Caldwell out?

[Number13]

It’s a weird time being a city fan as we’ve got someone in the dugout that a large amount of fans aren’t convinced with. This will be confirmed by season ticket sales next season rather than exeweb polls and I look forward to discussing it.

I still think we will drag ourselves over the line but it won’t be pretty.

The collective sigh of relief will be fairly loud when he leaves, I suspect even those who have backed him over and over in the face of poor football and decisions will forget the guy fairly quickly.

After our earlier "spat", I'm finding myself agreeing with @Grecian Max more regularly - maybe he's softened his views slightly?

It is a weird time, I'm not sure anybody is convinced by the style of play. We are trying to play football we aren't used to watching, in a division where you need to be one of the top boys to do it week in week out and be successful. But we are getting enough results with it and I think even the biggest critic of the style can understand that if you move the ball about and move the opposition about, especially early in a game, it can open up spaces. The issue is that you then need to be really positive and pacey to exploit that. And I think that's where we fall down - we dont look early enough for the forwards or maybe the forwards arent making the right runs at the right time?

I think we'll be safe and quite comfortably actually. The bottom three look dead and I think we'd be really unlucky to be the fourth bottom team (although that would sum us up being the fourth team down in the only league division with four relegation spots when we've never used that fourth promotion spot to come up)

But its the last point I really wanted to get views on and it ties back to David Trehernes post about what we want from a manager. If we will all be relieved when he leaves (although I'm not sure when this will be - he wont be sacked and wont quit as I dont think his stock will ever be high enough to get a Champ job with 0% security), who or maybe what, do we want next?

The trust appointed Eamo because they had no option and he did relatively well in the circumstances (am currently going back through that year in the programmes and boy did we have some issues that season - tiny tiny squad, threat of points deductions twice and the threat of the CVA being overturned), then Inglethorpe who again did ok then Tiz who was a bit left field at the time but understood the ethos and wanted to embrace the challenge, then an internal appointment of an ex-player in MT who got us playing a brand of football that was exciting but still took four year to get us up from L2

So would we want another Tiz type left field appointment? Or internal which means, currently Nicho since we have lost people like Dan Green? Or a manager with a pre-determined style? Or something else?

 

[Devon Red]

After our earlier "spat", I'm finding myself agreeing with @Grecian Max more regularly - maybe he's softened his views slightly?

It is a weird time, I'm not sure anybody is convinced by the style of play. We are trying to play football we aren't used to watching, in a division where you need to be one of the top boys to do it week in week out and be successful. But we are getting enough results with it and I think even the biggest critic of the style can understand that if you move the ball about and move the opposition about, especially early in a game, it can open up spaces. The issue is that you then need to be really positive and pacey to exploit that. And I think that's where we fall down - we dont look early enough for the forwards or maybe the forwards arent making the right runs at the right time?

I think we'll be safe and quite comfortably actually. The bottom three look dead and I think we'd be really unlucky to be the fourth bottom team (although that would sum us up being the fourth team down in the only league division with four relegation spots when we've never used that fourth promotion spot to come up)

But its the last point I really wanted to get views on and it ties back to David Trehernes post about what we want from a manager. If we will all be relieved when he leaves (although I'm not sure when this will be - he wont be sacked and wont quit as I dont think his stock will ever be high enough to get a Champ job with 0% security), who or maybe what, do we want next?

The trust appointed Eamo because they had no option and he did relatively well in the circumstances (am currently going back through that year in the programmes and boy did we have some issues that season - tiny tiny squad, threat of points deductions twice and the threat of the CVA being overturned), then Inglethorpe who again did ok then Tiz who was a bit left field at the time but understood the ethos and wanted to embrace the challenge, then an internal appointment of an ex-player in MT who got us playing a brand of football that was exciting but still took four year to get us up from L2

So would we want another Tiz type left field appointment? Or internal which means, currently Nicho since we have lost people like Dan Green? Or a manager with a pre-determined style? Or something else?

I think Fleetwood and Carlisle are gone but the 3rd and 4th spots both very much open IMO.

Port Vale have been on a terrible run but they have a new manager and 3 games in hand over us.

Cheltenham have essentially been a mid table side since changing their manager so I expect them to get out of it.

Nights like tonight where a lot of clubs are playing and we aren't are becoming pretty important to us.

 

[Exiled_Grecian]

It is a weird time, I'm not sure anybody is convinced by the style of play. We are trying to play football we aren't used to watching, in a division where you need to be one of the top boys to do it week in week out and be successful. But we are getting enough results with it and I think even the biggest critic of the style can understand that if you move the ball about and move the opposition about, especially early in a game, it can open up spaces. The issue is that you then need to be really positive and pacey to exploit that. And I think that's where we fall down - we dont look early enough for the forwards or maybe the forwards arent making the right runs at the right time?

I've refrained from making comment on the result from Saturday as I didn't want to come across as someone who is defending Caldwell out of some unwavering support or bias - which it isn't. For me, this quote is where the majority of my frustration from Saturday comes from.

During the first half on Saturday, we completely dominated Fleetwood (some will argue that they were woeful, which is fair, they were, but you can only play against what is put in front of you and I actually think we made them look poor too).

In possession we were effectively a back two for the majority of the 1st half, with Pierce stepping inside into midfield, Vinny pushing higher and Woods dropping into wide areas in order to increase the opportunities for us to play forward - which I was really enthused by. However, Cheick and Zak looked really nervous and reluctant to play forward, even when players weren't under hugely intense pressure - regardless of what anyone tells me - that IMO isn't Caldwell's fault, as he's obviously worked on that in training and by proxy of employing that tactic, was encouraging them to play forward much more often, likely with the understanding that poor passes may leave us vulnerable - but if he is asking players to do that, they need to take those risks and do as the game plan is designed. This is one of those occasions for a player where the manager is effectively giving you the opportunity to play the way you've been told, with him having to take the blame should it go wrong and end in a goal. Instead I think they both looked far too nervy and that really hindered us. The times we did play forward through lines quickly, we looked dangerous and made significant, quick progress up the park. There were actually numerous times that a better first touch or receiving position from either of them would have given them easy options to play too however so many times their first touch was either inside or in the same direction they received the ball.

For me, the reason why we haven't won that game lies solely with the 1st half performance in that we went into HT with only a goal lead.

My intense frustration with Zak and Cheick is added to by the fact that I felt we allowed the game to drift and can only assume we thought the game would continue in the same pattern for 90 minutes. There my frustration widens to the entire team and coaching staff. We should have had enough leaders and experienced pros on the pitch to know that the game was always going to be different in the second half and we needed to ensure that we had a 2/3 goal cushion in order to properly kill the game off and not give them any hope when returning out onto the pitch. Player's don't need a manager to recognise that so IMO they are just as culpable as GC however I do think the blame needs to be attributed across the squad equally as GC should also have been far more authoritarian in his instruction to the boys during the odd break in play.

 

[milts]

Are we about to embark on another of Caldwells famous winless runs? 1 point from a possible 12 now.

Bolton and Shrewsbury next.

 

[JGrecian23]

Are we about to embark on another of Caldwells famous winless runs? 1 point from a possible 12 now.

Bolton and Shrewsbury next.

No Shrewsbury are awful. We are fine. We will stay up pretty comfortably somehow.

 

[Grecian in Guzz]

No Shrewsbury are awful. We are fine. We will stay up pretty comfortably somehow.

When we get to 50 points I may join the "Caldwell on Notice brigade" BUT he must stop using team selection like it's pre-season !

 

[denzel]

No Shrewsbury are awful. We are fine. We will stay up pretty comfortably somehow.

Shrewsbury is a massive game now

 

[JGrecian23]

Shrewsbury is a massive game now

It really isn't. None of the teams below seem capable of doing anything. Its like having a bunch of Torquays under us.

We need to scrape 8 or 9 points for the rest of the season probably, even Caldwell can't **** that up.

 

[Devon Red]

No Shrewsbury are awful. We are fine. We will stay up pretty comfortably somehow.

They're only 2 points behind us. If we lose against Bolton then at Shrewsbury we are bang in trouble.

 

[Grecian Max]

Are we about to embark on another of Caldwells famous winless runs? 1 point from a possible 12 now.

Bolton and Shrewsbury next.

If we do we are relegated, it’s as simple at rhat

We cannot afford another doomer run and Hawker doing a second YouTube interview