Exiles - Here's The Goal | Page 2 | Vital Football

Exiles - Here's The Goal

I'm not sure the squad is made up of 'very average players'. Some have done well, others haven't and some haven't been given a chance yet. Some also aren't fit. And some are clearly taking time to understand what NC wants from them. At least you can see what we're trying to do on the pitch this season even if it's far from clicked yet. Compare it to last season's model - if it wasn't Feeney crossing to Armand we had nothing. Think we need to give it time to see if it clicks, and as long as NC keeps picking up the points he'll get that time.

I do think the strength in depth may benefit us as the season progresses and the games come thick and fast - particularly if games get postponed along the way. I think Oxford have had 3 league games postponed already? It'll be interesting to see if they have enough bodies to cope. I know that league leaders Lincoln have a small squad too, and a lot of their fans are delighted they've put early points on the board as they worry about how effective they'll be when they're having to play 2-3 games a week, week in and week out.

I will say though that not every signing of a younger player will work out, and that's why I've said from day one you need a blend of experience in there. It was pleasing to see NC refer to that when we signed Garbutt and Dougall. That said, we do have an average squad age higher than several clubs in the division so experience clearly isn't everything.

Finally, a good reference to Bowyer. You're right, he was dull (although actually a really interesting bloke away from any cameras etc). The one thing he did have really going for him was his relationships with his players, and NC appears to have the same so fingers crossed for similar outcomes.

Like I said the other day (and again, seemed to get shouted down), in our L2 promotion season under Bowyer we were as low as 15th after 33 games. In fact, we spent just nine games of the 46 in the top 7th and after 8 games were 16th with only two wins. All that gets forgotten because he took us up.

There'll be times when we go on shit runs (as we've already seen). Hopefully they'll be times when we go on good runs too. Saturday was a start - let's make sure we follow it up tomorrow night.

Again, apologies that's longer than I wanted it to be.

I agree with most of that. Saturdays shite performance has been forgotten because we won. Don't buy into these stats though.
 
I agree with most of that. Saturdays shite performance has been forgotten because we won. Don't buy into these stats though.

I agree with what you said on the other thread - that some of the stats are meaningless and stats for stats' sake. They also don't tell the whole story - for example stats on a player's record (e.g. appearances, goals etc) won't tell you if the player is an arsehole. They're just one piece of the puzzle and when used well, can really help (and we see that in other sports as well, not just footy).

For example, I thought Sarkic was garbage when he came on on Saturday. If I look at the stats I can see that he gave the ball away four times in the twenty minutes he played whereas Williams only gave it away four times in the whole game - that backs up what I thought I saw (that Sarkic did not play well).

I also thought that whilst MK Dons had a lot of the ball they didn't really threaten us (I've spoken before about possession v effective possession), and by looking at the stats I can see that 72% of the possession they had was between their keeper, three centre halves and two wing backs.
 
Completed passes do not distinguish between a pointless backwards or sideways ball that reaches its intended target and a brilliantly imaginative potentially defence splitting pass that doesn't quite come off.
 
Finally, on player churn, I'm laying the blame largely at Mansford's door. Now he didn't interview Grayson, but when Grayson was refusing to operate in the agreed model in January in particular he let him have his way rather than reigning him in. I've heard from people than Mansford tends to align himself to the most powerful person in the room, which isn't what you want from a CEO.

Agree with that. Was wary as soon as Mansford came in and said they weren't looking for a Director of Football and he could do that role. Been a bit chaotic since then.

Critchley reckons he set them up as a 4-2-3-1 on Saturday. Did anyone else see that? That would have meant Ward was sat deep as a defensive midfielder when he's a right winger/attacking/something or other player? I missed that. Just thought he'd put CJ wide left against the quickest of their back three and he didn't fancy it so they had to swap back at half time. I know Klopp changed his formation in the late game to the same set up so maybe a memo went out ;-)
 
Agree with that. Was wary as soon as Mansford came in and said they weren't looking for a Director of Football and he could do that role. Been a bit chaotic since then.

Critchley reckons he set them up as a 4-2-3-1 on Saturday. Did anyone else see that? That would have meant Ward was sat deep as a defensive midfielder when he's a right winger/attacking/something or other player? I missed that. Just thought he'd put CJ wide left against the quickest of their back three and he didn't fancy it so they had to swap back at half time. I know Klopp changed his formation in the late game to the same set up so maybe a memo went out ;-)
I didn't see the change either. Was a little confused by NC's comments on that.
 
Not just me who missed that happening then. Probably just trying to come up with a story to take the credit for one moment where Kaikai found half a yard of space for himself in the box.
 
I agree with what you said on the other thread - that some of the stats are meaningless and stats for stats' sake. They also don't tell the whole story - for example stats on a player's record (e.g. appearances, goals etc) won't tell you if the player is an arsehole. They're just one piece of the puzzle and when used well, can really help (and we see that in other sports as well, not just footy).

For example, I thought Sarkic was garbage when he came on on Saturday. If I look at the stats I can see that he gave the ball away four times in the twenty minutes he played whereas Williams only gave it away four times in the whole game - that backs up what I thought I saw (that Sarkic did not play well).

I also thought that whilst MK Dons had a lot of the ball they didn't really threaten us (I've spoken before about possession v effective possession), and by looking at the stats I can see that 72% of the possession they had was between their keeper, three centre halves and two wing backs.

I thought Feeney and Gnands were a great combination, Feeney could at least cross a ball and Gnands was good in the air as well as having good feet, something we sadly lack at the moment. Yes its all we had but apart from the punt forward to Hamilton for his pace (and his ball control is questionable), what else have we now ? Our attacking play is very tardy and often falls short in the final third. Our defence looks more solid, but movement off the ball going forward is too predictable hence the slow build up. We lack pace and apart from the loners and a couple of others, I don't think we have the quality needed to get out of this division, unless fitness is an issue, which might well be the problem ?
 
I thought Feeney was our best player along with Nando from the Southend game forwards statistics showed Feeney was the top assistant and nando a top goal scorer but we’ll not bother with them stats shall we.
 
I thought Feeney was our best player along with Nando from the Southend game forwards statistics showed Feeney was the top assistant and nando a top goal scorer but we’ll not bother with them stats shall we.

We lack variety and regarding Hamilton, what's wrong with taking that ball down to the dead ball line a flinging a cross in ? I forgot, its not trendy any more. Always cut back inside the defender and push a forward ball towards goal. Much better and easy for their defenders isn't it ? In it goes out it comes every time. I just don't understand NCs system ? I wish some one would explain it to me, because I haven't got a clue what's going on.
 
We lack variety and regarding Hamilton, what's wrong with taking that ball down to the dead ball line a flinging a cross in ? I forgot, its not trendy any more. Always cut back inside the defender and push a forward ball towards goal. Much better and easy for their defenders isn't it ? In it goes out it comes every time. I just don't understand NCs system ? I wish some one would explain it to me, because I haven't got a clue what's going on.
He tried to get Hamilton and Kaikai to cross the ball in on Saturday (hence Hamilton playing on the left first half) and it just didn't work at all, mainly because Hamilton couldn't trap a bag of sand that half.