Crewe 1 Preston 1

[Ryancrewefan4ever]

You lot have certainly come to recently and doing BCFC last week put a smile on us Nobbers. Cotter ill is a miserable moaning git and seems to find it hard to pay any respect to the opposition.

I am just glad we got a point from Crewe to be honest as the last couple of seasons we haven't even managed that. Talking to a couple of North Enders that went they thought PNE shaded it and certainly didn't deserve to go behind but it was supposedly a hard fought game as your recent form suggested.

Thought all PNE needed was a decent striker. That midfielder number 30' think was excellent. Could go higher.

[jimmyboldon]

Cooper and Turton are different players. One is a holding midfielder and the other an attacking midfielder/striker/winger. How many shots did Turton have on goal, I don't know and don't believe that is what he is there for. If Cooper starts it is in place of one of the forward players and which of those are you suggesting omitting? Cooper has time on his side. He is, at the moment, a very good weapon for the last 20/30 minutes when defences are tiring.

Exactly!

[MikeSB]

I agree that Cooper is still very young and would not be able to play every game etc but just a mo? Different players you say? All I can suggest having played this game is that midfield players cannot just be holding the midfield which is part of the job but to support the strikers at EVERY opportunity and then have a shot at goal when you are within 20 yards of the goal like Murphy did. IF players stay back the whole time, we then play too deep and allow the opposition to over run us which is what BC and Preston did. And every Crewe fan will say had any of these teams had a decent striker then we would have lost heavily. We need at home particularly to be the team pushing forwards and not staying back the whole time waiting for a breakaway to get lucky.

But then most of the passes and headers in the first half especially were useless and even Dario said at HT.. We can't pass the ball!

I'm glad we got 7 points from 9 and at this stage results are what counts and so its ju

[DannyCol]

Turton is poor. He may provide some stability, but the guy can't pass the ball. Surely that is a prerequisite of any CM? We certainly wouldn't have scored if he had stayed on the pitch, and judging by the way the game was going, they would have scored at some point.

Nolan in for Turton for me. A natural CM, as opposed to a converted FB.

[gardsPNE]

You lot have certainly come to recently and doing BCFC last week put a smile on us Nobbers. Cotter ill is a miserable moaning git and seems to find it hard to pay any respect to the opposition.

I am just glad we got a point from Crewe to be honest as the last couple of seasons we haven't even managed that. Talking to a couple of North Enders that went they thought PNE shaded it and certainly didn't deserve to go behind but it was supposedly a hard fought game as your recent form suggested.

Thought all PNE needed was a decent striker. That midfielder number 30' think was excellent. Could go higher.[/quote]

Your spot on Ryan losing Garner for 3-4 months is a disaster for us. We played some really good stuff against MK Dons and missed several sitters. Several 1-0 wins tells its own story but hopefully Grayson will get the best out of Beckford before Garner returns in a couple

[DGFG]

Nolan for Turton now he's fit again is a decent shout (I'd quite like to see a bit more of James Jones too) but I basically agree with Jimmy and Timmy - use of Cooper is just about spot on at the moment and he and Turton are completely different players.

I thought Turton was OK but the difficulty is simply that we don't have a midfield player as good as Murphy or Westwood just now - we're set up to play with 8 predominantly defensive focussed players and 3 creators/attackers (Ness, Ajose, Haber/Ikpeazu) from the start which is correct because by doing so we've managed to stop leaking goals and thus remain competitive in almost all the games now - SD changed the balance by introducing Cooper for Turton and it paid off because we pinched a goal but then could n't hold on to the lead (Preston were good value for at least a point but it was a really good point from our perspective).

Uche made a difference too, pleased to see him get his head up and try and release Ajose on a couple of oc

[MikeSB]

Sorry If I am a bit dim here re quality of Murphy and Westwood etc?

And don't want to reopen a debate on coaching but I cannot see why any midfield player wants to hang about the half way line when they could go forward and try a shot at goal or move up when we have the ball. If players prefer to stay back then they should be full backs and not midfield. Surely we don't 'coach' players to stay back do we? In the first half against Preston, I'm not sure we had anyone other than the two strikers cross the half way line????

In my humble opinion ALL midfield players should be looking to go forward and shoot if possible and if they are told to stay back then again in my humble opinion that is poor management and coaching. Of course they have a defensive role as well which is why the midfield is arguably the most important part of the team and why its called the 'engine room'..

Was Murphy told NOT to do what he did and Turton told the opposite?

Signed, confused from Gobsmacked So

[DGFG]

All I would say, Mike,is that Murphy and Westwood were n't overnight successes, Westwood had an excellent first season, appeared to regress in his second season and then kicked on again.

Murphy spent a fair number of games marooned and ineffectual on the right hand side of midfield before eventually establishing himself as a dominant central midfield player.

According to Soccerbase Murphy started 140 league games for us, Westwood started 116, Turton has started just 35 so is very much a 'work in progress'.

I doubt Turton will ever reach their standards personally but that's just my opinion and I hope he proves me wrong. As stated above he is improving (steadily rather than spectacularly),
it would be an achievement for him to play most of the games this season in a team that stays in this league - he would also have more experience by now if he had n't suffered the knee injury which kept him out for the best part of six months last season.

[TwiceInABlueMoon]

Hmmmm, not quite sure that you get the concept of a 'defensive' midfielder, Mike? There's 1000's of midfielders like it across the world of football. Their primary role is to break up play and protect the back 4 whilst playing quick balls onto the more attack-minded players. Of course, if they get a chance to have a crack at goal, they will, but that is not their main focus on the pitch and generally they won't score a lot of goals in a season.

Turton is one of these players. Cooper is most certainly not.

[DannyCol]

Is he a DM though? Didn't SD say in the Summer he wanted Turton to be more effective further forward?

In answer to my own question, Turton is not deployed as a DM. None of our midfielders are played as out and out DM's. Turton makes a number of forward runs, just never to any effect.