⚽ Match Thread vs. Maidenhead Utd. 06/08/22 [NL]

[laddo]

Haha yeah I heard that as well. Stall’s a good summariser, but you’ll never hear anyone on local radio call a player ‘massively over rated’.

A bit mixed today. Langstaff is clearly a class forward whose pace and movement is going to cause all sorts of problems this season. What a goal that near miss would have been. The rest of it is hard to judge because Maidenhead were terrible. I thought JOB did very well, as did Sam Austin, but there was a lot of sloppiness, and let’s be honest, we could have doubled that score if we were properly on it. I hope that’s not a sign of the lack of intensity we had under Burchnall.

Much bigger tests to come next week and the week after.

Reading that instantly reminds me of the opening fixture last season against a very accommodating Barnet. Perhaps the difference that day was we were more clinical (2nd half) hence the improved scoreline.

[maddogslater]

Langstaff's 2nd was a replica of Gary Lineker's against Germany in the 90 world Cup semi, so quick with his feet.
Notts looked a shambles for the first ten minutes and looked very nervy up until we scored.https://youtu.be/LdrvZmfyHSg

[optipez]

Well I would answer that by saying that I'm not really trashing him personally - I've always said I think he was a hardworking and honest player and good luck to him.

There are plenty of charlatans and chancers in football and he's not one of them, so I'll say it again, good luck to the guy and if the rumours of the money involved in his new contract are true, and he's got himself a nice new Merc as Kyle95 said, then good on him for hitting the jackpot. However I stand by all the criticisms I made of him which were just based on what I saw every time I watched him (admittedly I don't live in the UK so only televised games, ie play off games and games against top half opposition) and listening to the commentaries every week.

The other thing I would say is that everyone from the owners and manager down gets trashed on here, and I am not a big trasher personally but I suppose I am just pushing back when I see that certain players like Wootton are considered untouchable (and undroppable) and above criticism despite their very obvious limitations.

We were almost unanimously in agreement on here that last season our build up was too slow, we lacked bite in midfield, we didn't get in behind often enough, and we missed too many chances. Now obviously that was not all Wootton's fault, but I would say that you can't have Wootton play 95 mins every week and not expect 3 of those 4 to be recurring issues.

Driller, it was just a reply to the thread on Wootton really and yours was the last post at the end of it. It wasn't meant as a personal dig at you at all.
The view that Wootton limits us isn't uncommon, I've just felt he was hung out to dry playing up by himself at times and I think if we do the same to Langstaff we'll waste his talent too not for a lack of pace but because he'll be kicked and elbowed black and blue before the seasons out and have the sharpness knocked out of him.
Mick Vinter had Les Bradd, McCullough had Trevor Christie, Tommy Johnson had Gary Lund and as Wootton helped Dennis and Wes Thomas I think we'll have to find a way to play Scott, Mitchell or maybe a new signing to get the best from Langstaff over a season.

[crazyfists]

I listened to Radio Red on the way home, and it mostly consisted of them making a string of excuses as to why Forest were so shyte, the main one being that Newcastle was an incredibly tough fixture.

Same on LTLF, somehow Newcastle are now seen as world beaters. So it's a bit strange how on their pre-match prediction thread only 13.6% of Forest fans predicted they would lose!

I saw that poll as well, they had nearly half putting they'd win then after the game Newcastle will be challenging for the top 4 and they pretty much won't have as hard an away fixture as that this season. Hopefully they'll learn some humility this season as their vlog from our friendly against them posted on this site was a prime example of why they need to.

[drillerpie]

Driller, it was just a reply to the thread on Wootton really and yours was the last post at the end of it. It wasn't meant as a personal dig at you at all.
The view that Wootton limits us isn't uncommon, I've just felt he was hung out to dry playing up by himself at times and I think if we do the same to Langstaff we'll waste his talent too not for a lack of pace but because he'll be kicked and elbowed black and blue before the seasons out and have the sharpness knocked out of him.
Mick Vinter had Les Bradd, McCullough had Trevor Christie, Tommy Johnson had Gary Lund and as Wootton helped Dennis and Wes Thomas I think we'll have to find a way to play Scott, Mitchell or maybe a new signing to get the best from Langstaff over a season.

Yeah no worries Optipez! I didn't take it as a personal dig at all, in fact I think it's a really interesting debate.

It will also be interesting to see (in fact it will probably decide our season) how Langstaff gets on against a team shuttin up shop from the first minute in those stereotypical winter away games, when it's freezing cold and raining and the pitch is cut up etc.

I think he will have seen quite a few grim conditions and uncompromising defenders in the NLN, and he and his mate got 55 goals between them nonetheless. Whether they can reproduce that in a higher division is the question, and we've gambled that they can.

Maybe clever movement in behind is the key, rather than getting into wrestling duels with big centre halves. I think in the modern game, that shifts the odds in favour of the striker, as defenders are much happier throwing their weight around outside the box than chasing back towards their own goal where they risk a card and a penalty.

[countygump]

Vids a bit flickery but you get the gist:



https://twitter.com/i/status/1555992916480368640

[Notts78]

Yeah no worries Optipez! I didn't take it as a personal dig at all, in fact I think it's a really interesting debate.

It will also be interesting to see (in fact it will probably decide our season) how Langstaff gets on against a team shuttin up shop from the first minute in those stereotypical winter away games, when it's freezing cold and raining and the pitch is cut up etc.

I think he will have seen quite a few grim conditions and uncompromising defenders in the NLN, and he and his mate got 55 goals between them nonetheless. Whether they can reproduce that in a higher division is the question, and we've gambled that they can.

Maybe clever movement in behind is the key, rather than getting into wrestling duels with big centre halves. I think in the modern game, that shifts the odds in favour of the striker, as defenders are much happier throwing their weight around outside the box than chasing back towards their own goal where they risk a card and a penalty.

If and it’s still a fairly big if, we keep Ruben, then the new boys will have so many chances to score. What I liked about the goals that Langstaff scored yesterday was that he still had a bit to do. He will no doubt get opportunities where they are on a plate, neither of yesterday’s goals were gimmes. Good signs.
On reflection. And this is no dig at Wootton. We wouldn’t have won yesterday 3-0 with him in the side. I’m convinced we’d still win but not as convincingly.

[OP67]

If and it’s still a fairly big if, we keep Ruben, then the new boys will have so many chances to score. What I liked about the goals that Langstaff scored yesterday was that he still had a bit to do. He will no doubt get opportunities where they are on a plate, neither of yesterday’s goals were gimmes. Good signs.
On reflection. And this is no dig at Wootton. We wouldn’t have won yesterday 3-0 with him in the side. I’m convinced we’d still win but not as convincingly.

If Ruben is sold then that'll be saying we're happy to stay in this league for the forseeable. Surely they can see how important he is and after selling Cal it would be crazy to sell Ruben. The money involved in getting back into the Football League far outweighs losing him for free at the end of the season.

How refreshing was it to have a proper striker who's first thought is to face the goal rather than have his back to it all the time.

[laddo]

That could very well have been the case but i'm far more interested in how the new approach and forward players operate away from home. That's where we need a big upgrade from last term.

I agree I'm also convinced we would won a game like this at home with Wootton playing. Why? Cos that what we did all last season our impressive home W/D/L record shows that.

[crazyfists]

Overall IB is a good coach is more suited further up the pyramid, I think though to get out of this league his strengths in terms of playing style and personnel might have been a weakness away from home in this league. Home record was good.

As for Wootton, he was a good player for us but not brilliant. He scored a decent return but I felt you couldn't rely on him to score in the crunch games when you can't afford to miss. I do think IBs style didn't help though, if we'd have chucked in alot more what you might call typical crosses then think he'd have got another 5 at least a season. Still a nice person who always gave his all so wish him all the best.