Pre-season 2023-24

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Thanks for extensive debrief, Ghost. This was particularly interesting:

(Nlundulu) really needs to use his physicality more. He obviously wants to be a technical player, but when you're built like that there's no reason to avoid smashing people to the floor when it's an option. There were a couple of times when he turned away from a much smaller opponent he could have run over like a freight train.

I know what you mean. Football's fascinating because it's a mix of the physical and the cerebral. Yaya Toure was technically a good player; maybe not quite absolutely world-class Guardiola-Barcelona level (when Pep was there they had such high standards that Mascherano wasn't deemed to have quick enough feet to be a play-switching midfielder, which is why they moved him to centre=back), but plenty good enough for almost any team.

But he was also strong enough to dominate the midfield in the Premier League, which is not a place for the faint-hearted, and at times he looked like the U16 captain guesting in a U13 game. It's whatever works at that moment; catch whichever bus takes you toward your destination.

The problem with slowing the game down, being on your heels rather than your toes, is that it can make you look not so much in control as ponderous. If you then lose the ball, you look daft. This is what, by the eye test, seems to happen with Big Dan - he's got the confidence to front players up like Dapo did, but then doesn't spark past them like Dapo did. And that pause often allows defences to regroup, so it's one you have to use carefully.

To Worthy's point, it's no good beating two players and losing it to the third; although that's always the creative player's problem, the curse of every winger ever, it still looms large – especially in a time when transitions are so important.

Interesting that, as you (Ghost) say, Evatt could here make a big difference by giving him some very simple straightforward advice that might seem very non-Evattian: "Just smash past him." I think you're right that it could work. We (probably) won't know if the advice is given, but we'll know if it's acted upon.

[GhostoftheBok]

Sometimes the fans want play sped up when it actually should be slowed down. That happened with Williams a couple of times at Salford, when fans were mauling him for chopping back instead of taking his man on; but he then played a neat ball inside or a one-two and created something more dangerous.

There are other times when you need speed to your game, though. Dan can offer that, but it's a mentality thing. He has the feet and the physical power to be unplayable, but he's spent too long in the youth teams where everyone plays like they are small and a lot of what counts as basic physical contact in the men's game would be a foul. Refs at that level are encouraged to protect players, but Dan needs to figure out he's allowed to be much more aggressive.

Dan does sometimes try to take on too many, but equally part of that has been him playing too deep. He often had to go looking for the ball last season and at Salford we pretended he was a midfielder. In his more natural position as that sort of false-9 type he'd not have to beat a third player, because he'd only be taking on one or two.

This is the sort of thing that will test Evatt's shiny new system (mildly tweaked old system). Can it put his players where they need to be to get the best out of them? He's banging on about positional discipline and strikers playing as strikers, so we'll see.

[Worthy4England]

I suspect the "better/more dangerous chance" line of thinking might get a better hearing after a season where you've bagged 80. When you look shot shy and lacking variety against a camped defence, it can just look predictable, despite what stats might have you believe. The best chances are those that end in the net.

[GhostoftheBok]

I suspect the "better/more dangerous chance" line of thinking might get a better hearing after a season where you've bagged 80. When you look shot shy and lacking variety against a camped defence, it can just look predictable, despite what stats might have you believe. The best chances are those that end in the net.

I agree and there were times when we were away and didn't take advantage of it, or a striker turned and didn't get a shot away.

We have to shoot more to score more, but we need to be taking quality shots on and not just whacking it from anywhere.

There was a kiddy football coach sat in front of me at the game talking like he was Alex Ferguson. Nlundulu was released by a pass and as he reached it my new friend yelled "Take it first time!"...Dan was 30 yards from goal, on his wrong foot and with 3 covering defenders.

Everything we are working on in preseason is about trying to create more and take more shots. When we've had a proper 11 on the pitch it's looked decent and we probably need to separate that out from the many times we've patched a team together during the games so far.

The fact both Dion and Vic ended up lying on their backs trying to hook balls in like angry turtles didn't help, but it was good to see them having a go at each other and trying to figure out each others runs.

[BWFC_Insane]

Saying ‘Vic got an assist’ in a move where firstly he was too slow to get on the end of a ball then as it came back in fell over and inadvertently set up Morley sums up the ‘our front line is fine’ assertion.

Nobody with eyes could have watched yesterday and concluded that the strikers bar Charles looked close to top two of league one. Indeed I’d say they looked like last season.

It’s fine saying Nlundulu has the physical attributes but I’ve seen 16 year olds with more pitch awareness. He doesn’t know what to do. It’s like you’ve taken a great athlete who has never seen a game of football before and are trying to teach him how. He’s 24 that’s the issue. Can he learn at 24 what most by 18 either instinctively know or probably won’t make it?

Victor I’ve no idea what he’s meant to be but he looks absolutely hapless.

Jerome I think could be useful but not with how we play. He’s a back in and run the channels type now. He’s also probably a half hour hold on to a lead man.

Really hope we add Mendes Gomes as you can see instantly how he’d help us and there are a number of positions he would help in.

On stream it’s harder to tell but I thought Ashworth looked composed and Forrester looks a prospect. Thomason looked good but I worry that sort of opposition is his level. Hopefully he will kick on.

Midfield absolutely needs that more physical presence adding though still. When we stepped the game up we just lacked that still.

[truewhite15]

There was a kiddy football coach sat in front of me at the game talking like he was Alex Ferguson. Nlundulu was released by a pass and as he reached it my new friend yelled "Take it first time!"...Dan was 30 yards from goal, on his wrong foot and with 3 covering defenders.

There's not-rights like that everywhere, but particularly at the Reebok/Macron/UniBol/TCS. A bloke who's sat near me for twenty years, seen all the same football I have, still screams "Hit the thing" when the striker is facimg away from goal, on his wrong foot, with a 6-foot monolith of a defender standing right behind him. Or "go down the middle" when we're trying to work space out wide, due to the mass of defenders clogging the centre of the pitch. Or "get it in the mixer" when we've made it to the flank, despite the fact that the only man in there is Dion Charles surrounded by aforementioned 6-foot monoliths.

It's infuriating. Especially when he then decries loudly how shite we are for not following his flawed instructions.

[Harry Genshaw]

When Saturday Comes used to have a 'The Bloke Behind Me' (TBBM) feature with reports of outlandish remarks from around the grounds. A Liverpool fan shouting at the ref "You've given us nothing Thomas!" in their 70s cup semi final v Everton being a particular highlight - if you remember the game you'll know.

Any road, 10 minutes into a pre season friendly yesterday, mid July with an experimental lineup, and TBBM shouts, "Wake up whites. Sort it out, Evatt!!"

[GhostoftheBok]

Saying ‘Vic got an assist’ in a move where firstly he was too slow to get on the end of a ball then as it came back in fell over and inadvertently set up Morley sums up the ‘our front line is fine’ assertion.

Calm down, dear.

Morley played the ball into Vic in a position where he had no chance to control it, but he managed to adjust his feet to play it back and gave up his footing to do it.

It was an assist.

He also wasn't "too slow to get on the end of a ball." Dempsey blocked his natural line after he controlled it to him and Demps played it to the runner, so he adjusted to run to the back post. There was no way to make either run in time, but he set off exactly when he should have done.

He picked up the ball in the build up, laid it off, ran and ended up getting a vital touch in the box. There's sod all wrong with that from a centre forward.

[dave the minion]

It doesn't matter what actually happened or not - our pessimist friend has obviously decided that Vic & Dan are his first targets that aren't fit to wear the shirt, not good enough for league 1, pub-team standard etc etc etc.

Don't worry, he'll soon move on. I reckon he'll be back onto Santos next - he's not been the focus of his attention for a while.....

[Harry Genshaw]

. I think today Gilks said, "What have we said?" when he did it in warm-up...then he took it into the match anyway. I may have seen it wrong, though, as I say. I was looking for it, so may be confirmation bias.

That session they did was right in front of me and something that bothered me was Gilkes explaining what he wanted from Coleman and telling him where to place his feet in a 1 in 1. It appeared to me that Coleman turned his back on him and made a point of ignoring what Gilkes was trying to say.

Agree with your points on him though. He looks like a decent L1 keeper and he'll do OK for us when called on.

By the way, Gilkes can't half strike a ball

[Worthy4England]

It doesn't matter what actually happened or not - our pessimist friend has obviously decided that Vic & Dan are his first targets that aren't fit to wear the shirt, not good enough for league 1, pub-team standard etc etc etc.

Don't worry, he'll soon move on. I reckon he'll be back onto Santos next - he's not been the focus of his attention for a while.....

If I put hyperbole to one side, Vic and Dan have a fair old way to go, to convince me too. What we appear to be doing currently is bemoaning and dissecting everything to convince ourselves it's not their fault, like every striker we've previously had always got perfect balls, in perfect positions...

[GhostoftheBok]

That session they did was right in front of me and something that bothered me was Gilkes explaining what he wanted from Coleman and telling him where to place his feet in a 1 in 1. It appeared to me that Coleman turned his back on him and made a point of ignoring what Gilkes was trying to say.

Agree with your points on him though. He looks like a decent L1 keeper and he'll do OK for us when called on.

By the way, Gilkes can't half strike a ball

Matt's a proper pro. He was never that talented, but everything he could master he did. He always manged to become #1 ahead of more talented goalkeepers and it's a credit to him.

I know what you mean about Coleman's body language, but Gilks didn't seem to mind and it was probably just the need to communicate whilst not wasting time.

Gilks seems to let the 'keepers have a degree of control over sessions. He'll be crossing the ball in and they'll wave him off to try something else. The pre-match stuff is mostly about getting lads to feel confident anyway, rather than full-on coaching.

[BWFC_Insane]

Saying ‘Vic got an assist’ in a move where firstly he was too slow to get on the end of a ball then as it came back in fell over and inadvertently set up Morley sums up the ‘our front line is fine’ assertion.

Calm down, dear.

Morley played the ball into Vic in a position where he had no chance to control it, but he managed to adjust his feet to play it back and gave up his footing to do it.

It was an assist.

He also wasn't "too slow to get on the end of a ball." Dempsey blocked his natural line after he controlled it to him and Demps played it to the runner, so he adjusted to run to the back post. There was no way to make either run in time, but he set off exactly when he should have done.

He picked up the ball in the build up, laid it off, ran and ended up getting a vital touch in the box. There's sod all wrong with that from a centre forward.

The ball hit him and he fell over. There was nothing at all intentional about it. The move in totality sums up for me how hapless he is. I hope it’s a confidence thing rather than an ability thing but his first touch thus far has been atrocious.

[GhostoftheBok]

The ball hit him and he fell over. There was nothing at all intentional about it. The move in totality sums up for me how hapless he is. I hope it’s a confidence thing rather than an ability thing but his first touch thus far has been atrocious.

The ball was fired in at him. He adjusted his body to open up and cushioned it with his instep. It's a proper assist, not "the ball hit him."

Ade Touch 1.png (117.93 KiB) Viewed 10177 times

Ade Touch 2.png (152.78 KiB) Viewed 10177 times

He was involved in the build-up and then got a vital touch in the 18-yard-box. That's why he's on the pitch.

[GhostoftheBok]

I'll entirely accept that he wanted to trap it closer so he could get his own shot away, but when a ball comes in like that you control it into a dangerous area and what comes off comes off. It doesn't need to all be perfect, you just need to get the ball somewhere your lot are and their lot aren't.

[BWFC_Insane]

Oh I could well believe on evidence thus far that it was an attempt to trap it….

[GhostoftheBok]

Oh I could well believe on evidence thus far that it was an attempt to trap it….

So, for clarity.

Links up to start the play and gets an assist at the end.

Right?

[Worthy4England]

That's a pretty clutchy a bale of straws in my book. Looks like it's bounced off his foot to me. I mean you could argue whether there's any intent either way, if you're supportive, then yeah, well done that man.

[GhostoftheBok]

That's a pretty clutchy a bale of straws in my book. Looks like it's bounced off his foot to me. I mean you could argue whether there's any intent either way, if you're supportive, then yeah, well done that man.

I think the main thing is he's now consistently involved in play.

It wasn't some exceptional bit of play, but he laid off to start that phase of the attack and laid off again for the finish.

The basic components of Evatt's game plan are work rate and repetition. Run all game and keep doing the right things and eventually it'll drop right. The more often you do the right things the more you'll score.

He's starting to look like he fits in.

[GhostoftheBok]

It looks like I'll be missing the Everton game tomorrow, so I will try to catch it on Wanderers TV.

I know we're supposed to be getting a fancy, full TV style experience for that one, but I thought I'd ask what the previous broadcasts were like. Who is commentating? How's the video quality? Is it better than iPlayer?