Originally Posted by
jackal2
I wouldn't want to change our playing style overall, because it's the most entertaining football I've seen in over 30 years watching Notts County.
That said, it would be unfair to suggest that the ridiculous mistakes leading to goals this season, and the other ridiculous mistakes that didn't lead to goals, were just down to the limitations of Aden Baldwin. The second goal last night was a 'brain fart' by Rawlinson, Cameron's had his fair share of cock-ups in other games, and various other players have made slip ups too.
The fundamental problem seems to be that the number of risks we're asking the team (and defensive players especially) to take in the defensive third/half of the pitch is too great, relative to the general abilty of players at this level.
I'm not for one minute suggesting we just boot the ball up the field - God forbid, but we need to remove some of the over-elaboration in the number of passes it takes to move the ball into the opponent's half, because every additional unnecessary "action" in our own half creates a potential mistake between one player and another.
Essentially, we need to ensure we're playing a higher percentage of our football in the opponent's half, and move the ball into the opponent's half more quickly. I think that's eminently possible to do without compromising (too greatly) the attractive football we want to play, which highlights the skills of players like Crowley, Jones etc.
I hate to mention it, but Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest teams were known for their attractive, flowing football, and were able to do it without taking excessive risks in bad areas of the pitch. Cloughie demanded clean sheets. We don't need to fundamentally change our approach, just tweak it so we're playing to the strengths of our players rather than exposing their weaknesses.