its now becoming the norm that we employ really negative tactics, its so frustrating, yesterday we started the game really positively but when we came out for the second half we just sat back and encouraged them to attack us, why??? we were dominating them and should have been pro active with looking for more goals .
I am hoping that this is not Duff all over as fans travel up and down the counry to support the boys and its unacceptable to play 80s type negative boring football.
I want to give Duff the January window to bring his own players in and hopefully cha ages his negative tactics to entertain the fans .
The most negative football Iâve seen us play in recent times was towards the end of Doddsâs reign (except for the Mansfield game that he seemed furious that weâd won mixing things up).
I wasnât at Luton or Plymouth so canât comment on those games specifically, but youâd have to have an exceptionally short memory to think us playing turgid football is a new alarming development.
Iâll bite I suppose. The 02/03 gear change from Sanchez was far more (intentionally) negative than what we witnessed last night or have done throughout the Duff era so far. As MD said himself post-match, we were the dominant force in the first 20 minutes and Bell in particular was having plenty of joy with his runs up the wing and getting the ball into the box.
Then we lose two of our most influential players to injury and bring on Junior who is supposedly a dynamic force (once or twice a season) but looked like a rabbit in headlights. An abject cameo.
I donât think Duff is exempt from criticism but at the moment heâs watching life play out on repeat. The players heâs throwing on are letting him and the club down time and time again.
In recent-ish times we wouldâve toughed out the result and lauded a gutsy performance but our soft underbelly exposed itself once more and weâre back to square one.
Iâd argue the mindset was exceptionally negative under Dodds. Defenders shuffling the ball timidly amongst themselves, seemingly too scared to pass the ball more than 15 yards is about as unambitious, ill-conceived and completely unwatchable football that I can remember watching. And Iâve been around long enough to have watched some utter dross, albeit usually when the club was skating on very thin ice financially.
What weâve seen over the past couple of months is that, without Henderson (and Mullins to a lesser extent) we really are a poor team with some excellent individuals. That isnât Duffâs fault, arguably the squad strength and balance wasnât Doddsâs fault either.
Hopefully Duff will be leading recruitment and at the very least establish a solid spine in this team. And maybe bring in an out-and-out striker with at least some pedigree at this levelâŚ
Duffâs job is to get as many points as he can with the players at his disposal. He has been doing a brilliant job at home and a reasonable job away from home.
Weâve only been battered twice in the league and given the squad we have that is remarkable.
Dodds side didnât score a goal in the first half for something like 20 games! Duff fixed that pretty quickly.
Last night was the perfect evidence for the issues Duff has. Henderson and Mullins go off injured and all our ability to play how we had done in the first half goes up in smoke. We had a 10 minute spell from about the 60th minute when we regained some control but then lost our way again.
We had to batten down the hatches and play on the counter, as that was the best chance we had of taking three points with the players we had available on the pitch.
Norris stays on his feet and that is 3 points earnt. Under Dodds I felt like we would have got battered last night.
Given the lacklustre squad, I think Duff has done a remarkable job to make us competitive and grind out points.
Dodds this season 5 pts from 8 games -0.625 PPG. Duff 24 pts from 15 games - 1.6 PPG. Almost a whole point more! Over the course of the season Duff gets circa 70 points at this rate.
I think you are setting your expectations way to high. Football teams at our level do not win every game, have some average players and need to find a way to grind out results. Duff knows how to do that - Dodds and Rice do not.
I just hope Rice has learnt from his mistakes and backs Duff to re-model the squad over the next two windows.
How can you say with any certainty that the players youâve mentioned have had their confidence âsmashedâ by Duff?
Fink looks like a fish out of water. Taylor has played poorly in whichever system thatâs been tried. Westergaard has never really shown much under either head coach. MVSâŚdropped, and admittedly may have taken a knock from that but it was a pragmatic decision. Fact is we have no deserving #1 goalkeeper. Casey was dealt a horror hand in âthatâ game by DoddsâŚnothing to do with Duff, who has shown his faith in him and is now being repaid.
there is no vendetta against Duff, just find his style of play negative however none of these players are his, so want to see what he does in Jan to.address this , even Huddersfield fans saying he is a negative coach which is concerning ..lets see what Jan brings and whether the club listen to him rather than that cluelss stockwell, the only transfers they can come out with any credit it Henderson and Bell
Iâd argue heâs been pragmatic rather than deliberately negative but I agree with the restâŚmuch work to be done in January, but not the easiest time to do serious business. Hopefully the returns of Abbott and Scowen will be like new signings. I think Leahy needs a break and to be eased out of the starting XI providing the replacements perform well. GK and CF are the glaring areas to address, the others are just about manageable until the end of the season.
I donât think that any time is necessarily âeasyâ to do good business (as Rice/Stockwell seem to be intent on proving, sadly) but the success of last Januaryâs crop of signings prove that it is possible.
Whilst panic buying will be rife (not just from usâŚ), I donât think itâs a bad time to look at the loan market - all those players out there getting less playing time than they were hoping/expecting, and agitating for a move.
But if we have any ambition whatsoever of scraping into the playoffs, then shrewd January dealings are essential, however little I may trust Rice/Stockwell to do so.
Under Doddâs we never scored unless it wĂ s deep into the second half when we were already 2-0 down and we gallantly lost 2-1 for the umpteenth time.
judge him next season he is just recovering from the mess he has inherited give him an opportunity to get his own players in . We lost two of our best players last night had they stayed on we wouldnât have drawn .
I donât think his tactics or team shape are particularly negative; as others have said he is having to work with the players he inherited when he was brought in.
I think what he has tried to deliver is the pragmatic solution to that situation.
I have no inside knowledge so can only judge him by his public comments & he comes across as balanced & pragmatic & wanting to get the best he can for the club from the squad he has; he has talked positively about Casey, Magnus & to a lesser extent Fink & van Sass (more so regarding development & training); but has also mentioned often how large the squad is.
I will wait to see what influence he has on/support he gets from the OG, if any, in the January window both in & outbound.
Itâs interesting (sort of) that when wading through the salt on the Plymouth forum, I noticed that theyâre also lamenting their summer recruitment and football model. It was mentioned on comms that they have one of the biggest budgets, and while theyâve balanced transfers with sales, theyâve largely bought in a lot of dross (sound familiar?).
Weâre not the only ones whoâve adopted this avant-garde approach to on-pitch matters thatâs trickled down the leagues. And weâre not the only ones struggling to make it work. Seems like a race to the bottom of a murky and uncertain trough but such is the âjourneyâ weâre on.
