Worksop_Blue

Exactly Furman and Wes to me are similar types, they are ball winners, there to get challenges in and win the ball back. Much more defensive minded than attacking minded, its not often either of them receive the ball and run straight at goal and have a crack, or deliver a telling through ball or pass to set up a shot. The lack of creativity then puts more pressure on the wings to set up the strikers. It would be great to have an attacking creative midfielder in there to give us an extra dimension. particularly when (based on yesterdays performance) neither of our wingers could actually beat their man.

Well this is a local fixture for me only 20 mins away so I dashed down after work. It started off so low key with the atmosphere dead and the players seemingly none too bothered. The game was played at a snails pace making it easy for the defenders to stay on top and so was all very scrappy. We got the goal from nothing really though it was a cracking cross straight from Croft straight to Smiths head and he finished it easily. At this stage Smith and Mvoto were the only ones to stand out with Smith winning every header and some of them actually going to our players and setting up passages of play. He played well. Simpson was poor, playing with his back to goal constantly, and often losing it leaving Smith chasing around and looking isolated. After the goal nothing much changed, very little quality, everything pumped long to Smith, a flick on here and there a Chesterfield player gets the ball makes a bad pass and so we hit it long again.etc etc. Second half same thing until we decide to give the opposition a goal as seems to be the norm these days. Not doing much heres a dodgy back header straight to Whitaker 1-1. They get their tails up and start pressing more and more without being fantastic our shape seems to disappear and so does our defense and central midfielders. Whitaker was running the show and how we miss a player like that, direct, pacy, creative. Time and time again they played around us, they upped a gear and we didnt. Cliff got done for pace (we'll be saying that alot this season) and *cough* shoulder barged their player over. A stone wall penalty. Fantastic save diving to his right, but the players didnt seem to wake up and the barrage continued as we had afew lucky let offs through bad finishing. The introduction of the youngsters hughes, mellor, millar seemed to help us. Less long ball, more energy. That said we still created little other than long rangers, one crashed off the bar from 25 yards which was a great effort, Croft had a good chance and Mellor drifted one wide, but in truth we didnt do too much and ended up getting what we deserved although Smith didnt deserve his own goal at the end, I havent been keen on him but fair play I thought he did as much as he could do and deserves a chance. In concluding I must admit I'm really worried about us this season, yeah its a tinpot cup but this wasnt far off a full team, against a team in L2 that hasnt won a game and got no manager. I watch us and I don't even see a pattern of play or a style I dont see what we are trying to do when we have the ball. We have 2 wingers but we dont get the ball wide. Time and time again, we hit the ball long but we usually only have one player up top. There was a distinct lack of mobility, no one running or trying to find space. Croft was often just marked out the game while he stood there hoping, and with nothing in the centre of midfield we lacked options and width. Too many players are lightweight and easily knocked off the ball, theres too much indecision and we dont break as a team. I could go on but it all seems abit pointless. All you can do really with this squad and manager is hope for the best and hope we stay up.

Point is we're playing poor so anything to change that can offer hope of a change for the better. Doesn't matter if it's smith , Taylor or anyone else. The more things change the more they stay the same. We don't have enough Quality up front just a bunch of young strikers that aren't good enough thsts the bottom line.

But thats the point regardless of money hes signed players and he's reluctant to play them. Might as well just use the kids we already had in the reserves save some money. Yeah we're struggling financially but surely our budget isn't any worse than the likes of bury and yeovil. At least they seem competitive and can score afew goals.

... And another thing, he said this week don't panic and judge us after 10 games. Ok fine so when we're bottom with barely a goal to our name and the transfer window in shut what then? Ok rant over.

Can someone help me because I'm struggling to understand his ideology. We let go a lot of players last season and losing Kuqi left us with one genuine first team striker in Simpson. Obviously money was going to be an issue this season so why the hell sign players like Taylor who he admitted was a signing for the future and Brown. Our budget means we don't have the luxury of signing players that might or indeed might not be good in afew years. He needed to sign players that can do a job now. Yet even when we are playing poorly he still won't play them. He either likes Taylor or he doesn't. Same with Smith. Hes wasted what little budget we had on glorified bench warmers and now we are left with no options and no competition for places. It's so frustrating.

I think Yeovil will do ok. They have a good manager. Reid will do better I think for them now hes closer to home he's alot happier apparently which will affect his football for the better I think. Hayter is a decent bit of business. Lower mid table 16th or so.

Hah yeah! Walsall, Hartlepool and Bury to go down. Portsmouth taking the other spot by going out of business :P

I forgot about Pompey actually doh! my guess is they'll be defunct before the end of the season

So, with the new season upon us who does everyone think will gain automatic promotion this year? Who might the dark horses of the league be? whose going to being fighting for survival ... and fail! I dont think the league is as strong this year with alot of the championship relegated teams struggling financially. The Blades arent as good this year either imo so I'm going to go for MK Dons and Swindon for promotion. Preston via the Playoffs. Even if they start struggling they'll probably buy every player in the league till they start winning again! :P Relegation - I think the teams that have come up might hold their own this year, I can see Bury going down, especially after losing their manager. No time to rebuild a team with a new one. Or indeed have the finances to do so. Walsall and Hartlepool are my other two bets.

Theres no way in gods earth our best starting 11 is going to play all season together and we're gonna finish top 10. There's a reason its a squad game. People will get injured, suspended, dips in form, tiredness etc and to be honest even on Monday with nobody out injured we had little on the bench and alot of people are worrying about Cliff and Tarks, half of our first team defense! Im not a pessimist I'm a realist we'll do well to finish where we did last season. Im sure every club in the league could say they'll do well with their first 11. Lets hope we get afew more bodies in that will actually strength the team.

Its difficult to say sometimes against higher opposition how good/bad players are on a particular performance but there was definately stand out pluses and minuses for me. Attacking wise - Croft for me will do very well for us hes got that ability to get a good ball in the box constantly that we havent had for a while and on top of that he works hard. Left wing is still an issue, in one sense we look more solid as a midfield 4 but mark out Crofty and we dont have any real attacking threat. Hopefully if teams go for Crofty say doubling up on him it'll create space elsewhere but out lack of supply options is definatly a concern. Slew did ok, took his goal well peeling off his marker when everyone else went towards go, didnt see much of him second half but that wasnt his fault we tended to go more long ball when the pressure was on and couldnt play to feet as much. Hopefully in league one he'll get more time and space. Still a couple of strikers short, Matt Smith was his usual self, got in the right place but cant score for toffee. You look at the bench when we are losing and theres not alot of options....if either Simpson or Slew got injured we'd be knackered. Defense wise - our dear. Well mvoto I like, always have strong as an ox, cracking goal. Tarks is a big problem, same issuses as last season. No real strengths, average at best. Not strong enough, not particularly fast and poor positional sense. He's a liability. Byrnes could well be too, hes strong and pretty sound in the air but hes sooooo sloooow we'll get murdered time and again down that right wing, he'll be an obvious target. I like Grounds though very solid. If you look at that game tonight as an opposition coach you'll say we are hard working but if you keep up the tempo, mark out croft and attack the right back with pace you've got good chance against us. Maybe play Brown at right back and Cliff at centre half might be a better option and get a left winger in?

Tarks for me has never been good enough hes abit like Black just a very average player problem is hes playing at the heart of the defense and theres no where to hide. I've nothing against him but I to me he has no real strengths, hes not particularly strong, hes not pacy, and his positional sense is a worry. It would be possible to play Cliff at centre though as strong as he which we need, he is slow. If he plays right back this season there will be alot of goals against coming down that wing this year. If I was Mk Dons manager Id just be doubling up on Croft and attack the right back with pace. Pretty much job done.

I think people are getting confused with age and experience. You dont have to be at the end of your career to have experience at league one level, sure we have had really experienced players and it hasnt worked out. But thats over simplifying it abit. People like Omerod were coming back from injury and were getting on and at the end of the day regardless of age some players are good and some are crap :P My point is with us its always extremes, its either kids or old men. Sure finance dictates getting players in their prime but the rest of the team isnt full of kids why do our strikers have to be any different?

+1 Personally I just wanted someone with abit of experience at this level. Off the top of my head someone like David Nardiello? wasnt he on a free and went to League 2 Exeter? Might be wrong there. He was pretty pacy, useful and scored afew goals. Surely someone like that wouldn't have been too expensive. I'll be hoping whoever plays rips up the league and scores a sackful. But at the end of the day everyone will have a gut reaction to a signing, we arent robots wether thats right or wrong time will tell. Cant wait till Monday! Even with all the sport this summer the new season seems to have taken an age to come round.