Faal starting in the middle of Ramadan is bizarre.
I don’t really get why Gordon and DJ can’t be a thing. We know by now that Josh enjoys doing the dirty work of moving back 4s around so surely it makes sense to have him doing that and that should create more space for DJ to get on the end of passes and crosses?
He will probably leave in the summer but 7th is there for the taking so the best finisher at the club should really be playing.
Matt wasn’t fit to start and Sadler would’ve been even more crucified starting DJT in a 5-0 defeat so guessing that’s why Faal was in. Let’s see who’s upfront on Monday.
No I’m saying that all season we’ve missed key players and that has made it very difficult to be at the best we can be for any length of time.
Jesus you’ve been more vocal than most about the recruitment and how lacking in depth we are….
The fact is we have had just about every player possible missing at some point or other all season. That’s made progress and consistency difficult….if not impossible.
Playing like MK did today takes time and it takes in depth ongoing attention to a club philosophy….much like the one that we have tried to identify and put in place……8 months ago!!
At the moment it’s in its infancy. It shows signs of promise and it sometimes falls way short. The injuries have made progress much slower than we’d like but there is progress.
It’ll take more than one summer window and it’ll take plenty of tweaking with players joining and leaving and the staff working towards it.
Anyone thinking that happens, and happens consistently, overnight, is foolish. Football does t work like that.
Amazing how long it can take to win some fans over and have them accepting that some progress is being made and then how quickly those same fans can’t wait to revert to type and write off all the progress made.
Personally I’ll wait for the response on Monday. I was very critical of Sadler up to January but the form on the whole has been good last few months.
He’s not the first manager to want to bring an experienced player back quickly from injury, Smith used to do it aswell although wouldn’t be starting Daniels on Monday as he was miles off.
And I would be starting DJ. It will lift the bumper crowd from the off which is needed as inevitable the atmosphere will be flat at the start given a decent number will have been today.
Franchise lost 5-0 6 days ago and they redeem themselves so I want to see the response v Salford.
Winning the four home games will get this club very close to 7th so don’t need to be amazing away if that happens.
Really given what Franchise did today the side who finishes 4th should walk the play offs as those four teams are a cut above the rest but you never know if a Stockport drops down late.
Try to get in and see what happens as it will be some excitement for the first time in nearly a decade at the right end of the league table.
I’ve got a sneaking suspicion we will finish right we are now roughly. 12th. Which is par for me.
It’s interesting to see that the teams below us have caught up on us last game or two. The swing can go either way - given we have to go to Doncaster, and play Tranmere too.
Great little brewery at Blackened Sun.
Not been up there this year but hoping to soon when the weather improves.
Can get a bit draughty with the shutter open on their unit.
Salford just lost at home to the bottom team today and they’re safe now so keep Matt Smith quiet (not a given based on today’s effort by the backline) and that should be a win.
Notts County lost again today. Actually them losing from 1-0 up at half time in December was a real sliding doors moment as they’ve been terrible since Luke Williams left and have no chance of play offs now.
Swindon nothing to play for although the dreaded Tuesday night at the Bescot which rarely results in a good result.
Wimbledon play off challenge fizzling out so they might have nothing to play for on the final day.
Today was a bad day but won’t be playing a side of that quality in the run in so up to Sadler to make a few changes to the 11 and put things right on Monday and beyond that.
I have no idea why you can’t accept that sometimes no one’s to blame! Sometimes players don’t play as well as the manager thought they would or could. This incessant need to be able to blame someone for a result in a game that has so many variables is f*cking laughable if it wasn’t so annoying.
I’m happy to have seen signs that the football I’ve watched has been better at times than I’ve seen for a long time. I see signs that it’s improving and so are results. So I’m happy to believe that given a level playing field and some time that there is no reason not to believe that even if it doesn’t resemble MKs patient passing entirely, that it will resemble a team that is technically and tactically sound and can dominate games of football.
We’ve seen it this season….Harrogate at home we did exactly this but there was uproar because we lost to last minute GK error!!
Possession for the sake of possession no I agree it isn’t……It is Notts County’s style and look how that’s worked out. However I do believe he wants us to play in a way that gives us more control of the outcomes. You can do that with and without the ball. At the moment we have some players who simply aren’t capable of playing to that level week in and week out but they’ve had far more game time than you, I or Sadler would’ve hoped or expected….that’s held us back a little even though some people think winning with these players in the side made them better than those we were missing. Over a 5/6/7 game spell those same players are being found out as they return to their “level”.
Yes I do and we’ve had so many conversations about it I cannot understand how you’ve managed to ignore the evidence of almost everything I’ve said showing some sign of being accurate.
I was as consistent with my thoughts when you repeatedly bleated on about being 16th in league two as I was offering some caution when all of a sudden people started talking of promotion or playoffs!!!
Why you can’t see that it’s so far away from blindly defending a manager is incredible and to be honest given your own level of intelligence and in turn frustration with others, when discussing things you consider your area of expertise it’s quite frustrating to have to keep justifying myself.
I think the issue is that when it was going well…. You gave Sadler the plaudits (and rightly so); but whenever it’s not going so well…. There is zero criticism of Sadler.
I think that’s why I’m a little confused. You can’t have it both ways
Personally, I don’t see any intent to play in a way that is active possession based football - like an MK Dons. We actually have the lowest average possession in league two. The lowest!
Now I know possession doesn’t equal success - but I think having strong active possession does. Equally, I think there’s a big difference conceding 60/40 possession, compared to 75/25 like today. Wouldn’t you agree?
I haven’t seen a single piece of evidence to suggest that Sadler will implement an attacking brand of active possession based football.
Personally, I think this brand of football by Sadler, whilst effective in some games, is not going to be top 7 material over the course of a season. I just don’t see it personally.
I feel so sorry for daniels tonight. The guy has been class for us on the whole since he signed, was excellent under Flynn. Has a stinker today (probably not match fit) and our fans have the audacity to slate him, I’m pretty appalled at the comments to be honest. Seeing people say told you so as if they’ve been proven right by one bad game.
MK had 70%+ last week at Stockport and lost 5-0, had 70%+ in the first half today and scored with their one and only real attempt at goal.
Same with Doncaster a few weeks ago, they had something like 68% possession, but the stats showed that around 62% of that was in their own penalty box.
If we started playing like that, the fans would start groaning and shout “get it forward”, exactly like they did under Smith when we tried playing that way.
Me personally, couldn’t care less if we have 25% possession but win a game of football, which we’ve done a fair few times this season.
