Quote Originally Posted by Notts78 View Post
Today was definitely a tough day. There is clearly a lot of work to be done. Anyone who thinks that professional footballers can just rock up and know what each of there team mates will do is nuts, that clearly can only be achieved by playing games. Pre-season in hindsight has been pointless, playing 3 teams who are above us in League status and ability was good for fitness, and that is about it. It did little to help the lads ‘gel’ in an attacking sense. I was one that said the results didn’t matter, but in future it is worth looking at playing teams that we can be competitive with, top end of conference and bottom end of League 1.
In terms of today.
Totally agree with this. We gain nothing by playing against "pub" teams and cannot hope to compete and learn against superior teams who won't give the ball away.
Vaughan looked a class player for the first half-hour, passing the ball ON THE FLOOR! Then knackeredness crept in.
For what seems like every game now I see a loose ball flying to an opposing player who receives it on his chest and controls it but yesterday, as what seems like usual, a ball like that which went to a Notts midfielder or defender was not controlled but headed straight back into the mix for someone else to try and then 50/50 won or lost. Training sessions should be concentrating on this as it's from these little acorns that attacking oaks do grow.
Jones seemed to be the weak link. Often out of position but available to receive a pass he then sprints towards the corner with it presumably to cross it into the box. This movement, I can only guess, is part of Nolly's tactics in attack but is soon countered when defenders see the same tall player, the one with the funny blond hairdo, take the ball and run.
I can only hope that after each game Nolly, with each player, goes through what is expected of him. If, as I said before, we had been playing against more realistic teams pre-season we could have ironed out these creases before the serious competition started. We are now learning as we play instead of having learnt before when there were no points to be lost.