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[jamestimperleyrobin]

After the departure of Mark McGregor I have been very dissapointed with the performances in defence. With Mark McGregor and Greg Young in the heart of our defence last season we seemed to have formed something of a brick wall but with Robbie Williams taking his position we seemed to have lost the commitment and determination at the back. James Smith is looking to be quite promising at centre back when Heathcote has required him there but I still think we should have kept hold of McGregor to keep the options and confidence at the back.

What does everyone else think ??

[Mrs Warbouys]

There wasnt a choice in the matter.Mark was offered a managers job and took up the offer.You cannot blame him for that,much as you cannot blame matty crowell for heading down under.We must however find another quality centre midfielder and a forward with a phyiscal presence,at the earliest opportunity.

[distancetraveller]

3 points on Saturday would be a good starting point to start a little unbeaten run again and get some confidence back in the team.  Hughesy is right though, we need someone up front, and I fear we will miss Kearney in midfield. All these stupid sendings off are now starting to take their toll .. hopefully the ex Man U reserve lad may be available this Saturday.. Has anyone heard if he is available ?

[Dougals Dad]

In fairness, regarding the defence, we seemed to have a very good September especially conceding very few goals and there was quite a bit of praise on here for the Smith/Williams and Smith/Young partnerships.

[Leon]

We currently have the fifth-best defensive record in the league.

I was a big fan of Mark McGregor and thought we'd miss him more than it turns out we have but given the above statistic, it's hard to argue that our defence is the major area of concern.

[Mick]

As Hughesy says we had no choice. He was given an offer to become a player manager over the Summer -You ought to ask about or do a bit of research on the clubs website before posting

Similarly only FOUR teams in the Conference have conceded fewer goals - so why is the defence worse than last season with the players we have now ? I very much doubt we had conceded so few goals at the same point last season.
The main problem as far as goal difference is that we don't score many either, but we all know (or should know) how hard it is to get a quality striker at this level. Colin has done the business in the past, but when he is off-form there are few options left
That said, it would be fantastic to win all the home games to the end of the season 1-0 !

[Leon]

On the issue of needing a new centre-forward, I felt we went into the season a striker light. And with Burns in on loan and Johnson out injured that's still where we are. Only now none of our strikers offers any physical presence. Now I'm going to phrase this next sentence very carefully... I think that if Joe O'Neill were still at the club, he'd have started a lot of games this season.

[TheCultOfIanTunnacliffe]

On the issue of needing a new centre-forward, I felt we went into the season a striker light. And with Burns in on loan and Johnson out injured that's still where we are. Only now none of our strikers offers any physical presence. Now I'm going to phrase this next sentence very carefully... I think that if Joe O'Neill were still at the club, he'd have started a lot of games this season.

He probably would.

And he would probably have scored very few goals, too.

He's doing OK now at his correct level: Blue Square North.

[taxi Phil]

Has anyone stopped to think that, if we had more options at the front, we'd face less pressure at the back ? I think our defence has been downright marvellous so far this season, especially considering that they've often spent the biggest part of games under constant pressure !

[ManagementGuru]

I've only seen Alty once this season - at Oxford.  Therefore I'm not really the most informed contributor.  However, on that showing, with a completely cobbled together team we looked very solid at the back - and Greg Young was immense!  I think our problems lie further up the field.

[fuertes]

There wasnt a choice in the matter.Mark was offered a managers job and took up the offer.You cannot blame him for that,much as you cannot blame matty crowell for heading down under.We must however find another quality centre midfielder and a forward with a phyiscal presence,at the earliest opportunity.

Agree about the need for a targetman. Burns looks decent, Denham and Senior have bags of pace and ability, but there are times when you really just need someone to win flicks or to hold it up. Those three lads just aren't capable of that.

It's a real pisser because although I accept he didn't score hatfuls, Dale is an excellent targetman at this level. I can't see how even GH with all his contacts and knowledge is going to find someone nearly as good with our budget.

Personally I think we're okay in the middle of the park. Obviously ideally Crowell would still be here and Tom wouldn't have picked up a daft three-match ban, but the remainder of the season having Kearney, Lawton and Danylyk should be okay, especially since with a re-jig at the back we can push Shaun into midfield if necessary.

[Leon]

On the issue of needing a new centre-forward, I felt we went into the season a striker light. And with Burns in on loan and Johnson out injured that's still where we are. Only now none of our strikers offers any physical presence. Now I'm going to phrase this next sentence very carefully... I think that if Joe O'Neill were still at the club, he'd have started a lot of games this season.

He probably would.

And he would probably have scored very few goals, too.

He's doing OK now at his correct level: Blue Square North.

I'd agree with that. But the fact that a decent BSN striker would have got a lot of games for us this season in the BSP tells its own story. The ideal thing would have been to replace Joe with a better striker but failing that, rather than release him, I think we may have been better off keeping him.

[fuertes]

On the issue of needing a new centre-forward, I felt we went into the season a striker light. And with Burns in on loan and Johnson out injured that's still where we are. Only now none of our strikers offers any physical presence. Now I'm going to phrase this next sentence very carefully... I think that if Joe O'Neill were still at the club, he'd have started a lot of games this season.

He probably would.

And he would probably have scored very few goals, too.

He's doing OK now at his correct level: Blue Square North.

I'd agree with that. But the fact that a decent BSN striker would have got a lot of games for us this season in the BSP tells its own story. The ideal thing would have been to replace Joe with a better striker but failing that, rather than release him, I think we may have been better off keeping him.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It's just dreadful luck that Dale is out for the entire season. Even so, whilst Joe is probably a bit better than any of our remaining strikers at 'putting himself about', he's still not really what we're looking for. We need the big man who can make it stick. I wonder if Stockport, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale or some other local side have a big lump in their reserves who might be of use to us?

[Leon]

On the issue of needing a new centre-forward, I felt we went into the season a striker light. And with Burns in on loan and Johnson out injured that's still where we are. Only now none of our strikers offers any physical presence. Now I'm going to phrase this next sentence very carefully... I think that if Joe O'Neill were still at the club, he'd have started a lot of games this season.

He probably would.

And he would probably have scored very few goals, too.

He's doing OK now at his correct level: Blue Square North.

I'd agree with that. But the fact that a decent BSN striker would have got a lot of games for us this season in the BSP tells its own story. The ideal thing would have been to replace Joe with a better striker but failing that, rather than release him, I think we may have been better off keeping him.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It's just dreadful luck that Dale is out for the entire season. Even so, whilst Joe is probably a bit better than any of our remaining strikers at 'putting himself about', he's still not really what we're looking for. We need the big man who can make it stick. I wonder if Stockport, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale or some other local side have a big lump in their reserves who might be of use to us?

It's not exactly hindsight given I've said I was worried about this at the beginning of the season. Dale's injury has made things much worse though, certainly.

I don't think Joe O'Neill is the player we really need either. But until such time as we find and can afford that player, I think he would have been useful.

[bigcol]

The answer is Branimir Kostadinov.  Works for me in FM2010 anyway.