Latest / Blood, Sweat & Gills / Is it crossroads time for Gareth Ainsworth? | Gillingham 1-4 Grimsby Town
Transcript
- BSG 013 Grimsby H: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blood, Sweat and Jills. I'm Simon from Jills365. Here's Matt from Jills in the Blood TV, and we have much to discuss this week. We have, I think we've just about dried out from the weekend. It was an absolute monsoon. It was kind of interesting this week. They on online they were sharing the Famous goal from Carlos Abba against Luton in in in the rain back in nineteen ninety-eight. Done a feature of that on GL 365. Feel free to check that out. But there was a lot of similarity in terms of the weather conditions on Saturday. Absolutely dreadful and the performance matched. It was a genuinely awful display from Gareth Ainsworth's men and things turned a bit sour by the time the final whistle blew. We'll try and pick to it as best we can. I'm sure you will have read, seen, and heard opinions from elsewhere as well. These will be ours, and we'll see if we can't find our way through to some sort of proposed solution for our current malaise. Matt, first off, I assume you've dried out, warmed up, and are feeling a little bit more calm after five pm on Saturday, where I don't think anybody was feeling too calm as they left the stadium on Saturday. Dried out, yes. Been a funny weekend. I've booked the long weekend because it's my wedding anniversary tomorrow and obviously picked the weekend where there's been two storms, so we haven't done a lot. congratulations. Thank you very much. Or for surviving, or I don't know. I just thought it was the right thing to say. yeah, second half particularly was just a a horrible, horrible flashback to to stuff that we saw all too often last season, wasn't it? And and as you've alluded to, and I used the headline on my match day live video. weather rotten performance worse, sadly. But I don't think anyone saw it coming at half time. That would be the thing, because as as much as I thought Grimsby bossed probably two thirds of the first half, certainly up until about the twenty fifth minute mark at least, where they scored one. They could have had another that that was our doing where we gave the ball away and they had an empty net to try and chip into, but luckily played probably one pass too many. Ollie Wright had to make a save from a deflected effort again because we gave away cheap possession. I actually thought we ended the first half fairly well once we realised that we could pass it on the floor and that we were wearing blue. the goal was a prime example of how easy it was to play through Grimsby. Then Andy Smith, dare I say, should probably hit the target as a minimum with the header just afterwards. And in amongst all that, we have to realise that Ronan Howe missed what I think could be described as a sitter at one nil as well. When Gareth McCleary flashed one across the six yard box. In his defence, I think Robbie McKenzie in the centre half might have got a touch that maybe just took it away from Ronan. But a player in his form, six yards from goal, I would have expected to at least make a proper contact on the thing. But yeah, from the moment we conceded the second goal courtesy of a penalty that I'm sure we'll discuss in more detail, that was Absolutely disgusting. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was it was just one of those games where, you know, sometimes you go into a game and you think, okay, we can't have too many players playing off off form. I think almost, almost all 11. I wouldn't I I would I would absolve the goalkeeper. I don't think he could be blamed too much for any of the goals that went in. I would I would put my hand up for Jack Daly. I actually thought Jack Daly played very well. Now, other people might disagree with that. he was playing, obviously where I sit, I had a close up view of him in the second half. and while a lot of the attacks from Grimsby were coming down that side of the pitch, he was winning his duels a lot. And he was I thought he was comfortably our best centre back on the day. He was he was I thought he was really good. and from someone who admittedly was unconvinced by him going into the game. His stock has risen in my eyes from that performance. Now, obviously it's comparative, so he didn't have a lot to go up against in terms of good defensive performances. We didn't look good. I thought Connor McManus played okay. I wouldn't say he played well, but I thought he played okay. those three, those three I would say get get a pass just. The rest of them, maybe Ronan, but again, he missed that chance. I thought he was I I thought he was a bit unsighted. I thought he he caught he was sort of swinging in hope that it might get to him. but yeah, I don't know. He he should have scored, but he you know, he just came to him very quickly. I don't think he saw it coming. But overall the team just weren't on it. And to me, and and Gareth Ainsworth said this in his post post match comments, that the team that played the conditions better was Grimsby. Now, none of this should have come as a great surprise to anybody. That we were getting, we were dealing with these conditions. this it, there is a thing called a weather forecast. We do know that these things are happening. But our team just looked completely unprepared to play in any kind of inclement weather. the wind is swirling around Priestfield Stadium and we're still lumping it up in the air. It's like, what are we doing? Also, we're lumping it up in the air with Ronan Hale and Gareth McCleary up top. I mean, it doesn't get more nonsensical than that. and I don't necessarily blame or entirely blame the back three for their constant hoof ball because it comes a lot from what options are available to them in front of them and there were none. and I think this brings me on to the big point that I want us to talk about, and I think it'll connect with a lot of the other things we want to talk about on this show. Our midfield needs addressing. We have going back to the midfield that served us so poorly last year. I was gonna say it needs to looking up and starting again. You don't need addressing it's it's I I said to you before you press record, Simon, like five and a half thousand people can see it in the stadium every week. Yeah, Gareth Ainsworth seems to be blinded by Armani Little. And I don't want to sit here and, you know, make accusations or say the wrong thing. But it's got to the point now with me And it's not true, I get that. But it feels like Armani Little's got something on Gareth Ainsworth to make. Because I cannot fathom why he keeps getting picked. Regardless of form, regardless of fitness. He just walks back into the team, whether he's been out injured for a month, two months, three months, and I'm sorry we look a far inferior side with him in it. I've got some stats. We'll have a look at them in a minute, but sorry, I know I've gone off on a bit of a rant, but No, this is this is gonna be the central plank of what we talk about, so it's it's slow, it's predictable, it's lethargic. Robbie McKenzie's not a natural holding midfielder for me. He's not a goal scorer in midfielder. He's not a creative midfielder. Amani Little for me is not a natural holding midfielder. He's not a goal scoring midfielder. He's not a natural creator. So what are we left with? Run merchants. And they can't even do that properly, I'm sorry to say. Because if you go back to the goals at the weekend and you pick holes in them, the pair of them are at least partially culpable or fully culpable for, say, three of them. At the very least, and we only can see we only conceded four. But at best, 75%, you're looking at our central midfield as a reason why we've conceded three of our goals. It's it's absolutely dreadful. Yeah. And I think the the cent the you can look at all the different shortcomings within within our performances and within our within our team. The centre of the midfield is the is is like the connective tissue between everything. If your central midfield is not is not doing its job properly, everything else starts to suffer. if if they're not shielding the back floor properly, the defence are going to struggle. If they're not pushing forward and creating, the forwards are going to struggle. You know, so whichever way you look at it, the center midfield is the most crucial area of the pitch. And I feel like Robbie le Robbie McKenzie, despite the fact he's still younger than 30, it feels like his legs have gone. I don't know quite what's happened. He seems a yard off the pace Pot consistently. He's always close to what's going on, but he's never where he needs to be. He's always just behind the runner or he's just out of position. You've got Armani Little and this is probably the biggest talking point of the weekend, Armani Little. And I've been a critic of Armani's for probably the last season and a half. And I I am trying to be as balanced as I possibly can. And I think the reason Gareth Ainsworth picks Armani Little is for one reason. And it is because the guy clearly cares and clearly tries. Now, that it put put that thought in a box because there are other issues at play here, right? Alongside that the he he goes out there and he runs himself into the floor. Is he doing it effectively? No. Is his football intelligence up to the required standard? No. I think the penalty incident in itself explained that. And I think his quality's not is is not good enough. But he tries. And I think that Gareth Ainsworth sees the effort and thinks, he's my guy, I can hang my hat on him because he draws. Correct. And this is the thing. This is the thing. Anyone coming out of the Rainemend or the Medway stand would try, Cy. Exactly. He wouldn't be good enough for the required level. So you can't pick someone just because he tried. That is and that's where the problem is. And Robbie McKenzie probably falls into that bracket as well. Yeah. And this is the thing, right? So I think that's why he gets picked, right? And I think that the I think the theory with Dangersworth is that if the guy in the middle of the pitch is putting in all the effort, that that will then rub off on the other players, that'll lift their energy. However, you've got to be good enough. And I don't like to say this, but he's not. He just isn't. And and I I think I think the way that the the Raynamend chanted at him as he went off was out of order. But I also think that his reaction on the pitch to his teammates is also out of order. And I think that the way he responds to to certain things is not right. But I d it doesn't make any of those things acceptable individually. Do you know what I mean? So for example, he he was on F4 on Tuesday and he got taken off. I think he got taken off to send him spare himself getting sent off. That's the only reason I could think of. Because otherwise you're just opening him up to get some stick on the way off. So I think he was taken off to spare him getting sent off. He comes off There's a big cheer because I think there's you know, it's partially ironic, partially factual. It's like, okay, thank goodness for that, he's going off. He's been terrible. But then came the your your effing S chance, which I didn't think we needed, right? And then after the game he doesn't go over to the fans. Now, having had that abuse from the from the stands, I'm kind of can understand that. However, you've got to be a bit more thick skinned than that as a professional footballer as well. So there's there's I'm not i absolving anybody of blame from this. I don't think the the section of the Rain of Men that gave him the actual abuse I don't think there's any there's any place for that if you're supporting a football team. Abuse is memory acceptable. Not like and Boeing I've got to do with your effing is I'm not sure it does that fall into abuse or does that fall into a grey area? I mean it's not helpful. I totally get that. But there's a difference between shouting you're really bad with more frontish language for the younger people that's watching or listening, sorry. There's a difference between that and personal abuse, which others got last season, where they were called all names under the sun in within earshot of family members, children. Max Clark got kelters, didn't he? Yeah. Yeah. And again, it always comes back to the old cliche. If you want to be, if you want to come out and take the plaudits from the Raider Men when we've played well. Then you've got to be man enough to come out and face the music when you know you've not been good enough. And I put a video clip up, which I noticed just on the off chance when I was going back through clips of the game that I'd recorded. James Brophy goes absolutely mental at Amani Little in the aftermath of that penalty. And you can see him, he's gesticulating with his right hand towards the Medway stand. He's just sh his eye some people have laughed at Iba sh she's saying, There's the tunnel, go down it, don't ever come back. That's the joke. But he's clearly shouting, you should have just lumped that into touch. Everything about the penalty concession side is schoolboy. Number one, he he ball watches, he lets Kieran Green run off the back of him. He then doesn't take the chance to pull him down outside the box, which we'd have understood. He then grabs him by the neck twice in the penalty area, after trying to be too cute instead of lumping in a touch, he's trying to control a ball that's bouncing over his shoulder in the middle of a hoolie. Like like you said, there's a weather forecast that's been all around this week. There's been two storms across the whole country. So you think it's a good idea to try and be Zinadine Zidane and bring it down with the outside of your right foot. The worst bit though is he looks perplexed when the referee gives him a yellow card and a walter penalty. he can't even understand what's happening. I I I'm absolutely lost as to what we Don't know, I'm speechless and that don't happen a lot. I don't know what else to say on it. It's I keep coming back to the point that we can all see it, yet we keep picking him. Our win percentage or loss percentage this season, while Armani Little was unfit, was 22%. We lost nine out of we lost two out of our first nine games. It's no coincidence for me that since our Mary Little's come back into the starting eleven, we've lost two out of four, fifty percent. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a double edged sword as well, because it's not it's it's not just what it's not just him being in the team. It's what we've not got in the team when he's in the team. And people will point to injuries and rightfully so, yeah, we've had a a terrible time with injuries. There are options available to Gareth Ainsworth still. Harry Wildock, unless he's carrying some sort of injury that meant that he really shouldn't even have been on the bench, which we don't know about yet. he should have been in the team. He should have been in the team. He I how he can have the start that he's had to this season and then have to sit while Armani Little and Robbie McKenzie are starting. I I wrote in my player ratings this week that Logan Dobbs should be knocking on the manager's door after after Tuesday night. I want to be back in this team because I thought Andy Smith had an absolute stinker. Smith, by the way, straight in front of the Rainemend after the game. He I noticed from your video. he was he's possibly the last one. Yeah, he was probably the last one to leave the front of the goal, you know. So, and but now I think I think we have people in the in the building who who can play in the middle of midfield. And Ainsworth in his comments to Radio Kent, I I I watch all the interviews on on Jill's T V and they're generally quite similar to what he then goes and tells the the press afterwards, but he gets asked slightly different questions by the press. So he he came out and he basically said, Look, you know, I can I'm starting to think that there are players in this team that aren't good enough. I'm paraphrasing but and I I I said in in in my column on the site, he see what we he's just seen what we've seen. So now, now the attention is on Ainsworth. he now knows, if he didn't know before, he's now been left in no doubt that there are players in this team who aren't up to it. What's he gonna do about it now? What's he gonna do? If he names those same players for Saturday against Shrewsbury, you've got to ask some serious questions, right? If he does with his team and it continues, then he's he's effectively writing his own P forty five. Yeah, yeah. I think if he makes the changes and we lose But people can see that he's made the changes, then I think people are most people are will be inclined to give him a bit of a bit of slack and say, look, we have got these injuries, all the rest of it. But you've still got to pick the best team you've got available. And results have shown, performances have shown, stats have shown, as you've just said, there are there are major issues that are clearly there to be addressed. And analytics and statistics, as much as I hate them, do form a major part in in performance analysis, right? And and it's not just the eyeball test anymore. Well, the eyeball test, we know what happened. The statistical test, we got the same answer. Right? So it's not just one or the other with this, is it? It's both. We can we can all see it clearly and all the numbers back it up as well. And while we're on Harry Waldock, we said last week, the week before maybe, him and Logan Dodge the standards had just dropped a little. They both got taken out Tuesday. All right, we didn't lose, so you can understand the team being similar on Saturday, but there is absolutely no excuse to not get them two back in the team now. Harry Waldock added rest Tuesday for me. He got on the last did he get on, I think, right at the end? I think he got five minutes at the end, yeah. I think he came on about the Harry Waldock starting this season. We've won four games out of nine. So he has started every single league victory of ours. We average 1.66 points per game with Harry Waldock in the starting eleven. That drops to naught point five points per game when he's not started. We have not won a single game without Harry Waldock starting. Two draws, two defeats. Who's replaced him in the starting eleven? Yeah. Yeah. And and the other thing. I I'd I'd I had a point then and I've completely lost it. But but the the thing the thing with the the team selection, it's like if these players are available and that you know he he had him warming up that that was my point. He was warming subs up at two one and then we conceded a third. And I I wonder, and I hope that this is the reason, but I couldn't couldn't tell you, but I hope this is the reason at three-one. Ainsworth may have thought, Okay, it's three one, the game is basically gone. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna risk Waldock who's come, from picking up an injury when I'm gonna be needing him from here on in. So no point throwing him on and associating him with his performance and lumping him in with everything else that's going on out there. you know, so maybe there's an element of that. I don't know. I don't know. I'd like to hope I think the last two Saturdays The changes have been ready, stripped to come on, and we've conceded before the board's been allowed to go up. I'm might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure at Accrington last Saturday, Dakie and McCleary stood ready to go. Obviously, you always say don't make a change, defend in a corner, or not defending a corner in our case. Andy Smith didn't jump with his man. The game's done at 3 1. Then you're asking them to perform a miracle. And I'm pretty sure, and if I'm wrong, forgive me, I apologise. I'm sure Tom Eaves and Sheldon Kendall were ready. At 2 1, and then Robbie McKenzie and Armani Little get caught the wrong side of the ball. They don't trap back in. They show no willingness to drive and get back into the box. Game's gone 3-1. Daky was warming up, sat back down. Like you say, probably no point bringing him on. Let's hope that it has been a decision that's made with Shrewsbury in mind and that we see some proper changing in that middle area of the pitch because we will end up bottom off very quickly if. we continue to play a combination and any two out of the three of little Mackenzie and Ethan Coleman, I'm afraid. Yeah, and the thing with this is as well, and if we were one if w if if if but if if we had won on Saturday, we'd be in the top top four, top five right now. this is where we are in terms of the season. It is all very close. One win can leapfrog five or sixteens, one defeat can see you drop down. So This is we aren't in panic stations territory here. And I think the thing that concerns me is okay, yeah, there are decisions that need to be made one hundred percent. And we're we're talking we're talking about them here. Things are not one hundred percent how we want them, and things have certainly slipped from where we were maybe four weeks ago, three weeks ago. But this is still very early in the process and some of the head loss that's going on around all of this is worrying me because I feel like there are people out there who obviously have made their minds up about Ainsworth from last season. And therefore, they've just been waiting for the first slip, the first issue, and they're not taking into account the good performances that we've had. When we get a bad result, and make no mistake, Saturday was an absolute stinker. All of a sudden we've got people talking about get Andy Woodman, get this, get that. I mean Well that's a lot of people not not understand how fible works. Yeah. Just parachute a manager in who had no who has no connection with any of these players, who have all been recruited. You you go back and read the the interviews and listen to the interviews of almost every single player that has signed for us over the last six months and look at the reason why they signed. The manager, the manager. All these players who have signed have signed for the manager. And I think it was Brofi. said often you don't really sign for a football team, you sign for the manager. and I've signed for Gareth Ainsworth. I think it was Brofi. and to then give the manager a few months and then jettison him away from all these players that that they've all signed on the basis of him being there. And then you're gonna bring in another manager who is gonna play a completely different style of football potentially. Then you've got real upheaval. You've then you then you've got real issues. You're gonna have players who just don't fit. You've got players who f who don't like the manager or the manager doesn't like the players. Then what do you do? You've got more squad turnover, then you've got to settle them in, then you've got to get rid of the players who don't fit. And then you you know, it's just a constant churn and we've had this year after year after year. Now, if we find ourselves at the bottom of the league Christmas time, Fine. Then there's a conversation to be had and maybe a decision to be made. But we're in the we're in we're we're we're not even in flipping November yet. And we're mid table. We are literally slap bang mid-table. We've won the same amount of games as we lost. We've scored the same amount of goals as we've conceded. We're slap bang in the middle with 12th out of 24 teams. Had we won on Saturday, we would have been top four, top five. People just need to take a deep breath and think to themselves, right. Look at the big picture. How many players are we missing? What are the major issues we're dealing with? Right. The major issues we're dealing with are we have I think I put in an article that we've got a first eleven missing. We haven't quite. I think it's about seven or eight, right? But we've got a lot of players missing. A lot of them would go straight into the first team if fit. Some of them we're not going to have for the rest of the season. But the problem that we have that can't well, you know, we can't address that. That's just a time and process situation that we have no control over. Control what you can control. What can you control? Your team selection based on who you have now. And a team selection based on who we have now has not been right. The results have shown that. The statistics, as you mentioned, have shown that. Now, this is where Gareth Ainsworth earns his money. This is where he sits down and says, right, I recognize this. I understand I've got a smaller pool of players to work from. But what I'm playing right now is not the solution. Now, personnel needs to change. That is a definite formation. could potentially change depending on how you want to play it. And there's arguments for that. But it's got to be it's got to be a personnel change. And I think I think Wildock is a guarantee you've got to put him in. What other changes would you like to see made, Matt? Because you could you could make from the starting eleven on Saturday, there's probably three or four changes you could make to that team for Shrewsbury. Well yeah, 'cause and you and you said at the beginning who who came out of its reputation. not enhanced, but intact at least. And I thought Ollie Wright played a couple of good saves. It could have been five or six again if it weren't for Ollie. Jack Daly you mentioned I thought was decent first half. He got exposed second half, which wasn't his fault because we had no middle of the park essentially. I I didn't think Conor McManus was great. I thought he worked hard. I think he switches off a little bit for the fourth goal. Again it's him and Little. I'm not sure whose man it is, but they both ball watch and they let the lad run off of the back of one of But again, he's not the only one. I think away from home, you've got to put a Tom Eaves, a Will Goodwin, or a Lamin Siller back into the team. So that probably means Gareth McCleary comes out. But that's a little bit harsh on on G Matt 'cause he was probably one of our better attacking players. I'd go right in goal. Dobbs or Daly at left centre back. Beckles retains his place because he has to at the moment, because he's captain, although he wasn't great at a weekend. I pray Robbie McKenzie, right sided centre half. I think Andy Smith just needs blow. he goes from one extreme to the other at the moment. He's either man of the match contender or he just has an absolute horror. so then do you leave him in maybe because he's due his man of the match performance? the issue we still have and I keep saying it it's and I know he's not played, so I'm taking it on a lot of trust and reputation, but getting Sam Tabar as available then frees up Nick Freeman, but that's not going to happen straight away. So for me, I've seen Talker playing Robbie McKenzie at right wing back. I I don't agree with that at all. He's got no pace. He's suddenly started switching off in games. So if you leave him out there one on one with a winner, he'll get absolutely annihilated and with all that space to run into behind. So for me, you play him centre back Freeman stays at right wing back. Harry Waldock comes in. Connor McManners has not quite looked the same since he came back from international duty, but probably plays because you want to keep James Brophy higher up. And then I'd go Brofi, Hale, and Eves as the final three. So it's that one middle place, isn't it? I would go if no, and I'm basing this on no one else's fit. So I'm not counting Daky as a start being able to start because he's barely played. I'm saying no Albare's back yet. This would probably get a few raised eyebrows or I'll get shouted out and told I don't know what I'm talking. I'd play Ethan Coleman. And I said this last week. And I'd say you just sit in front of that back three and you just patrol and you get it and you break up play and then you give it to Waldock and Brophy in front of you. You get it wide and then we get crosses into the box and we attack it from there. So that would be my team. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a million miles off my team. I would I would change the formation. I would I would go surprise, surprise, I would go for a four four two. And I would I would play Logan Dobbs as right back. he's a right sided defender. He can play right back. He's shown in his performances this season that he's actually quite comfortable bringing the ball forward. I think he could do a job there, I think he could be okay there. And by playing him there, that then puts all the rest of the jigsaw pieces into place for me. I have Jack Daly and Omar Beckles playing in the center. I have Conor McManus playing at left back. My midfield four, I have Nick Freeman wide on the right, basically doing what he's doing now, but able but with a higher starting position because he's not a wing back. He's able to be a little bit more offensive, but obviously he can then provide defensive support for Logan Dobbs. He's got that he's got that conscientiousness to his play. He will be able to go back and help out Logan Dobbs and provide support. On the left flank, James Brophy. I would have him do exactly the same role, but on the left, helping out Conor McManus. Also, he can get full, he's got great delivery with that left boot of his. So they they would be my midfield two out wide. In the middle, you got Harry Waldock. And again, like you, Ethan Coleman sitting. because you need that that yin to the yang of of Waldock's forward drive and movement. You need someone to just sit and hold. And I think Coleman can do that, especially playing away from home. Good from defending set pieces as well. He's decent in the air, almost acts as another centre, an extra centre-half almost at times for us. So he would be my my slightly, slightly more holding midfield player, will license to push forward. And then I'd have Hale and Eaves up top. I would I would use Gareth McCleary off the bench late on as needed. Probably for someone like Freeman, if we needed to just make things a little bit more offensive, but we can see as we go. That would be my that would be my attempt at trying to freshen things up a little bit. I think one of the things on Tuesday was we got passed through very easily and we got exposed out wide a few times. And having having a bit more manpower in those wide areas, I think, would really help us. And having Ethan Coleman sitting with Waldock being the legs, I'd like to think that'd be an upgrade on what we've had recently. So in the middle, your four midfielders, Brofie, Freeman, Coleman and Waldot. You could almost an even If you wanted to go super compact, you could probably adapt that into a diamond as well, actually. Yes, you could, yeah. So you could push Waldock up and drop Coleman back and then tuck the two the two other lads in a little bit. Or put Bro or or put Brofi in the ten and add Freeman and Waldock from the side. Yeah. But Coleman just being the base and just sitting and protecting again, yeah. Well, the other three could almost rotate and be wherever they needed to be, but just from a starting position point of view, I think naturally it makes sense to have Freeman on the right. Brofie leaning towards the left hand side a little bit. So that would be that would be my lineup. I mean, it's not necessarily I'm not saying it's it's gonna be the overall solution to all of our ills, but to me, that seems a more cohesive setup than what we've had of late. Like you said, it's just identifying them very, very clear issues in the middle of the park, which are Robbie Mackenzie and Armani Little, unfortunately. And I I don't want this to turn into an episode where we sound like we're just digging the two of them out, but Like we've said, all the numbers, the eye tests from Saturday, the fact that they were part of a team last season and the season before that finished woefully low in this league, that that started well, that fell off the edge of a cliff over and over again. Robbie McKenzie, we have to remember was part the relegation team as well. Yeah. He also may have been absolutely knackered because he's had a he's had a crazy week. Right. He's had he's had a crazy week. Doesn't it? To go, well, let's have a look at that. Why are we not starting the lad that only got fifteen minutes on Tuesday? Yeah. Who's also probably seven, eight years younger. Mm-hmm. Rather than just reverting to the horrible type that we saw over and over again fail us last season. Well 100%. One hundred percent. And I think that, we've got Zayn Albreus getting fit cannot come soon enough. I just hope that again we get him one hundred percent fit before he comes back in. But he transforms things in the middle of the pitch for us. a Wildock and Albreus midfield pair, while they're lacking in experience, I think gives us all the energy and legs and bite that we didn't have on Saturday. So, if you Beckles behind them, Freeman to one side of them. Yeah. Brofi slash Eves ahead of them. Or to the other side of them. There's plenty of experience in that team. Dahty, if he gets fit, would be in there helping them out. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's It's easy, It's it's piss cake, this management business, isn't it? No, but but the thing the thing that that that that's I think we we lose sight of a little bit because we've now become used to these lads is Harry Waldock. Logan Dobbs, Jack Daly, all nineteen years of age. C Convert Manasek's twenty two. you know, we've got Sheldon Kendall who comes off the bench. He's eight eighteen years of age. Under other Gillingham regimes, these guys would not even have a sniff of the first team. We'll need these guys, you know? And it's not because we're so desperate, it's because they're actually good enough. They're better than the people that are playing. So let's play them. Let's put them in. Let's say, look, I've got faith in you. You've delivered for me so far this season. You're gonna have ups and downs. You're gonna your form is gonna dip. Harry Ward's form has dipped. Has it dipped as low as we've seen from Armani and and and Robbie? No, it hasn't. So let's get him back in the team. And and you know, these two the two lads who we're advocating for being dropped from the team. They can still play a role. They can still be brought on late on in a game to just add a little bit of experience if we're we're ho we're we're we're seeing out a result or something, but I just don't think we can rely on them over ninety minutes. Gareth Ainsworth wasn't expecting to be getting to the middle to the end of October and having to play Armani Little and and Robbie McKenzie. So I just want to reiterate my point. That me having that rant about Gareth signing his own P forty five if we keep going in with him too. I'll knock Gareth Ainsworth out, not at all. And that might disappoint some people. I get that entirely. But I'm not Ainsworth out, not by any stretch, because I understand and let's hope that we might have a combination of, say, Scylla, Albarez, Goodwin, Tabares back next Saturday. We don't know. And then Gordon a few weeks after. Suddenly it looks a lot healthier. I'm not Ainsworth out. My biggest concern with Gareth is he's not seeing what we're seeing, but that midfield pair of Mackenzie and Little or Little and Coleman as it was on Tuesday has failed us so many times that we cannot keep reverting back to it. We have to find a way. The only other option, I suppose, in in the 3-4-2 one that I played was maybe if you play McCleary as a right wing back, because you've got McManus as a more natural defender the other side, and then you play Freeman next to Waldock. Because I Freeman would c take care of the ball in the middle of the park. I think he's technically good enough and he's experienced enough as well. But again, it's the balance of Tweaking it but not making wholesale changes where you've got no relationships and partnerships in the in different areas of the pitch. Yeah. Yeah, it's it goes back to the San Tabarres thing. When Santa when San Tabarro is fit, that opens everything up. Then you can play Freeman in the middle in his best position, by the way, in centre midfield. Can you imagine you've got a midfield where imagine having a midfield diamond where you've got N Nick Freeman, Harry Waldock, and Zayn Albarez? Then you've got you've got some you've got some bite you and you've got some legs and and And Brofi as well, you can chuck into that as well, yeah. And Brofi, yeah. And and yeah, that's that's assuming that we're operating Brofi further out out on the left. But we we do have options. It's just how we how we perm those options into a team that's actually cohesive. And I don't think all is lost. I don't think all is lost. And I do think I think the number one thing now is Ainsworth has come out and and said He he he's identified basically that, there are he's beginning to doubt that some players have could kinda kinda cut it now, League Two. The thing now is he has to act on that. And if he's not seen if he's if he's not seen to be acting on it, then the red the red light's gonna start flashing. Right. So let's see. Let's see. You know, I don't And also I don't know how stubborn he is as a manager. Some managers will basically stick two fingers up to the fan base, say, No, I'm picking my players, I'm not being dictated to by fan support. But I do think you have to you you can't deny the evidence that's sitting in front of your very eyes. And whether it's on a stat sheet or on highlight videos, you know, you don't have to look very far to see where the shortcomings are. it's very clear. A failure to address them then brings an issue of competence as a manager. If he goes and addresses them, then as a fan base, we can say, look, he's working with what he's got. He's identified the problems. He's trying to fix the problems. That's where we need to be at 90 minutes on Saturday, regardless of the score line. So hopefully next next time we sit down, next Monday, hopefully we can sit and say, Well, look, he saw what we saw, he's made changes, and then we can talk about what worked, what didn't. What we don't want to be doing is sitting here and saying, I can't believe he's done the same thing again. So just five words. It's crossroads time, innit? That's basically where we are. It's now we got to see he's s stuck down with Mastic again. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and we've still got all these players coming back. We've still got these players coming back. I just don't want them to be coming back to a new manager because I don't think that's gonna help us. I really don't. That's the other thing is people moan about Gareth's style of play, he's too direct, it's not pretty, and then they're all calling for Andy Woodman, who's probably the most direct manager in league. two, you have to have I think your whole of starting eleven has to be at least six foot five, otherwise they don't even sign on the dotted line. So it's an interesting one to be claiming you want to get rid of a manager who's two direct and then asking for Andy Woodman to replace him. No, it's going to be very interesting and it's going to be an interesting dynamic this weekend because we're going to Shrewsbury, which is the previous club that Ainsworth was at, before he came and joined us. So the the atmosphere's gonna be a little bit tasty on on Saturday, I would imagine. Fingers crossed. why? It should be it should be an interesting one. Fingers crossed we get the win or at least steady the ship. And away Drewer, I think we'd probably tear their hands off. Because they're in decent firm at the moment. They've not lost in their last six. We haven't won in our last six, I think it works out, or last five. So one one in six, haven't we, robberum? That's it. That's it. So it's we need some changes. We need some changes in the team, we need some changes in approach, and fingers crossed we're some changes on the pitch with a result. But yeah, I think that'll probably do for Blood Sweat and Jills this week. Matt, you've got the League Two out coming out later today, right? Yep, that's back this evening. Double a game week to get through, and Lee returns as well, which would be great. He's back from his big trip to the land down under. So looking forward to that. Just in time he is to discuss that Jills have been crap again for the last few weeks. So we've got that to look forward to. But there is only one week of October left, thank God. And then yeah, Wednesday match preview. And then looking forward to the trip up to Shropshire at the weekend. Check out everything Matt's doing on YouTube. Jills and the Blood TV on YouTube. And check out everything on Jills365. Jills365.news. Free newsletter for you twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. We've got two free podcasts. You've got Blood Sweat and Jills, you've got the Voice Notes podcast, and you've got all of our match day coverage and features available for you. Hopefully you'll like what you see if you check out the site jills365.news. But that is all we have for you on Blood Sweat and Jills this week. Bit of a rocky week, bit of a damp week. Fingers crossed the weather is a little bit less inclement and the performance is a little bit more palatable as Jills go up to Shrewsbury Town. Enjoy the game if you're going. Speak to you next week. Take care and one more thing, up the Jills.