One thing I find interesting is that Grant has a clear plan at times for the wide forward (Smith on the left or simper/Clarke on the right) to come inside to allow space for the full back (Hancock on left or Browne/Ahui on right) to overlap and support the attacks.
I would have thought this should have happened more under Sadler’s 3-5-2 system where the wing back had greater freedom because of the extra defender, but although Barrett sometimes overlapped, it didn’t seem to happen that often.
I don’t know whether this is because Grant seems better at co-ordinating attacks, or some other tactical reason.
Anyway. I think Grant deserves praise for organising a coherent attacking side and still early days.
Pressley 3 goals in 4 starts and some people still can’t give him a break. Seems sections of our fan base has to have a boo boy. He was excellent yesterday and that was as good a header as you will see for his goal. He was literally fouled, elbowed, you name it, all game and got no protection from the clown of a ref, took the blows for the team and worked his socks off. Get behind the bloke FFS
Made hard work of it in the end, but an encouraging performance. The style is undoubtedly better on the eye and helped us see it out.
I certainly think we’d have lost the midfield battle last season, but the combination of using the ball more effectively and being more combative is a good sign, we’re winning more second ball and retaining possesion. There’s potential in this team to play killer passes but it’s not quite clicking yet, but if it does we’ll be a problem for lots of teams in the division.
A word for Pressley, I didn’t think he did a lot wrong and seems to have found a higher level of fitness. Neat enough coming deep and laying off, wins his fair share of headers and takes the brunt of the physical stuff. We were lucky with the Gillingham injuries, but in the Grimsby centre pairing and Rowson he’s come up against some of the better centre halves in the division thus far.
What he’s not going to do is turn his man and run at goal, and we need someone who can do that as an alternative or have someone playing closer off him. Feel AP has all the attributes to be appreciated as an effective first line of defence, which makes him a bit of a Sadler throwback, but we lack a central threat and not sure we have convincing enough available options in the 10 role at present.
I thought browne did well tbh, slightly surprised he was subbed at ht.
Thought ahui did ok, but rewatching the highlights, got dragged into cb area for their second goal didnt pick up mols running off. Lucky deflection to get it, but wasnt in the place he needed to be.
From watching the first few games this season and now reading the posts on here from yesterday, Pressley is beginning to win over his critics (of which I’ve admittedly been one..)
Well done Aaron (and Grant and his team for setting us up to exploit his strengths - crosses from the wings..)
Obviously very early days etc but let’s hope he can continue to produce the goals we will need to finally get out of L2…
The way we are playing makes us vulnerable at the back. The full-backs seem to me to be getting forward as much as the wing backs used to (didn’t the average position for Ahui show up in the opposition half in a recent match?) but, with 4 at the back, that puts pressure on the two centre backs and, again subjectively, I don’t think the midfielders are filling the holes. The system gives us extra men in the attacking areas and maybe that is the better way to play - there are certainly going to be goals in our matches.
I did not think we defended terribly well at the end yesterday, Yes, there were some admirable blocks but, when we are defending flat out, there should not be the number of chances they had with men in the clear.
Spot on with that comment. We clearly have an attacking plan and the first goal was a good example of what we are trying to do. As LAUNDRYMAN says this can leave us vulnerable at the back especially to long ball teams like Accrington.It wasn’t so noticeable against Grimsby and Orient simply because they play the game differently. I think this aspect of our plan may need some adjustment when we come up against teams like yesterday’s opponents.
Good win but my only concern was we were hanging on at the end to a team that are favourites for relegation.. obviously we have alot of new players and these are still gelling so lets see where this season takes us
Several posters have mentioned how the quality has improved because the players are not running around constantly chasing the ball.
So, we are more of a passing team now, evidence would suggest.
Are you (or anyone else) able to provide any data about our running stats now, by way of comparison?
Like everything, one stat doesn’t prove anything without wider context, but it was certainly something that Sadler used to pride himself on, as a coach.
One thing thats very evident is we win more than our share of 2nd balls, our midfield work hard to ensure this happens, I know it’s an old saying but it’s very true “whoever wins the midfield battle wins the game”. These lads we have especially Sprangler and Moore look like winners, they chuck their body into every challenge and give as good as they get, this then lifts the crowd as well as their team mates.
@AldridgeSaddler I think you’ve got that spot on , he wasn’t perfect but he was good yesterday, definitely needs to improve his hold up play but that can be done especially with someone like Keogh on the coaching team. His effort can’t be faulted.
If there was a transfer rumor that we were in for a striker who has scored 3 in 4 this season I reckon most on here would be happy.
It’s a funny old game! I’ve always liked Rico but today being close to the action in the side stand close to the dugout I was extremely surprised with him he was completely spent after 30 minutes (blowing out of his arse) when he got done by there player running back towards our goal he looked like he was running in treacle, not sure if he was carrying a injury but Grant was giving him absolute pelters only surprised that he didn’t take him off before half time.
I liked Pressley’ contribution yesterday…if u watch the 1st goal….he points to CC to pass to space for RB and then legs it to near post taking a defender with him… not all about scoring but also creating opportunities for others.
I thought the wingers were a bit narrower yesterday than previous games to allow the full backs to overlap more. Would be interested to see position graphics to see if that was the case.
Some of the combination play with Clarke was superb down the right hand side, but Browne was suspect defensively on a few occasions and he seemed to be blowing after 30 mins.
Fair enough, I did notice after one sprint back where their player got away he was blowing. So maybe a fitness issue?
The point I was making was a few of the best bits of football we played involved him. For the first goal he made the run and got the cross in, he also played a lovely weighted ball through for Clarke to create another good chance. I understand he is a defender firstly, but Ahui was poor defensively too. He was being targeted second half without a doubt.
