Brief synopsis

jerryatricjanner":11ebz206 said:

Not sure what some expected this year. We have played 8 of the 11 other teams in the top half and 5 of the 12 in the bottom half so 11th place is no real cause for concern at this stage. We are clearly lacking a bit of the quality we have seen from some of the top side's better players but mid table and push on again for next season is what most hoped for isn't it?

Click to expand...

Agree with this.

I don't agree with those who say it's all about survival, we have to be a bit better than that and we should aim for somewhere between 10-14th place.

jerryatricjanner":2fqssggc said:

Not sure what some expected this year. We have played 8 of the 11 other teams in the top half and 5 of the 12 in the bottom half so 11th place is no real cause for concern at this stage. We are clearly lacking a bit of the quality we have seen from some of the top side's better players but mid table and push on again for next season is what most hoped for isn't it?

Click to expand...

To evolve as a side. Players and management team.

That means a bit of flexibility in the way we play.

I think patience is the key to see what happens. Most reasonable fans will know survival is the aim this year.

Cobi Budge":22w0ecos said:

jerryatricjanner":22w0ecos said:

Not sure what some expected this year. We have played 8 of the 11 other teams in the top half and 5 of the 12 in the bottom half so 11th place is no real cause for concern at this stage. We are clearly lacking a bit of the quality we have seen from some of the top side's better players but mid table and push on again for next season is what most hoped for isn't it?

Click to expand...

Exactly.

To be honest, I think some people are just ignoring the fact that we're in a much better league than last season, and they seem to be expecting the same results. It's going to be tougher, and we're going fine at the moment.

Click to expand...

Overall, the step up in quality has been much more marked than I recall last time. There really is a demonstrable gap to LG 2. That might be because we’ve seen more of the top half than the bottom - and even then it’s only really the last two where we have looked out of sorts. In fact, only really the Fleetwood game. We will be ok, but we won’t threaten. Rocky moment but we will be ok

On Saturday, we were beaten by a team that had more energy. If we were able to compare the number of kms. covered by the Fleetwood players to ours I believe the difference would be remarkable. Their pressing and ball control as a team was very impressive.
Tonight was different as Peterborough did not press us like Fleetwood but they had Dembele and Clarke-Harris who just ‘ran rings around’ us. Clarke-Harris has punished us before in League1. He scored a ‘worldy’ (similar to Conor Grant’s this season) from the corner of the penalty area when Bristol Rovers drew with us at Home Park and helped to relegate us.
We move on to the FA Cup then Rochdale and Ipswich at home.
Time to put these 2 results behind us and move on.

How does Telford earn a 5 , i did not see him even touch the ball ?

Opoku has all the attributes to be a good defender. Big, strong and quick.

However, l mentioned how he ball watches in games and the way he just let Clarke-Harris run off him so easily is criminal.

You can’t defend like that. Not sure if it’s just a mental thing where he loses concentration. Hopefully the coaching staff can help him to be more aware.

I struggle to understand the tactics sometimes.

Yes I get having 3 CB’s and 2 wingbacks who played as full backs to stem Peterborough’s attacking play. But having lost the out out from the wingbacks why did we still have 2 strikers playing upfront and so isolated with no supply?

Why not put an extra midfielder in to either shore us up or provide a central outlet?

5-1-2-2 isn’t going to get you anywhere unfortunately.

Metal_Green_Mickey":297yoszp said:

Opoku has all the attributes to be a good defender. Big, strong and quick.

However, l mentioned how he ball watches in games and the way he just let Clarke-Harris run off him so easily is criminal.

You can’t defend like that. Not sure if it’s just a mental thing where he loses concentration. Hopefully the coaching staff can help him to be more aware.

Click to expand...

Agreed Clarke-Harris just strolled through unmolested from six yards out. Really soft goal to concede. And I agree with your earlier post about the gaffers comments we were lucky to only lose 1-0. I would be disappointed if I was Ferguson not to have won more comfortably we looked toothless.

Metal_Green_Mickey":3fyqy3gh said:

Slightly concerned over RL comments.


“I thought we were very good, especially in the second half. In the first half, when you have been beaten five, you have always got that little bit of fear in you. They are human beings. But what I saw tonight was a team that were fighting through thick and thin, playing the right way, playing the right brand, and unfortunate not to take a point here at probably one of the best teams that we are going to face.”

Click to expand...

His players have just lost a second game in three days, being tonked by five in the first one. Heads will be down and he's trying to find the crumbs of comfort that will help him boost confidence in his players. His words were for them, not us.

Absolutely nothing wrong in what he said.

An improved performance overall against what is probably the best side in the division. Not straightforward to compare against the Fleetwood game as Fleetwood were happy to let us have the ball and pressure us into mistakes, whereas Peterborough wanted to keep the ball and take the game to us. Nevertheless a good response from a pretty disappointing result and a (mostly) enjoyable game to watch.

We have played a lot of the big boys now and are doing alright for a newly promoted team learning the ropes. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that we can also improve since we've got a number of young players and even some of the more seasoned pros are still settling in.

Pottypilgrim":2m7efalo said:

We played like a team bereft of any confidence and more worryingly, belief. Cooper should never have started. All he did by playing was vindicate the decision Peterborough made to let him go. I have no idea what Opoku was doing when he just let their No.9 break the line to take the obvious pass from which he scored. We played like a league 2 side. Constantly passing the ball into touch or running it into touch following some atrocious control. Peterborough should have scored as many as Fleetwood did. We have not played with any intensity in the past two games. Its almost as if we're beaten before we even kick off. We've played enough games now for teams to have worked us out and with Lowe telling everyone that he isn't going to change the way we play I can only see difficult times ahead. There was no energy in the middle of the park. That game was crying out for Camara to be brought on for the last 20mins. Peterborough had 5 across the middle towards the end so we needed someone that could carry the ball and break through that line. I really am starting to wonder if Lowe and his staff are that tactically astute :think:

Click to expand...

Well said. Spot on.

third earl of jean":3mjdyc3i said:

The Doctor":3mjdyc3i said:

Metal_Green_Mickey":3mjdyc3i said:

Slightly concerned over RL comments.


“I thought we were very good, especially in the second half. In the first half, when you have been beaten five, you have always got that little bit of fear in you. They are human beings. But what I saw tonight was a team that were fighting through thick and thin, playing the right way, playing the right brand, and unfortunate not to take a point here at probably one of the best teams that we are going to face.”

It was only poor finishing that stopped a comfortable win.

We were better in the second half. However we weren’t “very good”.

He says we are playing the right way but we were toothless tonight.

You need a plan B and when l see comments like this l think is there one??

Survival is the aim but he has to show signs of adapting otherwise better teams will pick us off unfortunately. For example, if your going to play wing backs they need a lot of pace and energy and the only one who has this is Moore but l think he doesn’t have an end product.

Be interesting to see if Lowe can adapt his philosophy because Mayor at CM and Cooper at LWB is like having square pegs in round holes. Good players but wrong positions for them l fear.

Click to expand...

Whereas I think Lowe’s comments are almost entirely fair and accurate. I would just remove his fifth word: ‘very’

Click to expand...

Agreed, although I'd also change the 'unfortunate not to take a point' to 'in the end could have taken a point'.

I don't think we were terrible, though in no way did we deserve to draw, but I do worry that the current away set-up / formula is not working and looking to Lowe to show tactical nous.

Click to expand...

Very well put

I must admit (it sounds like hindsight) i told my son after the Portsmouth game that i felt we had our two toughest games of the season coming up and sadly it proved to be.
For his of his moronic behaviour - Barton has got something about him as a manager and i'd be surprised if Fleetwood dont go up.
I agree with others, a major rethink on how we play away from Home Park, maybe you have to be a little humble, accept you wont have as much of the ball and pick a formation that works with that. Its fine playing an attacking line up if you think you are going to be in possession for 60% of the game, it becomes a concern if the opposition do. Maybe scoring 4 at Wimbledon gave the manager a false sense that we could be free scoring away from home and should be bold - but i think any fan right now would take a gritty or solid 0-0 or 0-1 result.

Watching the Fleetwood game on Saturday i was very dispirited because the gap between the teams seemed massive
although without the 2 gift goals it could have been better. Last night was an improvement but Peterborough did seem to give us a bit more time to play and this is the main issue. Even in the pre season matches we struggled when the opposition ran at us
and pressed so either we lack pace or the organisation needs to be seriously worked on - lots of hard work needed !
Man for man i think the squad is up to league one standard ( forgetting the individual errors ! ) but we lack the creativity to make
scoring chances .
I have commented about G Cooper before because like Mayor he looks the part but gives the ball away too much by running into blind alleys and his ratio of good crosses to bad is too low. As for Mayor i always feel good when he is on thee ball but he just , like GC , gives the ball away too often - he is obviously very confident in his ability but seems to overdo it too often and needs to be more aware of what is going on around him at times
I still feel more optimistic than for several seasons but still hold on to the dream of top level football which i have had since my first match in 1961 - after all if Bournmouth can do it .

Ive always been supportive of Lowe. I think since he has become Argyle manager we have seen many good performances and results.

I’m just honestly trying to see why yesterday’s performance was better than Fleetwood.

We played a side who had lost their last couple of games. They never pressed us like Fleetwood did so we had more time on the ball.

When l look back at the game they should have scored more. It was just poor finishing that prevented this.

As an attacking unit what did we do that really troubled the ‘posh’ defence?

I personally felt yesterday would be an issue because Lowe had no time to get the team on the training ground after Fleetwood to implement any tactical tweaks.

I think despite the heavy defeat against Fleetwood there was effort from the team. And yesterday the team tried their best.

Yes the score line was better. Yet apart from a couple of powderpuff efforts at goal l really not seeing what was better. For example, the first half our passing was terrible.

I understand Peterborough are in a different place to us. I didn’t expect anything from the last two games to be honest because the teams they have assembled have cost a lot of money and we aren’t at that level currently. Peterborough have a chairman who’s helped to put together a top side in this league with exciting forward players. I just think when talking in isolation about a performance from last night l just didn’t see a good performance. I saw a big gulf in performance levels between the two sides. I just think in all honesty it’s a dose of reality that we can be competitive in this league but to play the open football we do away from home against a top 8 team in this league we need either to tactically change things or will need better players to execute his football philosophy.