Ratings v Solihull

[ARLukomski 𝕏 ARLukomski Instagram declanweliczko_arlki]

Slocombe 6 - Cracking save to deny Hudlin. Some of his late kicks gave me the scares

Rawlinson 5 - Poor decision making. Lost his man for one of the goals

Ellis 6 - Good distribution. Not much else

Lacey 5 - Like Rawlo, poor decision making and erratic passing

Kelly-Evans 5 - One good run forward in the first half. For all this "HE'S THE SAVIOUR" stuff, his forward outlet has been awful

Reeves 6 - Started well but his impact on the game diminished. Tries to do too much

Griffiths 7 - Controlled the play and put himself about a lot, trying to get things going. Only one of two who bothered

Chicksen 6 - Got down the line well and linked with Knowles in the first half. Diminished impact 

Knight 7 - Made some great runs in behind and always looked a threat. One of two who were bothered

Wootton 4 - Sorry I'm not having it. He scores that easy chance we win. Poor hold up play and lack of control

Knowles 6 - Well taken goal but he scores one and suddenly thinks he's won the ballon d'or and becomes ball greedy

 

Sam/Ruben/Enzio N/A - Didn't impact the game much

 

There is a massive problem in the mentality department. We have this issue where we will happily sit deep and invite pressure for no reason. It's like we want to concede. It's been the same all season. Go 1-0 up and think we've won. IB is trying with a group of players who didn't create much under Ardley as well. Both managers want us to take risks, press high and get forward but when the players cross that white line onto the pitch, they freeze in the moment and don't do what the manager wants. 

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

Slocombe - 6 - One excellent save, otherwise dodgy coming for the ball.

DKE - 5.5 - He was OK. Couple of decent crosses.
Rawlinson - 3.5 - Poor. Making mistakes every game now. Distribution poor. 
Ellis - 5.5 - Won a lot in the air but makes the poor clearance for their 2nd.
Lacey - 5.5 - He was OK.
Chicksen - 6.5 - Thought he played well. Couple of nervy moments getting the ball stuck beneath his feet, but was very good going forward. Played on the front foot.

Reeves - 6 - Thought he was decent tonight. Tried to play forward, not entirely accurate, buzzed around and swept up a lot.
Griffiths - 5.5 - Lots of endeavour, some naivety expected for his first games.

Knowles - 5.5 - Excellent finish, but other parts of his game so deeply lacking.
Wootton - 3.5 - Poor. Has to finish golden opportunities  like that.
Knight - 6 - Dangerous with pace, sometimes makes the wrong decision.

Sam - N/A - That needless foul when we're in to stoppage time about sums him up. Brain-dead.
Enzio - N/A - Looked dangerous.
Rodrigues - N/A - You simply have to finish that. 

Bossed the first 25 minutes, then decided to sit back and never bothered coming back out until the 87th minute. We lost because we allowed them to fling crosses into our box, exactly like Saturday. Not sure why we allowed that, mentality, tactic, stupidity? All 3? 

There is some very very naïve people on social media who still think this side will get automatic promotion. The only chance of that walked off after 2 minutes on Saturday. We might hold on to a playoff and hope to get lucky. Anything beyond that, this squad isn't up for. 

[Piethagoram 𝕏 @piethagoram]

Slocombe 6 Good save, looked assured as normal

DKE 5.5 better 1st half than 2nd

Rawlinson 3.5 His passing ability has been found out. Inability to put boot through the ball should have prevented their winner

Ellis 4.5 First half, back 3 looked comfortable. Long throw not in the same ballpark as the Solihull player

Lacey 5.5 Always look the most accomplished passer out of  defence

Chicksen 4.5 Energetic 

Reeves 5.5 Tried to be a midfield general but a minnow in stature

Griffiths 3.5 Anonymous for long periods. Need a midfield general, of which he isnt. Too weak to win the 2nd ball

Knowles 5 Yes, a goal but lack of basic control exposed

Wootton 5 A wonderful chance squandered to make it 2 

Knight 5.5 The best of the forward line

Subs

Enzio 5.5 some spark, plays better than when at wing back

Sam 4.5 Stupid stupid foul... some good support play

Ruben 5 difficult bounce to put that chance away..but at least was in position

 

A game we looked comfortable to win, and lost. Physically not strong enough for this scrap of a league

 

 

[Feral Fox]

2 hours ago, Super_Danny_Allsopp said:

Slocombe - 6 - One excellent save, otherwise dodgy coming for the ball.

DKE - 5.5 - He was OK. Couple of decent crosses.
Rawlinson - 3.5 - Poor. Making mistakes every game now. Distribution poor. 
Ellis - 5.5 - Won a lot in the air but makes the poor clearance for their 2nd.
Lacey - 5.5 - He was OK.
Chicksen - 6.5 - Thought he played well. Couple of nervy moments getting the ball stuck beneath his feet, but was very good going forward. Played on the front foot.

Reeves - 6 - Thought he was decent tonight. Tried to play forward, not entirely accurate, buzzed around and swept up a lot.
Griffiths - 5.5 - Lots of endeavour, some naivety expected for his first games.

Knowles - 5.5 - Excellent finish, but other parts of his game so deeply lacking.
Wootton - 3.5 - Poor. Has to finish golden opportunities  like that.
Knight - 6 - Dangerous with pace, sometimes makes the wrong decision.

Sam - N/A - That needless foul when we're in to stoppage time about sums him up. Brain-dead.
Enzio - N/A - Looked dangerous.
Rodrigues - N/A - You simply have to finish that. 

Bossed the first 25 minutes, then decided to sit back and never bothered coming back out until the 87th minute. We lost because we allowed them to fling crosses into our box, exactly like Saturday. Not sure why we allowed that, mentality, tactic, stupidity? All 3? 

There is some very very naïve people on social media who still think this side will get automatic promotion. The only chance of that walked off after 2 minutes on Saturday. We might hold on to a playoff and hope to get lucky. Anything beyond that, this squad isn't up for. 

Pretty much this.

I’d probably drop Griffiths to a 5 over the match. Higher in the first half and lower in the second. Don’t believe I’m going to write this..,when is Doyle fit again?

Really impressed with Chicksen and hope he keeps it up. If he does, then I’d be looking at him staying next year (and I can’t say that for a lot of the players on the books.) Might be he’s just looking good against the rest, but credit to the guy for grabbing the chance and showing improvement each game imo.

 

The mentality of the players is bang out. IB had us set up perfectly today imo. Started well (and we don’t say that very often) and we’re on the front foot for the first half hour. Then we descended into the casual mistake phase and let the Moors come back into it. 
We need to be ruthless and cut a lot of these players over the summer.

Weve built from scratch before and looks to me like we need to do it again. Ardley has left us with a poor squad and we don’t have any choices to move players around. Wootton needs resting for a few games. His touch is well off at the minute.

[donmassonisgod!]

Would not give a single player more than 5, the owners only 4 because they have caused this derailment and as for the new management duo it’s a big !!

Mr Ardley deserved more respect for his loyalty and commitment and now we are reaping what we have sown!

 The Brothers Grimm should be on the phone right now begging him to come back and rescue a sinking ship from this unproven amateur!!

I fear for us all!!

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

7 hours ago, donmassonisgod! said:

Would not give a single player more than 5, the owners only 4 because they have caused this derailment and as for the new management duo it’s a big !!

Mr Ardley deserved more respect for his loyalty and commitment and now we are reaping what we have sown!

 The Brothers Grimm should be on the phone right now begging him to come back and rescue a sinking ship from this unproven amateur!!

I fear for us all!!

Sorry, but what suggests anything would be different under Ardley? I'd expect them to be more or less exactly the same. I wouldn't have sacked him either at the time, but people now claiming Ardley would have had us top of the league are disingenuous. The performances were pretty much as bad under Ardley and getting worse....

I honestly think this is about par for the squad we have available. Absence of Brindley, McCrory, Doyle, Roberts and Thomas have all cost us, and we can't replace them. Despite having '2 for every position' or in fact more, hardly any of the backups are adequate enough. 

The only case you can make for Ardley is that perhaps he knew. Maybe he had long worked out that this squad simply wasn't good enough and that's why the performances were largely negative, 'respecting the point' etc... because he already knew the limitations of the squad. He would never admit it publicly because he has a lot of class, but when he sat down at night, you do wonder. If he could go and unleash a Cal Roberts and Wes Thomas to panic defences, he would, but unleashing an Elisa Sam and Jimmy Knowles just isn't the same thing. 

The new manager is trying to put us on the front foot but maybe he will come to a similar conclusion to Ardley; this squad is not good enough for anything other than skimming the playoffs. 

[DangerousSausage]

I've also come to the conclusion that we're simply not as good as we think we are and have spent a good part of the season riding our luck. The summer's transfer business left us lacking in key areas and was compounded by the sheer bad luck of having important players injured.

I was surprised with the timing of the sacking and think NA deserved to have until the end of the season, even though I was losing faith in him. But the manager debate that's raging on social media is getting tiresome - it would have been naive to believe that a new manager would instantly turn us into world beaters (although I hoped that a greater willingness to take risks would have helped the team), but I doubt things would have been much different with NA, with the exception of the FA Trophy.

[Feral Fox]

2 hours ago, DangerousSausage said:

I've also come to the conclusion that we're simply not as good as we think we are and have spent a good part of the season riding our luck. The summer's transfer business left us lacking in key areas and was compounded by the sheer bad luck of having important players injured.

I was surprised with the timing of the sacking and think NA deserved to have until the end of the season, even though I was losing faith in him. But the manager debate that's raging on social media is getting tiresome - it would have been naive to believe that a new manager would instantly turn us into world beaters (although I hoped that a greater willingness to take risks would have helped the team), but I doubt things would have been much different with NA, with the exception of the FA Trophy.

Social media is pretty horrific when it comes to Notts. It brings together all the idiots who can’t even manage to have a conversation on a message board forum like MAD, which in itself, isn’t the nicest of places!

Not sure why people need to make such outrageous comments as what they do on the Notts social media pages. Beyond belief sometimes.

Do we suffer from daft fans? Probably no more than other clubs, but fb and Twitter make it even easier for them to express (and I use the word sparingly) opinions.

 

IB has worked out what we can only assume Ardley was beginning to cotton onto in the final few games of his tenure. His squad is talked about in good terms, but in reality, the deficiencies are glaring. Swapping managers when we did gives IB the best chance to realise that now and prepare for a summer overhaul. Be clear on what he needs and wants.