Tonight

[Sheffsteel]

Harsh to say Ramsdale was "at fault." I would say half the Prem's keepers stop that, half don't.

Without McGoldrick on the park our football is too direct. We play long balls and they don't stick.
We need our wing backs and our midfielders to be better, to make themselves available, to carry the ball up field, to retain possession in the opposition half.

Baldock is too negative in attack. He doesn't make positive runs, he checks back, he shies away from responsibility. On the occasions where he's forced into doing something you can see why he's not confident. The quality isn't there.

Lundstram - great in transitions and when the field opens up, however - in possession he's careless and his delivery from wide is mostly a waste of time.

When McGoldrick comes onto the park we're a different animal. He tracks the ball, makes himself available for passes, takes it on the turn, progresses us further up the park... this is great, but why are none of our midfielders taking any responsibility for this?

For me, Wilder's wrong if he thinks that bringing in an additional striker (particularly one like Brewster) is the answer.

We need Berge in the middle of the park now. He's our best player and we need him on the ball making those driving runs forward & dictating games.

On the right hand side we need more creativiy. Maybe this means bringing in another midfielder, maybe it means Bogle coming in for Baldock. I'm not sure.

At present, our play is far too one dimensional & too rigid. We need some fluidity. Players moving around, picking up spaces in between lines, mixing it up, not always going wide to work some pre-planned overload (they're becoming more predictable & easy to defend).

If we could afford him, Buendia could be the answer. But I don't think we're in that market. John Swift a cheaper alternative.

Good post that...some interesting food for thought.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Unless we specifically sign that type of player we won't as none play that way. Just as an aside, some of the stick Norwood's getting tonight is ridiculous. His delivery was horrific tonight but he's the only starting midfielder that constantly demands the ball to link up play. His general play was miles in front of Fleck and Lundstram tonight but it appears we need a new boo boy. Berge looked good when he came on.

I'm accused quite often of being "anti-Norwood" & I'm really not. I really enjoy him as a player, he's got a wand of a right peg and his signing completely elevated what we were capable of.

However, I have also said that he's a part of our problem in terms of our attacking impotence. In order for us to make this system work we need more out of our midfielders, we need them to do what McGoldrick does.

As described in the previous posts, they all need to move around the park more, be comfortable at receiving the ball in tight spaces and moving it on, carrying the ball up the field, one-twos, shots from outside the area, little through balls. We need to vary our play.

With Norwood in the side, I feel it limits us somewhat in what we can do. He sits so deep, quarter-back like, that it's almost like having a 6th defender.
He can be susceptible to coughing up possession when pressed quickly (in dangerous areas) & his lack of athleticism can leave us exposed.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Ampadu getting 15 mins here and there replacing Norwood over the next half a dozen games. This might be his biggest opportunity to make an impact here.

 

[Red Wing Blade]

Baldock is too negative in attack. He doesn't make positive runs, he checks back, he shies away from responsibility. On the occasions where he's forced into doing something you can see why he's not confident. The quality isn't there.

Towards the end of last season I went off Baldock and found myself yelling at him a lot, and it was all to with hesitancy in his crossing.

Quite often he'd make a marauding run down the right and the ball would be pinged in front of him, often with a bit of pace. Two players would be outside the box ready to run in to meet it and there'd only be the two centre backs in the box due to the speed of our attacks.All Baldock has to do is cross it first time and the pace of the ball will do half the work.

Instead he stops the ball, passes it backwards to a midfielder or advanced centre back under no pressure. They'd then pass it back, he'd then have to beat the full back who's now had time to get back, then he'd whip in a cross that's lost pace because the ball had stopped moving, and the two players running into the box to meet it would be crowded out by all of the opposing players who have managed to get back while Baldock was farting around.

He did this more and more as the season went on, particularly after lockdown, and it frustrated me watching him kill our move and help the opposition get back to defend.

It's the reason I believe that Bogle has a real chance of taking his shirt and making an impact and could potentially be the signing of the summer for us.

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Towards the end of last season I went off Baldock and found myself yelling at him a lot, and it was all to with hesitancy in his crossing.

Quite often he'd make a marauding run down the right and the ball would be pinged in front of him, often with a bit of pace. Two players would be outside the box ready to run in to meet it and there'd only be the two centre backs in the box due to the speed of our attacks.All Baldock has to do is cross it first time and the pace of the ball will do half the work.

Instead he stops the ball, passes it backwards to a midfielder or advanced centre back under no pressure. They'd then pass it back, he'd then have to beat the full back who's now had time to get back, then he'd whip in a cross that's lost pace because the ball had stopped moving, and the two players running into the box to meet it would be crowded out by all of the opposing players who have managed to get back while Baldock was farting around.

He did this more and more as the season went on, particularly after lockdown, and it frustrated me watching him kill our move and help the opposition get back to defend.

It's the reason I believe that Bogle has a real chance of taking his shirt and making an impact and could potentially be the signing of the summer for us.

The difference on the other side with Enda Stevens is stark.
Enda wasn't great tonight, but when he gets the ball he owns what he does. He'll try to nutmeg his full back, or he'll make a run off the ball towards goal for Norwood, his first touch is towards goal, he tries to make things happen. He should have scored tonight, granted - but when do we ever see Baldock bearing down on goal like that?

Baldock's a cracking defender, his awareness and positioning are first class and he's a great athlete. But we need more from him going forwards. We're into his third, or fourth season now of him playing regular football with us and I haven't seen a significant improvement in this area.

 

[BanderSerge]

Until Berge came on we looked like a championship side. Billy, mcG, Fleck were rubbish, not up to it

Championship side! Bedwetting, knee jerk muppets all over the shanks tonight.

 

[BanderSerge]

Played a lot better in the second half but i disn't see no improvement from last season which should be our aim. Yes I know it's only the first game and yes it was wolves but we can't expect to get same results as last season with the same team. We lacked goals last term, and I think we might lack a bit less this term unless we get a decent striker who can make or get a goal from nothing. I'm sorry to say but 18mil for a keeper who was in a team that gets relegated baffles me especially when we need it more up front. Id rather take a gamble on another loan keeper or keepers we already had.

Closet So by your reckoning Newcastle signing Wilson means they’ll go down as well?

 

[The Vicar]

Lunny does not make a rash challenge & Jack & Egan do not collide & its still 0-0 after 6 minutes in all probability. Yes Wolves were much better & have more quality but cut out the errors & you are still in the game.

 

[Fifaking]

Closet So by your reckoning Newcastle signing Wilson means they’ll go down as well?

I'm not talking about Wilson

Closet So by your reckoning Newcastle signing Wilson means they’ll go down as well?

Closet So by your reckoning Newcastle signing Wilson means they’ll go down as well?

Two different players

Closet So by your reckoning Newcastle signing Wilson means they’ll go down as well?

Why is Wilson a keeper??

 

[Cheesebored]

I'm accused quite often of being "anti-Norwood" & I'm really not. I really enjoy him as a player, he's got a wand of a right peg and his signing completely elevated what we were capable of.

However, I have also said that he's a part of our problem in terms of our attacking impotence. In order for us to make this system work we need more out of our midfielders, we need them to do what McGoldrick does.

As described in the previous posts, they all need to move around the park more, be comfortable at receiving the ball in tight spaces and moving it on, carrying the ball up the field, one-twos, shots from outside the area, little through balls. We need to vary our play.

With Norwood in the side, I feel it limits us somewhat in what we can do. He sits so deep, quarter-back like, that it's almost like having a 6th defender.
He can be susceptible to coughing up possession when pressed quickly (in dangerous areas) & his lack of athleticism can leave us exposed.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Ampadu getting 15 mins here and there replacing Norwood over the next half a dozen games. This might be his biggest opportunity to make an impact here.

Sorry, it wasn't a dig at you, you make some valid points, just some comments in general.

 

[loyalblade95]

For me. JOC as good as we all know he is. Played like he had no preseason in that first half he stepped away from Jimenez for first goal and left saiss for second goal

 

[BLADES1988]

If Norwood hadn't bought his new boots from Wish, we'd have probably at least scored one and caused them some serious problems with our set pieces. But he was miles off his usual game. Losing the ball high up the pitch caused us to get countered one too many times. The sidewys back passing Lunny played his part in our demise aswell.

Rest were average, Rusty and a bit sloppy. But the team in the second half were much more like it.

 

[Sharrow Snuff Mill]

Why was Ramsdale at fault for the 2nd Saiss got a free header from 8 yards out after JOC shoved Enda

Like you I wouldn`t be too harsh on Ramsdale for that, but once he saw that the ball was not coming into the goal area, a step or two back towards his line would have given him the chance to save it.

 

[diplomat]

To me the mistakes were Lundstram diving in and JOC pushing Stevens

JOC was alone in the middle and wasn’t sure whether to stick with Raul or move towards the other runner in front of him. Where was his support in the middle?

The first goal was a really good goal. I don’t think anyone is saving it. I don’t really like calling Lunny our for diving in, we’d have been screaming for him to do so, the kid just played him really well. They broke fast, got bodies up there, made runs that confused the defence. Good goal.

The second main mistake was JOC taking out Stevens. I think maybe Rambo could have done better but there’s a melee in front of him, he takes a wrong step anticipating something else and can’t push off to recover.

I missed the first half hour but thought second half we created some decent chances and we’re unfortunate or lacked a smidge of quality to make it count. But we got in the positions, against a good team. From what I saw we hit the post, had two cleared off the line and sharp tapping that pass to Lunny is a goal. They had one very good chance.

I’m not going throw any toys out of the pram. I was surprised the front two lasted as long as they did but one nearly scored and one should have got an assist. The keeper has some leeway as he is a work in progress. After the fact, regardless of opinion we’d have lost one nil if he’d saved the second. Hendo had errors in him but the comparisons should stop really as it’s a comparison with a player we never could have signed.

 

[Bladesthorpe]

For me. JOC as good as we all know he is. Played like he had no preseason in that first half he stepped away from Jimenez for first goal and left saiss for second goal

Don't think Southgate will be coming back for a second look.