Ex Player Tyler Smith

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Stats for you ....22/23 550 mins 3 goals ( 183 mins per goal so good )
21/22 965 minutes 1 goal ( not good)

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

2 of the goals this season were in a 1-4 win away at Wigan .....he scored in 85th and 91st min against a Wigan side obviously going all out for a goal.

 

[tatabanya]

Stats for you ....22/23 550 mins 3 goals ( 183 mins per goal so good )
21/22 965 minutes 1 goal ( not good)

Before joining us he had scored a goal every 208 mins in league football at various levels, equating to 0.38 goals per 90 which, over the course of a full season, would get you 17 goals.

When he last played in L1, for a scum side that were relegated, he scored every 179 mins, equating to 0.5 goals per 90 which, over the course of a full season, would get you 23 goals.

Now I'm not saying Smith is a world beater, just pointing out that the stats you posted might be a bit misleading and it's important to contextualise them accurately. As you say, there are concerns that he has never held down a regular starting spot and has only played approx 2000 league mins before arriving here. But you can't just ignore context that doesn't support your view.

Matty Taylor has, shockingly, looks far more threating in one and a bit games for Vale. Scored a goal chalked out for offisde last night and was a general menace. Vale fans are raving about him already.

Oxford United 22/23 are probably the worst team in the whole division at creating big chances from open play. Taylor looked poor, Smith looks poor. The only type of striker I can see looking half decent would be a target man who, ironically, probably also wouldn't score but would at least help us get the ball closer to the goal.

 

[Yellow River]

Any striker is going to struggle in Robinson’s favoured 4-3-3 with the personal we have available.

We know that Baldock did well when played in a front 2 with Taylor.

Without a specialist DCM, 3-5-2 is the way to go (note, not 3-4-3) and flood the midfield, 2 wingbacks and 2 forwards playing off each other. ie not 1 lonely isolated forward looking for scraps.

We’ve simply got to make ourselves much more difficult to beat and start picking up points, build a platform and go from there.

Whether Robinson is big and smart enough to admit he’s totally messed up and make the changes that are needed is doubtful, but we live in hope.

Time and matches are running out, confidence is draining and belief is waining.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

Before joining us he had scored a goal every 208 mins in league football at various levels, equating to 0.38 goals per 90 which, over the course of a full season, would get you 17 goals.

When he last played in L1, for a scum side that were relegated, he scored every 179 mins, equating to 0.5 goals per 90 which, over the course of a full season, would get you 23 goals.

Now I'm not saying Smith is a world beater, just pointing out that the stats you posted might be a bit misleading and it's important to contextualise them accurately. As you say, there are concerns that he has never held down a regular starting spot and has only played approx 2000 league mins before arriving here. But you can't just ignore context that doesn't support your view.

Matty Taylor has, shockingly, looks far more threating in one and a bit games for Vale. Scored a goal chalked out for offisde last night and was a general menace. Vale fans are raving about him already.

Oxford United 22/23 are probably the worst team in the whole division at creating big chances from open play. Taylor looked poor, Smith looks poor. The only type of striker I can see looking half decent would be a target man who, ironically, probably also wouldn't score but would at least help us get the ball closer to the goal.

Nothing against Smith just isn't a goalscorer .
Take the non league stats out and he doesn't have a good enough record to have replaced Taylor, ok as an option but not a great signing to play up top expected to score or hold up the ball .

 

[tatabanya]

Nothing against Smith just isn't a goalscorer .
Take the non league stats out and he doesn't have a good enough record to have replaced Taylor, ok as an option but not a great signing to play up top expected to score or hold up the ball .

None of those goals I've mentioned were non-league.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Nothing against Smith just isn't a goalscorer .
Take the non league stats out and he doesn't have a good enough record to have replaced Taylor, ok as an option but not a great signing to play up top expected to score or hold up the ball .

I’ve hardly seen him touch the ball but he looks very quick and alert. I can see him scoring a few if we play the way that suits him. He’s obviously not the complete centre forward and we shouldn’t be chucking long balls at him.

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

None of those goals I've mentioned were non-league.

He has only scored 17 goals in total ...if minutes played an indicator why has he hardly played ?
4 goal over last two seasons and 17 total career goals shows that he hasn't set anywhere alight .
Thought you had sneaked in his 10 goals for Barrow in the conference !!

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

I’ve hardly seen him touch the ball but he looks very quick and alert. I can see him scoring a few if we play the way that suits him. He’s obviously not the complete centre forward and we shouldn’t be chucking long balls at him.

He looks OK but to have got rid of an established goalscorer in Taylor for a player whose best haul in the league is 7 then I do wonder why he hasn't played more at any club .
Hope he goes on a scoring streak but doubt it.

 

[Osei Yaw]

Any striker is going to struggle in Robinson’s favoured 4-3-3 with the personal we have available.

We know that Baldock did well when played in a front 2 with Taylor.

Without a specialist DCM, 3-5-2 is the way to go (note, not 3-4-3) and flood the midfield, 2 wingbacks and 2 forwards playing off each other. ie not 1 lonely isolated forward looking for scraps.

We’ve simply got to make ourselves much more difficult to beat and start picking up points, build a platform and go from there.

Whether Robinson is big and smart enough to admit he’s totally messed up and make the changes that are needed is doubtful, but we live in hope.

Time and matches are running out, confidence is draining and belief is waining.

3-5-2/5-3-2 is the way I'd go as well. We (well, Robinson) need to forget about the exciting wing play we've had the few seasons before now. It ain't happening this season. The only time I recall us doing anything of note down the wings was when Murphy decided to show up for 45 minutes against Charlton, but unfortunately we don't have another FA Cup game on the TV soon so we (Robinson) need to stop pinning our hopes on that somehow working now when it hasn't all season.

I'd have Wildschut and Joseph up top and just kick the ball into them. Wildschut showed what he's capable of with his goal against Ipswich and he and Joseph were somewhat of an outlet against Plymouth last week.

Just punt it up to the two of them and have Brannagan behind them to run on and scrap for whatever he can get. If you look at the highlights from the Bristol Rovers v Burton game, Rovers conceded a simply awful goal that started with a Burton goal kick. The other goal was awful defending too. We just need to sling it up there and battle for what we can, as their defence looks capable of gifting us something.

 

[SwissYellow]

Even if we were only using moneyball stats to sign players, he's not got good stats..

 

[Yellow River]

3-5-2/5-3-2 is the way I'd go as well. We (well, Robinson) need to forget about the exciting wing play we've had the few seasons before now. It ain't happening this season. The only time I recall us doing anything of note down the wings was when Murphy decided to show up for 45 minutes against Charlton, but unfortunately we don't have another FA Cup game on the TV soon so we (Robinson) need to stop pinning our hopes on that somehow working now when it hasn't all season.

I'd have Wildschut and Joseph up top and just kick the ball into them. Wildschut showed what he's capable of with his goal against Ipswich and he and Joseph were somewhat of an outlet against Plymouth last week.

Just punt it up to the two of them and have Brannagan behind them to run on and scrap for whatever he can get. If you look at the highlights from the Bristol Rovers v Burton game, Rovers conceded a simply awful goal that started with a Burton goal kick. The other goal was awful defending too. We just need to sling it up there and battle for what we can, as their defence looks capable of gifting us something.

Agree.

It’s not how I want to play the game, but needs must.

To my mind 3/5/2 and 5/3/2 is basically the same. The former when you have the ball and attacking, the latter when the oppos have the ball and we’re defending.

Also without a specialist DCM we can’t continue with 4-3-3 and expect different results.

With the players available we simply need a pattern of play/formation that will make us more difficult to beat and build from there. Confidence is a fragile thing and needs rebuilding quickly, we’re in a relegation battle, keep it simple for the players, don’t over complicate things needlessly.

Whether the front two is as you suggest Wildschut and Joseph or Baldock and Smith, what it is does do is to have options on the bench to bring on fresh legs within the same formation.

 

[Front Post]

Feel sorry for Smith. Looks quite a good footballer and is small, mobile and quick.
So we've resorted to lumping balls up to his neck. Him/Baldock should have been a decent combination at Cambridge, but we barely played the ball to feet in the first half.
The biggest irony being we had a bigger bloke sat in the hole behind them both.

Team selection and set-up looked like it had been concocted by throwing darts at random ideas.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

The biggest irony being we had a bigger bloke sat in the hole behind them both.

I can actually tell you what happened here.

I was told by a member of the senior staff earlier this season, in a game when Joseph appeared to be playing in central midfield, that he was actually playing as more of a ten. When I asked why given he’s a striker who can do a job wider because he works hard, I was told that he played against us for Wigan in the hole a couple of years ago and “destroyed us that day.”

That’s it. That’s why.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I can actually tell you what happened here.

I was told by a member of the senior staff earlier this season, in a game when Joseph appeared to be playing in central midfield, that he was actually playing as more of a ten. When I asked why given he’s a striker who can do a job wider because he works hard, I was told that he played against us for Wigan in the hole a couple of years ago and “destroyed us that day.”

That’s it. That’s why.

I don’t remember that.

 

[Ian]

So you’ll dig out the stats that justify your opinion but ignore the ones that don’t… not really how to use stats. His goals per 90 ratio has been consistently good through his career.

He looks average for us because we are terrible. Taylor isn’t past it, Smith isn’t average. It’s not them, it’s us.

It not because of me, you maybe!

 

[RyanioBirdio]

I don’t remember that.

Me neither. But that’s what they said.

Probably got him confused with someone else and signed him by mistake.

 

[Osei Yaw]

I can actually tell you what happened here.

I was told by a member of the senior staff earlier this season, in a game when Joseph appeared to be playing in central midfield, that he was actually playing as more of a ten. When I asked why given he’s a striker who can do a job wider because he works hard, I was told that he played against us for Wigan in the hole a couple of years ago and “destroyed us that day.”

That’s it. That’s why.

To be fair that's a hell of an achievement as we had Liam Kelly in midfield that day and he certainly didn't take any prisoners.

 

[Nadi-]

3-5-2/5-3-2 is the way I'd go as well. We (well, Robinson) need to forget about the exciting wing play we've had the few seasons before now. It ain't happening this season. The only time I recall us doing anything of note down the wings was when Murphy decided to show up for 45 minutes against Charlton, but unfortunately we don't have another FA Cup game on the TV soon so we (Robinson) need to stop pinning our hopes on that somehow working now when it hasn't all season.

I'd have Wildschut and Joseph up top and just kick the ball into them. Wildschut showed what he's capable of with his goal against Ipswich and he and Joseph were somewhat of an outlet against Plymouth last week.

Just punt it up to the two of them and have Brannagan behind them to run on and scrap for whatever he can get. If you look at the highlights from the Bristol Rovers v Burton game, Rovers conceded a simply awful goal that started with a Burton goal kick. The other goal was awful defending too. We just need to sling it up there and battle for what we can, as their defence looks capable of gifting us something.

Agree with the Wildshut Joseph partnership have been the best pairing up top this season, just need to cut out the sling it up there.
Rovers have 1 of the better front partnership in the league, especially if they play Coburn,
Without Gibson they’ve have been awful defensively recently.
We will need to be at our strongest at the back, will need to dominate the midfield,
So for me Findlay and McGuane back in.
It will be tight and Evans is a danger around the box, at set pieces.
They’ll be up for it. But think it’s time we get one over on Barton.

 

[Oufcrealist]

To be fair that's a hell of an achievement as we had Liam Kelly in midfield that day and he certainly didn't take any prisoners.

Yes, those little things that Kelly did that went unnoticed!!