Michael Appleton - March 2025 appointed Shrewsbury manager (p124)

Leuth said:

RC_CAFC said:

One thing I find strange is that we’ve been on this run despite me thinking he’s got his starting line up/shape wrong each time. 

What he’s been brilliant at, is recognising that, putting it right and generally putting in superb second half performances.

I'm starting to see it as a sort of deliberate pacing of our momentum 

It could be. But if it is deliberate or not, it's not sustainable - probability suggests sooner or later we're going to have a poor start against a team who are good enough or lucky enough to actually put a few chances away and be 2 or 3 behind by half time and the customary "improved momentum" won't be enough. And once that has gone, it will be incredibly hard to get it back, IMO.

I'm very impressed with Appleton so far, genuinely. But I still want to see us have a good game - 90 minutes worth - not games where we're better for 45 minutes, or 60 minutes, or even 30 here and 30 there. Just a game where we are consistently better than the oppo.


And to be fair I suspect that is probably what MA is trying to work towards, playing a long game. But it's still frustrating that we only turn up for periods of any given match.

It’s all going according to my plan……,,.

Don't remember doing so well under Peeters at all

Mike said:

Don't remember doing so well under Peeters at all

Must have mostly been draws right? I think I remember a lot of 1-1s under big bob.

FishCostaFortune said:

Mike said:

Don't remember doing so well under Peeters at all

Must have mostly been draws right? I think I remember a lot of 1-1s under big bob.

And lgor scoring regularly to keep us in games 

Garrymanilow said:

Mike said:

Don't remember doing so well under Peeters at all

We didn't really. We only won 4 of those games and we were god awful to watch a lot of the time. It was clear early on that we were totally reliant on Vetokele scoring and when he got injured we had nothing else. We relied on a fair few late goals and a nicking of such an undeserved win against Norwich that I honestly still feel a bit guilty about to this day. I think by the time Peeters was sacked he'd only lost 6 games but he'd also only won 2 more after our first loss and started to alienate a lot of the players because he was an absolute shit. It always felt like it wasn't going to work out with him as the season went on

That win against Norwich unjustifiably set back the Jackson's Legs Have Gone narrative back at least half a year ffs 

So a draw on Tuesday then 😃

Elthamaddick said:

RC_CAFC said:

One thing I find strange is that we’ve been on this run despite me thinking he’s got his starting line up/shape wrong each time. 

What he’s been brilliant at, is recognising that, putting it right and generally putting in superb second half performances.

But he still starts each game with a bit of a strange line up / formation ??

He’s slowly getting there. We’re not playing May up front on his own anymore. I think Tuesday will surely see Campbell start on the right and then we are pretty much there 

Our bench has got to be up there as one of the strongest in the league so I think we will keep on finishing games strong with players like Asiimwe, Fraser, Camara, Tedic and Aneke to bring on 

NabySarr said:

Elthamaddick said:

RC_CAFC said:

One thing I find strange is that we’ve been on this run despite me thinking he’s got his starting line up/shape wrong each time. 

What he’s been brilliant at, is recognising that, putting it right and generally putting in superb second half performances.

But he still starts each game with a bit of a strange line up / formation ??

He’s slowly getting there. We’re not playing May up front on his own anymore. I think Tuesday will surely see Campbell start on the right and then we are pretty much there 

Our bench has got to be up there as one of the strongest in the league so I think we will keep on finishing games strong with players like Asiimwe, Fraser, Camara, Tedic and Aneke to bring on 

I do wonder how much of it is about managing a 100 minute game and the numbers of players that he is happy/confident in playing the full game with minimal risk.

Campbell and Asiimwe are both very young still and have both had injuries already this season.  As is/has Leaburn.

L Watson has never played regular men's football before and is still struggling to play more than 70 minutes.  

You have to get the balance between starting your best team, maximising when you use your players most effectively, planning for "what ifs", and protecting your younger players from burn out.

Maybe if Aneke isn't avaliable Chem can come on to the bench and allow Tupac to start?

As I mentioned on the post match thread think he got the selection wrong today. After winning 4-0 against Reading probably thought he could change the personnel and keep the same style and go and dominate Lincoln.

For me I think Appleton needs to bring in an additional midfielder (Camera but not fit enough to start) and drop one of the front 4 to make us harder to play against. In almost every game we have seen teams make 1 or 2 passes between them and they are running at our back 4. 

The majority of our players are shit
you can’t polish a turd

Fortune 82nd Minute said:

oohaahmortimer said:

The majority of our players are shit
you can’t polish a turd

Agreed. But you could at least set them up to give them a chance.

Playing May up front on his own yesterday against 3 big defenders,  one of whom is possibly the best in the league, was just completely and utterly stupid.

I don’t think it was stupid at all, and I would have started the same 11. Moving back to 3-5-2 was second best option. Leaburn was very poor against Lincoln, and Camera needed to come back into the starting 11. For Leaburn to start we either go with a front 4 which doesn't work defensively, or drop Campbell and move May to the wing.

The issue is that our squad is very unbalanced for any formation. That is on Andy Scott and Holden.