So is this a promotion team?

Given James Brents adulation for Fletcher in todays press, and all the talk from players and management of the positive prospects for the coming season, quite simply given the quality and form of the current 24 player squad; is this a promotion team for 2012?

NO
NO
NO
NO
NO


Defensively could be, but the midfield creativity and attack is severely lacking. At the moment I would guess low mid table (16 - 20th). Our only wide players are Young,Bhasera and Lennox- Young tends to have one good half then a poor second, Bhasera is a full back playing in midfield and Lennox has ability but isn't involved enough. Our only creative spark in midfield is Hourihane who isn't the best (although he did improve towards the end of the season). We will lack service to an already poor attack and our best hope of scoring is through set pieces.

Mid table.

Despite my reservations I'm always over optimistic with Argyle, backed us to go up last season ffs

I'll go for about 9th, never really in the hunt for a play-off place but having a strong finish. This probably means you could put a 1 in front though!

Unless there's a sudden influx of moderate quality in m/f and up front, it's going to be dour defensive crap. That much must be obvious.

Ive seen nothing to change my mind that we will fiinish mid table at best unless we can strengthen the squad.

The defence is still intact and performed well last season although were helped out by a 4 man midfield sat in front of them. There is no additional width down the left as long as Williams remains there.

Midfield has not been strengthened and its frailties remain. Will Luke get the chance to play inside now Walton has gone and is that the answer to the creative midfielder, probably not, but then he's not a winger either. We need both.

Forward line (?) looks as thin as last year. Lets hope Matt LeC gets the opportunity to shine from the off as he has always shown he has real promise. But we need a proper striker to play alongside him to mentor and take the pressure off him. Perhaps Paris will be the answer, the odds may be against it, but hasty judgements would be wrong until we have seen him play. But to expect him to come in and get 20 goals in the season would be perhaps, too much.

No chance as long as the squad remains as it is.Posters have made the point that defensively we are sound but i would be concerned at the lack of cover for the two centre backs-is Nelson good enough to step in when injuries and suspensions kick in,which they almost certainly will,and are here any other players on the books who could cover if needed? Big questions indeed.The only hope of improving in the midfield and forward areas is if Young,Lecointe and Hourihane really kick on this year,but it's a very big ask IMHO.More quality is desperately needed in these areas if we are even to contemplate a decent season and at the moment i'm not holding my breath.

Chemical Ali wrote:

NO
NO
NO
NO
NO


Defensively could be, but the midfield creativity and attack is severely lacking. At the moment I would guess low mid table (16 - 20th). Our only wide players are Young,Bhasera and Lennox- Young tends to have one good half then a poor second, Bhasera is a full back playing in midfield and Lennox has ability but isn't involved enough. Our only creative spark in midfield is Hourihane who isn't the best (although he did improve towards the end of the season). We will lack service to an already poor attack and our best hope of scoring is through set pieces.

A bit like England then CA. 46 nil nils should see us safe!

Another issue could be that if Lecointe is given a run in the team and starts to score goals he will almost certainly be the target of higher league clubs, who apparently were looking at him last year.

We all know that from now on we have to sell our best young players eventually, but hopefully not before they have done their bit for us.

Also if Purse fancies Christmas off again and conveniently gets suspended, we do have a bit of a problem there.

No No and No.I have been supporting Argyle since 1962,silly old fool I know.This team is in no way shape or form a promotion team.The weaknesses are obvious,a poor central midfield with no box to box midfielder capable of scoring 10+ goals from open play.Poor wingers /fullbacks who struggle to get forward and get crosses into the box and fail to score a few goals as well.Lack of a target man who can score goals and hold the ball up..When Jake Cole boots the ball straight down the middle you just know it will come straight back.Lack of a number 10 who can stick the ball in the back of the net on a regular basis.Mid table at best. At least the Avivas will be happy.

Greenjock wrote:

Another issue could be that if Lecointe is given a run in the team and starts to score goals he will almost certainly be the target of higher league clubs, who apparently were looking at him last year.

We all know that from now on we have to sell our best young players eventually, but hopefully not before they have done their bit for us.

Also if Purse fancies Christmas off again and conveniently gets suspended, we do have a bit of a problem there.

How very dare you ! Ee's our mate and he bleeds green !

If the young 'uns start firing then maybe, but it is a massive ask, would be more luck than anything. We have a good defence now give Fletch the means to add to it Harry.

The answer for me is a definite NO, we hear a lot about Fletcher being open and honest with the players and really going for fitness. But anyone surely with even a rudimentry knowledge of football could say we have a stong enough strike force even at this level, let alone the faithful who turn up week after week and can see the hole in the quality of the side. to be really cynical it all looks really incestuous at H.P with Fletcher praising Brent praising anyone employed by him.
Sadly I fear I will be going next season out of loyalty rather than positive expectation, although I really hope I have to eat those words.

It's not even a survival team

a team set up to avoid defeat will never challenge such heavyweights as fleetwood & cheltenham

no attack to speak of
poor midfield
defence is ok mind

Freathy wrote:

It's not even a survival team

If I knew hot to do a screen shot, I would copy this and re-post it when the Mighty Greens are promoted at the end of this season.

At a glance you would have to say our squad is a fair bit weaker than last season. Although the new midfielder has to be an improvement in the guy he's replacing so we should be better in the centre of midlfield. That's got to help. The unknown factors are the youngsters in the squad. Are they ready. Are they good enough. If we have a bunch of youngsters who can get picked for first team duty then we may just be a little better than we all think. But most youngsters I can recall have been introduced slowly to the first team, even if they are good enough. It's hard to see us relying on them too much, with the exception of Young looks pretty established now. I think you would have to be an extreme optimist to think we are anywhere near good enough as it stands. I reckon we need three at least three really good players for this level to be in ith a shout.

knecht wrote:

Freathy wrote:

It's not even a survival team

If I knew hot to do a screen shot, I would copy this and re-post it when the Mighty Greens are promoted at the end of this season.

Open word or notepad, minimise, view screen to save, press shift+print screen, this saves the screen to the clipboard, open word and right click and paste. Then save to Flickr

I can see why you don't post much Ming. You are supposed to say "NO" and leave it at that. If you say too much then you will get a label. Far too much thought there.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

I can see why you don't post much Ming. You are supposed to say "NO" and leave it at that. If you say too much then you will get a label. Far too much thought there.

Quite merciless I thought.

[Just for Sensible...]

NO!!!!

But not even slightly predictable..........

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

I can see why you don't post much Ming. You are supposed to say "NO" and leave it at that. If you say too much then you will get a label. Far too much thought there.

Oops sorry. I couldn't resist when I found a thread that's pretty much just about football. I dodge all the other stuff folks on this site talk about because mostly seems like extreme tribalism. People are not happy being Janners against the rest of the world they need to go a step further and be in an elite tribe of Janners that hates all the rest. Tiz odd

You're doing it again......know what you mean though.

The Elite Janners most probably spoke a Southwestern Brythonic dialect similar to the forerunner of more recent Cornish and Breton. Irish immigrants, the Déisi, are evidenced by the Ogham-inscribed stones they have left behind, confirmed and supplemented by toponymical studies. The stones are sometimes inscribed in Latin, sometimes in both scripts. Tristram Risdon suggested the continuance of a Brythonic dialect in the South Hams, Devon, as late as the 14th century, in addition to its use in Cornwall.

Apart from fishing and agriculture, the main economic resource of the Elite Janners was tin mining. Tin extraction (mainly by streaming) had existed within the tribe from the early Bronze Age around the 22nd century BC.