Keep looking in the mirror
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I don't think it's a case of "no recruitment", but more "phased recruitment".
Self-evidently we invested heavily in attack-minded players in the summer. We took advantage of an exceptional opportunity to sign a player who wouldn't normally be found at our level in David McGoldrick, who even in taking a pay cut will still be a high earner by Notts' standards. We also signed Dan Crowley, who again won't have come cheap for wages, but who has proven to be an exceptional signing.
This investment probably came at the expense of investment in the defence, to a degree, but those are the resource limitations we face compared with, say, Wrexham, who might have more money to upgrade all parts of the team in one go.
We've got a team with plenty of attacking threat and goal-power, which has been key to making us very competitive in this league, but it probably means we'll have to wait for the January transfer window, and next summer (when certain out of contract players depart) in order for sufficient wages to be freed up to recruit the kind of quality in defence/midfield that we gained in attack last summer.
We're no different to most other League Two clubs in that respect, you have to evolve the squad gradually, in phases. You can't just write out cheques or sustain a wage budget to address all areas at once, especially when you're trying to recruit real quality.
I wonder if Eastcoastultra and this Russian guy are related? ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD1IjEoEwwo
Lots of good points raised here. I know I've said this on here before but I think it's important to keep reminding ourselves to look at the league leaders Stockport. We have scored two goals more than them, but they have conceded 16 less goals than us. They are a year in front of us as this is their second season since getting promoted. So they have had two summers and a January transfer window to build a title challenging team. We've had a summer. It's a gradual process and double promotion in the professional game is something that is not easy. It's hard, difficult and challenging.
Wrexham are only a point in front of us and have only conceded five less goals and scored the same.
Barrow have got the best defence in the league, but can only dream of the firepower we have in Langstaff, Crowley and McGoldrick. They've been at this level three seasons.
Mansfield tough to beat as they've only lost once but have drawn plenty. They've been at this level a number of years and past two seasons finished 7th & 8th.
No team at this level is perfect and at the moment we are in the top six mix with three places for automatic promotion and only a point behind 2nd place. If we are still a point behind 2nd place in March as we come to the business end I'd take that now.
The most annoying thing about tonight is that Shrewsbury’s anti-football won because of our calamitous defending. In the whole game, I’m not sure if they put together a single good move, yet they didn’t need to do anything decent to score three goals. Diabolical.
Sam Austin and James Sanderson (and maybe Chicksen) are the only Notts players who can proud of their efforts tonight.
I didn’t see much to get excited about in Dan Gosling, but maybe that’s because I wanted a midfielder to drive forward and be looking to make things happen (Bostock wasn’t much better apart from one great run towards the end). Nemane yet again showed he’s lost in that right-sided midfield role, while Randall has yet to show that he can beat a full back and put a decent cross in. He had one good run where with a bit of composure he could have scored, but otherwise offered nothing - and started the rot with a sloppy back pass to Baldwin, though of course couldn’t have predicted what would happen next (unless he’s seen Notts play before this season, of course).