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Fair point yourself.
I would have cleared out all of Dean’s gang and searched for someone with some demonstrable record of success at National League level on a 12 month contract. Improved contract with promotion and bye bye if not.
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It’s a winning business. To do that you have to score more than you concede. 1-0 gets you the same points as 5-4.
Most of us were prepared to swallow 5 defenders and a holding midfielder whilst it produced wins despite the immense pressure it puts on the remaining 4 players to score/create.
Then the goals started to rain in and any trust in Butlerball seemed to dissappear.
Two games with a back four seemed to steady the ship. It would have been odd enough to have returned to “standard” Butlerball but to respond to the divisions anti football masters (now Buxton have left the dark side behind) with our own brand of hoofball mixed with shithousery beggars belief.
We tried it at Scarborough to no avail. Why would it work in a home game against a team much better at the dark arts than Scarborough?
We did not manage one meaningful goal attempt in either of those 2 games.
I fully understand Michelle and the board/CEO giving Butler more time and financial support with Beck and Harris but without some clarity of thinking from Butler/Schofield then the season will be gone in half a dozen games and 3,000 plus crowds with it.
Is anyone concerned that since Turnbull was terminated there is nobody left at the club with professional football experience? Whatever people thought of Turnbull he had the credibility to question last Saturdays debacle.
Final thought it is absolutely OK for supporters to question and disagree with decisions of the coaching staff.
In my view it’s not OK to be abusive about them. Could we leave that to the idiots on the other side?
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Baffled when I saw the team at 14:00 and debated staying in the pub.
Should have done as the game was exactly what you would expect it to be given the team and formation.
Alfreton’s modus operandi is to try and stop anything resembling football, turn it into a football battle and bring everything down to their level. They are good at this anti football and if they get a weak referee (almost a given in NLN) they get results way beyond their ability.
In what alternative reality would an opposition manager decide mimicking the way Alfreton play would be a good idea? Welcome to planet Butler.
I don’t believe I have ever called for a managers head on here (apart from Keith Hill obviously) but I am sorry. Today we left well meaning incompetence behind and entered a whole new area of stupidity.
He is done. The only thing up for debate is the timescale. If it is longer than a few hours our season is done.
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Dawson was a pretty good footballer as well as winning most of his tackles. Also refereed most games – always in the refs ear.
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Just the kind of searing insight we have come to expect.
Or alternatively 1.7 points a game with a back 5 – which doesn’t win automatic promotion.
Or 3 points per game with a back 4 – which of course does win automatic promotion.
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Great highlights IFA thanks for sharing. Not seen anything of this quality in non league.
Good commentators who had done their research and could even pronounce Maxim’s name. They didn’t try Carlton ‘s surname and did call us the Iron’s once but I’ll let them away with that. Better than Matterface and Dixon on ITV but accept that’s a low bar.
Replays of key moments and topped of by a very fair interview with their manager. Credit to Leamington.
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Unless he has Denton at centre back and Brogan at left wing back.
Would be bonkers of course but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
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First thing the new man might want to look at on the analysis side of the new role is why in 21 competitive games (of which we have won 9) we only ever win if we keep a clean sheet.
It got me wondering if any other teams suffer from this problem. Out of 164 teams in the top 6 tiers of English football there are only 6 other teams that cannot win if the other team score.
Of these 4 are firmly in the relegation zone in their leagues so by default have not actually won many games. They are Cambridge United, Boston, Ebbsfleet and Enfield. They have actually had the same number of victories between them as the Iron have managed.
The other 2 are Preston who are only outside the relegation places by a goal difference of 1 goal and Stevenage who are in 15th place in League 1 – 5 points above the relegation zone. Much like ourselves they have developed a recent habit of conceding goals and losing games. Just reflect on that for a minute – 157 teams have managed to win a game despite conceding a goal but we have never managed it in 11 games against some pretty mediocre opposition.
The omens do not look good if we continue to only have a chance of winning a game if we keep a clean sheet – move to a back 6 or a back 7 anyone? We pretty much tried that at Scarborough and it did not end well. I don’t think their keeper had a save to make.
Leaving aside formations for the moment are there any fundamental issues contributing to this situation?
Could it be the players? Is the team mentality really that weak that conceding a goal ends all hope of winning a game. We certainly went to pieces at Southport, Spennymoor and at home against Rylands when we conceded. A very similar bunch of players won quite a number of games last season after conceding.
Tactics? We have seen 2 main responses from the coaching staff to conceding. Flood the team with substitutes and/or hoof the ball forward very forcefully. Never seen either of these bear fruit as yet. I think we have tentatively switched to a back four a couple of times but probably more often brought off our best attacker of the day (Roberts, Carlton, Whitehall or Beestin at various times) often for an additional defender.
Whatever the reason in the eleven games we have not won (i.e. that we conceded in) we have demonstrated an alarming lack of resilience for a full time professional team supposedly the fittest and highest paid in the League.
Probably a bigger issue than 5 at the back for our current poor league position (relative to the fans, managers and boards expectations) – although I am sure some would say that might be a contributory factor.
Whilst we wait for the new man to start feeding his analysis to the coaching team any suggestions to be directed to them care of the Attis Arena.
Funny, as I remember people complaining about Wilcox leaving no forwards up front when defending corners over 10 years ago.
Towards the end of his world record breaking run he left no forwards up front full stop.
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Given the tawdry state of professional football I would applaud Michelle for being good to her word regarding the contract.
After Swann and Hilton a welcome return to a level of integrity that we have previously had as a football club.
I think it fair that Butler gets us promoted or falls on his sword. Michelle hinted that the contract has provisions in place should he need a little push.
I was on here pre season suggesting we don’t have the players for 5-3-2 and have seen nothing to change my mind. The recruitment either recent or pre season has not changed our ability to play the system.
I’m still hoping Butler will change rather than the club having to change him but I have cancelled my planned Leamington and Darlo trips. Not doing any more away games until I can expect 5 or so hours of travel might be rewarding by seeing more tha 5 minutes of half decent football.
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Good move for him. Needs to be playing at this stage if he is going to build a professional career.
We struggle to give our own a decent run of games and Butler seems to mistrust anyone under 25.
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Less a change of system I’m afraid, more Butlers response as to why his system isn’t working lately.
Can’t be the 7 defensive players. They are only gifting poor teams about 3 goals a game – apart from Radcliffe who were not even good enough to accept their gift invitations.
It must be those useless attackers. The 4 of them can’t even dominate an 8 or 9 man defence.
At least Luke can take residence of the Jordan Hallam memorial physio bench now Roberts and Beestin (thankfully) have stopped sharing it.
He might have to push Law aside – not a difficult task based on his few cameo appearances.
Don’t know what Turnbull did that warranted termination but it must have been bad to have beaten a couple of more obvious candidates out of the door.
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3-5-2 (more often 5-3-2 in our version) needs three things:
At least one centre back who can pass the ball consistently well
2 wing backs who offer a constant threat in attack
A holding midfielder that can (and loves to) tackleWe didn’t have any of those 4 before recruitment and sadly we didn’t have any once it was completed. Honourable mention to Barrows who has adjusted just about enough to be an OK wing back at this level.
I can see why we recruited Carlton although yet to deliver. The rest baffle me if this was the only formation in play.
Did Butler recruit for 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 and then get swayed to the dark side by Schofield? He did arrive post recruitment. One assumes Turnbull had some influence on recruitment and that didn’t end well.
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We closed them down 4 or 5 times in the first half. We created attacking situations and won free kicks in dangerous areas on the back of this. They were determined to play out from the back but they weren’t actually very good at it.
Could not believe it when we actually backed off them and let them do it.
If you are going to insist on a very rigid game plan then it better be a good one and it had better deliver.
I have seen every game this season (2 or 3 via streaming) apart from Newcastle away and I have no idea what our game plan is.
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