Its true that we shouldn’t place to much importance on preseason friendly results, but you do hope to see some signs of the way the team is shaping up and indications of who might be in the starting lineup for the first league game. The concern is that after watching todays game, we didn’t seem to have any identity as how we will play as a team, it all looked a bit chaotic. Not to mention after 3 friendlies, not one of our strikers has scored. Has anyone noticed any standout performers?

If you can effectively address the morale challenge that comes from a significant defeat, while also mitigating the lack of offensive threat, and subsequently uplift the squad, it would be a remarkable achievement. The frustration goes away, but it is important for the players to understand the difference in our level and theirs.

A lot of teams these days do want to put themselves into these positions where the team has to work hard against a much higher level of opposition.

My comparison would be to the days when under Ray Trew we mostly played non-league clubs and we were the teams doing the whipping. It can give you a false sense of security, then when you play against good teams or ones on a similar footing, you have a wake-up call.

I found FC Kaiserslautern to be quite a good team, but they won't be winning awards for being gracious hosts. In fact, I thought they were very much poor winners with few of their players making any effort to shake our players hands. It was visible that our lads would walk to them and the exchange would happen, but their players seemed more fussed about congratulating themselves. One right near the end, one of their players decided to walk from their established group, who were celebrating, to walk near the semicircle in order to shake hands. Our players had to initiate it, and it's not about losing; it's about being good sports.

As a team, they were good. Very organised, quick to press and win the ball. Fitness will be used here, but it's more about paying attention. A lot of our team was guilty of just ball-watching, but again this could most likely be due to being overwhelmed by just how good they are and how little we had to combat them.

I'm not sure why we made a big thing about Jodi Jones arriving, only to not play him at all. Part of me understands he's lacking confidence, but I think he could have used it as an exercise in defending. With some productive steps for us to get out of our own half, he has played for Malta since returning, so I find it a bit puzzling. The camera caught a glimpse of Jodi, who hadn't changed into training clothes. Not a big deal, but I don't think he needed hyping, because it just leads to the calls that will come that he's not fit or ready. Then it will loop back to how uninvolved he has been in the pre-season.

Barry Cotter being sent off, I can understand, but I agree with DangerousSausage. European referees are less mindful, so I do think the official made the right call, but at the same time, I think he could have been forgiving and issued a yellow card.

Cotter was quick to acknowledge the mistake; I think he genuinely attempted to go for the ball, and considering it's a friendly, I would have thought a yellow was deserving.

So, yes, in a normal game I think red would be justified. I do think the official could have given him the benefit of the doubt and allowed Martin Paterson to take him off. It wasn't a challenge out of spite, which Kaiserslautern did some of their own. They left studs in many times and raised elbows to clatter our players, which loops back to them being very poor hosts.

The melee that their players created should have seen at least two yellow cards and several warnings. Why some of their players decided to go after any Notts player, again, just convinced me that they were poor hosts. Chasing after Cotter, who at all times had his hands up, just seemed very unwarranted. Very poor officiating; the officials didn't do a good job dispersing it, and it's not for our players to do this - which they did despite being aggressively confronted.

I don't think we can criticise our players; it seems very unfair to say they didn't want to play or that they made no effort. The only thing I would agree with is pointing out the ball watching, but even if we had reduced that. It would still be a no-contest game.

The result doesn't matter, and I am not that bothered about the performance. I can understand that it was difficult for us defensively. There could be points made about doing better. Yet you have to understand the class in terms of quality between us and them. I think Paterson should perhaps have changed the formation to make us better suited to defending; it might have allowed us to attack a bit more confidently, but he might just want to see how we coped under pressure.

I wish the club would release the video of Martin Paterson’s post-match comments, rather than just writing their version of events.

There are some daft comments backing Paterson for being honest. I get it, but let’s be realistic - we were never going to be that competitive against a second division German side.

Cardiff will be a tough game, so losing here and having no momentum isn’t the worst thing.

We made a few chances. What’s with all the sudden criticism of Matt Palmer?

on a more light hearted note....

I agree with @McPie. I was expecting us to spend most of these two games chasing shadows and the scorelines don't surprise me. However, I had been hoping to see some indication of what the new coach wants to do and some reasons to look forward to the new season. Nothing so far. If we'd played Middlesbrough and Coventry, I'd have wanted to see us have some good moments too instead of being totally reactive.

Maybe it's so too soon though. MP wants to give all the players minutes and see what they can and can't do, so it's logical that we look disjointed. Perhaps the Stuttgart game will give us an inkling of what's in store.

As for being gracious hosts, I'm looking forward to hearing from those who went. But I noticed that Lautern went out of their way to separate the fans, giving Notts fans a separate entrance and car park and even adding separation between the home and away fans for this match (although according to what I've read this was removed during the game). That's in contrast to Darmstadt, who actively encouraged everyone to mix and put us in what's normally a home block. I got the impression they'd have preferred it to have been behind closed doors.

Fun fact: the Kaiserslautern manager Torsten Lieberknecht has managed all of the three German clubs we've played so far. The Lautern website has published an interview with him, but he doesn't really talk at length about Notts apart from us being a typical physical English team and having fast wide men.

I wonder what the technical board will have to say about Cotter and the complete lack of shape?

I understand he's continuing with what remained and that philosophy, but I'd really like a new formation and idea's. As soon as the sending off happened, probs before that tbh, we'd completely given up and probs felt it as an fitness exercise.

Lastly, I'd like to hear that if he's giving a run out to everyone to grade them of sorts, if anyone's surpassed a D+ yet?

@DangerousSausage Some encouragement in speaking with some Lautern fans post match. They were really grateful that #Notts came, recalling they played Norwich 2 seasons ago. Furthermore they would take an active interest in Notts going forward. The fans and the police were really friendly and its a shame we couldnt be allowed to mix more.

"From the 42nd minute onwards, the English team had to play with a man down due to Barry Cotter being sent off for a rough foul on Mahir Emreli from behind. A mob formation of the Kaiserslauten players, trying to defend their teammate, was only prevented with difficulty. But the English immediately apologized and the game continued."

Edited Sunday at 08:313 days by piedestrian

42 minutes ago, piedestrian said:

A mob formation of the Kaiserslauten players, trying to defend their teammate

Trying to smack Cotter in the face more like! That's the fastest I've seen him run yet!

Friendlies are not really friendlies nowadays.

I hope Martin Paterson isn’t just saying things to please the impatient or unrealistic fans, it might backfire and give them something to hold against him. I’m sure he wants us to compete, and of course winning is great, no one plays to lose. But you’ve got to stay grounded. I believe Notts gave it a proper go, but the quality at this level is a bit too strong right now.

Still, I’m confident that once our fitness picks up and we’re facing teams closer to our level, we’ll be alright. All this talk on the club’s socials about not having good players is really frustrating, it doesn’t reflect reality at all.

I didn’t get to watch the match on YouTube as I’d planned for reasons I won’t go into but I’m probably glad I didn’t now.

Of course the real test will begin at the start of the season when we take on teams at our level so I certainly do think there’s any need to worry at the moment.