Lets talk about the Notts County game

[Pliskin]

Four games played, three at home and we've been comfortably second best in all of them. Can't see where the performances are magically going to come from with these players. Grim.

[DonnyOsmond]

I do wonder who of the signings are Copps spots and who are McCann spots.

McCann signs them all off.

Aye so that's why I worded it as I did.

[Campsall rover]

Extremely concerned after seeing that performance today.

Midfield is a serious concern.  Westbrook may as well have sat with me.
Tommy Rowe is a long way short of the player he was in 2018/19.
Broadbent is a bit raw and inexperienced at this level.
Bailey shows potential but needs better players along side him in midfield.
Biggins blows hot and cold and Close seems to have a sick note most of the time.

Where was the press GM said we were going to use today.
We allowed Notts County to dictate the game.

Where do we go from here?  A lot of hard needs doing on the training ground because we need to improve massively.

I am quite shell shocked after that to be honest.

[Bills view]

Notts County controlled the game. I doubt they will have an easier away day.

So, I decided to watch the midfield closely as I thought they were weak against Mansfield.

Again, only my take on it:

Westbrooke - he never showed or got involved at all. In the position he takes he needs to demand the ball. Not impressed.

Bailey - did ok but not convinced he's going to control and run a game. No real thrust or threatening passes.

Rowe - probably worked the hardest but not the force of old.

Broadbent - seemed ponderous. Not convinced.

Given I had doubts about our other midfielders. It makes me feel this is the main problem area.

A good midfield makes the defence better and supports and breaks past the forward line giving more attacking threat.

[goalkick]

Midfield non existent and is difficult to see with the squad we have who would be the players to create the skills to command those positions and make a substantial difference.

[Lesonthewest]

All the new optimism totally drained from me today, outplayed, outfought,  outthought. Embarassing from start to finish, really don't know where we go from here. I know one thing, I will be surprised to see a worse midfield than ours this season, absolutey abysmal. Wood needs to hang up his boots, & the time has come to drop a total ineffectual Rowe.

We play without energy or confidence, for the second game running, opponents are finding acres of space to give & receive passes, it's like a training game for them. When we have the ball they have to do little to get the ball back, we are either closed down, don't have a clue how to find space for each other & lump it long, or give it away cheaply.

I know it's going to take time, but there are far too many basics not being done that's concerning, 4 games in or not.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels I've just woken up from a bad dream.

It's not like Notts Co were busting a gut. Similar to Newport, teams can almost walk through us and not have to do much to be presented with chances.

For all we can say about our midfield, where were the goals conceded from? Those sort of balls into the box should be meat and drink for centre half and/or keeper between them.

I could only reconcile that McCann must have sent them out to conserve energy, due to our injury situation or a way of getting back some of the added time he thinks we've played extra. Either way, we didn't turn up and that first 60 mins was an insult to the game of football.

Credit to Faal and Sotona when they came on who at least had a go.

As for Lawlor, whoever we saw in the first couple of games, he's been replaced by the original Lawlor who might as well not bother wearing gloves. For someone who's 6' 6", refusing to come off his line for crosses is unforgivable and makes life even harder for our centre halves.

I'm in shock with what I witnessed out there.

On a positive note, tried the Salt n Pepper chicken which was lovely and plenty of it but for £7.50 a go, it will be the first and last time I indulge.

[RoversInSpain]

as most of you know I work at Notts and I've watched them weekly for a long time. this season they have played the same style as last season playing out from the back and working the flanks quite a lot with Jodi Jones and Aaron Nemane who will run all day at defenders putting crosses in for langstaff and McGoldrick. McGoldrick by the way he plays on the edge of the 6 yard box and just bullies center halfs. If john Bostock play's he links up with notts new man Danny Cawley (in my opinion a very good link man someone who could be the game winner) really well with lots of quick one twos and then a telling cross Field balls to the wings. If the manager think's its going to be a battle john bostock could possibly be replaced by jim O'Brien.
the first couple of games they were playing at the pace of the national League but after the Lincoln game were they were bullied i feel that they have woken up to the fact that they are playing against better players and have to be qicker to the flicks and passes bostock makes.
i wish Donny still had him.
anyway my heart says Donny but i will be happy just not to get beaten, after all ive got to work there.

The last two seasons we’ve been totally done over on crosses into our box, so this is a real test to stop crosses (two new full backs so a good chance of this) and failing that defend them, bit less confident on that one. 2 games unbeaten would be progress.

We can’t say we weren’t warned.
Sadly we failed on both accounts

[Michael Shaw]

Yes, good idea. Let's talk about other clubs doing badly instead of addressing the real issue we have at Doncaster. We have a rot that no matter what we do we can't seem to shake. I was happy with McCann's appointment, I was happy to trust his signings and thought we would do well. It is gutting to see us stuck so far down and unable to address it.

[Michael Shaw]

This is absolutely pathetic.

At what point will people like you accept something has gone badly wrong? You are the pathetic one.

[Michael Shaw]

dickos1,
The point being, and I’m sure you’re not that thick to realise.
The league table means absolutely jack shit after 4 games, yes it’s a poor start but it means nothing at all.
Let’s see where we are after 15 games


...  and then after 15 games what will your next target be if we are still in the bottom two?

[RoversInSpain]

Let’s face it we are starting from scratch (admittedly with some players still with us that should not be) so let’s support what WILL be an upward trajectory IN TIME.
And… thank you Colchester for keeping us company in our days of need.
Stick with it folks, it will get better (honest Godber)
Cracking Attendances in first few league games, Everton to come… keep the faith.

[dickos1]

dickos1,
The point being, and I’m sure you’re not that thick to realise.
The league table means absolutely jack shit after 4 games, yes it’s a poor start but it means nothing at all.
Let’s see where we are after 15 games


...  and then after 15 games what will your next target be if we are still in the bottom two?

Let’s wait and see

[Sulphurite]

Oh dear.

Every time I come you get smashed.

Got to say the goalkeeper was an absolute liability today. He's clearly not confident and between him and the centerbacks you should have managed them easily.

Again central midfield was invisible, terrible press (second half the left winger/forward was quite rightly annoyed he had zero support) and the gap between the lines far too big.

Thought the two wingers/forwards who came on were a level above those in the first half.

Was that your best line up? Or have you got key injuries?

Coming back in October. As always lovely ground, kind friendly fans and decent food.

[Chris Black come back]

1 clean sheet in their last 10 away league games over this season and last.

Last season even in National League they only managed 4 clean sheets in 23 away league games.

By comparison last season even we managed 5 away league clean sheets.

Knew we’d score!

[dickos1]

Oh dear.

Every time I come you get smashed.

Got to say the goalkeeper was an absolute liability today. He's clearly not confident and between him and the centerbacks you should have managed them easily.

Again central midfield was invisible, terrible press (second half the left winger/forward was quite rightly annoyed he had zero support) and the gap between the lines far too big.

Thought the two wingers/forwards who came on were a level above those in the first half.

Was that your best line up? Or have you got key injuries?

Coming back in October. As always lovely ground, kind friendly fans and decent food.

We’ve plenty out injured at the minute,
4 or 5 that would be starting yesterday are currently out injured.

[DonnyOsmond]

Notts County controlled the game. I doubt they will have an easier away day.

So, I decided to watch the midfield closely as I thought they were weak against Mansfield.

Again, only my take on it:

Westbrooke - he never showed or got involved at all. In the position he takes he needs to demand the ball. Not impressed.

Bailey - did ok but not convinced he's going to control and run a game. No real thrust or threatening passes.

Rowe - probably worked the hardest but not the force of old.

Broadbent - seemed ponderous. Not convinced.

Given I had doubts about our other midfielders. It makes me feel this is the main problem area.

A good midfield makes the defence better and supports and breaks past the forward line giving more attacking threat.

Bailey is just a tackle/intercept and lay it off kind of guy. Don't expect Whitemans interrogating passes. He's definitely one of our first choice midfielders though.

[mushRTID]

Got to try and look forward now.

Harrogate wasn’t great, but could have won.
Newport one of those days.
We’ve just played two of the best teams in the league.

Now it’s time to stop complaining about what we are doing wrong (I’m talking from Grant) and start seeing us learn from it.

Tough start.