The season starts now...
Have seen this cliché trotted out a few times following our F.A. Cup exit. I guess it has a ring of truth about it. Our first league game under our new head coach. Our new, somewhat bloated, squad having had almost a fortnight to be assimilated.
I think it would be fair to say Mike Dodds couldn't have asked for a much kinder set of fixtures to begin his tenure.
We won took 15 points from a possible 18 available in the reverse fixtures in the first half of the season, scoring 12 goals and conceding seven.
As for the bloated squad, I make it 29 first teamers, which means eleven won't make the squad each week.
Goalkeepers (3); Franco Ravizzoli, Shamal George, Will Norris.
Defenders (9): Dan Harvie, Fin Back, Jack Grimmer, Jasper Pattenden, Anders Hagelskjaer, Caleb Taylor, Declan Skura, Joe Low, Sonny Bradley.
Midfielders (8): Adam Reach, Alex Lowry, Cameron Humphreys, Josh Scowen, Luke Leahy, Magnus Westergaard, Tyreeq Bakinson, Xavier Simons.
Attackers (9): Fred Onyedinma, Garath McCleary, Gideon Kodua, James Berry, Kieran Sadlier, Beryly Lubala, Daniel Udoh, Richard Kone, Sam Vokes
Obviously there are some injuries, with half-a-dozen doubts or outs for tomorrow's trip to Crawley Town.
George (groin), Grimmer (calf), Pattenden (hamstring), Berry (hamstring), Sadlier (hernia surgery) and Kone (knee).
The likes of Back, Hagelskjaer, Reach, Lowry, Westergaard and Vokes probably aren't match-fit either.
Comments
Good summary. Really interested to see the team tomorrow. And really hoping to see Kone’s name on it. There has been little information as to the severity of the injury.
Good interview by Phil on this weeks "Pre-Match Drills" with MD - he touched on the hard but honest conversations he is going to have to undertake with players regarding who is in the matchday squad & who isnt.
Fingers crossed re Kone, we weren't as sharp or as clinical in front of goal last Saturday without him.
Kone wont feature this month i have been told, nothing serious just a knock to the knee sustained against Barnsley. Should be fit for Birmingham .
Crawley have just beaten Stevenage 3-1, whilst only losing to Bolton and Wrexham through very last minute winners. Burton are currently 6 games unbeaten. These won't be easy - I expect Crawley to give us a really tough game tomorrow.
I agree and I believe every single game between now and the end of the season should be treated as a difficult challenge because the pressure of going for promotion can have a suffocating affect on players.
Surprised to see such a bold unattributed statement about a player. Speculation or breach of confidence?
That would be a shame. I still think we need him against the next 3 opponents.
Those of us who remember Sean Devine's mystery injury are having unpleasant flashbacks.
I can't help wondering if the "knock to the knee" for Kone was a result of the knee slide after scoring the winner. His leg seemed to catch underneath him on the ground very slightly when the first teammate reached him to congratulate him.
If so, a very silly way to lose such a vital player for over a month!
Probably more that goon player smashing him on the touchline and getting a straight red?
I worry if Kone isn’t playing. We haven’t got an out and out back up goal threat. Bez and Udoh work hard but can’t see them scoring many goals. Really interested in what team the new Head coach selects. Rav or Norris? Does he break up the Low and Bradley combination to bring in Taylor? Does Simons come in ? Spoilt for choice.
Rav or Norris? Norris.
Does he break up the Low and Bradley combination to bring in Taylor? I don't think so.
Does Simons come in? Surely.
On behalf
onof groundkeepers, knee slides should be banned! Stick to an arm in the air, with a little skip if you are really pleased, like they used to.Spot on.
Is it our most difficult ever choice at centre back?
Not only have we got the brilliant loanee Taylor ready to come in, we've got Anders a player that doubled our all time transfer record! Before we doubled it again shortly after.
But it feels like we've spent all year boring on about the latest bench being the strongest ever, but the amount of players now makes it a real battle to even get on the bench.
Feels slightly chaotic.
I worry about the Danes. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to think their signing was based on getting the Danish manager who turned us down.
Hopefully they’ll prove themselves as worth every penny. But there’s definitely a scenario where they return home on loan in the summer never to be seen again.
chill, Man. There is nothing like a Dane. They're both improving with every snatched sighting. Only conscription to go and defend Greenland can keep them from next season's cult herodom.
Lowry and Reach both appear to be reasonably match fit having played last weekend. The players I'm more worried about are the Danes - can't shake the feeling they were signed with another head coach in mind and may not prove to be regular picks for the new regime, which seems extraordinary given the amount we've spent on them. I certainly wouldn't be keen to start them given that we'll be fighting hard for every point this season and will need a team that's both fighting fit and understands the intricacies of the EFL.
For me the first team going forward will regularly have Norris, Simmons and Lowry in. And personally I'd go with Taylor ahead of Bradley as his partnership with Low got us to the top of the ladder in the first place.
Does anyone fancy predicting the rest of the season...?
https://www.worldfootball.net/table_calculator/eng-league-one/
I’m not worried about Kone or the goals. Obviously I would like King back but our goals have not come solely from him, especialy in the first half of the season when we were scoring for fun. I watched the Crawley game back and what a menace Harvie was. He’s still playing well, but he doesn’t seem to be quite the same player since his injury.
But the issue was, and still is for me, and I promised I wouldn’t say his name again, but Chairboy number 28. The way he setup attacks down both flanks or the central channel is what we’ve really missed and how he pinged 30-35 yarders for Dan, Fed, GMac to chase of for Cam to lose his man and attack the box. I hope Xavier Simons is the missing link now for Chairboy number 28, and if he is, the goals will come again.
I actually think we’ll win 3-0 tomorrow, I think we’re long overdue some goals and we’ve had a full week of Dodds mentorship.
I gave us 10 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats from our final 17 games. Finishing on 93 points. Maybe optimistic.
It’ll probably take that to finish in the top two.
It's just a prediction, gents.
🤞
We've made some seemingly random signings, but those 2 take the biscuit.
Midlander called it day 1 saying they'd be used mostly next season, but at the time it seemed improbable you could double your transfer record twice and just have the two as bit parters, when you'd have thought they should both be absolute key starters.
Fair play to not be worried. I think it was Mr Flymo who pointed out we've not won a game without Kone or Morley scoring, for TWO months!
I think we'll be ok tomorrow, providing the ref doesn't make any brave game changing calls. like the red last time.
Transfer records were broken when people on the internet were moaning about Dan Rice.
WAKE UP, SHEEPLE
I've given us 17 wins and we win the league. I don't see how this is anything other than 100% guaranteed to happen
if Simons is Morley 2.0 we’ll be fine and go up automatically. Outwitting the opposition with pinpoint passes to our wide men and Cam without needing to advance much past the centre circle is what I hope he can do. Scowen up top to bring the press and we’ll return to the scoring machine we were even if the King isn’t always on the pitch.
If he’s not all that and we don’t have a fully fit King we’ll finish comfortable playoffs. Then over to the Gods of football fortune.
Simons might even be better than Morley as he was a regular at championship level.
But he might be a better defensive mid but is he that really rare gem we had in Morley, a supreme deep lying playmaker.
He might not even start. The lineup announcement will he fascinating!
Doddo really has a difficult job.
Would love to have been a fly on the wall in the initial run downs on the squad he must have had from people.
"You're telling me this the squad AFTER you've trimmed 6 or 7 players out!?"