So who do we drop to go back to 442?

[Smendrick Feaselberg]

Apart from him being our fastest centre back?

He's like Bambi stuck in quicksand, far too slow off the mark and not strong enough to stop attackers getting in their stride

Yet allegedly Rotherham offered £300,000 for him .

It's almost as if people on here didn't say that if we were offered £300k plus add ons that we should take it.

[CreamofSumYungGai]

Ekpiteta isn't strong enough, fast enough or good enough on the ball to warrant starting in league 2 over Happe and Coulson.

Which two to play in the centre of the defence ?
Like you, I would go for Coulson and Happe.

Distinct lack of pace there.

I would keep the 3 of them in there.

[Smendrick Feaselberg]

Ekpiteta isn't strong enough, fast enough or good enough on the ball to warrant starting in league 2 over Happe and Coulson.

Which two to play in the centre of the defence ?
Like you, I would go for Coulson and Happe.

Distinct lack of pace there.

I would keep the 3 of them in there.

Yep, agree for now. Add in Judd and a quality mobile defensive midfielder and then I think we seriously upgrade what the team can deliver.

Agree with whoever before that said away from home we are more like 3-4-3. Adding the midfielder means we can play a more orthodox 3-5-2 instead of what is effectively 3-4-1-2 (or 5-2-1-2 when on the back foot).

[whittle81]

Coulson has to start and with either Ekpiteta or Happe dropping out.

[StepneyO]

Can’t believe people want to drop Marvin. Him and Coulson partnership in the middle of the season was virtually unbeatable.

That attitude is part of the problem - time will tell and I hope I'm wrong - but we have been ridiculously naive to come into the football league playing the same formation with a very very similar team (with downgrades up front).

Tranmere had the right attitude when they got promoted, said a big thanks to those that got them up and made a load of changes to build a squad for league 2...

[CreamofSumYungGai]

Can’t believe people want to drop Marvin. Him and Coulson partnership in the middle of the season was virtually unbeatable.

That attitude is part of the problem - time will tell and I hope I'm wrong - but we have been ridiculously naive to come into the football league playing the same formation with a very very similar team (with downgrades up front).

Tranmere had the right attitude when they got promoted, said a big thanks to those that got them up and made a load of changes to build a squad for league 2...

Fair point.

I don’t think we needed wholesale changes - Judd/Turley, Marv, Coulson, Happe, Widdowson/Brophy, Clay, Jobi, JMD, Bonne and Koroma would have been the basis of a very good L2 side. If we had then replaced those we rightly let go with players capable of improving the starting 11, then we would have a squad able to challenge.

As it is, the only improvement we’ve made is Wright. And he’s replacing both Lawless and Lee, not just 1 player. And it now looks as if we’re not going to see Jobi again for some time, if at all, so the only back up we have is Gorman, our 5th choice CM last season.

We were never going to be able to replace Bonne and Koroma with players of the same quality, which meant we had to improve in other areas to offset that. And we haven’t.

We are massively understaffed.

[gshaw]

Absolutely this ^^^

When you release / sell 6, sign 4 and bring one back who was (rightly) put onto the transfer list it's not surprising we struggle in games where you need quality coming off the bench to make a difference. Add to that the long-term injury to Jobi, who was vital for us last season we're very short in key areas.

Getting Dennis in is a step in the right direction but we need at least another 2 steps like that to at least give Ross a decent shot at the job.

[DuvB]

Judd should be in for ling. No idea why ling consistently gets the nod over him

Ling's long throws

[CreamofSumYungGai]

His throws ain’t even that long.

[Ornchurch]

If you set up and play as a 5-3-2 you will do very little other than defend and get pushed back,

It has to be played as a 3-5-2 so that you win the midfield battle and push on from there.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Can’t believe people want to drop Marvin. Him and Coulson partnership in the middle of the season was virtually unbeatable.

That attitude is part of the problem - time will tell and I hope I'm wrong - but we have been ridiculously naive to come into the football league playing the same formation with a very very similar team (with downgrades up front).

Tranmere had the right attitude when they got promoted, said a big thanks to those that got them up and made a load of changes to build a squad for league 2...

Dont disagree with what you are saying. Players cannot just be judged on previous performance, especially when it was in a league below. But a player like Marvin, who was absolutely fantastic last year, deserves a chance to step up and prove himself. I think League two is well within his range and dropping him after two games (where he hasn't actually had a really bad game, or made a bad error) will not only knock his confidence, but also be very unfair.