Match ratings v Gillingham (home)

[SouthLondonPie]

I’ve been watching Notts for almost 20 years and have enjoyed (sometimes) reading the forum from afar. However, tonight’s performance has led to be want to put my 2 pence in about some of these players! So here goes:

Stone: 3
Woeful. No point sugarcoating it. Can’t command his box, can’t punch (as painfully shown tonight), poor shot stopper - average distribution doesn’t make up for this. Needed way, way better in the summer. LAH in Tuesday, can’t be much worse.

Warner: 5
Looked very nervous but won’t be helped by those around him. Better than Brindley, but Macari should be playing.

Baldwin: 5.5
Best of the 3, but not the standards he’s been playing at recently.

Cameron: 4
Sick of him. What does he offer? Captain but no captain organisation, no shouting at mistakes. Can’t head it, out of position a lot so always on the turn, doesn’t want to tackle. Another one we needed better than in the summer

Bostock: 4
Looks shattered, overall game is miles off it.

Robertson: 6
Aside from a few misplaced passes, did what was asked of him. Put his foot in, at least. Needs someone better next to him.

Nemane: 2.5
No words.

Jones: 5
He’s getting more and more frustrated, trying to do too much on his own. Another assist though. First name on the team sheet, but needs help.

Crowley: 4.5
As bad as I’ve seen him, wonderful player but lets his head drop and the press suffers. Again, needs help.

Didzy: 4.5
Worked hard but nothings coming off for him and he just looks actually knackered. No one to replace him with currently. Repeating myself but… needs help!

Macca: 5
5 for work rate, which never dwindles. Tbh I think he’s play was poor and has been for a while, but we aren’t creating anything for him. Jatta would have been ideal next to him to keep the ball up the middle of the pitch, where he works.

Maynard: 4
This isn’t overall his faults but weird tactics. If I were him I’d be asking Richard Montague what the strategy actually was going into January.

Richard Montague: 1
For this season? Painfully bad. Joke of two transfer windows.

I’ll probably re-read this again tomorrow when things have settled a bit and the other results come in but overall, that was a low. Gillingham were average at best but organised and did the basics - all you need to beat Notts atm. So much work to do because the season could be over by end of March if we aren’t careful.

Still, I’ll be there Tuesday, not too difficult a journey from me in the SE. Has to be 10x better.

[freemuzzy]

Richard Montague: 1
For this season? Painfully bad. Joke of two transfer windows..

Absolute reactionary nonsense. Not every signing has been a good one (when has that ever been the case?) but even if we’re going to discount Langstaff (£50,000, arguably pound for pound one of the best signings in our recent history), Scott, Rodrigues etc and only focus on the ‘bad’ from this season - that still includes the signings of Crowley, McGoldrick and Jones, as well as Bostock 6 months prior. 1/10! Suspect Robertson will prove to be an excellent long term addition too and not many were knocking his door down when he couldn’t get a game at Fleetwood.

[SouthLondonPie]

Absolute reactionary nonsense. Not every signing has been a good one (when has that ever been the case?) but even if we’re going to discount Langstaff (£50,000, arguably pound for pound one of the best signings in our recent history), Scott, Rodrigues etc and only focus on the ‘bad’ from this season - that still includes the signings of Crowley, McGoldrick and Jones, as well as Bostock 6 months prior. 1/10! Suspect Robertson will prove to be an excellent long term addition too and not many were knocking his door down when he couldn’t get a game at Fleetwood.

Why are you talking about Langstaff? I literally said for this season.

The fact that you’re using Didzy and Crowley as reasons for giving Montague credit.. wow. Yes, they’re good signings. What about the goalkeepers (plural)? What about the non-existent defence? What about the lack of another option with Palmer? What about Randall? What about Gosling? What about signing a player from Crewe’s bench who, whilst he could be good, isn’t anywhere near fitness? What about signing a striker who can’t even get to the country for weeks whilst we’re in the most crucial period of the season.

‘Absolute reactionary nonsense’ is a bit pathetic - you won’t be surprised to find Im not the only one very unimpressed with the recruitment this season.

[nw6pie]

Why are you talking about Langstaff? I literally said for this season.

The fact that you’re using Didzy and Crowley as reasons for giving Montague credit.. wow. Yes, they’re good signings. What about the goalkeepers (plural)? What about the non-existent defence? What about the lack of another option with Palmer? What about Randall? What about Gosling? What about signing a player from Crewe’s bench who, whilst he could be good, isn’t anywhere near fitness? What about signing a striker who can’t even get to the country for weeks whilst we’re in the most crucial period of the season.

‘Absolute reactionary nonsense’ is a bit pathetic - you won’t be surprised to find Im not the only one very unimpressed with the recruitment this season.

I’d forgotten all about the Crewe midfielder- why do we keep signing players who can’t make an immediate impact?

Tonight is as bad a performance as I can remember at home in quite a while - it’s not like Gillingham were any good, we just are a very easy team to play against if you’re physical, hard working and well organized.

For the first 10 minutes we looked back to our old selves, but afterward it was a bit of a horror show.

Stone - 4 - hasn’t inspired confidence all season, and the third goal tonight was a perfect example of him not dominating his six-yard box. There’s been a trend in recent years for outfield players to transition to goalkeepers quite late on as youngsters, and Stone’s another one of them. Oddly, though, he doesn’t even inspire with the ball at his feet. Time to give the loanee a try - otherwise what was the poin5 of signin* him?

Nemane - 4 - I was delighted when Aaron signed a new deal in the summer, but he’s been found out at this level. Not brave enough on the ball and his decision-making is nonexistent. To be fair, he’s often given the ball with his back to goal and is being asked to do things beyond his skill set. Needs a spell on the bench.

Jones - 6 - Our main threat, but completely wasted on the right. Keep him on the left, but we need to stop asking him to be a defender.

Warner - 4.5 - I’m sure he’ll go on to be a good player at a decent level, but he’s got very little experience of first-team football and it shows. I wonder if he’ll be more comfortable in a back four.

Baldwin - 6 - The pick of our defence, which isn’t saying much as we were a shambles defending corners and free kicks - the basics at this level, in other words.

Cameron - 4.5 - Had plenty of the ball, but didn’t do much with it. Feels like another non-league defender, struggling at this level.

Bostock 5 - Started well, but soon faded. When was the last time he assisted for a goal or created a chance/played a defence-splitting pass? Lacks the energy we need, but the booking was a joke from a joke referee.

Robertson - 6 - Scrapped well and at least he had a shot. Needs to improve his fitness levels so he can compete for 90 minutes, but at least he’s prepared to do the ugly stuff (unlike several of his teammates).

Crowley - 5.5 - Took his goal brilliantly, but disappeared after a bright start. One of those who doesn’t like to do the ugly stuff.

McGoldrick - 5 - No one can fault the guy’s commitment, but age seems to have caught up with Didzy. He’s dropping ridiculously deep to get the ball, but rarely doing anything with it. Where earlier in the season he was able to get away from players with a lovely nutmeg or turn, that’s not been the case in recent months. You’d also expect someone of his quality to bury that header in the second half. Another one who needs a spell on the bench.

Langstaff - 5 - not been at the races in recent weeks. Rarely involved and his link-up play hasn’t been good. Worse, he’s snatching at chances when he does get them - he should have buried that one in the second half, but it barely reached the keeper. We’re going to need a bigger bench.

Subs: Austin - 4 (but should be playing on the right) JOB - Not on long enough, but his most glaring contribution was to head the ball away from their goal when in a decent position.

Maynard - 4 - needs to start showing us why the Bros felt he was the right man for the job. Right now he seems to be stuck in the shadow of LW. The team was on the slide before he arrived, but 1 point out of 9 and (by my reckoning) 6 shots on target over those three games is a worrying start. He needs time, but I’d like to see him be his own man and change things up to reverse this current slump.