Let's talk about the Port Vale EFL cup game

[Campsall rover]

I think people need to stop judging TSL against TLT. TSL is a great keeper and hasn’t done a thing wrong yet.

I’m not sure we need another striker or winger, I think we are good enough(more than) in that area. Midfield is the issue for me.

I think we need to find a way to get Close or Westbrooke in the team for possession control, and rotate the others, but I’m not 100% sure on any of them.

100% we do need another strike. What happens if Joe or Billy get an injury that keeps them out for a few weeks or even worse.
If we could get Mathew Craig back then it’s a no brainer. His partnership with Owen Bailey was fantastic.

TSL is not as good as TLT in the air. He is much sounder imo. Catches the ball more rather than the punches
Of TSL when not under much pressure.
Having said that we can get promoted and be Champions with our current keeper, but if TLT became available then that’s a no brainer also for me. He is 3rd choice at Hull and isn’t even on the bench. Crazy for a keeper of his ability.

We are just 2 players short of the full jigsaw imo.  Then it’s all about being quicker and more clinical in the final third.

[Lesonthewest]

I don't know if its implied but we have this awful and wasteful trait of whenever a player is on the ball.
The first choice in the thought process is always to turn back and look for the easy lay off backwards, it happens in every game, we have a break from defence and the player bringing the ball forward gets towards the opposition defence and then turns 180° and lays the ball backwards, it happens so often it just kills every move we make stone dead. Last night i counted four occasions where we had broken forward, two or three passes later the ball is back with the our keeper?

I'm well aware of the need to protect possession and deny the opposition the ball, sometimes you need to go back to reset and attack again but it always looks in our case that the final through balls, the ones the split the defence and put a forward running player through into space and onto goal just don't happen for us, the forward play is slow, deliberate and over cautious in my opinion, id rather see us try to move the ball forward or thread a through ball and loose possession than not try.

Im sure GM is asking the players to be braver in their outlook and play, some have already commented on players like Mols and Gibson loosing possession trying something, its this unpredictability that needs to be attempted for us to achieve, if we don't try and just keep playing percentage football then we will undoubtedly miss out again.

We need brave players to have the confidence to go alongside the skill element, Adulaken demonstrated this perfectly last season, it got Mols and a few others playing at a higher and better tempo, the confidence throughout the squad soared and the overall improvement was massive.

This side have the ability, we just need to see them being brave, having a go and not always looking to play the safe option, our season

Great Post, I agree with all this, Grant doesn't tell the players to go sideways, backwards, so why are the players still doing it. Is it confidence, fluency, lack of movement, lack of pace up front, too much swapping & changing, lack of understanding. It's certainly frustrating watching us at home at the minute but it's certainly not through lack of effort.

Although we are in a great position, it needs sorting fairly quickly as we can't keep relying on our away form. I'm sure Grant knows what's needed in January as we're not playing the McCann way currently at home.

We need to be braver & quicker going forward & more practice needed on corners, two consecutive one's last night were passed straight into their keepers hands.

[ForsolongaRover]

Summarising opinion, some believe that it will all work out in time, others feel that we ought to be seeing more progress. GM seems to have a benevolent view of those in the team who play it safe rather than exhibit the ambition of taking on the opposition, be it by tackling or being more positive in getting the ball forward quickly. 

Expecting current away form to be sustained is unrealistic especially when nerves seems to be destroying confidence at home. Getting TLT and Craig back is the fairy-tale solution (and I’m not sure TLT is so much better than TSL to make a really significant a difference). The fallback is finding a way to re-energise the present squad and “investing” in some really good quality Championship loanees. Two key attributes in the two experienced ones we have, (Fleming and Emmanuel) are that they have the confidence to take the ball forwards - as does Sterry. There should be such people available - edged out of their current first teams and perhaps going out of contract next May, but needing to put themselves in the shop window for 2024/25.

The players we have at the moment are clearly better than those that were here in December 2023, but without extra strength the present form, mixed at best, cannot be assumed to be sufficient.