Plymouth match

[BWFC_Insane]

3 at the back wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think it would be 352, but 343.

3 centre-backs partially to cover the lack of height, partially because we're short in both midfield and RB, but you keep the wingers so eg. Gordon doesn't have too much to do and you can still press, similar patterns of play etc. A lot of the time when the full backs push high and MJ sits right back your 433 is not a million miles from a 343 anyway.

I prefer the 433 overall, but you should have flexibility, and if ever there was a case for flexibility it's now!

I'd go

Dixon

Aimson, Baps, Johnston
Isgrove, Sheehan, MJ, Gordon
Kachunga, Baka, Dapo

With Sarc/Doyle for Sheehan/Baka if fully fit, otherwise rest for Sat.

Poor MJ. Carrying the team on his back and now you want him to do it with even less help around him? We need to bolster the middle of the park not take bodies out of it.

[The_Gun]

I'm sure we will be bang up for this, but the injury/suspension situation is pretty grim right now. I can't see a change in formation at this point, so I'd go:

Dixon

Isgrove Baptiste Johnston Gordon

MJ Thomason

Sarce

Sheehan Doyle Dapo


Sheehan I think needs to play further forward, as he's a bit of a swinging gate defensively. Kachunga and Baka have done nothing to suggest they are good enough to be starting on the right, and Isgrove is the least bad option at right back.

[TANGODANCER]

Hoe-hoe-hoe...Since this is an unusual occasion where our match thread is started by an opponent, maybe we can make it more unusual still by beating the league leaders on their own Hoe--me ground. Plymouth itself is somewhat responsible for setting up our Pilgrim cousins across the pond, and its citizens, leading goalscorers messieurs Drake and Raleigh for establishing tobacconist shops everywhere for our government to quietly make a tax fortune from.

I would have started this thread, but I was playing bowls at the time...

COME ON YOU WHITES...

[Bruce Rioja]

Wrap up! It's blowin a hoolie down here!

It's that shit up here today that I might even wrap up to watch it on iFollow!

[Prufrock]

My mate just text me to say it's wet and misty but not cold. Is Harry the one you all mock for being a fair weather runner ??

[Prufrock]

3 at the back wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think it would be 352, but 343.

3 centre-backs partially to cover the lack of height, partially because we're short in both midfield and RB, but you keep the wingers so eg. Gordon doesn't have too much to do and you can still press, similar patterns of play etc. A lot of the time when the full backs push high and MJ sits right back your 433 is not a million miles from a 343 anyway.

I prefer the 433 overall, but you should have flexibility, and if ever there was a case for flexibility it's now!

I'd go

Dixon

Aimson, Baps, Johnston
Isgrove, Sheehan, MJ, Gordon
Kachunga, Baka, Dapo

With Sarc/Doyle for Sheehan/Baka if fully fit, otherwise rest for Sat.

Poor MJ. Carrying the team on his back and now you want him to do it with even less help around him? We need to bolster the middle of the park not take bodies out of it.

I don't think he's going to change from trying to press high and dominate the ball. Which is when MJ gets isolated on his own as a 1. No different if he's nominally got one starting next to him then 2, other than there's an extra centre back behind to cover.

As I said I don't like it, but I think it's the least bad alternative with availability. Better than square pegs are those who aren't up to it.

I'll gladly be proved wrong but Brocky and Thomason aren't up to it.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

In his brilliant travelogue In Search of England - written in 1927, but with sharper wit and better readability than most modern hacks can manage – HV Morton says "Every boy in England should be taken at least once to Plymouth." I've driven through or around it a few times, but my only experience of the city itself - climatically wetter than Manchester, bombed to hell in the war - was soaking up time in a pub before catching a ferry that took forever.

A proud old place beloved of its inhabitants, Plymouth is nevertheless for most outsiders a place to pass through: a stagepost rather than a destination. There are similarities between our club and theirs - recent financial problems apparently overcome, exciting young manager getting decent reviews - but the league table suggests they're a way further down the line than us. Whereas Ian Evatt abandoned his unsuccessful back-three formation, Ryan Lowe's is in its third season: the first brought promotion, the second consolidation, the third has them top of the league.

Circumstance might force Evatt to return to the formation that got Barrow into the league. What with Gethin Jones injured and Bolton’s only tall centre-back suspended, he might be tempted to draft in Alex Baptiste and Will Aimson alongside George Johnston, with Lloyd Isgrove at right wingback and Liam Gordon continuing to deputise for the injured Declan John on the other flank.

As it happens, Evatt could pick the same players in his now-default back four, with Isgrove further forward and a lone squarish peg in either Baptiste or Aimson at right-back, assuming he doesn’t want to risk Harry Brockbank, whose derby went so badly that he has been forced off the social media sewer-spray.

Either way, with Kieran Lee unlikely to be risked, Evatt will need a third midfielder alongside MJ Williams – the only player Evatt judged worthy of caveating from criticism after the derby debacle – and the captain Antoni Sarcevic, returning to his previous home in perhaps less triumphant circumstances than he had hoped. The third man will be either Josh Sheehan, whose promising start has faded in the muck and bullets of third-tier reality, or George Thomason, who has patiently awaited his chance and got his first league minutes of the season replacing the Welshman.

There is a theory, from a wise man they call Prufrock, that Bolton could play 3-4-3 rather than 3-5-2, but this would be a worry. Perhaps it would work with Lee alongside MJ in the middle, but no other centre-two combination could assuage this writer’s fear of Coyleian collapse: the centre does not hold.

It is hard to imagine an Evatt side ever going out with a safety-first attitude, but there are levels and gears. In reality the lack of prep time from a details-obsessed manager means that any back-three formation is unlikely to be unveiled at such short notice, and it could well be argued that unless it has been worked on in advance, a long midweek trip to the league leaders is just about the worst time to make significant change.

Either way, it is to be hoped that Evatt’s Bolton re-emerge, perhaps with a hard-earned steelier edge. After a weekend of cooling off and reassessment, before boarding the team bus the manager said "The only player for us who played like it was a derby game was MJ Williams. Whether it was tackles, physicality, we looked a soft touch and that isn’t us. Yes, we are a good football team but one thing we are not is a soft touch. Saturday we were a soft touch.”

No Bolton fan will expect a win at Plymouth. But they will expect their team not to let them down. This game will not decide a season, but it could be a lesson in how to react to adversity.

[Bertie Wooster]

Unfortunately until we get some better players in during the next transfer window I think that we will continue to struggle as we have over the past few games against teams in the top half of the table, when we beat the L/pool U21's Evatt was saying what a strong squad he has and that he can almost field two teams - but that isn't true at all, we have very little quality outside of the 1st XI and I think that this will show for the next month or so until we get players back or strengthen in Jan (which is still a long time off)

I can't see anything other than another loss tonight, a draw would be absolutely immense IMO.

[Bruce Rioja]

In his brilliant travelogue In Search of England - written in 1927, but with sharper wit and better readability than most modern hacks can manage – HV Morton says "Every boy in England should be taken at least once to Plymouth."

This boy's abiding memories of Plymouth are of generally being sat motionless when attempting to cross The Tamar Bridge.

On paper (yes, yes) we have the players to play three at the back with bombing-on wingers, but if we do, I'm sure I'm not the only one who'll be watching it through his fingers.

Otherwise, I have a couple of quite happy memories of us playing Plymouth, all be them at home though. 7-2 with a Caldwell hat-trick, 3-1 and a Shilton shitshow

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm sure we will be bang up for this, but the injury/suspension situation is pretty grim right now. I can't see a change in formation at this point, so I'd go:

Dixon

Isgrove Baptiste Johnston Gordon

MJ Thomason

Sarce

Sheehan Doyle Dapo


Sheehan I think needs to play further forward, as he's a bit of a swinging gate defensively. Kachunga and Baka have done nothing to suggest they are good enough to be starting on the right, and Isgrove is the least bad option at right back.

If Sarce and Doyle are fit enough to play this and it’s not risking them too much for Saturday then this is probably the best shout I’ve seen. Be interesting to see Sheehan there actually. Drift across the line. Because actually that might be a good position for him.

[The_Gun]

He may not have the experience of playing out wide to be effective there, but he can certainly put in a good cross and he's actually reasonably quick.

To my mind he's most suited to playing in the 10 role that Sarce has really made his own. Another option could be to drop Sarce in alongside MJ and play Sheehan further up. That would still leave us playing Kacha or Baka on the right, though.

[officer_dibble]

Without jinxing it everyone don’t forget what usually happens when we play on a Tuesday

[BWFC_Insane]

He may not have the experience of playing out wide to be effective there, but he can certainly put in a good cross and he's actually reasonably quick.

To my mind he's most suited to playing in the 10 role that Sarce has really made his own. Another option could be to drop Sarce in alongside MJ and play Sheehan further up. That would still leave us playing Kacha or Baka on the right, though.

I think you've stumbled on something here actually. Sheehan on the right would offer the quality higher up the pitch and he'd also naturally cut in which suits how we play. And drifting across the park would help bring Dapo into the game. We've also then got him there for set pieces and that's his strength. I'd love to see that happen actually. Its the sort of role Pep would use him in ala Foden and given IE is a Pep disciple - its a good call. He doesn't suit us in midfield right now but actually there it could be really interesting in our team - its not like we just lump it at the front three.

[Jim_McDonuts]

Without jinxing it everyone don’t forget what usually happens when we play on a Tuesday

[Ibahjanner]

Without jinxing it everyone don’t forget what usually happens when we play on a Tuesday

Think most teams feel that way, very rarely do teams take six points in seven days. Anyway down here very wet and miserable. Won't cite about your team but will say who I think your opposition will be.
In goal it will be Cooper, come through the ranks and at 22 being watched by premiership and championship teams. The back three will consist of Wilson Scarr and either Galloway or Gillespie. Just in front will be Houghton with Grant and Edwards as the two wing backs. The other two midfielders will be the two duracell bunnies broom and camera. Up front will be Jephcott and Hardie. I won't wish ya luck except the conditions here make the game unpredictable.

[Harry Genshaw]

My mate just text me to say it's wet and misty but not cold. Is Harry the one you all mock for being a fair weather runner ??

That's BP. He's so fair weather, he makes me look like Ernest Shackleton!

Spent the day in Salcombe, where it's been mild and dry. Just come back into Plymouth. It's still blowing a hoolie.

I'd take a point now if offered. I was chatting to one of their youth coaches this morning. He reckons Argyle have been hot and cold this season but on their bad days their keeper, who he was really positive about, has bailed them out.

[DJBlu]

We lost 4-0 last season away from home against Leyton Orient in what some described as the worst they had witnessed, we followed that up with 1-1 draw with Mansfield.

Was going to go last minute but chose not to so we'll win as that's sod's law.

[BWFC_Insane]

I honestly wouldn't be shocked if we got a result tonight. Logic says no. But Evatt usually gets a response out of this group. I almost think we might look back on the Wigan game as a positive if it shakes them out of potential complacency and brings back some of the earlier season enthusiasm and urgency.

[Ibahjanner]

My mate just text me to say it's wet and misty but not cold. Is Harry the one you all mock for being a fair weather runner ??

That's BP. He's so fair weather, he makes me look like Ernest Shackleton!

Spent the day in Salcombe, where it's been mild and dry. Just come back into Plymouth. It's still blowing a hoolie.

I'd take a point now if offered. I was chatting to one of their youth coaches this morning. He reckons Argyle have been hot and cold this season but on their bad days their keeper, who he was really positive about, has bailed them out.

Cooper is being watched amongst others Aston villa and Brentford. We tend to struggle against teams that come to waste time and fall down for a point.

[Burnden Paddock]

Just had a message from my brother in law who drove down today, saying there’s a pitch inspection!