Match Ratings v FGR

[51Magpie]

Crossley should walk after that shambles. A football coach he isn't! If he picked that side after knowing our defensive frailties this season, by putting one cb who's useless. Sandwiched between two players that cannot challenge for the ball. Numourous players out of position and expect to be competitive. I'd expect when Cooper saw that lineup he probably hurt himself laughing. Count Flappula in goal needs to be replaced sharpish, an experienced cb needed ASAP. Vaughan isn't influencing games. Put Hewitt in midfield at least he offers energy in there and isn't then the last line of defence. Strikers cannot really be judged as the play is too slow to find them. These players are robbing a wage from the club. But being asked to play out of position so frequently when you're poor to average in your preferred position isn't helping the situation. Allesandra mom 5 then subbed?

Agreed. I'm as disappointed with the result today as anyone, but I'm still sanguine about our prospects for the rest of the season. Why? Simply because we have enough decent players to be competitive provided they're selected in sensible positions, and properly motivated and organised. As many others have remarked, Hewitt has always been dire as a defender but was regularly turning out MoM performances in midfield. So today, we play him at CB while leaving a specialised CB on the bench. Hawkridge at right back? Who'd have thought it? Crossley apparently. If Nolan was taking any advice from him, then I think that's one good reason he's out of a job. I do believe that Kewell will sort out some of the obvious problems that even we ignorant fans can see. Two weeks from now I honestly expect us to be turning the corner.

[durhampie]

Alessandra was the best player on the pitch first half, it's taken us this long to finally use him properly, in the middle, pass him the ball and let him go. That's what he did at Hartlepool and the reason he stood out there. Moved him onto the wing in the second half and his impact was completely killed off before he was subbed, top notch work Crossley.

Kristian Dennis ended the game playing left wing back, fantastic.

Enzio finished the game playing right wing back...

Our defence in the second half consisted of two centre mids and Brisley...

Fitzsimons is the worst GK we've had since Pegguy Arphexad, absolute crisp packet hands and his self proclaimed best attribute of kicking is sh*te, sums up the rest of his abilities. He almost got lobbed by their keeper in the first half ffs.

Yet to see what Vaughan brings to the team other than spraying the ball around the pitch sideways and backwards, if we wanted someone to do that we might as well have Boucaud or Aborah, not sure what i expected of him but I've been massively dissapointed so far with him.

Kellett was once again a bright spark in a shower of sh*te, as he was against Lincoln, should have started at full back but i imagine Jones was given the nod by Crossley because he's bigger? Who knows...

What the f*ck has happened to Nathan Thomas? He walked past us in the Pavis today, presumably he picked up an injury in training because just like Allessandra, he was one of the best players on the pitch last time he played before being dragged off.

Milsom played as expected, steady. Speaking of Steady, big Jon played well once again off the bench, remember when people were worried he might play ahead of the new strikers in the summer?

They were very unlucky not to get a penalty when Brisley wiped out their player at the byline too but other than that I thought the referee had a good game for once, despite our fans not understanding the rules and moaning at him. No idea what was wrong with the goal they scored from a corner either, the ref definitely helped us today.

Thomas is being sent back....

[Freeman25]

Thomas is being sent back....

Says who? Do you know why?

[BigFatPie]

Nothing about Crossley suggests he should be anywhere near a professional club, let alone be a caretaker manager. His comments afterwards about the game being a “freebie” suggest no one gave a monkeys about winning, because obviously the worse we are now the more credit the new manager can claim if he turns it around.

The goalkeeping situation is literally the biggest farce I’ve known in 40 years of supporting Notts. How the f00k the club has managed to go the whole of the transfer window and then the loan window without getting someone in is a bad joke. Lincoln have got Sam Slocombe in on loan to sit on the f00king bench and he’s 10 times better than anyone we have.

Apologies, forgot about the ratings...3 to everyone for managing to put their shirts on the right way around.

[slack_pie]

At times it was difficult to tell if we were playing 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 such was the general disorganisation, but I agree with your point that a striker of Dennis' prolific nature should always be in front of goal.

I'm afraid with the current squad we cannot afford to have Hemmings and Dennis on the pitch at the same time, and the quicker the coaching staff stop trying to negotiate around that problem and make that decision, the better.

I agree, simply because we don't have the midfielders to play 4-4-2. But it's a massive shame to drop either Hemmings or Dennis, and I always prefer to have two up front. All this could have been sorted if we'd replaced Yates with a similar player. I can't understand how pretty much every fan can see we need a Yates mk.II, but the management give us players like Husin and Vaughan.

Nothing wrong with Vaughan as a footballer at all, but you should only ever buy a player like that if you 100% plan to play five in midfield. It looks like we're just collecting nice footballers without a thought to how they are actually going to be used together.

[slack_pie]

......and as for Crossley...he should **** off and be pushed off Trent Bridge and made to swim back to the ****ing city ground.

While I'm not sure about the details of your suggestion, I agree with the overall thrust of it.

Why is Crossley still at the club? What does he offer? How has he survived two managerial sackings to end up picking the team for an important (and winnable) home game?

And also, as an ex-keeper, how did he not spot that Fitzsimmons is a liability and mention so to Nolan? We don't have a league-quality keeper at the club - if anyone should have foreseen that issue, it was Crossley.

Get rid of the hangers on.

[nw6pie]

I agree, simply because we don't have the midfielders to play 4-4-2. But it's a massive shame to drop either Hemmings or Dennis, and I always prefer to have two up front. All this could have been sorted if we'd replaced Yates with a similar player. I can't understand how pretty much every fan can see we need a Yates mk.II, but the management give us players like Husin and Vaughan.

Nothing wrong with Vaughan as a footballer at all, but you should only ever buy a player like that if you 100% plan to play five in midfield. It looks like we're just collecting nice footballers without a thought to how they are actually going to be used together.

Perfect summation of our problem - nice footballers who can’t do the dirty work needed to succeed: the tracking back, the blocking, the tackling, the chasing, the bullying.

Teams must love playing against us, since we give them the chance to look good because we don’t pressure the ball. Even a journeyman like Reuben Reid looked good against us, given our feeble, brittle back four. Wasn’t there anybody thinking, “Hang on, lads, this is League 2” as all these lightweights were signed?

Six games in, and it seems Jon Stead is our best hope, for fecks sake!

[optipez]

Fitz, 4. Confidence is shattered, easy to forget how well he played last season. Ever changing awful defence in front of him not helping him at all.

Hawkridge. 5 Not a RB, did his best.

Hewitt 4.5 Not a CB or RB, we're killing him as a footballer.

Brisley 5 played better but it's every man for himself and until they're a unit they'll all look bad.

Jones 4 Thought he was doing a lot better , then sold badly short on the pass and flew in. On the one hand at least he competed but as a senior pro he must have known what the consequences would be.

Enzio 4. Left back marked him well, their no10 doubled up on him. Not sure he's got much heart in a fight but he must be bitterly regretting his transfer right now.

Allessandra 6.5 MOM always available, put in a shift and apart from dropping Jones in it played to the required standard.

Vaughan 4.5 He's been a class player, way above L2 but he's a luxury at the moment. You can't blame him for being him nor do I think he isn't trying, just wrong man , wrong place , wrong time.

Milsom 6 did ok, not spectacular but if everyone played to that level we don't keep conceding 3 goals a game.

Hemmings 4. Low score because he was ineffective. Ineffective because we're not playing to his strengths.

Dennis 4 .Awful waste of a 1 in 3 striker, like Hemmings, we're killing him.

Subs
Hussin 2 To consistently waste dead balls as a pro footballer is pathetic, as is his overall game.
Stead 6 Top pro, made a difference, got a goal, way past his best but still should be starting.

At least five players were playing out of position, half the effing team!!
Fitz needs dropping to his own good, no actual cover, appalling from the club.
The spine.....keeper, centre half pairing, midfielder enforcer, target man...isn't there. Real problems that we've seen before. A big, expensively assembled squad with not one of them nailing down a shirt and playing to their potential is everything you need for a relegation battle. Except they're not battling, they will go down without a whimper if that carries on.

[optipez]

Oops, Kellet 5.5 could be an Alan Judge type player fizzing around making things happen but he'll need some physical players around him to get the best from him.

The imbalance in this squad is frightening.

[jackal2]

It looks like we're just collecting nice footballers without a thought to how they are actually going to be used together.

I think you're right. If Nolan intended to stick rigidly to his 4-4-2 system, then his recruitment of central midfielders was abysmal. He needed battle-hardened box-to-box tackling machines, but instead he brought in a succession of young lightweights and David Vaughan, who at his age is better suited to a role sitting in front of the back four.