Lack of energy and aggression

[pib]

Bailey has been comfortably our best player so far this season. He needs better performances or different players around him though for us to get the balance right. He’s never going to be someone who plays a 40 yard diagonal on to someone’s toe end or threads a striker through on goal. Teams need this type of player sometimes though, especially when they’re set up in quite an open, attacking way.

[drfchound]

Bailey has been comfortably our best player so far this season. He needs better performances or different players around him though for us to get the balance right. He’s never going to be someone who plays a 40 yard diagonal on to someone’s toe end or threads a striker through on goal. Teams need this type of player sometimes though, especially when they’re set up in quite an open, attacking way.

A bit like Bostock then.
I still don’t get why some people were booing him yesterday by the way.

[scunny rover]

The near perfect midfielder everyone wants signed for real madrid ,bellingham.
So we will need to look elsewhere

[Surrey Rover]

We need to sign a couple of midfield players to provide some backbone to the side
If we don't .......

Totally agree.
We have to somehow make room to get a couple of quality midfield players in before the deadline. I wonder if Hartlepool would be interested in taking Molyneux back, he did well for them last time they were promoted from the National league, he’s certainly not cutting it in league two, he’s had long enough now.

If Long and Griffiths could also be shipped out it would give the club some room to manoeuvre.

[scunny rover]

Quality midfielders ? Go on then who ?
And we are down the bottom of lge2 and not much money.

[steve@dcfd]

Everything stems from the midfield from taking pressure off the defence and assisting the attack. Bailey and Broadbent are learning the league. I’m not sure if Tommy as got the legs anymore to get up and down consistently. Westbrooke never thought we should have resigned him. Molyneux flatters to deceive he hasn’t got the pace to beat a man and players get back at him easily.
As for Grant he’s got this week together does he look at a formation change we will see, will Close be ready for next game. Is he good enough to ignite the midfield. I have my opinion but I’ll
see if he can change it.
We need at least one more midfield player not sure we will get it.

[Surrey Rover]

Quality midfielders ? Go on then who ?
And we are down the bottom of lge2 and not much money.

I’m stating what IMO the club needs to avoid a season of struggle at the lower end of the fourth tier. It’s a binary choice the club are faced with.

[DonnyOsmond]

Bailey looks decent. He does his job. The other two midfield spots are up for grabs though. I think Biggins is the best of the others, he’s not a ball player though. As for the filler of the third spot… who knows.

Think the combination lacks a ball progressor, the only player we have who can do that at an OK level is Close.

Rowe currently looks gone and it looks like whoever spotted Broadbent is stealing a wage.

[roversdude]

And then I have my Poolie mate raving about Charlie Seaman, 2 goals and 3 assists I think with a couple of MOM too

[dickos1]

 Broadbent hasn’t been at this level before so needs time to get used to it.
He’ll end up being good and in the side.
I think our best 3 would be Bailey with biggins and Broadbent ahead of him. But he needs time to play himself into this level I think

[DonnyOsmond]

Broadbent hasn’t been at this level before so needs time to get used to it.
He’ll end up being good and in the side.
I think our best 3 would be Bailey with biggins and Broadbent ahead of him. But he needs time to play himself into this level I think

Who is your ball player between them? Statistically all 3 are below average in that respect.

[drfcsteve]

Quality midfielders ? Go on then who ?
And we are down the bottom of lge2 and not much money.

I’m stating what IMO the club needs to avoid a season of struggle at the lower end of the fourth tier. It’s a binary choice the club are faced with.

Everyone on here knows the midfield is shit so I presume Grant does too. The problem is we are the bottom of league 2, we are not an attractive proposition to players, and in bringing in 12 new players surely we’ve used up most of the extra budget Grant was given.

[pib]

Bailey has been comfortably our best player so far this season. He needs better performances or different players around him though for us to get the balance right. He’s never going to be someone who plays a 40 yard diagonal on to someone’s toe end or threads a striker through on goal. Teams need this type of player sometimes though, especially when they’re set up in quite an open, attacking way.

A bit like Bostock then.
I still don’t get why some people were booing him yesterday by the way.

Yeah I agree. He’d be a good player to have around at the moment. The challenge with him was always playing enough games and being able to complete 90 mins. He seems to be doing that more with Notts than he ever did with us.

[scunny rover]

Grant has got big problems i thought imo the back four was a given ,sterry injured still ok ,wood out of form ,alouw(check spelling )have a bad time  ,midfield  bailey ok ,injuries to our best passer close ,and now biggins,rowe n westbroke not for me so far and not going any further up field into upset lol.
So he's got a big job on and its very early into a long season.things can change quickly (hopefully).
RTID

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I can understand the comment about energy but not sure if aggression is the right term to describe what we're lacking. Organisation, Intent, purpose, control are all things we lack when every player is just reacting on the hoof. There appears to be no understanding or knowing what our players are going to do with the ball.

There's very little anticipation, purposeful runs on and off the ball, making it easier for the ball carrier. When short passes go astray, you know you're in trouble.

To add to that, Broadbent and Rowe can't keep up, Westbrooke disappeared.

Olowu is having a mare going back towards goal and can't pick up a marker. When play is in front of him he's fine but as soon as he's turned, he loses all sense of spacial awareness. Wood seems to have decided to leave Olowu to it, and keeps away from him. The gapping between them yesterday was huge at times. How can young full backs align themselves with those two when they're all at sea. I so hope we can get Anderson back on the pitch plus I would give Faulkner a run out with him. Olowu needs to regroup. Wood needs to decide whether he's here for an easy ride or not.

In front of them Bailey is doing OK but is being badly exposed. He's far from the finished article, he knows that but he has good potential and we can't allow his confidence to be crushed. He needs help from someone who's willing and able to give it. I'm not sure we have anyone in the building who can give a consistent 7/10 centre midfield performance, with and without the ball, week in, week out to compliment Bailey.

It's probably a blessing McCann has a full week to get back to the drawing board but also think long and hard about what he's going to do with players who so far, have not been up to it, before even thinking about bringing anyone else in. A half season loan might be the best he can do to get us out of a pickle while being so uncertain we can get Hurst, Close, Biggins etc back on the pitch before the window closes.

[pib]

The biggest issue with Broadbent looks to me to be his fitness.

The bits of information you pick up about him from Boreham Wood suggest that he’s got ability, and I’ve no reason to write off his quality at this stage.

But on Tuesday he looked like he was towing a caravan after 60 mins, and yesterday even though he was only on as a second half sub, he looked like he was struggling to get about.

Unless he’s playing through an injury I’d suggest he might not be fit enough.

[dickos1]

Broadbent hasn’t been at this level before so needs time to get used to it.
He’ll end up being good and in the side.
I think our best 3 would be Bailey with biggins and Broadbent ahead of him. But he needs time to play himself into this level I think

Who is your ball player between them? Statistically all 3 are below average in that respect.

Agreed, but I don’t think mcCann particularly wants to play a possession game. He wants to get the ball forward to the front 3 as quick as possible.
I’m interested to see how close plays as he is the best footballing midfielder we have by a distance

[Lesonthewest]

Quality midfielders ? Go on then who ?
And we are down the bottom of lge2 and not much money.

I’m stating what IMO the club needs to avoid a season of struggle at the lower end of the fourth tier. It’s a binary choice the club are faced with.

Totally agree.

[steve@dcfd]

Broadbent hasn’t been at this level before so needs time to get used to it.
He’ll end up being good and in the side.
I think our best 3 would be Bailey with biggins and Broadbent ahead of him. But he needs time to play himself into this level I think

Who is your ball player between them? Statistically all 3 are below average in that respect.

We can only see how good Close is when he’s not injured he’s been here over two seasons and he’s only y been available half the time. When he’s fit we can judge him but for me at the moment he’s an expensive liability. The wages we are paying him and  Westbrooke we could have better.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

The biggest issue with Broadbent looks to me to be his fitness.

The bits of information you pick up about him from Boreham Wood suggest that he’s got ability, and I’ve no reason to write off his quality at this stage.

But on Tuesday he looked like he was towing a caravan after 60 mins, and yesterday even though he was only on as a second half sub, he looked like he was struggling to get about.

Unless he’s playing through an injury I’d suggest he might not be fit enough.

I hope it's a fitness thing but having watched extended highlights of a couple of Boreham Wood games when he signed, I said he seems more like a plodder who can get up and down but he hasn't got a change of pace.

I think he should forget his self proclaimed box to box tag, and just concentrate on basics and working with Bailey. Of course, that will depend on McCanns instructions and formation. Again, it's about basics, moving, receiving passing accurately, defending strongly.

[roversdude]

Has anyone information on how much we are running because to my naive eyes we don’t seem to be putting the yards in

[drfchound]

The biggest issue with Broadbent looks to me to be his fitness.

The bits of information you pick up about him from Boreham Wood suggest that he’s got ability, and I’ve no reason to write off his quality at this stage.

But on Tuesday he looked like he was towing a caravan after 60 mins, and yesterday even though he was only on as a second half sub, he looked like he was struggling to get about.

Unless he’s playing through an injury I’d suggest he might not be fit enough.

Pib, I tow a caravan but the engine on my car is more than up to it.
Maybe the club just need to get Broadbents engine up to the rigours of L2 and he will be up to the job.

[Chris Black come back]

Think we paid money for Broadbent. Very rare for us.

[RoversInSpain]

We now have the players we’ve got, it’s down to the management team to do their work with them. With additional signings in year 1,2 and 3 adding strength.
Then we will hear opposing managers saying they’re a good side and have been together a few years. It’s the only way…. Time Time Time…you can’t just buy league 2 players and they are world beaters after 10 games. It’s the long game and we are right at the starting line with many others at the 500 metre mark.