Lincoln City 2 - 0 Derby County

comment by Desicafu (U8481)
posted 10 minutes ago
It's a good shout, playing with a back three means we'll be having wing backs. Although sufficiently equipped on the left with Forsyth and Roberts who would we use on the right?

JK needs to return to midfield to offer other options, freshen it up. N M-L left Sheff Weds as he was deployed as a wing back but wanted to play as a winger. Odruoh is still raw.


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Barks ?
Didnt he cover for JK when he was moved into MF at the latter end of one of the home games ?

Oduroh might be OK as a wing-back, pity we don't still have Festy! But if we have wing-backs maybe that makes the wide players redundant. We could have a midfield three of Bird, Knight and Hourihane with Collins and McGoldrick up front. Probably have some unhappy players if that was the regular team.

With last night's set-up we need a more energetic and aggressive midfield two. Knight and Smith could do it, maybe Bird with one of those, but I don't think it suits Hourihane. A more basic 4-3-3 choosing 3 of Bird, Hourihane, Knight and Smith really ought to be able to control the midfield in any game. That would mean a single striker and two wide men.

Barkhuizen did play there at the end of the Peterborough game but that was an ultra-attacking change. He pretty much carried on playing right wing. I don't know if he has played as a wing back at any other time.

comment by 🏁 AnglianRam 🏁 (U17428)
posted 2 minutes ago
'Probably like most of us they are frustrated by the fact that they think we have the players who can do a lot better than most teams in this division.'

Sounds like the definition of entitlement, UT.
In any division, success has to be earned and the fans are a big part of that.
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I disagree Ang. we have got decent players who are forced to play a rigid system against every team, there is no flexibility no matter who we play.
I am not entitled just because I want to win, I do not go into every game expecting to win, just as i do not go into every game expecting to lose, but there are games that I think it is a cert win, and some I think we will get stuffed as do most fans.
Some managers have openly stated we know how Derby play and adjust accordingly, we don't, it's same old same old, no matter who we play,
It has been said over the years by so many people coaches are coaching the skill out of the game.
I want to see LR do good here but i am also aware that no matter what, if no results there's no job and that I do not want, but surely he has to be more flexible.

Watched the highlights, I don't know if they were a fair reflection of the game but we did create enough chances to win the game comfortably. Both offside "goals" looked onside to me.

Their penalty was a bit iffy. The Lincoln player was already losing control of the ball and being forced wide so throwing himself down and hoping for the penalty was his best option. Cashin could have left the ball he headed out weekly to their player but he didn't know that. Then the loose ball drops for one of their players for the second game in a row and the shot deflected in. Not a good night all round. LR can consider himself unlucky but as Napoleon said, "I want lucky generals not good ones".

There IS some flexibility in the way we are playing at the moment, albeit the default is the passing along the back line and then trying to move it up to a midfielder or full back. Not infrequently we play a long diagonal ball to the wide players. We actually did that a lot last night, almost always unsuccessfully because the pass from Wildsmith or sometimes Cashin was not quite accurate enough, or because Dobbin or NML failed to control it.

BC wanted his teams to play the ball on the floor and I'm sure most of us want that too, but we need to do it with a bit more purpose and speed. If the side-to-side is slow then the opposition simple moves over and blocks the next pass. With only two midfielders they are easily marked and the centre backs can't find a target, so they go back to Wildsmith and start again. We need more options for the centre-halves to pass to which means more bodies in the midfield or more movement from the forward players. We have had some passages of good incisive play this season, even last night, so we CAN do it if the team is set up properly.

I agree with Vidal's assessment of our tactics etc last night. I suspect, however that the occasional lack of accuracy in some of the long balls from the back was down to L's press and energy.

I just hope that our fans do not turn to excessive vocal dissent during games. We still need that unswerving togetherness at all times even though now, unlike last season, we cannot adopt the "us agin the world" attitude. We are not going to win every game and L have shown that some League One teams can play ugly and ruffle feathers. We have to be able to cope with that and adapt. There were signs of that last night with more long balls than usual but it just did not work. We were not helped by a poor ref but nothing can disguise the fact that L deserved the points.

We rely so much on M-L but last night he had a rare off-game. I think that in reality we lost that game in midfield. If Hourihane is to play he needs to be allowed a more free role and get in more forward positions. That means that we need Smith and/or Knight in midfield or maybe Rooney, to give us an extra edge and aggression. I'm not sure about three at the back as that could be a waste of M-L and Barks.

Man, this armchair management is so easy!

Cheltenham game off due to the huge number of international players we have had called up.

Wycombe manager trying to downplay any additional significance in the game …

Didn’t realise it was Lincoln’s first home win on Tuesday.

Makes it even worse. Teams are definitely raising their game for the ‘big scalp’ when they meet us. 😫