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+----- Thread: Wow ! Just Wow ! (/showthread.php?tid=5575)
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Wow ! Just Wow ! - bluepooch - 30-07-2017
Ok let get the cynical stuff out the way, it was a pre season friendly and they were down to 10 men after 38 mins but I left the ground absolutely drooling .Even a happy clapper like me did not expect that performance and result and I must admit I had a bit of smugness about me after insisting we were a good team with good players throughout pre season .
I did say that this would be the game to judge us and my goodness were we good ,we dominated from minute one and every single player who went on that pitch today was at least an 8/10.From Robbie Weir ,who looked like the midfeld general weve missed despite lacking game fitness to Paul Mcginn ,who must have felt cast out into the wilderness yet came on and was probably the best player on the pitch.
Caldwell has an abundance of options based on this performance ,whether is 3 5 2 ,4 at the back or a diamond .
Doncaster werent a patch on Rotherham and despite not fielding their best team from the start they never hardly got into our half it was such a dominant performance from us.
Onto next week and the real stuff begins ,if we perform anywhere near the level we did today we will comfortably win.
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - Devongone - 30-07-2017
I didn't see that coming!
Our useless website produces a report that gives me no idea of Doncaster's own strength or weakness, so I didn't know whether to be blown away or assume it was a resumption of the childhood friendship between Ferguson and GC.
Robbie Weir would not be a player I'd have wanted or one I'd expect to run our midfield! But the past is not always the best measure of the future. I'm so old I can remember Dan Archer completely running our midfield, mostly at walking pace. He was a poor man's Gerson, but what I can't remember is anyone saying on his arrival, "We'll be fine, we've got that Dan Archer!" So I won't pre-judge.
Whether Dennis is the addition needed to make the Gozie CO'G combo work is another issue. I think everyone knows CO'G can play, but if you want to be near the top of Division 2 you need to average between 1.5 and 2 goals a game. Our recent binary returns of 1 and 0 haven't given me any confidence in our ability to do anything but struggle. No Chesterfield fan expects 4 goals a week, but the capacity for that occasionally to happen is cheering. For me, as I said on another thread, the choice WAS either to find ways to score as a result of CO'G's undoubted effort, OR find ways to score without him in the team. Scoring is a necessity. CO'G doesn't have to do it, but the team does.
I was surprised to see Mitchell looking like a first choice, but most decent teams do seem to field a player of his type.
I didn't like the fact that Maguire seems to be behind Hird and Evatt in the manager's mind. He could well be right, but Maguire is at a stage where he NEEDS to take that big stride forward AND at the same time the club needs him to do it. Evatt and Hird are both good players and will occasionally still succeed together, but as a combination they are wide-open to exploitation by the division's quicker attacks.
Starting the season with Anyon in goal is another worry, but pushing Tommy before he is ready is a bigger one.
I'll end on a suggestion. Binnom-Williams is out for months apparently. If we do want a left-sided defender/midfielder I'd give Matthew Briggs a chance to resurrect a dying career. He's only 26. Colchester released him after he was out following a hip operation last season, but he did finish the season playing and managed into the teens of games! He played for England at every level from U-16 to U-21. He was the youngest player ever to appear in the Premiership. He took advantage of his Guyanan nationality to play internationally. Class isn't temporary and he could be far better than our level if someone had the sense to give him a last go.
It is nice to feel cheerful after a result.
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - Dancingwilldoit - 30-07-2017
Didn't go so wont comment.
Just hope he now realises that 3-5-2 isnt the only way. Understand we started 4-4-2 and stuck to it. For me that's a start.
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - Devongone - 30-07-2017
I strongly believe almost any formation CAN work. But everyone has to know what they are doing and be confident in it.
4-4-2 CAN look old and past its sell-by date. But played well it can and does still win.
The biggest thing is when the opposition mucks up your plans you have to be flexible. Under Cookie we had a number of players for whom this was second nature - Clucas, Darikwa, Doyle, Boco, Roberts could all change games and adapt wherever they found themselves on the pitch. Adaptability within individual players always seems more important to me than having lots of different players to slot into different systems.
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - Dancingwilldoit - 30-07-2017
Agree Dev but our managers past methodology of putting square pegs in round holes has been a disaster. You have to pick your formation based on the players you have available and their abilities. If its not working from the ko you change it round pdq. You only need 1 or 2 players who have the flexibility to play in different positions. Donoghue is one and if rumours are to be believed he could be on his way. Not sure re anybody else.
The other thing that bothers me is once again where is German? Looked our strongest forward in the early games but didn't feature yesterday which doesn't bode well.
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - bluepooch - 30-07-2017
Donohue and Macguire both looked to have grown up /thickened out a bit this year and have improved in pre season as a result ,Donohue has good technical ability but isnt very good at defending ,he didnt have to do any defending yesterday.I think Macguire is out of favour with GC having pulled him off after 23 minutes the other night (ooh matron !).Left centre half is definitely Macguire's best position.
We cannot let Donohue go without signing a left back.(Plummer ?)
Ill be checking regularly this week to see if we have signed Weir.
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - Dancingwilldoit - 31-07-2017
Maguire isn't a left back that's for sure. Much better in a back 4 than a back 3. Wasn't comfortable there against Sheff FC until GC changed it round and at times last season he wasn't too effective.
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - Devongone - 31-07-2017
I'm not sure Ellis Plummer is a left back either. I saw right side or centre back listed for him. That said if he is going to be a left back then I see no necessity even to be left-footed. As I've said a million times I always thought wingers were more dangerous cutting inside than going outside. I like the strong foot INSIDE! I'd play McGinn. Left wing back is more problematic if you're expecting him to produce accurate left-footed crosses. BUT Dan Jones was ace at getting forward and slamming in crosses and we've sent him to Nottingham.
I agree Dancing, that last season our manager behaved as if you pick a system and expect players to fit into any part of it. It worked well. We didn't even have to fight for last place!
I can't see what's not to like about German. He's young, strong, leads the line and scores some goals. I wonder who we are going to loan him to ........ Barrow? I feel like e-mailing Torquay United and Exeter City and telling them to take him on loan. If he was at Exeter City Paul Tisdale would just play him, but then they've turned a big profit on making forwards like Ollie Watkins.
Anyone who takes a young player off after 23 minutes of a game if he is not injured is a PRICK! But when we're struggling and the players don't want to play for him GC will learn how being humiliated feels. He humiliated Maguire ...... has German down as a non-runner, Jay Smith isn't at the races like Brownell. Rowley's injured, Dimaio's got a sitting brief. Yeah youth has really got its head, what's he got in store for Charlie Wakefield?
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - bluepooch - 31-07-2017
The two youngsters who are going to come to the fore in the next few months are Wakefield and Rowley when fit ,simply because they don't look out of place and look good enough ,the same cant be said of the rest YET ,sorry Dev its as simple as that .
Just listening to the manager ' special 'on Radio Sheff ,why they invite the town manager I do not know ,there are never any town fans there so they hardly get a look in .
RE: Wow ! Just Wow ! - Devongone - 01-08-2017
Pooch, I WANT as many of these youngsters to come through as possible BUT I know if they do not make the first team at the right time it isn't going to happen at all. It mostly doesn't happen at Chelsea and Man City with all their resources.
We had a junior team that struggled to win whenever Ricky German didn't play. Now we think Wakefield and Rowley from that team are way in front of him. That doesn't seem logical to me. They may beat him in all sorts of ways technically, and perhaps they always have, but it doesn't mean they'll necessarily win us competitive matches. His big advantage is that, although his game is not complete, he has the physique to handle the challenge IF the manager does not choose to destroy the natural enthusiasm of youth.
Rowley and Wakefield may or may not grow much more, but games will teach them how to cope with their physique AND they will get stronger. I'd want all three in my eighteen on match days. That is, they are, the only way for our club to move forward. And by contrast, hooking your young centre back after twenty-odd minutes may be a very brian-clough thing to do (but he could be a prick and a bully too) certainly isn't Dancing's Road to Paradise, take it away David Byrne. I've been in schools, colleges and workplaces all my life, witnessed loads of attempts at humiliation and I have never seen it have a good effect.
Lots of complete bastards learn to manage football teams successfully. I hope ours does too, but it won't stop GC, like Sheridan before him, being an objectionable man. How he interviews on Radio Di Da is of relatively minor importance. How he behaves matters.
Last season, when Forest Green were loaning him out, I told you we should make a play for Kieffer Moore. Now he's on loan at Rotherham and it doesn't sound like we could handle him at all. I said we should look at Gozie Ugwu when he was at non-league Woking, we have and he seems pretty popular. All I can tell you is I'm more certain than I was with either of them that Ricky German can be a centre forward, not only for us, but at a much higher level. Being a big lad he is already at the point in his career at which we have the choice to kill that spark, or feed the flame. Ernie Moss made it because we played him when he'd scored and shone for the Juniors and the Reserves. Kevin Davies did the same. Ricky German led the Juniors, scored with the Reserves, WE HAVE only one more level.
Put wet rags on a flame and all you get is smoke.