Preparing for next season

[Old Man Kensey]

Our injuries are not great, we once again have a depleted squad, somewhat the story of the season

It’s backs against the wall time, things are not good at all, for me it’s now down to Derek his tactics and team selection just as much as the players he picks on the day.

If he continues to try to nick points and end up losing by one goal, we will go down, that’s my thoughts now and that makes me he’s tried it all season and we have lost 17 games by 1 goal.

So maybe others are right about that when you look at Derek, I know someone who wanted him gone in Dec, as he is on a rolling contract and the Club could have just released him. My thoughts at the time was, no, let him do his job, plenty of time yet. So maybe I as wrong

Wouldn’t be the first time

I can see why they have stood by Derek. If we had replaced him in December just who would have taken over? I'm guessing nobody else would agree to a rolling contract so would be looking for a 2 or 3 year contract. Could we even afford to do that?

That's before you look at the wage we could offer a new manager, that would put some off.

Derek has stood by his tactic of trying of keeping games tight and trying to nick a win. With our squad that is probably the right idea. Going toe 2 toe with some sides could well have ended in some big defeats.

[black morse]

Our injuries are not great, we once again have a depleted squad, somewhat the story of the season

It’s backs against the wall time, things are not good at all, for me it’s now down to Derek his tactics and team selection just as much as the players he picks on the day.

If he continues to try to nick points and end up losing by one goal, we will go down, that’s my thoughts now and that makes me he’s tried it all season and we have lost 17 games by 1 goal.

So maybe others are right about that when you look at Derek, I know someone who wanted him gone in Dec, as he is on a rolling contract and the Club could have just released him. My thoughts at the time was, no, let him do his job, plenty of time yet. So maybe I as wrong

Wouldn’t be the first time

I can see why they have stood by Derek. If we had replaced him in December just who would have taken over? I'm guessing nobody else would agree to a rolling contract so would be looking for a 2 or 3 year contract. Could we even afford to do that?

That's before you look at the wage we could offer a new manager, that would put some off.

Derek has stood by his tactic of trying of keeping games tight and trying to nick a win. With our squad that is probably the right idea. Going toe 2 toe with some sides could well have ended in some big defeats.

I agree. His aim is to get wins at home and try to nick an occasional point away. We'll see what tactics are used on Saturday. I think it will be more attack minded......and I think it will work. As for getting rid of Derek before now I don't think we would have been any better off at this stage and might well have been worse off.

[KenH]

Derek tactics of playing it tight may well avoid our relegation. Out of the bottom three teams we've got the best goal difference, so if we draw on points with either Carlisle or Tranmere, we may well survive by having a slightly better goal difference. People complain about our lack of goals, but we've actually scored more than Carlisle or Tranmere (and Harrogate and Gilligham in fact). Tranmere and Newport also have more goals against them than we have against us! Put all that together and in theory we should survive as there are more than two worse teams than us! To an extent, Derek is right that we've been unlucky for one reason or another. By rights, our league position should be 21 or 22 rather than the relegation zone. "Fine lines" indeed!

[jona77]

I completely disagree with a couple of the posts above. Trying to nick a point here and there away from home and relying on your home form puts massive amounts of pressure on the players to perform at home. We played 2 teams recently away from home in Gillingham and MK Dons and were pretty awful in both and deserved nothing which we got! They were both in shocking runs yet we sat back and let them both come at us! Imagine if we had garnered 6 points just in these 2 games look where we would be in the league now! I think Derek adopts a way too cautious approach away from home especially with some of the weaker teams which I think ultimately will lead to our relegation. Obviously coupled with a lack of investment from the owner. I think some of Dereks comments are a bit deluded I didn’t see an “ excellent “ performance against MK dons yet against Wimbledon I thought the team generally was excellent showing how we can perform! Why can’t he take some of the more aggressive home performances into the away games rather than being so negative especially against the weaker teams around us in the league?!!!

[redrobo]

Derek has a management career history of being somewhat negative away from home.

I seem to recall a Plymouth fan posting on our forum to expect negative tactics when playing away. And so it has proved.

However his success record in achieving results despite the away negativity is very good.

Unfortunately the financial problems associated with our current owner have dented DA's options when trying to rebuild a squad from scratch particularly this season and have resulted in our current squad being made up in the main of players released by other clubs unable to attract the attention of clubs with far greater budget than ours.

Unfortunately until the ownership problems are resolved I can't see things improving in the medium to long term.

I fear that we will still be saddled with an absent owner who it would appear is more than happy to limit his financial assistance but still charge exorbitant interest on the money that he does loan..

[jona77]

Whilst I agree with most of your post regarding our financial situation and lack of money for players why is it one performance against Wimbledon we were excellent and battled for everything yet against a team like Gillingham who have been awful we put in an abysmal showing? It’s the level of inconsistency that’s annoying me! Did we over achieve against Wimbledon where you’d give the team 8 out of 10 or was the Gillingham away performance more like our usual level which at best would be a 4 out of 10!

[marky No.1]

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