Ben close

[Ryaldinhio]

Nice gentle return but looked very good tonight IMO

MOM for me

[Southboy]

Totally agree. Some great passes... we're going to need him to stay fit as the season progresses....

[RobTheRover]

Joe Olowu was MOM for me. Really excellent positioning at times, and dominant in the challenge, particularly in the first half.

[Bessie Red]

Joe Olowu was MOM for me. Really excellent positioning at times, and dominant in the challenge, particularly in the first half.

Jo was very good & he is becoming consistently good, which makes me wonder if Cliff has been giving him one to one coaching to get him more dominant & cut out the mistakes he used to make!

[graingrover]

Close showed his class And when he is up to top physical condition will be a major asset this season especially in transitions .

[BobG]

Lol Brian. What is a transition?? When we win a defensive tackle? When we get into the building?

Double lol. There isn't half a load of bullshit in togger these days....

Cheers

BobG

[philsky]

Lol Brian. What is a transition?? When we win a defensive tackle? When we get into the building?

Double lol. There isn't half a load of bullshit in togger these days....

Cheers

BobG

Big Darren said we were very good in transition last Saturday ;-]

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Joe Olowu was MOM for me. Really excellent positioning at times, and dominant in the challenge, particularly in the first half.

Jo was very good & he is becoming consistently good, which makes me wonder if Cliff has been giving him one to one coaching to get him more dominant & cut out the mistakes he used to make!

Interesting you should say that. We know confidence is huge in football, and in Joe's case, I wouldn't be surprised it took him sometime to get over his facial injury.

He seemed to avoid the aerial duals although he still committed to blocks etc, however at some point last season, he seemed to be more decisive when he was making those cameo appearances, helping us to see out games. I still think his weak spot are those balls over the top when he has to turn towards our own goal and he loses some spacial awareness. Maybe TLT helped him with better communication? When things are in front of him, he's solid and will attack balls no problem.

Probably an arm round the shoulder and some encouragement helped him along the way.

[ForsolongaRover]

Lol Brian. What is a transition?? When we win a defensive tackle? When we get into the building?

Double lol. There isn't half a load of bullshit in togger these days....

Cheers

BobG

Just like there are no “problems” any more, but “issues”, so is “transition” too readily employed by many instead of “change”. However there is actually a case for transitioning from defence to attack (but not “o(h)ffense” thank you). On topic, I’m not a great fan of Close normally because he seems too cautious (probably for fear of injury), but he did show more enterprise last night. I’d still have given Olowu MOM and Sterry would be up there too if he were more prominent defensively.

[drfchound]

I can’t immediately think of one pass that Close didn’t complete yesterday and he is very good at moving the ball with one touch which is the way to play through teams.
He was excellent last night.

[DearneValleyRover]

I’ll admit I couldn’t understand why we gave him another contract, last night showed why, I’m just hoping we can get at least 35 games out of him. If we do the likelihood is we go up

[chrisd_123]

On the ball Close is/could be the best in the league at what he does.

What he needs is energy and ball winners around him. I'd love to see him come into a midfield with Bailey and Clifton. Let them two do the hard work (which they do incredibly well) and win the ball then let Close do the damage setting the attackers off to do what they do.