Morecambe thread sponsored by give me sunshine(kickoff 6.30)

[bobbystagsfan]

Makes me feel sick seeing how well Lincoln are doing (another win for them tonight). A properly run football club unlike us.

We are an extremely well run football club, we now own our own ground, have outstanding training facilities and one of the highest wage budgets in the division. I suggest you are talking utter crap. Now if you wish to say that it was a big mistake by our owners to sack a manager who finished 4th then I'd agree. If you say Dempsters appointment was wrong, I'd agree. On paper GC was a good appointment but to date it's not worked out. So are we a poorly run club, absolutely not, have the owners made a couple of bad decisions, yes.

Lincoln have had 2 manager's in 6 years, go figure why they are doing well ......

Rob how "on paper" was GC a good appointment ?

He had little management experience and it shows.

His tatics are basic, his team selection is bizarre and his game management is poor to say the least.

On paper, GC had a good win percentage and had turned the tide at Bristol Rovers. That's what needed doing with us, but it obviously hasn't happened yet

[part time pete]

Anybody else thought the back line last night was very jittery and shakey , especially Sweeney. My heart was in my mouth every time they attacked in the second half.

Also where is Jamie Clarke, is he still with the club. He would have done a much better job at right back playing behind Gordon than others.

[PEAR CIDER]

Anybody else thought the back line last night was very jittery and shakey , especially Sweeney. My heart was in my mouth every time they attacked in the second half.

Also where is Jamie Clarke, is he still with the club. He would have done a much better job at right back playing behind Gordon than others.

I disagree about Clarke. He has potential but he is far from ready for first team action. Every time i saw him play last season, he was getting skinned by the wingers.

[adamstag]

If you count just league games it’s 7 games without a win this season
If you count the league cup game against Preston it’s 8
If you count those 2 pointless cup game things (I don’t) then it’s 10.

[oldweststander]

Anybody else thought the back line last night was very jittery and shakey , especially Sweeney. My heart was in my mouth every time they attacked in the second half.

Also where is Jamie Clarke, is he still with the club. He would have done a much better job at right back playing behind Gordon than others.

Re Sweeney, he is not at all consistent , cannot pass a football, always goes long and isn't the right man to skipper a struggling side. The other two at the back are not even that good under the current manager.

[gazza1988]

The defence looked shaky because 2 of the 4 were out of position. O'Keeffe needed an extra touch or attempt to get on his right foot. That's not his fault but it's the situation we was in.

I'm more concerned that the 3 central defenders must play every league game, regardless of 3 at the back or 4 at the back. Issue we have is if Mal Benning was available then Gordon would have been on the bench. O'Keeffe would have been right wing instead. He's done it before.

On Saturday, assuming Mal is back, then GC needs to pick a CB to drop. He's got to. Either that or find a way to get them functioning as a unit with 3 at the back.

End of the day he either needs to make the choice to try and save his job or stick with his blueprint that, under the rules of probability, would get a win eventually but not looked likely so far.

[MTFCMusings]

The defence looked shaky because 2 of the 4 were out of position. O'Keeffe needed an extra touch or attempt to get on his right foot. That's not his fault but it's the situation we was in.

I'm more concerned that the 3 central defenders must play every league game, regardless of 3 at the back or 4 at the back. Issue we have is if Mal Benning was available then Gordon would have been on the bench. O'Keeffe would have been right wing instead. He's done it before.

On Saturday, assuming Mal is back, then GC needs to pick a CB to drop. He's got to. Either that or find a way to get them functioning as a unit with 3 at the back.

End of the day he either needs to make the choice to try and save his job or stick with his blueprint that, under the rules of probability, would get a win eventually but not looked likely so far.

I don’t think so. I think Rawson would have been on the bench. GC made a point of saying he had to play a RB at LB, and a CB at RB. If the plan was for O’Keeffe to be on the wing he wouldn’t have said that.

[gazza1988]

If I was under pressure in my job I'd try to justify my weird choices as well. What I wouldn't do is justify them because I wanted to make another weird choice.

To be fair GC has a good point. Missing Mal is a big blow for a 4-4-2. We have no backup, or rather no natural backup.

To be pedantic we started 2 right backs and neither of them played on the right hand side. From a 'natural position" point of view we had Stech, Rawson, Sweeney, Charsley, Maris, McLaughlin, Gordon and Cook in their natural positions. That's 8/11 and we did OK, Perch has done fine but has played RB most of his career

I'm not convinced we are fit enough to pull off wing backs for a whole season, we can barely pull it off this early in the season. You swap a CB for Benning then the only player "out of position" yesterday was Perch. We definitely would have done better imo.

Personally I think he's spoke to the 3 CB and promised them they will play most, if not all, games. He either upsets one of them or he keeps them "happy" by playing them out of position or play a back 3.

[James]

I though Rawson, first 10 mins aside, was pretty decent last night. Looks much more comfortable in a 4 than a 5.

[Rob]

Makes me feel sick seeing how well Lincoln are doing (another win for them tonight). A properly run football club unlike us.

We are an extremely well run football club, we now own our own ground, have outstanding training facilities and one of the highest wage budgets in the division. I suggest you are talking utter crap. Now if you wish to say that it was a big mistake by our owners to sack a manager who finished 4th then I'd agree. If you say Dempsters appointment was wrong, I'd agree. On paper GC was a good appointment but to date it's not worked out. So are we a poorly run club, absolutely not, have the owners made a couple of bad decisions, yes.

Lincoln have had 2 manager's in 6 years, go figure why they are doing well ......

Rob how "on paper" was GC a good appointment ?

He had little management experience and it shows.

His tactics are basic, his team selection is bizarre and his game management is poor to say the least.

Obviously must have been in hibernation for last few months since wage cap came in as all budgets are same for everybody so your talking crap again. DF was rightly sacked for blowing auto promotion in the opinion of JR of course and its his opinion that matter most. Hope GC turns this around and gets us moving up the table but im not expecting getting promoted this season or relegated either. JD started with a poor team and alot of deadwood has now been cleared out and a few bad apples as well. That type of disruption does not go away overnight even with a dozen new players coming in. Given time our results can pick up but changing manager now will make it worse again. Stick with it the signs are getting better cos they reached rock bottom and the only way is up from here.

I assume you do not understand what a wage cap is? I'll explain it for you, it is a maximum amount a club can spend on wages - many clubs will not be able to afford this maximum amount, many will be much lower. Clearly, therefore, there will still be clubs with larger wage budgets, though of course there might be quite a few at the top end who all have the same budget. Got it? Probably not.

[Rob]

Makes me feel sick seeing how well Lincoln are doing (another win for them tonight). A properly run football club unlike us.

We are an extremely well run football club, we now own our own ground, have outstanding training facilities and one of the highest wage budgets in the division. I suggest you are talking utter crap. Now if you wish to say that it was a big mistake by our owners to sack a manager who finished 4th then I'd agree. If you say Dempsters appointment was wrong, I'd agree. On paper GC was a good appointment but to date it's not worked out. So are we a poorly run club, absolutely not, have the owners made a couple of bad decisions, yes.

Lincoln have had 2 manager's in 6 years, go figure why they are doing well ......

Rob how "on paper" was GC a good appointment ?

He had little management experience and it shows.

His tatics are basic, his team selection is bizarre and his game management is poor to say the least.

Andy, have a trawl back to when he was appointed and take a look at the supporters reaction to his appointment. At that time I think most thought he was a good choice, quite different to when JD was appointed, which most felt was the wrong one.

[Amber Andy]

Makes me feel sick seeing how well Lincoln are doing (another win for them tonight). A properly run football club unlike us.

We are an extremely well run football club, we now own our own ground, have outstanding training facilities and one of the highest wage budgets in the division. I suggest you are talking utter crap. Now if you wish to say that it was a big mistake by our owners to sack a manager who finished 4th then I'd agree. If you say Dempsters appointment was wrong, I'd agree. On paper GC was a good appointment but to date it's not worked out. So are we a poorly run club, absolutely not, have the owners made a couple of bad decisions, yes.

Lincoln have had 2 manager's in 6 years, go figure why they are doing well ......

Rob how "on paper" was GC a good appointment ?

He had little management experience and it shows.

His tatics are basic, his team selection is bizarre and his game management is poor to say the least.

Andy, have a trawl back to when he was appointed and take a look at the supporters reaction to his appointment. At that time I think most thought he was a good choice, quite different to when JD was appointed, which most felt was the wrong one.

Not in my eyes. It was rushed. Maybe the Bristol Rovers thing was a fluke. A bit like the guy with the same initials Gary Cauldwell. Didn't he have a bit of success with Wigan. Then went to Cheaterfield and was part of their demise.
Hopefully when the time comes the next appointment will be more consideted

[MTFCMusings]

If I was under pressure in my job I'd try to justify my weird choices as well. What I wouldn't do is justify them because I wanted to make another weird choice.

To be fair GC has a good point. Missing Mal is a big blow for a 4-4-2. We have no backup, or rather no natural backup.

To be pedantic we started 2 right backs and neither of them played on the right hand side. From a 'natural position" point of view we had Stech, Rawson, Sweeney, Charsley, Maris, McLaughlin, Gordon and Cook in their natural positions. That's 8/11 and we did OK, Perch has done fine but has played RB most of his career

I'm not convinced we are fit enough to pull off wing backs for a whole season, we can barely pull it off this early in the season. You swap a CB for Benning then the only player "out of position" yesterday was Perch. We definitely would have done better imo.

Personally I think he's spoke to the 3 CB and promised them they will play most, if not all, games. He either upsets one of them or he keeps them "happy" by playing them out of position or play a back 3.

I wouldn’t agree that Perch was out of position. He’s plenty capable of playing central midfielder at this level and when he was younger at the level above.

One of the 3cbs would have been benched last night if Benning was fit. I have no doubt about that.

[Richard Cranium]

I think the recruitment has been shocking, There's no quality in the side at all. That squad is bottom half L2 at best

I don't agree with you, fans were pretty pleased when these signings were happening this summer.

Stech - Promoted from league two before in a very good Luton squad.
Rawson - Main stay in a forest green side who were usually up there fighting for promotion
Menayese - Most seemed pleased when he signed, even though we knew little about him
O'Driscoll - One for the future we think
O'Keefe - One for the future but loads had good things to say about him at Macclesfield

O Clarke - a great signing from a mainstay in A league one side
Maris - Always been a steady league two player, has played well against us in the past
Perch - Experience and some steel in midfield

Maynard - Well everyone was buzzing when he re signed, we know what he's about.

There's more I can go on about, I don't think we lack quality. We lack confidence and a good tactical system imo.

Good job our fans aren't head scouts here then

[gazza1988]

If I was under pressure in my job I'd try to justify my weird choices as well. What I wouldn't do is justify them because I wanted to make another weird choice.

To be fair GC has a good point. Missing Mal is a big blow for a 4-4-2. We have no backup, or rather no natural backup.

To be pedantic we started 2 right backs and neither of them played on the right hand side. From a 'natural position" point of view we had Stech, Rawson, Sweeney, Charsley, Maris, McLaughlin, Gordon and Cook in their natural positions. That's 8/11 and we did OK, Perch has done fine but has played RB most of his career

I'm not convinced we are fit enough to pull off wing backs for a whole season, we can barely pull it off this early in the season. You swap a CB for Benning then the only player "out of position" yesterday was Perch. We definitely would have done better imo.

Personally I think he's spoke to the 3 CB and promised them they will play most, if not all, games. He either upsets one of them or he keeps them "happy" by playing them out of position or play a back 3.

I wouldn’t agree that Perch was out of position. He’s plenty capable of playing central midfielder at this level and when he was younger at the level above.

One of the 3cbs would have been benched last night if Benning was fit. I have no doubt about that.

I did say I was being pedantic.. I know Perch plays fine in midfield. Technically he's out of position.

My doubts about dropping a CB come from the stevenage game (I think, the games aren't very memorable) where we had 1 sub left (that he didn't use) and went with a back 4 with Menayese at RB and pushed O'Keeffe onto the right wing. Perfect opportunity to sub a CB for Gordon and not have players out of position. We will see Saturday what he does. He's got to fit Lapslie in somewhere along with Benning if he's back.

I feel the two players to make way would be Smith and Gordon. However Cook appeared to argue with the bench, just before he was subbed, so he could be dropped entirely.

All I know is on a run like ours you go back to basics with players playing positions they are used to. Perch can certainly play midfield and is experienced enough for it to not affect him too much. Our back 3 are 22,23 and 24 years old. O'Driscoll is 21 and O'Keeffe is 22. We are getting these young lads changing roles and/or positions and we are annoyed that they start making mistakes. Menayese looked lost at RB, positional he was at CB half the time. That's not his fault, he's not a right back and I highly doubt he has enough experience yet to be effective. If we were up the top end of the table then you can experiment without too much pressure. We aren't, we are in a early relegation battle, the pressure is enormous.

[MTFCMusings]

There’s no way he can drop Gordon after last night. He was our most dangerous player.

[Parkinsons Perm]

Here’s no way he can drop Gordon after last night. He was our most dangerous player.

So were Cook and Charsley in the first few games, what happened to them???

[gazza1988]

Here’s no way he can drop Gordon after last night. He was our most dangerous player.

He can and I fear he will. In fact if no Benning Saturday then I can see him dropping Gordon for Lapslie and putting Charsley out wide. If Benning is back as well then I can see him dropping Charsley and Gordon and going for O'Keeffe on the right wing. Or reverting to the 3-5-2 blueprint.

[daddycool]

I would guess lapslie will be back Saturday at the expense of Maris who always seems to be on the edge of the action.

[MTFCMusings]

Here’s no way he can drop Gordon after last night. He was our most dangerous player.

So were Cook and Charsley in the first few games, what happened to them???

They were dropped after a negative result.

If he wants to play wingers, he can’t drop Gordon IMO. I think Menayese or Rawson will be dropped for Benning (if fit) and Perch or Maris will come out for Lapslie.

[Sedgwick]

I would guess lapslie will be back Saturday at the expense of Maris who always seems to be on the edge of the action.

Maris played well last night. Started to show what he can do and I think he'd suit playing further up the pitch.

[Parkinsons Perm]

Here’s no way he can drop Gordon after last night. He was our most dangerous player.

So were Cook and Charsley in the first few games, what happened to them???

They were dropped after a negative result.

If he wants to play wingers, he can’t drop Gordon IMO. I think Menayese or Rawson will be dropped for Benning (if fit) and Perch or Maris will come out for Lapslie.

And yet nearly everyone agreed they were the two to come out with credit or don't your stats show that?

No one can second guess GC at the moment as he's desperately trying to get lift off.

His 3 constants of Menayese, Rawson and Sweeney have been the worst 3 so far (cone accepted) and he never waivers from them?

[MTFCMusings]

Here’s no way he can drop Gordon after last night. He was our most dangerous player.

So were Cook and Charsley in the first few games, what happened to them???

They were dropped after a negative result.

If he wants to play wingers, he can’t drop Gordon IMO. I think Menayese or Rawson will be dropped for Benning (if fit) and Perch or Maris will come out for Lapslie.

And yet nearly everyone agreed they were the two to come out with credit or don't your stats show that?

No one can second guess GC at the moment as he's desperately trying to get lift off.

His 3 constants of Menayese, Rawson and Sweeney have been the worst 3 so far (cone accepted) and he never waivers from them?

I’m not saying they had performed poorly, but they play in an area of the pitch where the manager had other options after a winless first three games. Both Cook and Charsley missed very good chances in the Exeter game, following which they were dropped to give Maynard and Reid a chance to impress, unlike the defenders where he only has one other option to play centre back when he was playing 3 at the back.

One of those would not have played last night had Benning been fit.

Also why do you keep mentioning stats all the time when replying to me? Is it supposed to be funny?

[Amber Andy]

Here’s no way he can drop Gordon after last night. He was our most dangerous player.

So were Cook and Charsley in the first few games, what happened to them???

They were dropped after a negative result.

If he wants to play wingers, he can’t drop Gordon IMO. I think Menayese or Rawson will be dropped for Benning (if fit) and Perch or Maris will come out for Lapslie.

And yet nearly everyone agreed they were the two to come out with credit or don't your stats show that?

No one can second guess GC at the moment as he's desperately trying to get lift off.

His 3 constants of Menayese, Rawson and Sweeney have been the worst 3 so far (cone accepted) and he never waivers from them?

I’m not saying they had performed poorly, but they play in an area of the pitch where the manager had other options after a winless first three games. Both Cook and Charsley missed very good chances in the Exeter game, following which they were dropped to give Maynard and Reid a chance to impress, unlike the defenders where he only has one other option to play centre back when he was playing 3 at the back.

One of those would not have played last night had Benning been fit.

Also why do you keep mentioning stats all the time when replying to me? Is it supposed to be funny?

So what does he do now after ten competative winless games ?

[arsene wengers coat]

Bowery aside, I think we have a strong squad. I do think we lack natural born leadership and presence though.

The manager should be getting a lot more bang for our buck out of them. That's on him. I expect if a Nigel Clough type walked through the door we'd see vast improvement.

We've seen they can play the more attractive side of the game, they need license to do it.

What we're missing is a Maynard and Cook partnership, and confidence throughout the side. Confidence only comes from winning.

Sort it out Coughlan, or do one.