Thoughts on Bentley

[Gabriel]

Morecambe fans,

Done a Q&A with fan Jack Steer (think he might be a member on here) - http://www.TheFootbalLab.co.uk/2016/mor ... e-defence/

Would be interested to get your views on Bentley? Worst ever season under him last year - he to blame or got his hands tied?

Cheers and good luck for the season.

[Zippy]

Seems like an objective analysis at the end , hope it's wrong of course

[Gabriel]

Seems like an objective analysis at the end , hope it's wrong of course

Thanks Zippy. Defensive record of last season seems worrying, plus the loss of attacking players like Devitt and Miller to Carlisle. Could be proved wrong.

[marky No.1]

Defence has improved from Saturday, just 4 goals conceded instead of 6

[steve mfc]

Defence has improved from Saturday, just 4 goals conceded instead of 6

Always look on the bright side of life

[Gabriel]

Defence has improved from Saturday, just 4 goals conceded instead of 6

May get it down to 3 next time! how's Winnard looking in pre-season? I believe at Stanley he wasn't happy at playing out of position.

[halfwayprawn]

Why did he sign for us then.

[marky No.1]

Ha ha, Sam. I think he looks quite capable and expect him to stay central. More vocal than others particularly when Edwards had a go at him for passing him the ball when he didn't want it - hope that was just being vocal as we don't want handbags at dawn.

Assuming Jim is in the dark about any new owners, it must be a worrying time in his preperation for the important stuff next week.

We will have to be stronger mentally and physically when we enter the lions den, that is Blundell Park

[steve mfc]

Winnard certainly is vocal he had a right go at Conlan after we conceded the first goal and rightly so, once again he had drifted inside leaving a player unmarked in a wide area, that's something that needs to be worked on because it happened frequently last season.

[Gabriel]

Ha ha, Sam. I think he looks quite capable and expect him to stay central. More vocal than others particularly when Edwards had a go at him for passing him the ball when he didn't want it - hope that was just being vocal as we don't want handbags at dawn.

Assuming Jim is in the dark about any new owners, it must be a worrying time in his preperation for the important stuff next week.

We will have to be stronger mentally and physically when we enter the lions den, that is Blundell Park

That'll be a tough game with Grimsby back in the league. From what I've seen of Winnard he's a good defender but not the best going forward so probably better suited to centre-back than full-back.

[marky No.1]

No change there then, our central defenders have been poor at going forward and scoring goals from corners in recent years. That doesn't bother me if they stop letting so many in at the other end

[black morse]

Winnard certainly is vocal he had a right go at Conlan after we conceded the first goal and rightly so, once again he had drifted inside leaving a player unmarked in a wide area, that's something that needs to be worked on because it happened frequently last season.

For me, this is one of the main reasons for our failure last season.
We often blame individual full backs for leaving the opposition wide men far too much room to get their crosses in but from reports on here it's happening again (with different players in defence from last year) so we must come to the conclusion that, as Jim has said they've been working hard on defence planning, this is the way Jim wants them to play. All our full backs do it so they must have been instructed to do it.

If a team is going to pack the middle defence area they must be able to deal with the crosses which will inevitably follow. We are not up against premiership wide men and the crosses cannot be inch perfect every time but given plenty of time and space the crosses will always be more accurate and, therefore more difficult. So using that type of defensive system, unless we have a defence which is great at dealing with crosses, we are going to leak goals again this year.

[Gabriel]

Winnard certainly is vocal he had a right go at Conlan after we conceded the first goal and rightly so, once again he had drifted inside leaving a player unmarked in a wide area, that's something that needs to be worked on because it happened frequently last season.

For me, this is one of the main reasons for our failure last season.
We often blame individual full backs for leaving the opposition wide men far too much room to get their crosses in but from reports on here it's happening again (with different players in defence from last year) so we must come to the conclusion that, as Jim has said they've been working hard on defence planning, this is the way Jim wants them to play. All our full backs do it so they must have been instructed to do it.

If a team is going to pack the middle defence area they must be able to deal with the crosses which will inevitably follow. We are not up against premiership wide men and the crosses cannot be inch perfect every time but given plenty of time and space the crosses will always be more accurate and, therefore more difficult. So using that type of defensive system, unless we have a defence which is great at dealing with crosses, we are going to leak goals again this year.

The aerial ability of centre-backs is the key. If I recall Leicester were quite happy to let teams cross it into the box, because they knew Huth and Morgan would win every header. If your centre-backs are rubbish in the air you end up inviting problems.

[Christies Child]

Winnard certainly is vocal he had a right go at Conlan after we conceded the first goal and rightly so, once again he had drifted inside leaving a player unmarked in a wide area, that's something that needs to be worked on because it happened frequently last season.

For me, this is one of the main reasons for our failure last season.
We often blame individual full backs for leaving the opposition wide men far too much room to get their crosses in but from reports on here it's happening again (with different players in defence from last year) so we must come to the conclusion that, as Jim has said they've been working hard on defence planning, this is the way Jim wants them to play. All our full backs do it so they must have been instructed to do it.

If a team is going to pack the middle defence area they must be able to deal with the crosses which will inevitably follow. We are not up against premiership wide men and the crosses cannot be inch perfect every time but given plenty of time and space the crosses will always be more accurate and, therefore more difficult. So using that type of defensive system, unless we have a defence which is great at dealing with crosses, we are going to leak goals again this year.

Unfortunately this post is spot on....but others will no doubt say it's only pre season BUT 10 goals against in 2 back to back games isn't exactly confidence building on the terraces surely....