Neale Cooper said this last night after the Notts County defeat:

"I've said to them, this is too important for me. I don't want players I can't trust. This is my livelihood, I love this Club and I want to do the best I can for this Club but I want boys who want to come along on the journey who I can trust."

It hits the nail on the head for me. I don't trust our team to perform. I can't rely on anyone being consistent. I can't rely on any one position in that team.

So...who do you trust to do a job for us?

We all know it needs an overhaul. We're desperately trying to find something that creates a spark. I'm personally willing to experiment and try anything at this point. Yes, it is two games in; yes, a season is a marathon not a sprint; no, we aren't destined for relegation this early on; yes, there were positives from the Swindon game...

But, having said that, there is something fundamental; something endemic to how we approach the game of football as a football club.

Mr. Hodcroft is increasingly unwilling to spend money and we can see that loanees are never the answer. I'm tired of surviving on a shoestring budget that is frittered away bringing in mercenaries who keep us in a league and then bugger off - or, more often than not, add very little, look apathetic and then bugger off.

That team would get hammered

Totally agree, I know lets play a person who is a winger as striker when we have an able proven Forward in Howard

Unlike the team now...that had 35% possession and 0 shots on target last night?

And Howard?

White elephant.

asking a lot of Baldwin to play 2 positions.

Franks isn't just a winger...he is a striker as well.

Holden is a left back not a right winger.

not saying he couldnt have done it like

Good teams will hammer us when we have proper full backs in place let alone no full backs at all. It would be risky in the extreme to play a formation like that. And, if as expected, we end up being pressed back the formation will, as 3-5-2 tends to when a team is on the back foot, just become a permanent 5-3-2 which will offer us no attacking threat.

Basically your team has been highlighted as crap and playing nearly 25% of the team out of position.

I appriciate that something needs to be done with the 4-4-2 as trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is plain stupidity, however playing your mentioned team I doubt we would get another point all season.

We tried 3 at the back once or twice in the last couple of years and looked woeful with it.

4231 or 451/433 are our best bet

Just throwing some ideas around...as I can see, it's a popular as a fart in a spacesuit though.

Suggestions from others?

I just think we need to overhaul. Totally.

Forget the old guard.

Nobody has a guaranteed place.

Nobody goes onto a team sheet without earning it.

Effort should be the focus at the moment - not a name.

If you prove that you want it that badly - you're in.

We might have an unsettled period during this regime - but the bigger players (if they are worth their salt) would soon pull their puddings out.

In fairness 3-5-2, in theory, isn't really that bad an idea at our level as a lot of teams still play with 2 out and out strikers. It's only really at the top level where it has fallen out of popularity due to, among other things, teams using only 1 striker. So you've effectively got 3 centre backs trying to mark 1 player which is patently pointless. 1 marks, 1 sweeps and 1 twiddles his thumbs for 90 minutes!

Even then I suppose you do still see it from time to time. Italy used it during Euro 2012. But then you have the next problem. You need bloody good players to make it work properly. With all due respect I don't think we have such players

Wasnt Barron a part of our back 3 in a 3-5-2 under Turner along with Westie and Lee when we hardly ever conceded?

I dont want to see 3-5-2 but surely he should be able to get them playing it well?

We need investment in the next fortnight. Serious - make or break - investment.

We need to make a foray into the transfer market and secure a defender, two midfielders and a striker.

We don't possess any REAL wingers.

We don't possess a cultured playmaker.

We don't possess an aggressive workhorse.

We don't possess an explosive poacher.

Ahhh that endless pit of money Uncle Ken has and players you mention at this level growing on trees like Football Manager.

We Need Answers!

I'm not saying he has an endless pit of money - but this is ridiculous.

We have invested in shite all for years.

This might sound a bit radical but here goes...............
For around fifteen years the owners have propped the club up to the tune of an average of a million quid a year.
This million quid is usually put in AFTER the event to balance the relevant shortfall.
What if they changed tack a bit and put the million in BEFORE it is needed.
I realise that it is a gamble and may go tits up, but the owners profess to want the club to go forward, maybe to the dizzy heights of the championship, so at some stage more investment will be needed to achieve that goal.
There is supposedly a lot riding on the sale of the ground and most people see that event, if it ever happens, to be the catalyst to bigger and better things for the club.
After fifteen years of doing the same thing maybe it's time to try something different.
I know the club are far better off now, after fifteen years of the current regime, but there are a whole lot of supporters who can't remember the bad old days. They have been given relative success compared to what a lot of us had at their age.
When IOR took over, stability in the third tier was but a pipe dream to most of us. Now it is the reality but, and it is a big but, the new generation of support are used to it and have nothing to compare it with.
I know IOR pump a lot of money into the club and we are all grateful for that but I am convinced that a new spurt of success where we compete at the top end of the table will partially fund itself by increased revenue on the gate.
It may even help to sway the doubters on the council. Wishful thinking maybe but to stand still is to go backwards.
How about it, Ken?????

And, contrary to popular belief, IOR don't prop the club up...

So who does?????

The club as an entity does.

[quote="Blue Beard"]The club as an entity does.[/quote

So will the club as an entity please consider my proposal?
Thank you.

The club are self sustaining - is my point. We wouldn't collapse if they left.

Any finance above and beyond that for more "blockbuster" transfers would have to come from IOR.

I'd dust off Danny Wlison's Tombola (surely still in storage?) draw eleven names and instruct them to 'spread out'

That's interesting.

Not sure how the club can be described as 'self sustaining' when to sustain a pretty weak League One squad we are losing a million pounds a year.

Maybe we could be self sustainable but not currently at this level of football.

I think it's fairly safe to say that the only self sustaining club in England is Arsenal.

However for Saturday I'd go:

Flinders

Austin Baldwin Hartley Horwood

Franks Luscombe Murray(c) Monkhouse

Howard James

Bench: Humphreys, Collins, McHugh, Walton, Sweeney.

That's what I thought.
Mr Bluebeard obviously knows more about the situation than we do.
Would it be too much to ask him to explain what he knows.

This club isn't exactly attractive for a big investor though is it, I'd love it if we could get all those type of players but we have to be realistic.... Do you play FM by any chance?

-------------Flinders------------

Austin-----Baldwin---Hartley---Holden

--------------------Murray-------------------------

Franks-------------Walton---------------Horwood

-------------------Sweeney------------------------

-------------------Hpward--------------------------

I reckon Humphreys and Murray are certain starters on Saturday if not injured. If Coops doesn't make 3 or 4 changes after what he's said after Notts County the players will realise it's all hot air. Picking Humphs won't be a popular choice but what's he got a playing contract for if not for situations like this?

Flinders

anyone but Austin Baldwin Hartley Holden

Franks Murray Rowbotham luscombe

Howard James

Subs 7 younguns who give a shit!

Has Horwood ever played left wing before or is it another square peg in a round hole, a lot of posters seem to want to give him a chance there

Left wing? You are so 1970's.

Flinders

Austin - Baldwin - Hartley - Holden

Murray - Walton

Franks - Sweeney - Horwood

Howard

Away from home so we can go a bit defensive and catch them on the break. The important thing with that formation is to move with the ball..... ie: move forward and back as a unit, when they have the ball we get everyone behind it and close down, when we have the ball, play it straight into the middle from the back 4, and then out wide quickly and then all move forward together as the wingers put it in to howard to either head for goal or knock down for the runners coming in.

Very important though we have left footers on the left and right on right and Howard playing with back to goal.

Otherwise the plan is flawed

--------------------Flinders------------

Austin-----Baldwin---Hartley---Horwood

--------------------Murray-------

Franks-------------Walton---------------Luscombe

--------------------Poole----------------------------

-------------------Howard--------------------------

Brown
Cameron Thompson
Newton Moore Stamper
Robinson Lumley Johnson Mcguigan Luke