⚽ Match Thread vs. Mansfield Town FC 14.10.23 [EFL L2]

[Willie-Wotsit]

As a neutral Wxm fan, I thought it was a very good game.

County started off with their now expected, passing game, but MTFC soon got to grips with the system.

A lot of other managers will have taken note on how to combat your pressing game....

Whether or not other teams can execute it as well as MTFC did, remains to be seen though... (I doubt it myself)

For us (& Notts fans though no doubt) the thing that gives me optimism going forward is, it's nothing like last season, where if one of us dropped points, it was a minor disaster, with only ONE going up automatically.

This season, there's more room for slip-ups.....

[Magpies1959]

Cheers Willie-Wotsit

[Scamps]

Another thing -we have alaways been a bigger club than mansfield - we have played at the highrst level - something you will never do- and we have spent time in the top 2 tiers
How long has it taken Mansfield to get promoted to league 1 , bet we will do it sooner
And the maximum level for Mansfield is mid league 1, you will never go much beyond that, you dont have the fanbase or the owners to do it, but we do, so enjoy your temporary victory

Your the type of notts fan that makes stags victory that much sweeter ,so far up your own backside ,living in the past most on here are fair and decent but your just a bitter loser

[PedroTheFisherman66]

Course you are going to be full off it - i dont blame you -all fans enjoy days like this
For whatever reason Mansfield are a bogey team for us- and we had 2 of our best players missing and Bostock went off when it was still 1-1
mansfield just got lucky on the 2 set pieces that credited them with a healthy win , even your own supporters on their forum admitted the ball had dropped kindly for them in both halves
You will lose soon prob to a team in the bottom half,

Don't they say you make your own luck.! Or the harder I practice the luckier I get !!?

[Mud Pie]

disappointing but not super surprising sadly. Mansfield have been a borderline bogey team for us for yonks, and we defo looked off the boil last week.

I think NC probably won the game tactically, but the question from Notts pov is how do we more consistantly keep the tempo that makes us unbeatable.

Agree with the posters above that we're looking a bit sluggish and whether overtraining is an issue. I mentioned it before about AN and DC, some statto will probably prove me wrong, but we often seem to be far less sparkly in the second halves of games

[magpie_mania]

disappointing but not super surprising sadly. Mansfield have been a borderline bogey team for us for yonks, and we defo looked off the boil last week.

I think NC probably won the game tactically, but the question from Notts pov is how do we more consistantly keep the tempo that makes us unbeatable.

Agree with the posters above that we're looking a bit sluggish and whether overtraining is an issue. I mentioned it before about AN and DC, some statto will probably prove me wrong, but we often seem to be far less sparkly in the second halves of games

Consistently inconsistent seems to sum us up imo.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Naturally it’s very disappointing that we lost 4-1 to Mansfield especially since it was our first local derby in four years.

There are a few calls on here for us to adopt a Plan B or C. Of course when you shipped four goals once and five goals twice in thir**** games it does raise questions. If we do change style and philosophy then we go away from all that has made us what we are in the past year and a bit.

As fans we will be the biggest critics of our team and I would imagine privately LW and the players will be the same.

If we break yesterday down we did not have Bostock, Jones or Cameron for the second half and with those three in the second half I’m adamant we would have created more.

Im not denying we have to be better defensively certainly from set pieces which we all know and can see from the goals against column. That is already one of the lessons learned going forward and I would expect this to be a priority for recruitment either in January or the summer.

What we don’t need to do is change our style of play. It’s served us well and has given the club a new lease of life. So we don’t and I doubt we would throw the baby out with the bath water. This is the problem we had under previous owners and managers where styles and philosophies would change all the time and you would end up with bloated squads and players unable to fit a system.

We are a little like The Coated ones if they score four we will score five at the moment.

What we don’t need to do is change our style what we need to do is do it better and that’s where in LW we trust. It takes hours and hours of detail and preparation and training to be able to play football like we do. As LW said we need the exposure to the bigger games and also for me the stronger and more powerful teams. The Mansfield video will be a good learning tool for the club going forward.

As someone said on here already (think it was Elite) we are not the biggest or tallest side so we have to be quicker, smarter and cleverer to counter act physical teams. Again that comes from signing technically good footballers and improving our own game which takes time. It is after all only our first season back in the league, and if we can keep in the mix at Christmas we will be doing just fine.

Keep the faith.

[OchPie]

What we don’t need to do is change our style of play. It’s served us well and has given the club a new lease of life. So we don’t and I doubt we would throw the baby out with the bath water. This is the problem we had under previous owners and managers where styles and philosophies would change all the time and you would end up with bloated squads and players unable to fit a system.

I think there has to be a middle ground between not wanting to throw away all we've gained by our style of play, and having something in the bag for when a team is successfully stifling the way we play.

I don't quite know what that is. I think there's an alternative where we ride out the stifling - as I feel we did for most of the first half - but I think we all believe we don't quite have the players to do so. And there seems to be concern over whether we can get the players to do so while in this division. That said, there is a couple of players in our team I think were always going to struggle in League 2. Maybe upgrades in January are possible, but we are asking a lot. We brought in only Tipton and Macari at the back and neither have made it to a league appearance.

I hope Radar can stop my nagging pessimism.

[TSANHO]

The biggest issue for me is the fact that we’ve seen it coming. How many times will posters have to keep typing “ we all know about our defensive issues” or “our defensive frailties “?
Not a knee jerk reaction, but the lack of a plan B is a worry. Week in, week out, our defence always looks frail. So change it! Move to a flatter back 4 if needed. Do something to alleviate the pressure we regularly put ourselves under.

We’ve learnt to accept the passing back routine, but for christs sake, “our defence has mistakes in ‘em” is another regular.

Honestly think Cameron wouldn’t have made any difference at all today. In fact, I’d go as far as to say he would have made it worse. Rawlinson was probably the only man who came out of the game with a shred of dignity. He looked strong, he looked incisive with his passes and, most importantly, he moved the ball forwards when he had grass in front of him.
Brindley and Baldwin were so willing to keep the little triangles going and invite pressure they couldn’t deal with. Thought Baldwin made some great tackles today, but he embarrasses himself moaning about lack of options and forgets he’s got the bloody ball at his feet!

Everyone acknowledges LW did a fantastic job last season and has galvanised the club, but on a few occasions this season, I’m putting the blame at his door. Training should be designed to iron out errors. Formations should be able to change when needed. Substitutions should change the game.
If none of the above is happening, then we’re likely to keep conceding by large margins.

Yes, when we’re on it, we cut through teams like a knife, but we also spend large parts of games going backwards.

Sometimes the old stuff works. Ask Mansfield about their corner routines…compared to our short corner every time and it invariably going back to the half way or even deeper,

The small squad routine and siege mentality hasn’t helped. We need a better balance of recruitment and a big heading on the sheet of paper…
Must be tall, physically imposing and competitive…

Sums it up well for me, good post.

[Stagnificent]

Another thing -we have alaways been a bigger club than mansfield - we have played at the highrst level - something you will never do- and we have spent time in the top 2 tiers
How long has it taken Mansfield to get promoted to league 1 , bet we will do it sooner
And the maximum level for Mansfield is mid league 1, you will never go much beyond that, you dont have the fanbase or the owners to do it, but we do, so enjoy your temporary victory

Yeah I know all that and you were founded when men wore top hats and sideburns. Well done you. 10 points for Gryffindor.