menzinho

I don't expect it to be sorted anytime soon. In a way you almost need the rules to be simplified, even just reading some of the FA handbook is baffling. It's split into like 40 sections now. Some rules/regulations now sub divided so you end up with things like: Rule 3: 3.a (i), 3.a (ii), 3.a (iii), 3.b, 3.c (i), 3.c (ii), 3.d... There can be lots of parts to just one rule or regulation! The lawyers can tie everyone in knots with all the legalese and loopholes. They can drag it on and on and make the whole thing more of mess than when it started.

I hope so @Fan of Big Tone. Swansea have a new ownership group now and the man who bought him in, Andy Coleman, is no longer the Chairman. Luka Modric also involved too, maybe they want someone different...

I did feel like we over recruited in some areas of the team (midfielders!) and I can’t remember us having so many loan players in either, I’m sure previously the club looked at the loan market to add 1 or 2 players. It’s a risky strategy if loan players become a vital part of the team because they move on the season after. The Brothers do usually let people get on with their jobs, from what I can gather they don’t micromanage. I wonder if the transfer window didn’t go as planned and they are disappointed or is it more to do with RG and MP seeing things too differently, if that’s the case it’s odd the director of football has left because more often than not it would be the other way round. He did sign Matt Dennis to a three-year deal so that’s something.

Given our recruitment set-up is a tad different to the norm, I don’t think it would make sense to suddenly make the head coach totally responsible for recruitment and effectively merge the two roles. If we were to have a system where a manager has total control it means he has to be able to understand and properly utilise Chris and Alex’s model. Or I guess, a manager could just totally ignore it and bring in players via his methods, but that would just make the whole involvement of Chris and Alex pointless. It worked well when Richard was here, his title was a little different but it was a very similar role. It just seemingly hasn’t worked with Roberto.

I think if we can strike the balance between a slick footballing side with a physical edge it would be perfect. If we suddenly became a team that falls on the side of being defensive, spoiling and playing for set-pieces I’d find it a hard watch even if we did win more than we lost. In the terms of where we are now we’ve definitely lost that control we used to have but because we are a lot more pro-active off the ball it’s working for us at the moment, I still think we can control and manage matches better when we do go a goal up but that'll come with a bit more work on the training pitch. I think the aim is to be a much more intense team than last season (not that hard given how slow and ponderous we were at times) you do need a bigger squad because fitness and freshness is probably more important than individual quality. It’s a big change from last season, we had a much smaller squad but at the start but the individual quality was very high. It’s weird now in football that being entertained is almost as important was winning though. I don’t know how others would feel but I would certainly rather see a 3-3 than a 0-0.

I've really liked what I've seen from Iorpenda this season and today he was really good again, his skill level on the ball to beat a man sets him apart from both Palmer and Norwood (who I also thought were solid today). I went for McDonald though, I think him constantly winning the ball off their long balls was key to our win.

Feel a bit for Hinchy, I think when he was called on back end of last season he was pretty good. I think he would've been fine as a squad player, but for whatever the reason we signed a lot of midfields this summer and we have too many players in this position now. I actually think in terms of his development he'll be better off playing in the National League regularly, look at Ed Francis, similar scenario now playing in League 1 with Exeter (and I think Hinchy is a tad better).

I actually agree with a lot of what Martin said post-match, I didn’t think we were great either, we were good in spells and we stood up to the aerial bombardment to secure the win. Fleetwood set up pretty well against us first half, their two forwards were more concerned with pressing Bedeau and Aljofree and left McDonald in the middle to have the ball unopposed most of the time and he clearly wasn’t expecting that to happen. Still think we struggle for an outlet out wide because our wingbacks are usually too deep and then when they are on the ball a lot is asked of them. It’s like they are expected to be full-backs off the ball and then suddenly wingers on it. I thought we actually looked quite tired by about the 70th minute mark, could’ve possibly changed more players but I understand making lot’s of changes can backfire too. The energy from both Grant and Traore made a difference though and at least forced the Fleetwood defence to play quickly and sometimes poorly. A ground out win in the end, my one nag would be I thought we were a tad deep again in the last quarter of the match and we didn’t have enough of a threat on the counter. On another day Fleetwood could’ve got lucky when Roos spilled his catches, they weren’t great upfront but they were committing numbers forward and sometimes the ball can just fall your way.

Bolton Wanderers 1-0 AFC Wimbledon Doncaster Rovers 2-2 Bradford City Cambridge United 2-0 Oldham Athletic 🃏 Salford City 1-1 Tranmere Rovers Walsall 1-0 Chesterfield Forest Green Rovers 3-1 Hartlepool United Tamworth 1-1 Eastleigh Yeovil Town 1-2 York City

Wow, I was reading it expecting some sort of joke to be revealed at the end. Nope they are deadly serious. I might be doing all 55-year-olds a disservice here but is he going to be able to get himself up off the ground once he’s dived to make a save… Can he still dive to make a save? It’ll generate headlines but surely one of the outfield players is a better option for one match. It's National League South as well, there a good players in that division, Frank Vincent now plays for Dorking. The opposition will be shooting every time they get the ball, good luck to him, he’ll need it!

Terry Hawkridge is the first player that comes to my mind, I remember him because he was part of Lincoln's FA Cup run team.

All very quiet so far, I think I would rather it be that way. The big potential issue for us was Jatta and I'll be honest I thought he was on his way out a few days ago. It's looking good right now and if he stays, it's really great for us. We've already turned down a lot of money for him, I think it'll need to be a monumental fee now and no-one is seemingly willing/able to do it!

I think in an ideal world a keeper coming out and catching the ball in a very crowded box is what you want, but I’ve no issue if the keeper punches the ball away effectively. It’s when keepers flap at the ball because they aren’t really committed to coming for crosses, like they are caught in two minds whether to try and catch it or punch it and end up doing neither. Roos does have a tendency to stay on his line too I think sometimes he needs to be a tad braver with his starting position, even if it's just 2 or 3 steps further forward. I did feel surprised that the high claims/dealing with crosses stat wasn’t something we prioritised when we replaced Bass. He was the best in the league, by a data perspective, far for coming and claiming crosses. It’s still very early and who knows maybe 3 months down the line having worked with Steve Collis he could well look a lot more solid and commanding but on early showing for me he’s not as good as Bass.

Some good names in there, I think if these were like prizes on offer for Notts I'd go for Ollie Pearce. I'd back him to continue scoring like Macca did when he stepped up from the National League. I think getting a proven goal scorer in would be tricky though, we've arguably got 2 right now in Dennis and Jatta they can score 20 goals each. I wonder if potential strikers would be put off knowing they would be 3rd/4th choice as right now we can't guarantee they'd go straight into the first 11. I'm still backing Traore to come good, when it comes to signing centre forwards our recruitment in this area has been really impressive overall. Could Luker or Jarvis be another option upfront? I do think it's a shame we haven't got anyone in the B team that is around first team ready, that would be ideal for a fourth striker. Not a forward but Peterborough are open to offers for Chris Conn-Clarke, an attacking midfielder with an eye for goal who was superb at Altrincham in the National League. I think he’d be a really good number 10 for us, a kind of replacement for Didzy/Crowley but we have a lot of players already in this position.

I know the whole no shots thing first half wasn’t great but at the same time Tranmere really didn’t look a threat either and they only scored through our needless sloppy play. Our reaction was good though and I thought the second half performance was very impressive. I liked how we didn’t just sit back when defending the lead, we were definitely a lot more pro-active off the ball which I really did like. Even in the last minutes of the match when the Tranmere defence had the ball we had Dennis, Jatta and Grant all pressing hard and they were backed up by the wingbacks and midfield. I think we’ll create some good chances just from making opposition defenders/midfielders rush when on the ball. Set pieces still make me nervous, I think we got a tad lucky at times. Yes, some good blocks in there and you definitely need that but we still aren’t great when it comes to clearing the ball it all seems a bit panic stations to me. You can laugh now it’s over but Martin Paterson was getting really wound up at the end of the match about the ref not blowing for full-time. Stoppage time is and has been “a minimum of…” for as long as I can remember, so if the 4th official displays 5 minutes but 6 minutes are played that is completely within the rules. Anyway, I seem to be able to find more positives with each passing match now, my optimism levels are growing!

Matt Palmer for me. We know on the ball how tidy he is and he had that about him but what really stood out was how he got to the ball first more often than not, he was winning tackles and shrugging players off when on the ball. It was a really great performance from him.

I looked up the team sheet from that match: B Bialkowski, M Dumbuya, M Smith, G Liddle (c), E Stevens, J Campbell-Ryce, J Labadie, M Fotheringham, D Bell, C McGregor, Y Arquin Substitutes: F Speiss, G Tempest, C Thompson, A Boucaud, A Coombes, R Murray, R Nangle. David Bell started, now there’s a player who I am amazed passed his medical! I just looked it up, he had four operations in three and half seasons prior to joining us. So yes his time with us went exactly as you’d have expected. And Adam Coombes coming off the bench to score that equaliser, he's now an absolute stalwart of the National League South scene. Some good players in there too to be fair, I loved Bailkowski, Dumbuya, Liddle, McGregor and Campbell-Ryce all really good players for us in League 1. It was a great occasion, had the match happened today it would’ve gone straight to pens, maybe we’d have had a different outcome!

Be interesting to see how all this unfolds, York finished 19th and 20th before Adam Hinshelwood came in and finished 2nd that is a dramatic improvement. Will Stuart be able to keep them in the promotion places or will they drift back down the table? Whilst I am pleased for Stuart and Joao, I really can’t understand the timing of this. 4 matches into a new season, they haven’t lost so what is the problem? They’ve just spent all pre-season recruiting and training with him. It's got be a non-results based decision because otherwise it would be totally bonkers to have sacked him.

Blackburn Rovers 2-1 Norwich City Watford 0-1 Southampton Barnsley 0-1 Huddersfield Town Wigan Athletic 1-2 Stockport County Barnet 1-2 Colchester United Bromley 1-0 Harrogate Town 🃏 Hartlepool United 1-0 Boreham Wood Morecambe 3-1 Woking

Sound the alarm, Jatta was involved and running in the training session video from today! And yes I have already searched “can you sprint with a back spasm?” for those wondering, no not if it’s serious and in the video he looked more than fine to me.

There was an interview with him that said he wanted to move to keep his chances of getting in the Northern Ireland team and potentially getting to play in the World Cup. I think he'd be looking a touch higher than League 2 if that was the case. Also I can't see us spending £1 million to sign him, in League 2 that kind of transfer fee is madness.

I agree @Robbie we are in a really tough situation with Jatta. The funny thing is given the start he's had Matt Dennis could well be our 20+ goal centre forward this season, even so if Jatta does go we'd still need a striker in to replace him.

I do think this has potentially already affected us in the transfer window because we've received large sums for Langstaff, Crowley and Bass clubs will know this and almost add a "we know you've got money" tax. And that just completely clashes with the Brothers style of not ever wanting to overpay for a player. A bit like Newcastle in the Premiership now, they've had similar issues because everyone knows they are ridiculously wealthy.

It does seem to be quite a conflicting statement when you realise that we currently have 25 outfield players at the club (and that's excluding our youngsters). We've got to get players out as well not only for registration purposes but to avoid players becoming totally disheartened and potentially disruptive because they've got 0 chance of getting into the side. It's interesting that the two players the club spent money on recently in Jarvis and Traore are nowhere to be seen so far this season. And these are attacking players too, I do wonder if that is causing a bit of friction behind the scenes. I agree with the points about Traore he came in halfway through the season having never played or lived in England before, some players just need a bit of time to settle and I think we'd be mad to right him off so quickly. Let's not forget he's previously spent his last few seasons in the top division in Norway and at good clubs too. His last club Fredikstad lost 1-0 to Crystal Palace recently in the Europa League Qualifier, they'd beat us comfortably. I had Jarvis down as one of my players I thought would be key for us this season. At the back end of last season (outside of McGoldrick) I thought he was a real bright spark for us going forward.

Some potential fuel to the fire courtesy of the Guardian (from yesterday); "In League Two, the race for Alassana Jatta is hotting up and the striker is eager to leave Notts County. After Plymouth’s £900,000 bid was knocked back, others are waiting in the wings. Huddersfield and Bolton have shown an interest, while QPR have previously made an offer. They could face competition from Swansea or even Kayserispor."