changing in-game rather than "it's 60 minutes, time to bring on our pre-planned sub"

[WestYorksRoyal]

One issue I see is that Richardson has openly said he's waiting for the January window to change the squad

How does that make the existing players feel? Depending on their character are they going to try harder to prove they are not going to be one of the ones replaced or will they just think what's the point in trying too hard if I'm out the door in January (especially loan players who have no real allegiance to the club)?

I think this a good thing. For the likes of Marriott, Ritchie, O'Connor and Wing they may feel safe or that they've had a good career.

But our squad has plenty of players who need to perform. For loanees like Doyle and Burns, their success here (or lack of) will determine what their next move is. And the likes of Abrefa, Dorsett, Elliott and Ehibhatiomhan may soon find themselves without a club if they don't perform for us. Football is a ruthless, brutal industry. These players get one shot at their career, and they need to wake up and face the fact that, currently, they're blowing it.

[South Coast Royal]

I don't envy the manager's task as he has big problems with this current squad-a squad that many posters thought might even challenge for promotion but now look to be just a mish-mash with no great structure.

I guess that the manager will have been promised some money for transfers in January even if our naive owner thinks you can build a team with just free transfers.
The manager has done the job before at this level and surely can identify what players he would like to bring in and we have seen in the past (I am thinking of Pardew's time) that a club that has just a bit of money to spend can go far .

January will see a big test of the owner's financial commitment to the club and surely he must be concerned at the league position we are now in and the prospect of 4th division football can certainly not have been in his plans.

So, until we get new players in it has to be back-to-the-wall stuff with Fraser added to the midfield at the expense of Doyle, Yiadom to start and the aim to be not to lose especially against relegation rivals in Plymouth, Peterboro and Burton.
It probably means a continuation of Branfoot hoofball and keeping the ball in the opposition half with plenty of pressing from Danny K and Randell W and for Kelvin to turn himself into a bullying number 9 (we can and do always hope).

[Snowflake Royal]

Change the way we play.

We have two halves of a team that basically interact through long balls. We essentially have no midfield. Wing and Savage come too deep to receive the ball, leaving acres of empty space to the forwards which we pump balls over.

Then the forwards are all frequently playing isolated from each other. When our striker does occasionally win a flick on, or a knock down or controls the ball, there's rarely anyone within 10 yards to receive it, and if there is, it doesn't go in their direction.

When we do break forward down the wings, there's one player in the box, marked by at least one defender, with at least two defenders blocking passing lanes to them.

Football is simple. You take a set of players, and you pick a few patterns of play to suit them. Currently our back half are playing football that suits a completely diferent front half to the one we have. You have to develop a way of playing that whatever choice the opposition makes gives you a chance. And can’t believe we are incapable of this.

When we have the ball, our front four push high. This is absolutely wrong for the players we have. It isolates them and mkes go long for big defenders to eat up. It allows a press on our back line that they can't cope with.

They need to play deeper to give Wing et al a chance to slide the ball into them between defence and midfield. And if the defence steps up to prevent that, Wing can play the ball into the channels for the front players to use some pace and run in behind. And if the midfield drops back to stop it, then Wing and Savage can advance and we can play around the edge of their box patiently until a long shot, through ball or cross is on.

What we can’t do is just keep humping the ball long, giving it straight back.

[Elm Park Kid]

I was at the game yesterday and it was bad, very bad.

But, presumably the entire point of bringing Richardson in was about giving someone enough time to build for next season. If all we care about is maintaining our mid-table position then we might as well have just kept Hunt. What we're seeing now is the consequence of a new manager slowly trying to work out what he wants to do. It doesn't matter if we finish 8th or 18th this season - honestly. What matters is that we eventually have a team of decent quality L1 players that get used to each other and the manager's system and are able to go into next season with the kind of stability we haven't seen in a decade.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I was at the game yesterday and it was bad, very bad.

But, presumably the entire point of bringing Richardson in was about giving someone enough time to build for next season. If all we care about is maintaining our mid-table position then we might as well have just kept Hunt. What we're seeing now is the consequence of a new manager slowly trying to work out what he wants to do. It doesn't matter if we finish 8th or 18th this season - honestly. What matters is that we eventually have a team of decent quality L1 players that get used to each other and the manager's system and are able to go into next season with the kind of stability we haven't seen in a decade.

But it matters very much if we finish 21st though. A bad Christmas and January becomes firefighting recruitment instead of long term planning.

[Snowflake Royal]

I thought Abrefa was our best player yesterday. He has some bad games, like Peterborough, but generally he's been one of the better performers. He's got a bit of everything, unlike most our players.

I could see a back 5 with him and RWilliams as wingbacks. But O'Connor and DWilliams don't have the pace to cover the flanks behind them. Dorsett probably does. But that's one too few.

Rino plays the right way to sit in DM. He's always been good at playing simple balls and the shoulder drop to beat the press, with the pace to then get away and drive forward before laying off.

I think we're really just one key player from being able to perform. We need that one creative player who can link things and make good choices.

The defence is iffy, but if we take some pressure off by scoring goals, and looking after the ball better, I think we're not far from much better performances and results. We have good players, we just don’t have a Team.

Lane is quite a big miss at the moment. He hadn't done brilliantly, but he was the sharpest when it comes to setting something up and he could press.

[Brogue]

We go to 3 cb’s PoC Williams and Dorsett, PoC in the middle, this is where he excelled at Lincoln. Arbrefa and Garcia as Wb’s they are both pretty shit at defending and are far more suited to a wingback role. a flat 3 in midfield. Get wing out of this quarterback role ffs. Wing savage Doyle or wing fraser Doyle now Fraser is back. Put WiFi up top with marriot, maybe just behind him. Lane has been shit, Ritchie is too old and shit, DK too inconsistent. Fcuk the wingers off. That’s what I’d do till January. And see who we can bring in.

[Hound]

Tbf only a couple of games ago we were on a decent run. It’s not panic stations

I think Fraser for Doyle is worth trying but don’t really know how you set that up in midfield adequately

DK needs to be consistent. Would like to see some more of Garcia

We seem to have regressed from showing some quite nice shape and patterns before that last long break. Need to get back to that

And obvs come Jan sign some actual centre forwards, put KE out wide and stick Marriott on the bench

[morganb]

In recent years we've never done well when there have been large breaks between games

Also, we don't seem to do well when we play games tightly packed together

Plus we're not very good in midweek

Or when we're on telly

[Clyde1998]

I thought the shifting we saw yesterday between a 4-2-3-1 and a 5-2-2-1/3-4-2-1 (or whatever) has potential, although the players would need to get used to it.

Wing and Savage appear to have got even deeper under Richardson than they were playing under Hunt when we're in possession, especially Wing; both were already too deep to begin with. At least one, ideally both, need to be given a licence to get higher up the park when we have the ball to help link up the midfield and the attack - giving us more options than simply playing a long ball and hoping for the best or the occasional run at a defender.

Players like Marriott; Fraser; and Camara returning from injury will give us greater scope to change things in terms of personnel. I'd expect Marriott to start up top on Thursday if he's fit enough to do so, which could allow for Ehibhatiomhan to go back into a wide role. Don't think it will make a difference if the striker remains as isolated as Ehibhatiomhan has been though - he won some flicks ons yesterday, but had to chase after them himself, for example.

[Hound]

One of the things that confuses me a bit is the games when I thought we looked better - DK was getting close to Kelvin with Doyle also nearby and it seemed to be working well. Didn’t see Bradford but Peterboro they were miles apart again for most of the game

God knows where Lane is but he did a similar role against Carlisle

I’m not totally against Marriott starting but feel Kelvin needs to be close to him, whether that’s as CAM or from the wing

[Snowflake Royal]

One of the things that confuses me a bit is the games when I thought we looked better - DK was getting close to Kelvin with Doyle also nearby and it seemed to be working well. Didn’t see Bradford but Peterboro they were miles apart again for most of the game

God knows where Lane is but he did a similar role against Carlisle

I’m not totally against Marriott starting but feel Kelvin needs to be close to him, whether that’s as CAM or from the wing

I think Marriott has to start.

He's likely to take a chance if you give him a couple, but we generate so few he's not going to get them in 20 minutes, especially in a game we're already playing badly and chasing while the opposition are trying to see it out.

Whether it's something like Brogue says with 3 CBs, wing backs and two upfront with three midfielders in some form of DM, CM and AM.

Or sticking more how we've been with KelvinE, Kyerewaa and Williams in behind him but linking up more closely.

I thought Doyle put in his best performance first half, finding some space between the lines and linking up far better. But it's pretty rare.

We're really missing Knibbs ability to get in the box and support the striker. Too often the ball goes in, high or low, and there's just the striker in the box and no one making a late run in a bit more space.

[leon]

We go to 3 cb’s PoC Williams and Dorsett, PoC in the middle, this is where he excelled at Lincoln. Arbrefa and Garcia as Wb’s they are both pretty shit at defending and are far more suited to a wingback role. a flat 3 in midfield. Get wing out of this quarterback role ffs. Wing savage Doyle or wing fraser Doyle now Fraser is back. Put WiFi up top with marriot, maybe just behind him. Lane has been shit, Ritchie is too old and shit, DK too inconsistent. Fcuk the wingers off. That’s what I’d do till January. And see who we can bring in.

this could work. Something has to afterall.