OneSizeFitz

8 hours ago, Guy Branston Pickle said:

 

 

It's a tough one with Luamba, I think he was given plenty of opportunities and never really did himself justice. But in his defence he was coming through in, to put it lightly, a rocky period for the club, under a succession of managers, and was in and out of the team. Ultimately i think the move was best for everyone and I really hope he goes on to have a good career 

Let's be honest, he was pretty rubbish whenever he played for us... Good luck to the lad - hope he does well. But not many of us were shedding a tear when he left. 

16 hours ago, nzlatic said:

What are we comparing exactly? Jan 1 to Feb 14 2024 and 2023? Because this year we have 10 points from 5 games and last year we had 11 points from 7 games. 

Isn't it obvious? He's saying that if we exclude the 4 wins in 17 period last season after Unsworth took charge, and we exclude the period this season where he only won 1 game in 9, and we only include the period where he got results, and we include all of Mellon's games, then he basically did as well as Mellon. 

Needs to switch to three at the back at half-time... 

2 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

I think we get a bit fixated by Norwood, there's nothing to suggest we won't do just fine without him. We've still got four decent strikers for this level in Garner, Dallas, Reid and Fondop. I think Mellon has been a bit preoccupied with building a team around him rather than sorting out our obvious deficiencies.

Except him scoring more than three times as many goals as anyone else in the squad... 

3 hours ago, Pidge said:

Lol, do we need to take the advice of a Canadian football writer?

 

Taking the ball on the half turn is something you do when you know where the space is around you. If there is no space there is no point as you will have to pass back.

 

The players who appear to get on the half turn more often are those who are aware of what is around them. Players who regularly glance around. It bugs me greatly when a pass in made to a midfielder who is free with room to turn, and he just stays looking backwards and he then has to pass there. Not knowing where the space is around you and where players are moving is the biggest fault in football IMO.

Jack Byrne was always a great example of what players should look to do. His first touch wasn't just to control the ball - it was progressive. Our lot seem to have to concentrate to bring the ball under control, by which point the opportunity is gone. 

8 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

It may be outdated but I still associate us as being a side that plays on the front foot, action in both boxes etc.

 

I'm not sure you can just grind your way to a promotion these days and given our budget we really should at least be trying to offer more.

 

On budgets I think the five promotions thing needs a bit of context applying to it given he probably had one of the biggest budgets in the league for at least three of them...

So you're saying that he's got a history of delivering success at this level with teams with big budgets and high expectations? 

Today was disappointing. Not sure what the plan was supposed to be, and the lack of intent to try to win the game was frustrating. Ebbsfleet were better than us, but only very slightly. 0-0 was probably fair. 

Hudson was great, and Hobson and Raglan were solid. Wing-backs were fine but nothing more. The rest of them were all pretty hopeless... 

Some strange substitutions from MM today, too. No idea where Dallas was supposed to be playing, but I don't think I've ever seen a player have such little influence on a game. He was on for 40 minutes and I genuinely don't remember him touching the ball. Garner showed one or two nice touches, but nothing more. We had no control at all in the middle of the park, but that's partly because we persisted with aimlessly hoofing it over the midfield for pretty much the whole game. 

Still, a point away from home... 

39 minutes ago, Ritchierich said:

I love this idea that Norwood is carrying us and we will be lost without him! Seriously? He barely features in most games, sure if he gets a few chances he usually takes one of them plus he scores any penalties we get but most of the time he is fighting for scraps and Fondop does that just as well, probably better tbh.

 

No other team has Norwood and yet there are 7 teams above us in the table

 

What we need is a midfield that can dictate a game

I think it might have something to do with him scoring 16 goals for us this season, when nobody else has got more than 5...

Imagine the meltdown on here if we'd just signed a striker who couldn't even catch the matchday squad for a team two leagues below... 

59 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

 

Far better, Wayne was very good, but a bit lightweight, this lad has a strong build, can take it and dish it back. Wins lots of free kicks with his pace and trickery.

As you say unfortunately may never see him in our first team if we take an initial big fee and add ons.

Far better than the most expensive 17 year-old in history (at the time). Must be something special. 

Hope to see him in action for the first team soon - particularly if he can play on the wing... 

It amazes me how people seem to think it's a reasonable expectation of MM to have turned this bunch of non-league cloggers into Barcelona in the space of three months. 

He's come in, improved our form, got us into the playoff places, and made several well-received signings. Many of those haven't played much football recently so will take time to get up to speed - and need managing accordingly.

Am I pleased with yesterday's performance and result? No. 

Does it surprise me that we're a bit inconsistent and throw in a few howlers of a performance at this point? No. 

Do I think he's doing a decent job so far? Yes. 

Give the bloke a chance... 

A reminder that this is the first time in three months that we've failed to score at home under our most negative manager ever.

26 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

Well, I think that team and bench selection suggests Mellon doesn't think as highly of Sutton as some.

I think it's probably because McGahey is better at football than Sutton. 

17 hours ago, deyres42 said:

Nothing can stop the 5PM train, the only question is whether or not the title can still be won.

Even if we win all of our remaining games, I still don't think we'd win the title... 

Harkins had real flair. He'd glide around the pitch almost Gascoigne-esque. The kind of player who justified your entrance fee.

9 hours ago, League one forever said:

 

 

Oh.  

Right lads, as you were.

 

Sheron is shit then. 

He was good last night regardless though, to be fair to him... 

1 minute ago, League one forever said:

Sounds like it’s a been nightmare for the Sheronisshit lads. 
 

Another goal, taking him to 6 I think - pathetic return isn’t it.

...errrr?

Let's hope he recreates his Solihull form and not his Kilmarnock form... 

45 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Heard there's a lad called Lionel Messi who can play a bit, never seen him live though so wouldn't like to say for sure.

Too lightweight

9 minutes ago, diggleblue said:

So has Shelton!!

Proves my point... 

31 minutes ago, diggleblue said:

Berry scores winner for Chesterfield tonight. Shame we didn't listen to BP and that he rejected us possibly because of the shit D.U was producing.

He's started four games all season. Let's not get ahead of ourselves... 

3 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Seen Tarkowski do it many times when here or don't you remember how often he was caught out of position and turned?

Sutton is still young and I maintain he will eventually play a lot higher than us at centre back.

Tarkowski wasn't playing at home against Hendon, to be fair to him... 

Sutton might make it to League 1 or 2 level eventually, but I'd be surprised if he plays consistently any higher than that. 

52 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

They could get injured in training, or handling a jar of salad cream, or cleaning a fish tank, should they not do any of those things either?

Risk of injury handling a jar of salad cream - almost nil. 

Risk of injury playing 90 minutes of professional football on heavy pitches multiple times per week - not almost nil. 

8 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

Why did the team start with such a slow tempo..is this  MMs strategy as it seems a constant theme?

 

Yep, he tells them to misplace passes and not track runners too. 

6 hours ago, adamoafc said:

Lost their GK (Mair), Forward (Wearne), Main midfielder (Chadwick), RWB (Lofthouse) and two squad players in the last week. They certainly won’t be the same team we faced now. 

And Ed Francis is out indefinitely after fracturing his skull on NYD.