Cheick Diabate

Looks like Young is staying!! Kian Harratt's gone to Fleetwood on loan from the Terriers.

With Stevanage keen to sign someone else, I can't see where else he'd go.

Clearly realises that life here, might be better than Fleetwood - who potentially have some cash flow issues.

 

You're even more grumpy these days. Goodness knows how you'll be when we don't win for five matches

 

Plenty of time to go yet but I'm hoping he does stay. Gilliead going to Shrewsbury and fair play to him. If i could end the window now i would do

 

If he does stay I hope he buckles down and fights for his place otherwise it’s no good for him or us. We have a year in our favour probably better letting him go out on loan again

 

RCB - Baldwin
CB - Diabate
LCB - Shepherd

I'd take that!

 

I think is distribution is also improving. Looking an astute signing and shows that it takes time for youngsters to develop.

 

Kelly isn’t good enough for EFL football imo

 

Not for me. Byrne and especially Kelly look poor when asked to use the ball and for me turn it over way too often. We've got a great midfield, I'm really not sure why GA seems to want the defenders to constantly bypass it and lose possession.

 

I think he's a decent squad man but if he goes on to make "hundreds of appearances for us" like @JonButterfield suggests then 4 or 5 seasons later, we're still in league two.

 

Not really if you go through the games.

Against MK Halliday, Baldwin (for being ridiculously out of position) and Byrne (for diving in) were both culpable for the goal.

Against Grimsby that was a horror show of defending by Byrne for the goal.

Against Salford, I'll give them credit. Not a lot to do but did it well enough and a clean sheet.

Against Bromley they had a man sent off and apparently sat deep until 3 0 when the game was over yet still could easily had a couple of goals as we had some real shaky moments and at 3 2 they'd have been right back in it.

Does that sound like a fair assessment?

 

I believe you missed the Bromley game Baldwin was close to MOM his distribution has been very good. Byrne I have been less convinced by but he is strong in the air but a bit slow and to inclined to play a Hollywood pass but overall the defence has looked pretty tight so far with stiffer tests to come

 

Yeah I did so I can only take other people's opinion for it but apparently Bromley should have scored a second which doesn't suggest we were particularly solid defensively given that they were a man down too.

 

We have 7 points from 3 games and yet you are still happy to slag off a defence that has conceded twice, get a grip

 

"Slag off"? What are you, 12?

I've made my points on mistakes that I think have been made. Feel free to counter them if you want to debate it. Maybe just not with such sensationalist wording.

 

You are right on most of that Monkey but the Bromley game was slightly different. Before half time the Bromley manager made a substitution because he said he felt he needed to go with two up front to help them retain the ball. Although a game against a newly promoted team who had won their first two games, in the past this would have been a banana skin for us but GA had us playing with a higher intensity. Let's hope it isn't a one off, the next 5/6 games should give us an idea.

 

Bromley certainly didn't sit deep after the sending off, which I must admit did surprise me.

 

Yeah I agree, I think by mid October we should have a reasonable take on if we've got enough to sustain a challenge.

Hopefully we've addressed one issue in signing Diabate and if Young stays and actually plays that strengthens the options up top.

If he goes, I'd like to see another forward brought in and hopefully another to rest, rotate and in tougher games, maybe play alongside Smallwood. The only thing missing then is a back up keeper but hopefully we can get through to January without needing one of we don't bring one in.

 

In defense of Baldwin for the MK goal, I wouldn't say he was ridiculously out of position. Mk played a 343 and Haliday and Balwdin were marking their wing back and left forward, which you'd expect, even if they're pulling wide.

The main issue was that their CF dropped deep and should have been passed on from Byrne to Smallwood who wasn't marking anyone. But instead Byrne went with the man and left a gaping hole which he would otherwise have covered. Haliday was then done for pace into this very hole.

So yeah, I take your overall point around there being questions still to answer from our defense. I'm hoping the issues seen so far are mainly down to lack of understanding. But to my original point, I don't think Baldwin made any serious error for the goal.

 

I’m sure that they didn’t play 3 up top , they had the lad from Salford, Hendrie alone up top. He was anonymous before being subbed

 

Baldwin was about 15 yards ahead of Halliday on the half way line and extremely wide. For me he went chasing and bust the shape which led to the hole that they scored from. Byrne also diving in and leaving nothing behind also adds to the calamity but in fairness it was the first game and perhaps things will take time to settle down.

We haven't seen that again from Baldwin, either to be fair although Byrne still tries to nick the ball at every opportunity and that does leave him very exposed once he doesn't win it.