Retained List And Squad | Page 17 | Vital Football

Retained List And Squad

It is worthy of mention that in spite of no longer having Raggs or Woody to call upon DC has stated we now have more quality than ever. If he is right that is a strong indicator of progress in a very short time. My only nagging doubt is I would love us to have a high energy central midfielder looking at our CM demographics - more so than RB cover to be honest.
 
I think we were spoilt with Woody and he was no doubt a great driving force and we wouldn't have achieved what we did without him. The big question - one that will be answered in the next few weeks - is, do we miss what he does? ( not 'do we miss him' as he is missed as a person). If the team plays with more flexibility and better offensive moves, I think the answer will be "we've evolved and are better for it".
 
PerthImp said:
I think we were spoilt with Woody and he was no doubt a great driving force and we wouldn't have achieved what we did without him. The big question - one that will be answered in the next few weeks - is, do we miss what he does? ( not 'do we miss him' as he is missed as a person). If the team plays with more flexibility and better offensive moves, I think the answer will be "we've evolved and are better for it".
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Exactly the way I see it.

He suited our method and is very good at what he does. He'll go down in our history as a club legend, but Danny knows we're going no further without evolving our approach.
 
PerthImp said:
I think we were spoilt with Woody and he was no doubt a great driving force and we wouldn't have achieved what we did without him. The big question - one that will be answered in the next few weeks - is, do we miss what he does? ( not 'do we miss him' as he is missed as a person). If the team plays with more flexibility and better offensive moves, I think the answer will be "we've evolved and are better for it".
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Lets flip it though, will me miss more what he could do well even though we've replaced him with players that can do what he couldn't? I think if we possibly intend having 3 in the middle of the park, then is a high intensity chaser required if we are smothering that area of the pitch?
Will be interesting to see how we cope without him, I personally think we'll be just fine.
 
I don't think Frecklington should be classified as AM. He played all but one game last season deeper and with the new signings I can't see him playing anywhere other than DM this season.
 
Woodyard was a one man pressing machine, going wherever the ball was to win it back. I wonder how easy that was for the other midfielders, and even he couldn’t be in more than one place at a time. Individually we might not have anyone that can press in the Woodyard way, but if 2, 3, 4 are sharing the pressing, and working as a unit, we might be even more effective at winning the ball back.
 
So is the conclusion from the above posts that we played predominantly direct football because Alex shortcomings were preventing us from playing a fluent passing game?
 
Sincilbanks said:
So is the conclusion from the above posts that we played predominantly direct football because Alex shortcomings were preventing us from playing a fluent passing game?
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I know, mate. I'm just glad we're rid of him. He's been holding us back for years now.
 
Woodyard appears to be seriously undervalued by some since leaving. One of the best midfielders we’ve had in my time of watching Lincoln, his energy carried us over the line when we won the National league, absolute machine.

Of course we will miss him, and I’d personally like to see a high energy midfielder come in for games where we might get over run by the opposition in the middle of the park. But we also have to adapt and utilise the players we have as best we can.
 
The mind boggles, really.

Complacency about the standard of players creeping in after only two years (well, less, because I think I had a mini-rant back in January r.e. Woodyard being undervalued and taken for granted).

I still remember the days of Todd Jordan, Gary Mills, Tyrone Thompson, Hamza Bencherif etc playing in CM.
 
I think Woodyard was great for us although sometimes he frustrated me with his lack of forward passing.

But he has now chosen to move onto Peterborough so I don't see any point on dwelling on whether we will miss him or not. We have new players and imo the squad is much better (on paper at least) than last season and I am sure it will be great season to look forward too.
 
I find the debate interesting. In addition to Woodyard we also lost Whitehouse who despite his technical deficiencies was the only other central midfielder that brought high levels of energy albeit higher up the pitch. Perhaps DC sees a fully integrated Pett as a better footballing version of Whitehouse. A midfield adding O'Connor to Bostwick and Frecklington certainly has wonderful experience and positional nous but also lacks pace so it will be interesting to see how they cope with a young opposition midfield that has a lot of pace. Will our expected better ball retention and ability to read danger counter that. The exciting bit is how well the midfield will link up with our new attacking options to score more goals.
 
NottyImp said:
I know, mate. I'm just glad we're rid of him. He's been holding us back for years now.
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Sincilbanks said:
So is the conclusion from the above posts that we played predominantly direct football because Alex shortcomings were preventing us from playing a fluent passing game?
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Crazy. The idea that one player was dictating our entire approach is bonkers. Almost as bonkers as the suggestion he couldn't be used in a more creative passing team.
 
Casperimp said:
I think Woodyard was great for us although sometimes he frustrated me with his lack of forward passing.

But he has now chosen to move onto Peterborough so I don't see any point on dwelling on whether we will miss him or not. We have new players and imo the squad is much better (on paper at least) than last season and I am sure it will be great season to look forward too.
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His lack of forward passing wouldn't be a problem in a 'passing' or less direct side,he'd wine the ball, give it to Freck/O'Connor or one of the wingbacks (assuming we are using them).
 
gijsbert_bos said:
His lack of forward passing wouldn't be a problem in a 'passing' or less direct side,he'd wine the ball, give it to Freck/O'Connor or one of the wingbacks (assuming we are using them).
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Therein lies the problem with Woodyard, he only ever wined the ball when all along he should have been wining and dining it. :sorry:
 
Players come and go all the time. More often than ever in today's game.
Woodyard definitely deserves all the plaudits he is getting on here but we need to move on. It is about adapting our style of play to suit the players we now have. Danny is a dab hand at that and I believe in a few games time we will be talking about our current squad members and not Woodyard. The most interesting thing about tomorrow is team selection . Over the last two seasons the starting eleven has pretty much come from the same 13 players when fit. I have not got a clue what the line up will be tomorrow there are so many contenders for a starting place what a fascinating dilemma.
 
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