So with my first day set-up all done, it was time to analyze the squad and see where we were strong, where we needed improving, and how we were going to set the team up to play this season.
The quality of players we have in the squad is stronger than I had been expecting, we lack depth in certain areas but the core of the team is decent for the level we’re at. We need a back up goalkeeper, as Tom McHale is the only goalkeeper on the books. We also only have one real option at right back, in youngster Billy Palfrey, and he is one of the weaker links, so some improvement here would be a smart addition. Going forward we look stronger, with attacking midfielder Tyler Harvey by far our most impressive player, surely he’s too good for this level.
Player Profiles
Tom McHale | Billy Palfrey – Chris Todd – Ben Gerring – Jamie Richards – Alex Hartridge – Connor Riley-Lowe | Niall Thompson – Ed Palmer – Cody Cooke – Ben Harding – Aaron Lamont – River Allen – Jordan Copp – Noah Keats – Tyler Harvey | Stuart Yetton – Andrew Neal
Finding players to improve the squad was always going to be a challenge, partly down to the lack of money available, but also due to having no staff to go and find me any options. As I mentioned in My First Day, I joined Truro with them possessing no scouts, so my first priority was to go and get myself some.
With transfer activity crawling along at a snail’s pace, I dived into some pre-season friendlies to get the squad fit and start training the formation I had come up with for the team.
I decided on a diamond, as all of the team’s strength comes down the centre, with very few options out wide. I wanted to keep the instructions very basic, just asking the team to exploit the middle as that’s where the majority of our play will be, and to use more direct passing as I want to get the ball forward quickly, and we don’t possess players technical enough to dominate the ball.
The friendlies got off to an appalling start, with a disappointing collapse against Merthyr, going ahead before completely falling apart. The Bournemouth result stands out as being particularly poor, but they were at near full strength and just had far too much for us, highlighted by us giving away 3 penalties! The Plymouth game was more even and we were unlucky not to score, but ultimately their quality told. I decided to try something new against the Plymouth Under 23’s, and went to a more controlling style despite reservations as to our ability to pull it off. We got the win, but we weren’t as convincing as I would like, the one positive was how clinical we were, we scored with both of our shots on target. The Falmouth game was set up last-minute for one last chance to test our controlling style, and we won 4-1 but went behind to a set piece, and had to wait for the second half to take our chances and kill off the game.
Throughout the pre-season we didn’t really have any transfer activity to speak of, we managed to get a few players in on trial, most notably, Liam Prynn, who came in on trial and impressed, getting a goal against Plymouth U23’s, but we couldn’t secure a deal as I wasn’t happy to pay the amount he wanted per game on a month to month contract. We also took Ben Steer on trial and eventually signed him to a month by month deal.(Screenshot was taken after a few league games, he didn’t actually sign until two games into the season)
The only signing we managed to secure in time for our first competitive game was that of a back up goalkeeper, a role we had identified throughout pre-season and we finally managed to get ourselves Gareth Owen, a former Sheffield United and Swansea youngster who comes in to provide able deputy and competition to Tom McHale.
So with pre-season over, it’s time to prepare for our opening month. We’ll cover the whole of August in the next post, all the fixtures, results and any more transfer business to occur. Thanks for reading.
Comments