League Two Northampton v Rovers

[drwhoman]

They looked very poor tonight. Will be a close one. Leeds are also on a terrible run and I think it will be either Burley, Everton or Leeds for the chop.

Considering that Everton's spend over the last few years has been higher than Liverpool's it does not reflect well on the owner and his choice of Managers. Always a problem when one man calls the shots. People blame Kenwright but he is but a front man. Moshiri is the decision maker given his money. I am not sure where he got that from BTW. He is very close to Usmanov who has just been sanctioned as a friend of Putin. Not happy days for Toffees supporters! And the Club is building a new stadium - which will cost hundreds of millions. Not a nice thought if they end up in the Championship.

 

[drwhoman]

Considering that Everton's spend over the last few years has been higher than Liverpool's it does not reflect well on the owner and his choice of Managers. Always a problem when one man calls the shots. People blame Kenwright but he is but a front man. Moshiri is the decision maker given his money. I am not sure where he got that from BTW. He is very close to Usmanov who has just been sanctioned as a friend of Putin. Not happy days for Toffees supporters! And the Club is building a new stadium - which will cost hundreds of millions. Not a nice thought if they end up in the Championship.

Interestingly, I see that Liverpool Council are not longer going to lend Everton 300m (which was ridiculous anyway) towards the cost of the new stadium as the Club will get the funds from elsewhere. I can only assume Moshiri as no one in their right mind would lend Everton that sort of money on a commercial basis. I have not seen their latest accounts but I doubt if they could pay a proper rate of return on that amount, particularly as like all clubs, their income will have been adversely affected by Covid. If anything happens to Moshiri they will certainly be in the poo.

 

[drwhoman]

Interestingly, I see that Liverpool Council are not longer going to lend Everton 300m (which was ridiculous anyway) towards the cost of the new stadium as the Club will get the funds from elsewhere. I can only assume Moshiri as no one in their right mind would lend Everton that sort of money on a commercial basis. I have not seen their latest accounts but I doubt if they could pay a proper rate of return on that amount, particularly as like all clubs, their income will have been adversely affected by Covid. If anything happens to Moshiri they will certainly be in the poo.

Just ignore some of this. The Council loan was to be 30m and not 300m which was a number being thrown around a while back. My error but the fundamental point that the club are reliant on Moshiri financially is still the case.

 

[Boz]

I caught the screening of Everton v Man City the previous weekend and they were unlucky not to get something with the handball penalty that wasn’t. Surprised at last night’s hammering as Spurs have been patchy recently. Fair way to go but things not looking good right now.

 

[ONIGP]

Just ignore some of this. The Council loan was to be 30m and not 300m which was a number being thrown around a while back. My error but the fundamental point that the club are reliant on Moshiri financially is still the case.

I understand that they still funding £15m for works around the stadium. I assume that this is cash rather than loan but don't know for sure.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Exeter one up against Swindon.

 

[Sparky]

Now it’s 2-0. Jake Caprice dropped to the bench for the hosts. Bristol rovers just took the lead at Crawley. The table looking increasingly painful for us as the matches go by

 

[bigmart]

Exeter one up against Swindon.

2 up now they are going 3rd we down to 7th and Bristol Rovers lead

 

[Ian]

From 2nd to 7th in a matter of weeks. That's depressing. However, it is still incredibly tight and we are only four points from 2nd. We need some big performances in the next few weeks.

 

[bigmart]

From 2nd to 7th in a matter of weeks. That's depressing. However, it is still incredibly tight and we are only four points from 2nd. We need some big performances in the next few weeks.

It's exactly what we have deserved for a succession of poor performances.

 

[Gray]

For Newport's third and fourth goals we had pushed players up the pitch in an effort to get back into the game. We did not reset after scoring the equaliser, and they went straight back up the pitch and hit us with two sucker punches when we had lost our defensive shape.

For Northampton's third we had again taken risks and pushed players into advanced areas, as we did for the whole of the second half, and were out of shape when they scored.

In the closing stages of both games we lost our usual defensive shape, and committed players ahead of the ball in a desperate effort to get back into the game.

If you think we can take the kind of risks in throwing players forward that we did in the last half an hour at Northampton for the entire ninety minutes, and still keep clean sheets and win games, I think you are wrong.

You don't need to keep clean sheets to win football matches, was it Cloughy who said you just need to score more than the other team? ;-)

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

You don't need to keep clean sheets to win football matches, was it Cloughy who said you just need to score more than the other team? ;-)

But if you don't have prolific goalscorers you need clean sheets, or at least a solid defence, to score more than the opposition. I don't believe we have the players to completely open up and try and out score teams.

 

[ONIGP]

But if you don't have prolific goalscorers you need clean sheets, or at least a solid defence, to score more than the opposition. I don't believe we have the players to completely open up and try and out score teams.

The way this season has gone backs up your point, RLC.

However, I am struggling to understand why this should be. Injuries notwithstanding, we have some very good creative players in Morris, Hawkes, McPake and Glatzel; Warrington and Spearing also have a "killer" pass in them. Hemmings (via track record) and Jolley (via occasions this season) have shown they can find the net if chances are provided. From that perspective it seems that we are at least as well served as most of our competition. We should be able to play a tune with this group of players that results in more goals without entirely sacrificing defensive stability.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

The way this season has gone backs up your point, RLC.

However, I am struggling to understand why this should be. Injuries notwithstanding, we have some very good creative players in Morris, Hawkes, McPake and Glatzel; Warrington and Spearing also have a "killer" pass in them. Hemmings (via track record) and Jolley (via occasions this season) have shown they can find the net if chances are provided. From that perspective it seems that we are at least as well served as most of our competition. We should be able to play a tune with this group of players that results in more goals without entirely sacrificing defensive stability.

I agree that we can create and score more than we have been doing recently.

However, our striking options have been poor for the majority of the season. Hemmings has only just arrived, Glatzel is talented but is injury prone and took a few months to adapt to league football, Nevitt is very inexperienced and is not prolific, Jolley is also very raw and inconsistent, Maynard is past it and now injured, and I don't need to mention Mani.....

Faced with those options, it is hardly surprising that Mellon has adopted a conservative approach for the majority of the season. Yes, Hemmings and Glatzel seem capable of forming an excellent partnership, but Glatzel needs to stay fit for an extended period for that relationship to develop. In the early months of the season Hemmings was not here and Glatzel was not ready for action.

 

[bigmart]

Whatever way we look at it the simple fact is we have gone from looking like we will go up automatically to unlikely to make the play offs which is a poor effort really and a collapse to rival last season

 

[Ian]

We can score goals though which has been evident in the last few games, albeit when we've had to go a bit gung ho. The problem for me is we are wasting 45 minutes faffing around not giving the strikers any service whatsoever. We go behind and only then start attacking. It's all a bit strange.