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Post by stevek192 on Jan 18, 2015 1:46:56 GMT
So the pre-match requirement was met with a 3-1 defeat of Barnet setting today's game up perfectly for us to show off two new signings and cut the gap to three points. What followed can only be described as a total fanti climax by the club to give a performance to match the brilliant turn out of gasheads. The secret of any team selection is to field your best players and having signed a class of striker far beyond the League we are in and to then not start him was a Management disaster. The only decision as far as I was concerned was who would make way for Easter so it was a real surprise to find him starting on the subs bench and made worse when the news of Sinclairs injury came through. The fact is that when Sinclair can't play then the standard of our midfield automatically falls to a midfield of possibly below mid table standard as regards creativity. Sinclair manages to cover up through his workrate a mediocre midfield moving forwards and IMO the signing of a quality central midfielder is as important as strikers. There is little doubt that our defence is top two quality and that we now have a variety of wingers and strikers who can,given the service, score goals. So to the match itself and the individuals who provided a very scrappy game with very few chances but one that we didn't really look like losing but also cannot really say we deserved anymore than a point.
Puddy 6 Did nothing wrong,saved his only real shot with a one handed catch but distributed the ball exceelently throughout.
Lockyer 6 Defensively was good in both the full back position and in midfield but that is the limit of what he can provide and there is nothing creative about his game in either position.
Parkes 9 MOM Outstanding in everything he did wheteher it was contesting the ball in the air or tussling for and reading the game so well on the ground. His confidence has returned and with that his ability to bring the ball out from the back and distribute well.
McCrystal 8 Not far behind Parkes in his performance which limited Woking to very few chances over the 90 minutes
Brown 7 A superior first half performance where he managed to get forward quite often and work clever moves with Monkhouse but a more restricted performance in the second half as Woking broke well from their midfield.
Gosling 4 Drifted out of the games for long spells and didn't really get past his full back often at all. I fail to see how DC allowed him to stay on the pitch when we had Dawson who was raring to go.
Mansell 6.5 Worked hard througout and defensively kept our midfield together winning lots of tackles but without Sinclair there is no flair whatsoever.
Clarke 3 Booked and injured from the same tackle that ended his game today and it was caused by him allowing the home central midfielders to break far too often early on. Sorry but he is not good enough for a promotion challenging team and his only position should be as a squad player.
Monkhouse 4.5 Not one of his best games although he was better in the first half than the second. Got through some useful moves with Lee Brown in the first half.
Blissett 5 Should have scored but for a heavy touch in the first half but faded out due to poor service as much as anything else. He is crying out for quality crosses but today all we really mustered was overhit crosses. He would be far more dangerous with a bit of help from the midfield to pressurise opponents defenders rather than us sitting deep and allowing opponents to pass the ball out.
Taylor 5 Two disallowed for offside - one correctly and the other incorrectly. Is it too much to expect that the referee would know the rules and spot that right in front of him Taylor was set up by a opposition player? Even so not his usual high standard of holding the ball up.
Easter 6 What is the point of acquiring a class striker for this League that we have been crying out for and not start him? Looked lively and showed class when he came on but it was an hour too late.
Leadbitter 6 Defensively he had a good game but I am not convinced with the substitution that saw Lockyer moved into midfield.
Harrison Not long enough to mark but during the short time he was on should have stayed on his feet more.
DC 5 I question now why we are always having to substitute our strikers. To me it means that he has made an incorrect decision in the first place. I would have thought he would also have learnt by now that we do not look good with two shorter strikers and he should have worked on a Blissett/Easter combination and got Dawson on when it was obvious that Gosling was struggling to get in the game. I particularly question both his failure to get a quality central midfielder in and why he has not yet managed to get any quality out of Balanta. I very much hope he will sort this out quickly if we are to at the least hold onto second place. On the plus side it is hard to be really heavily critical of a Manager whose team has only lost 1 of the last 24 games.
Referee 5 Usual Conference League inconsistent tripe.
Woking 6 Not as good as the team that played at the Mem but i was impressed by their central midfield pairing who unlike ours, were always looking to run at us and through the middle.
To conclude, the magnificent following deserved a lot better and DC now has two weeks to find a quality midfielder to start creating chances and running at the opposition or there will be more scrappy games , more lost points and more frustration in the final third.
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Post by Centenary Gas on Jan 18, 2015 2:40:48 GMT
So if we sign a quality CM, who do you drop out of the beard and mansell? When the beards in the team that pairing works for me. Would start Dawson and JE though...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2015 7:38:30 GMT
We are being successfull, just playing catch up after a poor start. Despite thinking most of the teams in this league are sh**e you simply can't expect to win every game
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Post by I Voted For Kodos on Jan 18, 2015 9:22:37 GMT
Can't see Clarke signing another player after bringing in Dawson and Easter, although the injuries to Sinclair and Clarke may change that. I think Monkhouse is quite a good passer of the ball generally and I think when he signed he said he'd played all across the midfield. With Dawson coming in, maybe moving Monkhouse inside is an option. Not sure how good defensively he is, but he does always put in a shift to protect his full back normally.
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Post by empirebaypete on Jan 18, 2015 9:40:35 GMT
I'm not at all surprised Easter didn't start this one. Hopefully he'll start next time though.
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Post by Mark Ash on Jan 18, 2015 10:08:18 GMT
I was surprised that Dawson didn't play or at least come on at half time. I have to say that I was only going by the radio and of course I don't know the details of what goes on between player and coach, but didn't we need some attacking zest, opening up the opposition?
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Post by You can call me Al. on Jan 18, 2015 10:17:50 GMT
Sit yerselves down....
Now, due to recent form and results i'm not gonna be too hard on you, but i expect victories simple as that. In my mind i expect us to catch Barnet and i still think we will. The board have played their cards and backed the manager, squad and fan's, we've budgeted frugally from the outset and made Darrell buy hard working, determined players who have payed us back with sheer grit. As a result Darrell you have been rewarded with us backing your decision to bring in a little extravagance in the Easter Bloody Bunny, well pardon the sodding pun but i'm hopping mad you chose not to use the bloke!
All i'll say is, you better know what you're doing and use your new tools to the best effect and due to your achievements of late i'm gonna cut you some slack, we're handily placed in the chase as we come round the corner and i want to see a full out assault on the title, no if's no buts.
Now, get back training, sort out where you may have gone wrong, make sure you improve and i'll see you at the next task.
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Post by Mark Ash on Jan 18, 2015 10:20:38 GMT
As far as needing a really creative midfielder goes ( and plenty of people have said this on here ), I feel it's a bit like saying we need a multi- millionaire playing for us. Do such people exist at this level? Why would they? Nothing is more highly-prized in football ( except the highest-scoring strikers perhaps) than a midfielder who can organise his team, split defences with a pass, ooze time on the ball with head up, switching play with raking 50-yard balls.
Has anyone seen such a beast in the Conference, or even League Two? Oster looked good for Gateshead I'd say, so maybe it's possible to catch one right at the end of his career, powers waning. Years ago, I remember seeing Stephan Oakes do it one game for Notts County, but I'm not sure what division that was in now.
Tell me why I'm being a pessimistic fool.
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Post by Gas Go Marching In on Jan 18, 2015 10:22:09 GMT
So the pre-match requirement was met with a 3-1 defeat of Barnet setting today's game up perfectly for us to show off two new signings and cut the gap to three points. What followed can only be described as a total fanti climax by the club to give a performance to match the brilliant turn out of gasheads. The secret of any team selection is to field your best players and having signed a class of striker far beyond the League we are in and to then not start him was a Management disaster. The only decision as far as I was concerned was who would make way for Easter so it was a real surprise to find him starting on the subs bench and made worse when the news of Sinclairs injury came through. The fact is that when Sinclair can't play then the standard of our midfield automatically falls to a midfield of possibly below mid table standard as regards creativity. Sinclair manages to cover up through his workrate a mediocre midfield moving forwards and IMO the signing of a quality central midfielder is as important as strikers. There is little doubt that our defence is top two quality and that we now have a variety of wingers and strikers who can,given the service, score goals. So to the match itself and the individuals who provided a very scrappy game with very few chances but one that we didn't really look like losing but also cannot really say we deserved anymore than a point. Puddy 6 Did nothing wrong,saved his only real shot with a one handed catch but distributed the ball exceelently throughout. Lockyer 6 Defensively was good in both the full back position and in midfield but that is the limit of what he can provide and there is nothing creative about his game in either position. Parkes 9 MOM Outstanding in everything he did wheteher it was contesting the ball in the air or tussling for and reading the game so well on the ground. His confidence has returned and with that his ability to bring the ball out from the back and distribute well. McCrystal 8 Not far behind Parkes in his performance which limited Woking to very few chances over the 90 minutes Brown 7 A superior first half performance where he managed to get forward quite often and work clever moves with Monkhouse but a more restricted performance in the second half as Woking broke well from their midfield. Gosling 4 Drifted out of the games for long spells and didn't really get past his full back often at all. I fail to see how DC allowed him to stay on the pitch when we had Dawson who was raring to go. Mansell 6.5 Worked hard througout and defensively kept our midfield together winning lots of tackles but without Sinclair there is no flair whatsoever. Clarke 3 Booked and injured from the same tackle that ended his game today and it was caused by him allowing the home central midfielders to break far too often early on. Sorry but he is not good enough for a promotion challenging team and his only position should be as a squad player. Monkhouse 4.5 Not one of his best games although he was better in the first half than the second. Got through some useful moves with Lee Brown in the first half. Blissett 5 Should have scored but for a heavy touch in the first half but faded out due to poor service as much as anything else. He is crying out for quality crosses but today all we really mustered was overhit crosses. He would be far more dangerous with a bit of help from the midfield to pressurise opponents defenders rather than us sitting deep and allowing opponents to pass the ball out. Taylor 5 Two disallowed for offside - one correctly and the other incorrectly. Is it too much to expect that the referee would know the rules and spot that right in front of him Taylor was set up by a opposition player? Even so not his usual high standard of holding the ball up. Easter 6 What is the point of acquiring a class striker for this League that we have been crying out for and not start him? Looked lively and showed class when he came on but it was an hour too late. Leadbitter 6 Defensively he had a good game but I am not convinced with the substitution that saw Lockyer moved into midfield. Harrison Not long enough to mark but during the short time he was on should have stayed on his feet more. DC 5 I question now why we are always having to substitute our strikers. To me it means that he has made an incorrect decision in the first place. I would have thought he would also have learnt by now that we do not look good with two shorter strikers and he should have worked on a Blissett/Easter combination and got Dawson on when it was obvious that Gosling was struggling to get in the game. I particularly question both his failure to get a quality central midfielder in and why he has not yet managed to get any quality out of Balanta. I very much hope he will sort this out quickly if we are to at the least hold onto second place. On the plus side it is hard to be really heavily critical of a Manager whose team has only lost 1 of the last 24 games. Referee 5 Usual Conference League inconsistent tripe. Woking 6 Not as good as the team that played at the Mem but i was impressed by their central midfield pairing who unlike ours, were always looking to run at us and through the middle. To conclude, the magnificent following deserved a lot better and DC now has two weeks to find a quality midfielder to start creating chances and running at the opposition or there will be more scrappy games , more lost points and more frustration in the final third. Who would you have dropped to accommodate Easter at the start?
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Post by Russgas on Jan 18, 2015 10:31:49 GMT
So the pre-match requirement was met with a 3-1 defeat of Barnet setting today's game up perfectly for us to show off two new signings and cut the gap to three points. What followed can only be described as a total fanti climax by the club to give a performance to match the brilliant turn out of gasheads. The secret of any team selection is to field your best players and having signed a class of striker far beyond the League we are in and to then not start him was a Management disaster. The only decision as far as I was concerned was who would make way for Easter so it was a real surprise to find him starting on the subs bench and made worse when the news of Sinclairs injury came through. The fact is that when Sinclair can't play then the standard of our midfield automatically falls to a midfield of possibly below mid table standard as regards creativity. Sinclair manages to cover up through his workrate a mediocre midfield moving forwards and IMO the signing of a quality central midfielder is as important as strikers. There is little doubt that our defence is top two quality and that we now have a variety of wingers and strikers who can,given the service, score goals. So to the match itself and the individuals who provided a very scrappy game with very few chances but one that we didn't really look like losing but also cannot really say we deserved anymore than a point. Puddy 6 Did nothing wrong,saved his only real shot with a one handed catch but distributed the ball exceelently throughout. Lockyer 6 Defensively was good in both the full back position and in midfield but that is the limit of what he can provide and there is nothing creative about his game in either position. Parkes 9 MOM Outstanding in everything he did wheteher it was contesting the ball in the air or tussling for and reading the game so well on the ground. His confidence has returned and with that his ability to bring the ball out from the back and distribute well. McCrystal 8 Not far behind Parkes in his performance which limited Woking to very few chances over the 90 minutes Brown 7 A superior first half performance where he managed to get forward quite often and work clever moves with Monkhouse but a more restricted performance in the second half as Woking broke well from their midfield. Gosling 4 Drifted out of the games for long spells and didn't really get past his full back often at all. I fail to see how DC allowed him to stay on the pitch when we had Dawson who was raring to go. Mansell 6.5 Worked hard througout and defensively kept our midfield together winning lots of tackles but without Sinclair there is no flair whatsoever. Clarke 3 Booked and injured from the same tackle that ended his game today and it was caused by him allowing the home central midfielders to break far too often early on. Sorry but he is not good enough for a promotion challenging team and his only position should be as a squad player. Monkhouse 4.5 Not one of his best games although he was better in the first half than the second. Got through some useful moves with Lee Brown in the first half. Blissett 5 Should have scored but for a heavy touch in the first half but faded out due to poor service as much as anything else. He is crying out for quality crosses but today all we really mustered was overhit crosses. He would be far more dangerous with a bit of help from the midfield to pressurise opponents defenders rather than us sitting deep and allowing opponents to pass the ball out. Taylor 5 Two disallowed for offside - one correctly and the other incorrectly. Is it too much to expect that the referee would know the rules and spot that right in front of him Taylor was set up by a opposition player? Even so not his usual high standard of holding the ball up. Easter 6 What is the point of acquiring a class striker for this League that we have been crying out for and not start him? Looked lively and showed class when he came on but it was an hour too late. Leadbitter 6 Defensively he had a good game but I am not convinced with the substitution that saw Lockyer moved into midfield. Harrison Not long enough to mark but during the short time he was on should have stayed on his feet more. DC 5 I question now why we are always having to substitute our strikers. To me it means that he has made an incorrect decision in the first place. I would have thought he would also have learnt by now that we do not look good with two shorter strikers and he should have worked on a Blissett/Easter combination and got Dawson on when it was obvious that Gosling was struggling to get in the game. I particularly question both his failure to get a quality central midfielder in and why he has not yet managed to get any quality out of Balanta. I very much hope he will sort this out quickly if we are to at the least hold onto second place. On the plus side it is hard to be really heavily critical of a Manager whose team has only lost 1 of the last 24 games. Referee 5 Usual Conference League inconsistent tripe. Woking 6 Not as good as the team that played at the Mem but i was impressed by their central midfield pairing who unlike ours, were always looking to run at us and through the middle. To conclude, the magnificent following deserved a lot better and DC now has two weeks to find a quality midfielder to start creating chances and running at the opposition or there will be more scrappy games , more lost points and more frustration in the final third. Who would you have dropped to accommodate Easter at the start? Maybe he could have dropped Matty Taylor into the hole behind the front two and not played Clarke.
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Post by LJG on Jan 18, 2015 11:11:01 GMT
As far as needing a really creative midfielder goes ( and plenty of people have said this on here ), I feel it's a bit like saying we need a multi- millionaire playing for us. Do such people exist at this level? Why would they? Nothing is more highly-prized in football ( except the highest-scoring strikers perhaps) than a midfielder who can organise his team, split defences with a pass, ooze time on the ball with head up, switching play with raking 50-yard balls. Has anyone seen such a beast in the Conference, or even League Two? Oster looked good for Gateshead I'd say, so maybe it's possible to catch one right at the end of his career, powers waning. Years ago, I remember seeing Stephan Oakes do it one game for Notts County, but I'm not sure what division that was in now. Tell me why I'm being a pessimistic fool. O'Toole.
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Post by stevek192 on Jan 18, 2015 11:11:57 GMT
A Football manager by nature is a hard life,full of hard decisions but at the end of the day if you sign a gem for the division you are in then you play them. Easter should have been the first name on the sheet yesterday and personally I would have played Blissett up front with him and then made a decision on whether to play Taylor elsewhere. What has immediately become clear is that Easter is far more than a goalscorer and is a bloody good footballer with a brain and could have played in the central midfield role alongside Mansell. Taylor may also be able to play that role.How often has the Clarke in midfield role worked? Yes he has a good shot and has scored a few great goals but what else has he provided? He has been needlessly booked again because he has allowed a central midfielder to get the better of him and as soon as he does that because of the type of player he is he is a red card waiting to happen ala Eastleigh away. My main worry about Clarkes decisions is that he rarely doesn't use three substitutes and on the majority of occasions they have been used because 1) we haven't scored enough goals. What has also become clear is that you can't expect to score many goals when you play with a back four with two defensive central midfielders and two supposed wingers. I say supposed because IMO too often Monkhouse is waiting for Lee Brown to push up instead of going at the full back himself. This tactic is a luxury because you have two players doing the job of 1. The same is evident when you play Leadbitter as a full back. Dc has over the season done a great job but I am reporting on EACH match as I see it and we are now at the stage where we need to turn draws into victories. I agree if we sign a Central Midfielder then you have the two into three equation when Sinclair is fit but we have that in pretty well every other position so why not central midfield? Either of Wokings central midfielders could have done the job as whenever they got the ball they ran AT US. WE don't do this in midfield however if we did have this type of player then you would have to decide whether to play him every game or sacrifice one of your wingers. We may have the answer within our ranks Monkhouse, Dawson, Taylor, Balanta or reluctantly Easter may be well capable of playing alongside Mansell because Mansell is mainly a defensive midfielder and Clarke and Lockyer are exactly the same. Mansell has a bit of creativity but Lockyer and Clarke have no creativity between them and neither can confidentally pass the ball from A to B even if A to B is a short distance!! It is horrific the number of straightforward passes that these two pass straight to an opposing player. The thing about commenting on one game is that it is very easy,in hindsite to make changes and suggest changes-DC does not have this luxury.
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Post by Gas Go Marching In on Jan 18, 2015 11:21:38 GMT
A Football manager by nature is a hard life,full of hard decisions but at the end of the day if you sign a gem for the division you are in then you play them. Easter should have been the first name on the sheet yesterday and personally I would have played Blissett up front with him and then made a decision on whether to play Taylor elsewhere. What has immediately become clear is that Easter is far more than a goalscorer and is a bloody good footballer with a brain and could have played in the central midfield role alongside Mansell. Taylor may also be able to play that role.How often has the Clarke in midfield role worked? Yes he has a good shot and has scored a few great goals but what else has he provided? He has been needlessly booked again because he has allowed a central midfielder to get the better of him and as soon as he does that because of the type of player he is he is a red card waiting to happen ala Eastleigh away. My main worry about Clarkes decisions is that he rarely doesn't use three substitutes and on the majority of occasions they have been used because 1) we haven't scored enough goals. What has also become clear is that you can't expect to score many goals when you play with a back four with two defensive central midfielders and two supposed wingers. I say supposed because IMO too often Monkhouse is waiting for Lee Brown to push up instead of going at the full back himself. This tactic is a luxury because you have two players doing the job of 1. The same is evident when you play Leadbitter as a full back. Dc has over the season done a great job but I am reporting on EACH match as I see it and we are now at the stage where we need to turn draws into victories. I agree if we sign a Central Midfielder then you have the two into three equation when Sinclair is fit but we have that in pretty well every other position so why not central midfield? Either of Wokings central midfielders could have done the job as whenever they got the ball they ran AT US. WE don't do this in midfield however if we did have this type of player then you would have to decide whether to play him every game or sacrifice one of your wingers. We may have the answer within our ranks Monkhouse, Dawson, Taylor, Balanta or reluctantly Easter may be well capable of playing alongside Mansell because Mansell is mainly a defensive midfielder and Clarke and Lockyer are exactly the same. Mansell has a bit of creativity but Lockyer and Clarke have no creativity between them and neither can confidentally pass the ball from A to B even if A to B is a short distance!! It is horrific the number of straightforward passes that these two pass straight to an opposing player. The thing about commenting on one game is that it is very easy,in hindsite to make changes and suggest changes-DC does not have this luxury. I agree about Clarke. As much as I want him to do well I just don't think he is good enough. The reason I think Darrell played Clarke in midfield is because it was the safe option and he didn't want to start too attacking. He does tend to think about not losing first instead of trying to hammer teams from the of hence us having so many draws and so few defeats. Maybe we do need to take risks more often? That said it is another game unbeaten and another point gained on Barnet.
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Post by amgas on Jan 18, 2015 11:26:30 GMT
Think we would have had a different view if the perfectly good goal scored by Taylor had ben allowed and we had got the three points .... Not a classic game but Woking are towards the top and in other circumstances an away point would be a good result even if not that exciting ....
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2015 11:55:17 GMT
after a great run of results a manager runs a risk of damaging team spirit if he just plonks 2 new players straight into the team so i think dc got that spot on. is easter a class striker? i hope so but ive only seen him play for 20 minutes so will reserve my judgement.
right or wrong our system all season has been to allow opponents possession deep but close down in our half its a bit risky to change that now
not sure a creative midfielder who also works hard exists at this level but i was hoping monkhouse would be switched to central midfield and dawson brought on when ollie got injured.
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Post by socrates on Jan 18, 2015 12:18:10 GMT
Ideally we want a solid ball winner to bring on and close it off when we're winning and also a creative midfielder on the bench to come on and open it up when we're not winning. We've got one of those and Clarke does it ok, but we haven't got the other. Whenever Stueys missing we really miss him. Clarke isn't a like for like at all.
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Post by WeAreTheGas on Jan 18, 2015 12:23:32 GMT
A few thoughts I had on the game:
- We missed Sinclair a lot. Mansell & Clarke (then Lockyer) did a decent job of keeping us solid in the midfield and battled well, but the absence of Sinclair's energy, drive, and pressing through the middle was a big blow.
- Gosling and Monkhouse were hopeless all game. Monkhouse has been one of our best players in the last few weeks, and Gosling has also put in some good performances. But yesterday they were terrible from start to finish - tracked back well, but their touch and end product was abysmal. Very surprised Dawson didn't get a run out on the wing for one of those two.
- Defence and Puddy very solid as always. Parkes and McChrystal in particular were man mountains at the back and got their head/foot onto everything that came into our box.
- I thought Taylor and Blissett did well out of the dire service they recieved all match. Easter also showed some bright touches, but you could tell he was getting frustrated with the quality (lack of) around him.
I usually agree with a lot of what you say Steve, but there's not a chance in hell that I can agree that we should have paired Mansell with Taylor or Easter in midfield yesterday. Neither are midfielders, I doubt either have ever played there in their career before, and you would have wanted to have a central midfield two of Mansell and a striker away from home against a top half side? Lunacy IMO.
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Post by Mark Ash on Jan 18, 2015 12:29:14 GMT
As far as needing a really creative midfielder goes ( and plenty of people have said this on here ), I feel it's a bit like saying we need a multi- millionaire playing for us. Do such people exist at this level? Why would they? Nothing is more highly-prized in football ( except the highest-scoring strikers perhaps) than a midfielder who can organise his team, split defences with a pass, ooze time on the ball with head up, switching play with raking 50-yard balls. Has anyone seen such a beast in the Conference, or even League Two? Oster looked good for Gateshead I'd say, so maybe it's possible to catch one right at the end of his career, powers waning. Years ago, I remember seeing Stephan Oakes do it one game for Notts County, but I'm not sure what division that was in now. Tell me why I'm being a pessimistic fool. O'Toole. Yes, you can find ones like that lol.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2015 12:41:21 GMT
Disley
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Post by Mark Ash on Jan 18, 2015 13:00:04 GMT
He was quite good at times, yes. Maybe if he came back he might be better than Clarke or even Mansell on some days. Not sure he'd represent a real step up to a different class though.
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