Do you really think we can do it more consistently though?
I think its very difficult to get players to work as hard as Walsall did on Saturday every game. It is easy to say ‘do that every game’ but It is very hard to keep motivation levels that high. That is my concern with this philosophy if we are going to pursue it. Plus there is presumably an increased risk of injuries?
Andy you are absolutely right that it may be very difficult to put that level of effort into every game and yes it does increase the risk of injury.
For me we need to be far more consistent which seems to have been the problem most of the season so far.
There have been games where it’s clicked, Bradford Gillingham and on Saturday and that’s great but there have been far too many Sutton performances and if we can finally produce more of the former and less of the latter we can start climbing the table.
On Saturdays showing I don’t accept what their fans thought which was they were poor because as far as I’m concerned we nullified them all over the pitch and it was bloody fantastic seeing us playing like we did. I want MS to succeed but one good performance doesn’t erase all the rubbish we’ve witnessed so we have to build from the weekend and go again tomorrow.
I don’t know in answer to your question. I think we can do it more often . We certainly have players with sufficient physicality to impose ourselves on other teams. I agree that the team needs to be really fit to play in that way and despite some comments I have seen on here I think our levels of fitness are good.
We may need to use our substitutes better which now nearly every outfield player is fit should be easier.
Agreed. And we do not have to be that good every game, in fact.
We do still have DJ, Tierney, Riley and possibly DJT, Maher and Menayese unfit, with Earing short of match fitness. We are far from full strength at the moment.
And of course Evans too.
I agree, it really remains to be seen whether we can do it consistently.
Notts County are a bit of an anomaly in this league - they absolutely never go long and always continue to play short passing football. Absolutely packing it out against them, having players who will run through walls and enough quality to hurt them when we break quickly is kryptonite to that approach.
Most teams won’t allow us to just steamroll them, they’ll mix it up, go longer and look to get in behind the press, or the defensive line. We held a really high line and most teams would exploit that. We also can’t hope to steal goals on the break twice per game every week as most teams don’t commit as many forward as Notts County do.
I really hope this is the turning point, but it’s far from confirmed at the moment.
It was one nil to County at half-time, and they clearly deserved to be leading based on the balance of the play.
We were poor in the first half, with only one shot on goal (from the half way line), no corners, and the generally poor use of the ball during the 31% of the time when we had possession of it.
That takes nothing away from our second half performance, which was a great credit to the players, and to Sadler. I have stuck by Sadler and hope that he can bring about a similar change to our fortunes for the rest of the season.
This is a point well made. The players were playing with fear on Saturday. They knew if it was another Alfreton esque performance then we would have been been crushed at county. You also are right that they can’t play with that fear and energy level every game.
Brian Clough oncevsaid someting like l don’t have to motivate my team when we lose as they care enough to put it right next game but the time to get at the players is after a win so they aren’t complacent.
The Midfield Maestro McEntee… Made the EFL league 2 team of the week for his majestic performance in the heart of the MIDFIELD.
Do we still have DJ though? Is he really injured or is Sadler using that as an excuse not to play him and move on in January?
Either way it has been a complete fiasco in my view. Feed a goal scorer and guess what… they score goals.
Well said that man, this has been a fiasco, as ams99 says above “feed a goal scorer and guess what…they score goals”
Loved our win, but didn’t we put in a similar performance at Bradford? We need consistency. We have to brush part timers Alfreton aside, and win against Tranmere (which would be quite a feat as they have been on a mazy run of late themselves).
Is it just me or does 22 yo MacEntee look more like a 40 yo?
It’s the debate about whether or not he can play in midfield, it’s wearing him down.
Not just me then, but he does have a rather ‘lived in’ face dow he?
If that’s a lived in face gawwdd knows what mine is then? I think mine has suffered many evictions dating back several decades…
You don’t need to. We used those tactics against Notts county but there’s teams that don’t play possession football,so different tactics needed. We certainly won’t need to play that sort of game tonight against Alfreton, if we can’t outplay Alfreton we may as well give up,or sack Sadler 
Luke Williams manager of Notts County who got them promoted from the National League has left them to become head coach at Swansea City.
https://twitter.com/Official_NCFC/status/1743275181903130994
Will be interesting to see how this effects County now.
