Match Thread: Accrington Stanley v Lincoln City | Page 23 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Accrington Stanley v Lincoln City

Having reflected on the game, the Accrington team pressed very well and this was partially responsible for at least five errors where we attempted to give them chances to score. They also appeared to man mark Bridcutt had went deeper and deeper to avoid the marker. I am excluding the Montsma one which was comedy gold and should be on his show reel when opposition clubs come calling. Having said that we were awful at times and it was like watching us in the second division again. Still we should really have won. Pitch didn't help and the heights of listening to radio Lincolnshire from afar during the National League promotion and cup run have become hugely irritating due to a lack of preparedness, heavy breathing and eyesight problems.
 
plumbob said:
To be fair, he isn't the answer. The last 2 games have seen him have just one shot on target, granted that one was a goal. He's not prolific enough for us.
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Depends on the question. Yesterday, first half in particular, Hopper was highly effective in winning and keeping possession and bringing others into the game and created chances for others.

As much as we'd like all of that and 20-plus goals a season, that sort of player is out of our range at this level, a loan like Walker last season and Morton this being our only real option unless we unearth and develop a talent through the academy, which takes time.

'Proven goalscorers' which we might be able to afford tend to be affordable for a reason - thinking of players we've had or been linked to in recent years, think Ricky Miller, Waide Fairhurst, Liam Hearn.

Apart from Walker last season, the highly successful recent seasons have been noticeable for not having a stand out goal scorer. In that context we probably need more from our midfield, who looked so promising in the first few games. McGrandles in particular is getting chances, he had two good ones yesterday, I get the sense if he puts one away his confidence will settle and we'll see a lot more from him.
 
collingham imps said:
I would play Johnson upfront in a 3 with Anderson and Scully - some pace and good feet.
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That's interesting, and I am inclined to agree. Whilst I understand that Hopper has a high work rate, he isn't very effective and doesn't score enough. Contrary to some of the comments I have seen on here, he is not playing as a lone wolf striker ploughing a lonely furrow - he is often in a front three. His goal return has been relatively poor since joining us (5 in 24 games), and I suspect his assist tally is no higher. Is that really good enough if we are serious about a promotion challenge?
 
Skip155 said:
I haven’t reached that conclusion yet. When the team struggles for goals for a period it’s a bit easy to point to the No9.

It’s a problem area for us at the minute in terms of options but let’s see how it goes in the run to the new year.
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To be clear, I meant Kane. Probably should have engaged "olive mode"!
 
Chimpimp said:
Jones and McGrandles start virtually every game and I think there are reasons for this.

They can both get from box to box. Attack and defend and are decent in possession.

They are important to the way we play and integral to why we have started so well.

Bridcutt and Grant both bring additional quality to the side but neither of them can do what Jones and McGrandles do.

Sheer work rate, running power and athleticism doesn't attract much attention, until you lack it.
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TBH, Bridcutt (My opinion, don't shoot me for it) is the one that is lucky to be starting. We have played much more fluidly in the games he hasn't been in there and no co-incidence Jones has played better in these games too.........plus it means Grant gets a much more central role.

Maybe fitness is the problem at the moment but Bridcutt slows the whole thing down, doing the "Prem thing" when at this level the "Prem thing" isn't always the best option. Players like Jones and Grant aren't De Bruyne or Mason Mount but then the defenders they are up against aren't V Dijk or Harry Maguire.

Grant and Jones have shown already this season they can, take people on, make a yard for themselves and hit the ball from distance. For me the holding role is between McGrandles and Bridcutt and at the minute McGrandles is winning that one on sheer effort.
 
Brendan Bradley said:
The Accrington commentator had exactly the same position, he referred to it during the game, but the difference (as it always is with other stations) is stark.

The problem is the total lack of preparation. That, and that he might be a good presenter for all I know, but he is totally unsuited to match commentary.
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It isn't just the (lack of) preparation. The Accrington commentator was actually watching the game instead of nudging his co-commentator after some "bants", looking round to wink at everybody before uttering "what happened there, I didn't see it."

The Accrington commentary was really good. Proper radio commentary, even enjoyed when he cued up his "3-2-1, Dale Story here, 55 minutes gone and the Gingerbreads are now 8-5 up" for the segs away from the match commentary.

Was very Jonathan Pie'esque.
 
I think we're probably seeing now how important Morton was going to be for us this season. I'm not suggesting he was going to be the 20 goal a season striker or necessarily being first choice but he offers an option that we're currently missing.

Hopper is a back to goal link up striker whereas Morton goes in behind and looks to get around the penalty spot/six yard box.

I'm not sure whether it's something we can address in January given finances around football at the minute, or whether we need to i.e. if Morton is back soon-ish into the new year but you'd imagine we've seen the last of Bradley, Lewis, Soule (due back in January anyway) and perhaps Howarth is one that will depart on loan for game time so maybe we can create a bit of room for that kind of striker on loan.
 
GreenNeedle said:
TBH, Bridcutt (My opinion, don't shoot me for it) is the one that is lucky to be starting. We have played much more fluidly in the games he hasn't been in there and no co-incidence Jones has played better in these games too.........plus it means Grant gets a much more central role.

Maybe fitness is the problem at the moment but Bridcutt slows the whole thing down, doing the "Prem thing" when at this level the "Prem thing" isn't always the best option. Players like Jones and Grant aren't De Bruyne or Mason Mount but then the defenders they are up against aren't V Dijk or Harry Maguire.

Grant and Jones have shown already this season they can, take people on, make a yard for themselves and hit the ball from distance. For me the holding role is between McGrandles and Bridcutt and at the minute McGrandles is winning that one on sheer effort.
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I agree Grant is better centrally, I just don't think he would have had time on the ball yesterday to influence matters as much as he has been doing. They'd obviously worked out who the creative players were and pressed them incredibly well. Harry looked very tired after 10 minutes but never got anywhere near having any space and neither did Grant on the left.

MA is also on record as saying there would be times where he need to play two holding midfielders away from home and I also suspect this was one of those times he'd identified..

MA clearly put Bridcutt in there to provide some bite and physicality (he said so in his pre-match interview I think?) as opposed to Grants more "interception" based approach, and also to provide some element of competition in the air against a big, physical side (who can definitely play as well) whereas Grant offers nothing in the air apart from standing and trying to lever his opponent off the ball.

I think it's more a matter of giving them some credit for being very well organised and extremely hard working off the ball..
 
Brendan Bradley said:
The Accrington commentator had exactly the same position, he referred to it during the game, but the difference (as it always is with other stations) is stark.

The problem is the total lack of preparation. That, and that he might be a good presenter for all I know, but he is totally unsuited to match commentary.
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Why would he bother to 'prepare' to any great extent based on his other workload and salary including the only important thing in the whole of broadcasting ie Pirate Gold
 
GreenNeedle said:
TBH, Bridcutt (My opinion, don't shoot me for it) is the one that is lucky to be starting. We have played much more fluidly in the games he hasn't been in there and no co-incidence Jones has played better in these games too.........plus it means Grant gets a much more central role.

Maybe fitness is the problem at the moment but Bridcutt slows the whole thing down, doing the "Prem thing" when at this level the "Prem thing" isn't always the best option. Players like Jones and Grant aren't De Bruyne or Mason Mount but then the defenders they are up against aren't V Dijk or Harry Maguire.

Grant and Jones have shown already this season they can, take people on, make a yard for themselves and hit the ball from distance. For me the holding role is between McGrandles and Bridcutt and at the minute McGrandles is winning that one on sheer effort.
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As SincilBanks said, I’d generally have Bridcutt in there for away games. Not sure how Jorge would have coped with Accy’s pressing (which was excellent).
 
This is reasonably interesting. Be interesting to see what our results are like in the matches where we dominate possession. BBC suggests we had 63% possession yesterday for example.

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433 can result in games like this one yesterday , it's all about getting support to the central striker.
We did this well in the first 5 games when we scored 10, only 5 in 7 since.
Have teams worked us out a bit? Difficult to change very much when you're playing 3 times a week.
 
I wonder if we'd be having this goalscorer conversation re Hopper if he was our nominated penalty taker this season and currently have 8 goals to his name (basically all of Jorge's League goals this term plus his own 2)

We have to accept that his job is a backs to the wall striker who will try and bring others into the attack. That is how we set up and unless MA has a change of heart tactically it is how we will be playing all season
 
Having changed virtually the full squad for the first few games we were an unknown quantity. 19 games played now so the opposition have a much better idea of what to expect from us. For this reason I was interested to hear from Appleton that they have been trying some new bits and pieces in training during the last couple of weeks. I think we need to keep evolving to keep getting an advantage in these tight games, and I really think Appleton’s coaching ability is one of our advantages. Expect to see some of these tweaks coming through in the next couple of games.
 
Luke Imp said:
I think we're probably seeing now how important Morton was going to be for us this season. I'm not suggesting he was going to be the 20 goal a season striker or necessarily being first choice but he offers an option that we're currently missing.

Hopper is a back to goal link up striker whereas Morton goes in behind and looks to get around the penalty spot/six yard box.

I'm not sure whether it's something we can address in January given finances around football at the minute, or whether we need to i.e. if Morton is back soon-ish into the new year but you'd imagine we've seen the last of Bradley, Lewis, Soule (due back in January anyway) and perhaps Howarth is one that will depart on loan for game time so maybe we can create a bit of room for that kind of striker on loan.
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One of the things mentioned about Morton’s loan, was that wba wanted him to learn more about back to goal centre forward play.
 
I think it has also been mentioned that our next games are against those who might be considered weaker in this division ( accepted that all teams are capable) so just perhaps some shackles will be taken off and our 4-3-3 becomes more of a 4-2-1-3 with a midfielder much closer to Hopper. I think Johnson's best position is probably in that middle space behind the attacker when he can get a head of steam up in front of the goal. Perhaps at Swindon we might just see this slight change, though I'd expect the solidity of the midfield 3 to be in place for the tough one at Plymouth next Saturday
 
sedgleyimp said:
I think it has also been mentioned that our next games are against those who might be considered weaker in this division ( accepted that all teams are capable) so just perhaps some shackles will be taken off and our 4-3-3 becomes more of a 4-2-1-3 with a midfielder much closer to Hopper. I think Johnson's best position is probably in that middle space behind the attacker when he can get a head of steam up in front of the goal. Perhaps at Swindon we might just see this slight change, though I'd expect the solidity of the midfield 3 to be in place for the tough one at Plymouth next Saturday
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Yep, but we might not even have to change anything to create more/score more goals. for those worried about our lack of goals in games against Doncaster Portsmouth and Accrington, I would be taking a look at our goals scored against Swindon, Wigan and Rochdale to get a better idea if we have an issue with goal scoring In general.
 
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