Match Thread vs. Wealdstone 14.09.21 [NL]

[Notts78]

I think we keep getting outnumbered and overrun in midfield. We’re an absolute nightmare for teams when we’ve got it and are attacking, but we are very easy to get at when we lose it. The defence and midfield has a tough job on at the best of times, the switch to 4-2-3-1 last night made that even more obvious IMO.

I’m not sure Palmer and Francis are physically imposing enough to play as what is basically a straight midfield two (when Roberts or Rodrigues are nominally playing there, they don’t do a lot without the ball). I wonder whether our best system might be three from Palmer, Francis, O’Brien and Vincent, with three from Wootton, Roberts, Rodrigues and Mitchell ahead of them.

None of our midfield players are physically imposing Jacob. Putting another one in there won’t make any difference in that regard. I see your point about what certain players are like when we don’t have the ball.
The players are having to adapt to a system that I can’t imagine any have played before. We are the complete opposite to Ardley who would prefer to adopt a more defensive strategy. This squad is being asked to almost be gung-ho. Which obviously causes issues defensively. And the players are all being asked to play football and not hoof it. That I suspect is why we have the midfielders we do and not cloggers like Ravenhill or Harding. Both IMO good players but wouldn’t suit Burch-ball.
As a young squad they will put in inconsistent performances and as fans we have to accept the games we have seen.
These players will improve and we need to hope that this happens quickly. It was only 6 months ago Ruben was average and now look. Some don’t see him being with us long term.

[Killerkline]

Scrappy goals, goals from clear defensive errors. Pundits say scoring goals is the most difficult thing in football and it's more difficult if you are only trying to walk the ball into the net. There will plenty of times when it won't work over a season.

The fact that we’re not reliant on scrappy goals and defensive errors is a massive positive. I’m sure during the course of the season we’ll pick up goals through those avenues.

Scoring goals is the most difficult task in football. Currently, we don’t have that issue.

I think it’s a bit wide of the mark being critical of our forward play.

[Mapperleypie]

The fact that we’re not reliant on scrappy goals and defensive errors is a massive positive. I’m sure during the course of the season we’ll pick up goals through those avenues.

Scoring goals is the most difficult task in football. Currently, we don’t have that issue.

I think it’s a bit wide of the mark being critical of our forward play.

This!

We are on course to score a silly amount of goals this season if we can keep Roberts, Wootton and Rodrigues fit and at the club. We are certainly not going to struggle for goals. Goals scored and an attacking style of play is what we have now which we have not experienced for years at Notts, why can't some people seem to enjoy that?

[Magpies1959]

Notts_Popular_Front, I assume you do not attend matches or watch highlights of Notts games, as we certainly do not just try to 'walk the ball into the net'. Everyone is welcome to their opinions, but at least watch the games if you are going to comment on our style of play. Once we decide to move forward, we become quite direct with often only a couple of passes opening up the opposition defence.

[i961pie]

Notts_Popular_Front, I assume you do not attend matches or watch highlights of Notts games, as we certainly do not just try to 'walk the ball into the net'. Everyone is welcome to their opinions, but at least watch the games if you are going to comment on our style of play. Once we decide to move forward, we become quite direct with often only a couple of passes opening up the opposition defence.

To be fair when Torquay went down to ten men we spent most of the second half try g to walk the ball in.

[matt_magpie]

I find it unbelievable people are being negative, wether they are a tiny club compared or not to Notts last night they were a decent side, played some really good stuff. I think we can rule out signing bruising CBs or CMs as IB wants first and foremost players that can play good football and we’re not going to get players that can do both at this level. We had 5 new players this season in the team last night, Cal who’s hardly kicked a ball last season and Lacey whose been out for a long time, it’s not going to come straight away but I think the signs are really positive.

[Killerkline]

To be fair when Torquay went down to ten men we spent most of the second half try g to walk the ball in.

Yes we did. But, that was 45 minutes out of 6 games.

[Elite_Pie]

I find it unbelievable people are being negative.

I don't think it's really people being negative, more people just saying what they see. The points total so far is good, and if we can maintain it we won't be far off 1st place. So far I've seen the Wrexham game on TV and the last two home games, and a return of 7 points from those 9 games flatters us in my opinion. I'd love to be saying that we are blowing the opposition away, but I can't.

If we improve as some are convinced we will, I'd say promotion is likely. If we carry on in the same vein, it looks like playoffs again.

[jacobncfc]

I don't think it's really people being negative, more people just saying what they see. The points total so far is good, and if we can maintain it we won't be far off 1st place. So far I've seen the Wrexham game on TV and the last two home games, and a return of 7 points from those 9 games flatters us in my opinion. I'd love to be saying that we are blowing the opposition away, but I can't.

If we improve as some are convinced we will, I'd say promotion is likely. If we carry on in the same vein, it looks like playoffs again.

I think our points total is about right to be honest. If you’re going on ‘who deserved to win on the balance of play’, I think we got less than we should’ve done against Torquay and Weymouth, and probably more than we should’ve done against Wealdstone and arguably Wrexham.

[matt_magpie]

Yes they were shown live, the Football League were very anti-TV so the BBC had to go with non-league games (London based), non league cups and varsity matches (several abandoned coverage because of bad light), plus the odd England game and then the FA Cup final each season.
The League allowed newsreels from 1949 or 50, then highlights 4/5 years later.

To be fair when Torquay went down to ten men we spent most of the second half try g to walk the ball in.

I don't think it's really people being negative, more people just saying what they see. The points total so far is good, and if we can maintain it we won't be far off 1st place. So far I've seen the Wrexham game on TV and the last two home games, and a return of 7 points from those 9 games flatters us in my opinion. I'd love to be saying that we are blowing the opposition away, but I can't.

If we improve as some are convinced we will, I'd say promotion is likely. If we carry on in the same vein, it looks like playoffs again.

Agree, champions is a massive ask regardless to our style of play or even how big our budget is as this is massively competitive league this year. I imagine it’s the strongest it’s ever been. I think we probably at best have the 4th best budget so anything higher probably is an achievement. It feels so wrong only one goes up automatically and that doesn’t look to change soon with the instability of the NL financially as shown last year that the EFL won’t want to relegate more than 2 of its members into the league.