When Steve Evans joined Stevenage in 2022 they were league two and struggling. He guided them to safety and introduced a whole new style to the club.

I think there are similarities between what Steve Evans did at Stevenage and Sarll is doing at Pools.

Evans introduced a high block/press, high intensity, direct approach.

They signed 9 big, strong & aggressive players in that summer including Carl Pergianni, Dan Sweeneys and Jordan Roberts.

They weren't too interested in the fancy football, except to create overloads with clever midfield play, often on the wings (a bit like Featherstone did vs Scunthorpe).

They would challenge for the ball high up the pitch and scored alot of goals from defensive errors from the opposition (a bit like we did to great success vs South Shields).

The impact was instant and they got promoted at the first time of trying, automatic promotion to league one.

Take a look at the below article for further detail on how they played, why they were successful and what challenges they faced.

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/team- ... is-tactics

Copying a successful approach isn't simple, there's alot of work to be done, but at least we are able to identify what it is we are actually trying to do?

I hope it works here.

I reckon it will definitely work here Blue

Very good style of football - it will work if we get a few more big strong lads in too especially at this level where some defenders might switch off or one or 2 are prone to mistakes - Campbell and Grey this season i think will torment the weaker defender. I think DS has an idea of who he wants up top and the more wingers we have the better the press etc... always good having that one nuisance on the team who can either create something or create mistakes for the defenders. I think we will be successful under DS this season - might even see a good little cup run come about too.

Well I'm fully on board with D.S. The nuisance player is Mottley - Henry

Fair comment that Bosh- it does mean we'll be looking to sign a shithouse to hide in nets for when the keeper rolls the ball out!

Maybe that's why we're stalling on offering contracts to current trialists (if we haven't already), in that none have so far have exceeded the desired levels of Shithousery on the
Shithouse- ometer to trigger the much coveted automatic contract offer!

Well, Sarll needs to win over the fans, with this so called style of play. If he doesn't, it will end in disaster for him. Especially if no one is paying on the day and the crowds are down around 2,000/2,600.
I hope it works out for him and he gets the players he needs to complete the squad...

The Wembley dreams back on
Ye it's now or never for sure.
UTP

One thing in our favor is we have a favorable set of fixtures to start so can build some momentum--if we don't have say 13 points come the end of August its time to worry....

No pressure, then loyal!

So what if we win 4 and lose 2 bringing in 12 points would you consider that a " time to worry ". Woking away and Southend at home are difficult games for any team in our league. I do agree we should be beating the other 4 but sometimes teams have a slow start just like Wrexham Stockport & Chesterfield did But all three won promotion

teams who finish top rarely lose move than 6 or so games all season...not sure how many Cheaterfiled lost as they basically downed tools once they won the won the title, so yes losing 2 games in August would suggest we aint winning the league (suggest not define)

Woking are almost bankrupt and Southend still putting a team together---the rest of the teams we play are either newly promoted (so typically shite) or bottom half last year so we couldnt have really asked for a kinder fixture list

As I have said before its November that looks hard and some of October

Loyals Team Talk.

I agree we should aim for 13 points from those August fixtures, no one will complain if it's 12.

Woking have signed plenty of players with NL experience, they're taking a gamble that although they need investment, they haven't stopped spending money in the short term, so won't be an easy game.

Southend have retained almost the whole, small squad that performed exceptionally well last season.

Surprisingly they've hardly signed anyone despite the takeover going through, the new owners have already put £3M in so aren't messing about.

It could play in our favour playing Southend early before they really get going with new signings.

Woking could go against us, if they don't get investment and they struggle to pay their players later in season, it could impact them on the field.

All ifs buts and maybes, let's focus on us and getting those 13 points from 6 matches in August.

13 points from 6 games would be 2.17 points per game, which over the course of a season would be give us 100 points.

Last season Halifax took the last Play-Off place with 71 points, 1.54 points per game.

So 10 points or more from the 6 games in August would mean we are on track for the playoffs, and would be a solid start. 13 points would be outstanding.

Chesterfield lost 10 last year and ended up with 98 points, winning the league by 12 points.

The year before that Wrexham and Notts lost 3 each and ended up with 111 and 107 points respectively.

—-edited as we only have 5 games in August, not 6 ——

—-edited back as we do actually have 6 games in August, and I’m an eejit—-

I thought it was 6 games in August?....and I was right

Yeovil (A)
Southend (H)
Tamworth (A)
Wealdstone (H)
Woking (A)
Braintree (H)

An easier set of fixtures you'd be hard pushed to find. 13/5 = 2.16 pts per game or 100 points for season.....which i am NOT expecting us to get-but those first 6 games represent the easiest month of the season opposition wise

And half of Chesterfileds losses came when they were already up

I can see us getting 4 pts in August we are 5 players away from being a playoff side.

Well the good news is you are totally clueless so your opinion will fall on deaf ears I would imagine.

And you are 5 lies away from being called Billy

My bad, forgot about the Bank Holiday Monday one, was only looking at Tuesdays and Saturdays. :facepalm: . I’ll change it back.

I think you can only really judge which games should be easier and which should be more difficult once the season is in full swing, not all of the pre-season favourites will be up there, not of of the predicted whipping boys will be as poor as predicted. But targeting 2 points per game throughout the season would be good barometer.

We are currently 5 players away from having cover in every position, and just because we don’t have them in yet, it doesn’t mean we won’t bring anyone else in. If we avoid a spate of early injuries, I can see 10 points plus being achievable. If we get a few knocks, and we haven’t got any reinforcements, or the reinforcements aren’t as strong, then we obviously won’t do as well.

Come loyal - mention our projected points with Killip returning in goal, the suspense is killing me (well that and Porter and Boyd's shit craic)!

Big Ben in goal and conservatively we’d be averaging 3 and a half points a game

Thanks for your unbiased detailed analysis!

The slightest kick nowadays and players are out for a few weeks. Think its fair to say we are going to get 2 or 3 injuries pretty quickly into the season. Strengthbin depth is going to kill us.

he will win the fans over if the team look as if they are playing with their hearts on their sleeves even if they do not win every game. nobody likes to see a defeat but they hate what looks like a surrender even more. as for steve evans if there was one manager i,d have loved at pools it would have been him with the right backing.

if it was only kicks that kept players out it would not seem too bad. most injuries are caused by non contact now. agree about strength in depth as long as it is strength and not signings who will be lucky to make the bench.

That's all I've ever wanted to see, is a fighting fit team and I would be there. Win Draw Lose I didn't care as long as we gave 100% performance.

The likes of David Ferguson, Tom Parkes, Luke Waterfall, Jack Hunter, Nathan Sheron, Adam Campbell and Nicky Featherstone almost never miss a game throughout their careers.

Joe Grey and Mani D rarely miss games either.

It's the minority like Mancini, Dodds, Charman, Sloggett that are the concern. The 3-4 injuries are most likely to come from those last 4. If that does happen we don't have replacements.

I have hope for Sloggett as prior to last season he played almost every game for 3-4 seasons in Ireland and Dodds looks strong and confident. The other two, not sure yet.

Charman and Mancini to be the frustrating sick notes of the season.

but yeh we have a decent set of opening fixtures - but we did really well last year and it all went to shit so i wont be really bothered until about xmas when we may be able to gauge if we are amongst the pack or just surviving outside the bottom half of the table and miles away. I dont think with this squad that will be the case - if we can get the 4/5 players in and they all follow the same sort of recruitment standard we have seen then id say there is no reason why we shouldnt be finishing 1st or 2nd. Just need to hope we maintain some form and players dont get silly injuries. Be interesting to see how the first month pans out with alot of games - then the dreaded cup games all come in and this is where a small squad like ours gets stretched. Dont forget there is also that poxy new cup we qualified for with the prem U21 teams in it too.

Yeovil (A) <<< would not be surprised if we get beat
Southend (H)
Tamworth (A)
Wealdstone (H)
Woking (A) <<< possible upset if they still exist by then
Braintree (H) <<< tougher game than we will expect can see this being a draw

Given the small squad.
Sick notes n a goalkeeper catastrophe.
I'd settle for 10 pts from first 6 games.
UTP.

Anyone know when we'll have enough points to be safe from the drop?

Personally I'd be very surprised if there's many teams in this league with squads with huge strength in depth. I agree we could certainly do with more in and soon, but I'm sure there's a lot of teams will suffer badly if key players get long term injuries.

don,t you know its only pools who have injuries and other teams sign players who in the future will be household names in football and ours are the dregs who cannot find anywhere else to go.

You'll be getting tagged as a Raj lover with comments like that.

I have more respect for you now your sarcastic humour has finally been released.
Well done.

End of November

Given the small squad.
Sick notes n a goalkeeper catastrophe.
I'd settle for 10 pts from first 6 games.
UTP.[/quote]
thats only 2 points light on the amount of points i,d like to see us pick up over any 6 games. to get 12 points we can lose a couple of games. in 12 games we,d have 24 points which is more than going on an unbeaten run but only winning a couple. draws kill teams more than defeats in the end and they only become a good point with a very late equaliser.