Match ratings v MK Dons [09.09.23]

[Proactive not Reactive]

Thought in the last 2 games Bostock has been asked to play a different role than he did as the central defensive midfielder - against Accrington and again today he has played more left midfield and a little bit more advanced,Austin played a 1/2 with him and asked him to chase it - this isn’t his game he likes to move around the defensive central area and Palmer has more legs to be box to box with Austin and Crowley further forward
Macca should have scored the first half chance but unlucky with his header as the keeper went the wrong way and made a good save with his legs

[maddogslater]

Macca was unlucky with both efforts, 1st one the excellent hard cross all he could do was get a foot on it and it could have gone in easily 2nd good header but hit the keepers leg.

[legs77]

Feel ratings from original are pretty fair I’d say Crowley was MOM.

Chicksen getting stick which I feel is unjust he did ok for me.

[eastwoodmagpie]

Feel ratings from original are pretty fair I’d say Crowley was MOM.

Chicksen getting stick which I feel is unjust he did ok for me.

Not sure how you could rate Chicksen as we never got any passes to him only Nemane was used down the right.

[TSANHO]

Not sure how you could rate Chicksen as we never got any passes to him only Nemane was used down the right.

I use the ratings for how the player affected the game. It is unfair on Chicks as we didn’t get the ball to him, but because of that he can’t get a very good rating…it was a decent to good performance but we did miss both Jodi and Didzy.

[ThaiPie]

I've just watched the highlights package. It seems every attack MKD's made was on our right defensive side. I seem to remember this pattern in previous games. Have others noticed this? Are opposition managers choosing a high press and attack on our right?

[BJPIE]

He was excellent again. Tough job being a footballer, Macca sticks his cut back into an empty net and his rating goes up by like two or three for most people in here without doing anything different. I like Tobi a lot and he played well, but it’s very easy to be tricked into thinking his crossing is much better than Nemane’s when what he’s doing is just clipping the ball into an area. It looks more threatening but it’s not as likely to get you a goal as Nemane’s hard and low cut backs.

Generally thought we played well and that’s a good point. Can’t comment on the goal conceded as was still in the bar but we reacted superbly and the equaliser had been coming for ages.

TAR is more like Jones in that he doesn't have to beat a man to cross a ball, he just creates the space for the cross, which means its delivered earlier. He put the ball between the last defender and the keeper twice yesterday which is where any striker would want the ball. He's miles better at defending than Nemane and like last week gives us an aerial "out" ball if we need to go long.
Time at least to give him a run of games to see if it helps with our achieves heel, of teams exploiting that right hand side

[BigFatPie]

Yeah I find criticism of Nemane very strange, he was pretty much our only threat in the first half, did his defensive duties well, and carried on contributing after the switch. Good performance.

[the_anticlough]

Yeah I find criticism of Nemane very strange, he was pretty much our only threat in the first half, did his defensive duties well, and carried on contributing after the switch. Good performance.

Correct.
The criticism will come from those who haven't got their heads around the fact we play a Back 3 system. A system that got us 107pts, record goals, promotion and straight to the top of L2.

Nemane does his defensive duties well as you say, but our system depends on the Right Back (in the Back 3 sense) being able to defend in space (a lot of it) at times.

We didn't upgrade in the summer when many thought this position was the number 1 priority. But we have got a lot of options.

Now we'll be reverting to Baldwin there. He's one of our very best players so he'll do a good job. But he's best for us, and himself, in the centre.
It's a pity Brinds can't find the form and confidence he shows in the centre, on the right. Then we'd have our players in their natural positions. For now though it looks like we'll be seeing a back 3 with AB on the right and Brinds continuing in the centre.

[legs77]

Yeah I find criticism of Nemane very strange, he was pretty much our only threat in the first half, did his defensive duties well, and carried on contributing after the switch. Good performance.

True another thing to notice too was when he switched to the left we hardly used him same as Chicksen.

This imo was obviously tactical from LW.