Theoutsider

34 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

 

I think certain players played the way they wanted not as regimented.

After down a man Dallas played a free number 10 role similar to Haughton of Fylde and no is telling me that was on the instructions of MM.

Dallas should be given that role in future and Gardner relished his central attacking so keep  him there.

Agree with you and your original point and thought it was actually before the sending off. 
 

I know it is easier to play when the opposition back off (which they did) but first half (as most games) there is no intention to play football.  
 

Defenders don’t go wide or come short to receive the ball, Hudson slows it down, everyone disappears up the pitch and there is the inevitable hoof forward.  That didn’t happen from half time. 
 

I’m convinced it is Mellons tactics, and whoever plays in midfield is inevitably going to look awful as the ball spends all its time sailing over their head. 

They are professional footballers, they are perfectly capable of passing a ball. Gardner & Conlon played most of their careers at much higher levels. Lundstram played in an Altrincham team that move the ball.   Hammond has been at Forest since he was 8 (or something) don’t accept they can’t play football properly. 

6 hours ago, PeteG said:

Yes, only losses of around half a million there so not as bad as the football side of things.

Staff numbers up by by 22 which maybe explains the “lies”? 

1 hour ago, PeteG said:

Speaking of wages, it's interesting that the number of staff employed has only gone up by about 4 despite now having to run the North Stand 7 days a week coupled with the fact we were told under the previous regime we had no scouts, no sports scientist, no ground staff etc. etc. Another load of lies or have we not really employed all these backroom staff and scouts we've been told about.

Not looked at the accounts for Oldham Event Centre then…  

1 hour ago, BP1960 said:

 

Defend him all you like I tell it as I see it and he was lightweight and easily dispossessed. 

Not seen him tackle or create a chance yet. We need a strong quick  direct central attacking  midfielder and he doesn't fit the bill to me.

He may well improve with experience, but not what we need now IMO.

You've had your opinion and quite entitled to it so don't go nasty on others who give theirs.

What did you think of the performance of their number 5.  The one you thought we should have signed? 

12 hours ago, TwistingMyMellon said:

 

Ah.That explains it. Something tells me he won't have a long career as a keeper..

If you like that sort of thing, there is a really good podcast series, Beyond the 92. 
 

Liam Hogan has been on it, but basically two current National League players interview another NL player. 
 

The keeper was on it a few weeks ago, funny story about Norwood winding him up included. 

1 hour ago, TwistingMyMellon said:

 

Yeah. What the fuck was he wearing as well? If someone said I had to wear that kit I would have refused to play..

Makes more money from social media than football….. 

4.6 million TikTok followers 

2 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

Thought Hobson and Raglan played well in spells but the rest were a crock of shit.

 

What exactly was the plan because played more football in a hurricane on Tuesday than we did today, that cross field ball from defence to their number 4 failed from the first minute but we persisted in serving it up to the big fat pudding, weird.

 

New lads all struggled today and we couldn't carry them all but we were off the pace from minute one, dare I say it we missed Hogan's leadership and battling qualities. 

 

Lundstrum is enigma does absolutely fuck all, same for Sheron. I reckon you could count the forward passes they made today between them on one hand. Piss piss poor with the ball at their feet the pair of them.

 

What was wrong with Kitching today? Looked shit scared of the football, same goes for Sachdev who needs to step up markedly, not sure I've seen him go on the outside yet and even attempt to beat a man.

 

Walker added a bit of graft and that's about it, sick to fucking death of going to BP now and seeing us camp in with a back five or seven, has anyone got any fucking balls to serve it up to these fucking tinpot who are taking the piss out of them?. Could of been worse that if they had a striker.

 

Also what was Kitching doing leaning back on them shots in the first half, technique of a fucking 8 year old in front of goal.

 

No doubt we'll get all the 'lots of work to do' spiel post match. They probably need to get a psychologist in for some of them they are that weak.

 

As for McGahey if he's in that team again I'm staying in the pub, he's a donkey and should of been subbed after 20 minutes.

Mellon should take this share of responsibility for that because tactically he got it wrong, or at least didn’t adapt. 
 

they deliberately pushed on to stop the outlet of the wing backs which worked well on Tuesday. 
 

there was no need for 3xCB and he changes he made should have happened a lot sooner, even if pushing McGahey into midfield in the first half if he didn’t want to sub him,  it was obvious what was happening

1 hour ago, Wardie said:

To be fair, all the players should now be playing the antithesis of 'Rhinoball'. 
They've had long enough to get it out of their system.

Players brought in to play Rhinoball and can’t play how Mellon wants them to? 

Unsworth wanted seemingly a no press counter attack; some success away from home when opposition have possession. 
 

When we have the ball and need do something with it some of the players we have are not comfortable with that style. 
 

Doesn’t explain Gateshead though which based on the above theory should have been right up our street. 
 

Can’t fancy Willoughby or Fondop given he has brought Stones in who plays ahead of them as soon as he has come in. 
 

Nuttall immediately bombed out, Shelton, Dickenson, Freeman, Ward not featuring and deemed not good enough? 
 

Hopefully get a couple of these out, some players in the mould he wants and things will start looking up.  Surely we are not a million miles away… 
 

2 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Just seen MMs post match interview, he looks totally  perplexed and if the players can't pass a ball or motivate themselves for a cup match there's little hope for a league game.

I do feel for him though having inherited this lot. Only a full clear out with players he knows will do what he wants will improve matters.

I hope the board can back him with at least 4 better players signed for the time being or he will become extremely frustrated with them and may even do a Paul Scholes.

 

Which four players would you be replacing? 

1 hour ago, Bobledgersheart said:

Could be right but I was thinking it would allow us to play a back 3 and allow Kitching a bit more attacking free rein as he was struggling to get back quite a bit on Saturday.

Second half his starting position was a lot higher up the pitch and was playing as a wingback. 
 

I really like him and he is both one of our better players and attacking outlets, but from what I’ve seen my opinion is he is better as a fullback. 

34 minutes ago, Bobledgersheart said:

The game changed second half when they pushed the big centre forward onto Sutton as he was getting little change out of Hobson in the first. They were having a great man to man battle, which the referee was happy to observe, so their manager moved him wider right to push him onto Sutton.

His physicality was a bit much for Sutton and it had the added bonus of restricting him going forward as, although he was having limited success, he was keeping wide on the touchline in the first half and drawing their defence across a little. 

I think we need a decent attacking right wing back and ball playing midfielder to enable Sutton to battle for his place in the centre of defence, where he'd be more comfortable, and move us comfortably into the play-offs. 

Doesn’t even need to be a wing back for me.   An attacking right back (a right footed Kitching basically)  would provide width and allow us to play with an extra central midfield to help get control of the ball.

1 hour ago, PeteG said:

Unsworth would have been down the road long ago

Yeah, only problem is, there wouldn’t have been a road to go down if Abdallah was still here. 

3 hours ago, True Tic said:

I think he would have found that winning formula by now, even without his latest signings there would have been glimpses of what he was trying to do. Over 11 months I’ve seen nothing but tinkering, strange tactics, fear of the ball and an alarming lack of ball retention. 

Sums it up for me.  It’s not just about this season, there is nothing to suggest he’s going to turn it round, he’s not the right man and unfortunately as it is, as stability would be good, he needs to be moved on. 

5 hours ago, kowenicki said:

Which bit? 

I was replying as though you were BP1960 and a Dan Gardner fan

2 hours ago, kowenicki said:

You’re correct. His passing in the first half was poor, constantly over hitting. He got booked for his one and only attempt at a tackle and he vanished for the last 25 minutes of the first half. He improved slightly in the second half.
 

He’s nowhere near as good as some here believe him to be. 

1 hour ago, nzlatic said:

Intent is everything. Saturday the intent was to go for it right from the start. We have done that before but the difference being it lasted longer than 10 minutes and we have better players now to capitalise on having a stranglehold in the game. Also the quality of the football was better. Last season any in game domination was territory based, on Saturday we passed it around a lot more. 
 

Football is much more nuanced than “playing 442 = more wins”.

I expected to have improved in pre-season with better quality players having been brought in, went to the Mansfield friendly as was deflated as felt it was the same rubbish.
 

Was almost dreading Saturday as expected it to be the turgid rubbish that has been on display.  
 

Like you say, intent is key, with the quality of players we have (relatively speaking) don’t see why we cant take the game to the majority of opponents we play. 
 

More like Saturday please Mr Unsworth, there is no reason why not. 

17 hours ago, League one forever said:

Oh dear.

 

 

See this is what you do Fluff, you create narratives in your head to suit your entrenched agenda of fan bashing. Which in reality is just people having an opinion on what they’re watching. 
 

At no point did I call for his head- what I did say was, it was absolutely brainless to start with a formation that put him under massive pressure last season with 3 wins in 17. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t play 442 which brought results and gave us the third best form in the league.  He completely shot himself in the foot. I even started a new thread called ‘the banishing of 352’ you’ll remember because you posted on it- saying it had nothing to do with the formation. . . . days later (and credit to Unsy) he does go back to what works in 442 and would you believe it- we win. So before you post absolute bollocks about what you think people are saying - re read what was actually said. 
 

In answer to your question, if he had a similar run to last season - say 2/3 wins over 15ish games he’s under big pressure. However if he’s got anything about him though, he’ll keep to 442 and with the quality of the squad- he wont struggle and will be absolutely fine. 

Is it the formation do you think or the tactics? Or combination of both? 

Saturday the midfield was 10-yards further forward and we mixed up some direct stuff with football on the floor, as opposed to constant hoof ball. 
 

Don’t think it is any coincidence Nuttall was miles better with a different style of play. 

6 hours ago, BP1960 said:

 

Hope DU sat the players down and showed them the athleticism and passion the Nigerian woman against England today. 

A great lesson of how to deny the opposition space.

OK they lost on penalties, but if Latics had shown such endeavor at Southend I think we'd all have felt a lot better.

 

 

As opposed to against Southend on  on Saturday, goals two and four are pathetic, we just stand off and let them play! 

2 hours ago, PlayItLivo said:

The strategy for every team in the league who plays against us should just be to do what Southend did today, come out fast and close us down from the get go. Elementary, but it was massively effective today because we struggle to get the ball down, when we do the players panic and can’t string two passes together, so we have zero rhythm and constantly give the ball away, and we don’t adjust to that tactic until 3/4 of the game played. Easy stuff. 

We don’t even try and play and that must be how they are instructed. 
 

Watch what happens when Norman gets the ball.  Defenders make no attempt to come short, it’s is punted up the field,  Nuttall largely doesn’t win it (not sure that’s his game) we don’t win the second ball, opposition have possession, rinse and repeat. 
 

The whole team sits so much deeper than the opposition, invites pressure on instead of hunting the ball. 
 

Don’t buy the fact players aren’t capable, being instructed to play this way, it’s awful to watch and does them no favours as individuals either. 
 

Same all of last lesson, same against Mansfield and seemingly same today. 

30 minutes ago, Andyt84 said:

The tactic would work if our 2 big strikers played like Desierve did for Halifax yesterday.  It just looked a different game when Desierve was challenging our defenders.  He did get away with a lot yesterday which I think had it been Fondop or Nuttall doing would have been a free kick everytime. 

Fair point, for them it did work can’t disagree. Don’t think either of our centre halves could deal with him yesterday and he did cause problems for sure. 
 

I don’t know enough about Nuttall other than the home games he has played for us, but not sure he is that type of player anyway? 

1 hour ago, Shrek said:

 

Have a day off. Their inability to create is the reason it's over their head. 

 

Toilet produced the odd goal when he was happy to play almost in a free role and never track back. Now he has to work, like everyone else, he does next to nothing. Get him out and Hope back in asap.

I’ve no idea if they can create or not. 
 

Norman gets the ball, waves everyone forward and punts it to Fondop or Nuttall.  
 
Majority of the time centre half wins the header, we lose the second ball because we don’t press and possession is the back with opposition, rinse and repeat. 
 

Not a dig at Norman either, long ball seems to be the tactic, it’s shite to watch and isn’t working.  How often in a game do we string 5-passes together?  
 

Not having it that it’s down to ability, they are professional footballers we’ve played in theory lesser opponents with lesser players who don’t need to do that, so why do we? 

4 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

Vaughan has gone we got 200k+ for him which I think isn't too shabby tbh, still begs the question why he couldn't catch in a midfield full of non entities. Particularly after yesterdays masterclass from the likes of Chapman and Tollitt.

In fairness to Chapman and Tollitt, don’t think either has a hope in hell of performing as they might when the spends most of its time in the air sailing over their heads. 

14 minutes ago, lookersstandandy said:

Hi Simon, I’m afraid I don’t see how you apportion blame on the FLG/OEC chaps for the situation the club is in. They do not own the land, they do not own the club. Either you have a personal dislike for them (which you’re entitled to have - and I don’t share it) or you are missing the point. We had them on recently and we put every question to them. Assuming they answered honestly (I have no reason to believe otherwise) they are trying to be part of the solution, they are not part of the problem. Assuming Shahed answered honestly (I have no reason to believe otherwise) it is Abdallah, Mohamed & Barry, especially Barry, who are behaving pathetically over access to the North Stand and OEC facilities. I have no sympathy for that.

Thanks for the reply earlier
 

The whole thing is a mess and whilst if Abdallah is having health issues (reading in between the lines) I obviously have sympathy, there is a lot  of things that are very much of his making. 
 

If he had been honest from the start, open with people then I am sure people would’ve continued to support whilst he tried to unravel the North Stand fiasco. Instead he has annoyed the majority of the fan base and created countless other issues. 
 

Agree though, they FLG/OEC haven’t caused any of this and are just caught in the cross fire; it’s business, stop being petty if it relates purely to personality and just do what is right. 

2 hours ago, lookersstandandy said:

Yes, but it seems as tho there won’t be a case to answer. It related to VAT on the North Stand transfer from OAFC to Brassbank. Don’t forget, another investigation allegedly set off by Barry Owen trying to grass Corney up to HMRC.

Thanks to you and Matt for all your time and efforts @lookersstandandy  I listen most weeks and enjoyed a slightly different perspective. 
 

I have had some past professional dealings with Shahed and was not that impressed if I am honest, but my opinion has changed a bit after today. 
 

Any reflections from you and Matt? Does it change anything? Made you think differently about the whole situation with the club? 
 

56 minutes ago, oafc 123 said:

If he wanted to be here, he would of stayed in the first place

Oh absolutely, why didn’t he want to stay? Because of the absolute bandits that are in charge of the club. 
 

Why on earth would he want to come back?
 

He knew what was coming, he applied for a job at Bury over staying at Oldham!