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Changes for Saturday........
- Thread starter John Eldridge
- Start date
It seems Sheridan likes to keep personnel at the back more or less the same, regardless of formation. That's fine. So really it's just a question of who is deployed where in the attack. I wonder if he has any plans to try Banton somewhere different? The problem for Banton could be that if the team continues in this form the manager will be reluctant to make drastic changes.
If anything that should enable our other players to get in and hurt the opposition, so hopefully we'll see the likes of Alessandra getting on the scoresheet more often.Dan Ellard":pz406830 said:
With Reid up front we constantly lump long balls up to him, the best performance so far this season was against Swindon in the first half, when he was on the bench, the team kept the ball on the ground and all pulled together to play attractive football, when he came on in the second half we went back to the long ball game again. Put him on the bench, start with morgan and alessandra, or put banton down the middle right up on the last man.
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Cobi Budge.
Guest
You are correct, our best performance of the season going forward was against Swindon, without Reid.
Saying that I don't think we should drop him, but he does need to step up his work rate and link better with Alessandra, I think he needs to go looking for the ball more rather than expecting it to go straight to him.
I like Reid, good player, but I don't think he's as crucial as some make him out to be.
Saying that I don't think we should drop him, but he does need to step up his work rate and link better with Alessandra, I think he needs to go looking for the ball more rather than expecting it to go straight to him.
I like Reid, good player, but I don't think he's as crucial as some make him out to be.
We'd score even fewer than our already small goal total without Reid. He gets marked out of games which should in theory open up space for the other attacking players but score from. The problem there is that Alessandra is too profligate to take advantage of it- that's not Reid's fault at all. Other teams have sussed that they can put all their marking resources onto him and our other attacking players will somehow conspire between them not to score. Reuben can't control how much he's marked. Other players can control how well they can advantage of the fact...and they're doing so badly. He isn't still 100% fit either. Imagine how good he could be if he is fully fit- we've seen it already, in fact.
You can't extrapolate the match against Swindon to our league form. Alessandra scoring two one on one chances is quite frankly an anomaly in itself. Very rare he'll even score one in four chances of that nature usually. Smalley had one half-decent game which doesn't at all make a summer. He's a far worse player technically, physically and in every way that counts than Reid. When the direct balls go up the pitch to Reuben and Alessandra (in spite of the latter's finishing deficiencies) you expect the ball to stick with the two of them and a chance to be created out of it. When the direct balls go up the pitch to Smalley, it's like a pinball machine. He doesn't at all have Reid's power or turn of pace. Can you seriously imagine him nicking the ball off a defender and bounding into the penalty area with it like Reuben does? Smalley for me isn't 'snapping at Reuben's heels'. There is the world of difference between them in quality.
My final point is that as good as that Swindon game was, there's a reason than Harvey, Norburn, Smalley and the like did not retain their place in the team. At the end of the day it was a cup game. Swindon only woke up in the last 20 minutes- before that they were absolute dross. Does that mean we didn't play well regardless? No it doesn't at all. It was a very good team performance and Smalley scored a fine goal. But I still wasn't won over by his technical ability and it's still the only open play goal he's scored for us in quite a lot of matches now. Swindon were playing at a tempo of 10-15% slower than what they'd play in a league match. Yes, we did play well and there's no doubting that but in league games we come up against the extra 10% of harrying and pressure from the opposition. There's no way we'd get away with playing that line-up week in week out in League Two no matter how well we played.
For me, Reuben is our best player, our most important player and dropping him (especially for someone as mediocre a player and as lacking in goals as Smalley) would be about the daftest thing we could do.
You can't extrapolate the match against Swindon to our league form. Alessandra scoring two one on one chances is quite frankly an anomaly in itself. Very rare he'll even score one in four chances of that nature usually. Smalley had one half-decent game which doesn't at all make a summer. He's a far worse player technically, physically and in every way that counts than Reid. When the direct balls go up the pitch to Reuben and Alessandra (in spite of the latter's finishing deficiencies) you expect the ball to stick with the two of them and a chance to be created out of it. When the direct balls go up the pitch to Smalley, it's like a pinball machine. He doesn't at all have Reid's power or turn of pace. Can you seriously imagine him nicking the ball off a defender and bounding into the penalty area with it like Reuben does? Smalley for me isn't 'snapping at Reuben's heels'. There is the world of difference between them in quality.
My final point is that as good as that Swindon game was, there's a reason than Harvey, Norburn, Smalley and the like did not retain their place in the team. At the end of the day it was a cup game. Swindon only woke up in the last 20 minutes- before that they were absolute dross. Does that mean we didn't play well regardless? No it doesn't at all. It was a very good team performance and Smalley scored a fine goal. But I still wasn't won over by his technical ability and it's still the only open play goal he's scored for us in quite a lot of matches now. Swindon were playing at a tempo of 10-15% slower than what they'd play in a league match. Yes, we did play well and there's no doubting that but in league games we come up against the extra 10% of harrying and pressure from the opposition. There's no way we'd get away with playing that line-up week in week out in League Two no matter how well we played.
For me, Reuben is our best player, our most important player and dropping him (especially for someone as mediocre a player and as lacking in goals as Smalley) would be about the daftest thing we could do.
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Cobi Budge.
Guest
Think you are extremely harsh on Smalley sam.
He's been getting fitter, getting himself more involved in games and looking much more of a threat, he was wasted stuck on the right, now he's been moved centrally I think he is a really useful option.
He's been getting fitter, getting himself more involved in games and looking much more of a threat, he was wasted stuck on the right, now he's been moved centrally I think he is a really useful option.
Sam, I think the problem is that we are lumping direct balls to Smalley and he's not the type of player which that tactic suits. He's a more technical, ball-playing player unlike Reid who's game is all about strength, power and running with the ball.
Maybe our current set up doesn't suit his style but I feel we need someone to compliment Reid who's more of a fox in the box. Alessandra shows glimpses but he's not consistent enough.
Maybe our current set up doesn't suit his style but I feel we need someone to compliment Reid who's more of a fox in the box. Alessandra shows glimpses but he's not consistent enough.
Can't say I agree that Smalley is a technical player. When the ball is played to Reid's feet he generally gets it under control and does something with it very quickly, be that a pass, a shot or a run with the ball. When it's played to Smalley I just don't think he has that knack of getting the ball to stick to his foot in the same way. He does have shades of the 'Nick Chadwick pinball machine' about him in the sense that you're never sure if the ball will stick to him or not whereas you are with other players. At least, that's what I think.
He's improving and has got more involved with games since he's been moved centrally, there's no question of that at all. But for me his lack of ability to either A) Distribute it well to other attackers or B) Get the first touch right to do a lot with it himself in terms of a charge/run in goal or C) Poach goals is a problem for me. You've got to be doing at least one of those three to be a good striker rather than an average one imo. Smalley for me doesn't. I hope he proves me wrong over the season to come.
He's improving and has got more involved with games since he's been moved centrally, there's no question of that at all. But for me his lack of ability to either A) Distribute it well to other attackers or B) Get the first touch right to do a lot with it himself in terms of a charge/run in goal or C) Poach goals is a problem for me. You've got to be doing at least one of those three to be a good striker rather than an average one imo. Smalley for me doesn't. I hope he proves me wrong over the season to come.
Verte":186pvspj said:
Who exactly, and to which L2 teams?
Take AFCW from Tuesday, the now pitiful ghetto residents who couldn't even keep hold of their sorry excuse of a formerly well located but poorly supported franchise what chanced to have a morbidly memorable day in May '88 kicking better but oddly complacent players off the park that sunny afternoon. No way they'd stoop even in this moment to start with our subs Smalley and Morgan stumbling into a season of nothingness. Zero threat of them two moving or able to be moved on, come January.
