⚽ Match Thread vs. Lincoln City 08.08.23 [EFLC R1]

[Old_pie]

Errr, both?

The Real EFL
@RealEFLSocial
Lincoln City had 30% possession against Notts County last night but registered 20 shots and two goals.

Is it a case of pointless possession for Notts or poor defensive performance?

Imagine how many shots they would have had on target if they'd had 70% possession

[countygump]

Imagine how many shots they would have had on target if they'd had 70% possession

@47 if my maths is to be trusted?

In other news Sooty drew with Cambridge 2-2 and went on to win on pens, which illustrates just how much we need to improve to compete, IMHAHO.

[crazyfists]

What worries me is that LW doesn't seem to have a solid grasp of what is required to be successful at this level. He's a bit of a maverick when it comes to tactics and approach, and that makes the whole thing feel a bit like a giant experiment. It could go spectacularly well or it could blow up in our faces.

Other clubs have managers who understand exactly what is needed - relative dinosaurs like Parkinson, Clough, and Hughes. They understand that you need to be well drilled, solid at the back, and physical first, and once you've got that solid foundation in place, you can then start to think about playing fancy attacking football.

Fans of other clubs have called out their astonishment at our high line and kamikaze defending just as much as they have our attacking prowess, and every team we play will be looking to exploit our obvious weaknesses. What are we doing to counter that threat?

We'll know a lot more after Saturday, but it already looks like a pivotal game. I'm not confident because I know those issues that have been plain as day for months now will still be there.

We're playing in a higher division now. What worked in the NL won't necessarily work in L2. Possession football means nothing if the opposition has three times as many chances are we do.

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.

[nottsun]

It not being over dramatic.
It's real
We are in trouble.
I wasn't one of those thinking we'd be promotion candidates. I was criticised on here for my opinions on our inept defending last season, which people seemed to think wasn't a problem because we were winning.
Right now I'd settle for 15th/16th.
We now can't retain the ball in midfield let alone find our striking options.
We could of conceded 7 on Saturday and possibly 5 or 6 last night.
Williams has been fantastic and I have a lot of faith in him but he can only work with what he has.
We struggled March onwards as teams found us out and despite the glory of Wembley we limped into the League.
We do urgently need a physical mobile defensive midfielder and new centre backs who can defend first.
I don't think we have the budget for this.

Therefore I think the biggest question Williams faces is changing his style of play. Having faith in your players is one thing. Using a system that exposes them beyond their abilities is another.

I don't know if the Radar recruitment comments on here are true, that the team responsible for Notts are no longer employed! But I heard Williams say in a recent interview that he had very little to do with recruitment.

In which case who is??

That's worrying.

I can't help thinking we may be missing Jason Turner more than we realised

like

[nw6pie]

I don't think I've ever seen a game where a non- league side have had 70% percent possession ?
Complaining about our tippy tappy is old hat and LW and the players proved the fans wrong last season by continuing to play it including the short corners(which he explained why) 117 goals and 107 points.

70% possession is great, but only if a decent amount of that is in the opposition half. The most telling stat from last night would be where the players touched the ball - I’m struggling to remember any spell of pressure from us in the Lincoln half or that many touches in the opposition box through the whole game.

And “possession” has always been a misleading term: we didn’t have the ball for over 70 of the 105 minutes played; we played 70% of the passes - but almost all of those were in our own half, going nowhere. That wasn’t the type of football that got us promoted, when we would almost always record more shots on goal than the opposition and have the superior xG.

The LW way is still the right way to play, because last season was the best football I’ve consistently seen from a Notts side. But are these players good enough to play that against teams who press relentlessly for 90 minutes? I’m hoping I have a more positive answer to that on Saturday afternoon.

[BigFatPie]

Living in Lincoln, and after getting a fair amount of stick all day about the result/our performance, I’m clinging to the hope that Lukey’s ire in his interview last night was purely performative, he still doesn’t really give a sh!t about the cups and all will be well on Saturday. Please Notts, make this true.

[ncfcog]

Match Report . . . https://www.ncs-news.co.uk/read/repo...-h-carabao-cup

[marky]

Not been great today working with a few Lincoln fans, they're miles better than Notts yet 10 years ago the boot was on the other foot.

[slack_pie]

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.

[durhampie]

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.

Our high intensity game went out of the window the moment Bostock arrived. We tweaked our style to suit his safe passing of the ball, without actually doing anything with it.. Those who say, well we got 107 points and won most of our games, but in reality playing against most of those teams you would have been disappointed not to have achieved that goal.. Prior to Bostock, we had Bajrami in midfield along side Palmer, that pairing in my opinion was the best we have had. Very little got past Baj and we generally bossed the midfield. It was unfortunate that Baj got injured, but conveniently so for Bostock.. Thats when we began to lose our rhythm, with all of this passing about and going nowhere...