Match Thread: Lincoln City v Crewe Alexandra | Page 28 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Crewe Alexandra

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One real positive of yesterday as well was earlier balls in from both full backs with quality delivery. I think the new full backs improve us in that area, and morton was an option in the box a little bit more than hopper (not a slight in hopper he does a ton of work in build up play). I feel like this adds another dimension to our game that hopefully will make it harder for teams to sit in as we can cross from deep with quality or continue the more intricate build up play around the box. That and Edun doing all the simple things well were the real positives for me.

On the cautious side crewe hardly pressed us so let's see how we handle more pressure.
 
Most of us become a bit negative with a string of poor results. Expectations have been raised with the superb performances this season. Although we've been a better team than most of our opponents lately, letting in early goals has undone us and given opponents belief. Yesterday we avoided that and once the "new" midfield trio settled we looked much better. Same starting lineup on Tuesday would be good (maybe Morton will give way to Hopper)
 
Just watched the extended highlights on ifollow, crickey we played some great football going forward yesterday, really pleasing on the eye.
 
tinnionsrightfoot said:
Thought we looked a lot better yesterday. The shape was better. We were back to two ranks of four behind the ball and then breaking at pace, much more like the start of the season. There's sometimes been a hole in the midfield of late with teams able to advance through the middle with no opposition. That wasn't the case yesterday, which I think is because Tayo, McGrandles and Jones are midfielders, whereas I wouldn't say Johnson and Rogers are. Putting them on the wings gave us pace going forward as well, and Morton looked really sharp. How the Crewe keeper kept that half-volley out I don't know, but Morton looks like he'll score a few before the end of the season (as does McGrandles!). We looked a lot more energetic than we have of late as well.

I thought Crewe let us play; a lot of teams recently have pressed us and we've struggled with that. Let's hope Ipswich do as well.

I wonder if we've seen the last of TJ? He's good (though he's made a few mistakes of late), but he's not ours; Poole is, and it makes sense to get him into the system.
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I think because we have the option of Poole maybe TJ is being kept back as a replacement for Montsma or Jackson if either are injured.
 
tinnionsrightfoot said:
There's sometimes been a hole in the midfield of late with teams able to advance through the middle with no opposition. That wasn't the case yesterday, which I think is because Tayo, McGrandles and Jones are midfielders, whereas I wouldn't say Johnson and Rogers are.
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I agree entirely, much of our dip in form has been down to the midfield. It is easy to blame the defence when a side concedes goals, but the loss of Bridcutt in particular has caused a weakness that is hardly addressed by playing strikers in midfield. That has invited pressure on the defence and on Palmer, who has struggled at times. We had a midfield of three midfielders yesterday, all of whom can defend and attack, and it looked much more solid than in recent weeks. I am not blaming MA for that, he lost Bridcutt and McGrandles to injury, and Jones and Anderson to Covid. I think he may have found his midfield for the foreseeable future.
 
Dreaming of McAuley said:
Hortin has had his deserved critics recently, myself very much included, but he seemed much improved to me yesterday. Noticeably had made an effort to look at Crewe's players, exemplified by his repeated mentioning of Pickering's threat.
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There was a bit where he and Thommo were saying that Pickering has been linked with moves in the Championship, he joined Blackburn in the last transfer window and was loaned back. It's stuff like that which I just don't understand how they don't know about it.
 
Ready for another round of gut-wrenching tension. Seeing the Championship on the horizon is exacerbating ito_O
 
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