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Match thread: Blackpool vs Port Vale friendly


robf

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Friendlies are completely pointless. Nothing, but nothing, should be read into them. 

The only thing they may be useful for is match fitness. But seeing as virtually no one plays anywhere near 90 minutes in these games, even that point is disputable.

You can’t help but to form an opinion from these matches but rarely, if ever, does anything you witness in these games have any bearing on what will happen when the real stuff starts. 

And now as fans are not allowed to attend, even the added revenue isn’t a reason to stage them. 

Poor Vale performance today, but it means and counts for nothing. 

In my opinion there is nothing to be gained from these games, so why bother, 

 

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Nothing to be gained apart from looking at a trialist or 2,  trying different players in the formation to see where they might fit, getting some match fitness, getting some match sharpness, possibly trying a new formation, giving the new lads a chance to bed in with their team mates in an actual game.

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31 minutes ago, RailwayRowdy said:

Friendlies are completely pointless. Nothing, but nothing, should be read into them. 

The only thing they may be useful for is match fitness. But seeing as virtually no one plays anywhere near 90 minutes in these games, even that point is disputable.

You can’t help but to form an opinion from these matches but rarely, if ever, does anything you witness in these games have any bearing on what will happen when the real stuff starts. 

And now as fans are not allowed to attend, even the added revenue isn’t a reason to stage them. 

Poor Vale performance today, but it means and counts for nothing. 

In my opinion there is nothing to be gained from these games, so why bother, 

 

Your last sentence couldn't be more wrong. You've obviously never played competitive football.  Even pub teams try to arrange a few friendlies prior to any new season. The reason for staging them is as part of the build up before the season proper, anyone whos's played football at any level will tell you that.  Friendlies are not aimed at the fans, and earning extra reveue, that's secondary, rather they're a step up, from the squad training together to a more competitive level.  The bearing it will have, as you point out, will be on fitness, but also sharpness, touch and team tactics.  It allows new squad members to see a bit more of their team mates in a competitive situation and become familiar with each other.  It allows the staff to run the rule over players and try various combinations, in different formations.  There's also the chance to network, we could pick up a player from Blackpool, Fleetwood, Rochdale or whoever, who knows?  To suggest that "there is nothing to be gained from these games" is wide of the mark in my opinion.

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Must say a massive "Thank You" to the media team, club and everyone involved in getting this match streamed. OK, it was only a friendly but damn I've missed watching The Vale.

The game itself was bossed by the Seasiders, it looks like they've recruited well, play decent football and could have a good season, if they can convert their chances, Hamilton, for all his good play, being the biggest culprit.  The biggest difference was that second half, when they bought on their subs, there was no disruption to their play.  They'd played more games than us and it showed.

For Vale, I thought Browne, Conlon and Visser had good games.  As others have said, Crookes looks comfortable at CH.  I'd also suggest that with the current squad restrictions Fitzpatrick would have to be significantly better than Crookes at LB to warrant a contract as merely cover.  For me, Crookes is more than adequate cover at LB and CH.  The real issues lie further upfield, Pope banned for 6 games and another year older, Cullen injured (again), albeit only slighty, Rodney unproven and will need far better service he received today.  I wonder what happened to the other trialist forward?

Overall, a good run out against a decent team who made us look what we are, rusty.

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If you put burgess and rodney in that first half team instead of pope and beckford we would of seen a different result same could be said for Hamilton with Blackpool. But the idea of friendlies is a run out not the result. I personally think playing higher league teams and having a result like yesterday is more beneficial than playing Newcastle town

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If you put burgess and rodney in that first half team instead of pope and beckford we would of seen a different result same could be said for Hamilton with Blackpool. But the idea of friendlies is a run out not the result. I personally think playing higher league teams and having a result like yesterday is more beneficial than playing Newcastle town

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10 hours ago, RailwayRowdy said:

Friendlies are completely pointless. Nothing, but nothing, should be read into them. 

The only thing they may be useful for is match fitness. But seeing as virtually no one plays anywhere near 90 minutes in these games, even that point is disputable.

You can’t help but to form an opinion from these matches but rarely, if ever, does anything you witness in these games have any bearing on what will happen when the real stuff starts. 

And now as fans are not allowed to attend, even the added revenue isn’t a reason to stage them. 

Poor Vale performance today, but it means and counts for nothing. 

In my opinion there is nothing to be gained from these games, so why bother, 

 

There’s lots to be gained from friendlys... otherwise nobody would have them!

nothing like match practice whether it be for 45 minutes or 90 it’s much more valuable than training. 

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All in all a decent run out......Gibbons/Smith/Legge/Montano still the first choice back four with Mills right back cover and Brisley centre back cover and Crookes played well at centre back but is fourth choice and more likely to see action as left back cover....Visser did well and could be a dependable back up for Brown...perhaps next game Cambell-Gordon will get some playing time.

Midfield and again it is as the season ended with Burgess/Joyce/Conlon as first choice and some handy extra cover from the versatile Whitehead pushing for a place....Trickett-Smith did well and young Hurst looks a busy player while trialist Beckford could have something to offer.

Upfront Worrall is nailed on to start probably along with Amoo but Browne had the better game when all said and done....Pope (who like Legge must be in their last season) might struggle with two games a week indeed with a full ninety minutes and perhaps could be considered a super sub.....liked the look of Rodney pace and power and workrate only a bit raw as yet.......as many have said we need a first choice striker signing up because even if the absent Bradbury turns out to be a lower league Harry Kane both Pope and given the injury record Cullen are kinda part-time players and to go into the season without a reliable first choice striker and just a couple of young unproven forwards is a risk....so maybe someone like say Dennis could the sort of proven goalscorer Askey needs to attract.

In summary a decent work out against a good team and the left back from Macc training with us got constantly done be their speed demon but the squad looks balanced with some decent competition for places.....who knows because of their age and U21 status maybe Askey will offer terms to Bradbury and Beckford and considering the injury records of Oyeleke and Cullen it makes sense because if they again miss the majority of the season through injuries and niggles both could be out of the door at the end of the season....but just say that Askey were to offer say Visser a contract and get say someone of the calibre of Dennis then it's been a good summer and the squad even without the unlikely return of Clark and Taylor on loan looks capable of strong season certainly top ten again and play off contenders.

 

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Thought most of the ‘first half’ team gave a decent account of themselves (first pre-season friendly etc.) Visser looked ok as back up. Thought Monty went walkabout on a couple of occasions. I thought Blackpool saw that as our weakness as they attacked down their right side on a number of occasions. I think Askey needs to decide what he wants from his left back. Either A - someone who is comfortable on the ball, can find a pass and decent going forward but lacks positioning or ‘B’ almost the opposite in Crookes. Didn’t think Beckford could get himself into the game. Would probably need another look?

Thought that of the second half side (not assessing the team as a whole as they’ve not really played together and it’s not really about that anyway) Mills played well - looked comfortable on the ball, could put in a decent cross and could be relied upon to be in a position to defend. I can forgive one mistake in a friendly. Burgess looked busy and looked like good solid player. Whitehead did ok. Rodney did ok. Thought that Blackpool saw much more of the ball second half so definitely need to see a lot of these lads again.

Overall, good workout and good for players to start to get their touch back etc. Apart from Visser, not sure about other trial it’s and I don’t think Askey is either.

Look forward to Tuesday.

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I'm not sure what we gained from playing Pope for the first 45 minutes, other than seeing if the keeper could find him from goal kicks. Any match fitness he gains from the friendlies will be lost by the time he can play.

I would have thought that there was more to gain by taking a longer look at one of the trialist strikers and playing him for 15/20 minutes in the second half when Whitehead and Rodney were on as he hasn't played with either before and to try out a plan b.

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If you put burgess and rodney in that first half team instead of pope and beckford we would of seen a different result same could be said for Hamilton with Blackpool. But the idea of friendlies is a run out not the result. I personally think playing higher league teams and having a result like yesterday is more beneficial than playing Newcastle town
With friendlies, teams always play "stronger" opposition and "weaker" opposition.

Stonger opposition helps the team with defensive shape and weaker teams help fine tune attacking shape/movement.

With non league not starting up again until October we've been forced into only playing higher opposition!
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Having watched the game back again its a game we could easily have got a draw from, with Pope and Amoo missing pretty guilt edge chances. They clearly had a little more quality.

Both teams set up the same way, although Blackpool played with 3 attackers whereas we really used one striker and 2 wingers. Maybe Askey is looking to refine that with his comments on Rodney being able to play in a 3 but to one side when he signed them. Northampton played with a 3 during the playoffs where the three were inter-changeable to a degree. If he is it may count against Pope a little as you can't really see him rotating out on to the wing very often.

Both teams had a good press. We found it particularly difficult to work the ball out from the back because of this and so did they, although they did find more ways to overcome the problem than we did. We did seem to find a partial solution in the last 10 minutes and for me Rodney was onside from a good long ball played up to him by Mills near the end. Mills also play some good diagonal balls into the box, which he used to do pretty regularly for Morecombe.  

Alex Hurst reminded me a little of Luke Hannatt playing on the wing as he looked like a midfield player out of position. Didn't think he did the job badly but I'm sure that's neither where he wants to play nor where he plays best.

There seems to be a consensus we played better first half. Watching it back I'm not so sure as Vizzer made more saves than Brown. First 15 and last 10 of the second half I felt we were better, there was a period just after they changed the side when they were clearly on top. 

There seemed to be an effort to rotate the midfield 3 a little in each half with the player in the holding role getting further forward and someone else dropping into the role. Maybe just how things were working out at particular times or it may be something we have worked on to be able to be less predictable, which I think is a criticism of how we were last season at times. Thought Burgess was more influential when he swapped with Trickett-Smith and played on the right of a midfield 3 for a spell in the last 10 minutes. At times he was a little innocuous on the left of the three.

Surprising stat, although something I thought was the case; tackles, headers won and interceptions second half:

Alex Hurst 3

Scott Burgess 3

Danny Whitehead 3

Dan Trickett-Smith 11

Watching it first time around I thought DTS had won a lot of the ball. He was actually quite aggressive at times here which surprised me. In the Newcastle game last season he should some pleasing touches and the pass through for the goal from Browne that wasn't given was pretty special but he tended to just disappear from games. If I was picking a midfield 3 based purely on this game he would be in it. We aren't and I'd currently go with Conlon (thought he was the best midfielder first half) and two from Oyeleke, Burgess and Joyce if all were fit. I thought the midfield pressing was pretty good both halves and all 6 players involved did put a lot of work in and was probably the outstanding feature of the Vale game.

For me what we most do need to do is to find a way to counteract teams doing to us what we do to them in terms of a press. When they were closing down the options for the goalkeeper at the back we didn't really seem to have a way of moving the ball forward. Our strength going forward is we can play the ball pretty quickly through the midfield. Blackpool essentially stopped the ball getting from defense into the midfield. If teams are high pressing we need to work on getting balls into the areas behind them down the channels as we do have a bit of pace up front with Amoo, Rodney, Worral and Cullen and Browne to a degree. Second time around I thought we did better than watching it live. I think Blackpool have enough quality to get into the top 10 in league one, not sure what the bookies odd are.

 

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