Come the summer, we need an entire midfield and two full backs.. the midfield is stagnant and has no legs to speak of, the full backs ain’t full backs.
The rest can wait, these must be our priorities…simple as that.

Our midfield has been dire for years, no protection for the defence, no creativity for the strikers, no player willing or able to make forward runs and regularly get into goal scoring positions.
The gap between defence and midfield is tiny whereas between midfield and striker is enormous.
11 behind the ball at set pieces is a complete joke.
Instead of pretty tippy tappy keep ball sideways and backwards we need a Tinkler, Boland, Widdrington, type to get a grip of games and run the show.
We also need some wide pacy players to create things.

misplaced sideways passing nearly lost us the game yesterday. how is it we make more mistakes in mid field than any opponents we play and a player with vision seems to be one that can make an accurate 10 yard pass.

If only it was that simple. Pools have nowt up front apart from Mani D and Joe Grey. When one of them is injured or ill (Grey last week) or has an off day (Mani yesterday) we struggle to score. Pools badly need more competition up front for next season - and that's assuming Mani isn't sold...

Did Mani D have an off day, more like he was back to goal for 95% of the game and we created absolutely nothing for him.

and not for the first time recently either. ok he misses some chances in games he scores in but he gets the chances. even if he got one in a game he,d probebly snatch at it knowing its his only opportunity the way we are set up to play.

Nicky Featherstone never gave the ball away once yesterday whereas Cooke and Crawford consistently gave it away with wayward passing, this is not a one off, those two are a liability.

Even worse there was no-one on the bench to replace either, that's shocking too.

the only option was pulling one of them and moving agyamang there and bringing cooper on to play wide left with yet another player going down the day before the match. then why has stephenson become the 3rd choice RB after only having one rally poor game for us months back at oldham. at least thats his natural position and not one forced upon some others.

Cooke caught my attention yesterday…slow, never tackles, easily knocked of the ball and the stamina of a moth….he gives the odd pass of quality but the negatives outweigh the positives by a country mile.
I was disappointed by the lace weaving intricate passing triangles where the ball covered hundreds of yards but stayed where it was…very tidy but we needed the ball in their half, our laboured build ups are are tedious and not really appreciated.

its because barcelona were successful playing that way but managers lower down from them do not realise they have not the players to play that way but still insist on it. tuesday could be a real bore fest by two teams playing that way but one better at doing it. that wont be pools with the players we have at our disposal. then we cannot go all crazy gang wimbledon either as we haven,t players with the size or energy to do that.

But 99% of Feaths passes were 5 yards sideways/backwards to a team mate who was unmarked,with an opposing player nowhere in sight,so it was pretty difficult to give the ball away,even the Eastleigh commentators mentioned it.
He did however,do one very nice pirouette to take out 2 players,only to go backwards again.

Some of us having been saying this for months
But I agree midfield is totally one paced, I would keep Ferguson, but yes a right back needed (hoping dodds)
That is why I like Aygemang, gives us something we don’t have in terms of physicality, be interesting to see who Phillips has lined up assumimg we stay up

We probably have one of the worst midfields in this league just now.

Cooke was utter rubbish on saturday and didnt put a foot in at all - doesnt tackle and did his usual gliding with the player hes meant to be marking and doing nowt else. Crawford threw a few tackles in and a half decent slide tackle but again he was his usual passenger self. Surely KP can see we need more creativity and width. I know he tried to bring wingers in but its failed massively for him.

a good clearout is more than needed this time round if we are still to be playing football in this league next season. Hoping he will be harsh and already has talks with players ongoing now !

There is lads id take from the bottom clubs of this league whom have performed better than what we have. Damn sure in a decent Pools side under KP they would be even better too !

If Dodds can return the same player and also Mancini its 2 less positions for us to worry about - but the competition or lack of it from the bench has also been a massive thing for us this season !

Been reading the same tripe about Featherstone's contribution to games for years now. He would never have got a game, never mind 400+ games, if that was true - especially not now with all the monitoring and analysis of individual players' performances that goes on.

Featherstone holds us back and that's a fact, we have to play an extra deep midfielder to try to make up for his lack of pace, inability to tackle, and why is virtually every free kick taken short to him when we could be getting the big lads in the box and putting defences under pressure?
Opinions, we've all got one!!

True. And on this one, yours is just plain wrong

Yes he's managed 400 games for us but throughout his 10 seasons or so despite being out of conttact on a number of occassions not another club showed any interest in him, to the point when he turned down our offer in the summer he ended up out of the game completely! Wonder why that was if he's so good?

Featherstone’s name has been one of thefirst on the team sheet for every manager since he came here.

Yes he's seen off quite a few managers hasn't he?
He's not been on any other clubs wishlist though even when he was out of work.

Featherstone has also been a big part of midfields that have been completely over run, not for a few games but for years, certainly not all his fault but apart from a great spell with Challinor, how many times have we thought well we outclassed them in midfield today?

We will see how good featherstone and the rest are tommorow night against a team who can pass and move. This is not the same featherstone who played under Challinor, its no wonder were struggling to stay in this league desperate to hold onto players who have had their day. Lets not forget the pre season he came in about 3 stone overweight.

the fact we brought Wallace in to replace him aswell - look how that turned out. Mansfield fans praised the lad. Not sure what version we got !

Mancini is the only midfielder we should be really keeping at this club for next year and maybe Feaths as a player coach role type of thing.

but it all depends what league we are in - like i said before id imagine KP and Joe have players in mind and also discussions for that matter but i bet with the current state of affairs and where we are, some of those players might just be a little on the fence with it. Shite situation for us and KP to be in - the clearout and reinvestment into a good few new players might not be the one we are all hoping for !

Featherstone is to all intents obsolete in our team, we have to move on, the midfield is static…it creates nothing, it challenges nothing, is ponderous, slow. labour and frankly just not up to it anymore, ……old heads are good, but old bodies let them down.

And everyone barring Challinor has been sacked

If hes so good,how come he’s been the main cog in a teams,Hereford & Pools, that has been relegated out of the league three times & several times stayed up by the skin of their teeth.

so its his and nobody elses fault that has happened. why do fans of other clubs rate him higher than a lot of us do. they cannot all just have seen him play in what many class as his good games for us.

K/Chips do you know a manager who hasn’t been sacked? It’s an occupational hazard especially to lower league managers. Managers have different opinions on players yet all the managers mentioned were obviously of the same view regarding Featherstone.

no, its just he dug up the dirt on all of them and were afraid not to pick him.

It’s not so much about the players we need it’s the calibre of the players we can get to come to Pools, we will trawling the depths of free transfers and aging players, there won’t be any money to buy players.

Only at Pools could we get rid of a loser in the summer then bring him back in the Autumn.
What a Shambolic run club that never ceases to abuse its fans loyalty major style.
Anutha perennial loser Sweeney
And what does worldwide icon Stello actually bring to the club.

Any ideas for a proper rebuild!?

sweeney gets away with it because he was a popular ex player who has been around whilst all this shit and different managers thats been going on. if he had been a darlo legend he,d be the first to be named.

full coaching team needs to go - we blame the manager yeh but its always the same culprits left at the club. Maybe thats a thorn in the side too

I think when we get rid of a manager the senior coaching staff go as well, no good getting shot of the manager and keeping the failed coaches who are part of the same team.

yep 100% !!!! dont see why KP doesnt have his own No.2 - thought a man like him would of had someone he may have wanted by his side having previously worked at some bigger clubs etc

I don't really have any hope that the players brought in this summer will be any better than those leaving. Featherstone is better than Wallace, I don't think there's any doubt now that Killip is better than Dixon and Jameson, I would probably take Euan Murray over Onarise...
Mani D and Mancini being the only 2 successful signings from the summer window is tragic, especially when Mancini has been out injured for 90% of the season. Waterfall and Parkes have obviously been good signings but none of the other post January recruits have done anything. 4 good signings across a season where we've signed something like 26 players points to a huge strategic failure.

Wouldn't surprise me to see Liddle come in as KP's No 2.
Hopefully that will mean Sweeney out.
And Auld Len can then go back and concentrate on his gardening again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtjvaV7n68