MATCH: vs Barnet (H) 12/11/22

[longtimeblue]

15 minutes ago, wiseowl said:

I know he was a fantastic help to Pete Wild when Pete had to step into the breach at Latics.  Masses of experience under different coaches, knows the game at a "lower level" and my gut feeling is that, at the very least, he will get the absolute best out of players at this level.  I think they would walk through fire for him - he's just that kind of bloke. Got to be better than what we have now.

 

Maybe. It's just a massive gamble. In previous years, we'd have said it was a "cheap" appointment. If it doesn't work with Unsworth, Rothwell can't be criticised of trying to take that route. It was a marquee appointment with all the backroom staff as well. He's obviously been reliant on on the Royles' advice. It wouldn't surprise me if Clarke was being lined up as a more cost-effective firefighter.

 

I can't see the next appointment being as well thought out. May be a case of damage limitation for a bit.

[BP1960]

5 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

Rooney is a moaning piece of shit who has offered absolutely nothing every single game. I have no idea what is up with this plonker. 

 

Seems to me he's unhappy with being made to play a position totally unsuited to him.

Controversial, but I'd drop Tollitt who flits in and out of games and play Rooney in a probing role behind a front 2.

[Wardie]

6 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Ahhhh, so they should be listening to all the coaching staff and not just Unsworth. . . . Maybe they should all do the presser if it’s joint responsibility. 
 

There’s a few in the squad with promotion under their belt. Maybe they’re just thick with certain managers.

What's the point of having coaching staff if they have no input or responsibility?
And maybe they should take turns in front of the camera.

I don't care if the players have promotions under their belts, they ain't dong it now, are they? They weren't doing it under Sherdian and they are not doing it under Unsworth.

 

[latics22]

23 minutes ago, League one forever said:

8 

Carty

Peck

Carragher

Roberts

Rooney

Clarke 

Kitching

Abraham. 
 

5 of those started today. 
 

 

 

Embarrassing!

[Wardie]

4 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Probably being told to play as a defensive midfielder- when your entire career has been as an attacking mid/forward. 

Exactly. Maybe when Unsworth gets his full squad in, Rooney will be played in his natural role.

 

5 minutes ago, latics22 said:

Too many there all shit and when the next manager comes in, he will have to get rid and sign more. By my counting 6 maybe seven. That’s enough to be able to make a difference, if he had out about him, which he blatantly doesn’t!

Defeats the object, doesn't it, bringing in another manager and then attempting to offload the previous incumbent's acquisitions? People seem to think that a team at our level has some kind of major pulling-power.

We don't.

 

[Only Blue]

Regardless of the overall performance please can someone answer one thing. Why when 1-0 down does every player need to come back to defend corners and free-kicks? I still cannot fathom one positive reason for this. You do not need every player back!!

[League one forever]

15 minutes ago, Wardie said:

What's the point of having coaching staff if they have no input or responsibility?
And maybe they should take turns in front of the camera.

I don't care if the players have promotions under their belts, they ain't dong it now, are they? They weren't doing it under Sherdian and they are not doing it under Unsworth.

 

Put the whiskey down.  

 

Unsworth is the manager- end of story. Coaches help to coach players. They don’t make decisions, and nor should they. It’s not management by committee. 
 

When you say ‘they aren’t doing it’ do you mean half the side he’s signed, or the other half that won more games under Sheridan? 
 

 

[LightDN123]

25 minutes ago, BP1960 said:

 

Seems to me he's unhappy with being made to play a position totally unsuited to him.

Controversial, but I'd drop Tollitt who flits in and out of games and play Rooney in a probing role behind a front 2.

Tollitt is the only player that shows attacking threat BP, albeit his passing ability is poor. 

 

 

[League one forever]

17 minutes ago, Wardie said:

Exactly. Maybe when Unsworth gets his full squad in, Rooney will be played in his natural role.

Nah, we have a squad of 35 Wardie. If he can’t put a side out where people are playing in their natural positions then something is seriously wrong. 
 

Gardner

Sheron

Maynard

Cooper

Windass

Threkheld 

 

There is 6 that can play where he’s playing Rooney. 

[oafcmetty]

Anyone hear the golden goal time?

[Horlicks]

42 minutes ago, Only Blue said:

Regardless of the overall performance please can someone answer one thing. Why when 1-0 down does every player need to come back to defend corners and free-kicks? I still cannot fathom one positive reason for this. You do not need every player back!!

Said exactly the same, you need to score and if you clear the ball if no one’s there it just comes straight back and you’re defending again 

[kev1970]

7 minutes ago, Horlicks said:

Said exactly the same, you need to score and if you clear the ball if no one’s there it just comes straight back and you’re defending again 

Why is it we can all see this but the management cannot and they watch this crap later with the new video analysis well they say they do...

[BP1960]

55 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

Tollitt is the only player that shows attacking threat BP, albeit his passing ability is poor. 

 

 

 

He does, but he's a loose  cannon and I'd prefer players in natural positions.

Look at Bahamboula  last season to understand what I mean.

 

 

 

 

[yarddog73]

⁸Let's get one thing straight Unsworth is going nowhere, we can chew the fat as much as we want it matters a jot, problem is now money will dry up from pay on the dayers, it's okay taking a view that we are all in this together but that is just lip service and an attempt to try and keep the fans invested, Maidstone away in a six pointer probably wasn't what the board had in mind a month or two in to Unsworths reign, I reckon we will be bottom before long as we are without a doubt bottom of the form table over Unsworths reign of 8 league matches, a measly haul of 5 points returned scoring just 6 goals.

[IanMarshall's Mullet]

2 hours ago, League one forever said:

8 

Carty

Peck

Carragher

Roberts

Rooney

Clarke 

Kitching

Abraham. 
 

5 of those started today. 
 

 

 

Not that it matters but Sheridan brought Roberts in.

[TheBigDog]

4 hours ago, Lags said:

DU has to get these players up the park and pressing division 5 teams in their half.  Or he's finished. 

Teams are coming to BP and on their own patch having the freedom of the pitch. Within 10 minutes of every match the opposition have their confidence through the roof knowing they are on the front foot and have the measure of us.

Get up the fucking pitch!!!! The world and it's dog are telling you. 

This.

Every single team we have played against in this league have looked faster, fitter and technically better than we have. 
 

It’s about time the players took responsibility and, if Unsworth is setting us up to defend deep, they need to push back and tell him that it’s not working. 
 

For me, he is in last chance saloon and if we lose at Maidstone he will be gone.

[Hatter]

County fan here in peace. I signed up to give my two cents on Kitching (then gave up waiting for approval) and have since been watching on with morbid curiosity. You seem to be heading the same way as we did, but I hope you turn it around. You're a proper club with history that's also been fucked over by bad ownership and who doesn't the deserve the horrors of regional football.

 

I've not watched you play so I'll stick to the ex-County lads. I can say for certain though: if you're playing Rooney and Maynard together in midfield you're done for. Maynard's legs went two seasons ago. He had a bit of a renaissance on loan at Solihull last season but that's because they played him in a back 3. I see him as a CB only now. 

 

Rooney is a conundrum and has always divided fans. Another thing I feel confident saying though is that he's a "luxury player" who needs to be in midfield 3 with 2 behind prepared to do his running. Think non-league Pogba. On his day he looks like he should be playing 2-3 levels higher. He'll ping it about or effortlessly curl a 25-yarder into the top corner but for every one of those games there's far more where he can be anonymous and get frustrated.

 

You can afford it if you're defensively solid but lack creativity and goals up front. For the Covid season (20/21) he was great for us (second top scorer from midfield) doing just that but it comes with the above trade off. Challinor came in (mid 21/22) and wanted to play a high intensity, pressing style and Rooney just didn't suit - he slowed everything down dwelling on the ball and didn't press. I'm afraid he does have a history (certainly if you believe the rumours coming out of our club before he left) of being a bit of a dressing room prima donna and loves to mouth off at the ref. Overall, a bit of a highlights player and I'd be a bit worried by how quickly he joined and left Barrow despite having success their previously.   

 

Hogan was our captain last season but his legs are going too. He played RCB for us in a 3 was also immense during the 20/21 season (where we lost in the POs but had one of the best defences in the league) but by last season Jordan Keane started to take his place as he just wasn't mobile enough for play the wide CB role. He's a leader and good lad but I think he would need to play as the middle of back 3 or alongside someone with pace. Generally good in the air but has the odd howler in him and will try (and fail at) the Hollywood pass. Sort of what you expect for this level. 

 

Kitching has played LCB, LB and LWB for us. His time has been a bit of mixed bag but he's the one I'm most confident will be a good player for you. A big part will be that his legs haven't gone and he still has a point to prove/career to forge, but there's also a top NL player in there imo, or has been. For his first half season (20/21) he was great for us - bit of a pattern .... - but then had a bad back injury which ruled him out until 21/22. Since then he's struggled to find his form and seems to have a lost a bit of pace.

 

Challinor found him lacking in end product too much to play LWB but also too error prone for LCB. Johnson and ZFA (another one of yours(!) who we had on short term loan - decent player imo) relegated him to third choice LCB to finish last season but because of our ridiculously patchy recruitment Kitching somehow started the first game of this season for us. He's actually played fairly well this season but just isn't up to our top of L2 aspirations. Where are you playing him and how's he doing? LB may suit him.

 

Apologies for the mini-essay. 

[Hatter]

Just flicking through. Are you playing a 40 year-old CB alongside Hogan as well as Rooney and Maynard in midfield?!?!

 

There's a big gulf in standard in the league from the top to bottom with it serving as a bottleneck to the football league but not everyone plays hoofball at this level. You'll still come up against sides, even part-time (though I think there's only a few now?), who will want to play and have legs - especially with your name being a scalp. Think Alty, Halifax, Maidenhead etc. They'll run rings around you. Some will go direct and have a shocking pitch but still generally have a bit of pace up top - Barnet from memory - and then there's always some who are unspecactular but are defensively solid and do the basics well which is enough to do fairly well, like Boreham Wood and Bromley. 

 

You need a bit of experience but old pros looking for a final payday isn't the way to go. We paid the price for that. 

 

Apologies (again) if this is all old news. 

[League one forever]

51 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

⁸Let's get one thing straight Unsworth is going nowhere,

They have a choice. 
 

Keep backing him- and watch crowds and income dwindle. 
 

Sack him- and take a heavy financial hit. 
 

I can’t see them endlessly backing a dud, and if they do then have a lot to answer for as well. 
 

 

[mick26]

16 minutes ago, Hatter said:

Just flicking through. Are you playing a 40 year-old CB alongside Hogan as well as Rooney and Maynard in midfield?!?!

 

There's a big gulf in standard in the league from the top to bottom with it serving as a bottleneck to the football league but not everyone plays hoofball at this level. You'll still come up against sides, even part-time (though I think there's only a few now?), who will want to play and have legs - especially with your name being a scalp. Think Alty, Halifax, Maidenhead etc. They'll run rings around you. Some will go direct and have a shocking pitch but still generally have a bit of pace up top - Barnet from memory - and then there's always some who are unspecactular but are defensively solid and do the basics well which is enough to do fairly well, like Boreham Wood and Bromley. 

 

You need a bit of experience but old pros looking for a final payday isn't the way to go. We paid the price for that. 

 

Apologies (again) if this is all old news. 

That looks pretty much spot on as we look short of pace and running all over the pitch. Haven't Alty just loaned Jennings and Newby from you? Told by someone who's seen a lot of County that they would have been decent for us Newby in particular.

[Hatter]

30 minutes ago, mick26 said:

That looks pretty much spot on as we look short of pace and running all over the pitch. Haven't Alty just loaned Jennings and Newby from you? Told by someone who's seen a lot of County that they would have been decent for us Newby in particular.

Newby would have definitely done a job for you. Good NL player. He's naturally a right winger or CAM but we play 3-4-1-2 and have Sarcevic, Camps, Evans and Hippolyte at CAM so he's really only ever got a look in at RWB for us. Still did decent and played particularly well in our crunch games at the end of last season when our first choice was out. A hardworker, full of energy who can beat a man but lacks end product which has stopped him playing as high as his brother imo. You could have definitely done a lot worse. 

 

Jennings. I would say to avoid unless you have a proven goalscorer to play off him. He's a great professional who came through a very tough time (a rare cancer) but isn't the player he once was. Still works hard pressing from the front and has good ability to assist in build-up but that's about it. He had 0 goal threat from when I've seen him recently. A lot of County fans expected him to leave in the summer. Just we failed to bring in other options and Challinor fell out with our third choice striker, Quigley, so he went out of loan. Says a lot that we only have 2 recognised strikers on our books, and play a front 2, but are happy to let him go out on loan. 

 

Both are only short term loans so will likely be available in Jan... We have a whole host of players out of loan at the moment as we splash our cash in wages rather than transfer fees. On the whole it's worked well but when we've outgrown player (like Reid) or they've not worked (like Barclay or Ross) we've really struggled to get them off the books. I think we agreed a termination of Kitching's contract?

[Careca9]

11 hours ago, Wardie said:

Do we really believe Unsworth is telling them not to close down the opposition? That would be bizarre beyond comprehension. 

He’s happy with how deep they are or surely either him or his back room team would be shouting to push up. When ur that deep with 7 back there not sure u can close down that much 

[deyres42]

20 minutes ago, Careca9 said:

He’s happy with how deep they are or surely either him or his back room team would be shouting to push up. When ur that deep with 7 back there not sure u can close down that much 

Good luck playing a high line when your centre backs have a combined age of 73.

[yarddog73]

8 hours ago, League one forever said:

They have a choice. 
 

Keep backing him- and watch crowds and income dwindle. 
 

Sack him- and take a heavy financial hit. 
 

I can’t see them endlessly backing a dud, and if they do then have a lot to answer for as well. 
 

 

Biggest worry for me yesterday was post match when he said we played well in the first half, sorry but we were dominated from minute one, sat on the edge of our area and it  looked to me like we were backing ourselves not to concede and nick one, sorry but that's not a plan nor is it entertaining, okay we looked a little more organised but we still lacked any real attacking intent and were happy to let Barnet dictate the pace of the game, I get it if we go to Barnet with that plan but at home it's desperate to watch and draining the life out of us.

 

Another thing if he has a squad of 35 and growing how is he going to manage that he needs to be working with a group of 25 maximum, particularly at our level that is an unbelievable amount of players on the books and about a dozen need releasing if more are coming in as Unsworth claims.

 

Royle jr looked a forlorn figure at full time yesterday and he must be wondering what the fuck have I got myself in to because this is becoming a big fucking mess and Unsworth despite blaming everyone else is pulling in .6 points per game or about 29 points a season at the minute. Not good enough, zero entertainment and no progress.

[otid]

14 hours ago, oafc1955 said:

I’m still in the Unsworth in camp but the way in which the team are playing is difficult to defend. 5 of his signings started today but it made no difference to the shape of the team. It may have been 442 or even 433 but we continue to invite the opposition into our half and give them the freedom of the middle third.

 

He says he’s not asking them to play that way but we are 17 games into the season and they are still doing it!

We are still hoofing the ball up to Abraham or Fondop and absolutely nothing has changed!

 

It would be OK if there was a little improvement week on week but there isn’t any, absolutely none at all!!

 

We are now in the relegation places and make no mistake, we deserve to be there. I honestly can’t see where a win is coming from and it’s a massive worry!

 

 

 

I see it as a 4411 formation Graham....and at home it's bewildering. I could cope with a genuine 442 but whichever formation he chooses, each 'bank' needs to be a further 10 yards up the field. The speed of our transition play has been a joke since the start of the season but it's slowed down even further since DU came in.