Match Day Thread Town v Gills

I struggle to understand where the evidence is that we have a ‘squad good enough for promotion’ we have a squad that was nowhere near good enough for the championship and not good enough to trouble the top six of league one, then we have added no extra quality to that and expect things to change.

The squad needs a complete overhaul and the club needs a reboot, neither will happen while Evans is here.

 

You have conflated two different things there - naming individual players and a team of players being shoe ins for promotion.

Players I think are top League One players / Championship level:

Holy
Bishop
Lankester
Edwards
Bennetts
Parrott
Norwood

Easy to see from that why we are where we are.

 

If we had won the match yesterday (or win our game in hand) we would be in the play off zone, so obviously we have a squad ‘good enough for promotion’. That’s not the same as a squad that could be confident of promotion.

 

To be fair if we had won all our games last season we would have gone up as champions......but we didnt.

 

Spot on TB it's a huge squad that has one thing in common, no quality, then take out the loanees and we really are struggling, I often wonder who this team is that others think is so talented when its obvious they are not.

 

Ultimately, I guess the proof will be in what Paul Cook can get out of this squad over the next few months. Either this is a squad that is underperforming due to prior poor management and coaching and are actually capable of mounting a serious promotion challenge. Or it is a squad that is massively overrated, lacks talent, and the players are not technically or mentally capable of promotion. I don’t think anyone looks at clubs like Rotherham, Wycombe, Lincoln, Fleetwood, or Doncaster (among many others) and would say they have squads packed with talent. Yet they’ve been more successful than us over the last couple of years - which is why I think the argument is a bit simplistic as good coaching trumps having a few quality players at this level. Good coaching is the main differential you can have at this level where clubs can’t splurge millions in the transfer windows (unless your name is Sunderland). We’re in division three for God’s sake, how many good quality players are there here? Any players doing it consistently would be in the Championship, so by that basis do Portsmouth or Sunderland have any quality players that have done it consistently at this level?

 

To be honest, yesterday’s game should show Paul Cook where we are as a club. We have some decent players at this level but we lack consistency. Squad needs to be trimmed in the summer

 

Come off it TopBunk, there’s a massive difference between being two points away from the play offs with a game in hand and being so far off the title to finish mid table.

 

I’m just using the last two seasons as evidence rather than the last few games, but to be honest being in the play off zone in early March doesn’t mean ‘good enough for promotion’ if your still there come the end of the season ...maybe.

I understand that as fans we want to believe that our team is capable of ‘great’ things and that to achieve this all it needs is a new manager to get them playing, but I have seen more that would suggest this squad is mid table at best rather than a an under achieving championship squad.

 

If we don’t make the play offs it isn’t because we don’t have the players to do it - they’ve shown they can do it but so often haven’t turned up just like Saturday. Our patience, discipline and focus goes out of the window and we can’t string two passes together or get flustered in defence.

To get to the point where we’re a good side - we’re miles off. Part of the equation that’s missing is improving the squad a little in each window and Paul Cook isn’t necessarily going to change that. But he can change the form of the side by getting them to do the basics solidly and putting out better combinations. He doesn’t need to do much of that to win enough games to get us into the play offs but I don’t think we have any chance at all of finishing top two.

 

I don’t think this squad is Championship quality. In my opinion, it’s got potential for a promotion push from League One, but without proper investment or better recruitment, we’d be a yo-yo club between Championship and League One. There’s a stark difference in quality between the two divisions that seems to grow by the year.

 

I think the thing I have been so disappointed with in so many matches is just how poor the opposition has been and yet we have drawn or lost the game. Gills were actually pretty good Saturday and we were nowhere near them.

 

When did the players prove they can make the play offs?

 

To completely state the obvious, our league position over the season that has put us well in the running and recent back to back excellent performances and wins against top sides in that zone.

 

I’ve never thought our squad were “World beating” but with the right coaching and a consistent game plan I’ve no doubt they are capable of,at least,pushing us into the playoffs.Let’s just hope Cook is that man.

 

As I said before I’m basing my opinion on completed seasons rather than little spells over a couple of games, the evidence that I’ve seen is that we don’t have the quality to maintain a level over a whole season, of course it’s just my opinion and I hope I’m wrong but I think without squad overhaul and proper investment then I fear we will continue to fall downwards.

 

The Gills game aside the form has been strong for a while and we have a stronger set of options than we’ve had all season. Compared to last season we are not going into the last stretch nosediving down the table. If Cook improves us at all we will make the play offs. There’s always the possibility that it doesn’t gel under the new manager but the question wasn’t will we do it, it was do we have the players to do it and I think the answer to that is yes.

 

We certainly have one of the most talented squads in the division but talent is only half of it, good coaching makes a difference but also I would say having coaches on the pitch and experience, by that I mean players who understand game management and we literally have zero of those, some may grow into it through experience but we've got too many who haven't got experience at this level and in some cases any level.

I'm not sure about other clubs in the division but I know Sunderland and Portsmouth certainly have players who've got experience around this league or above.

 

Holy- not pulled up any trees at this level. Was at a mid table Gillingham
Bishop - had 1 great season in the Championship as an 18 year old then was injured for 5 years
Lankaster - has made 25 first team appearances and was also injured for over a season
Edwards - maybe the closest player to what I'm talking about here in terms of having that experience but hasn't exactly had a consistent run in our team
Bennetts - loan player who's made 1 senior appearance for a club before coming here
Parrott - loan player, clearly talented but played 21 first team games in his whole career and yet to score a goal in his whole career
Norwood - I like Norwood and he is capable of being a top striker in this division but he hasn't proven himself at this level, we bought him after he has 1 good season in league 2, he's come here and done pretty well whenever he's played but for the season and a half he's been here has been injured pretty much for a season of that.

Think the players you picked bar Edwards pretty much proved my point. Talented players who could be good at this level but none of them have proved it before they came to the club or since they've been here

 

I know they say a week is along time in football but to say our form has been strong for a while now is pushing it a bit