My thoughts and feelings on Notts currently

[ARLukomski]

First of all, I was Ardley in. I didn't want him to be sacked and whilst I was frustrated with performances, I didn't think he should've gone. He should have had till the end of the season at least. 

However, performances were becoming a concern. Since the start of 2021, we only played well against Dagenham and Yeovil and the last 20 against Solihull (h). I didn't think we'd win the league but probably would have slotted into 5th or 6th. He wanted us to take risks and gamble. He said it a lot in his pre-match and post match interviews that's what he wanted us to do but the team, more often than not, failed to step up. 

We needed to commit more players forward, find ways to defeat the high press and release out of our feet quicker. We needed to press the opposition back and give them more to think about as there is more players forward. This would've given us more options to pass to in the final third, which means a higher chance of putting a chance away. We needed to sign an upgrade on Rose to help us with this to allow the connection between the defence and attack but we recruited the wrong type of player in Reeves. We also never replaced Kristian Dennis. Knowles is raw and untested and instead of a 19 year old unproven talent from up the A60, we needed a goalscorer. Playing one up top has done nothing to help Wootton, as he thrived off playing with Dennis in a two man front line. In my opinion, the Ardley signings were Reeves, Chicksen, Pilling, Knowles and Wolfe and the Football Radar signings were Rodrigues and Sam (not counting Sloth cos he wasn't really here). There really should have been a more closer look into scouting methods. Let Ardley and his staff scout and let FR scout and then come together to compare to determine who we exactly is the best fit. 

Going back to carrying out instructions on the pitch. One word. MENTALITY. The thing that has been lacking at this club for what seems like an eternity. Ardley and Burchnall want us to take risks, get forward and press the opposition back, but we have this mentality of sitting back, inviting pressure and letting them come on to us when there is no need. It's like we're constantly worried that if we concede or make a mistake it's the end. There's no urge to have a go and take risks and take the game to the opposition and press them back into their penalty area. There's no mindset to rise above what the opposition will throw at us and come out with our just rewards. There's nothing there saying "no matter what happens, we will win." There's no mindset of we will win no matter if we play well or not and there's no belief. There's no standards and no motivation to keep on going and to run our socks off for the club. All this talk of "we want to go up cos it's a big club and we want to get the club back to where it belongs" is just talk. Show us you want to because in the last few games of Ardley's tenure and so far Burch's reign you haven't. 

I've stopped feeling angry about it tbh. It isn't even a numbness inside. I just don't feel anything. I don't feel attached. I love this club and I am never in it for the just the glory, but this is unacceptable. I may have not been there for the past eras but it's disrespectful to the past legends. It's disrespectful to the legacies of Sirrel, Warnock, Bradd and Masson and many others who helped build the history for this club. Show you care and sort it out because we can't carry on like this. 

[Piethagoram]

Tend to agree with the analysis of @ARLukomski above.

The problem has been deep rooted, Ardley's teams were not creating anywhere near enough chances, and the Xg stats bore that out, that we were in a false position in the table. 

Playing a back 3 is also a problem, as Turner and Rawlinson are not comfortable on the ball. Ardley's mass signings of players to cover full backs seemed like a panic, especially when we knew the core problems were really, a deep, deep midfield and no obvious partner for Wootton that could "do the business" in the National league.

That is probably what changed the owners mind... remember, this forthcoming pre season will be a short one...so time needed to weed out the chaff 

What I am angry about is the lack of fresh ideas for corners, free kicks or even direct shots at goal. I expected so much better

 

 

[Elite_pie]

2 hours ago, ARLukomski said:

Ardley and Burchnall want us to take risks, get forward and press the opposition back.

I agree with most of your post but not this bit.  We very, very rarely take risks, get forward or press the opposition back.  The main tactic under Ardley and now Burchnall seems to be keeping the ball at all costs.  It sounds good, because if we have the ball the opposition can't score.  It fails miserably because we do it mainly in our own half, and sometimes in our own penalty area.  That style of play has to come from the manager, and I'm sure the players don't enjoy it because they are one poor pass away from creating a chance for the opposition.  We don't attack with speed, we don't get lots of players forward, we nearly always take the safety first option of passing the ball backwards.  In his post-match interview Burchnall claimed that we controlled the game, and were let down in the final third.  That's because we very rarely got into the final third!  It's a good job there were no fans in the ground, because the reaction after the final whistle would have been very unpleasant.

[Piethagoram]

Wise words from @Elite_pie. Remember too, we have had the 500k parachute payment this season, alongside Yeovil. I despair when we line up against Eastleigh and wonder where the 500k difference in talent is? It's just not there

[Elite_pie]

2 minutes ago, Piethagoram said:

Wise words from @Elite_pie. Remember too, we have had the 500k parachute payment this season, alongside Yeovil. I despair when we line up against Eastleigh and wonder where the 500k difference in talent is? It's just not there

Actually, we had the 500k last season and had to scrape by with a mere 250k this season!  Next season we don't get a penny.  As you say, where is the difference against clubs like Eastleigh?  Three quarters of a million pounds over two seasons is big money at this level, but we seem to have wasted it.

[Piethagoram]

I also believe the youth academy EFL funding ends as well... another financial disaster waiting to happen

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

15 hours ago, Piethagoram said:

I also believe the youth academy EFL funding ends as well... another financial disaster waiting to happen

They'll scrap the academy. 

The writing has been on the wall for a long, long time.

We have been terrible all season. We have managed to find some results and others (Kings Lynn comes to mind) we have been incredibly lucky. Now our luck is out, and we're getting found out for the terrible team that we really are.  

15 hours ago, Elite_pie said:

I agree with most of your post but not this bit.  We very, very rarely take risks, get forward or press the opposition back.  The main tactic under Ardley and now Burchnall seems to be keeping the ball at all costs.  It sounds good, because if we have the ball the opposition can't score.  It fails miserably because we do it mainly in our own half, and sometimes in our own penalty area.  That style of play has to come from the manager, and I'm sure the players don't enjoy it because they are one poor pass away from creating a chance for the opposition.  We don't attack with speed, we don't get lots of players forward, we nearly always take the safety first option of passing the ball backwards.  In his post-match interview Burchnall claimed that we controlled the game, and were let down in the final third.  That's because we very rarely got into the final third!  It's a good job there were no fans in the ground, because the reaction after the final whistle would have been very unpleasant.

Agreed. It's possession for possession's sake. If you never do anything with it, it's pointless, which is exactly what we'll be if we keep playing like that. 

It's good that we don't have a game on Tuesday because I deffo wouldn't pay to watch us. Maybe by Saturday I'd have forgotten just how terrible we are. 

[menzinho]

2 hours ago, Super_Danny_Allsopp said:

Agreed. It's possession for possession's sake. If you never do anything with it, it's pointless, which is exactly what we'll be if we keep playing like that. 
 

Yep, and the most frustrating thing about it is that IB has spoken about playing and not just having possession for the sake of it – but that’s all the first half and large parts of the second half was! How can he come out and say he was quite happy with it?

Everyone was so negative on the ball, all Reeves did in the first half was pass it back to one of the centre backs. I don’t even think playing out from the back is that hard, I think we just make it harder by having so many players in our own half. Why did we need 3 centre backs yesterday? It was just another player to pass it back or sideways too…

[liampie]

On 17/04/2021 at 18:20, Elite_pie said:

We very, very rarely take risks

i think we do but its not at the right time, we get caught on the break or when under the cosh, notts needs to defend better before we can take a more attacking approach imo.

[Super_Danny_Allsopp]

3 hours ago, liampie said:

i think we do but its not at the right time, we get caught on the break or when under the cosh, notts needs to defend better before we can take a more attacking approach imo.

You're right, in a fashion.

We take the most risks at the back. Reeves thinks he's Ronaldo running towards his own goal, but won't dare take the ball forwards in the opposition half unless it involves immediately scampering back.