The usual problem

[The usual problem]

It was not really a surprise  when Derby scored once from a corner that they would do it again. Who would bet against them scoring yet another?

What is it about our defence that we are good at keeping attacks at a distance but when once they have a set piece we seem weak?

[Why can’t we defend]

We seem to have conceded a lot of goals through missed headers. Marshall has failed, Pinto is not so hot, Lewis is hardly a big fellow, and perhaps because he missed some pre-season even Hanley has not looked so dominating.

Every cross and every corner, and teams are learning - good opponent headers of the ball are causing panic and also scoring goals.

Perhaps this could be improved, as could the other cause - misplaced and misjudged passes.

It has to be admitted that sometimes we leave our defence exposed because we are attacking and lose the ball. The final goal at Sheffield was a good example- we were pressing for a winner, and then suddenly...

Our team are professional players, and if they can reduce the tendency to leak goals only slightly, we could see a win soon.

[Why so much negativity.....]

I am sorry that we had to sell Maddison, but that was to be expected in our financial predicament and we did get a good price, I think.

I am quietly optimistic. We seem to have signed a real centre forward/goal scorer in Pukki, if we learn how to supply him - balls behind defences so he can use his pace. McLean, seems capable of scoring from the midfield. Ditto our S. American. Svbenny can perhaps improve his performance in terms of goals. We seem to have two fleet wingers.

We should be better able to defend, especially with the development of Lewis, and our central defenders should know each other better.

But I am not carried away. I hope that we have removed the deadwood, apart from Oliveira, as well selling Josh and Madders. The newcomers will take time settle in, especially if they have to learn English as well.

So I am hoping for a top ten finish, perhaps even play-offs, but the latter may be impossible after so much change.

[Teemu Pukki]

From the Youtube pictures from Bronby, he seems quick and strong and with a very good touch. I think that the CR faithful will enjoy him!

[Ben Marshall confirmed]

Potentially a very good signing - quick, and good crosser with either foot, and very keen to be with us! Well done NCFC. Marshall could be a very good asset!

[Jordan Rhodes]

There is speculation again that we are after the striker.

I suppose that he is not yet too old, and may actually be at a prime age, but Sheffield Wednesday it seems are trying to get his wages off their costs, in a similar way to us.

He has a good scoring record, but what would he cost, in terms of wages if not transfer fee, and would such a signing fit in with our determination to ''grow'' a team which could gain promotion and stay longer in the Premiership?

[Squad Investment]

We seem to be in the process of selling our two top goalscorers. I hope that we have two scorers lined up, because the rest do not really contribute much in scoring.

I think that both sales are unavoidable, especially given the financial position from stupid purchases in the recent past - Naismith, Wildschut, RVW, etc. I also think that if we can gain £10m for Joshua, that is a good achievement in the light of his inconsistency.

My fear is that we must be patient and buy cheaply, largely growing our own successful players - we already have a number who have real potential, but this seems to be the future.The Premiership will seem a long way away for some years.

[Buendia]

He seems quick enough and a good tackler, but he seems a little one-footed and shooting is not his forte. He is in no way a replacement for Madison. He could get more experienced, but essentially he is a different sort of player.

He is still young and could develop, but do we see him as a shoe-in for one of the established players. I doubt this at the moment.

[If you had to choose Colin or Farke]

Farke - although he is not yet the finished article, he has done well with a team that needs to bed down and hopefully have fewer injuries to important players, and he is lacking effective strikers currently.

I hope that in a year or two he can emerge comparable to other Germans in management.

[Is Reed Better Than Pinto?]

Reed is the better player of the two, certainly in terms of passing and awareness. I am not sure either is a very good right back defensively, Pinto because he gets out of position and is not good at tackling, and both because they are not good in competing in the air with tall attackers.

What swings it for me is that Reed is more willing to engage in tackles.

[Well said, Iwan]

Iwan, Roberts in his article, suggests that our attacks seldom result in a cross.

In part it may result from playing a sole striker who is better at shooting than heading. Other forward players tend to be shorter in stature and can be out-jumped by large defenders.

Having said this. it doesn''t have to be a cross from way out wide, as Hanley and Klose demonstrated. Short crosses, even low ones, from the by-line are difficult for defenders to deal with when facing their own goal, and anything can happen.

We have quick wide players, but our short passing often means that our quick players are marked when they receive the ball. We need to develop incisive passes inside the defender. These give our wide men an advantage, as they are facing the right way while defenders have to turn.

However poor my suggestions, Iwan is surely correct. Wolves caused us problems with the pace of their wide men, while ours were stationary and marked before the slow passing game reached them, often the passes were very short, which meant that our two were confronted by two or more defenders. Our second half performances are usually much better, perhaps because opposing defenders are tiring, but also because our speed of passing is greater!

[The Last Chance Saloon]

For some reason our passing speed in the first half seems too slow, and so is our movement. Perhaps this is why Farke is today playing both our quickest - Murphy and Henandez. At Molineux we gained a worthy point, but we were always faced with a packed defensive wall, as the Wolves midfielders and defenders were very quick to get back. I was worried as we committed more players forward they would score a breakaway goal.

I suspect that if Bolton and other teams struggling at the wrong end come with a defensive plan, we shall struggle to score. We have seen this so many times this season.

[Transfer profit]

In terms of money changing hands - a considerable profit?

In terms of savings from loan players while they are away, better still, although in at least one case we are still paying 2/3 of the salary, as I remember it.

In terms of the future, who knows? We signed a number of younger players, one or two of who may come good of very good. Still better!

We ought to finish higher in the Championship than where we are currently - so more reward for position.

With all due respect to the club and team, it looks unlikely that we shall go into the play-offs, and almost impossible to get promotion, but this was the case even at the end of 2017.

One question is whether we can get rid of players coming back from loan in June. There are one or two in high salaries, and this represents a dead weight.

[Srneby or Oliviera]

Let''s wait and see!

We know Oliveira''s preferred style of play, and many feel that it doesn''t fit well with the slower speed in movements initiated from the back. What we don''t have a clear idea about yet is the preferred, i.e. effective, style which suits Srneby''s style, or whether he can adapt.

From the few videos of goals scored by the German, he seems highly mobile, and like Oliveira has decent long shots, but I lack information on how good he is with lightning touches around goal, or with headers. His rate of scoring has been impressive this season, but I fear that if our approach is as slow as it has been at times he may not

be any more effective than Oliveira.

[Cantwell]

Seems a good move, to Holland. Gives him experience and further development, in place of sitting on the bench watching German players here.

[expectations]

This season the expectation must surely be lower mid-table, partly because we have left ourselves something of a mountain to climb to the play-off places, and we struggle a little for consistency

For a year or two, a slightly better prospect, at times threatening a play-off place, as some promising young players come through.

Longer term, given that the only new finance will come come from "failed" academy members, or selling off the one or two best players. It is difficult to see how we shall ever afford individuals with game-changing ability, once Maddison has gone.

I''m a pessimist because the of the amount of money wealthy, relegated clubs from the Premiership, will have - we had a chance and blew it!

[Worst possible outcome]

One unknown is how individual players reacted to the experience.

Lewis must have felt that he is capable of being a Premiership player - bids coming soon? Several of the others must have felt the same, but I wonder if Klose could be more determined to leave?

I suspect that the commitment could have consequences on Saturday. One of the three central defenders clearly has a problem with his leg. Raggett to get a run out?

Will his misses hold up Oliveira''s recovery of touch?

More interesting is perhaps how last night could have affected Maddison''s price. He clearly found the speed of tackles against him last night cramped his style, and I didn''t think that he was anywhere near his dominant best.

In terms of energy loss, I think that the defenders will not be too badly affected on Saturday. Lewis seemed to have bags of energy, but it may be difficult to predict the recovery pattern.

It was the midfield which ran - Reed seemed to be permanently in motion, and he covered a lot of ground. His removal could be a sign that he was running out of gas! Vrancic seemed to pace himself better.

Let''s hope that Trybull will be fit for Saturday, if DF feels he needs to rest anyone from the mdfield, or on the left Steaperman could be used.

One good, I hope lasting, consequence could be a revival of commitment and hope on the part of supporters, and their trust in DF.

[Kenny MacLean]

I think that we were hoping for a well-known player, as we invest the proceeds of the sale of Pritchard. This was always unlikely because we are in a difficult financial situation.

We were really never likely to splash a lot of money, because we are in a rebuilding situation, with youngsters coming through. If Lewis is a sample, give me more. We still have some high wage players to get off the books - Martin, Jerome and Naismith seem to have gone, and I fear that Tettey could be released in the summer.

I am encouraged by Farke''s very recent talk about searching for strikers, but again, if we want a guaranteed scorer with proven ability it would mean splashing out with money we don''t really have, to meet the player''s transfer fee and high wages.

I am happy to wait to see how McClean turns out, if we sign him. He hasn''t pulled up trees so far, but who knows what he could achieve under Farke? He seems to have a good motor, and for what it is worth he is a current Scottish international.

[Wildschut]

At least he is prepared to run at defences and put himself about. Many of us thought at the time he arrived that he was overpriced and not good enough, however.

Perhaps he would be better if he was given a run in the team to build his confidence.

[Husband and Watkins]

Husband arrived with a reputation of "better going forward than defending" (- in the Pinto tradition), which seemed to suit the Farke philosophy of three at the back and wing backs. In fairness to him, he game after a season out for much of the time through injury.

Some of us thought that he would need a few months to produce his best, but he has not played so much for us.

Ditto Watkins. He may have played last season, but he has been in and out this season, and when he plays it''s sometimes as a winger sometimes as a striker. How far the presence of Pinto far up the pitch was a help for Watkins we may never know.

What we paid for each may be an indication that we we didn''t sign top quality, as with several of our signings, because of the financial straitjacket. If we were not also so deficient in other parts of the team, the two of them might have established themselves and be playing better now.

Steaperman also failed at LB, but now we have the youngster who seems very good. If he lasts, and especially if Murphy becomes more consistent, it is difficult to see Husband playing very much in the future.

[England]

Whatever the quality of the players, they never showed the slightest indication that the manager had called on them to play in a particular way, except perhaps to retain possession.

They kept possession so well, that on at least one occasion they passed brilliantly from the Slovenia penalty area all the way back to their own.

If the policy was to "tire out" their opponents, as they did earlier, and score a late goal or two, it worked, but the football was lacking in anythings to make spectators want to see future matches.

Otherwise the only policy seemed to be "Give it to Rashford!"

We shall meet much better teams at the finals. I suspect we may come home early!

[Final element to correct]

It surely has to be finishing. We had so many good chances yestrerday, but apart from the one that hit the post, and really should have gone in, our shooting was very disappointing.

As the Bristol defence was well organised, most of our chances were not in good situations, but we are not going to score if shots are not directed at the goal.

The absence of Oliveira meant the absence of one scorer who gets most on target, but even he has a ratio no better than perhaps one in three being on target. I hate to think what it is for Josh Murphy and Jerome.

Against better teams we shall struggle to score many, and it takes only a simple error at our end for opponents to score. We were lucky against Bristol, in that we kept them generally at distance. In this last game they probably had fewer chances but actually managed more shots on goal eventually, even if they were from distance.

Farke has been good so far in identifying and solving problems. I hope that shooting will be his next success, especially as our new commitment to six men in defence, with four and two shielding them, means that we shall probably create fewer chances.

[The goal that wasn't scored]

It was worrying at the time that we conceded a goal so early, and Naismith is mentioned as the guilty party. I have some sympathy for him. The ball arrived behind him, after two or three ill-directed headers, and he was presented with a problem, of what to do - head back to the keeper, or kick it into touch when it came down, besides being pushed flat from behind. In the end he dithered.

What worried me more was the goal Charlton didn''t score but ought to have done,. I refer to that in the second half, when a cross from the left presented the Charlton man with time and opportunity to pick his spot. Fortunately for us, in trying to place it accurately into the far corner he put it beyond the post.

Crosses and set pieces were a real problem for us last season, and they seem to be still. Granted that his momentum was towards our goal, whereas our defenders were stationary and the ball was even behind them, but we were slow. Why did nobody get to the ball in front of him? It was a very accurate cross, and our reaction was too slow.

Unless we can sort this out on the training ground soon, we shall struggle. Players have to know whom to mark and they and the keeper with his longer reach, must work out how far the keeper could/should come.

[Striker desperately needed]

Good strikers don''t grow on trees. We would have to be prepared to pay big money when buying just before the end of the window. Unless we have already been doing some groundwork on this, and I hope that we have been, when we let Morris go.

Watkins is not a typical striker, and nor is Josh. We would have to make progress along the ground and with pace, and balls in the air will be of little use. It could be done, with Wes pulling strings, Vancic and others sliding balls through, and pace in all parts of attack. We would struggle to score many goals, however, and with our porous defence...

[Another German?]

Why not another German?

Generally their wages and transfer fees are not as bloated as here, they are often better technically than our domestic players and are probably better able to understand what Daniel Farke wants.