Squad and tactics

[jackal2]

In my humble opinion, these truths about our squad and tactics are self-evident from events tonight and results/performances so far this season:-

• Without a beast like Ryan Yates, the midfield players in the squad are not robust enough to play a two-man central midfield so we'll have to bin the 4-4-2 and go to three players in the centre of the park, two of whom must primarily 'sit' and protect the back four

• Leading on from the point above, the back four of last season were made to look much stronger than they actually are when they had Yates and Hewitt protecting them in the first half of 2017/18

• Playing with a third centre-half doesn't make us defensively stronger, because the biggest problems of all are coming from weakness in the full back and midfield positions - we need the two defensive midfielders (one left and one right) as described above to provide double cover for our full-backs, who are okay going forward but absolutely shocking at getting tight and defending crosses

• Elliott Hewitt should never play full-back again (in his career!) and whoever originally told him he could play that position wants shooting - the lad was a revelation as a central or defensive midfielder last season and he needs to get back to that role pronto, before his confidence goes west

• Ross Fitzsimons is the least of our problems defensively, if indeed he's even a problem at all. Tonight the goals were not his fault and he made several good saves to stop the score going to six, seven or eight-nil

• It's not quite as bad as it seems right now, because there are players in this side who genuinely can play good, sharp one touch passing football and have the flair and skill to individually create and finish chances, but the team can only accommodate a maximum of four of them at any one time. We arguably tried to play with six tonight (two strikers, two wingers and two 'nice' central midfielders) and out of possession we got torn to shreds

• Leading on from the above point, for the first time in years we actually do have strikers and wingers with enough creativity and goal scoring potency to play a 4-3-3 (e.g. Boldewijn - Dennis - Thomas) or a 4-2-3-1 (e.g. Boldewijn - Alessandra - Thomas; and Dennis or Hemmings up top)

• Kevin Nolan still retains the support of plenty of the fan base at the ground (which is very different to NCM and Twitter) at present, and rightly so after the improvements of his first 18 months, but obviously many more results like tonight and the situation will change rapidly


I'm interested to hear what others think...

[drillerpie]

In my humble opinion, these truths about our squad and tactics are self-evident from events tonight and results/performances so far this season:-

• Without a beast like Ryan Yates, the midfield players in the squad are not robust enough to play a two-man central midfield so we'll have to bin the 4-4-2 and go to three players in the centre of the park, two of whom must primarily 'sit' and protect the back four

• Leading on from the point above, the back four of last season were made to look much stronger than they actually are when they had Yates and Hewitt protecting them in the first half of 2017/18

• Playing with a third centre-half doesn't make us defensively stronger, because the biggest problems of all are coming from weakness in the full back and midfield positions - we need the two defensive midfielders (one left and one right) as described above to provide double cover for our full-backs, who are okay going forward but absolutely shocking at getting tight and defending crosses

• Elliott Hewitt should never play full-back again (in his career!) and whoever originally told him he could play that position wants shooting - the lad was a revelation as a central or defensive midfielder last season and he needs to get back to that role pronto, before his confidence goes west

• Ross Fitzsimons is the least of our problems defensively, if indeed he's even a problem at all. Tonight the goals were not his fault and he made several good saves to stop the score going to six, seven or eight-nil

• It's not quite as bad as it seems right now, because there are players in this side who genuinely can play good, sharp one touch passing football and have the flair and skill to individually create and finish chances, but the team can only accommodate a maximum of four of them at any one time. We arguably tried to play with six tonight (two strikers, two wingers and two 'nice' central midfielders) and out of possession we got torn to shreds

• Leading on from the above point, for the first time in years we actually do have strikers and wingers with enough creativity and goal scoring potency to play a 4-3-3 (e.g. Boldewijn - Dennis - Thomas) or a 4-2-3-1 (e.g. Boldewijn - Alessandra - Thomas; and Dennis or Hemmings up top)

• Kevin Nolan still retains the support of plenty of the fan base at the ground (which is very different to NCM and Twitter) at present, and rightly so after the improvements of his first 18 months, but obviously many more results like tonight and the situation will change rapidly


I'm interested to hear what others think...

I think that's a very accurate assessment.

[Chicken Balti Pie]

Sorry I disagree about Fitzsimons. He has no command of his area what so ever. He's rooted to his line and makes no attempt to go for crosses, as for his distribution, I think my dog has fired stuff out of his backside with more quality

[jackal2]

Sorry I disagree about Fitzsimons. He has no command of his area what so ever. He's rooted to his line and makes no attempt to go for crosses, as for his distribution, I think my dog has fired stuff out of his backside with more quality

How tall is your dog? Does he have good reflexes? What are his wage demands?

[Chicken Balti Pie]

How tall is your dog? Does he have good reflexes? What are his wage demands?

Tell you what, balls going into the box would be pounced on!

[LesBradd4England]

Some incisive points.
I'd argue about improvements in first 18 months. Maybe the first 10 months. The last 8 have been modest at best and are currently ****e. Very rarely when things start to slide do they turn around.

[jacobncfc]

I think that the big problem is in midfield. To be honest I thought that both Hemmings and Dennis did fine and looked reasonably promising, and the back four were completely hung out to dry.

That midfield, though, is a complete disaster. It has none of the things that you need at this level - neither of the wingers have a defensive instinct in them, and the central two are short, weak and slow. Yeovil played well, but any team in this league would be eating Husin and Vaughan alive. Both are technically quality players, but to have any chance of getting something constructive out of them it needs to be in a three man central midfield with two physical defensive midfielders - Hewitt and another one that we would have to sign. Playing the two together in that formation was just completely suicidal.

[jackal2]

I think that the big problem is in midfield. To be honest I thought that both Hemmings and Dennis did fine and looked reasonably promising, and the back four were completely hung out to dry.

That midfield, though, is a complete disaster. It has none of the things that you need at this level - neither of the wingers have a defensive instinct in them, and the central two are short, weak and slow. Yeovil played well, but any team in this league would be eating Husin and Vaughan alive. Both are technically quality players, but to have any chance of getting something constructive out of them it needs to be in a three man central midfield with two physical defensive midfielders - Hewitt and another one that we would have to sign. Playing the two together in that formation was just completely suicidal.

Yes the balance was completely wrong. With the players we've got we need six members of the team to be primarily defensive, freeing the remaining four (e.g. the likes of Boldewijn, Thomas, Alessandra, Dennis) to express themselves relatively freely.

I think Nolan is desperate to field two strikers, which normally I love to see, and that's probably why he tried switching to a 3-5-2 in the second half, but Boldewijn hasn't got the defensive nous or appetite to be a wing-back.

What we do know is that Dennis in particular has a good enough goal record to play as a lone central striker, and that Boldewijn and Thomas also have good strike rates for wide players, so a front three of those players should be potent.

[vape1862]

I agree with most of the above but think that instead of 2 out and out defensive midfielders what this team needs is a box to box midfielder in the Bishop mold, reliable defensively but can get forward, pick loose balls up and lay off a simple pass. I'm not sure we've got one at the minute so with what we've got available I agree with your assessment. Maybe Kellett could do the job? Don't know enough about him to say to be honest. Just think tha

[vape1862]

Sorry post is playing up. Meant to add that with only 4 getting forward they'd need to be top notch to score enough for a promotion push.