08-01-2018, 14:04
Aaron Ramsdale had had two games (for Sheff Utd) before Accrington and one of those was a 6-0 win against Leyton Orient, so he didn't gain much experience there. I said before the game it would be very difficult for him. We didn't exactly set him up to fail, but I think the options for him were either a stinker, or he'd get off to a flyer with a couple of electric saves and play a blinder. I'm afraid pessimism won out.
At the moment I'm turning out to be right far more often than usual ...... but that only shows how bad things are, when things live down to a pessimist's expectations..... Blue's turned out to be mostly wrong for quite a while for the same reason - he's looking for good things to happen. Blue spent Cookie's time knocking 'em in from all over the park. Even very dodgy-looking decisions often turned out fine in those days. Now, well, Jack playing Ramsdale was probably the right decision objectively, he had no way of knowing what was going to happen next and there's nothing to say that Eastwood or Parkin playing behind a new and inexperienced defence wouldn't have found different mistakes to make.
What would be nice would be for Jack to go with Ramsdale and the crowd to chant his name before the kick-off ........ you have no idea how much simply feeling wanted and welcome can add to any keepers performance at any level of the game. So much of goalkeeping is about what is going on in your head - especially when the ball is nowhere near you. If the young man has the decent level of ability, which international caps at three levels suggest, I'm pretty much of the opinion that if you make him think he's a hero, he'll be one.
As for Dennis, if he's staying, if I were in Jack's shoes I'd play Ricky German with him AND I'd take Dennis and Zavon Hines to one side and tell them to look out for him too, encourage him and try to get the most out of him. A bit of power and pace in the team from Ricky ought to benefit both of them and they have got the years of experience he lacks. What's raw about Ricky might surprise Luton's defenders. Remember how Darikwa used to drive Dancing mad, by too often losing the ball down the right, but the chances he took (maybe recklessly) often stretched defences and made us hard to handle. When you play predictably as we sometimes have with a ball up to O'Grady should we be surprised when defences can handle it? Similarly NOW they know to look out for Dennis and his job is much harder than it was earlier in the season ...... so I'd have thought we need to give them problems they're not ready for, to get Dennis scoring again.
And we need signings. If we can't get a fully experienced centre back, I'd say sign Ryan Astles from Chester with a view to next season too. And oh surely we need someone with some size strength and a tackle in midfield ....?
At the moment I'm turning out to be right far more often than usual ...... but that only shows how bad things are, when things live down to a pessimist's expectations..... Blue's turned out to be mostly wrong for quite a while for the same reason - he's looking for good things to happen. Blue spent Cookie's time knocking 'em in from all over the park. Even very dodgy-looking decisions often turned out fine in those days. Now, well, Jack playing Ramsdale was probably the right decision objectively, he had no way of knowing what was going to happen next and there's nothing to say that Eastwood or Parkin playing behind a new and inexperienced defence wouldn't have found different mistakes to make.
What would be nice would be for Jack to go with Ramsdale and the crowd to chant his name before the kick-off ........ you have no idea how much simply feeling wanted and welcome can add to any keepers performance at any level of the game. So much of goalkeeping is about what is going on in your head - especially when the ball is nowhere near you. If the young man has the decent level of ability, which international caps at three levels suggest, I'm pretty much of the opinion that if you make him think he's a hero, he'll be one.
As for Dennis, if he's staying, if I were in Jack's shoes I'd play Ricky German with him AND I'd take Dennis and Zavon Hines to one side and tell them to look out for him too, encourage him and try to get the most out of him. A bit of power and pace in the team from Ricky ought to benefit both of them and they have got the years of experience he lacks. What's raw about Ricky might surprise Luton's defenders. Remember how Darikwa used to drive Dancing mad, by too often losing the ball down the right, but the chances he took (maybe recklessly) often stretched defences and made us hard to handle. When you play predictably as we sometimes have with a ball up to O'Grady should we be surprised when defences can handle it? Similarly NOW they know to look out for Dennis and his job is much harder than it was earlier in the season ...... so I'd have thought we need to give them problems they're not ready for, to get Dennis scoring again.
And we need signings. If we can't get a fully experienced centre back, I'd say sign Ryan Astles from Chester with a view to next season too. And oh surely we need someone with some size strength and a tackle in midfield ....?