THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

The league table doesnt lie and we are doing pretty well compared to the start of the season but the results and performances have the same feeling for me as GA and we are getting away with it a lot of the time.

Dont get me wrong, the football is immensely better and I can see what MW is trying to do but we havent been very good now for several weeks, so what in your opinion is not quite clicking?

For me

I think the defence is probably no better now than before. MJW does OK but his startling lack of pace is a constant weakness. O'Hora is back in some form so thats a plus. Lewie is out of form and needs a rest. I also think MW tinkering about with the defence on occasion is him trying to find a better balance but also is disruptive in terms of everyone knowing what everyone else doing. Hopefully when or if Tucker is back, we can find the stability.

The new GK is clearly having a negative effect. I dont think he is doing as badly as many on here and for the life of me I cant see how he was at all at fault for the goal on Saturday. Having said that, Im just not sure the rest of the team have trust in him and that has a net effect on their overall confidence.

Dan Kemp. I dont think we can offer him the type of role that he thrived in at Swindon. For me, its time to accept that he just doesnt fit into this club playing the way MW wants. He worked his socks off on Saturday but it was back to the headless chicken running that we saw before his loan away. The effect of having Kemp in that role affects Gilbey quite significantly it seems but to be frank, I think there s a conversation to be had around Gilbey and his role in the side. I would prefer to start with Wearne as he is staring to do decent things and sacrifice Kemp. Bate looks a decent player and in a few weeks Im sure we will start to see the best of him. I think we sometimes miss an 'enforcer' type player in the midfield, we are a bit to easy to play against at times. Most teams at this level have a 'horrible bastard' and its something we lack I think.

I just cant understand how we have managed to arrive at the situation we currently have around strikers but here we are. Harrison did really well when he came on on Saturday but Im far from convinced thats not his entire role. Coming on late to try and hold the ball up and slow down play when we are winning or to be a target man when we are losing. Dennis just isnt good enough and I have no idea at all about Tezgel but it says a lot that he got 2 minutes on Saturday.

Clearly Payne and Tomlinson are very decent players who should be playing at a higher level than this and we are lucky to currently have them.

We are so close I think to becoming a good side and we have better players now than we did before, something just isnt clicking and I cant put my finger on what it is. The first half on Saturday was among the worst 45 minute of football we have served up this season and for some reason we went back to the long game. It might have been a tactic but it seems so unlikely given how MW has been setting the team up and if that was what he wanted, then not playing Harrison beggars belief. No, that cant have been the intention surely.

So, what isnt quite clicking and how would you fix it?

Given our league position now compared to when Williamson was appointed, I’d say not much isn’t working.

Lack of clean sheets is one major concern. Also, I am so concerned that for example last Saturday as good as both goals were 99 times out of 100 we do not score them (especially the free kick) we could have drawn or at worst lost that game. We have been lucky to a point in Crawley, Colchester, Grimsby, Tranmere and Accrington to get something more than we should from those games (bar Colchester. We should have won that at a canter but we huffed and puffed) and yes we did so the average man will say well we won who cares? And to a point yes, but we are getting so lucky our luck will run dry. We have to play a lot of good sides in this league going forward. At some point we have to be better than just getting lucky.

Don't agree with that. Under GA, we were facing a bombardment every game and saw very little of the ball. Under MW, recent performances haven't been great but we have limited the opposition to very few chances. Looking back on Saturday, we were so poor in the first half yet Accrington still didn't really create anything. In the second, it was all us and we created numerous openings.

Saturday was a case of 'Just get through it', for me. We had no striker on the pitch and a really make shift defense. The team will look a lot more familar tomorrow. I also think we're slightly struggling to adapt to missing Dean, but we'll settle.

Another key thing on Saturday was Payne being moved up to CAM with Kemp up front. Payne had much less influence on the game playing further up and our ability to play out from the back was impacted too. The whole game changed once we brought the subs on, allowing us to drop Payne back into CDM.

We really need to keep a clean sheet at some point though.

Really, Im quite surprised by that. Dont forget that we won a lot of games under GA (at the beginning of his tenure) enough for him to win MoTM. A lot on here, me included werent all that convinced and many repeatedly said how much we were getting away with and that the luck would run out. Some 6 weeks later he was gone!

I dont think we are getting away with it to the same degree and we definitely have better players now but the vibes are quite similar. Since the capitulation at Doncaster, we could easily have lost every other game apart from AFC and even against them we werent particularly good. The fact is we didnt lose those games so the narrative doesnt play as well.

I truly feel we are so very close to be a decent side with just a little something not quite there, Im just not sure what that something is.

This. Second most points per game in the league since MW took over. We aren't perfect but no team is in league 2. I am very happy.

Not having a dig at anyone but there is a funny old atmosphere around the forum at the minute. I think we have all been conditioned to expect the worst (and who can blame us) but there is perhaps more pessimism than you would expect from a side that has been at the right end of the form table for a number of months now.

I don't disagree with any of Magpies points - its a pretty accurate assessment of us at the minute and I concede that some of our recent performances haven't been that good. But we have come so far from the awful days under GA. We are winning games when not at our best. We are coming back from behind. We have a team that don't give up. We have a team that believes in what they are doing again. I honestly think there are a lot of things to be positive about and a lot more things working than not working. I'm excited to see us when things really start to click.

Glass half full here as well.

We got the job done on Saturday and should have scored more in that last half an hour: Gilbey and Harrison missed easy chances.

We are not perfect by any stretch. The keeper is a concern, Lewington is off form, Kemp and Robson are not really firing in midfield yet and the Dean injury is a massive blow. But bloody hell we have some good players at this level! O’Hora quietly is having a decent run of form , Harvie too. Jack Payne is a fantastic player , as is Tomlinson. And Harrison, Wearne, Bate, MJW, Gilbey- not world beaters maybe but they are all giving it everything out there and are very decent at this level too.

I think we are going up automatically. A remarkable achievement if we do so given where we were in October.

We miss Kasumu.

As Magpie said: "I think we sometimes miss an 'enforcer' type player in the midfield, we are a bit to easy to play against at times. Most teams at this level have a 'horrible bastard' and its something we lack I think."

A Kasumu type, who can break up play but also drive forward, would be really helpful right now.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Glass half full here too. We are still a bit ragtag with no Dean, MW made a poor choice in starting with Kemp in a centre forward role on Saturday imo but correctly changed it - the change won us the game imo.

We have some excellent players in the squad, to the extent we can loan out players to a league above. Payne is my favourite player this season; his free kick at the weekend was superb and had I been in the Accrington end I would be saying something like "see, that's the difference in class there".

Wearne is a proper player. When MW was being tipped for the job I watched a shit load of Gateshead highlights and my top takeaway was "I hope we get this Wearne bloke". He isn't properly fit yet I don't think, but once he starts games we might stop having bad first halves.

At the moment the team is a bit confused about playing against sides which sit off us but the onus is on us, a fit and capable team, to increase the tempo. We pasted Accrington in all areas once we had players with impetus and initiative on the ball.

For me our midfield is best in the league and easily good enough for League 1. Also Joe Tomlinson is good enough for League 1, while Lofthouse showed promise. Max Dean is a top striker, while Harrison is OK for League 2 and I don't know enough about Emre Tezgel to make a decision.Kemp has been discussed on another thread.

So the missing link must be defence. Marshall is on a steep learning curve and I have more confidence in Norman and Harvie, who can also play wingback as well as Wearne. MJ made some good runs Saturday, but his passing was woeful and I fear the fire in Lewie is dying out, in that he knows his playing time is drawing to a close.

It will also take a bit more time to gel.

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Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.