***Gillingham Official Matchday Thread***

The only positive is in the Betsy days it would have probably have been a lame defeat rather than a point. The distance from 23rd place still needs increasing.

need Balagizi back

Agree with most of what's been said, it was drab, listless, dull and uninspired. Youngy admitted as much after the game and suggested it was perhaps "one game too many", but it was disappointing given how apparently brilliant we were on Saturday prior to Ludi's red.

As mentioned by others, Lynch and Craig were fantastic, but aside from that I don't think a single other outfield player was anything more than fine, and most were poor.

There were a lot of needless passes backwards. It's necessary some of the time, of course, but it often feels like our players' first instinct is to pass it back, even if there's far more danger in that direction. More than once we passed it back, straight to a Gillingham player when there was more space in front. We repeatedly passed it from the halfway line to the backline and then to Balcombe, who then kicked it back to the halfway line and a Gillingham player won it because all our forward players are tiny.

The midfield has been a concern all season. I do think Jenks did well but Powell continues to frustrate and baffle, and Hess has been poor for a few games now. Just not sure what our midfield is supposed to be tbh, nobody seems to have a defined role, they just kind of pop up every now and again in random places. As said, Balagizi coming back will help but if there is any money for players in January, it has to be invested in experienced and/or purposeful midfielders.

Love all our strikers but still not sure we have figured out how to get the best out of them, not helped by the black hole of a midfield. Telford needs service and is getting zero, Nichols looked shattered last night and Nadderz also didn't get anything to run on to, though for some reason we gave Oteh about three through balls when he came on.

Hopefully the break will do us good, but we need to figure out what our tactics actually are by the time we come back because at times it seems like it's simply "You, do something individually amazing, now."