The Poolie Bunker

Midfield.

Totally agree Snowy, the problem was diagnosed several weeks ago by many and even in pre-season by some. However Clark seems unwilling to acknowledge the fact that the current Pools midfielders are ineffective in this tough league. He and those behind him need to grasp the nettle and do something about it NOW otherwise fans will vote with their feet and the inevitable search for the next manager will ensue.

you can look at it another way and say are the new signings up front who came with a big fanfare doing there stuff also. their keeper made one save in my memory with his feet and surely if they are that good they should have put at least one of those half chances away. cannot say much about nolan either and his miss. its only 4 games anyway thats gone and far too early to talk about sackings. central midfield might be a defensive unit only but so far popov and harris aint working too well either together.

That may be so, but in general in all the matches so far, service to the forwards has been pretty poor.
Like I said a few days ago, it’s like buying a brand new car but installing the old engine from your van…….we have a Featherstone midfield…we really don’t need it.

I'm certainly not advocating sackings just highlighting the familiar pattern that has been repeated over the years. One that we thought was banished to the past. We could have Haaland and Kane up front but if the midfield, wingers etc aren't capable of creating chances then they would be impotent too. Our set pieces are shite too and we don't even have the added threat of a long throw 'expert' for the strikers to latch on to. The new signings have proved their goalscoring prowess elsewhere but won't repeat the dose here if they have nothing to feed off.

I firmly believe When you sign strikers who are proven goal scorers you must give them chances by giving them the ball how they prefer it. Lets hope that Harris goes to Halifax with a point to make against his former club. Over the years there have been strikers who have scored a lot of goals else where come to Pools and nothing. Recent ines being Johnson and Camble.

I dident rate them 2 but yes the midfield service wasent great.
We Deffo upgraded our forwards but if they don't get decent service then they are going to struggle.

Even the best forwards in the world Kane etc convert less than half of their chances.

So we need to quickly sort out the service problem.

Maybe I'm to ambitious but we shudent be struggling in this division.
By hook or crook or any other method we need to average 10 points from every 6 games.

Thats 76 points.
And acceptable for me.
Some will be happy with less or more.

Thats just the way internet wordage goes.

UTP.

Kev, the ‘problem’ is staring us in that face, if no one supplies the ammunition, you can’t fire the gun.
We’re short of ammo.
Get some is the answer.

once the transfer window shuts on tuesday there might be some activity then with a loan player coming in. clark must see what we see but he,ll have the excuses for it ready now if we fail to score at halifax.

Hunter, Sheron and Miley have 9 goals between them in 223 appearances for Pools. Surely that must tell the management something. The amazing thing is that our head of recruitment Chris Beech was a goalscoring midfielder and Clark himself had a few goals and assists in his career. Why they didn't recruit some quality midfielders in the summer is baffling, surely someone must have recognised the problems we had last season in the midfield department? Harris is gonna end up with fewer goals than Reid unless something positive is done soon. But then what should we expect? it is Pools after all.

Maybe that's why we signed Owen Hampson. Maybe he's what we're waiting for.

It's a bit harsh putting Miley in that mix, he's got 5 in 66 appearances and although that's not prolific, the other 2 have 4 in 157. The great Nicky Featherstone only got 28 in 446 appearances, less than 3 a season on average.
We're not setting up to go at teams through the middle and that's the managers choice, But we're the joint 4th lowest scorers in the division so far and I doubt the current average of a goal a game won't be enough to reach the play offs.

Be nice to think so, but there's no evidence to support the idea in his record. He's score twice in the last 2 seasons in the Premier League Cup and never in men's football. Still, when we finally get to see him in action he might surprise us all.

Currently joint bottom in the goal scoring charts with just 4, are Harris and Nolan going to turn out to be duds or as said above is it the lack of ammunition ( midfield)

We had this last season…and with most of the same midfield surprisingly in place….so expect the same result….the problem’s in midfield.
What Clark sees in the them I have no idea..but don’t hold your breath…. as long as our weakest link last season is still rated apparently by those in charge.

I can't see anything changing tonight, I expect he'll be wanting a clean sheet and to nick a goal -fair enough away from home and expecting a tough game but we have to create more and crucially take more chances when they come along especially at home.

Stats tell us that in the first 4 games we've had 28 shots, 12 on target so averaging 7 shots a game but only 3 per game on target.
Answer - create more, be more clinical when chances do come along.
We're a club that's seem as a bit of a scalp to take by most in this division and generally they'll try to stop us and up their games to do it. We need to up ours and the manager needs to find a way to make it happen, wether it's tactical or personnel changes or both, he needs to raise his game too. Hopefully if he asks LS for more players he'll be supported.

Although our forwards did well for there previous clubs I don't think you Gunna get clinical finishes in division 5.

Its the creation that has to improve rapidly to improve the chances of scoring.

Hugill not a scorer for me but can create a few lay off chances in the box with his physical presence providing the refs don't give fouls against him.

These next 2 games are massive.
We need at least 4 points from them.
The Woking game shudent be a problem.
UTP.

think we did ok in the first two games taking our chances. sutton, well we got what we deserved. only last friday we looked really poor and a bit wasteful. we again look better set up to play away to pick up points, but i might be changing my mind by 10pm. we might have the owners money but he,ll get pissed off handing it over if it looks to have been wasted.

think all the weakest links have gone from last season even if we are left with a couple of weaker ones who would have been fine as injury back ups only.

I think you do get clinical finishers in division 5 but only when they are playing against Pools.

Our kid said we missed 4 easy chances to score v Eastleigh
For me that should be enough to at least take the lead in a home game.

Maybe it clicks soonish an we absolute batter some team.
UTP.
Crazy unpredictable game especially for us lot.
Sadism maybe.

Hunter on the bench tonight!

No McKeown and no Kougon. I guess they are out injured.

Both have slight injuries and should be in contention for the Woking game, as explained in the official club site pre match today.

But he came on four minutes into the second half…and to be brutally honest, the second half was dire.

You can now add defence to that the way a poor Halifax side carved it up for fun.
Only poor finishing and a decent display from our Keeper kept the score down.

Then we never really looked like equalising.

41 games left Dosent mean it automatically improves on its own in time.

If like Been said the budget is done then so is the season.
Maybe Fevs would of revamped that midfield with the same budget.

I honestly thought 4 4 2 would improve our chances of being successful.
Hindsight eh.

Sometimes it’s not the formation, it’s the fight in the formation..
I’m not seeing any fight in a lethargic team.
It’s the hope that kills you.

Our brilliant fans being shortchanged yet again.

The loyalty is going to get tested.
With the upcoming budget and Xmas on its way.

The £22 (£24) entrance fee is certainly Gunna get questioned for sure.

It can be found when we doing OK but easily go down the pecking order to watch more failure.

Interesting concerning times lay ahead.

All part of being a Poolie.
UTP.

The manager and assistant manager were both mid fielders, can they not identify where the inadequacies are, maybe they should put their boots on or should I say bring Featherstone back, he couldn’t do any worse could he ?

I'm sure he's still employed at the club but don't think he's the answer

Looks like Bromby have let Smithy down big style.

It's now a 2 year plan at best unless fairy tales come to real life.

UTP.

but who the hell has got the answer and who will be. just another sideways move where the club has never improved since the day spike lee got the boot. one passable performance out of 5 will see a 4,000 max next saturday and another poor display and it will be back to crowds just over 3,000.

Aye, the Three Little Piggies come to mind …we huffed and puffed and so far have blown bugger all down…apart from our table placing….

and the new manager the grand old duke of york who is clueless in what to do with his thousands of signings, i mean misfits.