What has happened to last season's momentum?? | PASOTI
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What has happened to last season's momentum??

Aug 13, 2011
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I can't for the life of me understand why a team that surged up the table last season, just missed out on a play off position and were looking good to mount a promotion challenge from the first kick this season, even tipped to, is after only six games making bottom spot their own, again!! It seems to me an annual event that we must seemingly start a season on a totally new page without any sign of continuity from the previous campaign. Other teams, like Pompey today, seem by contrast to have built on last seasons potential and are currently equal top. How is this?? Why is it every season we have to suffer this degree of early season unrecognisability with team changes verging on chaos theory!! Didn't we have the framework for a settled squad in place going in to this season despite relinquishing a few decent players? Surely with most prominent personnel remainng we should have just clicked in to gear. No! Not us! Again with optmisim evaporating at the same rate we are conceding goals, we are looking more like a disjointed bunch of strangers, exactly like we did at the start of last season. It's pathetic really. Very regrettable.
 
Feb 2, 2007
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We finished last season with a whimper. Verymuch second best v. Scunthorpe and smashed by Gills. In fact we were poor from Taylor’s injury onwards in the run, very luck with Carey’s dive to win against Rotherham and rode our luck in the Pompey nil nil.

Taylor’s injury a big factor but teams also found us out and Carey/Lamerias are nowhere near as effective without a decent target man. Taylor’s value to the side is ridiculously underrated and as much as love Fred’s enthusiasm I’m not sure his style of play is compatible with Derek’s rigid formation.

Squad is generally worse than last season. So it follows we will struggle. And maybe Taylor isn’t fit, although I thought he had an effective enough game v. Southend. C’est la vie.
 
Jul 4, 2008
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newton abbot
Totally agree. In a great position last season to push on. What gets my goat is that we were in a better place than the teams beating us this season! Does that make sense?
 
Apr 15, 2008
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nickboyuk":19o50hnm said:
Maybe Shrewsbury fans think the same.

Yes, good point. It's a league in which you can compete for play-offs one season and be at the foot of the table the next.

We just didn't build on last season. Our squad is weaker and we're being out planned and out fought on the pitch.
 
Aug 13, 2011
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Thing is Taylor, Carey and Lameiras were fit enough for the bench today and they'd be the 3 I thought Adams would have pencilled in first every team sheet because that was the formula he found worked amazingly to our advantage last season. What ARE they doing on the bench?! They can't be brilliant every game but you have to stay with those 3 playing together and off each other, I mean surely.?? That's bizarre to me.This doesn't address our defensive shortcomings but at least we'd be a force at one end of the pitch.
 
Aug 13, 2011
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plymade":xv60ss3b said:
Totally agree. In a great position last season to push on. What gets my goat is that we were in a better place than the teams beating us this season! Does that make sense?
No I think too many changes. Fox also on the bench!! I mean these guys did us proud last season, he Carey, Lameiras Taylor. They are no good sat there gathering splinters.... The replacements aren't up to it, obviously.
 
Feb 2, 2007
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gariboldi":l834qw11 said:
Thing is Taylor, Carey and Lameiras were fit enough for the bench today and they'd be the 3 I thought Adams would have pencilled in first every team sheet because that was the formula he found worked amazingly to our advantage last season. What ARE they doing on the bench?! They can't be brilliant every game but you have to stay with those 3 playing together and off each other, I mean surely.?? That's bizarre to me.This doesn't address our defensive shortcomings but at least we'd be a force at one end of the pitch.

THIS in abundance.
 
Aug 13, 2011
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The Doctor":3nskvnhw said:
We lost last season’s momentum before the end of last season.
Only because no one could play the Taylor lone striker role. He had Joel Grant trying that hence the season capitulated. But he's back available so that argument should no longer carry. We should have he Carey and Lameiras rekindling the magic.
 
Feb 23, 2008
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Yeah we ran out of steam at the end of last season, with a lot of talk being about no strength in depth etc.

We were crap last season until we got a pacey CB playing alongside a unit. At the moment we just seem to have units. That get beaten for pace regularly. Hence we are shipping goals for fun.
 
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rdr123

Guest
I think we may of left the momentum in Gillingham.......poor momentum
 
Feb 25, 2008
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I can only assess according to what I see on ifollow, but the tactical analysis video of the Pompey game seemed to confirm it: Carey and Lameiras don't work with Ladapo because he wants balls in behind so he can score, whereas Taylor wants them to feet with back to goal so he can lay them off in little one-two's. It really shows how Taylor does not score that many but is vital to the team's success because Carey and Lameiras are so much better with him.

Everyone is saying it did not work with Grant replacing Taylor at the end of last season. Interestingly Grant scored a few goals at that time. But he did not get the best out of Carey and Lameiras. The team as a whole was less threatening. So either Taylor needs to come back (And why is he out? Is his ankle still not up to 90 minutes?) or Carey and Lameiras need to be trained to play with Ladapo. When did Carey last play with a goalscorer up top? Jamille Matt? Reuben Reid? He must have it in him.

The other missing link is David Fox. Someone quoted Lee Bowyer last season as saying that the way to stop Argyle is to stop David Fox as everything goes through him. Most managers would say you stop Argyle by stopping Carey, but the smart ones would say that the way you stop Carey is to stop David Fox passing to him. Southend seemed to have figured this out because they pressed high and forced us into long balls. So where is Fox? Has he aged since last season? Were we better off figuring that we had had his last good years, letting him go, and using the budget on a replacement? And if he plays, what is the solution to the high press?

As a poster said above, figuring this out will not solve any of the defensive problems directly, but it could solve them indirectly by giving the opposition something to think about so that they don't commit players forward, and secondly it could allow us to play a bit of Shilton-ball which could at least make a mid-table season kind of entertaining.
 
Mar 16, 2009
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crownhillpilgrim":1dto1qed said:
nickboyuk":1dto1qed said:
Maybe Shrewsbury fans think the same.

Yes, good point. It's a league in which you can compete for play-offs one season and be at the foot of the table the next.

We just didn't build on last season. Our squad is weaker and we're being out planned and out fought on the pitch.

Who says our squad is weaker than last season?
Why have you written it off so soon?
 
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rdr123

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Justin":kvj2okjo said:
crownhillpilgrim":kvj2okjo said:
nickboyuk":kvj2okjo said:
Maybe Shrewsbury fans think the same.

Yes, good point. It's a league in which you can compete for play-offs one season and be at the foot of the table the next.

We just didn't build on last season. Our squad is weaker and we're being out planned and out fought on the pitch.

Who says our squad is weaker than last season?
Why have you written it off so soon?

Its easy to see by watching matches that our defence is considerably weaker. I think Smith Brown has played well on the left but Moore is so poor at getting back. Haven't seen Riley play yet and Canavan and Wooton look like trash. Threalkeld, Bradley and Vyner are being sorely missed.
One bright spark is Ladapo but should Adam's just of stuck with Taylor, Lamerias and Carey? A trio we know that works!