Torquay United Fans Forum

3) Is an excellent idea. A substantial portion of our support is in exile so anything that would encourage them to go to more home games would be very helpful to the club

I think the board should do everything they can to attract younger fans so we can begin to expand our fan base. If the club can get teenagers hooked on supporting their local team and going to live football 30 times a season then suddenly the attraction of Man U on Sky start to wane. I don't think it should be assumed that because someone likes watching premier league on tv that they should be expected to like live league 2 football. They are completely different animals and should be marketed as such. I don't know what deals are already in place but schemes like allowing season ticket holders to buy a youth season ticket at a large discount exist at many clubs. I know that u16 tickets are already cheap but in the long term would it be worth making them ridiculously cheep, even a nominal price, as an attempt to get people hooked on going to watch a team play live? There is of course no live TV game on a saturday at 3pm, so if people would rather watch people watching football on soccer Saturday then they probably have no interest in what Torquay United has to offer.


Also can mods sticky this thread and keep it strictly on topic? I feel that Mr Candy is trying to start something that will be beneficial to all of us, so it shouldn't get lost amongst the rest of the chat.

Brilliantly bonkers again Andy. And I mean bonkers in a good way, like Monty Python is bonkers..


Anyway hopefully we will keep up our high line and pressing that served us so well at SOuthend. The amount of times we forced them into aimless hoofs or even robbing defenders in their own half was very impressive. This is also how we played at Exeter (for 60 mins anyway)

Keep doing them as they are! They're always entertaining and witty and crucially its something different. Football culture is getting blander and blander so its great to have something that isn't the same tired cliches used by every club.

Not made many games this season due to living in London and how the fixtures fell. But it really is sad to see a club go from being really well run to essentially rudderless in the space of a couple of months. Even with our previous poor form I would have been perfectly happy to have a boring season and continue building for the future. New stand, new training ground, a manager and chairmen who both had long term interests at heart, good scouting, decent youth, excellent team spirit. And now we are running a serious risk of ruining every good thing that has been built at this club since the consortium took over.

The best thing for me about LIng last year was how few moans we had. No playing players in the wrong position, no glaring tactical mistakes, no strange selections. This season I have read repeated statements by the majority of this forum saying Craig is not a winger, that we play long when we don't have a target man on the pitch, that we play players woefully out of form (Bodin, Mansell, Nicholson), that we have neither the creativity or the playing surface to play passing football, that we need another option up front etc etc. Its these little things that sway me with a manager, that if they are generally accepted as right decisions then I can put up with poor short term form. Unfortunately as the season drags on those decisions are seen to be more and more wrong.

If Ling is too sick to manage the team for the remainder of the season then someone else needs to be brought in, as cover at least. Taylor will not manage in any other way than as his bosses proxy, and as a proxy without the leadership or authority to take the initiative. I sorely hope that the board make the kind of strategic decision that has done them so much credit in the past.

brucie wrote: Jody Banim

Bloody Brilliant! We presse dthem so well for the first hour or so, the amount of errors we forced in their half was incredible. If we regain some fluency going forward then we should start scoring a lot more goals as we are winnign the ball high up the pitch a lot.
Yes it looks like we retreated at the end but Cureton and Bouzza opened the game up for them and we were too knackered to press the whole pitch. Apart from Bouzza's header they only had long shots.
All were excellent, though I am concerned Nicho is past it, out of position a lot and terrible crossing. Im all for giving Cruise a run in the team.

I'm all for it. Nothing wrong with an artificial pitch, unless you want to blame another inept England performance on it.

We get shafted by frozen and waterlogged pitches every season, disrupting any momentum and causing a fixture pile up later on. Plus we should be aiming to play passing football so not playing on a quagmire would help.

coley wrote:One of the problems is that people are constantly looking for justifacation for paying to stand out in the wind and rain each week supporting a team that aren't providing.

Good point. I only see the team 10 or so times a season so this won't affect me as much as others.

I suggest that people reread comments made by AustrianAndy, they are not condeming but reasonable valid points that need to be addressed

No-ones condemmimg Andy, were responding to his points. It's called a debate.

oh well.

Stats tell me that away from home we have scored 9 (3rd lowest) and conceded 11 (3rd best)
At home we have scored 21 (joint 7th highest) and conceded 16 (middling bad, cant be bothered)

So we are defensive away from home and get the stats you would expect. It's a pretty accurate reflection on our tactics and results away from home W2D5L5

At home our decent scoring record and not that great defense shows suggests that we are trying to be more attacking but not getting the rewards. Tellingly we concede more goals due to our attacking play at home. Our 6 wins isn't too far behind the highest and our goals scored is only 5 less than the most prolific team.
So really its the defense who are letting us down at home, perhaps due to us being too attacking...

Surely the goal against Northampton, where Craig plays it to Stevens who runs down the line, crosses and Jarvis finishes, is exactly the typical move you describe.

Players being young and inexperienced means you can't expect them to be brilliant every week. I like how you say this doesn't matter then claim that Thomspon (18) will be an improvement. How do you know this? He's shown on occasion to be a good attacker but hasn't done much other than on his debut, young players often have good debuts as they try and make a name for themselves. Thompson has potential but shouldn't be expected to change games. I agree Bodin should be dropped though so perhaps we will find out, but don't build him up.

I'm not making excuses, I actually agree with you that we are negative. I'm trying to explain why we are though and that we don't have much option other than to play the way we do. We certainly aren't capable of changing immediately, no football team is.

I'd also argue that Ling has been capable of fixing problems in the past (the formation last season, playing Jarvis for example), so why doubt that he doesn't realise our problems? I don't think you are giving the manager anywhere near the amount of time it takes to change teams. Either that or you would rather we were exciting (whatever that means) but end up with less points. In which case I disagree completely.

Oh and also sexy gulls, if you can find the bit where i said knock it long and stampede forward then i'd like to know where it is please. I want us to get more players forward much quicker in attacking moves, that is totally different from hoofing it from back to front

Because at our level it is impossible to get a team to play passing football with pace. Either we kick it long or we pass it more patiently. It's very hard to combine pasisng football and directness, look at Liverpool's problems scoring goals. The style of football you ask for, getting players forward, moving the ball quickly etc is what we all want. I'm sure Lingy wants the same. But clearly it is difficult to do otherwise everyone would be doing it.

I understand your frustrations and agree with a lot of what you say regarding our problems I just don't think theres a magic button that will solve them. Regardless of who the manager is.

I guess Ling could tell the players to kick it long, stampede forward and hope for the best but I'm glad he doesn't want us to go down that root.

The more attacking, gambling options that I could think off are..
1. Playing Yeoman. Could be good, could be bad. He's 19(?) and never had a run in any professional team. Like I've said before all of our wide attackers bar Stevens are very young and inexperienced.

2. Get the fullbacks forward more. Oastler should get forward more but Nicho is very slow so only 1 fullback could be hitting the byline.

3. Play Craig in the middle. Should help us with creating chances, but again don't expect him to run games in his first ever season.

4. Buy another striker. Surely this will happen, but who knows who it will be and whether he will work out.

5. Can't really think of much else. It's surely not as easy as just telling the lads to attack more, or all teams would be capable of exerting the kind of pressure Man U manage whenever there a goal down with 10 minutes to go. The above ideas all seem like tweaks rather than strokes of genius.

We have a manager who wants to pass the ball around. Unfortunately with the sale of Eunan we don't really have a squad capable of this. They show glimpses of it, most of the time we do create a couple of excellent chances, but really we can't control a game this way. I don't see what playing more directly will bring us, other than a sore neck. And a team that is still learning a passing game shouldn't be hindered by being asked to do it at breakneck speed either
Ling has shown himself to be a very capable longterm manager. He has trusted in every member of the squad rather than bringing in quick fixes, he hasn't fallen out with anyone, he managed miracles last season with no money, half a ground and a tiny squad. He has fostered a very tight, motivated unit out of a disparate group of players who either hadn't played together or had reputations for being lazy. That in itself is a big part of the manager's role, hence the name. This season he has had to cope with key players leaving, lots of injuries and a home pitch that doesn't help us.
Yes it can be frustrating when we play poorly and struggle to create chances. But there really isn't an easy fix to our attacking problems.

I'd rather we got in the playoffs personally. I will take the outrageous hatchet job at Barnet last season over the beautiful failure this time around. Ask Barnet fans and I'm sure they would take a similar view.

Yes it gets a bit grim sometimes , but I like moaning about football...

Anyway, 5-0. Rene, Rene, Craig, Bodin and Rene. Attendance, 13,952.

Aussie wrote:
If `G` is selected as our new shirt, I will not be buying one! Already got one of those patterns, everyone I speak to hates it and also won`t buy one! This shirt vote is going to end up losing money on shirt sales which is what none of us want! The way this is working out is very bad as the minority of supporters will get shirt `G` selected as the majority is spead over 4 designs, very poorly thought through in my opinion, this whole thing needs to be looked at again and organised properly! Can`t help wondering that the person who organised this vote has a bit of a liking for Old School replicas!

Democracy is a terrible thing when you get the wrong result!

And if it were a fix, shirt G would be labeled 'A', to get it at the top of the list.

Andy, I agree that Ling is too cautious and some of his decisions are puzzling (Craig on the wing anyone?) but to say he is "restricting our players, stunting their growth and development" isn't fair. Name me one player that has gone backwards under Ling's management? Howe, Stevens, Oastler, Eunan, Lathrope, Mansell have all played their best football under Ling, some weren't even in the team before. I'll give you Bodin, but he is either a dud or totally dependent on form. We simply don't have the personnel to be a ruthless attacking side, we have 1 excellent striker and only 1 winger with any experience. Bodin, Macklin, Thompson, Yeoman are all 20 or under. We don't have a good creative midfielder, and the only one capable is played on the wing. Clearly that is ling's fault, but even in the middle I wouldn't expect Craig to run every game.

I keep hearing fans crying out for a more 'attacking mentality', but no-one has yet explained what that means. Ling can tweak it a little, but I can't see a magic button marked 'swashbuckling adventure'. I would like to see 4-4-2 with Bodin upfront with Howe, Stevens and Macklin/Thompson on the wings. But we have injuries that prevent that, unless we play another youngster with no experience.

The thing that impresses me the most about the manager is that he always seems to recognise problems and do something about it. He fixed our flimsy midfield at the beginning of last season, he went 4-4-2 when Jarvis was fit. He clearly sees the problems just as we do, so asking him to take a risk overlooks the fact that he tends to be working on a longer solution. If we don't sign another striker in January then I will begin to worry about him, but up to now I think he his doing an excellent job.