Ratings v KLT

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

Slocombe - 7 - Good saves.

DKE - 4.5 - Not one of his crosses caused any problems and that's not only this game.
Rawlinson - 3 - Looked knackered.
Lacey - 3 - Tired
Barnett - 2.5 - Turned inside out, positioning all over the place. Shambles of a performance. Got an assist.

Enzio - 4.5 - Doesn't offer a lot. Slows things down too much.
Reeves - 5 - Was OK.
Doyle - 5 - Overrun
Rodrigues - 4.5 - Not great. Nothing he tried came off.

Knowles - 7 - Positive and gives us width. Always takes risks when his teammates rarely do.
Wootton - 8 - Great double header. Held the ball up well.

Effiong - 0 - Absolute donkey. Why does Ardley keep bringing him on in these situations? He offers nothing apart from giving away needless fouls. 

Ardley - 1 - It's absolute gash and has been for weeks. Trying to hang on to a lucky 2-1 win against Kings Lynn from about the 60th minute - absolutely embarrassing. Let's make no bones about it, these performances are not good enough and the tactics are negative. He will come out no doubt and say his players are knackered and they've played a lot of football etc.... bore off. All teams are in the same boat and I doubt many have the squad size we have. Lots of quantity, **** all quality. 

 

[ARLukomski]

Slocombe 7 - Without his saves, KLT would have won it before half time

Kelly-Evans 5 - Got forward to support but his end product was poor

Rawlinson 6 - Headed everything as usual but my heart skipped a beat when he tried pretty much score an own goal

Lacey 4 - I remember a moment in the first half when a long ball was dropping near him, he was right next to it and he just let his man get in front of him to control it. Looks knackered

Barnett 4 - Gets forward but scares me defensively

Enzio 4 - Poor decision making blighted any good moves he made with the ball

Reeves 4 - Nowhere near consistent enough with his forward runs. When he did get forward he contributed to the first goal but so frustrating. 

Doyle 3 - Had a shocker. Gave the ball away far too many times and lacked any sort of energy to have an impact on the game

Rodrigues 5 - Tried to get involved but looks pretty tired

Knowles 7 - Plenty of energy and industry and pressing

Wootton 8 - No idea where we'd be without him.

Subs - N/A

Performances MUST pick up. Weymouth, Stockport, Chesterfield and both KLT games have been poor performances. We lack energy, pace, decision making, an in game mentality to win at all costs and ruthlessness.

[Piethagoram]

Slocombe 7 Commanded area, couldnt do much with either goal conceded 

DKE  5 Was able to get forward more than of late but crosses not up to standard

Rawlinson 5.5 Lost a heart beat for that potential own goal. Battling but never comfortable

Lacey 5.5 One memorable block but needed to be more decisive at times

Barnett 4 Better going forward but caught out defensively

Doyle 4 One hospital pass, now becoming too frequent

Reeves 4.5 Seems to be covering less ground

Enzio 4 Just glimpses but he frustrates me that he just stands around , rather than moving to make space to receive the ball

Rodrigues 5 Much better when he moves centrally  but it requires options for him, that arent there when we are too static

Knowles 6  Better in the wider positions

Wootton 7.5 Chance conversion rate needed today MotM

Subs

Effiong No rating deserved, please return down the A1

 

 

 

[Elite_pie]

Slocombe 6 - A couple of decent saves, no chance with the goals
Kelly-Evans 5.5 - Got forward a few times but not his best defensively
Barnett 4.5 - Never looked at ease, disappointing
Lacey 4.5 - Pulled all over the place, a game to forget
Rawlinson 5 - Some way below his recent high standard
Rodrigues 4 - Struggled to get involved, largely anonymous
Doyle 5 - Passing was poor, nothing creative again
Reeves 4 - Wasted a lot of possession, did nothing of note
Boldewijn 5 - A couple of decent runs but no real threat
Wootton 8.5* - Two good finishes, head and shoulders above the rest
Knowles 5.5 - Tried hard but never got into scoring positions

Subs - the less said the better

Kyle Wootton is the only player who emerges from that mess with any credit. We were playing poorly and scraping wins, now we're playing poorly and dropping points. That was an awful, lifeless performance. We should be so much better than this.  I know many are loathe to get rid of Ardley because we need stability, but one definition of stability is that nothing changes.  Ardleys given us that - he underachieved from the start and he's still underachieving now.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

2 minutes ago, Elite_pie said:

 Ardleys given us that - he underachieved from the start and he's still underachieving now.

I would say he overachieved last season. To get us in the playoff final after the summer we had was above expectations.

However I agree he is not only underachieving this season, but also underperforming. We started out very dodgy, went on a semi-decent run with a good couple of performances and a good couple of flukes. Now we're back to being dodgy again.

[Piethagoram]

Always sensible analysis from @Elite_pie. The good run at the end of last season, was basically Dennis producing a bit of magic turning draws into wins. This season, we rely too heavily on Wootton. Ardley needs a technical coach, one that is strong to say 2 defensive midfielders isn't working, as basically it removes the extra body further up midfield. Plenty of other teams in our league have a more youthful midfield and seem to have the "legs". Unless we have Cal Roberts back, we really dont have a free kick specialist that can go for goal. 

[Elite_pie]

2 hours ago, Super_Danny_Allsopp said:

I would say he overachieved last season. To get us in the playoff final after the summer we had was above expectations.

Fair point, saying that he underachieved last season is too harsh.  On the subject of last season, until we had new owners my hopes were no higher than simply surviving as a club.  Once the Reedtz brothers came in though, the backing they gave Ardley was excellent.  We got ourselves into a great position, but the way we completely bottled it in the playoff final at Wembley still hurts.  I would still class it as 'did as well as could be expected' rather than overachieving.

[Feral Fox]

2 hours ago, Elite_pie said:

Slocombe 6 - A couple of decent saves, no chance with the goals
Kelly-Evans 5.5 - Got forward a few times but not his best defensively
Barnett 4.5 - Never looked at ease, disappointing
Lacey 4.5 - Pulled all over the place, a game to forget
Rawlinson 5 - Some way below his recent high standard
Rodrigues 4 - Struggled to get involved, largely anonymous
Doyle 5 - Passing was poor, nothing creative again
Reeves 4 - Wasted a lot of possession, did nothing of note
Boldewijn 5 - A couple of decent runs but no real threat
Wootton 8.5* - Two good finishes, head and shoulders above the rest
Knowles 5.5 - Tried hard but never got into scoring positions

Subs - the less said the better

Kyle Wootton is the only player who emerges from that mess with any credit. We were playing poorly and scraping wins, now we're playing poorly and dropping points. That was an awful, lifeless performance. We should be so much better than this.  I know many are loathe to get rid of Ardley because we need stability, but one definition of stability is that nothing changes.  Ardleys given us that - he underachieved from the start and he's still underachieving now.

About spot on IMO. We seem to regularly be turning in large portions of the games as poor at the moment. 

Agreed with the comments regards Ardley. If we keep him due to stability, then it needs to be performing as expected with such a large, expensive squad. Not many clubs can pick up injuries and bring in regular replacements whenever they want. 

To justify his position, he needs to produce. He isn't producing at all imo. Even if we had come away with 2-1 last night, we still didn't look 'good' apart from Wootton.

[DangerousSausage]

Interesting posts above. On the subject of the midfield, you can get away with a defensive midfield pairing, we did it in 2010 with Bishop and Ravenhill. However, they were far more mobile than Doyle and Reeves are. At the moment, this midfield is stifling us, yet we don't seem to have any alternative. Lacey, Rawlinson, Doyle, Reeves, Enzio and Wootton will always play, regardless of performances, come what may - and that's more than half of our outfield players. Doyle always plays 90 minutes, even though he's 39 and faces much younger, more energetic opponents. Where are the alternatives? Either they aren't good enough, or the manager won't give them a chance. Neither is good news for us.

I get the general impression that we're at our best when we suffer a setback - then the gloves come off and we look like a different team. Taking the lead is about the worst thing that can happen to us!

As for the manager, I think that's a wider discussion that merits its own thread as I get the feeling that patience is wearing thin.

[Elite_pie]

2 hours ago, Feral Fox said:

About spot on IMO. We seem to regularly be turning in large portions of the games as poor at the moment. 

Agreed with the comments regards Ardley. If we keep him due to stability, then it needs to be performing as expected with such a large, expensive squad. Not many clubs can pick up injuries and bring in regular replacements whenever they want. 

To justify his position, he needs to produce. He isn't producing at all imo. Even if we had come away with 2-1 last night, we still didn't look 'good' apart from Wootton.

I know this may come across as arrogant because we have no divine right to win just because we are a bigger club, but surely it's not asking a lot to beat King's Lynn at home.  They are a club in deep crisis who couldn't even muster five substitutes, and one of the four they did name was a 50 year old retired goalkeeper.  Ardley is moaning because we can't have seven!  If we had dominated the game and the result was down to sheer bad luck I could take it, but if this had been a boxing match that went to a points decision there was only one winner, and it definitely wasn't us.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

17 hours ago, Elite_pie said:

Fair point, saying that he underachieved last season is too harsh.  On the subject of last season, until we had new owners my hopes were no higher than simply surviving as a club.  Once the Reedtz brothers came in though, the backing they gave Ardley was excellent.  We got ourselves into a great position, but the way we completely bottled it in the playoff final at Wembley still hurts.  I would still class it as 'did as well as could be expected' rather than overachieving.

When I ventured to Eastleigh away and their ground was about Ilkeston Town size - it was like a welcome to non-league. To see players like Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain being the best we could put out was depressing. We lost that game and it was a humbling experience. Even though at that time we had the owner change, I think if you'd have gave us mid-table most would've begrudgingly accepted. 

Recruiting players like Wootton, Thomas, Rawlinson, Lacey, Brindley and Slocombe when the season had practically already started, was an achievement, no matter the pull of the club. Those players, regardless of how we are performing as a team this season, are the bedrock to any success we may have in the next couple of years. 

The story since, including recruitment, however, I think is not meeting expectations. Are we a better side than last year? I'd argue to say we're worse, and by a significant amount. 
 

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

13 hours ago, Elite_pie said:

I know this may come across as arrogant because we have no divine right to win just because we are a bigger club, but surely it's not asking a lot to beat King's Lynn at home.  They are a club in deep crisis who couldn't even muster five substitutes, and one of the four they did name was a 50 year old retired goalkeeper.  Ardley is moaning because we can't have seven!  If we had dominated the game and the result was down to sheer bad luck I could take it, but if this had been a boxing match that went to a points decision there was only one winner, and it definitely wasn't us.

Agreed. All the talk about a hectic schedule and it's the same for all clubs yet they seem to be managing a lot better than we are. Apparently we're knackered, yet clubs with players that have full-time jobs during the day are coping fine. Somebody should ask how they're dealing with it when poor old Notts County need at least 2 fit players for every position and are constantly scrambling around for the latest loanee to come and not bedazzle us.

I think it's an excuse and it's wearing thin. We're after another RB and another CB because they're knackered yet 59-year old Michael Doyle is fine to play 90 minutes twice a week because the backup here since the start of the season isn't up to scratch. 

[Feral Fox]

It's definitely worrying. I've openly admitted I'm no fan of NA, but it seems to be moving into the other areas of the fan base now that, quite frankly, we're not good enough. And with the resources at his disposal, it's pretty poor tbh.

Other teams in this league, and dare I say, the league above, would kill for the squad we've assembled. Add into that the big 'batman' sign Ardley possesses whenever a player gets injured and we trot out another loanee...

I'm pretty sure the owners won't change mid season, but if we don't improve...the chatter will grow louder by the day.

 

[Piethagoram]

Some good points being made. The bottom line is that Ardley's budget has the £500k parachute payment and Kings Lynn does not. Given the balance of play on Tuesday night, Kings Lynn showed more quality per player £ , than Notts. Recent performances reflect Abbott's influence on the end of the Derry reign. The lack of a corner count in our favour, reinforces the belief that we can no longer go with 2 holding midfielders. I fully expect Abbott will be asking if Alan Smith is available soon?...and as for preferring Effiong over Sam..I rest my case, your honour.