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sonofmadeleymariner
November 6, 2018, 11:43pm
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Why can't our players the wrong side of 30 put in dominating performances like Mansfields 37 year old Bishop, he ran the midfield today, instead of watching the game go by like most weeks.


I don't mind Roy Keane making £60,000 a week. I was making the same when I was playing. The only difference was I was printing my own - Mickey Thomas

The area you are trying to protect at corners is the goal - Chris Kamara

I once said Gazza's IQ was less than his shirt number and he asked me: What's an IQ? - George Best
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Tommy
November 7, 2018, 1:25am
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Too many ineffective players in the eleven tonight.

I fear we actually have too many ineffective players in the squad. Not bad players. Some players are tidy enough on the ball and have decent enough technique. But these players are still ineffective in competitive football matches and don't offer enough out of possession either.

This contributes to our real problem at the minute, which is the balance between setting an expansive shape in possession, and being tight and compact out of possession. To ensure we don't get overrun and cut through repeatedly, we almost have to go Hurst-like and "keep us shape", not too many risks and not too many bodies forward. But this leaves us woefully short of being able to have an impact at the other end of the pitch - and to attack more effectively and hopefully score more goals, we'd need to open up when we have the ball and have support for the attackers.

Shutting up shop worked for the run of 4 games when we kept clean sheets and managed to take enough chances to win 3 games. But since then we haven't kept clean sheets and the balance of the team isn't set up to go and score multiple goals.

I'm not saying that's necessarily the wrong approach. If we did open up and get bodies forward, get real width both ways and stretch the opposition, we'd be wide open and we don't have players that are athletic enough to recover into organised defensive shape quickly enough in these moments of transition when we lose the ball.

Only watched the 2nd half tonight. But Liam Hearn (himself a budding Coach) called their winner before Mansfield even got the ball off us. We had a throw-in quite a way into Mansfield's half and before we took it, Liam said if we lose the ball we could be in trouble as we'd left 3v3 at the back. We even gave ourselves a chance to recover back when we briefly won the ball back after losing it, but then lost it again for them to break forward quickly. That extra couple of seconds made no difference and they were away against a still disorganised and unbalanced defensive set-up.

I think we had 4 or 5 players in the starting eleven tonight who you could label ineffective. All decent enough technically and some contributed to some tidy bits of possession that we had in the middle third of the pitch. But that's in area's we'll never hurt teams and we didn't have any idea how to progress possession into the final third tonight to get anywhere near a chance at goal. These players would look decent in training with technical drills and possession games against our generally not-very-athletic squad, but in a full-pace game against really mobile players, they will struggle and in areas where they're put under pressure, sometimes crumble.

I don't know what the answer is yet. Finding a system to allow us to get our more effective players on the pitch together would be priority as I don't think we've found that yet. Partially because we've had players injured and unavailable so much maybe.

Managers with a budget like ours will be dont really build the perfect squad in one transfer window though, so I think it'd be wrong to hammer MJ too much over recruitment. Literally every manager there's ever been, signs some shockers and a 50% success rate is maybe par. Hopefully he can find the right balance and system to get enough results to be able to be afforded the next few transfer windows to progress and refine his squad.


"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one."
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chaos33
November 7, 2018, 6:47am
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Convincing post as usual Tommy.


"You should do what you love while you can"
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H19P1
November 7, 2018, 6:56am
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Late to bed and up early with the kids but always enjoy an away match despite the result.

I said to myself yesterday that a point would’ve been a good result the way we’re playing of late and how Mansfield are.

I just feel the pain of things aren’t happening for us. We play some good football and so we should but compared to the Conference days it’s much better.

I was particularly paying special attention to MJ last night and he seems mega frustrated with certain aspects of play.

Not sure what the answer is guys and I fear MJ doesn’t either with the players he’s got 😟

Good support from the faithful and a big shout out to Macca, he totally kept us in it and the shoreline down.

Maybe a good old January shake up is all that I’m holding onto.
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MuddyWaters
November 7, 2018, 7:01am
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Quoted from H19P1
Late to bed and up early with the kids but always enjoy an away match despite the result.

I said to myself yesterday that a point would’ve been a good result the way we’re playing of late and how Mansfield are.

I just feel the pain of things aren’t happening for us. We play some good football and so we should but compared to the Conference days it’s much better.

I was particularly paying special attention to MJ last night and he seems mega frustrated with certain aspects of play.

Not sure what the answer is guys and I fear MJ doesn’t either with the players he’s got 😟

Good support from the faithful and a big shout out to Macca, he totally kept us in it and the shoreline down.

Maybe a good old January shake up is all that I’m holding onto.


Good old Shoreline - always need a mention now & again
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H19P1
November 7, 2018, 7:05am
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Quoted from MuddyWaters


Good old Shoreline - always need a mention now & again


I’m just tired fella 💤😂

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Cloudy
November 7, 2018, 7:18am
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Mansfield were the best side I have seen in League 2 this season. Not sure how it came across on Ifollow but the way they created space down the flanks was impressive. I have been banging on about movement, and our lack of it, and Mansfield have it in bucket loads. Clearly well drilled but had physical strength over and above our level.

Macca outstanding, centre backs did ok, Hess played deeper than previously and contributed. Cook looked like someone who hadn’t played for weeks, poor touch and decision makings.

Unlike some I am not too downhearted about last night but 3 away defeats on he bounce isn’t great to say the least. Crawley at home is a vital game- we need to win, simple as that.

Good following considering we could have stayed at home and watched on ifollow
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bedders78
November 7, 2018, 8:29am
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Thank god for Macca, if we had stolen a point, we'd have to let him take it home and stick it on his mantelpiece.

After an evenish first half, Mansfield played with a tempo, physicality and confidence in the second that we didn't get near.  The changes left the team very static in possession - we missed Embleton and Vernam showing for passes. Hess looked rusty, Pringle was a disappointment to me and was one of a number of players that, probably through low confidence, didn't seem to want the ball.  RHJ was on a hiding to nothing and constantly isolated by Woolford inability to track back quickly and Famawo staying too central.

Vernam on for Cook at 1-1 was bold, but by then taking a point was looking like the best result we could get and I was hoping for Clifton or Welsh to offer more defensive cover. If Charles had scored the winner, we'd be hailing a tactical masterstroke but it wasn't the percentage, Hurstian move at that moment against a better team.

Overall they were better - stronger, quicker and generally looking like a team assembled to a better budget.


Grim Outlook exile
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diehardmariner
November 7, 2018, 8:42am
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First of all, the difference between the two sides last night was Tyler Walker.  A guy who probably shouldn't be playing at this level.  Fine margins and all that I know...

Lack of balance was the key for me last night.  When we kept the ball on the deck we looked very comfortable and I thought for a period in the second half looked absolutely head and shoulders above Mansfield...until we got near their goal and then we didn't know what to do with it.

Hall-Johnson may well turn out to be a very good right-back and he definitely offers something going forward.  But defensively he's far too naive to be the week-in-week-out first choice down that side.  Teams are targetting him because he's there to be got at.  On the other side Hendrie looks like a guy who's playing on his wrong side.  He can get away with against lesser sides but as soon as he comes up against a half decent winger who's capable of going inside and outside, he's done for.  

In front of them it was Woolford and Pringle, switching every five minutes.  Be it them or Embleton and Hooper, there's no real protection.  Woolford just seems to float five yards away from where he needs to be and Pringle looks like he knows what he should be doing but doesn't have the legs/confidence to do it.  If you play without width you become very narrow and further expose your fullbacks.  

Our whole midfield is built around guys who are workers.  Pure grafters who will get up and down the pitch, or in our case go from wing to wing and get stuck in.  There's no creativity at all.  

Up top it doesn't matter who we play, none of them can make the ball stick.  They all want and need someone to play off and/or play them in.  Persisting with Thomas, as we did with Cook earlier in the season, as a target man is bonkers.  He hasn't got the technical or physical attributes for it.  The ball goes up to him, or near him, then comes straight back.  We might as well just punt the ball out for a throw-in in their half and be done with it.

We can't do anything until January so it's a case of making best of what we've got.   In my personal opinion we've got two guys in the squad who are capable of making something happen, that's Vernam and Embleton.  It's essential we have those both on the pitch.  We don't have the players to even try playing a 4-4-2 (or variation of) so why bother?  Get the two creative guys behind a striker, probably Thomas, but with the emphasis of playing him in and playing around him, not using him as a target man.  Pack the midfield with energy to cover the lack of width and protect the full-backs.    It won't win titles and it won't be successful every week, but I honestly think it's all we've got.

I completely agree with Tommy about ineffectual players.  Our squad is riddled with them.  It's easy to blame Fenty for a poor budget but Jolley has spent that budget on a relatively large squad that has very little variation in it.  Perhaps less bodies with more quality would have been a better approach, especially when you consider how many bodies we've got that are offering nothing at present.
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Maringer
November 7, 2018, 8:43am
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For me, the biggest surprise this season is that the signings Jolley made during the summer don't really match the high-tempo and energetic pressing game he mentioned that he wanted to play.

How much of this was due to an inability to find the right players in the summer, I'm not sure, but with the best will in the world, you're not going to get a high-tempo performance when you don't have any real pace in the squad and the Collins, Welsh, Woolford axis certainly isn't going to help in this regard. We're very lightweight as well, especially in attacking positions.

Much as with Slade last season, he didn't sign the players to fit into the shape he wanted to play. We were going to be set up to play with wing-backs, but then didn't actually have any wing-backs come the first games of the season! Since then, we've generally gone to a back four with an ever-changing line up (often because of injury, of course) and we don't seem to have the midfielders to remain competitive with the better teams (even when playing 3 in the middle) and have almost no wide players on the books.

Individually, I agree that many of the players are OK, but they just aren't apparently capable of doing enough as a group.

Big disappointment for me has been Hessenthaler who, after a bright start, has dropped right away. Truth be told, I wonder if he's struggling with home sickness? He's spent his whole life in the south east and moving to an unfamiliar part of the country, several hours away from family and friends must be difficult for a relatively young lad.
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