At home, I would agree with you @Laundryman. However, it will be a snot and sawdust type battle tomorrow. The Mansfield ground is quite high up and gets very windswept and cold. Cook and Maynard are threats but with ‘spoilers’ in midfield, we can disrupt their flow. I also think Bates and Holden can run and I forgot Osadebe in my original squad, who could be a good option.
The weather forecast tomorrow is horrible and as a former midfielder himself, Clarke will know that it will have to be percentage football tomorrow rather than creative flair.
My argument for including the two new boys up front is so that our main strikers get a rest and can come off the bench in the last 30 if needed.
Under Dickie Dosh, Hector Sam rarely played 90 mins but he and Butler did a lot of work and we had some decent squad players chipping in with goals (ironically, a goal scoring midfielder like Keates would be a Godsend for this particular squad).
I think we need to avoid defeat tomorrow and try and tighten up (avoiding penalties and red cards).
Every week, someone predicts Scarr to score. personally I don’t think he could hit a barn door with a banjo; however, I would love to see Scarr score from a Bates corner, spinning Cook to lose his marker and slam one in with his head at point blank range.
I also remember Benning’s over the top celebrations for Mansfield last season so hopefully, that’s the team talk sorted.
I honestly expect at least one red card tomorrow… (hopefully Cook!)
If you look at the respective squads then Mansfield hold the advantage. They have some good players at this level and with the Manager gone I can only see a defeat for us…0-2.
Your point about Scarr is spot on. He’s absolutely awful in the air in the opposition penalty box. There’s been a number of times when he’s managed to get his head on the ball, but his timing is terrible.
You can get away with it to a certain extent when defending as you’ve just got to get your head on it and clear. It’s a different ball game when going for goal. I think he goes up just because he’s a big lad, rather than believing he’s actually going to score. If the coaching team can work on him timing his runs and the technique of his heading then he’d be a really handful, but it’s more than just sling it in and hope for the best
He ain’t any better in our box, way too slow in movement and thought, I suppose that’s why he’s playing for us at this level, but even this level is above his very limited ability, when you add Clarke alongside him you have a recipe for disaster.
It’s no coincidence that his best performances came last season when he was paired with Sadler, who in my opinion is our best centre half, before the league got cancelled anyway
Adebayo to be isolated up top 2 holding defensive minded midfielders without 1% of attacking prowess between them fat bastard Cook to score a couple and the weather the carry on p1ssing down all day in the middle of a global pandemic then an post match interview full of “not good enoughs” sad but we all know it’s true have a wonderful day UTS
Is it only me who is struggling to find any enthusiasm or excitement for todays game i feel the passion draining out of me for every match we play behind closed doors, just isn’t the same. 1-1 draw
I would take a bit of a gamble and replace Lavery with Anan George up top with Eli.
Reluctant to leave Holden out, maybe Osadebe in the holding role off the front two.
Guthrie has been playing well, he is slow I grant you, but he can spray the ball around with a decent amount of accuracy.
We really do need a midfield general - a Martin O’Connor type player to dominate the middle of the park, it seems a long time since we had one.
Agreed …I was talking to my daughter earlier who is a season ticket holder and we both feel that as the games go by we are losing any excitement we ever had. More importantly it seems to us the players are too and not just at Walsall. How soul destroying it must be to play in front of rows of empty seats week after week.
