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AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Reports and reaction from the 2014-2015 season as Walsall finished 3rd in League 1
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chestersaddler
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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:31 pm

Barren Flak wrote:Don't panic Pike.

Good points:

Kinsella looks decent operating at the base of a middle three.

Lalkovic adds more urgency to a front three.

Rico Henry.

No one got injured.

Preston made the most thunderous tackle seen from a Saddlers' player since Butler left.

Ashley Grimes is contracted to Barrow.


Who is panicking? Just commenting.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:45 pm

Groundhog Day 2015/16. The definition of madness: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Time to bin the one upfront formation, it don't work! What are our tactics? How are we trying to score goals? At our level, teams score a high percentage of their goals from set pieces and crosses into the box with players getting on the end of them. What's the point of us with our dwarves, winning 11 corners? When was the last time we scored a headed goal from a set piece? Our ultra-conservative, tippy-tappy, no end-product football needs to be ripped up and we need new players and a new formation. We are a lot worse now than we were at the end of last season: no Cain, no Hiwula and no sign of decent replacements. What a mess, and the sad thing is, it could have been so different with a bit of careful, thoughtful investment. But, let's carry on doing it on the cheap.....and failing!

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:09 pm

Very reminiscent of last season, poor going forward all together.

Positives were Demetriou looked solid, Kinsella worked very hard, MacGillivray was excellent, Lalkovic looked very sharp and Rico Henry was the best player on the pitch.

Negatives were Baxendale being Baxo, midfield not creating enough, a dodgy penalty and some shocking set pieces.

Need another attacker definitely, too samey.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:45 am

As mentioned Rico looked great, Flanagan looks like he's bulked up a tad, Lalkovic is carrying some weight but looks very sharp and is the player we were lacking, he put Bradshaw in a few times but credit to their defence they were well alert.

When we came out for the second half (with what looked like 2 up front?) they were chasing shadows and couldn't get out of their own half, we looked like the side leagues above, but Smith had enough of that after 20 or so minutes and took Bakayoko off...

I'm going tonight and and against Albion and I'd quite like to see us win a friendly, it's the least I'm owed I think after sitting through that at Bristol in May.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:32 am

Having watched the game last night and in sync with last season, we desperately need a leader and a ball winner at the back. Neither o Conner or downing are dominating. We have no bite/physical presence in CM and who will play as a striker if Bradshaw gets injured or is sold. Most of the kids, if any, ain't ready.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:06 am

Scooby wrote:Having watched the game last night and in sync with last season, we desperately need a leader and a ball winner at the back. Neither o Conner or downing are dominating. We have no bite/physical presence in CM and who will play as a striker if Bradshaw gets injured or is sold. Most of the kids, if any, ain't ready.

Got to assume with the number 5 shirt not being filled that we are looking for a proper centre half. This season we shouldn't be short of cash, but old habits die hard and I suppose they are waiting to see what is left once everyone else has had their pick.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:54 am

I know its our first pre-season game but it did look like same old. As others have mentioned some players looked lively, bright etc but thats of no use if we can't put the ball in the back of the net against a team from the 6th tier of English football. We had more than enough quality on the pitch to beat Telford, especially in the second half. The most worrying sign for me was the sight of James O'Connor shouting at Craig MacGillivray for not being vocal, then Telford had a free kick and Andy Taylor screamed at Craig because he wasn't organising a wall. Demetriou looked a good prospect apart from the debatable hand ball.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 10:33 am

It was a clear handball btw....

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 12:39 pm

saddlertd wrote:Groundhog Day 2015/16. The definition of madness: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Time to bin the one upfront formation, it don't work! What are our tactics? How are we trying to score goals? At our level, teams score a high percentage of their goals from set pieces and crosses into the box with players getting on the end of them. What's the point of us with our dwarves, winning 11 corners? When was the last time we scored a headed goal from a set piece? Our ultra-conservative, tippy-tappy, no end-product football needs to be ripped up and we need new players and a new formation. We are a lot worse now than we were at the end of last season: no Cain, no Hiwula and no sign of decent replacements. What a mess, and the sad thing is, it could have been so different with a bit of careful, thoughtful investment. But, let's carry on doing it on the cheap.....and failing!


Are you sure your not me in a parallel universe?

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 1:26 pm

I thought the same AM but then again theres only one AM! :D

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 1:46 pm

Not too panic-stricken by last night's performance or result to be honest, but we should have learnt a few things, namely:
- Cook can't play in the Bradshaw role
- Demetriou has a great engine on him. Given that Smith wanted a more attacking option than Purkiss, that one looks like it's got every chance of being a job well done.
- Morris and Lalkovic are the two most threatening wide men with the best end product
- Kinsella looks more accomplished than Flanagan, who in my opinion hasn't really improved a great deal in 18 months. If we are still looking for a new midfielder, I'd question whether we need both Kinsella and Flanagan.
- Try as he might, I don't think Bakayoko's got it and could see why Smith took him off. He wasn't troubling defenders from three divisions lower, nor was he able to hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play.
- Expect Rico Henry to seriously push Taylor for a starting berth in the first few weeks of the season. What a talent.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 1:53 pm

Tickets on sale for the Forest game. With a squad full of holes and no away strip as of yet, I don't know about you but I'm in a state of high excitement..............about all the clotted cream I'm going to be eating down in Cornwall. :mrgreen:

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:26 pm

Cook looked the definition of a winger up front. Now I probably rate him the most on this board, but he ain't a striker. He is best our wide where he can do what he does best and that is using his crossing movement and passing qualities. Think he'd do well in the hole, but not up front.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:29 pm

aaaae wrote:Tickets on sale for the Forest game. With a squad full of holes and no away strip as of yet, I don't know about you but I'm in a state of high excitement..............about all the clotted cream I'm going to be eating down in Cornwall. :mrgreen:



sums it up down to a T mate...... : :roll:

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:38 pm

Don't read into friendliest much but we looked pretty weak, take away the youth no squad depth really is there? Definitely need 2 faces in still, CB and CM. out and out striker wouldn't go a miss either, not a cook type who can play fudge anywhere possibly because he's cack.

Good evening out though two decent boozers. Reasonable turn out too.

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:24 pm

AM- we must have been separated at birth - did your dad have a bike?! I like to let off steam when we have a bad result, especially when it is obvious the players we have are just not good enough. I don't think Flanagan, Bakayoko, Cook, Forde, and Baxendale can cut it and I have doubts about Sawyers and Chambers. I think we need at least 2 players before 8th August - but it ain't looking promising.

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ToeJoe Jnr
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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:38 pm

JonnyOwen wrote:Cook looked the definition of a winger up front. Now I probably rate him the most on this board, but he ain't a striker. He is best our wide where he can do what he does best and that is using his crossing movement and passing qualities. Think he'd do well in the hole, but not up front.


Fully agree with this and we are screwed if he is our back up for Bradshaw!

Ironic that he considers himself to be a striker and doesn't like being played out of position on the wing as evidenced by this on his Twitter "@cookz10: Walsall fans everywhere even in my local tesco �⚪️ he told me he thought I was a winger haha! But some good words of motivation from him �"

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:08 pm

saddlertd wrote:AM- we must have been separated at birth - did your dad have a bike?! I like to let off steam when we have a bad result, especially when it is obvious the players we have are just not good enough. I don't think Flanagan, Bakayoko, Cook, Forde, and Baxendale can cut it and I have doubts about Sawyers and Chambers. I think we need at least 2 players before 8th August - but it ain't looking promising.



I know my friend, I've been saying this very thing oftimes recently, but have been berated for 'doom mongering'.
I just want to see Walsall winning a few matches and scoring goals more regularly, it's not a lot to ask, but prospects on an improvement on last seasons drab, dreary, boring, unexciting, crab like, pointless rubbish seems to be, once again, just a dream for us all.
It may turn out to be another long hard season of disappointment.
But you never know Deano may yet surprise us all with a couple of devastating acquisitions before the start of the season? I've just seen pigs flying overhead....honest :D :D

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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:25 pm

A narrow defeat against the mighty Telford? No worries :mrgreen: . Just watch us against Villa; we're always better against the better teams, as the man from Radio WM said the other day. So that's the problem! We just need to play better teams than Crewe and Rochdale every week: teams like, er, Bristol City - oh, hang on a minute.... :?
It's just a pity we ain't in the Prem so we could demonstrate our fantastic ability against teams like us every week... :mrgreen:
I've got a feeling we are just going to have to put up with winning the League Cup or the FA Cup this season, rather than acing the league. But that's just my opinion.
:mrgreen:

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saddla
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Re: AFC Telford (A) friendly Tues 21 July 7.45pm

Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:35 pm

Interesting that Smith has said that the players did a full traininng session before the Telford game to see how far they could push themselves during a game. Playing when you're knackered is not easy and would probably explain why some were off the pace as described by a few posters here.

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