Match Thread: Lincoln City v Crawley Town | Page 17 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Crawley Town

GrotierBranfootLeigh said:
Akinde is doing fine. Unfortunately though whatever he does will never be good enough for some people.
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Matt Rhead is understandably a fans favourite and although not an identical type of player is the closest match to Akinde so that residual loyalty to Rheady needs to be overcome, but Akinde will given time impose himself at the club and could well become a fan's favourite in his own right.
 
Luke Imp said:
I felt sorry for Akinde on Saturday.

He was playing as a lone striker against a back 3 and a midfielder in front, so 4 on 1 at times.

Service into him was poor/non-existent and was feeding off scraps. Anything that got into him was neck/head height, which is no good for him despite his size. He needs the ball worked into him so he can pin defenders like when their CB got booked in the second half.

People were shouting for him to run the channels more in the second half but being down to 10 men, if he chased those, who did that leave in the box? And are we really going to cross it in for McCartan or Pett i.e. lack of height? No. When you're trying to be a bit more of a footballing side, you need a focal point up front who plays the width of the 18 yard box, not so much a running the channel type.

But even though his performance wasn't as as people were expecting, he still had our best chance of the game (through his good play earlier in the move) and created our other best chance in the game (Mensah).
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Agree with much of what you say but his work effort on Saturday, when compared to his brilliant performance at Exeter, was well off the mark. Which is why it appeared particularly disappointing.

At Exeter he came back to his own penalty area to collect the ball and ran the length of the pitch taking returns as he went forward. He ran far more and created his own space. I believe he even left the ground for a couple of headers.

Personally I think he is not 100% match fit yet, possibly a 60 minute player who protects himself for the first 30 minutes in case he is required to last the whole game. When "on song" he is devastating and that bodes well for the future, he is also pretty good at penalties.

It appeared on Saturday that both his socks were cut or split at the back. Surely that is not just because they are too small for his calves? More likely some niggle, wonder if it hurts him to jump aggressively at the moment?
 
berksimps said:
Agree with much of what you say but his work effort on Saturday, when compared to his brilliant performance at Exeter, was well off the mark. Which is why it appeared particularly disappointing.

At Exeter he came back to his own penalty area to collect the ball and ran the length of the pitch taking returns as he went forward. He ran far more and created his own space. I believe he even left the ground for a couple of headers.

Personally I think he is not 100% match fit yet, possibly a 60 minute player who protects himself for the first 30 minutes in case he is required to last the whole game. When "on song" he is devastating and that bodes well for the future, he is also pretty good at penalties.

It appeared on Saturday that both his socks were cut or split at the back. Surely that is not just because they are too small for his calves? More likely some niggle, wonder if it hurts him to jump aggressively at the moment?
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The holes at the back of the socks help with preventing cramp.
 
MintyMatt said:
‘Anderson looks like a million pound player in the making - I think he will go to a championship club in a year or two, where he will benefit from better resource and peers. From there I can see him signing for a premiership team a couple of years later. He has the speed, the build and the motivation to succeed. He just needs composure.’

That’s interesting. I don’t see that at all. For me he’s limited...great in a straight line foot race, but has no real tricks to use if he can’t just run past someone. Not consistent in his final ball and his finishing is average at best. He’s not ‘that’ young...think the composure would be showing by now. Has he really improved that much since we first had him on loan. Hope I’m wrong though and a big fat cheque will be swelling the bank account in the next year or 2.
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He is only 21 i believe.
 
StrangelyBrown said:
Even Crawley second half we were by far the better team and the one who looked like scoring...we just didn't manage to.
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I thought we were by far the better team in both halves bar the odd opportunity for them.

Just on the day we didn't click and things didn't go our way.

Andrade got "muscled" off the ball very close to goal, he put the cross in that Akinde should really have scored from and had a couple of other chances to create in the first half.

It wasn't as bad a performance as it is being made out to be. We were in control of the game from start to finish bar the odd chance that will inevitably be given away no matter the opposition and we failed to capitalise on them.

Still not understanding the criticisms of Akinde. He did well bar his miss in a game where we just didn;t click that well and get balls into him in areas where he can make something of it. Some people were criticising him for not jumping for headers where the ball was 6ft above his head.

The only thing you can add is that Rhead did win headers when he came on and he could work with Akinde. But it isn't a case of him being the better option than Akinde.
 
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Feeling bemused reading some of this. I really do not understand what some people expect, or why.

Eight of the players who appeared on Saturday were not here last season and two others only joined in January. Nevertheless, we are top of League Two. Accepting that it takes time for a squad to integrate, I think that is extraordinary.

So far, we have used 22 players in 7 league games. That is too many and indicates Danny is still looking for his best side and formation. To reiterate, we are top of League Two nonetheless. As I said, that is extraordinary.
 
Scotimp said:
Feeling bemused reading some of this. I really do not understand what some people expect, or why.

Eight of the players who appeared on Saturday were not here last season and two others only joined in January. Nevertheless, we are top of League Two. Accepting that it takes time for a squad to integrate, I think that is extraordinary.

So far, we have used 22 players in 7 league games. That is too many and indicates Danny is still looking for his best side and formation. To reiterate, we are top of League Two nonetheless. As I said, that is extraordinary.
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The hysteria and soul searching that takes place amongst some after a defeat is really hard to understand. We're in a fantastic place but we will always lose games. We're a League Two club.

This is in no way a comment against more recent supporters of Lincoln but could it be a reflection of their opinions towards their Premier League club?

Aligning the expectations of say Chelsea with those of Lincoln may occur naturally and subconsciously to an individual but it's not realistic to do so.
 
My friends who've been going years and seen the utter rubbish of the 10 years before Cowleys arrived were the biggest moaners post match and especially critical of Akinde! One in particular has been going far longer me and was the biggest moaner!
We're top and had an off day, dear me!
 
I well remember the desperation of leaving Sincil Bank having just seen us lose to Hayes & Yeading (attendance 2585), to Salisbury (2646) and to Alfreton Town (1728). And having driven a round trip of 550 miles to see it happen.

I am physically and mentally unable to feel disappointed that we are top of League Two in front of an average gate of 8465.
 
Davidimp said:
My friends who've been going years and seen the utter rubbish of the 10 years before Cowleys arrived were the biggest moaners post match and especially critical of Akinde! One in particular has been going far longer me and was the biggest moaner!
We're top and had an off day, dear me!
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Maybe for some long standing supporters moaning is a habit now that is hard to break :)
 
Scotimp said:
Feeling bemused reading some of this. I really do not understand what some people expect, or why.

Eight of the players who appeared on Saturday were not here last season and two others only joined in January. Nevertheless, we are top of League Two. Accepting that it takes time for a squad to integrate, I think that is extraordinary.

So far, we have used 22 players in 7 league games. That is too many and indicates Danny is still looking for his best side and formation. To reiterate, we are top of League Two nonetheless. As I said, that is extraordinary.
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I don't think we'll see a settled side in the traditional sense at all this season. I believe DC will regularly rotate about 20 players in and out of the starting X1 depending on opposition and form.

Last season we saw the limitations of having a favoured starting X1 and although I expect we'll play less fixtures this season DC will know he has to keep players happy and match fit.

It'll be part of our evolution to a team that's tactically fluid with multiple game plans come the end of the season
 
Davidimp said:
My friends who've been going years and seen the utter rubbish of the 10 years before Cowleys arrived were the biggest moaners post match and especially critical of Akinde! One in particular has been going far longer me and was the biggest moaner!
We're top and had an off day, dear me!
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It seems very difficult for some fans - maybe it's a majority - to accept a defeat regardless of the general direction of travel. That's not unique to Lincoln City though.

I look forward to the games on ifollow and I enjoy them, but I'm used to a much better standard of football than League 2 through the team I have an actual season ticket for.

That doesn't matter to me, I can factor that in. It's a mystery why fans who have seen real dross in the past decade can't look beyond a defeat - or even a victory - and see what they've got.
 
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