Our new Captain

[Woodsetts_Pie]

Spot on. Even if Cal Roberts is fit enough to return, who the hell is going to get the ball to him?

If Cal returns anytime soon during this "style" of play he's going to need binoculars.

I thought we were trying new tactic last night of making the game 60 minutes long rather than 90. Must have been 30 minutes of passing along the back line. And we moan when the opposition waste time.

[durhampie]

If Cal returns anytime soon during this "style" of play he's going to need binoculars.

I thought we were trying new tactic last night of making the game 60 minutes long rather than 90. Must have been 30 minutes of passing along the back line. And we moan when the opposition waste time.

Its called possession football, which is all Burchnall is intersted in. He never said anything about wanting to win games......

[Stan Marshall]

Its called possession football, which is all Burchnall is intersted in. He never said anything about wanting to win games......

To be fair, this is the way Ardley has got them to play for the last 2 years!

[nw6pie]

To be fair, this is the way Ardley has got them to play for the last 2 years!

And to be fair to Burchnall, he has said that possession for possession's sake - which is what we have - is meaningless. Aldershot were happy for us to have the ball in our own half and then pressed when we paid a forward pass (which didn't happen very often). Or we went long, as usually happened, and we surrendered possession cheaply having done nothing with it for a minute among the back four.

Only one team played any football last night, and that was Aldershot. Made me laugh how Burchnall referenced several times their quick forwards, as if this is some revolutionary idea that was unfair on our ponderous defence.

I never realised quite how much we would miss Brindley - he's probably been as big a miss as Cal Roberts, in his own way. DKE definitely played a lot better out of position on the left than he has on the right, which is another odd one.

[Evesham Pie]

Very worrying last line quote from IB in the Post in the article about bringing in a new midfielder.

“But I thought Jake Reeves did a really good job for us on Tuesday.”

Words fail me.

[St Kitts Magpie]

Very worrying last line quote from IB in the Post in the article about bringing in a new midfielder.

“But I thought Jake Reeves did a really good job for us on Tuesday.”

Words fail me.

Saw that myself and your reaction is pretty much the same as mine. I didn't pick it up when I listened but if that was playing well then we are right in the poop

[the_anticlough]

Very worrying last line quote from IB in the Post in the article about bringing in a new midfielder.

“But I thought Jake Reeves did a really good job for us on Tuesday.”

Words fail me.

They don't me, I agree with it....kind of
I'm baffled really by fans' reactions to Jake Reeves - he never hides, has skills, gets on the ball as much as possible, can chip in with goals. At 27, his best years as a Centre-Mid may be still to come.

For the Aldershot game, I'd pick fault more with his midfield partners - Miller and O'Brien who rarely offered themselves and did very poorly in general (JOB wasn't so bad). Reeves needs to cut out the mistakes, but in the right line-up, and with the right support, I think he can do a job for us.

[Evesham Pie]

Having seen Reeves for more than half a season now I just don't think he's good enough. For me there are 3 issues:-

1) His heavy bias to sideways or backwards short passes kills momentum and gives opposition sides time to organise so by the time we do eventually move the ball forward it is much harder to find space;

2) Even though he mainly makes short passes he still makes more unforced errors than a professional footballer should;

3) There's typically at least one shocking loss of the ball per game in a dangerous position in our defensive third where we are lucky not to concede - the one in the second half on Tuesday is a case in point.

I don't think these issues are down to who he's playing with, but are just inherent to him. I'll be delighted if he proves me wrong and does a job for us, because we are crying out for decent midfield performances, but I just don't see it happening.

[ncfcog]

Having seen Reeves for more than half a season now I just don't think he's good enough. For me there are 3 issues:-

1) His heavy bias to sideways or backwards short passes kills momentum and gives opposition sides time to organise so by the time we do eventually move the ball forward it is much harder to find space;

2) Even though he mainly makes short passes he still makes more unforced errors than a professional footballer should;

3) There's typically at least one shocking loss of the ball per game in a dangerous position in our defensive third where we are lucky not to concede - the one in the second half on Tuesday is a case in point.

I don't think these issues are down to who he's playing with, but are just inherent to him. I'll be delighted if he proves me wrong and does a job for us, because we are crying out for decent midfield performances, but I just don't see it happening.

I'd tend to agree with this. also concerned that in one of his recent interviews he was very dismissive of some questions about his style of play and suggested he was not brought to the club to make us more of an attacking threat, if that's the case it begs the question just what was he employed to do?

[the_anticlough]

They are all fair criticisms and definite tendencies - short passes/unforced errors/costly errors

I'd like to see if he can improve all three with an extended run in that quarter-back position and linking up with Brindley/Rawlinson/Lacey/McCrory/Rodrigues/New guy etc.

The patient passing game attempted with DKE, Ellis, Turner, JOB and Miller was probably doomed from the start.
I actually felt sorry for the Centre-Backs trying to do their Barca thing. Turner looked like a bouncer put in charge of a beauty parlour