Artell’s interviews

Quoted from Chrisblor

He's correct in so far as we had a shitload of opportunities in the first half, mostly ruined by Clifton being indecisive, and also managed to hit both the bar and post and forced their keeper into 3 or 4 very good saves. Both the goals we conceded were self-inflicted - the first came from Rodgers stupidly hanging a lazy leg out to deflect the ball past Cartwright who would have otherwise saved comfortably, and then the second came from a combination of Efete, Conteh and Gnahoua all deciding they couldn't be arsed to close down their midfielder and he punished us with a very good low strike into the corner.

Artell additionally said today that the second half was unacceptable, which is correct. I also have no issue with him saying we're definitely not getting relegated after a poor performance (which came after a string of improved performances) to try and instill confidence in a squad he's inherited which is clearly lacking it. Coming out and slating the players in the media isn't going to lead to improved result and performances, but in today's post match interview he inferred that his feedback behind closed doors to the players had been a lot stronger than what he'd said publicly (which is again the correct thing to do).

You’ve just written what I would have said too.

Quoted from StacyColdicotts_hairline

I have to be honest I am getting a little concerned.

His post match interviews seem overly optimistic, given the level of performance in the last 2 games.

The corner debacle just a few days ago and it not being changed mid game

Lack of tatical changes when things go wrong. Any sort of changes really.....

We seem to get worked out very quickly

No plan b

Complete collapse in the 2nd half or at the very least a much poorer 2nd half compared with the 1st half.

Manager bounce didn't last very long.

What plan B can you put in place? We’ve no pace,  no height and little physicality so going long is out the question. We certainly don’t have centre backs capable of playing 3 at the back or centre mids good enough to play as just a pairing in the middle. We only have two out and out strikers in the whole squad and one of them has spent half the season injured. Essentially our squad is found so wanting that if the starting eleven and formation isn’t working, there’s virtually no formation change or personnel that will change things in a positive way.

Hurst was normally reasonably good at building squads but this squad is just bad in so many ways. It’s galling that he’s seemingly wasted the FA cup money building one of the worst squads in the club’s history.

His first interview sounded like a caveman with a lot of grunts and not a lot of coherence. The next couple were better and he spoke well even though I think most of what all managers say is balderdash.

The last couple are worrying especially with the performances that go with them. I don't think you can turn most league 2 footballers into the type of player he's setting us up to require. Inheriting the end of Dario Gradi's phenomenal era of youth players at Crewe might mean he got success with it, but I doubt it's possible to do that at Grimsby Town with a perpetually low budget.

Quoted from pen penfras

Inheriting the end of Dario Gradi's phenomenal era of youth players at Crewe might mean he got success with it

That’s an odd way of describing that era!

Quoted from pen penfras

His first interview sounded like a caveman with a lot of grunts and not a lot of coherence. The next couple were better and he spoke well even though I think most of what all managers say is balderdash.

The last couple are worrying especially with the performances that go with them. I don't think you can turn most league 2 footballers into the type of player he's setting us up to require. Inheriting the end of Dario Gradi's phenomenal era of youth players at Crewe might mean he got success with it, but I doubt it's possible to do that at Grimsby Town with a perpetually low budget.

Just a simple question for you.

Would you care to elaborate your comments with the occasional fact so we could decide whether you’re on to something or just on something?

Because, at present, it looks like you’re spouting a load of bollox.

I am not sure saying we could have been 4-0 up at half time is very credible after the opposition had 18 shots in that period

Quoted from mariner91

What plan B can you put in place? We’ve no pace,  no height and little physicality so going long is out the question. We certainly don’t have centre backs capable of playing 3 at the back or centre mids good enough to play as just a pairing in the middle. We only have two out and out strikers in the whole squad and one of them has spent half the season injured. Essentially our squad is found so wanting that if the starting eleven and formation isn’t working, there’s virtually no formation change or personnel that will change things in a positive way.

Hurst was normally reasonably good at building squads but this squad is just bad in so many ways. It’s galling that he’s seemingly wasted the FA cup money building one of the worst squads in the club’s history.

It's becoming apparent the summer window wasn't as good as we hoped , it's actually borderline disaster even halfway through the season - Cartwright is a slight improvement on Crocombe for me and Danny Rose WOULD be good with able support (he must be shaking his head with his decision to go  from an easy gig as 4th choice striker at Stevenage to being the only striker with us ,having to put in an overly stupid amount of work up top by himself ) just to be closer to home .

We have done our regular thing of letting people go and replacing with worse or not at all .

The midfield individually might be ok but the combination of most of them together isn't unless we are given time to play which you are not most of the time in league 2 .

Rodgers looks a relegated player and his confidence is shot ,Maher also seems to have gone backwards . Michee looked lost today second half him , Conteh and Eisa looked like they didnt want to be there . One of our own Harry was dreadful aswell , really bad he just isn't a CM with enough quality - i like him on the left though .

There is no depth in the squad I would take
Mcatee, Taylor , Mani and Abraham up top
Over just Danny Rose , Pyke was a right back for 2 seasons before signing for us , weird signing , Wilson not so weird but has been injured most of the time so far .

Lost for words how bad we were today ,we just have to hope we have got the Artell that did so well for Crewe in his first couple of years and not the one who went scattergun on signings in the last season , 16 games without a win .

Over to Mr Artell

The last 2 games have shown we have not got the calibre of players that our opponents have and that’s not the fault of David Artell, prior to the 2 defeats I was optimistic that he could get this group of players playing the way he wants and at times he looked like he was succeeding but for some reason the players have not continued the game plans that he set out for them. We definitely need an upgrade in the team but wether he can do this during the January transfer window is a big ask and if you remember January of this year we were really disappointed in what PH brought in as good players aren’t usually available in this transfer window. Slightly worried but I think we will survive. UTM

Its ok thinking that we will be ok this season  but yet again some are thinking we will be ok after the summer window .. Will we tho.. No one knows for sure how much was spent this season but if most of our budget only got us what we have got now  it doesnt look good for next season  

Quoted from denni266

Its ok thinking that we will be ok this season  but yet again some are thinking we will be ok after the summer window .. Will we tho.. No one knows for sure how much was spent this season but if most of our budget only got us what we have got now  it doesnt look good for next season  

There's no way that teams like Morecambe, Accrington, Barrow, Harrogate, Crewe or Walsall are spending significantly more than us but they currently have much better squads. In the summer we'll have loads out of contract: Amos, Glennon, Waterfall, Efete, Maher, Eisa, Holohan, Ainley, Khan, Clifton and Gnahoua are all out of contract. Out of them I'd probably want to keep Gnahoua and Clifton but not bothered about the rest really. Even then Clifton isn't a good central midfielder for L2 but his versatility and energy is useful to have in the squad. It won't quite be a clean slate next summer but it won't be far off it. Just need to make sure we get enough in as reinforcements in January to stay up first.