Steve_R

16 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

I reckon he’ll start with 442. It could be a bit of a battle on a questionable pitch so sticking with this would be safer. I think he’ll go with…
 

Norman

Kitching

Hogan

Raglan

Hobson (or new RB)

Ward

Sheron

Shelton

Green

Norwood

Nuttall

I think you could be spot on there. I’m sure Nuttall will start, and as Norwood has been playing and scoring for Barnsley pre season and apparently training here this week he obviously fit enough to start. I don’t think Dickinson played much last season (if at all) so he’ll probably have to bide his time, so think Ward will stay on the left for now.

I’d probably start with Fondop and Norwood up front, but I’m sure Unsworth knows a lot more than me so I’ll leave it to him.

I’ve not seen enough of Willoughby to be demanding he starts, and think Unsworth’s getting some unfair stick here. All this ‘why sign him and not play him’ seems over the top to me. The season hasn’t even started yet so let’s see how it unfolds.

As we have four strikers one of them is going to be fourth choice, and as Unsworth signed three of them there’s a fair chance he’ll have ‘chased’ whoever it is. 
It looks like it’s Willoughby at the moment but let’s see what happens first before condemning him for not picking him.

51 minutes ago, Monty Burns said:

or l suppose you could double down on it all

go on really go for it, don't hold back. if we draw with southend or even lose make sure you proper lay into all the players and the happy clappers and the fat cunt manager old man owner.

 

jesus what is wrong with us lot. an actual group of fans getting giddy to try and drag their own down and stamp on their faces. world is mental.

I’ve no idea what you’re on about, but I expect us to win on Saturday and am confident we will.

It seem that if anyone expects us to challenge at the top of the table this season and thinks that we will, then apparently they don’t really think that. They’re setting the bar too high so they can have a right good moan when we’re underneath it.

The ones who feel positive are really the negative ones it would appear.

13 minutes ago, Rootshallbloke said:

Those stats do not include away sales.

A lot (like me) will have snapped them up straight away to make sure we got one given the short notice of the go ahead for the game.

Unless we sell them all and they give us more we’ll never know how many we would have sold. If they don’t then we can all make up numbers and have that smugness about our great away support that we do better than most.

9 hours ago, Dave_Og said:

Don't forget that Southend can still put out a first eleven that's barely changed from their first choice last season 

Exactly. Despite the fact that they’ve been under a transfer embargo for twelve months, lost plenty of players in that time without being able to replace them, had no pre season as such, they ‘re hanging by a thread and their owner is still their ripping the heart and soul out of the club and have only 14 registered players, they’ve no excuses.

19 minutes ago, BPAS said:

 

 

Chris, I think Ackey answers the point eloquently..... and is what we were trying to discuss. He can't expect patience in a state of perpetuity.... but it would be bloody handy if folk didn't instantly jump on his back if we aren't playing like Brazil from the off..... some people are itching to say 'I told you so' if we aren't instantly in a two horse race with Chesterfield for the title..... for me (Andy) Top 7 is a minimum requirement, or questions - quite rightly - will be asked.....

It baffles mean when people moan about people moaning about the season ahead, when it hasn’t even started yet.

it’s almost like they want it to happen so they can moan about the moaners

1 hour ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

 

The evolution of football to how it is today sees far more managers sacrifice cavalier free flowing football for effective direct approaches. @BPAS Andy's take on DU adopting at a model of getting the ball into their box with as least touches as possible was on the money. 

 

We've arrived in an era where statistics, data and analysis are king and every nuance is drilled into, looking for a small advantage over your opposition. The beautiful game, or notion of, doesn't really exist at lower levels. Notts County employ it to a degree, but most successful teams are mainly win the game first, entertain the fans second. And opposition tactics when playing successful teams are built around slowing the tempo and spoiling the fun. Therefore your top teams In L1 to non-league aren't that often producing exhilarating high-octane stuff. They're often simply well-drilled, well oiled teams with fewer chinks in their armour.

 

If you're placing a high value on entertainment over just winning, then you'll often be more disappointed.

You can play good football this level, it doesn’t have to be grim. Wealdstone and Gateshead knocked it about really well against us, and we couldn’t beat either of them. Ok, we finished above both of them (as we should), but Gateshead’s record in the second half of the season was almost identical to ours, and that was the only part of the season  that counted apparently

42 minutes ago, mcfluff1985 said:

Integral to our poor season, or integral to being 3rd in form table in the new year?

The season started in August, not January 

Maybe if you’ve prepared to pay someone to do it, but the reason it’s in that state in the first place is because they haven’t been.

I really hope to be going there on Saturday, but in reality the main thing is they survive as a club and get rid of their toxic owner.

3 minutes ago, oafc1955 said:

He’s hardly going to admit that Sutton isn’t good enough is he?

He didn’t have to mention him at all. He could have just said we have options for that position

13 minutes ago, bigfatjoe1 said:

Gateshead compilation shows him playing mainly wide right, cutting in onto his left foot. Slightly reminds me of another Ward (Mark), who was a fantastic player for us.

 

Still need another quality wide play, quality CM and, of course, a RB. We've got a solid squad, we just need to up the quality in those areas. Three really good signings should push us up another level. Would like to see more of Willoughby. Please use him or Reid playing off one of the two big lumps  - don't play both lumps. 

 

Rhino's told us 3 will be incoming, so fingers crossed. Don't forget, there is no window closing at the end of August. Also, a lot of clubs loan out their youngsters fairly late on.

It is surprising we haven’t signed a right back, as it was glaringly obvious all last season that we needed one. In a recent interview Unsworth didn’t seem overly concerned about it, saying he was more than happy to play Sutton there, then not doing so.

I do agree that we need to sign the right one, not just plug the gap with somehow has played there, and as there is no transfer window we can take our time. With the season almost upon us  though we’ll have to pay good money to get one in now, and if our target starts the season well that fee will only increase.

53 minutes ago, mikeroyboy said:

This was my first sighting of our ‘improved’ and settled squad of players. The quality of our midfield passing, movement and control of midfield was woful, as it was last season. Mansfield we’re in a different League, (I know). I will be watching with interest how they fare next term in the League we are trying to get into .

Of course we will not be competing against Mansfield’s level of midfield dominance in our real world League but I, along with our group of 4, were very disappointed with our performance yesterday. 
 

The midfield is still the problem. I really hope Lundstram is as good as everyone thinks he is, because we need some drive and energy to spur the side on. I don’t know what Ward’s best position is but if it’s left midfield I hope he’s better at it than he showed yesterday.

Contrary to popular opinion I thought Fondop and Nuttall did ok, but overall the side looked unbalanced. I read the arguments about what formation we played, and I could really work it out myself. More worryingly, it appeared neither could Hobson or Green, who both seem to get caught in between two positions. 
Overall though a good workout against a decent team. Despite not scoring we created a good few chances, and Raglan looks like he’ll be a class act at this level. Some good points, some ‘same old’ problems, but it’s on to the real stuff next week now.

1 hour ago, LightDN123 said:

Can people stop saying Fondop was top scorer. He was here for twice the amount Nuttall was and Nuttall scored more goals in this league than him. 

Why should anybody stop saying he was our top scorer when he was our top scorer 

19 minutes ago, sjk2008 said:

I don’t understand Willoughby’s lack of minutes.

 

The vitriol towards Nuttall is laughable. The only difference between him and Fondop is one can play for an hour and offer a little and came with a fee, the other can play for 30 mins before blowing out of his arse and scores the odd worldie which isn’t sustainable. But the latter gets a free pass.

 

Let’s play 11 Paul Warnes.

 

Today isn’t as bad as it seems though.

Can’t say I’m Nuttall’s biggest fan but thought he did ok today, and thought him and Fondop looked lively and pressed well.

The striker who disappointed me most today was Reid, who missed and absolute sitter and didn’t contribute much else, and he’s probably my favourite of the lot.

The midfield still worries me. Keillor Dunn was buzzing about all over the place for them, whereas ours were far too static and poor in possession.

Overall though, if the manager is happy and learned a bit more about the squad, and the players know more about what he wants and feel a lot better with the games in their legs, then pre season has done its job.

We’ll find out how good a job once the season get’s going

2 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

Is that the same manager who assembled the ok squad?

I thought the recruitment committee assembled the squad, or that’s what the podcast lads say

1 hour ago, JoeP said:

 

We'll still be miles ahead of them in terms of rebuilding, so couldn't wish for an easier start...

Looking at the fixtures I’ll be well pissed off if we’re not heading to Chesterfield with three wins out of three

1 minute ago, TheBigDog said:

Great management structure in place

Wants 3 players

No B team next season

All players who will not be part of the squad have moved out

Young players out on loan

Believes that the fans backing the club will make a huge difference

 

Reasons to be cheerful

 

Did he give any reason why the B team has been binned off, as that was one of the first thing he mentioned he was going to introduce when he got here

5 hours ago, Dave_Og said:

I can't really say I've followed Chesterfield's pre-season activity much.  I know they've signed Grigg and another L1 player whose name escapes me.  Who else?  Given we outscored them in points for the second half of last season I can't really fathom why they are such strong favourites - I'm very happy with the 11/1 and 9/1 (the latter still readily available) at which I've been accumulating bets on us since the bookies opened up.

I’m no expert in how bookies work out their odds, but any team that finishes third, loses the playoff final on penalties and keeps hold of all it’s best players, is more than likely to start the next season as favourites 

2 hours ago, philsalt said:

I remember him being quick but couldn’t finish and then got injured. 

Was he the player with the big Affro who played in the covid season under Kewell?

1 minute ago, nzlatic said:

I’ve said this before but I find it hard to believe that a team set up to be athletic and hard running, that is recruiting players accordingly, will play a “lazy” player so regularly. 
 

So rather than take the view of those in the stands on what is and what isn’t laziness, I’ll accept the view of the coaches who are analysing his stats and whether he’s contributing to the team in the way they’re asking or expecting him to. 

It seems every game, no matter what happened in it, ends up in a Nuttall’s shit/No he isn’t debate.

36 minutes ago, GKing521 said:

Still a lot of work to do.

 

We’ll see where we’re really up to with the next two pre-season games. 

Obviously. A good work out today though. I’ve no idea how good Curzon are but it’s another game in the payers legs and they’re looking sharper, which is  all pre season is about 

47 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

No bells at all

Signed part way through the season, a decent defender from memory. It was a long time ago though 

What’s happened with him? Not figuring pre season, not gone anywhere else and now not even training with the first team apparently. 
I thought the days of freezing players out were over.

6 hours ago, League one forever said:

Because on a forum-  it’s boring? 
 

Imagine if every time someone posted a comment on a player it just got 26 likes and no reply. No one would bother posting after a while. 
 

Secretly we all love the disagreements, because it makes the forum interesting. 

And secretly, and not so secretly in some cases, we all love a good moan.

I think we need to see what team Unsworth starts the season with instead of condemning him for going with Nuttall before he’s even done it