I hate making scapegoats but watching the live stream yesterday I do think Aidan Stone could have done better with some if not all the goals yesterday. He did save a penalty though which is a feat in itself but I think Notts could do better in this department, having said that the defence obviously must share some of the blame.

Whats everyone’s thoughts on Stone.

Too many mistakes by Stone, Brooks for #1

Stone has had plenty of games and I hate to say it, but his performances haven't impressed me. We need a change. Brooks should be given a chance.

For a stats based recruiting system, how did Stone slip through?

We played against some good keepers in the NL and I always recall Warnock plucking Paddy Kenny from Bradford Park Avenue

Our defence is lacking confidence and I think that stems partly from the performance of Stone who's lacking confidence too, but it has to be said that I don't think Stone is comfortable with the way Luke wants him to play. Stone's not a good distributor, or is he comfortable on crosses either.

I think we do need a new goalie to come in asap.

 

Unfortunately, Stone isn't good enough in my opinion. He doesn't seem to have the confidence to play out from the back and his decision making is shocking at times. 

 

Slocombe is the better keeper of the 2, in the system we play.

 

Happy to see what Tiernan brings to the fold, else we need to dip into the transfer kitty.

 

 

The trouble we have is that the whole defensive unit is lacking confidence and the way we play highlights mistakes.  I don't think it is fair to single out any player as they are so interdependent.  A back 3 / 4 with no confidence in the keeper will take risks when they don't need to, a keeper without confidence in the backline won't be confident in their positioning and try to compensate.  Also, because we avoid putting the ball in row z at almost all costs the defence as a unit take chances other defences don't take on. Finally, our defensive unit is much more exposed than others because they are involved in so much more than defending and that extra time on the ball also brings pressure (which we see when teams press effectively).  None of this helps confidence, because I don't think our defenders are used to playing like this, and I wonder if they feel they are good enough to play like this.  I bet we would see very different performances all round if we did just stick it in the stands more, but I can't see that happening. 

The downside is that we depend on possession and passing it back to the opposition means our attacking play is disrupted.  I think there is a happy medium somewhere, but we haven't found it and I am not sure we are looking for it at the moment.  My other suspicion is our defence will look better the higher up the leagues we go.  I hope we find out.  

Well put @Ohh Tommy Johnson agree with what you say.

All I would say is. If a system of play clearly isn't working it needs to be modified. What worked in the national league is clearly not working for us defensively in league two. We've scored several times by employing the direct approach. That & being more defensively minded may be an option when playing away.

@Robbie__64 I agree that we should think about playing differently away.  In the NL we were so much better and took so many fans (comparatively) that we could make away games feel like home games.  I don't think we can do that in L2, also the teams have better intelligence on us and adapt more quickly, and we don't have that aura of invincibility that we (and Wrexham) had in the NL.  I think we will just see an adaptation of what we do already rather than resorting to a long ball game.

@Ohh Tommy Johnson I agree, I wouldn't like us to change to a direct style even half of the time, because trying to play attractive football is great ethic and it must continue, but we see teams week after week now executing the same tactics to counter our style & unfortunately it is working, so we have to try to counter it. 

I agree with pretty much all of the above. All season I've had the impression that the percentage of the opposition's shots on goal that end up in the net is far too high. I don't think the defence and either keeper truly have confidence in each other, and it shows in some of the decision making on display.

I think it's a given that we'll try to strengthen at the back, but I'm less sure about the goalkeeper position as we've got three senior keepers already. I think Brooks will get his chance soon, but ideally I'd like to see a new face here too.

i dont think aidan stone is the worst keeper we could have at the club but he does sink when he concedes and we rely far too much on him. our defence, including defending from the midfield needs to be better. i think we need to be mindful that at this level keepers will make mistakes, however frustrating it can be.

we play with attacking at the fore front of out tactics at the cost of protecting the keeper.

i believe stone can improve and be a useful option, i like sam slocombe but feel he is weaker with playing the ball out from the back. otherwise he should be the main keeper, with stone as his understudy. i fear some will be throwing tiernan brooks into danger, as if he is not ready or ends up making mistakes it could be a repeat of fabian spiess. i am all for giving brooks a try out or a few games as a run our to see, but i would avoid pinning to much pressure on him.

A good keeper breeds confidence in their defenders, Stone does not do that. He isn’t very vocal, he should be barking orders at his defence and helping them out with positioning and spotting the runners.

He needs to come for crosses and not be glued to his line all the time.

Throw the ball out more, so often we miss counter attacks by our keepers holding onto the ball when a quick throw out is on.

He is too flat footed, which makes him slow to react.

That being said he isn’t being given much cover by defenders who just refuse to get tight to attackers (Brindley being the prime culprit) to deny shooting attempts.

Give Brooks a go, if he isn’t any better then we know to release him.

I think your right about Stone @Fozzy  Brooks should be given a go, I think players on the fringe should be given a start like Junior just to give the opposition something different to think about. Giving Macaulay a free role seemed to work in the 3 games before Tranmere. Just doing something different. Do what the opposition don't want 

On 03/01/2024 at 00:20, Fozzy said:

A good keeper breeds confidence in their defenders, Stone does not do that. He isn’t very vocal, he should be barking orders at his defence and helping them out with positioning and spotting the runners.

david de gea struggled with manchaster united due to how they would make mistakes, especially harry maquire.

i know a solid keeper can give a calm influence to the defence, but its the same for defenders. if defenders and midfielders do their parts to protect the keeper, then you dont need to rely on them so much. our tactics and how high notts plays makes it a problem forever is in goal.

i think stone is perfectly fine, but i do agree that tiernan brooks should be given a run.

i just worry we might be rushing brooks, sooner or later he will need to be tested properly but we have had keepers in the past that we rushed due to issues and it often was that the tactics needed adjusting or a better player in a defensive positon were needed.