Cod Almighty | Diary

Confidence restored?

31 July 2024

Mr Target Demographic writes: Hopefully last night's performance against Rotherham has put many minds at ease. I'm aware that's a very broad and superficial statement. Whilst last night's display did somewhat renew my shaken confidence there are still holes. In the midfield, for example, I believe we are still too light and that if we do not improve in this area, we could see a repeat of last year where teams found it very easy to simply play through us. I'm not calling out our current midfielders by any means, Khouri and McEachran both had better games last night - with Green also doing well playing a fluid role with Charles Vernam. I'm sure many noticed that when Vernam dropped into Green's position in the middle then Green drifted out wide in the hopes that an opponent would follow and leave the space open for the man some still call The Wold's Panther.

Oh well, worth a try. On paper that's a sound theory but more often than not the opposing full-back simply tracked Vernam through to the middle and this Town didn't have the speed or awareness to pick out Green. Furthermore, the opposing right winger often tucks in against us making the space created much harder to hit. There are also other issues such as when the other teams play with three in the middle and thus the area of the pitch can become quite crowded and hard to play through.

All this being said, if I can see it, Artell can see it. I have full faith he is aware of the issues that his style of play brings, and he will have solutions. The system and formation are extremely fluid, and I've named only one of many ways we're trying to break teams down this year. I do believe that with another winger and a few more additions in midfield we could actually see Town winning games of football.

The less sensible side of my head would suggest we throw all the playbooks out the window and play a 5-0-5 formation. The midfield headache? Don't have one! Let's just skip it and play for the knockdown off DannyDanny Rose with two strikers and two wingers around him. What could possibly go wrong, Ossie?

Lastly, I would like to dedicate this article to my friend and proud Derry City fan Rachel, who at University spoke highly of Cameron McJannet simply based upon how good looking she found him. She was devastated when he left, and I can see why! Hands down he was my man of the match last night as I thought he played excellently against Jonson Clarke-Harris, who has been a handful for League One defenders for a long time. Standing only at 5'10” I thought he might struggle against a much bigger striker like Clarke-Harris, but that was nowhere near the case. Yes Clarke-Harris scored two but neither were McJannet's fault. His pace, concentration levels and comfortable nature on the ball make him an ideal ball playing centre-back within Artell's system. Watch out for long diagonal balls that he's going to play to Svanþórsson and Warren/Cass. It could be magic.

UTM