James Woodward

Great header and you could see how much it meant to him.

Imperious at the back again too.

Second half a definite step up. The lads found a way to win and until it all clicks, that’s what’s needed.

Makosso, Andersen, Lonwijk and McGuinness are a cheat code at this level. Keeley got to show off a few saves today too.

Standard of challenges and of refereeing in this league is shocking

All aboard HMS Piss The League

match fit, he’ll play there.

I’m quite looking forward to tomorrow. I think P’Boro will come out to attack us and we *should* be more than capable of going toe-to-toe on a footballing sense with anyone in this league. If there’s space for Wells, Alli & Walters to attack, expect goals.

Boreham Wood then I’ll happily be made to look a fool. I just haven’t seen anything to suggest that’s likely.

Beyond that, for me, Wells isn’t great as a target man in this formation. He wants to run the channels, not hold the ball up with his back to goal. But until Yates or Nordas are deemed…

will be called in to that role. We must have seen something in the data that made us sign him with the view of making him a 10 because everything good he did at AIK was as a box-to-box CM. Until we change formation (again, one for another post), he’ll be played as a 10. If he can replicate…

step into midfield more and we have to get actual no.10’s around Wells. Pushing Alli out allows us to do that to some extent. He’ll play high, leaving space for Naismith to occupy. It also free’s up a 10 slot alongside Clicker (who I don’t like as a 10, but that’s a different post). Fanne I think…

Here is how I would want MB to set us up tomorrow, plus some thoughts.

Firstly, I’m not a fan of 3AB. It’s a 10+ year old tactic in its current guise and last Friday it severely limited our ability to get the overloads MB stated we’re after in the final third. For it to work, Kal + Makosso have to…

Five shots on target. Five goals.

Kaminski didn’t make a single save.

Man, the standard of decision making by your average League One player is so below what we’re used to.

There’s always a Turkish club with make believe money willing to take a punt on an injured player.

What’s up with Nordas and why has his absence on Friday not been questioned more?

🫡 TY

There was an U21s game today and Marv got minutes?

Also Nordas, Richards & Fanne?

Anyone know the score?

@lutontown.co.uk any chance of posting the academy stuff on here as well?

Rangers playing their Champs League Third Qualifying Round and Aasgaard is still out injured.

Whilst I’d love the irony of them not qualifying and Thelo stuck playing League Two level sides all season, I’m sure we’re financially incentivized for Rangers to qualify.

Having dug into Yates’ back catalog, I’m starting to warm to the signing.

He’s giving me Danny Hylton energy. Should score a hatful and wind up the opposition no end whilst doing so.

Here for it.

Oli Lynch bagging another for Tamworth in their last pre-season friendly.

Boy is going to tear up the Conference.

In to it. Scores off either foot and is a big lad.

Got to mean Nordas is off?

I don’t know, we owned the ball and were rarely under anything resembling pressure. It’s easy to defend when you have 70% of the ball. We just won’t win if we can’t put the ball in the back of the net ourselves.

That said, “Never too high, never too low.”

I think Dons’ billing as relegation favorites will be shown to be wrong over the season. Whilst they’ll be fighting for survival, Jackson has drilled a very good defensive unit that is stronger than the names on paper. I could see them frustrating a lot of teams away from Plough Lane.

I’d say locking down a defense that had conceded 154 goals across two seasons is a good place to start. The attacking chemistry will come as the squad is finalized and final formation settled upon. It might be a frustrating watch for a few weeks but we need to stick with it.

Overall, it’s what I deep down expected. Defensively strong but offensively turgid. MB has a lot of pieces and he needs time to find the right formula to unlock that attack, but can’t take too long.

A win tonight was important, however it came. We take that, move on and evolve.

Some less good bits:
➖Formation didn’t work. Too light in midfield.
➖Clark as a 10 doesn’t work. Would have preferred us to drop him in CM to bolster Walsh & Sav and gone two up top with Alli & Wells.
➖Lonwijk is not a LWB. Too many times attacks were halted by him having to cut back onto his right.

Today was a struggle. There were some good points however:
➕Andersen was great. He’s been written off too quickly by some & will be huge for us this year.
➕Keeley, whilst untested from a shot stopping perspective, showed his value with his sweeping & distribution.
➕Makosso defensively was imperious.

A win is a win but that left a lot to be desired.

We won’t concede many this season but getting goals will take some time. I’m expecting a frustrating couple of months but then it’ll click and from November onwards we’ll be dominating.

A goal is a goal is a goal.

It’ll click come November, but the next few months are going to be very frustrating.

This is so frustrating & this formation isn’t the one.

A lot of the ball but nowhere dangerous.

Midfield is too far away from the attack.

Alli has been anonymous.

Wells too isolated.

Clark is not a no.10.

Reverted to clipped balls down the channel that are running through or being dealt with.

This formation isn’t it.

The three at the back means we’ve got a spare player on the back line and short of one up top.

Either need to give Makosso or Naismith the license to push forward into midfield more, or change the shape.