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It’s worth remembering that Michael Jolley was sacked for philosophical and stylistic reasons. Staying up wasn’t mentioned until four paragraphs into the statement. https://www.barrowafc.com/news/2021/feb ... el-jolley/

Zak wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 2:01 pm It’s worth remembering that Michael Jolley was sacked for philosophical and stylistic reasons. Staying up wasn’t mentioned until four paragraphs into the statement. https://www.barrowafc.com/news/2021/feb ... el-jolley/

Everything has just been one big mess this season

Adam29 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:44 pm

stub wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:35 pm sounds like changes afoot for saturday, thought james jones and broughie were very poor last night and would leave them out on saturday. a back three of eardley ,thomas and nithe looks pretty solid to me . didnt think we got round the back much last night and would suggest playing bramhall wide right as he looks like he wants to take players on and if fit josh kay on left, as much as i like brad barry he dosent have the ability to take a man on , perhaps a move infield might suit him, just a thought, and deffo gotta put devitt in biggins old position. gotta start getting at teams now and not rely on nicking a late goal and devitt looks like hes got the ability to score and create, 25 mins at end of game is no good for the lad, hes gotta start saturday. no more negative tactics we have to be up and at them from the 1st minute

Barry is already playing “in field”
He’s started the last 3 games in a 3 man centre midfield with Taylor and Banks

thats correct adam but he tends to venture out wide into his old position, the point im making is we need a properwide player who is prepared to get at a fullback and try and get to the byeline, if bramhall fits that bill then brad can stay inside and try and dictate play as hes an intelligent footballer . I would rather see a proper wideman getting the ball in then a fullback ( eardley) trying to do a wingers job

Kelly has said that football is a simple game, so you would think that putting square pegs in square holes and having a better attack/defence balance would help us a lot. Yet it looks like a continuation of Jolley's team.
Wing-back is a tough specialised position to play. You have to be fit, energetic, be able to go by-line to by-line and be able to defend and attack. We had Kay and Barry who by and large possess the ability to play this role. We must have signed 25+ players since the summer and have yet to sign another player capable of playing this role, yet we've pretty much played with wing-backs all season and last night the one player in the squad who can play there was played in midfield!
Eardley and Ntlhe do not possess the attributes to play this role, this suggests as Eardley is certain to play we should probably play with 2 full-backs. After all we already have enough full- backs at the club and have just signed Eardley and Donahue recently (why you would sign these players if you weren't going to play full-backs is a mystery) However the problem with that is we do not have any wide midfielders and are overloaded with pedestrian central midfielders. There's Brammall and perhaps Devitt and James could do a job there but it's another square peg in a round hole and further highlights the utter disaster our recruitment has been. For me if Kay is fit we have to play Kay and Barry as wing-backs and allow one of the centre-midfielders the license to support the front two.

I love this quote from Kelly in the Evening Mail following Tuesday's game:

“Without the ball we were really competitive"

holkerboy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:02 am I love this quote from Kelly in the Evening Mail following Tuesday's game:

“Without the ball we were really competitive"

Not sure if that's a sarcastic post or not...

It's a fair comment as far as I'm concerned..

Fact is Barry is doubling up at full back. Exactly the same as Jolley played and was sacked for

LewisBAFC1901 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:16 am Fact is Barry is doubling up at full back. Exactly the same as Jolley played and was sacked for

Really?? Looks to me he's playing right side of a midfield 4 (or 3 depending on your interpretation) ...#bringbackjolley

Looks to me that we have still been starting games with 8 defensive minded players on the pitch.
Brad Barry is a defender, doesn't matter where he's playing he's a defender.

Big E wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:10 am

holkerboy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:02 am I love this quote from Kelly in the Evening Mail following Tuesday's game:

“Without the ball we were really competitive"

Not sure if that's a sarcastic post or not...

It's a fair comment as far as I'm concerned..

Playing when you don’t have the ball is a massive part of football. When Kelly said “without the ball we were really competitive” I took it to mean we defended very well.

Hitthebar22 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:37 am

Big E wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:10 am
Not sure if that's a sarcastic post or not...

It's a fair comment as far as I'm concerned..

Playing when you don’t have the ball is a massive part of football. When Kelly said “without the ball we were really competitive” I took it to mean we defended very well.

That's what I meant, i agree with RK. Think someone is trying to stir the pot

boyliegladbach wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:33 am Looks to me that we have still been starting games with 8 defensive minded players on the pitch.
Brad Barry is a defender, doesn't matter where he's playing he's a defender.

Thought he was an attacking wing back...

Big E wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:43 am

boyliegladbach wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:33 am Looks to me that we have still been starting games with 8 defensive minded players on the pitch.
Brad Barry is a defender, doesn't matter where he's playing he's a defender.

Thought he was an attacking wing back...

We dont attack

Big E wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:41 am

Hitthebar22 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:37 am

Playing when you don’t have the ball is a massive part of football. When Kelly said “without the ball we were really competitive” I took it to mean we defended very well.

That's what I meant, i agree with RK. Think someone is trying to stir the pot

Definitely so, Big E and HTB22, it is important to be competitive even when without the ball. Rob Kelly's comment is entirely sensible. That's what we saw in our best performance of the season so far, when we beat Cheltenham 3-0. They had plenty of ball in the middle of the pitch but as soon as they got to our final third we shut them down over and over again so that they barely had a sniff. It was a brilliant "off the ball" display that day, just denying them any room to operate or open us up. I remember the great Liverpool side of the 1980's was renowned for being competitive without the ball. In fact it was once said that Ian Rush was their most important defender because the moment the opposition had the ball he started the response of closing the other side down and giving them no space.

What was Ian Evatts mantra, something like if we lose the ball we should have it back in 6 seconds ?