Maynard-Brewer Hector - Ness - Thomas Egbo - Payne - Dobson - X Fraser May - X
My preference as it stands.
That's 8 players from last season...
hence as it stands. I would happily welcome better players throughout the squad.
Which of those would you say wont be replaced by better?
I think we're done with bringing in Centre-Backs for example - Genuinely don't see us signing better than Dobson or Fraser, so those five are safe.
Egbo and Payne from that starting eleven are the big two at risk of having to be squad players.
I think Dobson and Fraser are clearly two of our better players. I also have questions about the two of them playing in the same 3. They seem to deliver less than the sum of their parts.
Now maybe that's unfair and the right "3rd man" would make a world of difference. At the moment it's more of a nagging doubt than a serious concern. Getting that 3 right, which we haven't done properly for 3 seasons now, is a big part of what needs doing.
Maynard-Brewer Hector - Ness - Thomas Egbo - Payne - Dobson - X Fraser May - X
My preference as it stands.
That's 8 players from last season...
hence as it stands. I would happily welcome better players throughout the squad.
Which of those would you say wont be replaced by better?
I think we're done with bringing in Centre-Backs for example - Genuinely don't see us signing better than Dobson or Fraser, so those five are safe.
Egbo and Payne from that starting eleven are the big two at risk of having to be squad players.
I think Dobson and Fraser are clearly two of out better players. I also have questions about the two of them playing in the same 3. They seem to deliver less than the sum of their parts.
Now maybe that's unfair and the right "3rd man" would make a world of difference. At the moment it's more of a nagging doubt than a serious concern. Getting that 3 right, which we haven't done properly for 3 seasons now, is a big part of what needs doing.
Last season it was generally Morgan who was "targeted" by fans as the weak link of the 3, which I always thought was slightly unfair, as all 3 have their strengths and flaws.
Maynard-Brewer Hector - Ness - Thomas Egbo - Payne - Dobson - X Fraser May - X
My preference as it stands.
That's 8 players from last season...
hence as it stands. I would happily welcome better players throughout the squad.
Which of those would you say wont be replaced by better?
I think we're done with bringing in Centre-Backs for example - Genuinely don't see us signing better than Dobson or Fraser, so those five are safe.
Egbo and Payne from that starting eleven are the big two at risk of having to be squad players.
I think Dobson and Fraser are clearly two of out better players. I also have questions about the two of them playing in the same 3. They seem to deliver less than the sum of their parts.
Now maybe that's unfair and the right "3rd man" would make a world of difference. At the moment it's more of a nagging doubt than a serious concern. Getting that 3 right, which we haven't done properly for 3 seasons now, is a big part of what needs doing.
I agree with both bits - that they are individually good but also that as a pairing they seem a bit underwhelming.
I think the issue is that Dobson is good in the deep role but not great at carrying the ball forwards and Fraser is good in the playmaker role off the forwards but not great at tracking back.
So the deep bit is good, the attacking bit is good but going from one to the other (either way) is not good. We need someone who can do that transitional role, either getting the ball off Dobson and driving forwards or tracking back to win second balls that the forward players lose.
On paper someone like a fit and functional McGrandles SHOULD tick that box but we need other options too I think.
No but we have not seem him in action yet either. Hopefully he'll be fit to start by season opening day but we don't know, or how good he'll be if he is.
We need to avoid doing a McGrandles and assuming that a semi-fit/recuperating version is representative of the fully fit version.
The conditions were pretty unbearable to play in which impacted the tempo/pace of the game for sure. Payne was the stand out for me, but the likes of Hector, Bakrin, Anderson, Chin and of course May all did really well too.
Funny moment was behind the pitch, Kirk mopped up the sweat on his face, torso and back with a towel size between a flannel and hand towel. It was soaking and he just slapped it over a barrier near the players’ changing room. Manny came in about 2 mins later, saw what he thought was a wet towel and proceeded to squeeze it all over his head and face to cool down. He closed his eyes tilted head up and squeezed. Absolute filth, but amusing! 🤣🤣🤣
By the way, don’t forget Lloyd Jones, convinced back three will be Ness, Hector and Jones. Thomas, Elewere and Mitchell will be the back ups IMHO.
Also think we may swap out DJ, Kirk and McGrandles + add other newbies. A long way to go on recruitment, but coaches seem upbeat on how things are shaping in the background.
Will be interesting to see what happens with Mcgrandles, I do think a quality box to box CM is somewhere I could see us possibly spending a fee on. More than happy to see how Mcgrandles does as the PSFs ramp up and see if he can fulfill that role. Thought Payne looked tidy too but I wouldn't want to play him and Fraser in the same midfield , think you'd get overun.
I’m not sure what wages McGrandles is on, he was one of our more ‘high profile’ signings last summer (he wasn’t from league 2) so might be on too much to keep around as backup. But I think he could be ideal for backup as he’d cover Dobson’s position and the box-box role
We are still at the stage were it is predominantly about fitness. That is probably why both sides were happy playing each other given the opening league game. What I would comment on was this was a far better game for us than the first two with neither Orient or us trying to kick lumps out of each other whilst still keeping it sufficiently competitive.
Just listened to this and I am really impressed by this fella; I think that we could have an absolute diamond here.
His intelligent and empathetic approach, combined with an emphasis on evidence-based medical techniques and practices must mark him out as a very forward thinking and thoughtful individual.
Comments
I think we're done with bringing in Centre-Backs for example - Genuinely don't see us signing better than Dobson or Fraser, so those five are safe.
Egbo and Payne from that starting eleven are the big two at risk of having to be squad players.
Unfortunately he never managed to look good again.
It's all about gradual build up of fitness.
Strict instructions not to bust a gut, do anything stupid or get injured.
Now maybe that's unfair and the right "3rd man" would make a world of difference. At the moment it's more of a nagging doubt than a serious concern. Getting that 3 right, which we haven't done properly for 3 seasons now, is a big part of what needs doing.
I think the issue is that Dobson is good in the deep role but not great at carrying the ball forwards and Fraser is good in the playmaker role off the forwards but not great at tracking back.
So the deep bit is good, the attacking bit is good but going from one to the other (either way) is not good. We need someone who can do that transitional role, either getting the ball off Dobson and driving forwards or tracking back to win second balls that the forward players lose.
On paper someone like a fit and functional McGrandles SHOULD tick that box but we need other options too I think.
We need to avoid doing a McGrandles and assuming that a semi-fit/recuperating version is representative of the fully fit version.
Of course saw it as more of a fitness game, but felt they didnt show up at all for the first quarter
Funny moment was behind the pitch, Kirk mopped up the sweat on his face, torso and back with a towel size between a flannel and hand towel. It was soaking and he just slapped it over a barrier near the players’ changing room. Manny came in about 2 mins later, saw what he thought was a wet towel and proceeded to squeeze it all over his head and face to cool down. He closed his eyes tilted head up and squeezed. Absolute filth, but amusing! 🤣🤣🤣
By the way, don’t forget Lloyd Jones, convinced back three will be Ness, Hector and Jones. Thomas, Elewere and Mitchell will be the back ups IMHO.
Also think we may swap out DJ, Kirk and McGrandles + add other newbies. A long way to go on recruitment, but coaches seem upbeat on how things are shaping in the background.
Who was the unused traillist? Interesting role for a triallist, that!
Great turnout from our lot and excellent organisation from the club.
Roll on Monday…
His intelligent and empathetic approach, combined with an emphasis on evidence-based medical techniques and practices must mark him out as a very forward thinking and thoughtful individual.
We might have lucked out here.