Match Thread: Lincoln City v Portsmouth | Page 16 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Portsmouth

Tough watch…and tough times at the minute. It will improve; the club structure is good and the board will not want us to sink without trace.

No pace is evident, no player can get beyond the forward line and we go back and put ourselves under pressure. On recent performance Sorensen and Fiorini are far too lightweight for this standard of football, and give the ball away far too often. Bishop talented but not one I’d take in the trenches currently.

Stick with it, it will get better I hope. Lessons from the summer will have been learnt, especially seeing Jez slumping further into his chair this evening.
 
There seems be some realism at last on here. We are going to be in a relegation fight no doubt. Why some people think the January transfer window will rescue us is beyond me. January is a notoriously difficult window to recruit successfully. Even if we get some quality players it will take time for them to settle in by which time it may be too late. I’ll take 20th place now.
 
A few reflections:

Playing McGuire on the left wastes his excellent right-foot crossing.

Bishop is better in midfield.

Sorensen had one of the worst days of his career, as did Eyoma.

We have no pace. Elbouzedi was moved on, Archibald is on loan, Anderson has left and Brammal out of favour, it seems. Slow teams don't do well in L1.

N'Lundulu is the worst premiership player I've seen since Carlton Palmer.

Draper had an excellent full debut.

Fiorini and Sorensen cannot play together in the same midfield.

Both full-backs are average and neither well suited to playing out from the back.

After dozens of games struggling against a high press we still have no answer. What is the definition on insanity?
 
Chesterimp said:
Hypothetical, but how would DC have performed with MA's budget and brief? He left because he didn't want to work under those terms.

But MA's current side is performing a long way from the level he had last season and it will be interesting to see if he can prompt an improvement before the January window.
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They are performing below last year, but the bigger clubs have not had the financial constraints they faced last season when it was much more of a level playing field. Not being able to compete off the pitch usually translates to not being able to compete on it. We are roughly where our budget is. MA signed a contract extension knowing the state of the finances, DC did a runner knowing the budget. Stick with MA have the occasional flirt with the play offs the occasional scare at the bottom, but we need to stick around in this division for longer than we have in the 60 odd years I have supported the club. I suspect we have spent nearly as many seasons in non league as at this level prior to this time at the 3rd tier. 16th in division 3 and I will suggest we may just be overachieving.
 
NottyImp said:
A few reflections:

Playing McGuire on the left wastes his excellent right-foot crossing.

Bishop is better in midfield.

Sorensen had one of the worst days of his career, as did Eyoma.

We have no pace. Elbouzedi was moved on, Archibald is on loan, Anderson has left and Brammal out of favour, it seems. Slow teams don't do well in L1.

N'Lundulu is the worst premiership player I've seen since Carlton Palmer.

Draper had an excellent full debut.

Fiorini and Sorensen cannot play together in the same midfield.

Both full-backs are average and neither well suited to playing out from the back.

After dozens of games struggling against a high press we still have no answer. What is the definition on insanity?
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Agree with every point you make
 
Shit
Just in
Not happy with a 3-0 home defeat.
However
Thought it was very even first half
Second half just as we looked more likely to score a defensive/goalkeeper lack of communication blunder gave them an undeserved 2nd.
Shit.
 
NottyImp said:
A few reflections:

Playing McGuire on the left wastes his excellent right-foot crossing.

Bishop is better in midfield.

Sorensen had one of the worst days of his career, as did Eyoma.

We have no pace. Elbouzedi was moved on, Archibald is on loan, Anderson has left and Brammal out of favour, it seems. Slow teams don't do well in L1.

N'Lundulu is the worst premiership player I've seen since Carlton Palmer.

Draper had an excellent full debut.

Fiorini and Sorensen cannot play together in the same midfield.

Both full-backs are average and neither well suited to playing out from the back.

After dozens of games struggling against a high press we still have no answer. What is the definition on insanity?
Click to expand...

I have to say you are spot on there Notty. It also appears to me that some appear scared of making a mistake rather than take responsibility. I'm no football manager but I question some of the desire I saw tonight. I appreciate we have a different budget but there are players we could have picked up in the summer who could have done a job, other teams seem to do. On the recruitment front it probably didn't help planning on what league we would be in with different players identified for different leagues and by then it's too late, those league 1 targets have been snapped up. I think MApp is great don't get me wrong, but I do disagree with his post match review. If we haven't got the players to play out from the back then don't do it. Wait until you do have the correct combination otherwise we'll be sucked into a relegation fight. Tonight it resembled comedy capers at times.
How Sorenson is ahead of Sanders in team selection is beyond me on tonights performance, a pass to someone in red and white is a basic requirement. Nuff said back to packing boxes.
 
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We Just can’t keep players on the pitch long enough. We can’t cope with Saturday / Tuesday as a result.

Scully not in the squad, Jackson can’t manage two games in succession, same with Bishop. Bridcutt, Hopper, Walsh also injured - we can never play a settled side and it shows.
 
German Imp said:
I have to say you are spot on there Notty. It also appears to me that some appear scared of making a mistake rather than take responsibility. I'm no football manager but I question some of the desire I saw tonight. I appreciate we have a different budget but there are players we could have picked up in the summer who could have done a job, other teams seem to do. On the recruitment front it probably didn't help planning on what league we would be in with different players identified for different leagues and by then its too late, those league 1 targets have been snapped up. I think MApp is great don't get me wrong, but I do disagree with his post match review. If we haven't got the players to play out from the back then don't do it. Wait until you do have the correct combination otherwise we'll be sucked into a relegation fight. Tonight it resembled comedy capers at times.
How Sorenson is ahead of Sanders in team selection is beyond me on tonights performance, a pass to someone in red and white is a basic requirement. Nuff said back to packing boxes.
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Hope the move goes well.

Or are you on a shift in an Amazon warehouse?
 
I think a lot of the starting 11 tonight can or are really good players, they just need different players around them to show it. Fiorini, Sorensen, Maguire, Bishop and McGrandles in particular, swap any two of them out for say Bridcutt and one other and they will look great, all of them together seems to be missing something.
 
Think our free kick in the Pompey half which went straight back to the keeper pretty much sums up our performances of late
It’s like they’ve been passed a live grenade at times terrified of the ball
Not sure our midfield could boss a small animal the moment
 
One of the most important people we need back in the ranks, in my opinion, is Clive. The City ship clearly needs steadying at the moment from top to bottom and Clive is the man to do that. We really do appear to have missed the visible leadership that he brings to the club whilst he has been stuck in South Aftica and I think there will he a collective sigh of relief when he is back at The Bank, from staff, players and fans alike. The club needs his nous to give the confidence to get the recruitment done properly during the January transfer window. If it doesn't go well again then difficult decisions are going to have to be made at the club by the Chairman for the first time since 2016. It's taken a hell of an effort over the last 5 years to get where we are now. That could all be lost very quickly if we are not careful. In my view, and after watching tonight's performance, we have to accept that with the current playing staff we are now in a relegation fight. Better to accept that and learn how to start to fight now to preserve our League 1 status then blindly ignore the obvious and only start to try and do something about it in March when it will be too late, as happened back in 1987 and 2011.
 
Sigiriya said:
One of the most important people we need back in the ranks, in my opinion, is Clive. The City ship clearly needs steadying at the moment from top to bottom and Clive is the man to do that. We really do appear to have missed the visible leadership that he brings to the club whilst he has been stuck in South Aftica and I think there will he a collective sigh of relief when he is back at The Bank, from staff, players and fans alike. The club needs his nous to give the confidence to get the recruitment done properly during the January transfer window. If it doesn't go well again then difficult decisions are going to have to be made at the club by the Chairman for the first time since 2016. It's taken a hell of an effort over the last 5 years to get where we are now. That could all be lost very quickly if we are not careful. In my view, and after watching tonight's performance, we have to accept that with the current playing staff we are now in a relegation fight. Better to accept that and learn how to start to fight now to preserve our League 1 status then blindly ignore the obvious and only start to try and do something about it in March when it will be too late, as happened back in 1987 and 2011.
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Hyperbole on steroids
 
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