⚽Match Thread v Salford 15.09.23 [EFL L2]

[1955pie]

'Surely' might be over-egging it. It's a compromise, and a judgement call that's being vindicated for now by the wins.

But we know his first choice is 'control the game' and possession. My feeling is that it's not just an opposition's high press...through his experience with the players I don't think he's got maximum faith in their abilities to keep it. And we didn't recruit in that key right-sided defender role.

Just giving it back to them at least a half dozen times a game must piss him off. It'll be very interesting to see if it continues or not.

What you don't see a lot of though is our keeper throwing or passing it Kasper style to the midfielders/wide players. It's more like one of the back three or nothing. Is that wrong? If so, that might be a LW principle as well (sees those balls as risky?)

I've wondered why he doesn't roll it out sometimes as well. But then again I think the wingbacks aren't looking for it. Just like no-one looking for Nemanes throws.
I'm looking forward to the day, hopefully soon, when we again hear the chant of "We've got the ball! We've got the ball!" rolling on and on and on. Maybe it was just a dream.

[the_anticlough]

I've wondered why he doesn't roll it out sometimes as well. But then again I think the wingbacks aren't looking for it. Just like no-one looking for Nemanes throws.
.

Yes, only the back 3 seem to make themselves available for the keeper, and the keeper only really looks to pass to them. We haven't seen a lot of the defenders charging into the open space ahead either
With Baldwin coming back and more familiarity for Stone and his teammates I think we're going to improve even more on the high standard we've set already. Lots of room for growth, which could come just in time for us to win those games against the L2 big boys in October.