Ghost of Clough

At least he shoots. I wish others on the team would too

Sibley and Mendez-Laing the best of a bad bunch IMO. At least theyre both making an effort to drive forward when on the ball. Absolutely garbage performance by everyone though.

Ridiculous from Hourihane there!
He had acres of space to drive central towards the area possibly even shoot……..but he was so focused on getting it pointlessly wide he didn’t see the space.
Absolutely dreadful

Which would be a problem if we could pass that far up the pitch

Mendez-Laing CF. What's Weston got to do to get on the bench? 4 CMs and no wingers or CFs on there 🤔

Mendez-Laing CF. What's Weston got to do to get on the bench? 4 CMs and no wingers or CFs on there 🤔

Played 68 mins in the last U21 game.
 
Based on the warm-ups, the tactics for today are: pass to Hourihane, get it out to the right, cross to Collins.
In positive news, Barkhuizen's finishing looked sharp.

Played 68 mins in the last U21 game.
 
Based on the warm-ups, the tactics for today are: pass to Hourihane, get it out to the right, cross to Collins.
In positive news, Barkhuizen's finishing looked sharp.

Mendez-Laing CF. What's Weston got to do to get on the bench? 4 CMs and no wingers or CFs on there 🤔

As I said earlier, Elder's injured, so Sibley was expected at left back. We look as if we're going to try and blitz them from the start, and then hold on. I might have kept one of the wingers on the bench to be able to bring on an attacker if we need to late on. Or at least had Weston on the bench.
Playing 3 wingers and a centre forward from the outset is novel. As I said in his own thread, poor Dajaune Brown and the appalling timing of his loan. What must he be thinking? 

There's a difference between 10-20 minutes at the end of games or 1/2 starts over a season versus starting every week.
The likes of John O'Shea and Wes Brown were good squad players for Man Utd, but were only good enough to be regular starters in a side battling relegation.
Fabio Carvalho was playing infrequently for Liverpool last season, now he's on loan at Hull to play regularly. Freddie Ladapo from Ipswich to Charlton...Springett from Norwich to Northampton... the list goes on...
Other Cat 1 teams like Reading are using players in their first team who I wouldn't even put in our U21 side. If I were manager, I absolutely would have used Brown and Robinson a lot more than they have been. Weston would have had a few appearances following on from his good form in the U21s and brief appearance in the first team 9when he grabbed a goal and an assist). I would have given Cox a few outings at the end of games as a LCB in a back 3 - he's much better suited to that role than Cashin who would be better in the middle of a back 3 than on the left. However, I wouldn't expect them to be starting a run of games unless their perfomances when given a shot meritted it.
 
The U21 squad is deplated due to a couple of bad years in terms of scholar year groups passing through and not making the grade as well as 4 players who would have been good enough being snapped up by PL clubs. The U18s have stepped up early to fill that void. We also had to recruit lower potential players to help boost the numbers - Ridd, Oduroh, Bartley, Jeffcott, Radcliffe, Lindsay, Gibson-Hammond, Nto, Nunn, Weston, Oseni...
In terms of 1st year scholarship groups following on from Cashin, Sibley, etc in 2018, there is only Delap and Bardell who are at our club or a higher level from 2019, Gordon and Williams from 2020. This 2020 groups would ordinarliy be our senior players in the U21 squad now, however the rest of them have been released. From the 2021 group, Ryan moved to Brighton, Eze to Norwich, Ebiowei to Palace, whilst 4 others were released at the end of their scholarships (after 2nd year at U18 level). This is a big reason behind fewer U21 players being ready to step up than we would have liked.
In summary, there are a lot of youngsters coming through, but it's a bit soon for most of them. A few of them are ready for infrequent game time in our first team, but Warne doesn't like taking risks. If they aren't getting game time here, then loans out to clubs where they will play regularly is important.

DRobinson's the only player who I think is ready for regular football at this level (lower end L1 level). I would trust his ability to play (and start) the odd game for us at this end of the table. He isn't yet ready for several starts. However, infrequent appearances throughtout the rest of the season would be enough to earn him a loan move for next season. He needs to improve his end product, but otherwise he's another safe and reliable player on the ball.
DBrown is next in the pecking order. He too would be good enough for seeing games out and the rare start. His level (in my opinion) is L2. However, the benefit of a National League loan is our ability to recall him in an emergency whilst a L2 loan would be fixed until the season has ended. The exposure to men's football will be a big boost from him, as I think it could be the difference between him mentally beign ready to play regularly for us next season.
Radcliffe and Weston have shown at other clubs that they are capable at handling themselves in men's football. Radcliffe played in the National League North last season, so a step up this season would have been a fair assupmption - he's been injured since October. Weston played infrequiently in the Scottish Championship last season for Partick and Cove Rangers. He's National League North or even National League level.
Oduroh, who spent the first half of this season in and out of a National League side, is a bit behind Weston.

A tiny bit of insight into what kind ofthreat Cheltenham pose.... Only 4 of their current squad members have scored for them in the league this season. Only one of those has more than 2 goals. Their most likely front 2 to start have scored just 4 goals between them.
In other areas of play... The ball will be in the air a lot as they're won of the most aerially diminant sides in the league, and they'll press quickly to force mistakes.

For the last few games I've tried to guess what lineup Warne would pick. Just in case Warne has been looking at my team to help him with his own selection, this time I'm going with my own team...
Wildsmith
Wilson   Nelson   Cashin   Elder
Bird
Thompson   Sibley
Mendez-Laing      Blackett-Taylor
Collins
Subs: Vickers, Bradley, Ward, Hourihane, DRobinson, Barkhuizen, Weston
 
433 because it gives us the control in midfield we need (and we havent got another senior striker to play alongside Collins). The front 3 ince chosen are our biggest goal threats available.
Wilson starts at RB but gets moved to RW when Mendez-Laing and Blackett-Taylor have tired - Ward on at RB and Barkhuizen LW.
Wildsmith in goal will instill more confidence in the defence and the crowd.
A youthful midfield 3 to provide energy, with Bird at the base to actually link our defence and midfield together. Hourihane to find a new role as super-sub... coming on late to shut games down or to provide something different from set-pieces. Meanwhile, DRobinson is eased into L1 football.

Team news:
Price
IGordon   Banks   Osayande   Gill
Eames   McAndrew
Osong   Allen   Gough
Oguntolu
 
Subs: Hardy, Canoville, Tola, Green, Augustien

That looks good on paper. Makes it look like we’ve got 4 up front. 😀

Bardell is still injured.  The U21 defenders who started the last game were Oduroh, Bartley, KRobinson and Moloney. If we were to pick one, I expect it would be Bartley

Of Bird's 35 passes agaisnt Reading, 20 (57%) went forwards, 8 (23%) went sideways or didn't go far enough forward for it to be worthwhile callign forwards, with just 7 (20%) going backwards.
Hourihane's pasing figures will be similar, if not slightly better due to playing slightly deeper and taking free-kicks.

I thought it was this:
Vickers
Nelson   Bradley   Cashin
Ward   Sibley   Bird   Elder
Mendez-Laing   Blackett-Taylor  

He's joint 3rd central mid (DM, CM or AM) in the league for open play key passes - Peterborough's Randall and Charlton's Dobson are top 2. Shooting is his biggest weakness, but he's still joint 16 for open play shots (only 7 shots behind 4th)

Warne opted to use Mendez-Laing in the middle rather than playing John-Jules there. What hope does an academy player have?

He's joint 3rd central mid (DM, CM or AM) in the league for open play key passes - Peterborough's Randall and Charlton's Dobson are top 2. Shooting is his biggest weakness, but he's still joint 16 for open play shots (only 7 shots behind 4th)

he has 2 goals and 5 assists in 23 matches playing as a CDM most of the time. That's basically a 1 in 3 goal contribution.  Bear in mind he doesn't take set pieces either to help boost those stats. What more do you want?
If your after more goals from midfield, surely it's whoever is playing as the no.10 s responsibility more than it is the CDM.

Xavi would typically make 80% sideways or backwards passes - and that's not tongue in cheek. 50% of Carrick's would go sideways or backwards