menzinho

I agree with you @theAnticlough that the back 3 is likely still our best way forward, we looked better when we switched back to the two CMs in Sanders and Finneran, with Roberts and Grant ahead. That is our tried and tested formation, that over the last couple of years has served us really well. I just meant more in terms of specific tactics for the Oxford match, if the plan was to be super aggressive and press with 4 players, it's surely asking for trouble leaving just 1 CM to get totally out-numbered and exposed!

I think I kind of got what we were trying to do first half, we almost had like a front 4 of Cooper, Roberts, Grant and Kanu all pressing hard (well at least supposed to be) with the intent of winning the ball high up. But more often than not we were off the pace by a second or two and it meant that press wasn’t effective and it was quickly bypassed to leave poor Palmer out numbered in the middle. I do wonder if we'd played a back 4, to allow for another midfielder (at the expense of a CB) so a 4-2-4 formation would that have left us less exposed than what at times looked like a 5-1-4? Kanu is a really strange one, he looks nothing like the player I remember at Walsall, not half as quick, strong or skilful as the one that played upfront for them. I can remember playing them at home, it was a bit of stinker 0-0 but they played everyone super deep and basically left Kanu upfront against our 3 CBs. But he still looked quite dangerous, I can remember thinking if they'd actually got someone closer to help him, he'd have probably scored.

Ishe was an odd for me, I thought he started off badly but got better as the match went on. He’s clearly very quick and athletic in the first half at times he’d pick the ball up skip past a player but then do some odd stabby pass that made him look like it was his first time kicking a ball. That was his first start he’s very young but played plenty of times for the England Youth sides, so there’s talent there, it might just take a bit of time for him to adjust to men’s football. Anyway I was kind of torn between Roberts and Ness. Roberts was the brightest spark in our attack and looked most likely to create something for us. I went for Ness because I don’t think he’s best suited to RCB and was up against a tricky winger in Dembele which can be his undoing. He did hack him down once, which I'll overlook because he kept him very quiet.

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That team sheet has thrown me and not just because we've gone back to the National League days of not putting a goalkeeper on the bench. Is it a back three with Gibbons at RWB and Ness at RCB? Or a back four with Bedeau at LB? We seem to have the numbers back in central midfield, just now with no Mustapha we are looking a tad light in terms of attacking midfielders. A win would be a terrific result, I know we've had plenty of them already this season but a draw wouldn't be a bad outcome either as Oxford are a good side.

I think it just shows how there is a undetermined amount of time when it comes to player development. Our recruitment model clearly saw the talent there, it was just he needed more time and he's had that at Boreham Wood. You don't need a in-depth recruitment model when players have that number of assists he'll be on the radar of most clubs, I suspect a side like York or Salford with more money than most might put a bid in come January.

And none of the players injured on international duty either, so that's another bonus! It has felt like a long break but I hope it has been beneficial in terms of training and getting players fit though because fixture wise we’ve lost a couple of more winnable matches, I know football isn’t played on paper but the Peterborough and Blackpool matches were definitely ones that you’d target some points from. Now we’re coming back after the break against a team that were in the Championship last season, not easy.

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It was good to see Tsaroulla played as much as he did and getting two assists is impressive. I say see, I had look for some of the Cyprus highlights but it's some sort of guarded footage. I think Kanu had limited minutes from what I saw, which is a bit disappointing. I still wasn't convinced he was 100% when he joined a decent amount of playing time would have served us better too. I wonder if we'll be postponing the match/matches again when the next international break is here?

Not good, I hope it's more of a one-off issue than something that spirals because if the ownership have basically given up they will be in trouble. I know they've had to reduce their budget but the biggest loss has been that core management group that served them so well, after Mike Williamson left they still had his coaches in Elliott and then Magnay who became the managers and kept them comfortably a top-half team.

I agree @Fan of Big Tone , that probably will have warped their perception of their national side, put some poor kids off football for life! Considering their defence had Premier League and Bundesliga players I was shocked at how poor they were, the 4th goal just before half-time was like watching Sunday league football. England were very good though, sometimes you see a big win and it's not always warranted but the 7-0 was a fair-reflection.

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With no matches to discuss but having now played 9 matches (including 1 Cup & 1 Trophy match) we’ve been able to see the new players in action and see how last seasons players have adapted to the step up. We still have some injures but by the time Oxford rolls around who would you pick to start if the power was in your hands? My starting 11 would be: Belshaw Gibbons Ness Bedeau Tsaroulla Palmer Finneran Samuels-Smith Cooper Mustapha Kanu The keeper and defence picks itself for me, but one of the tougher decisions was at left wingback. I think Lipsuic has been solid but being on the ‘wrong-side’ hampers him a bit, especially going forward. I would like to see him play on the right-hand side. I’ve not seen a lot of Samuels-Smith but he is very athletic and naturally left-footed I just have a hunch that he could be most suited here. In terms of the midfield, I think Evans is great in terms of tenacity and pressing, but with Palmer back in the middle it potentially frees up Finneran a bit more to do this. I think a partnership of Palmer and Finneran allows us to be more in control and build out from the back more effectively. Finally the last attacking spot was between Mustapha and Roberts. I think the athleticism and dynamism of Mustapha just shaded it, but I’m pretty 50/50 because Cal has been more of goal threat and his set-pieces are more often than not very effective too. I genuinely wouldn’t mind either or even both starting. Upfront I went for Kanu, he was really impressive on loan at Walsall and I don’t think we have seen the best of him yet.

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This is not going to be any easy fixture for us, I know we are pretty well drilled defensively but we are yet to keep and clean sheet and I’d rate our chances of it happening at Reading quite low. They’ve scored a minimum of 3 goals at home this season, including scoring 5 against Mansfield so it’s going to be a tough test for us. They’ve got the current league top scorer in Jack Marriott and the dreaded long throw-in tactic courtesy of Randell Williams. I’d quite happily see a 0-0 draw but the problem is it looks the least likely score-line this afternoon! I hope I’m wrong but if I had to bet, I’d say home win.

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I was never overly worried that Martin Patterson would leave, I think a Championship club would consider him a bit of a gamble, especially one like Burnley who basically want to go back into the Prem as quick as possible. That said the new contract is completely deserved and I hope he's here until 2029, and who knows maybe even beyond that! I know he doesn't show it but I think Martin is very happy here and I feel like he fits here perfectly too. Notts, because of the set-up, just let him focus on coaching. He mentioned at the fans forum that recruitment isn't what he considers a strength of his, he just wants to coach and improve the players. He's done a great job so far and with him at the helm I think we'll be able to make that gradual improvement year on year.

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I thought this too, especially as they’ll be more international breaks over the season. I really don’t think turning 2 Saturday matches into mid-week fixtures is beneficial, we’ll go from getting a week to prepare to just a few day and players are potentially less fresh for them too. Be interesting to see who has been called up, depending on who it is, I wonder if we could've still played the matches?

I’m pretty sure it’s Radio Nottingham who do the interviews, surely they could request to talk to one of the players? I’d be interested to hear the players thoughts, a bit like Martin Partinson’s post match, they’d never give everything away but you get a different perspective because the players are the one’s playing. We, like Martin Paterson, are only watching. And if it just went out live on the radio, no Notts social media involvement, you’d avoid the social media negativity.

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In the second half we never really clicked for some reason, our short passing was poor and the direct passing even worse. We kind of got dragged into a slogging battle with Bradford as the match went on, with the last 20 being the worst of it. Bradford were just happy to whack it long and we just kept giving it back to them. The Powell v Ness battle, where they were both as bad as each other to be fair, was erm, something. I thought we really struggled out wide and agree with @theAnticlough about the right-hand side being worse off. I can’t put my finger on it but my guess is that Bradford prepared for the inverted wingbacks better than the other opposition so far, because they really stifled us here. I wanted Tsaroulla to go at Touray more especially after he got booked early on, but we proceeded to put very little pressure on him for the rest of the match. As for the last 30 minutes or so, I actually thought we looked worse with two upfront, because it made us play more direct and we didn’t do it effectively, instead of playing balls in behind/into the channels we just kept forcing Kanu and Smyth into duels. We were also limited in the middle of the pitch and that is just through injuries. I get why Cooper was dropped deeper but I think he’s much better higher up the pitch. I think with either Robbo or Palmer alongside Finneran we’d have been able to get a bit more control and we’d have been more dangerous with Cooper higher. There still wasn’t much between the sides, it wasn’t a great match, I think if that gets played another 9/10 times in that way it finishes 0-0.