Claim made on Tom Cleverley's Plymouth Argyle future amid "worrying" situation | OneFootball

FLW's Plymouth fan pundit has given his verdict on Tom Cleverley's slow start to life as manager

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Tom Cleverley has made a poor start to life as the new Plymouth Argyle manager.

There were a lot of expectations upon his appointment earlier in the summer, with supporters hoping he could guide them to promotion back to the Championship.

However, he has overseen just one win from their opening six league fixtures, leaving the Pilgrims inside the relegation zone with the close of the summer transfer window.

Plymouth are already 12 points adrift of the automatic promotion places, with the pressure set to ramp up on the ex-Watford coach if results don’t improve in September.

Plymouth to blame for Tom Cleverley’s bad start

When asked if he has any early doubts on Cleverley, FLW’s Plymouth fan pundit Luke Hodge claimed that the club itself are more to blame for the bad start to the season.

He highlighted the recruitment strategy, suggesting the team is much worse now than it was at the beginning of the summer.

“No doubts about Tom, and I think the majority of the supporters feel the same way, this isn’t on him, this is on the club itself,” Hodge told Football League World.

“They’ve been poor in the market, recruitment’s been really poor.

“Don’t get me wrong, we have signed some half-decent players, but there’s a real lack of balance in the squad, it’s very young, a lack of experience, a lack of quality and lack of numbers.

“Not going to lie, it’s a little bit worrying.

“The club’s lost a lot of internal positions, and they seem to be reactive at the moment instead of knowing what they want and how they’re going to go about it.

“The fact that we’ve got a couple of young players in Freddie Issaka and Caleb Roberts, they should’ve been out on loan probably 18 months ago, at a critical stage in their career and are still getting sporadic minutes for us, which isn’t doing them or the club any good.

“So, there’s a lot of worrying signs around the club at the moment.”

Too soon to judge Tom Cleverley

Hodge has claimed that Cleverley hasn’t had enough time with the team yet, and that it’s too soon to judge, even if there are question marks beginning to emerge surrounding his tactics.

“But, in terms of Tom Cleverley, I don’t think this is on him,” he continued.

“He’s been stubborn in his 4-2-3-1 formation, a lot of people questioning that, saying we should be going to a back three.

“However, when you lose literally every player from the squad because of the relegation last year and have to start again with a whole new team, then I kind of understand that chopping and changing formations might not be the best thing.

“He needs to stick by his guns, stick to a 4-2-3-1 and hope these players start to understand what he wants and how he wants to play, and that they start to gel sooner rather than later.

“It hasn’t been great, we don’t want any knee-jerk reactions, we’re only five games in.

“However, being favourites for promotion is well and truly not the case now, and I think most of the fans realise that to stay in the division will be the aim at the moment.

“Because, as things stand, we are probably in a relegation fight.

“I don’t think we’ll go down, I think we’ll probably end up mid-table-ish.

“It’s a time to consolidate and hopefully start to improve.

“We’ve had a tough run of games, it doesn’t get any easier, we’ve got Stockport on Saturday, who are right up there.

“I think Cleverley's got a bit of time on his hands, I’ve been on social media and they’re not criticising him yet.

“There’s a few people criticising him, as you would expect with how poorly we’ve done, but this is mainly on the recruitment and the club rather than Tom Cleverley.

“But, us fickle fans, that can soon change.”

Plymouth are currently 21st in the League One table after six games, having earned three points from a possible 18.

Changes will take time to work at Plymouth

It was a hectic summer for Plymouth, who changed manager, as well as a majority of their squad after getting relegated.

It’s no surprise they’ve made a slow start given that context, and Cleverley may figure things out with some time.

Patience may be required, but the 36-year-old showed last year in the Championship that he is more than capable of competing at this level as a coach.

If results don’t improve, then the pressure will be on, but Plymouth should back their man for the time being and give him a chance to figure things out with this new squad.