Match Thread: Milton Keynes Dons v Lincoln City | Page 12 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Milton Keynes Dons v Lincoln City

JT_LCFC said:
24 goals in 25 games tells the story. 6 of them in 1 game. That Bristol Rovers game has a lot to answer for turning us dull as dishwater. Some spirited displays initially, but we are in the entertainment industry and now fans are starting turning off. It becomes a hard road back, and a hard sell when you park the bus and lump it.
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I mentioned pre-season that I’m going to home games with 3 new season ticket holders.

They enjoy the day out - mainly due to the beers (outside the ground.. inside the ground the service and product is rancid).

Will they be able to justify spending around £380 to renew their season tickets for a “good day out” knowing renewals are around the corner in the midst of a cost of living predicament?

A conundrum many will have, I assume…
 
mikeosullivan said:
The thing was though, as I recall Rovers that day were decimated by injuries and three of their back four were midfielders or forwards. It definitely gave us all an unfair reflection of our attacking "prowess".

Considering the team Rovers put out, we were also awful defensively, which - as you rightly say - prompted the 5 at the back cautious approach after that game.
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that’s right. I got out of my armchair for that one. It was the most bizarre match I have ever witnessed. They had an aging Glenn Whelan playing centre back who was bad. That match could have been 10 all. I think if we had played like that against more stable balanced sides we would have been slaughtered.
 
bristolimp said:
that’s right. I got out of my armchair for that one. It was the most bizarre match I have ever witnessed. They had an aging Glenn Whelan playing centre back who was bad. That match could have been 10 all. I think if we had played like that against more stable balanced sides we would have been slaughtered.
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You’re right, and clearly Kennedy did have to tighten up the defence, but he’s thrown the baby out with the bathwater
 
A point away from home....such a subjective statement!

Firstly, unless my eyes completely deceived me we played 4 at the back (Pool, O'Connor, Jackson and Boyes)- first half looked like 4-3-3 and second half looked like 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. At least from where I was sat.

I think they had one attempt on target and we had two.....sums up the game really.

Lots of huff, lots of puff, lots of almosts (ie that pass "almost" split their defence and let Diamond through).

Positives
Boyes looked really strong in a back four- thought he was excellent and this gave Diamond room and confidence to roam.
We kept a clean sheet
We got a point away from home
Wagamama's Pad Thai is decent snap before a game

Less Positives
It was a hard watch today. Hopper's mobility looks out of place in L1 now. His positioning off the ball (compared to House) is chalk and cheese.
Sanders looks further adrift from his earlier season performances epitomised by the 89th minute free kick which (like almost all corners for both teams) failed to clear the first man.

But I drove home knowing we had another point.

One final point- last season Darren Moore took over Wednesday. Their first season under Moore, fans were apoplectic. Boring, no creativity, can't score, no entertainment (sound familiar). A new manager taking over a team which wasn't his.....roll onto his second season.

The moral of the story- everyone can moan as much as they like. IF we aren't prepared to give managers time to build a team then we will never build anything.
 
Back home after that 'entertainment'

Let's start with some positives as I doubt there's that many floating about

1. We didn't lose. That wasn't what the majority in the predict the score thread suggested.
2. We didn't concede. I never felt like we were going to during that game either. Perhaps that one cross which zipped near our 6 yard box was the only slight concern today
3. We weren't the worse team on the pitch today and when you consider our respective positions that's some small comfort. If there was any real thought that MK Dons are in a false position, today dispelled that quite quickly. They were awful. I suppose being the slightly less shit team on display isn't much to crow about but enjoy the little things as they say (zombie survival rule 32)
4. We had made another signing who clearly had to be smuggled into the dressing room. A left footed winger who actually was sent on to play on the left

Overall though a poor game of football. I pity the people who have to make a 2 minute highlights reel as they'll be tempted to just show multiple angles of that Jack Diamond shot early second half.

Is this a point gained or two lost. A game I felt with that little bit of extra initiative and guile we could and probably should have won so at the moment it feels like two lost. However if we follow this up with wins in the next two home games it will probably been seen more of one gained. Surely not too difficult!!!!!!!
 
Seems to be a bit of confusion about our line up today. It was a standard 4231 with a flat back 4, Sanders and Sorenson holding the fort with Bishop, Mandy and Diamond in a 3 behind a lonesome Hopper.
I see Bishop is getting some stick from the usual quarters but any glimmer of creativity and forward thinking play came from him, once he went off we changed from poor to dismally poor. Mandy couldn’t control the ball at all and if the new loan signing on that half hour showing is supposed to be our saviour then God help us. Diamond was our brightest spark although still pretty dim but a chorus of Boos at the final whistle for the second successive week tells its own story. Both sets of fans were as lifeless as the action on the pitch.
Other than the 3-5 pm slot it’s been a good away day!
 
Well that was almost a non event.
Thy virtually did nothing, we virtually did nothing and possibly the only bit of comfort we can draw from it is that we didn't come away with nothing...although whilst you try and salvage any crumbs of positivity from that match we actually dropped one point closer to the relegation trap door.

Good to see us get a signing over the line though, even if it is a young player and a loan but we'll see how that goes in the coming weeks.

Didn't see anything today that filled me with any extra confidence, it was really pedestrian and looked like two teams who lacked any flair or punch and both keepers could have had the deck chairs out because neither were unduly tested.

I am a little bit concerned with Mandroiu.
Kennedy got him in the position he was obviously brought to play in today but to me he is looks half arsed. It may be just his persona but I've been saying he needs to be a lot more involved and impress himself on games a lot more. No doubting his ability, he has some great touches but we need more from him. We have to have our creative players on the ball a lot more but that is down to pattern of play and coaching and how the coach wants him to play within the team.

We still need to get some combative experience into the midfield and we need more up front. Well done to Hopper for clocking up 100 appearances but hes not the answer, our goalscoring record doesn't lie when both our main forwards at the moment only score once in every 4 or 5 games. That ratio won't get you very far and that's why Kennedy really had to shore the other end up.

A huge couple of weeks now coming up with the Burton and Cambridge games. Hopefully we will have significant additional bodies in for then but that's 3 performances on the trot( Charlton, Accrington and MK) that nobody can dress up in any way other than to be pretty uninspiring and lacking any quality and that's still a worry.

6 points though from the next two games will change the perspective but we are going to have to be a lot better than we have been to achieve that and I'm getting more and more worried whether we have got it in us.
 
Luke Imp said:
Not sure we need passion (or PASHUN). These lot aren't a dislikeable squad of players, they're honest and try their best, but in certain areas we're just not good enough.
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The midfield definitely isn't right, but I know based off the scoring record it *feels* like we need a revamped attack. I'm still convinced there are goals in some of those players but they seem so stifled by the way we've been playing and it has definitely made me wonder how much it's their fault. To put it another way, I'm definitely a bit put out by the whole, Kennedy is a progressive inventive coach which was the initial line, based on the actual football.

I thought the squad was short of a 6 and an 8 but even then I think they're going to have to be electric, incredible players to jolt what's happening into life atm.
 
mikeosullivan said:
The thing was though, as I recall Rovers that day were decimated by injuries and three of their back four were midfielders or forwards. It definitely gave us all an unfair reflection of our attacking "prowess".

Considering the team Rovers put out, we were also awful defensively, which - as you rightly say - prompted the 5 at the back cautious approach after that game.
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Awful in defence that game I think was an understatement and being polite.
 
A point on our travels. Fine, if we are winning at home. Somehow we need to dig something out of our situation to turn a few of these draws in to wins. I just can’t see where that is coming from though.
 
clanfordimp said:
Well that was almost a non event.
Thy virtually did nothing, we virtually did nothing and possibly the only bit of comfort we can draw from it is that we didn't come away with nothing...although whilst you try and salvage any crumbs of positivity from that match we actually dropped one point closer to the relegation trap door.

Good to see us get a signing over the line though, even if it is a young player and a loan but we'll see how that goes in the coming weeks.

Didn't see anything today that filled me with any extra confidence, it was really pedestrian and looked like two teams who lacked any flair or punch and both keepers could have had the deck chairs out because neither were unduly tested.

I am a little bit concerned with Mandroiu.
Kennedy got him in the position he was obviously brought to play in today but to me he is looks half arsed. It may be just his persona but I've been saying he needs to be a lot more involved and impress himself on games a lot more. No doubting his ability, he has some great touches but we need more from him. We have to have our creative players on the ball a lot more but that is down to pattern of play and coaching and how the coach wants him to play within the team.

We still need to get some combative experience into the midfield and we need more up front. Well done to Hopper for clocking up 100 appearances but hes not the answer, our goalscoring record doesn't lie when both our main forwards at the moment only score once in every 4 or 5 games. That ratio won't get you very far and that's why Kennedy really had to shore the other end up.

A huge couple of weeks now coming up with the Burton and Cambridge games. Hopefully we will have significant additional bodies in for then but that's 3 performances on the trot( Charlton, Accrington and MK) that nobody can dress up in any way other than to be pretty uninspiring and lacking any quality and that's still a worry.

6 points though from the next two games will change the perspective but we are going to have to be a lot better than we have been to achieve that and I'm getting more and more worried whether we have got it in us.
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It is 3 performances on the trot but what is worrying is that there has been plenty more since the season began
 
Imp2stone said:
It is 3 performances on the trot but what is worrying is that there has been plenty more since the season began
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Yes there has but they have been intermingled with some decent results in the past few months.

The last 3 games though, if you go to football to be entertained, have been nothing short of abysmal.
 
sedgleyimp said:
Back home after that 'entertainment'

Let's start with some positives as I doubt there's that many floating about

1. We didn't lose. That wasn't what the majority in the predict the score thread suggested.
2. We didn't concede. I never felt like we were going to during that game either. Perhaps that one cross which zipped near our 6 yard box was the only slight concern today
3. We weren't the worse team on the pitch today and when you consider our respective positions that's some small comfort. If there was any real thought that MK Dons are in a false position, today dispelled that quite quickly. They were awful. I suppose being the slightly less shit team on display isn't much to crow about but enjoy the little things as they say (zombie survival rule 32)
4. We had made another signing who clearly had to be smuggled into the dressing room. A left footed winger who actually was sent on to play on the left

Overall though a poor game of football. I pity the people who have to make a 2 minute highlights reel as they'll be tempted to just show multiple angles of that Jack Diamond shot early second half.

Is this a point gained or two lost. A game I felt with that little bit of extra initiative and guile we could and probably should have won so at the moment it feels like two lost. However if we follow this up with wins in the next two home games it will probably been seen more of one gained. Surely not too difficult!!!!!!!
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How long have we been saying follow this match with a win or two. Haven’t seen many and the season is half over
 
Back from the game, here are my thoughts:

1.) Like last week at Charlton, the centre midfield looked a real weakness. Sorenson was a bit better today, and showed desire and effort but still struggled imo. Sadly I'm just not sure he's good enough for this level. Sanders I'm afraid was anonymous, I think his first intervention of note came in the 43rd minute and I can't recall many others. It's very telling that a team 23rd in the table was able to cut through our midfield with ease throughout the game, just like Charlton last week.

2.) I thought our best period in the game was early in the second half when we were able to pen them in a bit in their defensive third, but that all changed with their injury and substitutions, I thought Matt Dennis for them brightened them up a bit. I was expecting us to impose ourselves in the second 45, that didn't really materialise sadly.

2.) DIamond was my MOM, he was by far our best attacking player and caused MKD problems with his runs and dribbling. He was certainly more involved with things this week than against Charlton. The inverse of that is Mandriou, who was quieter today. Diamond also linked up quite well with Boyes, who I was also quite impressed with. His well timed challenges and positioning was good to see.

3.) I thought Jacko was a reassuring presence in the centre of defence. Particularly in the first half he dealt with any threat well and directly.

4.) This may seem like an obvious point but it was particularly clear today that the team have been 'well coached' inasmuch as they've been given instructions regarding shape, organisation and tactics and are carrying them out. As others have said though, I'm just not especially convinced these instructions are the right way to go. We're not offering enough in an attacking sense and in the midfield. Hopefully one or two CM signings and the return of House will help with that.
 
Imp2stone said:
Unfortunately the decent results have ended in draws. Then you get performances like todays which we draw or lose. Where are the wins coming from I don’t know?
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I think the worrying thing is that is now three awful performances in a row - Charlton, Accrington, and today.

To me that is the first time this season. Yes there have been bad performances before, but then followed within a game or two by a decent one - which is why I have remained optimistic for so long.

The past three games though I have seen absolutely nothing that suggests we can even win another game!
 
Rasenimp said:
The midfield definitely isn't right, but I know based off the scoring record it *feels* like we need a revamped attack. I'm still convinced there are goals in some of those players but they seem so stifled by the way we've been playing and it has definitely made me wonder how much it's their fault. To put it another way, I'm definitely a bit put out by the whole, Kennedy is a progressive inventive coach which was the initial line, based on the actual football.

I thought the squad was short of a 6 and an 8 but even then I think they're going to have to be electric, incredible players to jolt what's happening into life atm.
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It's a fair point. I look at House, Diamond, Mandroiu as a front three and I see goals in it as well but I think if you've got a midfield who can't control a game a bit, or get the ball to your attackers in better areas then it doesn't really matter who's up there. Must be disheartening going into a game knowing you're going to be feeding off scraps or having to conjure something up yourself.

On MK, I don't think the players are being stifled as such, I actually think he's getting the best out of the group we have. If he opens the game up, as some probably want and I understand that, the midfield will be like a sieve and I think we're more likely to get results setting up as we are for the time being and praying for a moment from Diamond/Mandroiu.
 
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