It probably doesn’t help that we’ve gone from 3 absolute beast giants who could also play, to signing a couple of unknown quantities who are much shorter.
However, Luke Oliver will tell you height alone isn’t enough.
In league 1, despite all the lovely playing it out stuff, you still need a good 3-4 players who are superb in the air.
Bradley was probably about as good as it gets in the air, I just hope we find someone as dominant.
Bradley and Low/Taylor was probably our best aerial combo since Crossley and Evans.
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If you wanted an own goal he was the go to guy.
Yes, and the odious Derek Adams delayed the start of our home game against Plymouth, as he wanted to see an email from the FA approving their use. Delayed Kick Off by 15 minutes.
Mores the pity. Our various central defenders last season were absolutely fundamental to our impressively low goals against record. That is why early (though far from statistically meaningful) indications of vulnerability in that area have made us feel a bit fidgety.
Players used so far in central defence have all (or mostly?) been unknown quantities - certainly in the context of their potential to make the grade in League One - and I think the reservations expressed on here in that respect have added to what I discern as fairly widespread anxiety/concern that we may not exactly hit the ground running when it comes to the serious business next month.
Let’s hope we’re all worrying unnecessarily and Mr Dodds surprises us with an attacking lineup (including two up front) the like of which we won’t have witnessed since the departure of Mr Wycombe.
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What have I tapped to accidentally delete my post of 4 hours ago ? It’s not the first time and I suspect others may have done the same.
Bates and Rhino for me.
Odd question, I know, but has anyone heard any player rumours?
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If you click the three dots under your post you can see a little trashcan. If you click on that you’ll delete your post and the trashcan is replaced with a little circular arrow. Click on that arrow and your post comes back.
Johnson/Williamson?
hahaha
I recall an untested young lad starting for us in defence years ago away to Newport, and I thought god help us…his name was Alfie.
So let’s give them all a chance before writing them all off and see what these “unproven” players can do.
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Fair enough points but I don’t think he should be in a squad that’s challenging for promotion. Could be a moot point as I suspect a good chance he ends up back at Exeter before the transfer window shuts.
What decisions do we know (with undisputed fact, including evidence) the club has made solely on data?
Sure, the club have said there will be an increased use of data but they haven’t said it will be the only thing they will use in decision making processes
I have a problem with phrases like “how effectively we seem”. That last word makes everything about the sentence it is included in become subject of personal belief and opinion. What something seems like on the surface may not actually be the truth in reality.
The acquisitions of the Dane’s has seemed to some people to have been anything from straight up a waste of money to a poor attempt at signing a Danish Head coach before MD came in to a genuine attempt at signing players with Champions league experience. The truth and reality behind that could be anywhere from complete balderdash to gods honest truth or somewhere in the middle depending on which rumours you have heard and who you believe most.
The key part is NONE of us where part of that decision making process, so actually know close to zero about the actual truth of the situation.
Tldr: relying solely on data for decision making IS bad. But so is making assumptions on the reality of a situation when we don’t know exactly what’s going on and go on what “seems” to be the case.
Some people thought last week it seemed to be 100% true Pete couhig got fired because they heard something from a single source they trusted….
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Not a sausage from my searching
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As someone who has Rangers as their second team this would be worse than WWIII starting.
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I would certainly let him go for that money.
Bring in Langstaff (Millwall) and Alfie May (Birmingham) instead.
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Many thanks @kim_il_swan. That’s magic.
Sorry I wasn’t actually accusing the club of relying slowly on data in this instance (although I accept it could be read that way).
I was only making (in this case) a general point about my concerns about how data is used in the wider world.
(Grumpy old man syndrome. I do generate data in the world I work in. Which I then spend far more time than I would like to correcting people who run off with that data and draw completely the wrong conclusions)
My comment about how effectively (or not) we seemed to have used that data is entirely a personal view. I have reached that by taking earlier comments about the club wanting to be data led (or however it was originally touted) and the somewhat underwhelming evidence of, if that data was used, the January window. I fully accept I may have added two and two up incorrectly.
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