Blooms came when we were in a decent position we dropped out of the playoff picture and then had a poorish following season. Dodds came in when our expectations were incredibly high replacing a club legend. A tough gig. He might still get us promoted. If he does and we have a decent summer of recruitment, he may keep us up. The management group need to show us their process will work. I’m not convinced yet.
I’m not one for ditching Dodds…despite my not liking Norris.
Despite what I’ve said above I’ve seen some terrible games under Gaz and Blooms and put up with it…but despite what some far more optimistic or tactically astute than me can see and the great stats seem to suggest…I’m finding recent games very poor to watch given the calibre of players we have.
Thank goodness someone has the sense to see the bigger picture.
He has said he has work to do in relation to everything apart from defence, as popular as it may be I would rather stay down this season and see what he can do with the team and make sure we are 100% before we are promoted. If wrexham go up they will be down they need a full change of players , If charlton stay down they will be champions next season, So is Dodds going to survive its 50/50 imho
I disagree @Twizz. We made signings in January that were clearly designed to strengthen the team immediately - the issue has been the sheer volume of players signed, and their suitability for the new manager we then hired. In hindsight that window looks to have been an absolute mess (I agree with whoever described it as being like a game of Football Manager before) but I don’t think it can be described as a lack of ambition.
Dodds needs a full pre-season and to stamp his identity; regardless of what league we are in.
It’s only fair. With we’re in the playoff spots when GA left and Bloomfield was (correctly) given time.
I believe the signings were made in January to continue the promotion push. I suspect if we do go up, further funds will be made available (selling Kone or not).
But that’s tomorrow’s problem; all we can do is hope there has been a eureka moment with the tactics and team selection and Dodds’ formation doesn’t continue in the passive vein against Orient.
We got our hiding, we did the very same to Stockport, now it’s time to get back in the saddle and get those 6 points.
Dodds’ inability to make any meaningful changes to his disastrous formation yesterday was really worrying.
Fair enough when you get it initially wrong, but persisting with it for the whole game? What was going on there? I don’t think I’ve seen such cluelessness since the days of Neil Smillie.
Clearly, he’s been put in a tough spot with all the off-field politics and Data Dan’s appalling transfer window, but yesterday he dragged the attention squarely onto his tactics.
Absolutely correct this. Good post.
At 5.00pm yesterday I wondered why the heck I had purchased a ticket for Orient. As I mentioned on the match day post it felt as bad as the home loss to ‘the horse punchers’* the week before Torquay away.
But, in the warm light of the morning there is renewed hope. As I type Doddy will be ripping into the squad and Norris sent to train with the academy. And just like that pilgrimage to Plainmore I now will journey east to the Orient on Saturday with the hope that, the brakes off, we blow them away (whilst The Rev does a number on Disney Utd).
In the wise words of that apparition with the white beard ‘Believe’.
*of course that was the week before they became ‘the horse punchers’
I haven’t seen someone stick so rigidly to a formation since the early days of… Matt Bloomfield! Dodds made errors yesterday, Bloomfield made errors early in his tenure. Give him time.
Watching the Bolton game, at times we looked like 1 defender, in bradley. Taylor was left and bringing the ball out, and Grimmer did the same from right CB. Both hit the byline and Taylor created the freekick with a surge from the back. This pushed the wing backs further forward.
Charlton pressed high, and put so much oressure on, they couldnt really do it, nor control the game.
I still think our strengths are the CB so playing them is the right way to go.
I do expect big changes next year, and some pace in the forward line.
While some clubs can play the 3 at the back system, we can’t. I don’t know if its the mindset or the size of our pitch, but it just doesn’t work at Adams Park. Matt tried and failed with it and hardly used it at all at the beginning of the season. It leaves us too short of number in the midfield, Kone isolated upfront and our attacking mids playing in areas of the pitch where they aren’t effective. With a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3, there are plenty of options to move the play in attacking ways which we aren’t doing. McCleary needs to be wide and cutting in, Kone needs a partner / players closer to him and having 3 (or 5) at the back doesn’t give us options
To be fair, wasn’t Gareth guilty of this as well? He often made changes too late in games for them to actually matter?
I keep coming back to it but tactics and formation are broadly irrelevant if you don’t stand up to the physical challenge presented by the opposition.
Hopefully there have been some very frank and honest discussions behind closed doors and they are desperate to correct it starting on Saturday.
But to keep talking about tactics etc completely misses the point of why we got thrashed
Kone got smashed in 2 minutes. One of those scene setters. The yellow was worth it for Charlton
Listened to Dodds’ interview on 3CR after the match yesterday. Interviewer asked if he felt he had needed a ‘Plan B’ after conceding the first goal in order to go and get something from the match. Dodds’ responded, “It would have been nice not concede another one.” In other words, no Plan B, carry on with the same plan which clearly wasn’t working and was most likely going to continue not working. That summed it up for me and confirmed what I have been thinking for a few weeks now.
I’m not going to start demanding that the club become a sacking club, getting rid of managers at the first sign of imperfection. In that respect, I’m with those who say Dodds’ should be given a chance in the same way Bloomfield was after his less than great start. With that said, do I honestly think Dodds’ will come good eventually? No, at the moment I don’t think he will. I wish him luck and hope he proves me wrong, but I am far from convinced.
I’m the last person who’d go on about tactics and formations. I’m hopeless at it (still waiting for someone to explain what this mysterious ‘pivot’ is), and I agree with your point. But equally it’s bizarre to do like for like swaps and try nothing new other than personnel changes?
I suppose Dodds has admitted he couldn’t understand what had happened, so I guess that’s my answer.
A lot of folk on here used to moan about Gareth’s subs, but I wasn’t one of them. What that man did for us on the budget he had entitled him to many free passes in my opinion.
Quite, most of the time we couldnt fill the bench and generally the team picked itself.
Exactly this. The players should count their lucky stars so many are focusing on Dodds failings and overlooking theirs.
Indeed…subs aside I could not really complain too much about the lineup. Most of our best players were out there. Whatever the manager told them to do, there was enough experience out there to make more of a game of it.
It was a shocker for everyone but hopefully the last one we will have to suffer.
Stats may say one thing but I only have my eyeballs to make assessments of a performance on matchday.