Match Thread Away V Newport Tue 9th March. 7pm kick off.

Quite so Faithful. Us oldies are familiar with the adage "never change a winning team". Yes there maybe signs of fatigue but as you suggest a free midweek will help and that comes after Saturday.

 

So you want to change 5 of the team? FCD hasn't played for 6 games, Foulds hasn't played a single game, Clarke has played 2 sub appearances since coming back from injury, Evans should be ok but we don't know as he has only just recovered from his injury and Stevens who hasn't show a great deal yet.
I can understand making 1 or possibly 2 changes to rotate the players but you don't rotate 5, especially after the run they have been on.

 

Specifically for tonight's game, I wouldn't be looking at more than a couple of changes. Rowe back in for Cook, for freshness - and his confidence will be up, and Evans or Clarke in for Crankshaw.

 

Take the two respective teams on Saturday. Since Boxing Day bolton have played a game more than us. We had a spell from the 29th where we didn't have a game for nearly 4 weeks. It equates to a game roughly every 5 1/2 days during that period although its less during the spell from around the 23 rd of February. I'm no denying fatigue does play a part in sport but not to anywhere near the extent at this time that soem on here have made out. Our players were fresh and ready to go on Saturday, fatigue played no part whatsoever in that performance. And on that basis i see no reason whatsoever to change tonights team bsased on the fatigue factor. By all means change it tactically but there is no way they should be telling us they ringing changes because of fatigue. Fatigue didn't cause us to not respect posession on Saturday nor did it have any factor in us at times pumping the ball long or missing easy passes. These are professional athletes more than capable of playing 2 games a week.

 

If they do that tonight they are crackers. Leave it as it is.

 

Bolton were just better than us for 45 minutes, we don't need to press the panic button. Lets stop worrying about conditioning, muscle tone, training schedules. Just go back to what we do well and respect posession. Maybe bring in Gareth Evans for a bit of balance in place of Vernam or Crankshaw. If we gift Newport posession like we did Bolton we are our own worst enemies. Thats the only part we need to worry about.

 

I think the most compelling factor against Bolton was simply that they have a better midfield. I'd also question whether our tactical approach to apparently cede ground and play on the break was the right one; it might have been a result of Bolton dropping back to protect their 1-0 lead but as soon as they scored, we went on the front foot and did something akin to pegging them back. I think we gave them a touch too much respect.

I couldn't say whether other teams have played as many continuous Sat/Tues games as we have in the last 3 or 4 weeks, or the extent to which they've changed up their first 11. I'm just saying, I think there's merit in the idea that fatigue is a factor we need to be mindful of. Its a real thing. I don't think its a question of conditioning - our conditioning looks fine to me. But there's only so much you can put the body through without impacting its recovery time.

 

I'd not seen this before I replied. I agree, I don't think fatigue was the most pressing issue against Bolton - I think it was more down to tactical approach and performance.

 

Planned maintenance is always better than unplanned.

 

Rowe always looks tired to me even when he's just scored with a block buster, what a layed back player he is, ld love to see him score the winner tonight and walk away nonchalantly whilst he gets mobbed by his team mates, thinking what's all the fuss about I've done my job.

 

It still brought us a point against a team that had taken the previous 18 restricted them to very few chances even though they had most of the play. If you listen to the post match interview Trueman said the tactic was to play on the break against him

 

Thats exactly what it was, funny how fatigue only seemed to be mentioned after we came up against a very good side. It wasn't mentioned when we 7 out of 8. Injuries are more of a factor than tiredness, players carrying knocks and slight strains would put them more of risk of being replaced. Just need that front six to start clicking in an attacking sense because defensively we are up there with the best.

 

When you throw the keeper up for a corner in injury time your tactics have been found out. We only created any chance of worth after the substitutions, while Bolton were on top for most of the second half. It isn't a crime to be outplayed.

 

It is same for all teams at the moment it’s about individual players and people mentioned that Cooke’s performance level had dropped after the Mansfield game

 

I did. I can't fault our defensive performances, our resilience, our spirit. But our performances on the ball need to improve.

 

I'm sure I have read somewhere an interview with Wood after the game when he indirectly said that the main thought going into the game was not to lose it so that Bolton did not extend their lead in the table. This probably had some effect with us dropping deeper and deeper in the second half to ensure we did not lose. Then when we did go behind the mindset changed and we went at them because we had to. We all know what resulted.

 

If we are going to change it were is Ismail, Shergar, Lord Lucan and that little blond midfielder we have who was off for two years ….. get them in to the team... to freshen things up

 

The whole point i'm trying to make is people can have average games without it being blamed on tiredness. Some want to use 'freshen', i prefer to the words 'tactical change'.

 

Not sure I like that mindset.

We have to go into every game thinking about winning it.