Stevenage (H) - Match Thread

[BJBlue]

I think Scholes got nearly everything right yesterday. I enjoyed watching a lot of the football we played, which is always nice. As far as I can see, we just lack quality. We attacked well the whole game, but we couldn't put it away. This has obviously been a theme in Scholes' first few games. A little better game management is needed in the dying minutes of a game but I'm sure that will come. The big issue is player quality. AL needs to really back Scholes in the summer, both financially and which letting him choose his players. He knows how he wants to play, and at the moment he's being forced to put square pegs in round holes. 

 

As far as I'm concerned the rest of this season is written off as a chance for Scholes to learn, evaluate his squad and scout prospective signings for summer. I feel very positive about the future under Scholes. 

[deyres42]

So horny for da summer.

[Flemboy]

13 hours ago, the_mighty_bosh said:

Way too early to judge Scholes, but he has a positive to his time in charge in getting a tune out of Jose and negative in the 5 points dropped from 90th minute + goals.

 

All about enjoying the rest of this season's games as much as possible and getting ready for a big push in the summer.

100% agree but the players must accept a large part of blame for these costly very late goals

[True Tic]

8 hours ago, kowenicki said:

 

Who would you keep? 

Baxter

Edmundson

Nepo

Lang if at all possible

 

Would have said Clarke but for his advancing years. 

[mikejh45]

I thought I would wait a while before commenting on yesterday's match.

I thought we put in a decent team performance but was a bit niggled about a couple of areas.

POSITIVES:

Scholes' tactics for 80 mins.

Baxter....looking more and more like the player we had the first time around.

Maouche......so comfortable on the ball, always there as an outlet for the defenders.

Nepo…..on the left wing in the second half. Beasted that right back several times.

Missilou…..good for an hour or so. Decision making gets poor when he's tiring.

Lang.....before Baxter's substitution.

NEGATIVES:

Scholes' tactics for the last 13 mins. I thought there was not enough presence in front of our defence when Stevenage went for hoofball. Possibly Scylla instead of a forward or going 3 at the back with Sefil (Almost the same, I know). No point in going for 3 points when our defence was tiring with Stevenage on the ascendancy and just lumping it.

Nepo…..lots of tricks but offering nothing on the right in the first half.

Edmondson.... much better when he keeps it simple.

Lang.....after Baxter's substitution. Pushed into a position where was ineffective.

 

 

[kowenicki]

53 minutes ago, True Tic said:

Baxter

Edmundson

Nepo

Lang if at all possible

 

Would have said Clarke but for his advancing years. 

 

I’d add Maouche for definite. THE most comfortable player on the ball we have. Hamer will get better and better and Missile is vastly improved this season, so no reason why he can’t improve more. 

 

At the back I’d bin Hunt and Taylor. I agree Clarke needs replacing.

 

We need defenders and strikers, our midfield is better than people give it credit for. 

[super_blue]

31 minutes ago, mikejh45 said:

I thought I would wait a while before commenting on yesterday's match.

I thought we put in a decent team performance but was a bit niggled about a couple of areas.

POSITIVES:

Scholes' tactics for 80 mins.

Baxter....looking more and more like the player we had the first time around.

Maouche......so comfortable on the ball, always there as an outlet for the defenders.

Nepo…..on the left wing in the second half. Beasted that right back several times.

Missilou…..good for an hour or so. Decision making gets poor when he's tiring.

Lang.....before Baxter's substitution.

NEGATIVES:

Scholes' tactics for the last 13 mins. I thought there was not enough presence in front of our defence when Stevenage went for hoofball. Possibly Scylla instead of a forward or going 3 at the back with Sefil (Almost the same, I know). No point in going for 3 points when our defence was tiring with Stevenage on the ascendancy and just lumping it.

Nepo…..lots of tricks but offering nothing on the right in the first half.

Edmondson.... much better when he keeps it simple.

Lang.....after Baxter's substitution. Pushed into a position where was ineffective.

 

 

Hmmmm...if scholes would have made 1 or even 2 of the changes you suggest the locals would have done their nut asking ‘why we’re defending a 1-0 lead at home to a poor team’. If I was being super critical i’d Have used a sub to kill 2mins as the clock ticked down And I would have brought Branger on to run at their tired back 4. 

 

Stevenage where never in the ascendancy. Their first goal game from someone simply not doing their job and clearing the danger. After that you could say they pressed more than they had all game as they became confident as any team does when they score. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by super_blue

[adamoafc]

5 hours ago, GlossopLatic said:

 

From the current squad

 

Edmondson

Hamer

Nepomucenco

Missilou

Clarke

Baxter

Maouche (not on £4k a week more like £1k a week.

 

Im undecided on Hunt and Branger it depends how much either wants to stay and how happy they are to settle for a place on the bench.

 

Id love to sign Lang or Iverson for next season but feel that wont happen.

 

Id like to sign Zak Dearnley up for next season he will develop.

 

Thats the basis of a half decent squad.

 

That would therefore require about 10 signings as has been said above we need to improve the hit rate of good/bad signings. We clearly dont have a strong enough bench thats been a big factor in the last few games. We haven't got the squad to rotate or even anyone who can change it up from the bench.

 

Really don’t get the love for iverson, yes he pulls off the odd worldie and loves a camera save but the amount of goals from crosses we have conceded due to his reluctance to come off his line has cost us a lot. Crewe and Stevenage in the last two weeks off the top of my head there is a lot more. Those two games alone cost us 4 points. 

 

Not brave enough, yes he is still getting better but there is better overall keepers on this league and to get us promoted we need a commanding keeper something iverson isn’t. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by adamoafc

[GlossopLatic]

32 minutes ago, adamoafc said:

Really don’t get the love for iverson, yes he pulls off the odd worldie and loves a camera save but the amount of goals from crosses we have conceded due to his reluctance to come off his line has cost us a lot. Crewe and Stevenage in the last two weeks off the top of my head there is a lot more. Those two games alone cost us 4 points. 

 

Not brave enough, yes he is still getting better but there is better overall keepers on this league and to get us promoted we need a commanding keeper something iverson isn’t. 

 

We always accuse goalkeepers of not coming of their lines I guarantee you someone will say that about the next goalkeeper.

[adamoafc]

10 minutes ago, GlossopLatic said:

 

We always accuse goalkeepers of not coming of their lines I guarantee you someone will say that about the next goalkeeper.

We accuse because they are crap at it. Plenty of other keepers don’t seem to have that issue. Most teams in this league have big players upfront to play long ball and get crosses in the box we need abit of experience / quality to come and collect the cross and take the pressure off the back four. 

[Bristolatic]

33 minutes ago, adamoafc said:

We accuse because they are crap at it. Plenty of other keepers don’t seem to have that issue. Most teams in this league have big players upfront to play long ball and get crosses in the box we need abit of experience / quality to come and collect the cross and take the pressure off the back four. 

I honestly wonder if keepers these days are discouraged from coming for everything. As far as I can recall, Pogliacomi was the last one we had came for practically every cross that came in. His defenders knew he was going to come for them.

 

I know it's going back a long way, but in my playing days as a goalkeeper, I was told, "Go for the ball and take everyone out as well if you have to. At least the cross won't have done us any harm." The game has definitely changed in many ways, and I think that this is one of them. I may be in the minority here, but I thought even Peter Shilton often didn't come for crosses that he should have.

 

Perhaps it's being coached as more of a defender's job now (any thoughts, @BP1960?), but I take the point that we, and every club really, should have a commanding keeper. Having said that, I think that Iversen is a very good keeper and, at 22/23 years of age, he has a lot more developing to do and will probably not hit his peak for another 4 or 5 years. 

 

The search will need to start fairly soon, as Iversen won't be here next season and De La Paz is a real unknown quantity.

[nzlatic]

In Steve Hale’s interview when he joined he talked about young premier league goalkeepers not being prepared for dealing with crosses as u23 football isn’t played that way. 

 

Another argument for having these kids stay on the books of lower league clubs rather than being hoovered up to play in premier league development squads. 

[al_bro]

OK Missile should have cleared the ball up the line rather than messing about, but there were quite a few passes after that which ultimately led to the corner. There were other corners which we defended, this was just another one which we failed to defend, so I can't blame Missile for the goal.

 

As for the playoffs we are a point closer now than we were before the game. Lots will happen over the next few weeks so I'm not writing this season of yet.

[LightDN123]

Spoke to Misslou this morning and the players certainly haven’t written off the play offs yet. As should be expected really. 

[GlossopLatic]

2 hours ago, adamoafc said:

We accuse because they are crap at it. Plenty of other keepers don’t seem to have that issue. Most teams in this league have big players upfront to play long ball and get crosses in the box we need abit of experience / quality to come and collect the cross and take the pressure off the back four. 

 

 Despite never coming for a cross he's kept 11 clean sheets this season.

 

He's easily good enough to play at a higher level and probably will and at his age he will only get better.

 

I will be absolutely delighted if we get him in next season on several occasions this season he's saved our bacon. He's pulled of saves that many goalkeepers don't at this level including memorably that penalty save at Fulham.

 

Im far more concerned about several other players.

[adamoafc]

16 minutes ago, GlossopLatic said:

 

 Despite never coming for a cross he's kept 11 clean sheets this season.

 

He's easily good enough to play at a higher level and probably will and at his age he will only get better.

 

I will be absolutely delighted if we get him in next season on several occasions this season he's saved our bacon. He's pulled of saves that many goalkeepers don't at this level including memorably that penalty save at Fulham.

 

Im far more concerned about several other players.

Might have kept 11 clean sheets but no chance he will play higher than league 1 unless he starts dominating his area. 

 

You cant justify a player scoring from 5 yards out with a header and your keeper being glued to his line. Like I have said he has done it far too often. Clearly accepting mediocrity because he’s kept clean sheets is acceptable. 

[Dave_Og]

1 minute ago, adamoafc said:

Clearly accepting mediocrity because he’s kept clean sheets is acceptable. 

 

We're on the fourth division; mediocrity is an aspiration.

[True Tic]

1 hour ago, LightDN123 said:

Spoke to Misslou this morning and the players certainly haven’t written off the play offs yet. As should be expected really. 

I admire his optimism but I don't share it

[GlossopLatic]

2 hours ago, adamoafc said:

Might have kept 11 clean sheets but no chance he will play higher than league 1 unless he starts dominating his area. 

 

You cant justify a player scoring from 5 yards out with a header and your keeper being glued to his line. Like I have said he has done it far too often. Clearly accepting mediocrity because he’s kept clean sheets is acceptable. 

 

Im sure he can improve on things like that but hes not much worse if he is worse at all than any other keeper in this league on that. 

 

Are you not more concerned about other areas of the pitch?

 

If Iverson is our weak link next year Id be pretty confident of automatic promotion.

[BP1960]

Poor making for the Stevenage goal, what was Edmundson doing on the near post when they had their two biggest men together attacking a far post corner?

No wonder we concede so many this way, forget zonal marking, mark their biggest men with yours for goodness sake.

I noticed Cambridge scored with a headed goal by a big man, surely our coaching staff noticed it too and it won't happen again next week?

 

 

[Londonboy]

The defense is our problem, as it was last season. Iverson is a top keeper at League 2 level and without him we would be in worse position than we are now and be a few hundred grand worse off as we would not have progressed in the Cup.

 

We had the 2nd worst defensive record last year in league 1 conceding 75 goals, and all we did was change our keeper and bring back Clarke.

 

We are on track to ship about 60 goals this year so would need to score around 95 to be in the top 3 based on the current top 3!

 

Only Lincoln, Bury, MKD and Colchester have outscored us so its apparent where the priority lies.....however we ain't gonna score 95 goals!!

 

IMO we concede too many goals from crosses because our full backs defensively at least, are not good enough. We play players out of position, who don't know their job is to primarily defend...or they simply cannot defend at all.

 

Cut out 15 goals against us next season and maintain our scoring rate and we will be up there next year.

[laticsrblue]

On 3/3/2019 at 2:47 PM, Bristolatic said:

....

The search will need to start fairly soon, as Iversen won't be here next season and De La Paz is a real unknown quantity.

 

De La Paz did OK when Iverson was called up for the Danish U21s earlier in the season.

Edited March 4, 2019 by laticsrblue

[Bristolatic]

1 hour ago, laticsrblue said:

 

De La Paz did OK when Iverson was called up for the Danish U21s earlier in the season.

So he did. I'd forgotten about that. 

[Lee Sinnott]

On 3/2/2019 at 4:57 PM, kowenicki said:

Maouche MOM, class act today   Nepo and Baxter great. 

 

Forward players in general very good.

 

We deserved 3 points.

Just a reminder that this was a game from Scholes' reign. A reign that you have described as "boring."

 

From the above post, seems like you enjoyed this game...

[kowenicki]

18 minutes ago, Lee Sinnott said:

Just a reminder that this was a game from Scholes' reign. A reign that you have described as "boring."

 

From the above post, seems like you enjoyed this game...

 

I enjoyed a few players performances by the look. I can’t recall the game too well, so perhaps not.  

 

The football was poor under Scholes. In his past six games in charge (out of 7) we didn’t win. He was poor. It’s not even a debate.