Recruitment under Matt Gray

[localboy86]

With Sutton not having a game today and then subsequently announcing the signing of defender Coby Rowe from Haringey - it got me thinking about our recruitment under Matt and how impressed I've been by this facet of his management since he took over. With such a big player turnaround in the close season of course some players were going to settle and adapt quicker than others.

In terms of which signings have been a 'hit' or 'miss' - the majority would surely have to go down as 'hits', even the unsung hero Jon Barden who was brought in mid-way through last season was apparently all down to Matt.

Hit:
Tzanev (loan)
John (loan)
Goodliffe
Milsom
Wyatt
Ajiboye
Bugiel

Undecided:
Jarvis
Reid
Randall
Matzusaka (released)

MISS:
Tuson-Firth (released)


Here's hoping the new boy Rowe can be added to the successful signings list too!

[baboonfish]

Matzusaka was a stinker and judging by reports from Braintrees 6-0 defeat at Dulwich far from even conf south standard. Agreed though, especially since Gray rightly switched on the loan issue it's hard to argue with his recruitment and I've been generally impressed with the quality he has brought in.

Hope I'm wrong but I don't see Jarvis working out but that's not cos he's a bad player, just not physically strong enough for this level. Besides Matzusaka my only real complaints about our transfer activity concerns the policy towards some of the youth prospects and also a couple of first teamers that we let go in the summer but no point going over that again.

If we can keep the majority of the current squad together and add a bit more quality in the summer we could really establish ourselves as a top half side again next season.

[Amber Aleman]

Describing Dan Matzusaka as "a stinker" is more than a little harsh. He obviously wasn't a first choice centre back, but I thought he did well enough when called upon to deputise. I can only recall him making one serious mistake, giving away a penalty at Solihull, but that was a game in which we were already trailing and, frankly, didn't look like getting anything from.

As for Aaron Jarvis, he suffered from playing on his own up front for much of the early part of the season. That was asking a lot of a young striker in such a physical division. He may be quite tall, but he's not exactly built like Dundo! Now that Omar and Tommy are fit again and the preferred strike force, Aaron is starting most games on the bench, but often coming on for one of the others. He's already shown that he can score at this level, and I'd expect more goals to follow if he gets enough game time alongside a stike partner.

[baboonfish]

Dulwich fans were literally laughing at him last weekend, I've played with better defenders on Sunday park pitches. The point im making is that aside from that, which was clearly just a case of picking up an available cheap defender for back up, Gray's recruitment appears to be a real strength. One could accuse dos of a somewhat scatter gun approach (less so in the conf national years), Gray's approach seems more considered, emergencies aside. If you get one Ben jefford for every roarie deacon, you've done pretty well in my book.

I genuinely rate Jarvis, I just fear his hold up play is simply not going to be good enough. He seemed to me a natural finisher, but then had those two woeful misses against Billericay, which clearly destroyed his confidence. He's done well in recent substitute displays but I think we may need to recruit another quality striker to be challenging next season. I just can't see Jarvis getting consistent goals at this level unless he really makes leaps and bounds in his development (possible). If he's not going to be prolific he needs to create chances and I don't see that happening either but again I'm happy to be proven wrong on him.

[jr]

Jan 12, 2020 17:48:17 GMT baboonfish said:

Dulwich fans were literally laughing at him last weekend, I've played with better defenders on Sunday park pitches. The point im making is that aside from that, which was clearly just a case of picking up an available cheap defender for back up, Gray's recruitment appears to be a real strength. One could accuse dos of a somewhat scatter gun approach (less so in the conf national years), Gray's approach seems more considered, emergencies aside. If you get one Ben jefford for every roarie deacon, you've done pretty well in my book.

I genuinely rate Jarvis, I just fear his hold up play is simply not going to be good enough. He seemed to me a natural finisher, but then had those two woeful misses against Billericay, which clearly destroyed his confidence. He's done well in recent substitute displays but I think we may need to recruit another quality striker to be challenging next season. I just can't see Jarvis getting consistent goals at this level unless he really makes leaps and bounds in his development (possible). If he's not going to be prolific he needs to create chances and I don't see that happening either but again I'm happy to be proven wrong on him.

And yesterday he was in a poll for Braintree’s man of the match.

[Del]

I thought Dan Matzusaka was excellent when he played for us and though not a centre back i thought he would make a good attacking wing back.

[baboonfish]

People on here really do love to latch upon to the things they disagree on and ignore the rest don't they? Myself and the other fans I watch with thought he was well out of his depth, i guess Gray did too. Others are welcome to their opinions but I've got no more to add about Matzusaka. Anyone got anything to say about the original post as it was quite an interesting question, been a total echo chamber of late. What positions still need strengthening? What signings of Matt's have particularly impressed or underwhelmed?

[Andy K]

Jan 12, 2020 22:13:05 GMT baboonfish said:

People on here really do love to latch upon to the things they disagree on and ignore the rest don't they? Myself and the other fans I watch with thought he was well out of his depth, i guess Gray did too. Others are welcome to their opinions but I've got no more to add about Matzusaka. Anyone got anything to say about the original post as it was quite an interesting question, been a total echo chamber of late. What positions still need strengthening? What signings of Matt's have particularly impressed or underwhelmed?

Well when your first post in this conversation was mostly negative, especially about Matsuzaka, then you pretty much are inviting the reaction you're being critical about! It's hardly been an echo chamber, but I'm sure you understand that no one is obliged to comment on everything or obliged to comment the way you want them to! Did we even see enough of Matsuzaka to make an informed judgement? Remember Aswad? Awful for quite a while, but came good with time. The number of people I've seen saying that Kearney was the next messiah, and although he seems to have picked up some form at Dulwich, he had a woeful loan at Harrow just before. Sometimes it's about the manager and the situation that player is in. Sometimes you get good players playing badly because they just don't get with the manager or the set up at the club.

For what it's worth, there's no one I've seen so far who can be classed as a "bad signing" yet. It's easier to point to who have been impressive signings - aside from the obvious (Ajiboye and Omar in particular), Wyatt has been consistently good in every match he's played for us and Goodliffe became a changed player as soon as Louis John came back into the side. We've certainly not got a Michael Boateng or Ben Jefford in the side.

In terms of strengthening, I'm not sure we even need to. If this squad stays fit and free from bans, then it's by far good enough to get a decent position in this league (which is huge when you think about the budget we have). We need to strengthen when we have players who will be out for a while and we have no cover. That's where loans come in.

[Big Al]

Far too early in my opinion to pronounce any of these a ‘hit’ or a ‘miss’.. like Matt himself the jury is still out and has to be for at least a season. For example it’s right to say that Pnar has hit a vein of form but we are only talking about that extending the last ten or so games. Let’s wait until we see where we get to in May before we pronounce judgement - either positive or negative.

[pinewalker]

From the original listings I would swap the positions of Milsom and Jarvis. Jarvis has needed players to make runs before he receives an aerial ball. His heading is good enough to be able to direct the flick-ons to meet the run. When he last played with a sharp Tommy - you could see that.

Dan Matzusaka was unlucky, he had the makings of a decent full-back but none of the attributes of a centre half, yet that is the position he is judged on. Added to that, I think he was mentally scarred by that head collision at Aldershot and never wanted to risk another.

[fran1]

Please put me out of my misery as I travel south from Stockport on the supporters coach.

In Big Als' post on this thread he refers to 'pnar'.
Who is pnar please?

[steviem]

Omar?

[Big Al]

Yes sorry - the spill chocccer didn’t work. Omar

[brisfitboy]

Shades of Officer Crabtree in “Allo Allo”.