⚽ Any match day thread today ? [PSF Stoke City (H)]

[MAD_MAGPIE]

True, but it does go to show what happens when our high line comes up against decent opposition. Playing against National League teams you can get away with gifting three of four chances and them getting in behind multiple times, but we'll get found out if we're not careful in L2.

I'm not criticising our approach as it's been highly successful, but I think we need to bring in at least one more defender of sufficient quality to make it work better.

The game today and next weeks game against Forest have and will show all our defensive weaknesses. We need this though so that we can work on improving what we do. I doubt we will change what we do in terms of our style of play because that would be nonsensical to throw the baby out with the bathwater after how good we were last season.

It's about giving the new squad both success and failure especially in pre-season. Whilst we won't be playing the likes of Stoke and Forest in the league every week playing against these teams will help with all plans and preparations ready for when we face league opposition. Whether the club feels further defensive re-enforcements on the back of these two games are required will remain to be seen.

[Magpies1959]

Jesus it was a friendly, don't get your knickers in a twist. Listening to LW after the game he seemed like he had used it as an exercise to show the players that it has to be done perfectly at higher levels or it will be punished. If they cannot do this then I am sure adjustments will be made.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Jesus it was a friendly, don't get your knickers in a twist. Listening to LW after the game he seemed like he had used it as an exercise to show the players that it has to be done perfectly at higher levels or it will be punished. If they cannot do this then I am sure adjustments will be made.

It's good management as well on LW's part because it will keep the team well grounded as well. It will help re-enforce the reasons why LW will want the players to keep working hard in training and keep improving every day (despite the great achievement last season) if we are to be very competitive at league two level and continue on an upwards trajectory.

[Elite_Pie]

A few thoughts on the game, and before anyone says "Jesus it was a friendly" these are based entirely on what I saw today.

The new boys:

Stone - not really impressed, but to be fair he was given minimal cover from his defence.
Crowley - looked good, found plenty of space and looks suited to our system.
McGoldrick - Just what I hoped to see, he looks a cut above League 2. Moments of sheer class, Ruben's boots are big ones to fill but McGoldrick has the skill and vision to actually be an upgrade.
Randall - first impressions are 50/50, tended to play the safe pass rather than attack his defender.

The kids:

Mahovo - gifted a goal but got better as the game progressed. Comfortable on the ball but his positional play needs work. Playing 90 minutes will have taught him a lot.
Cisse - Played well, his lack of physical stature might be an issue if he plays at the back, but he has confidence on the ball and a good attitude.
Munakandafa - not a lot in the way of service, did ok but didn't look ready for the first team.

[matt_magpie]

One thing that disappointed me (other than writing pub instead of pun!) was Cameron's attitude to Mohovo. It's a friendly, and he was having a nightmare but not once did I see him offer him any support and just looked annoyed at him. Also spent too much time berating Brindley (although somewhat deserved) but just felt wrong

Be quite ironic if he was as he was the one who gave a rubbish ball to Mohovo and then pointed for him to pass it back not realising there was a player behind him.

[SwalePie]

[TSANHO]

You can have Paulo Maldini in defence but playing that high a line against quality opposition just won’t work….even National league opposition worked it out. The players we have are more than capable of defending but it takes a world class defence to play that high line against decent opposition. Throwing money at a defender won’t make a difference, it’s the system of defending as a whole that needs work.

Im kind of glad it was finally and properly exposed today because it shows just how much work there is to be done.

[Magpies1959]

As LW said in his post match interview, if he had wanted to win all the pre season games he would have chosen opposition no higher than League Two. This was a timely reminder that we are probably not as good defensively as some players might have thought we were. Far better to have wake up calls in pre season friendlies. than go into the league season, thinking everything is hunky dory.

[Elite_Pie]

Im kind of glad it was finally and properly exposed today because it shows just how much work there is to be done.

Hard to draw too many conclusions because it was just one friendly game against better opposition, but I agree in principle.

We need to adapt rather than make a big change, and I trust Luke Williams to do exactly that.

[Mud Pie]

Going from the highlights, this thread, and LW's post-match thoughts only, I'd say this could be a useful little slap in the face.

Despite feeling very positive about next season, the reality is that Notts will be facing improved opposition, and that usually means less time for thought and more consistent punishing of even minor mistakes. A defeat like this might help bring us up to speed sharpish.

I don't fully agree with LW's defence of our last season's defence. He can point to the stats all he likes, but no one else who watched us thought we were defensively very secure at all. And as someone else pointed out above, Chessie and BW both seemed to really have sussed out how to get through our lines by the end, and neither of them are all that. And our senior goalie folded under the pressure at Wembley. I hope LW's not fooling himself with the stat line. Don't think he is, he's defo smarter than me, but unless he thinks he can Moniz the league, there is work to do, imo.
Personally I think we conceded so few because of the speed of our game in the NL context, and our ability to press up the field, and conceded more than we should have because of an inconsistent defence.

I'm a little worried how an absulute tonking next week would effect our start to the new season.