A few things to be negative about but not a disaster.

[alcoblade]

In the JTW , we were warned we had to see some leave before we could recruit , so week 1 was going to be more of fond farewells than fan fares for the incoming , lets not panic over a defeat , that was hard to take considering we were worth a point at least.

No fond farewells from me. Take the lot, none are worth worrying about. But that's the problem, who wants our shower of shite?

I think if Paynter proves to be anything above average for our position, it will be a big enough step up to see us just avoid relegation. Then we can clearout in the summer. I can't wait to see the back of as many as possible.

UTB

 

[welshblade90]

Why is there the same pattern two weeks running? Taking the lead and throwing it away. This feels like the United after relegation from the PL, 1-0 up and sit-back. Come to think of it, sounds like United for the last decade!

 

[ryza]

I think we were simply very unlucky at Notts County. But obviously there were bad mistakes by Hill and others from what i've heard.

I really hope we aren't going to be in this relegation battle come the end of the season. Because if in the off chance of us getting relegated, will the prince want to invest that sort of money into a league 2 side?..

lol look at us, from being optimistic to negative in the space of a week.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

I think we were simply very unlucky at Notts County.

Aye, they didn't read the script and tuned up unlike Villa

 

[highpeakblade]

I'm not backing down on my original post what so ever. I've watched the highlights and will watch the game back in full on the OS tomorrow but my opinions will remain exactly the same.

Obviously at the minute a few people will be feeling a bit twitchy bum'ish but the last "x" amount of games have shown enough improvement to put us in the top 10 in the form table. Comparing us now to pre-clough, and then the first few under clough and then now I have noticed a huge improvement and I stand by this, at no point do I believe we are world beaters but we are improving game by game and it is coming together bit by bit.

Before this game we have been highly unlucky not to take points from a good few of the games when we most definitely deserved them, this is down to the lack of strike power more than anything as well as a lack of clinicalness from certain players but never the less we have looked solid, in control of games and most important we are creating plenty of chances at last. Notts County as much as you point out are bottom two are actually one of the most in form teams in this league, this doesn't deflect away from the fact that we should be beating them but this was just one of those games, they happen and you brush yourself else and move on to the next one.

As I said yesterday for me you have to measure the achievement by how high above the relegation places we finish come may. Our squad needs a good few improvements to move us on to the next level but it is good enough to dig deep and see us safe this year.

 

[Dnblade]

I still believe NC will turn us around,but for me we set up to negative at Notts County,although we started well first 10 minutes.
Campbell-Rice was a threat on their right and gave Hill nightmares...Maybe Flynn was played on the left to help Hill out a bit,but it nullified him as an attacking threat,and can only remember him doing one good run in the first half...cutting in,but it stalled when he passed it to Porter who couldn't lay it off quick enough.
The main criticism for me was we had no threat in the wide areas..Flynn bogged down in helping nullify JCR,the Full Backs were mostly ineffective in the final third.Murphy came on and had a good run down the left,but for some reason didn't want to use his left foot,and I don't know if it was meant to be a cross or shot..but he just drifted it over the bar with 3 Yellow shirts in the box...The one thing it showed though,was he should have been on a lot earlier as he provided much needed width and pace to get behind their back line.
I thought Paynter did OK when he came on,without setting the world alight..but looked better than Porter who hardly..errr I mean never won a ball in the air all day.
Other observations..Grealish an 18 year old kid on loan with Green Boots,looked head and shoulders above anybody in our Midfield...Great first touch,ran past our midfield and at our back line all day,and passed the ball well.I thought the lad Smith looked good at the back for them..Porter looked like he'd given up second half..never won anything,but we still persisted in playing the ball into him in the air.
We still had enough chances to win,but poor finishing and not making the most of situations cost us..Mcginn's miss was a virtual open goal.

 

[Bladesman]

Fewer excuses in this league as their are less mid week matches unlike there are in the Championship.

I hope Clough is able to offload the players he needs to.

He has got rid of a few already.

 

[BladeFisher]

I'm not backing down on my original post what so ever. I've watched the highlights and will watch the game back in full on the OS tomorrow but my opinions will remain exactly the same.

Obviously at the minute a few people will be feeling a bit twitchy bum'ish but the last "x" amount of games have shown enough improvement to put us in the top 10 in the form table. Comparing us now to pre-clough, and then the first few under clough and then now I have noticed a huge improvement and I stand by this, at no point do I believe we are world beaters but we are improving game by game and it is coming together bit by bit.

Before this game we have been highly unlucky not to take points from a good few of the games when we most definitely deserved them, this is down to the lack of strike power more than anything as well as a lack of clinicalness from certain players but never the less we have looked solid, in control of games and most important we are creating plenty of chances at last. Notts County as much as you point out are bottom two are actually one of the most in form teams in this league, this doesn't deflect away from the fact that we should be beating them but this was just one of those games, they happen and you brush yourself else and move on to the next one.

As I said yesterday for me you have to measure the achievement by how high above the relegation places we finish come may. Our squad needs a good few improvements to move us on to the next level but it is good enough to dig deep and see us safe this year.

At 1.33 pts/game W4 D4 L4 that is not top ten form. And even if it was we are starting from such a low base. We are staring relegation in the face man.. If we dont start scoring goals (they kind of increase your chances of winning dude) and stopping this awful shitty away record its hello L2, one stop away from the Premier, the Skrill Premier.

You would expect us to pull away but the team is slipping back. If we drop points at home do you really think we can pick them up away uh?

 

[Bulletnut]

I'm not backing down on my original post what so ever. I've watched the highlights and will watch the game back in full on the OS tomorrow but my opinions will remain exactly the same.

You can watch the highlights all you like, we still won't get any points from a game that we needed to win. Nothing to do with pretty performances now, it's all about winning and the only thing that'll have me sleeping easier is when we start beating teams that on paper are worse than us.

 

[grafikhaus]

Yep, that's the sad reality. Our forward line is, quite simply, fucking useless. We need Paynter to get goals, because we're in trouble if someone doesn't start delivering.

UTB

Agreed, but the malaise surely goes deeper than that. Fitness? Desire?

Fond as I am of charts I knocked one up based on ten-minute periods throughout the game (ten to twenty etc.) and the goals scored in those periods. The second half is interesting - starting promisingly and declining to fuck all as the game enters the 'vital phase'.

​

 

[Bergen Blade]

I'm not backing down on my original post what so ever. I've watched the highlights and will watch the game back in full on the OS tomorrow but my opinions will remain exactly the same.

Impressed that you're prepared to watch games again. I used to do a bit of scouting and found it very much worthwhile to watch games twice, in fact it often surprised me how much more you could learn the second time. When assessing matches and players the second time don't you agree that it's important to be mentally prepared to learn and find new things though? I.e. not just seek to confirm your first impression?

 

[Bergen Blade]

I still believe NC will turn us around,but for me we set up to negative at Notts County,although we started well first 10 minutes.
Campbell-Rice was a threat on their right and gave Hill nightmares...Maybe Flynn was played on the left to help Hill out a bit,but it nullified him as an attacking threat,and can only remember him doing one good run in the first half...cutting in,but it stalled when he passed it to Porter who couldn't lay it off quick enough.
The main criticism for me was we had no threat in the wide areas..Flynn bogged down in helping nullify JCR,the Full Backs were mostly ineffective in the final third.Murphy came on and had a good run down the left,but for some reason didn't want to use his left foot,and I don't know if it was meant to be a cross or shot..but he just drifted it over the bar with 3 Yellow shirts in the box...The one thing it showed though,was he should have been on a lot earlier as he provided much needed width and pace to get behind their back line.
I thought Paynter did OK when he came on,without setting the world alight..but looked better than Porter who hardly..errr I mean never won a ball in the air all day.
Other observations..Grealish an 18 year old kid on loan with Green Boots,looked head and shoulders above anybody in our Midfield...Great first touch,ran past our midfield and at our back line all day,and passed the ball well.I thought the lad Smith looked good at the back for them..Porter looked like he'd given up second half..never won anything,but we still persisted in playing the ball into him in the air.
We still had enough chances to win,but poor finishing and not making the most of situations cost us..Mcginn's miss was a virtual open goal.

Good post, cheers. I noticed another poster also said Porter won nothing in the air, but he could actually be seen flicking it on three or four times in the 19 minutes highlights on Notts County's player. Agree that Grealish looked very good from those same highlights. They looked more mobile than us.

 

[cooperblade]

When assessing matches and players the second time don't you agree that it's important to be mentally prepared to learn and find new things though? I.e. not just seek to confirm your first impression?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

This explains why many people who have decided Porter or Doyle are poor players notice everything bad they do but fail to see the good things.

Very important to be aware of this in gambling as well. It's all too easy to have an opinion and make the stats fit that opinion rather than look for reasons why you might be wrong.

 

[Racy]

Yep, that's the sad reality. Our forward line is, quite simply, fucking useless. We need Paynter to get goals, because we're in trouble if someone doesn't start delivering.

UTB

What forward line we aint got one and we havent had one since Ched/Cresswell.

What really fucks me off is that teams like Rotherham, MK Dons, Swindon etc bring in strickers who produce

Its been over two years now since we,ve had a goalscorer, we need another quick.

 

[sheffielder]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

This explains why many people who have decided Porter or Doyle are poor players notice everything bad they do but fail to see the good things.

Very important to be aware of this in gambling as well. It's all too easy to have an opinion and make the stats fit that opinion rather than look for reasons why you might be wrong.

Or this tells us why some people like Doyle and Porter even when the stats say they shouldn't.

 

[JohnDenver]

Impressed that you're prepared to watch games again.

Anyone who watches our games again needs psychiatric help.

 

[Dnblade]

Good post, cheers. I noticed another poster also said Porter won nothing in the air, but he could actually be seen flicking it on three or four times in the 19 minutes highlights on Notts County's player. Agree that Grealish looked very good from those same highlights. They looked more mobile than us.

Great Blog that Bergs,I agree with the lack of width and pace was evident on Saturday.Grealish was prepared and able to run past people,as was JCR...We had nobody in the starting line up capable of doing that.County's Full Backs got forward where as ours didn't...surely we should have exploited the space behind them.
When Murphy came on it was a bit late,but he got past the Full Back and had acres of space...ok he fluffed his lines and put the ball over the bar,but if he had more time maybe we could have got an end product.
Against Villa,we got Flynn and Murphy in wide areas and McMahon and Hill pushed up in support...Saturday seemed like we set up to combat the pace of JCR,and it didn't work.
Even before NC came,we've had a lack of mobility and pace...every time we come up against someone like Grealish..our midfield get's over ran...they win possession off us and run into a big hole between our midfield and defense.

 

[Eskimo]

Even before NC came,we've had a lack of mobility and pace...every time we come up against someone like Grealish..our midfield get's over ran...they win possession off us and run into a big hole between our midfield and defence.

That would be my observation too. County were not a good side but were certainly a team in the Sean Derry mode. They beat us because they were tougher/stronger in midfield and ran at us with no fear. In fact they were a bit reckless at times.

We could not get our game going because of their tenacity in midfield and the pitch was awful stopping us playing a more fluent passing game.

But overall I'm suprised we did not come out of it with a draw They were poor at the back and we were prolifigate with the few chances we had.

No excuses though. But the worry signs for me are that we are more likely to meet teams with County's approach than Villa's in the next few months. My view is that we needed another strong tackling/ grafting midfielder to supplement the bit of skill we have in Mc Ginn/ Baxter/ Coady etc. Souness would do, Trevor Hockey...............

 

[breeny]

If things like confirmation bias is your thing, read this book. Pretty pretty good;

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Art_of_Thinking_Clearly.html?id=Zx2IMWJmJ_sC&redir_esc=y