Fan's View - Bolton Away

“We’re no way set up for Championship football but it would be nice to at least give a hint that we could get close to a play-off position if just to banish any creeping boredom.”

Pretty much spot on for me, Paul. I already said as much the other night - whatever our potential is on the pitch let’s just have a proper bloody crack at reaching it!

That said, I still don’t think having a go at top six is totally out of the question, it just needs KR to start playing the way that suits the players and not trying to make everything suit his ideals. He changed things in this manner last season with 10-12 games left and we shot up the table. We’ve still got 35-odd left this term!

Good pubs in Lincoln - Saturday bodes well!
 
With the way we set up I'm not sure how Taylor will score. He isn't going to head the crosses in - he needs a big man to knock them down. The central attacking midfielders don't seem to be looking to slide the ball through to him. For him to be successful KR will need a rethink on tactics...
 
With the way we set up I'm not sure how Taylor will score. He isn't going to head the crosses in - he needs a big man to knock them down. The central attacking midfielders don't seem to be looking to slide the ball through to him. For him to be successful KR will need a rethink on tactics...
Woodburn has undoubtedly been a disappointment; he certainly doesn’t influence a game as he should playing in that position. Give him a break and bring in Henry in the number 10 position where he is most effective. If Cadden is our main source of chances then play him where Henry is and start Long at full back. Feed Taylor with balls ON THE GROUND not lobbed hopefully into the penalty area. if Fosu has given up after 60 minutes bring on Agyei to play out wide. Stick someone - anyone - in front of the back four to play deep and protect them. Sorted.
 
This is our joint best run of the season isn’t it? Although I would say starting the season with an away point at Sunderland followed by a home win to Peterborough is more impressive than the 4 points from the last two games. Shame what followed those opening games has been disappointing.
 
This is our joint best run of the season isn’t it? Although I would say starting the season with an away point at Sunderland followed by a home win to Peterborough is more impressive than the 4 points from the last two games. Shame what followed those opening games has been disappointing.
I could not agree more.
 
I could not agree more.

I guess you’d need to take the opposition in to consideration in terms of these runs, wouldn’t you? e.g. the latter two I’d say were easier opponents, but the performances were poor.

We seem to be going backwards rather than forwards.
 
"Apparently Malcolm Shotton, Rad Ox summariser for the night, spotted that our full-backs were not in the right position. I can definitely see that in the case of Chris Cadden but I’m not so sure about Josh Ruffels. Cadden was AWOL a fair bit from the traditional RB post and it has been said by some of our fans that defensively he is weak. I noticed that more here than previously and from an attacking perspective, which is his strength, delivery was mostly not great."
Thanks to a broken down plane, EasyJet only managed to get us back to Gatwick around 21:45 effectively missing the game. To read so many comments on the forum and then get your take on the game @Paul B, is confirmation that we probably had the better option! Got the result, didn't have to watch or listen!
If so many are now remarking on the errors/failings that are part and parcel of the team, it must be time for KR to review and take a good look at what he has assembled and directs.
I have never liked this lone striker role and when we clearly have no striker capable of fulfilling that role, why do we play it?
Anyway, on to Lincoln and the potential next employer of our erstwhile leader, Mr Appleton. That should be interesting!
 
"Apparently Malcolm Shotton, Rad Ox summariser for the night, spotted that our full-backs were not in the right position. I can definitely see that in the case of Chris Cadden but I’m not so sure about Josh Ruffels. Cadden was AWOL a fair bit from the traditional RB post and it has been said by some of our fans that defensively he is weak. I noticed that more here than previously and from an attacking perspective, which is his strength, delivery was mostly not great."
Thanks to a broken down plane, EasyJet only managed to get us back to Gatwick around 21:45 effectively missing the game. To read so many comments on the forum and then get your take on the game @Paul B, is confirmation that we probably had the better option! Got the result, didn't have to watch or listen!
If so many are now remarking on the errors/failings that are part and parcel of the team, it must be time for KR to review and take a good look at what he has assembled and directs.
I have never liked this lone striker role and when we clearly have no striker capable of fulfilling that role, why do we play it?
Anyway, on to Lincoln and the potential next employer of our erstwhile leader, Mr Appleton. That should be interesting!

Shotton was mainly saying that the fullbacks are not getting protection in front of them, not about the fullbacks going AWOL from what I remember of the coverage.

Agree about KR addressing these issues and going two up top.
 
Shotton was mainly saying that the fullbacks are not getting protection in front of them, not about the fullbacks going AWOL from what I remember of the coverage.

Agree about KR addressing these issues and going two up top.
This is what I find a worry. Watching teams playing in the higher echelons it is apparent that the better teams are well drilled in their duties. Defensive cover should be an automatic action when not in possession, or am I missing something?
If we aspire to Championship level then it seems to me that we have a long, long way to go.
 
This is what I find a worry. Watching teams playing in the higher echelons it is apparent that the better teams are well drilled in their duties. Defensive cover should be an automatic action when not in possession, or am I missing something?
If we aspire to Championship level then it seems to me that we have a long, long way to go.
We have a massive way to go. I only got the Malcolm Shotton comments second hand but think Cadden does go awol. He doesn't look like a naturally defensive full back. I don't think he ever has been. Totally agree about defensive cover being automatic action whenever we are not in possession.
 
I think it’s very easy to think two up top = more goals, but I think it would be a mistake. To my mind, two up top requires at least one more traditional ‘target man’ with the other man running off him. We simply don’t have the personnel to do that. Furthermore, we would be losing a body in midfield, and, crucially, one who (ideally - not seen too much of it this year) can knit the midfield and attack. Our midfield has the capacity to go missing, so to further weaken it would be a mistake imo.

With regards the midfield, I do think it’s an issue of personnel. CB is obviously our standout midfielder, but he doesn’t really work as half of a deep lying two. He’s not THAT good defensively, and is effective going forward. He needs more freedom to get forward, like a more classic number 8, which is why the one holding midfielder worked so well last year imo. It gave him license to bomb on while giving us defensive solidity. Given that we need one covering CM to then get the most out of him, and given how our wide players don’t offer a lot of defensive cover, I think that covering CM needs to be defensively minded first and foremost. I really like Gorrin but I’m just not sure if he’s the kind of deep lying CM we need atm. There are obviously different ways to interpret the role - it can be a ‘quarterback’ like position, like a Pirlo or a Jorginho (or a Thorne?), or it can be a disruptor, like a Kante or a Gilberto. Gorrin, for all his reasonably good defensive work, is more the former, and so we get found out. Mousinho and then Kashi were more of the latter last year, with the added benefit of Kashi that he could also spray balls around. I think if we get that strong midfield base, we’ll get more goals simply by virtue of having CB and maybe Gorrin or Sykes more liberated to join the attack.

Of course the issue with THAT is that it kind of makes Woodburn redundant, as more of a classic #10, and I’m not sure Liverpool would be ok with us just dropping the man they’ve sent here to develop.
 
I think it’s very easy to think two up top = more goals, but I think it would be a mistake. To my mind, two up top requires at least one more traditional ‘target man’ with the other man running off him. We simply don’t have the personnel to do that. Furthermore, we would be losing a body in midfield, and, crucially, one who (ideally - not seen too much of it this year) can knit the midfield and attack. Our midfield has the capacity to go missing, so to further weaken it would be a mistake imo.

With regards the midfield, I do think it’s an issue of personnel. CB is obviously our standout midfielder, but he doesn’t really work as half of a deep lying two. He’s not THAT good defensively, and is effective going forward. He needs more freedom to get forward, like a more classic number 8, which is why the one holding midfielder worked so well last year imo. It gave him license to bomb on while giving us defensive solidity. Given that we need one covering CM to then get the most out of him, and given how our wide players don’t offer a lot of defensive cover, I think that covering CM needs to be defensively minded first and foremost. I really like Gorrin but I’m just not sure if he’s the kind of deep lying CM we need atm. There are obviously different ways to interpret the role - it can be a ‘quarterback’ like position, like a Pirlo or a Jorginho (or a Thorne?), or it can be a disruptor, like a Kante or a Gilberto. Gorrin, for all his reasonably good defensive work, is more the former, and so we get found out. Mousinho and then Kashi were more of the latter last year, with the added benefit of Kashi that he could also spray balls around. I think if we get that strong midfield base, we’ll get more goals simply by virtue of having CB and maybe Gorrin or Sykes more liberated to join the attack.

Of course the issue with THAT is that it kind of makes Woodburn redundant, as more of a classic #10, and I’m not sure Liverpool would be ok with us just dropping the man they’ve sent here to develop.

If the only reason woodburn gets in the team is because of being on loan from Liverpool then he shouldn’t get in the team. If Liverpool take him back then it’s no great loss, I am at a loss to see what he actually does at the moment.
 
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