Toby Mullarkey

played brilliantly tonight - hadn't realised he was at Crewe as a youngster when Artell was at the Academy

Thought it was his best game for us. Cruel that his slip allowed MK In for the goal

Still think hunt finished  hagrid

I thought Hunt did well……

i thought hunt played well when he come on held on to the ball well and some good passing

Toby Mullarkey was the main one Artell came and spoke to when he decided against watching and got involved in coaching. He looked very animated so would love to know what was said because he got an awful lot out of a player who has fell by the wayside in recent times. We saw early on what he's capable of and Artell clearly knows it because he lit a fire under his bottom after the first 5 minutes when he showed up on the touchline.

Quoted from Kris2

Toby Mullarkey was the main one Artell came and spoke to when he decided against watching and got involved in coaching. He looked very animated so would love to know what was said because he got an awful lot out of a player who has fell by the wayside in recent times. We saw early on what he's capable of and Artell clearly knows it because he lit a fire under his bottom after the first 5 minutes when he showed up on the touchline.

Interesting point  , must've thought he can make a difference straight away coz he knows what Toby can do

There was a buzz going through the team, and in that hairy 30 minutes second half when MK changed the pattern and stopped us playing like we did first half you had to think..this is the point at which we fall away, concede and lose confidence, and maybe lose the game. But the effort we put in to counter that was enormous.

Interesting that Artell often mentions the mental approach,  that it's not just about dutifully sticking to the whiteboard and rigid positioning, summed up for me by Mullarkey and Hunt who both looked like they'd had weights lifted off their shoulders.

Quoted from SpiritOf98

There was a buzz going through the team, and in that hairy 30 minutes second half when MK changed the pattern and stopped us playing like we did first half you had to think..this is the point at which we fall away, concede and lose confidence, and maybe lose the game. But the effort we put in to counter that was enormous.

Interesting that Artell often mentions the mental approach,  that it's not just about dutifully sticking to the whiteboard and rigid positioning, summed up for me by Mullarkey and Hunt who both looked like they'd had weights lifted off their shoulders.

In other sports , sports pyschology is used widely, and I've always thought that a number of our players (Michee being the prime example) could benefit from it. Can imagine that Artell is far more open to that than Hurst

Take your point about Mullarkey
Great energy, strength etc
But his crossing is shocking 90% of the time - hardly ever gets it above knee high

I think that need to improve from both flanks before we start winning more matches

Hunt is an Artell type player - I expect him to be given a good run of games cos his technical skill is excellent
Conteh was class last night
I like the look of Ainlee - comfortable on the ball

I'm thinking players like Holohan, Green, Amos and Andrews might struggle in a football-playing team

Quoted from forza ivano

In other sports , sports pyschology is used widely, and I've always thought that a number of our players (Michee being the prime example) could benefit from it. Can imagine that Artell is far more open to that than Hurst

Rob Jones went from Bambi on ice to an absolute beast after investing in sports psychologist input.

Quoted from devs

Take your point about Mullarkey
Great energy, strength etc
But his crossing is shocking 90% of the time - hardly ever gets it above knee high

I think that need to improve from both flanks before we start winning more matches

Hunt is an Artell type player - I expect him to be given a good run of games cos his technical skill is excellent
Conteh was class last night
I like the look of Ainlee - comfortable on the ball

I'm thinking players like Holohan, Green, Amos and Andrews might struggle in a football-playing team

I think you have to ask whether this is by design or not. Crossing from the byline, if you put it into the air in and around the 6 yard box then you're giving the goalkeeper a huge advantage. Fire it across low and hard and you're asking the attackers to get on the end of it and even draw a mistake from defenders trying to clear the ball, winning corners and possibly in the most fortuitous circumstances an own goal.

Not suggesting I think his crossing is top drawer, just that to judge it not being above knee height is possibly harsh as it could very easily be a purposeful decision.

Quoted from gtfc_chris

I think you have to ask whether this is by design or not. Crossing from the byline, if you put it into the air in and around the 6 yard box then you're giving the goalkeeper a huge advantage. Fire it across low and hard and you're asking the attackers to get on the end of it and even draw a mistake from defenders trying to clear the ball, winning corners and possibly in the most fortuitous circumstances an own goal.

Not suggesting I think his crossing is top drawer, just that to judge it not being above knee height is possibly harsh as it could very easily be a purposeful decision.

I was going to post similar - the hard low driven cross seems a rarity nowadays (showing my age: Alan Hinton used it with success at Forest/Derby way back when).

Danny Rose is excellent in the air, but he's often up against a huge keeper and two giant CBs...the low ball merits consideration imo.

A low cross still has to beat the 1st defender to be effective, so I can see why people want head high crosses.

These DO however need to be more towards the penalty spot to avoid goalie clutches.... and to ensure our forwards can be up there in time to do something with them !

Question - has Maher lost his long throw in technique this season?

That could make use of a different tactic, as current throw ins have often been woeful.

Quoted from acko338

Question - has Maher lost his long throw in technique this season?

Could perhaps have a minor shoulder problem which doesn't stop him playing, but does stop him throwing? Alternatively, we're not the biggest team in any case, so perhaps not worth lobbing it into the box on the off-chance something might fall for us.

Unfortunately, other than Maher, our players don't really seem to have much in the way of a decent throw between them and this is a real issue.

Can't see DA as a fan of the long throw myself.

Quoted from acko338

A low cross still has to beat the 1st defender to be effective, so I can see why people want head high crosses.

These DO however need to be more towards the penalty spot to avoid goalie clutches.... and to ensure our forwards can be up there in time to do something with them !

Question - has Maher lost his long throw in technique this season?

That could make use of a different tactic, as current throw ins have often been woeful.

I’m absolutely convinced that the Maher throw was detrimental to us.

First and foremost, it wasn’t long/flat enough to cause teams a real problem. I can’t remember us ever actually scoring from one?

Secondly, it left Maher out of position. He couldn’t throw & head the ball in an attacking sense. Defensively, he was 40 yards out of position, leaving us vulnerable to the counter attack - when it was inevitably cleared.

There’s no doubt that an effective long throw is worth its weight in gold & we saw that with Cropper during our promotion season. However, Maher’s long throw isn’t worth the risk vs. reward of him taking it - in the first place!

Croppers long throw was so effective because it was a bullet and allowed us to attack it like a cross. Maher long throw is no way near as good.. it never had any pace and rarely actually got to any sort of dangerous area. I’d love to see our overall set piece stats if i’m honest because I can’t remember many corners we’ve scored from, I think that’s something we’ve definitely missed since coming up, we scored a lot of goals from corners in the NL. The quality of ball into the box has improved vastly this past few weeks with the re-introduction of Glennon and now Hunt aswell.

Quoted from ginnywings

Can't see DA as a fan of the long throw myself.

We are not good in the air. We used to sing "we don't score from a corner"  until it became not funny.