Scott Neilson

Why he isn't playing and that pile of garbage MacKreth is confuses me. Arnold and Neilson are very natural players to play around Lenny in a 3

#constructive

Agreed. I rate nielson over macreth. Think hurst is a fan of the natural 'down the line' winger over Neilson's run inside style

Mackreth must be doing something right. I understand he is our leading assister. Against Guiseley the game changed when Arnold came on for Neilson who, if the rumours are to be believed incurred Hurst's wrath for continually coming inside. My main complaint about Mackreth is that he doesn't use his pace often enough to beat his man...

I'm not sure "bag of sh1te" is a fair or kind description to one of our own...

I don't actually think Mackreth is that much quicker than your usual fullback. Not a patch on Colbeck IMO, who wasn't quick but at least had a bit of size so as to not get pushed off the ball every single time.

Quoted from itsnotcoditshaddock

I don't actually think Mackreth is that much quicker than your usual fullback. Not a patch on Colbeck IMO, who wasn't quick but at least had a bit of size so as to not get pushed off the ball every single time.

And he weighed in with a goal or two....

Its no suprise, he has always been the first to get dropped, first to get subbed and first to get blamed whenever something attacking doesnt go right, even when he has ran the show, ie early doors this season, Hurst would be guarded in his praise......but as Hurst is right in saying he just doesnt do it consistantly enough....a bit of a conundrum.

Neilson is the type of player halifax won't want to be up against Tuesday night. He should play he offers a huge threat and is very creative. Think back to his great vision for the pass that played thomas in to give us the penalty against wrexham. He is a class above at times.

I don't think Neilson is a natural winger, he's better playing in the middle, "in the hole" where he can go wide.

When he's out wide he tends to come inside too much.

Hurst wants the wingers to stay wide to stretch the opposition.

Neilson has a great amount of skill but his application of it is lacking too often.

As has been noted, he cuts inside pretty much every single time he gets the ball. He needs to mix it up a bit when playing as a left-sided player. I realise it is easier to turn in onto your stronger foot, but it makes things much easier for the defence when they have a pretty good idea what you are going to do 99% of the time.

The alternative is that he plays in 'the hole' behind the striker(s) and this would at least give him a bit more room to go either side.

My view is that we still probably don't quite have the necessary pace and running ability in midfield to allow us to play a classical central trio behind three attacking players. This is why our 4-3-3 tends to be more of a 4-5-1 a lot of the time as the two wider men put quite a lot of effort into bolstering the midfield.

As for Mackreth, I have been a little disappointed that he hasn't been quite the threat that we originally hoped. However, you can't fault his workrate and I think he's a decent enough player at this level. Certainly not inferior to Colbeck in most respects (and less likely to pick up stupid red cards!), but he doesn't get into shooting positions very often, that's for sure. Could do with him picking up a few goals this season.