Quote Originally Posted by crazyfists View Post
Good post. People aren't drama queens and also no one thought we were great in defence last season and didn't need any additional players. We have always been scared looking at the back for years now. When did we last have a commanding centre back apart from Elliott on loan, Richardson? Redmile? It's been a long time. Also posters are right about JOB, the people who think he's poor have no clue that he's the only one who actually tries to make runs, offers himself or puts a strong foot in. To be relying still on him for this is ridiculous.

There's alot to be said as well for the style of play changing from high pressing to slow possesion build up. Without Ruben, the only real outlet up front we have is Nemane and his final ball is unreliable. LW and the team have alot of goodwill in the bank but this doesn't mean anything on the pitch. I have been guilty of underestimating L2 before the start of the season but as others have said we can still play good football in this league and do well. To do this though we do need 2 defenders in and a centre mid who presses and is a leader on the pitch.

This is Notts so the fans are worried as 5 years ago we were tipped to go up and got relegated. Now is the time the team needs to make us feel reassured that they have more grit and hard work in them.
You are right, we've hardly had any commanding CBs in recent years. Apart from Elliott on loan, the last I can remember was Graeme Lee, who won pretty much every ball that came into the box.

On the subject of changing from high-intensity to slow build-up, my old man said the exact same thing to me earlier. I wasn't at the game, but he was, and he said it was just dull. Constant passing about between the defenders and the keeper with zero end result. Like the worst aspects of Birchnall-ball. Is that a conscious decision or something else?

Those memories of five years ago still haunt me today. I remember how excited I felt when we signed Enzio, Dennis, Vaughan, and Hemmings. I was convinced we were in for an epic season, and then we started so poorly and never recovered. I'm not saying that will happen again - we are in much better shape off the pitch than we were then - but it just goes to show how things can go wrong in ways you never imagined.