There for the taking

[Boomerangpie]

I'm refering to our second half performances....When the wrong players are brought off..

That makes more sense. Yes clear drop off seen throughout the season and I attach a lot of the reason for that due to lack of options due to injuries. Starting XIs have looked far stronger than the bench almost all season. Some weeks the bench has looked very weak making second half subs more troublesome

[Could'vebeenacontender]

That makes more sense. Yes clear drop off seen throughout the season and I attach a lot of the reason for that due to lack of options due to injuries. Starting XIs have looked far stronger than the bench almost all season. Some weeks the bench has looked very weak making second half subs more troublesome

The bench will look stronger in the run in
Providing we avoid more serious injuries to our better guys

[TSANHO]

I feel Notts lack the consistency for an automatic place. Hopefully I'm wrong.

I was thinking this last week but hen I actually thought about it we have been pretty consistent from game to game. Like the above posters allude to the inconsistency actually comes in game, last Thursday a prime example.

With the way we play we have to be good in every action, whereas a more direct method doesn?t need such accuracy and concentration. When we tire it becomes increasingly difficult to play our style without an abundance of talent to play our way to come off the bench. Against Port Vale I thought Grant had a really good first half, maybe his best in a Notts shirt, but he and Edwards tired very quickly in the second half (to be expected considering their injuries) but we didn?t have any real quality in their positions to come and push us on.

I think Maynard sets us up well but sometimes goes a bit safe. The first half v Vale was a good example, numerous times we could?ve hit them quickly on the break but we opted to just take too many touches and ended up building from the back again. However, missing Didzy, Jones and Whitaker really hampered us there. Had they been on the pitch, or even just one or two of them, we may have opened them up a bit quicker.

I do fear that if we can?t solve our injury problem we just won?t have enough quality to see us through. It?s crucial we can keep our attacking threats consistently turning out on the pitch as this will give us that in game consistency.

[Glad2BeAPie]

The bench will look stronger in the run in
Providing we avoid more serious injuries to our better guys

If we cancel all our training. We'll be just fine and with a fully fit squad for the run in 🤣

[Could'vebeenacontender]

If we cancel all our training. We'll be just fine and with a fully fit squad for the run in ��

Most of the injuries to our better players have happened in games

[durhampie]

That makes more sense. Yes clear drop off seen throughout the season and I attach a lot of the reason for that due to lack of options due to injuries. Starting XIs have looked far stronger than the bench almost all season. Some weeks the bench has looked very weak making second half subs more troublesome

He made a big mistake in taking Gordon off. That definitely weakened the team

[matt_magpie]

He made a big mistake in taking Gordon off. That definitely weakened the team

Gordon did zero second half, he played well the first half but for me up to now he hasn?t done a lot for Notts. I hope he kicks on but I?ve personally not seen it at all so far.

[Boomerangpie]

You can?t expect every substitution to work. You can?t expect to get every starting lineup right. You can?t please all of the people all of the time. That?s football.

If Gordon hadn?t been taken off could we still have lost 1-0 to a late goal due purely to an individual error? I say yes.

More injuries over a longer period of time than I can ever remember has weakened our bench often this season and weakened Maynard?s in game options

[jackal2]

We need to get a ruthless killer instinct and start with Colchester, as apposed to a negative passive approach that seems to have been pervasive at vale

Agreed.

Automatic promotion definitely is within range, but the players and manager need to address this tendency to play within the comfort zone rather than pushing themselves to the max. Against Port Vale and Bromley where we dropped very winnable points, and even in certain games we've won recently, I think we've been playing at a pace and taking a level of risk that is well short of the maximum we're capable of handling.

I hark back to a point I made about Dan Crowley's tendency to showboat. I think we lack a player in the team of the 'Roy Keane' type who can sense when we're coasting or over elaborating. Someone who isn't afraid to grab a few throats or kick a few backsides (metaphorically or literally!) to keep players 'honest' and giving the maximum they can. To be clear I'm not saying our team is lazy, but it's human nature for many people to settle into their comfort zone rather than pushing themselves to the limit, and success tends to follow those who drive themselves the hardest.

[midshipman]

Talk about weak bench did you see Man Un bench yesterday 9 youn
gters with no league experience Must be the weakest bench in PL history.