Someone mentioned the Danes needing to adjust to the intensity of League One football and I suspect that has some truth to it.
Westergaard definitely looks like he has something. He’s tall, covers the ground deceptively quickly, and seems decent on the ball (when he can find it.) But it almost feels like he’s playing a slightly different game to everyone else. I suppose that could end up being a very good thing if we can utilise it.
Agree! Definitely intensity. Fortunately for most of us, we don’t have to face up on the pitch to the likes of Sonny Bradley on a freezing winters day!!
Going from record signing to being farmed out to Sluff in three months would be the biggest fall down the pecking order I can remember for a WWFC player
He hadn't played all season either had he? Then suddenly managed in effect back to back 90s (coming on very early at Birmingham) and has stayed in since.
Yet players who played regularly up until a couple of months ago are deemed so far off it they're pretty much out of the picture.
Is it that they came from a higher level and don't know what the hell is going on?
Or from a lower level and don't know what the hell is going on?
I mean I know there are differences but football is, to some extent, still football, innit?
I know it was the olden days and fitness and data have moved things on...but when Keano came to Forest from the Irish league (which was I assume a tad lower than the then Division One) the story goes that apparently all Cloughie said was 'Can you run?' Yes 'Can you tackle?' Yes 'Can you pass?' Yes.
Because when a player is without a club, they don’t just sit around on their backsides waiting for an offer to come along.
They go and find the best club near to where they live to join in training. For example, I know of a striker that lived locally used to play for a league rival of ours until the end of last season, but spent most of this season training with Watford.
In regards to Reach playing suddenly - we didn’t have much of a choice did we? If we suddenly has a defensive or midfield injury crisis, the Danes would be playing.
There was the obvious choice of Leahy to left back and an additional midfielder. Point is how are all the new signings chronically unfit to even make the bench, yet Reach is fit enough to play every game. In the bore draws we were crying out for a change for example Lowry or Berry, but not fit enough for the bench, it is all too conservative, and now we are playing catch up we can only hope Dodds is more proactive in his game management during the game, seems to stick on plan A far too long
Yep, and he has played there several times all season, including for harvie and we looked noticeably less attacking because Leahy has his strengths, but getting up and down that left hand side to join in attacks with overlapping runs (which Harvie was excellent at earlier in the season) isn’t one of them.
I, personally, don’t think Reach is quite there with his fitness either which is why he has done well but I don’t think he is the sharpest and we’ve not yet seen his best at the attacking end of the pitch. But what he is doing is better than Leahy can - outside of being a defensive minded LB.
Its not about how chronically unfit the new players are, it’s about how well and how fit the players that got us to second in the table have been all season.
One sure fire way to destroy any squad morale would be to say “oh guys, yeah you lot that got us into 2nd and a few times top of the league? Yeah, you’re not playing any more. We got new guys”.
You slowly introduce these new players into the squad and the team to earn their place on the pitch, and maybe even the respect of those that they would be replacing (hopefully to motivate them and drive them on to being better so they themselves win their spots back)
Every one of the new signings has figured at some stage in the 7 league games under MD with 2 starting every game. Who said they were ‘chronically unfit’ ? It’s been explained that this is effectively pre-season for the Danes whilst Norris, Taylor, Reach, Simons (till red card) have been regular starters. Given your nom de plume I assume you know that fitness levels are carefully monitored by trained professionals and the head coach advised accordingly.
I can’t quite understand why Lowry hasn’t been more involved (even if only as an option from the bench) if he is fit given how incisive he looked in his brief cameos.
Ironic that one of the two regular starters shouldn’t be in my opinion, extremely harsh on Rav who was having a decent season and certainly didn’t deserve dropping at that point.
can we still use the pre season excuse now it’s been 2 months? The frustrating thing for them is probably lack of game time to actually get match minutes (I’ve no idea if we still do BCD matches but they aren’t publicised as much if we do) but they would be perfect to give some of these guys 60/70 minutes. Tonights selection will be interesting though as a few players are now underperforming and also look tired so a perfect time to refresh a little.
Hagelksjaer was playing in Norway where I believe the league restarts later this month. Westergaard would have been playing by now in Denmark, as you said, but he only started pre season training with us in January and our pre season lasts over a month and includes a number of friendlies to get players match fit.
Spot on about squad morale, however when things clearly are not working and we fail to win several games and fail to create, surely it is time to roll the dice somewhat, it's in danger of becoming a shocking end to a great campaign
I can only assume that after he came on against Burton and lit the place up with some absolutely sublime skill and real attacking intent, that Dodds decided he wasn't boring enough to watch yet so dropped him completely against Posh. Doubt he'll feature again until that flair and skill has been trained out of him.
Jury out on Dodds for me at the moment but I think he will come good in the end. I definitely don’t think it’s time to hit the panic button and put kids and a still to settle Danish midfielder into battle against a horrible Steve Evens team who will be very physical.
Dodds surely can’t be blamed for Joe Low heading over from the reastart on Saturday when it was probably easier to score. He did introduce Berry for Fred, which many were calling for. Fred most probably scores the Berry chance🤷♂️
Its fine margins at the moment with a lot of jeopardy on results.
Hoping for a hard fought win tonight and then getting right behind the team a week on Saturday.
Lowry and Fin Back both made solid debuts I thought, perhaps not game changers but surely worth a punt on the bench for fresh legs. I like Reach myself. I assume Leahy stayed on for set pieces when he was subbed as Reach is a better left back.
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I don’t think it’s a fitness issue.
Someone mentioned the Danes needing to adjust to the intensity of League One football and I suspect that has some truth to it.
Westergaard definitely looks like he has something. He’s tall, covers the ground deceptively quickly, and seems decent on the ball (when he can find it.) But it almost feels like he’s playing a slightly different game to everyone else. I suppose that could end up being a very good thing if we can utilise it.
It could just be as simple as he is used to having a bit more time on the ball.
Agree! Definitely intensity. Fortunately for most of us, we don’t have to face up on the pitch to the likes of Sonny Bradley on a freezing winters day!!
There was that horrible air kick he had after coming on too. Something similar happened at Preston.
He needs a run of games but looking at the upcoming fixtures, it seems too much of a risk to start him in his current form.
Going from record signing to being farmed out to Sluff in three months would be the biggest fall down the pecking order I can remember for a WWFC player
He hadn't played all season either had he? Then suddenly managed in effect back to back 90s (coming on very early at Birmingham) and has stayed in since.
Yet players who played regularly up until a couple of months ago are deemed so far off it they're pretty much out of the picture.
Albeit coming into a different type of football.
Is it that they came from a higher level and don't know what the hell is going on?
Or from a lower level and don't know what the hell is going on?
I mean I know there are differences but football is, to some extent, still football, innit?
I know it was the olden days and fitness and data have moved things on...but when Keano came to Forest from the Irish league (which was I assume a tad lower than the then Division One) the story goes that apparently all Cloughie said was 'Can you run?' Yes 'Can you tackle?' Yes 'Can you pass?' Yes.
In the team.
My sexlife in a nutshell
If we keep referring to our sex lives then we'll definitely end up with ads for Viagra on Gasroom3!
Or Escort Agencies!
I get them already, 😱
Because when a player is without a club, they don’t just sit around on their backsides waiting for an offer to come along.
They go and find the best club near to where they live to join in training. For example, I know of a striker that lived locally used to play for a league rival of ours until the end of last season, but spent most of this season training with Watford.
In regards to Reach playing suddenly - we didn’t have much of a choice did we? If we suddenly has a defensive or midfield injury crisis, the Danes would be playing.
There was the obvious choice of Leahy to left back and an additional midfielder. Point is how are all the new signings chronically unfit to even make the bench, yet Reach is fit enough to play every game. In the bore draws we were crying out for a change for example Lowry or Berry, but not fit enough for the bench, it is all too conservative, and now we are playing catch up we can only hope Dodds is more proactive in his game management during the game, seems to stick on plan A far too long
Yep, and he has played there several times all season, including for harvie and we looked noticeably less attacking because Leahy has his strengths, but getting up and down that left hand side to join in attacks with overlapping runs (which Harvie was excellent at earlier in the season) isn’t one of them.
I, personally, don’t think Reach is quite there with his fitness either which is why he has done well but I don’t think he is the sharpest and we’ve not yet seen his best at the attacking end of the pitch. But what he is doing is better than Leahy can - outside of being a defensive minded LB.
Its not about how chronically unfit the new players are, it’s about how well and how fit the players that got us to second in the table have been all season.
One sure fire way to destroy any squad morale would be to say “oh guys, yeah you lot that got us into 2nd and a few times top of the league? Yeah, you’re not playing any more. We got new guys”.
You slowly introduce these new players into the squad and the team to earn their place on the pitch, and maybe even the respect of those that they would be replacing (hopefully to motivate them and drive them on to being better so they themselves win their spots back)
Every one of the new signings has figured at some stage in the 7 league games under MD with 2 starting every game. Who said they were ‘chronically unfit’ ? It’s been explained that this is effectively pre-season for the Danes whilst Norris, Taylor, Reach, Simons (till red card) have been regular starters. Given your nom de plume I assume you know that fitness levels are carefully monitored by trained professionals and the head coach advised accordingly.
You assert - Chronically unfit - Can't make bench.
Actual truth - all the new players have been on the bench, albeit rotated.
Because it's a nightmare for Doddly to get everyone involved as the squad is so ludicrously big!
I can’t quite understand why Lowry hasn’t been more involved (even if only as an option from the bench) if he is fit given how incisive he looked in his brief cameos.
Ironic that one of the two regular starters shouldn’t be in my opinion, extremely harsh on Rav who was having a decent season and certainly didn’t deserve dropping at that point.
can we still use the pre season excuse now it’s been 2 months? The frustrating thing for them is probably lack of game time to actually get match minutes (I’ve no idea if we still do BCD matches but they aren’t publicised as much if we do) but they would be perfect to give some of these guys 60/70 minutes. Tonights selection will be interesting though as a few players are now underperforming and also look tired so a perfect time to refresh a little.
The Danish league stopped in December and restarted on 12th Feb so it wouldn’t have been pre-season for them for over a month now.
must have picked up a knock surely?
Hagelksjaer was playing in Norway where I believe the league restarts later this month. Westergaard would have been playing by now in Denmark, as you said, but he only started pre season training with us in January and our pre season lasts over a month and includes a number of friendlies to get players match fit.
Ah, thanks. I didn’t realise Hagelksjaer was playing in Norway.
Spot on about squad morale, however when things clearly are not working and we fail to win several games and fail to create, surely it is time to roll the dice somewhat, it's in danger of becoming a shocking end to a great campaign
Dodds has been here long enough to make mates.....and now he's choosing them.
I can only assume that after he came on against Burton and lit the place up with some absolutely sublime skill and real attacking intent, that Dodds decided he wasn't boring enough to watch yet so dropped him completely against Posh. Doubt he'll feature again until that flair and skill has been trained out of him.
Yep. Very obvious he's best mates with a certain 8 or 9 players, and treats the rest as acquaintancey mates.
Jury out on Dodds for me at the moment but I think he will come good in the end. I definitely don’t think it’s time to hit the panic button and put kids and a still to settle Danish midfielder into battle against a horrible Steve Evens team who will be very physical.
Dodds surely can’t be blamed for Joe Low heading over from the reastart on Saturday when it was probably easier to score. He did introduce Berry for Fred, which many were calling for. Fred most probably scores the Berry chance🤷♂️
Its fine margins at the moment with a lot of jeopardy on results.
Hoping for a hard fought win tonight and then getting right behind the team a week on Saturday.
COYB
Lowry and Fin Back both made solid debuts I thought, perhaps not game changers but surely worth a punt on the bench for fresh legs. I like Reach myself. I assume Leahy stayed on for set pieces when he was subbed as Reach is a better left back.