theAnticlough

My feeling is that we'd have to do the same as the NL to L2 jump - replace practically the entire team over the course of two seasons. Inevitably there would be around 3 or 4 survivors or remnants from the current squad - hard to say who, could be pretty random

That's a tough hand @Chris, wish you well with all your efforts. No, I've never really cracked the trick of keeping the lost weight from coming back any great length of time. I want to tackle that, but will concentrate on the first part of the job for now, losing it in the first place. I had a mini night out last night - 3 pints and a few nuts, even that can set you back when you want to lose over a kg a week.

Just about the main thing I'm doing in my life right now is trying to lose weight. This time last year I lost 19kg in 3 months. I put half of that back on. I'm trying to pull off the same trick again. I've lost about 8kg in 6weeks. There's no point pussyfooting around with 'diets', you basically have to stop eating. I'm determined to do this the traditional way rather than injections, pills or surgery. Anyone else have any experience with trying to lose a lot of weight?

Look at it from MP's perspective. Platt started the first 2 or 3 games, was actually pretty ragged and involved in the concession of goals. McDonald comes in after Platt is injured and becomes just about our best player since that point. Pato will be so grateful and there's no way in the world the question in the OP would come into his head. @Robbie, rightly says he's won 2 PON MoMs, not an easy thing to do. I think I voted for him 4 times in 5 games, he's been that good. If he maintains his form, Platty will only get back in as RCB. RodMac has said in interviews that centre is his best, followed by LCB. I don't think any fan would want to see him and his cultured left foot trapped on the right-side again. To my eye, he's also stepping up in terms of leadership as an experienced player with a strong personality right in the centre of things. Final thought, he might be a late developer - his bio suggests it - and he may be reaching his peak now at 33. Could be... There are a tonne of tough games coming up, even if his from does drop, his contribution to stabilise our season over the last 7 games has been immense.

Great comments @Chris. Yes, shout out to Roos. In one aspect of goalkeeping, he's the best since Kaspar IMO and that's throwing or rolling the ball out quickly to get us on the counter attack. Slocs used to drive me nuts with his 'pump fake' throw outs! Palmer is a lesson to all fans to allow a player a season to get over a serious injury, such as a knee. Taking into account the level, this might be up there with the best 9 games he's played for Notts. He's been a 7 or 8 out of ten every week.

Pato will be so happy tonight, the squad showed what they are capable of. I loved the way Robbo and Hall celebrated their goals - meant so much to them and the rest of the team were stoked and up for it as well. Stall was right, players coming in really grabbed their starting shirts - Jones, Macari, Robbo Real competition for places with Dennis to return and Luker and Hall really pushing the No.10s. A great day for Notts

Hard to see past Scott Robertson today. He gets my vote. MoM level performances too from Palmer, Jones and Tsaroulla. Hall and Luker were revelations coming on.

Well done Scott Robertson - shirts are up for grabs, that's the way to take one.

Great stuff. At least MP is doing the right thing in dropping our weakest performers following defeats. In this case, that was Aljofree and Norburn. There's nothing worse than a Head Coach picking poor performers thru favouritsm, stubborness or lack of imagination or courage. Robertson and Macari are due a chance. Let's hope they can take it. Pity about Dennis, but maybe a blessing in disguise. Not only about protecting him for the season, but a chance to look at another No.10 pairing.

I would say it's ability as much as composure @McPie. Aljofree can improve with age and experience but for now he isn't a polished user of the ball. Bedeau can rediscover his best from hopefully. No complaints with McDonald at all, he's at least as good/comfortable on the ball as Platt, probably more so. From what we've seen of Ness, he's a pretty tidy footballer with a bit of adventure in him for playing forwards. Ness, RodMac and an improved Bedeau could start giving us a better base for our game hopefully.

Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Ipswich Town Sheffield United 1-0 Charlton Athletic Cardiff City 2-0 Bradford City Joker Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Northampton Bromley 2-1 Chesterfield Salford City 1-2 Swindon Town Altrincham 0-2 Carlisle United Tamworth 0-1 Yeovil Town

I liked how Pato put the debate on philosophy to bed in his presser yesterday - he is NOT trying to change the philosophy. This is consistent with everything he's said since arriving at the club - he wants more positivity and purpose, more toughness and in-game saviness but the basic style and philosophy remains the same. I like how he said we'd had the ball more than any L2 side so far and seemed proud of the fact. I hope we won't hear podcasters and the like saying we've become, or are transitioning to, something completely different, becoming a typical L2 team or another Gillingham. Wishful thinking for some I suppose, but wrong.

Many people - players, coaches, recruitment honchos have left over the last few years... but if our current Head Coach left to be a Wycombe Wanderers assistant that would be the cherry on the cake. Even Jimmy and Jack on Meadow Lane could stand up and walk away.

I agree Clifton, but to avoid a whole bunch of games like Gillingham, MP has to find a way to get more north to south, up and down the pitch movement and playmaking to make sure the front 2 aren't isolated. MP has to look seriously at Norburn's role and contribution. If he's kept in we have to have the box midfield. Two horizontal lines Dennis/Jatta and Norburn/Palmer makes us so static and easy to contain.

Sweet moment BT, to be savoured (I mean the moment, not just the beer :) )

That's another solution @McPie, no Norburn, trust Palmer to play the midfield anchor on his own and either make it a midfield diamond or 2 mids ahead, either side of him, connecting with the 2 strikers. Formations with a back 4 is another way to go, but I can't see him doing that. Dennis as an inside forward seems the best way to go. He's shown aspects of his game that suggest he can do well there.

I think MP wants it as a regular option for sure. At the moment though, he will also want it for (club) political reasons, fitting in the returning player we need to showcase + L2's current leading scorer. Too many games like Saturday and he'll soon have to make it Plan B again. IMO the problem isn't as much Jatta/Dennis as Palmer/Norburn. The skipper is doing a wonderful job showing for the ball, linking the play, holding his position - but because he's not strong defensively Pato is plonking another holding player beside him. With these two CMs, wing-backs hugging the flanks, wide defenders off form, 2 strikers waiting for it upfield, there just isn't enough playmaking through the pitch to be able to play an effective passing game. It's too much to ask 1 player - Iorpenda for example, to do the job that was shared by Didzy and Crowley last season. It's too easy for L2 teams to snuff out that player, keep tight on the WBs and all the team can do is pass it for a bit, get frustrated, then hit it long. Personally, I want Pato to try out Dennis in the Didzy role to help with linking up the build up play from defence ton attack. It may not happen in the Crawley game, and a win on Saturday may mask the problem, but over time games like the Gills would become the norm under the current configuration IMO

JJ being tried out at No.10 made sense and was worth a shot, having lost Didzy and Crowley. Unfortunately he wasn't quite ready and was buffeted around every game in that congested area. Personally, I think we'll be forced to go back to 1 up front and we'll need 2 no.10s again (which might include Dennis), but Gordon going out will probably be the deciding factor in JJ going out wide again. And once he moves, we might not see him back inside again this season.

I think the coaching team will be given a fair shot, taking into account the quality available to them. Par might be mid-table up until January, when we can do something about it. A poor below-par run could prompt the bros to act before then. I don't think it's too much to ask MP to keep us just about 'in touch'. I think RobGag can get the biggest slice of the blame if we're not regularly in the top 10 from Sept-Jan, and I think the club and the fans can understand that. Par will be keeping in touch. Issues of style and performance levels should be secondary to results for the moment and ideally reviewed at the end of the season.

I've got RodMac down for at least 3 of these awards now.... When Platt gets back (unfortunately a long time away) I don't think anyone would want to see RodMac trapped on the right again with his left foot. As he says himself, CB is his position. So I'd imagine Platty becomes the latest player to try to solve our RCB position. That's assuming Rod can maintain this run of great form in the coming months. I suppose that's an unknown

You've identified something very important @Sir Magpie. The wide defenders are absolutely crucial in any possession-based scheme. Who does the GK pass to more than anyone else? - the RCB/LCB. The CMs? The same, probably. The CB? The WBs?. Those two positions see more of the ball than anybody, so they've got to be up for using it and capable of doing so. As you said, Bedeau been a shadow of himself so far. From Player of the Season candidate to nowhere near that level. Aljofree's been good in defence 90-95% of the time, but when the other 5% is costing you goals on a regular basis, it's not much use. As for showing for it, using it, sparking attacks? I can't remember a single instance of positive play. This is a very important area, crucial for our success this season. We have to hope Bedeau returns to last year's player soon. As for RCB, the achilles heel of NCFC since they got back into the EFL, I'm afraid the search goes on.

I think it helps to think of keeping possession as just something good players and teams do rather than as a philosophy. English club football had it's peak in the late 70s early 80s but the writing was on the wall before that. I watched decades of football where European teams full of 'technical players' dominated the ball and British players gave it away. It was always painful watching seeing England or English clubs chasing round the opposition unable to get the ball. Giving the ball away cheaply became the thing I hated most, even watching Notts, which could be torture over the years but you do it out of commitment and loyalty. Saturday was a masterclass in giving the ball way cheaply, by both sides, and it was an awful watch. Over the decades, good technical play became embedded in the English game and trickled down the leagues to even reach the NL. I think that thuggish, physical teams only succeed down in L2 because of the way the game's officiated - it wouldn't wash in other countries. Generally though I don't think there's any going back with the direction of the game and we shouldn't deviate from trying to mirror the type of football played in the premiership. Sure it's got faster as @McPie said, but it's still based on great technical players able to keep the ball and find a man. I think that's what were trying to pull off at the moment. Good luck!

I don't think there's been a conscious effort to forge a new identity or go in a very different direction. More likely we've lurched from one point to another, and then another, based on the obvious failings before our own eyes. Suddenly losing our midfield under LW meant we could no longer control games, exposing our otherwise ok defence to pressures they just couldn't withstand. It was a downward spiral after that defensively (and the squad didn't get over losing LW anyway). So in came SM, withdrew the WBs further back, put constraints on defenders and CMs to always cover. Those changes, allied to his passionless, technical approach made for a boring product and a gutless team. So in came MP to reinject the passion, pace and purpose - to put the ball at risk more in the cause of being more positive. That allied to a poor year of recruitment - high quality going out, lesser quality coming in - has lead us to where we are now. All of which is, accidentally, far far away from how we strutted into the league with the ultra possession, ultra-attacking record goals / points team of LW's undeniable heroes, plus Didzy plus Crowley etc. In short, we've botched it, we've blown it. But that doesn't help us deal with where we are now. We appointed MP and, up to a point, we have to let him have a shot at success, doing things his way. Hopefully he can survive long enough for a new Head Of Recruitment to come in and give him some better tools to do the job with in the second half of the season. Staying in touch with the play-offs til then is the realistic goal.

I think that's the idea, but can't be sure! We were right to move on from the negativity and defeatism under SM. Don't want to be cruel and wish him well, but football matches aren't telecom call-outs where all you've got to do is find the right technical solution. 8 league games of trying to be more positive and aggressive under MP....maybe away at the league leaders isn't a fair one-off game to evaluate, but we are coming up to the 10 game mark that was mentioned. We need to put a couple of good performances in.

We are playing faster and with more intent though - that's a big change in itself