It's early days but.....

[fulwoodshrimp]

It's early days in the season but a number of things are becoming clear.
1. Andresson's distribution is really poor and needs to show significant improvement.
2. Cole Stockton needs support. He is tightly marked usually with two defenders on him. His reputation as a quality striker has gone before him. Hopefully the signing of Duffus will resolve this problem.
3. Toumani Diagouraga is quality no matter what level he is playing at. His skill on the ball and vision are wonderful to see.
4. Several of the loanees are taking time to make an impact. Am I the only one disappointed by the performances of McPake and McCalmont so far? I am hoping as they get fitter and familiar with the league their performances will improve.
5. I think a couple of the signings are not league 1 standard and need to be moved on. I won't name names but a couple are obvious!
6. Aaron Wildig wonderful player that he is, is very injury prone and is perhaps a luxury we can't afford.
7. Refereeing shows no sign of improvement and as the season progresses the bigger boys in the league such as Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton etc. will be awarded the 50-50 decisions against us.

[Keith]

4. Several of the loanees are taking time to make an impact. Am I the only one disappointed by the performances of McPake and McCalmont so far? I am hoping as they get fitter and familiar with the league their performances will improve.
5. I think a couple of the signings are not league 1 standard and need to be moved on. I won't name names but a couple are obvious!

I'm inclined to refer you to the title of your thread... I think it is still 'early days' and some of the players are still settling in. The average age of the squad is probably one of the lowest in League Two. Pretty much all the new players have potential to improve.

I've enjoyed watching every game, even the ones we lost. We've played some really good sides, with another coming up on Saturday, then a break. Hopefully, we'll have some players back to full fitness soon, then we can really assess where we are up to.

[redrobo]

Superb entertainment and an excellent team performance last night. PNE players and fans knew they had been in a game the way the celebrated the 4th goal.

No complaints from me in fact much to look forward to if we can duplicate that performance throughout the season.

Wednesday this weekend and it would be nice if we came the first club to score (and win) against them this season.

The new lad surprised me and at times showed that when hoe gets used to the style and pace of our game he could be an excellent partner for Cole the Goal.

Still not convinced about McDonald who for me flatters to deceive but maybe he is taking time to adjust to SR's style.

For me the outstanding performance of the entire match was McCloughlin in midfield. Never stopped working and making forward runs with the ball something that we haven't had for a few seasons.

Plenty of positives going forward.

Just a shame that the home numbers where down last night to circa 2700......

[P/T Indie]

I am starting to worry that despite all our wonderful play we are not going to score enough goals to get us the wins we need. Hopefully it will change soon but the last couple of games seem to be a case of we played well but were unlucky and at some point that needs to change.

The wide players don't seem to be league 1 quality but SR did mention that in an interview and said they have been at the level they are at for a reason they have no end product, SR is taking a gamble on them and hoping he can coach them into becoming better .

[euston rd shrimp]

first post....compared to previous seasons this season has been like a breath of fresh air. sharp play at pace, with players who look up for it. better standard, playing against better teams. bigger crowds who are really getting behind the team.early days but i like what i see.

[glagys]

Must agree with some comments
As SR eluded to our final ball is letting us down a lot, in contrast nearly all PNE ‘s found their man,
Unsure of Arthur’s contribution think Josh would do better,
We go again Saturday tough game as they have not conceded a goal yet
But we have Cole

[Andy D]

we're great to watch but my concern is our Goalkeepers.

we have one who's small and stays on his line but his kicking is good.

we have another who's tall and comes of his line but his kicking is poor.



i preferred Mark Halstead,

[redrobo]

we're great to watch but my concern is our Goalkeepers.

we have one who's small and stays on his line but his kicking is good.

we have another who's tall and comes of his line but his kicking is poor.



i preferred Mark Halstead,

His kicking is an area that he can work on with Baz BUT for me he distributes the ball by hand to his back line which is the way I suspect SR has instructed him to. Play from the back has always been my preferred option.

[P/T Indie]

I bet Baz was getting nervous last night thinking he might have to come on.

[Ego Tripping]

we're great to watch but my concern is our Goalkeepers.

we have one who's small and stays on his line but his kicking is good.

we have another who's tall and comes of his line but his kicking is poor.



i preferred Mark Halstead,

Lethern is 6.2. Not sure that’s short, even for a keeper. For me he was outstanding last season and was very solid. As I’ve posted on here before Halstead was a good shot stopper but made a massive number of errors including 3 in one game at Northampton. Nowhere near good enough for L1 and probably at his level in national league. Jokull just turned 20 today. Been brilliant so far and his kicking will improve.

[Little Shrimp]

Gosh, this all sounds rather worrying. Fortunately, some of the points are reactive nonsense.

1. Nonsense, Jokull's kicking is fine. It's unfortunate that a stray kick led to the throw for Gillingham's penalty, but I think you can safely say conceding a dived for penalty after a throw-in from 35/40ish yards was a freak incident. Those dinks to full backs are really hard to pull off, and he gets most of them right. His long kicking has been decent - generally pretty accurate towards Stockton/Gnahoua and rarely punts it out of play. His dodgy kicks have generally been forced - either coming from poor back passes or good pressing or both. He's always looks for a quick throw too which I like a lot.

2. Agree - hopefully we'll get more incisive playing through the thirds and like you say, Duffus and Ayunga when he's back and hopefully Obika after Christmas will all help.

3. Toums is phenomenal, spot on.

4. McPake and McCalmont have shown themselves to be very good tidy players but like almost all of our team, have struggled to make an impact in the final third. I'd like to see more from them and the rest of the team in that regard, but I definitely wouldn't say they've been disappointing. Both look really promising young players, and hopefully they can bring a bit more end product as the team gels.

5. Utter rubbish. We've had four league games. To describe somebody after that period of time as 'not League One level' etc is ridiculous. Not many have have really sparkled in forward areas, but there's not been anybody who looks properly out of their depth. What a silly statement.

6. Again, utter rubbish. He played 46 times last season, getting 10 goals and 7 assists. This injury now is unfortunate, but he's due back this weekend and will hopefully be bringing something we've lacked so far - a bit of nous in the final third and ability to get into good goalscoring positions from midfield. To suggest he's potentially a luxury we can't afford is ludicrous.

7. Agreed - the referees are still rubbish.

Yes, it's not nice that we've lost a few games. But for god's sake, we're four games into the bloody season! There are things that can be worked on for sure, but we've shown ourselves to be a competent League One side in lots of areas of our play. Calm down!

[fulwoodshrimp]

Not sure you were at the game last night Little Shrimp but the keeper’s kicking was poor surrendering possession repeatedly. However, this can be worked on and improved. You also don’t think a couple of the players are not good enough. I am confident that at least two will not feature when all the squad are available. I am pleased Wildig returns this weekend and look forward to his contributions throughout the rest of the season.

[CityShrimp]

I do think the OPs post is a ‘glass half empty’ view on things.

Yes we need to be more clinical and yes it’s true that some of our players may not turn out to be league 1 standard but did we really expect we’d be doing better than this?

The football we are playing is better than it’s ever been. We have a quality midfield with players who are incredibly composed and are capable of linking defence and attack with forward passes on the deck (can’t remember ever being able to say that about a Morecambe side!)

Don’t agree about McPake and McCalmont - both look quality to me.

It is important to remember that until last season, we were a league 2 club who struggled to attract proven players at L2 level and indeed we often lost out to national league sides for players! Let’s be realistic, some of the players we’ve signed probably wouldn’t have got another league 1 side but I think the side we’ve cobbled together looks really good and competitive when taking everything into account!

[Little Shrimp]

Not sure you were at the game last night Little Shrimp but the keeper’s kicking was poor surrendering possession repeatedly. However, this can be worked on and improved. You also don’t think a couple of the players are not good enough. I am confident that at least two will not feature when all the squad are available. I am pleased Wildig returns this weekend and look forward to his contributions throughout the rest of the season.

I've just watched the game back now - a couple went out of play after our players were shepherded off the ball by Preston defenders, and I think only one went straight out without bouncing. Overall, his kicking was at a good quality.

On long kicking generally - even the best keepers only manage about 40%-50% accuracy. It's the nature of that kind of kick.

[Gone_Shrimping]

One interesting change from last season I have noticed is that last season virtually every team we played , even the poor ones made many more passes than us. Sometimes double the number of passes we made or even more.

This season we have actually out passed some teams and even against PNE we made 327 passes against PNE's 357 passes.

I know passes especially across the back 4 don't mean so much but it is a change of system from Derek's days.

[sandgrown]

4. Several of the loanees are taking time to make an impact. Am I the only one disappointed by the performances of McPake and McCalmont so far? I am hoping as they get fitter and familiar with the league their performances will improve.
5. I think a couple of the signings are not league 1 standard and need to be moved on. I won't name names but a couple are obvious!

I'm inclined to refer you to the title of your thread... I think it is still 'early days' and some of the players are still settling in. The average age of the squad is probably one of the lowest in League Two. Pretty much all the new players have potential to improve.

I've enjoyed watching every game, even the ones we lost. We've played some really good sides, with another coming up on Saturday, then a break. Hopefully, we'll have some players back to full fitness soon, then we can really assess where we are up to.

spot on post, and Phillips is far too good to be on the bench !