Matchday Thread: Port Vale v Notts County

[valiant_593]

He needs time, it's no time to make rash decisions. Let's see where we are after the Cov and Luton games.

 

Rash deceision? Get real! We're bottom and completely clueless he is the worst 'manager' I've ever seen

[Conrad]

I couldn't believe that. I was told the club had appealed the red card and the appeal had been rejected?

 

By the way, just seen the goal on the telly - Alessandra put it in with his arm. Surprised Brown wasn't banging on about that as well.

 

If Alessandra put it in with his arm then Brown has every right to "bang on about it"

[melv]

If Alessandra put it in with his arm then Brown has every right to "bang on about it"

Well RS did say that he had only just come on and he scored with his first touch of the ball.😉

[Howjy04]

Bottom!

 

Whatever floats your boat.

[Erniemossrules]

Availability of Barnett and a change of luck and we'll be climbing up this league.

You,ll have a long wait he is a bigger sick note than Forrester.

Still can't believe Brown bought in a centre back and midfielder instead of a striker.

[smithie]

Rash deceision? Get real! We're bottom and completely clueless he is the worst 'manager' I've ever seen

 

Yes we're bottom and I don't like it. But it's September and we're 5 games in. Acting after 5 games would be rash.

[Erniemossrules]

Thank **** it's just an opinion then eh.

 

If we carry on with Brown we may need snookers to stay up after Christmas.

[Erniemossrules]

No sign of that troll Bea Smith since yesterday. Has she gone into hibernation.

[Smugsy]

My thoughts in the cold light of day. On a positive side the league is rubbish. I say that because it's clear early on that anyone can beat anyone and a couple of wins will fly you up this league. We have been a bit unlucky recently. Worrel's effort was almost perfect and the header was clearly over the line. I was in the Disabled Stand so I had as clear a view as any. But and it's a big but, Brown's selections are becoming bizarre. His insistence on playing Pope on his own up top simply does not work and his quote that he had plenty of support is just plain wrong. I don't have a problem with his four centre halves in the back four selection as long as there are two legitimate wide men in front of them who stay on the wing and who don't have to try to come inside and support the isolated front man. Trying to play 4-3-3 with the centre halves makes us far too narrow and easy to defend against.

I've always said that I'd judge Brown after 10 games but that patience is paper thin now because of his clear lack of tactical nous because you already know that in the next two games away we'll play our normal one up top, hit and hope tactics and I can't see anything over than two more defeats. We won't be adrift because of the nature of the league but then the Forest Green game becomes ridiculously important for a match in the middle of September. Lose than and even the lesser spotted Smurf will be forced to do something about Michael.

[Vital Spark]

My thoughts in the cold light of day. On a positive side the league is rubbish. I say that because it's clear early on that anyone can beat anyone and a couple of wins will fly you up this league. We have been a bit unlucky recently. Worrel's effort was almost perfect and the header was clearly over the line. I was in the Disabled Stand so I had as clear a view as any. But and it's a big but, Brown's selections are becoming bizarre. His insistence on playing Pope on his own up top simply does not work and his quote that he had plenty of support is just plain wrong. I don't have a problem with his four centre halves in the back four selection as long as there are two legitimate wide men in front of them who stay on the wing and who don't have to try to come inside and support the isolated front man. Trying to play 4-3-3 with the centre halves makes us far too narrow and easy to defend against.

I've always said that I'd judge Brown after 10 games but that patience is paper thin now because of his clear lack of tactical nous because you already know that in the next two games away we'll play our normal one up top, hit and hope tactics and I can't see anything over than two more defeats. We won't be adrift because of the nature of the league but then the Forest Green game becomes ridiculously important for a match in the middle of September. Lose than and even the lesser spotted Smurf will be forced to do something about Michael.

 

The ball didn't cross the line, not even close.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using the onevalefan mobile app

[TheSage]

Some good, constructive points on this thread.

 

The remarks about us being too narrow and not using the wide spaces is a fair one I think. I can't recall Montano or Harness hugging the touchlines or running at their full backs with the ball. They were forever drifting inside and trying very unsuccessfully to support Pope. But the game got congested and we played into their hands as they were generally a bit bigger and more physical than us and the likes of Montano and Whitfield (poor yesterday, don't know how he stayed on)lost every 50:50 ball.

 

The fare on offer is appallingly bad. Long balls, high balls, free kicks. You have a go. We'll have a go. It was dreadful stuff, awful entertainment. But by compressing the play down one third of the pitch we made it easier for them to defend.

 

Apart from the myopic Brown every single person in the ground knows to our cost that playing one striker in Pope does not work. He needs close support and crosses into the box and he isn't getting any. Frequently there is no-one within ten yards of him and all his good flick ons and hold up play come to nothing. In any case, we don't have the type of creative, scoring midfielders who can play those roles. You need a Bridgy or an Eagles or a Dodds or an Earle or a Taylor to play those roles and we haven't got anyone like that. Blimey, the last time one of our midfield players ran past Pope was probably about 2012! It's that bad. The likes of Tonge, Middleton (did well I thought), Pugh, Harness, Montano, can't and don't do it, so Brown's tactics fall flat on their face.

 

I did see enough to think that we'll be ok this season but words are fine. Worrall is a good player. Middleton had a steady debut I thought. I like Harness but there is no end product at all from him. Gunning is a good lower division defender. When everyone is fit we do have as much quality as these other teams.

[Rodge]

The ball didn't cross the line, not even close.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using the onevalefan mobile app

 

I sit in front of the disabled stand in line with the goal, and it looked way over from where I was sitting and everyone around me thought the same.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using the onevalefan mobile app

[NellyTheValiant]

Some good, constructive points on this thread.

 

The remarks about us being too narrow and not using the wide spaces is a fair one I think. I can't recall Montano or Harness hugging the touchlines or running at their full backs with the ball. They were forever drifting inside and trying very unsuccessfully to support Pope. But the game got congested and we played into their hands as they were generally a bit bigger and more physical than us and the likes of Montano and Whitfield (poor yesterday, don't know how he stayed on)lost every 50:50 ball.

 

The fare on offer is appallingly bad. Long balls, high balls, free kicks. You have a go. We'll have a go. It was dreadful stuff, awful entertainment. But by compressing the play down one third of the pitch we made it easier for them to defend.

 

Apart from the myopic Brown every single person in the ground knows to our cost that playing one striker in Pope does not work. He needs close support and crosses into the box and he isn't getting any. Frequently there is no-one within ten yards of him and all his good flick ons and hold up play come to nothing. In any case, we don't have the type of creative, scoring midfielders who can play those roles. You need a Bridgy or an Eagles or a Dodds or an Earle or a Taylor to play those roles and we haven't got anyone like that. Blimey, the last time one of our midfield players ran past Pope was probably about 2012! It's that bad. The likes of Tonge, Middleton (did well I thought), Pugh, Harness, Montano, can't and don't do it, so Brown's tactics fall flat on their face.

 

I did see enough to think that we'll be ok this season but words are fine. Worrall is a good player. Middleton had a steady debut I thought. I like Harness but there is no end product at all from him. Gunning is a good lower division defender. When everyone is fit we do have as much quality as these other teams.

 

Playing narrow isn't helped by playing centre halves at full back and no natural wingers in front of them either. For the most part Montano and Harness played very narrow ineffectually trying to support Pope. We had an extra man in midfield for the most part and didn't dominate even at home. The last 15 minutes they played with 10 men and we still couldn't dominate and we created next to nothing. Brown has had since Bruno left and I've seen absolutely nothing to suggest that this guy is a football manager, shouldn't have been offered the job in the 1st place or more bizarrely 2nd place after relegation.

[TylerB]

The key area to any side is the midfield area, and despite signing about 10 midfielders over the summer we still have absolutely no goals and no creativity, which takes some doing when you think about it considering the numbers we've brought into the club. Harness has no end product whatsoever. Montano, who we were all excited about, looks hopeless, and you can now see why Rovers never trusted him enough to give him a run of games. The only signing who really offers something in midfield is Worrall, but he's nowhere near good enough to win games on his own.

 

Also, when you really think a about it, playing at home on such a wide pitch and playing two average at best centre-backs as full-backs is just criminal, and the kind of choice that makes me question whether Brown actually wants to be laid off and find employment in the building trade or something. Right now I'd happily have Sinnot or even Gannon back in charge over Michael Brown, which say's it all.

[Santa]

Playing narrow isn't helped by playing centre halves at full back and no natural wingers in front of them either. For the most part Montano and Harness played very narrow ineffectually trying to support Pope. We had an extra man in midfield for the most part and didn't dominate even at home. The last 15 minutes they played with 10 men and we still couldn't dominate and we created next to nothing. Brown has had since Bruno left and I've seen absolutely nothing to suggest that this guy is a football manager, shouldn't have been offered the job in the 1st place or more bizarrely 2nd place after relegation.

Proper full backs can overlap and support the wingers. They can exploit space when wingers go inside and play gets compressed in the middle of the park. You need players like that to do the things we don't do but should do to win games.

 

We don't engineer overloads. We don't stretch teams or lure them over one side before sucker punching them on the other.

 

It's extremely rare that you see a Vale player in a one on one situation or even get behind the back four. It's also extremely rare that you see a Vale side make a clearcut chance or engineer a meaningful shot on target.

 

This has been the case for the 18 months now, perhaps longer. I used to think it was Page that was boring but it's clear that the manager wasn't the variable here.