Maidenhoof (a) The Ready Steady? Go! Thread

[becbee]

Anyone get the attendance please?

1426

Is there an away figure anywhere? Looked healthy.

No segregation and presumably those buying on the gate didn't specify home or away?

[11bee717]

Anyone get the attendance please?

1426

Is there an away figure anywhere? Looked healthy.

No segregation and presumably those buying on the gate didn't specify home or away?

Not sure, booked online and had the option to specify as away so not certain if it was the same on the gate.

[#Beebot]

They don't ask on the gate

[Masuka]

I just want to punch the wall being a bees fan honestly. I am reminding myself in my head that it’s a marathon not a sprint but my God. SIGN A FFFKKKKIIIINNNNG STRIIKEERRRRR

[EastBarnetFan]

They don't ask on the gate

They would know from online bookings however as you have to choose home or away.

Looked pretty healthy to me. Plenty of amber around.

[hoofer2]

My first real match after 3 pre-season friendlies.

If one of those chances early in first half were converted, would have been a different game.

I think chopping and changing starting line up already is a concern. To have to rotate after just 4 games already. There seemed to be an absence of on pitch understanding between defence and midfield, and midfield to forward as players still sussing each other out.

From what I have seen in 3 PSFs and yesterday, Hayes looks shaky and I cannot see yet how he is better than Walker. He punted ball upfield time and again vs a team we were not winning headers against.

It was obvious we were not going to get any joy playing out wide and crossing in with Maidenhead's giant defence - but that's what we continued to do. Brunt really frustrated getting the ball near to 18 yards with space in front to drive to box and shoot - but chose safe pass out wide time and again. We need Browne fit ASAP.

Kanu anonymous, needed to find him more. Stead lively and Chapman looked quality when he came on.

Okimo was our best defender as he was last season - his sense of positioning. I am not convinced he should play a bit part. He played almost every game last season, stayed fit. Pepe is still going at 40+ as do Italian defenders. Start him for a couple of matches so things can settle.

Glover grew into the game and showed some nice touches.

Definitely missed Nicke's height and presence up front. We need to find alternative way of playing with absence of height.

Maidenhead took all 3 goals well, deserved to win, and shows part time teams should not be underestimated

[Jimbokav1971]

Okimo was our best defender as he was last season - his sense of positioning. I am not convinced he should play a bit part. He played almost every game last season, stayed fit. Pete is still going at 40+ as do Italian defenders. Start him for a couple of matches so things can settle.

Completely agree. While there os obviously a balance to be had between easing Okimo out and prioritising giving playing time to younger members of the squad, the fact is that he's just so reliable and so smart as a footballer and I don't personally think that DB has got the balance quite right.

I think Kenlock has started well for us and I honestly don't know are his lack of appearance number elsewhere down to injury or form or simply just the level he was playing at relative to his own ability, (7 seasons at Ipswich). I don't particularly think that the issue is in the wider areas of Kenlock and Kizzi, but more related to the central area and would have preferred Okimo to come in to rest Tavares, and in doing so would have avoided the need to play Nartey from the bench. Some of these players have REALLY poor injury records, and I think we should be doing everything we can to avoid putting too much strain on them too early, and yeah I know that Nartey has been training with us for a while, but how many of us were surprised that he became the 1st sub this season to be subbed off because of injury. Not many I would suggest.

Concentrating only on our centre-backs for the moment, I especially don't understand why we can play Saturday - Monday, with number of centre-backs injured, and minutes needing to be managed on other centre-backs, and yet Joe Rye sits on the bench unused. In actual fact this 1 specific game would probably have suited Grimwood, from a defensive point of view at least, but I have no issues with him going out on loan and playing. While Rye is here though, it seems astonishing that he didn't play yesterday.

I completely appreciate that DB knows what he's doing and I haven't a clue, but this is the 1 area, (centre-half), where we seem to be getting it wrong, (although Shelts making his 1st start of the season and then going again 48 hours later doesn't seem the smartest move to me.

-----------Hayes
-----Rye-Okimo-Kenlock
Kanu---Harts-Brunt---Coker
-----Chapman-Francis
-----------Stead

I don't specifically have an issue with Coker starting, because he basically had to start because he didn't start on Saturday, but it possibly asks the question of how DB intends to use Glover that he chose to start him further forward. Maybe the problem was that he specifically wanted RHJ and Kanu to play against Sarfend, and that would make sense based on GSM's ability to run off Kanu. I wouldn't have liked to see Coker try to compete against him. At the same time Coker probably has to play in 1 of the games rather than being benched for both. If he can't play in either of these games, then what's he doing with us.........

In Coker's defence, the reason he was so...... exploited, is probably by our inability to keep the ball as well as we have done recently, but also our inability to press high and win the ball back as early as we have been doing. Starting with fresher players, (keen to make an impact and force their way into the side), and then replacing them with players who have played more football, might have been the smarter move all round, (but again, DB is the expert and I'm not).

By the way, if you don't particularly like Francis as a #10 as shown above, then he and Kanu could have swapped just to get him on the pitch. If you're not going to freshen things up when we play Sat - Mon, when are you going to freshen things up.

All that being said, it's early and we've played well so far this season, (until yesterday). It was hard to take much from the interview because the sound quality was almost as poor as the treatment in our Kabba room, but what little I could hear siggested that if Stead takes some of our early chances then maybe we tear then apart and it's a hiding?

I'm guessing that managing such a big squad is also a learning curve for DB, so fingers crossed he learns from yesterday and in hindsight wishes that he had played players such as Okimo, Rye and Francis from the start. Who knows.

Anyway, we have some decent fixtures coming up so fingers crossed we get a few players back, don't lose any key players before the EFL window closes, and maybe even sign a striker.

[Itsmeerc]

Great post and agree that Coker was mainly exploited as we didn’t control the ball or game well enough to stop him being exploited. In hindsight, a Monday game after the Saturday before was probably a likely game in which this would occur.

Just following on from what you’ve said would a natural alternative option to prevent this in future not be Okimo LCB and Kenlock LWB? Okimo with the better positional awareness and experience at LCB than Kenlock; Kenlock with the better physical attributes at LWB than Coker.

[WhetstoneBee]

Great post and agree that Coker was mainly exploited as we didn’t control the ball or game well enough to stop him being exploited. In hindsight, a Monday game after the Saturday before was probably a likely game in which this would occur.

Just following on from what you’ve said would a natural alternative option to prevent this in future not be Okimo LCB and Kenlock LWB? Okimo with the better positional awareness and experience at LCB than Kenlock; Kenlock with the better physical attributes at LWB than Coker.

It doesn’t really matter how much you dominate the ball against Maidenhead because they like the play on the counter. Putting Coker up against a lighting fast winger who is just waiting for the quick ball over the top was always going to end badly for us. It was obvious from the first five minutes and DB did absolutely nothing about it until we’d conceded three goals.

[PBBee]

I am not accepting fatigue as any excuse when Maidenhead are part time & travelled up North on Saturday.

[Itsmeerc]

Great post and agree that Coker was mainly exploited as we didn’t control the ball or game well enough to stop him being exploited. In hindsight, a Monday game after the Saturday before was probably a likely game in which this would occur.

Just following on from what you’ve said would a natural alternative option to prevent this in future not be Okimo LCB and Kenlock LWB? Okimo with the better positional awareness and experience at LCB than Kenlock; Kenlock with the better physical attributes at LWB than Coker.

It doesn’t really matter how much you dominate the ball against Maidenhead because they like the play on the counter. Putting Coker up against a lighting fast winger who is just waiting for the quick ball over the top was always going to end badly for us. It was obvious from the first five minutes and DB did absolutely nothing about it until we’d conceded three goals.

I do agree that we played into their hands in terms of their preferred style of play. But it is also true that they scored three goals from us giving the ball away, which is what I meant by controlling the game better. If we limited how much we gave the ball away cheaply in the "wrong" places we wouldn't have been caught out so much.

[Jimbokav1971]

Great post and agree that Coker was mainly exploited as we didn’t control the ball or game well enough to stop him being exploited. In hindsight, a Monday game after the Saturday before was probably a likely game in which this would occur.

Just following on from what you’ve said would a natural alternative option to prevent this in future not be Okimo LCB and Kenlock LWB? Okimo with the better positional awareness and experience at LCB than Kenlock; Kenlock with the better physical attributes at LWB than Coker.

Your suggestions make sense, but does that mean that Coker doesn't play against Sarfend because of GSM and then doesn't play against Maidenhead because Maidenhead. On that basis, who does Coker play against?

I think he has to play against 1 of them.

[Uniman61]

After Southend everyone was full of praise, one result later when we could’ve scored 10 goals there’s a meltdown. Results like this happen, we’ve got a load of injuries at the moment and had to give a huge effort to beat Southend and forest green in the last 6 days. We’ll be better once we’ve had a bit of rest and some players come back into the squad.

Agree to a point, yes we should of scored a couple of goals but 10 didn't see that, and yes we have a lot of injuries, but why ? Because we signed players with poor I jury record, so why are we surprised when these players are unavailable, last season Dean brought in players that didn't miss games, this year yes on paper better quality but this is meaningless if there injured.

[11bee717]

Funny as we rightly discuss how poor the defending was, I felt the best player on the pitch was Nik Tavares!

[Uniman61]

It doesn’t really matter how much you dominate the ball against Maidenhead because they like the play on the counter. Putting Coker up against a lighting fast winger who is just waiting for the quick ball over the top was always going to end badly for us. It was obvious from the first five minutes and DB did absolutely nothing about it until we’d conceded three goals.

Totally agree, Dean knows the strengths and weaknesses of his players, he knows Coker's weakness is speed of lack of it, so why did we play such a high back line against a team that has fast wingers, it's not Cocker 's fault, and seeing this we still for whatever reason refuse to make adjustments, they threatened few times before they scored and even then Dean still did not sort this threat out see Comments saying other teams around us dropped points, for me this is why it was so important to pick up the three points, if we are going to be title contenders. Since last game of last season DB knew we needed a striker, and I don't buy into the right player was not available. Not when we knew since last season, well long enough to sign right striker.