Callum Johnson

Let's just write him off before he kicks a ball then. Get your money on Notts County to win the league.

The alternative view, in tje glass half full world, is Platt was part of a team that has failed for two seasons, Baldwin part of one that got promoted and consolidated relatively easily.

 

Or the alternative view that Baldwin was part of a side that got promoted in a two team division and the year after was part of the third worst defence in the 92 professional football teams.
All depends on the narrative I guess.

 

Very true Rog, but none of it prove Baldwin is crap or a world beater. I'll wait until I see him play

 

I'm not writing him off. Maybe read the post again. Do I think we've got a better CB than Platt? No, but I hope I'm proved wrong.

 

Oh i completely agree, the only way you can ever judge a signing is by how he intergrates into your club set up.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

The strange thing about the Platt and Baldwin deals is the comments of both players. Platt in his interview said a big part of his decision to join County was the way they play out from the back the way he like to play. However anyone who watched him play that way under Hughes would say that was the weakest part of his game. And in Baldwins interview he said he likes playing out from the back something he won’t be doing for us under Alexander

 

Agree , I made the same comment about Platt’s NC interview. He was shocking playing around at the back under MH , in fact our entire defence was and that included Harry. Talk about bull oneself up……. See through the spin Park, that’s all it is .

 

Depends if you just look at stats. Notts defence got exposed at a higher level playing tippy tappy with zero support from Midfield. Ask Div 2 defenders to defend and they are good. Ask them to be creative. Struggle

 

Agree, not bothered about Platt/County but from our perspective, if Baldwin is as good a passer as is claimed, then it will help us to switch things up a bit and pass the ball out a bit more and go longer other times. It could be argued GA hasn't played out much from the back because none of Platt, Stubbs, Kelly, Ridehalgh are confident on the ball. We may do it more if Baldwin is good at it.

 

Platt , Stubbs and Kelly tried the long diagonal to LWB/ RWB regularly. The problem, accuracy was appauling . Let’s not beat about the bush, Platty was the worst of the three ( imho) .

 

Thank you statto.

 

That's why they are in League Two. The trick is not asking them to do something outside their comfort zone. That's down to the manager. Do we have faith in Graham Alexander? So far I think I do but let's see how it pans out.

 

I've already stated this some time earlier. The whole point I'm making is you can use stats to suit what narrative you may wish to run with. There'll be those with the narrative that yes a good player but you've got to back that up with something tangible. Can't really use his successful season at Notts County as a gauge as it was a two team league. And he has to take some responsibility for some of those defensive displays last season. But he's coming into a new environment now so essentially starts like everyone does with a clean slate.

 

I'll throw my take out there our recent signings/outgoings for what it's worth, I know absolutely nothing about Johnson, Byrne or Baldwin so I'm prepared to see how GAs judgement pans out, but what I do know about L2 is all you need is 3 or 4 high end game changers and the rest of the blanks filled in with grafters, now we lost Platt recently but in my view he was just one of the grafter fillers so very replaceable.

 

It's that age old problem of managers being stubborn about tactics and style more often because it's the modern thing to do instead of looking at what the players are capable of doing

 

Exactly my point, versatility. I will wager that Johnson will definitely play as a right centre half at least on a few occassions, as well as possibly midfield af full back

 

He definitely has been signed to be to the right of the back three. And his versatility gives us cover elsewhere

 

Good point Park. Platt definitely played his worst football for us under MH trying to play out from the back, so very odd comments from him

I wonder what style Barrow played when he was there prior to coming to us?

 

Of those, the first choice combination, once GA had a look at them all, was Tomkinson, Platt and Kelly. That lineup kept five clean sheets in a row during our February purple patch and got disrupted by injury and Tomkinson’s USA call up, leading to our disastrous March. Oggy came in for Tomkinson in April and we finished strongly but that February back three was clearly the best, defence wise.
Shame that Tomkinson isn’t coming back, but he’s clearly destined for higher levels.