Going forward.

[redrobo]

As many have pointed out to me looking back to find individual games and results for our lack of automatic promotion is pointless and so let's look forward to whatever league we find ourselves in next season.

For me the one area of concern that our magnificent manager needs to address is the defense which has let in a huge number of goals. Thankfully going forward and scoring has not been a problem.

So for me get the defense sorted and provided we can continue to create and score goals on a regular basis there is no reason that the success of this season can be replicated next and if we are still in EFL2 then we can go one step further and gain a deserved automatic promotion to RFL1 as worthy Champions.

[marky No.1]

I would be quite happy to mirror the season we've just had, whichever League we are in, to not be there and see what has been a quality season with all those performances, goals, wins and points on the board has been torture.
Thank goodness for I Follow.

As for "Going Forward" that is great to watch too, instead of all that sideways and backwards crap we used to endure

[BerlinWaller]

I personally think we have a fantastic defence with a very capable defender left on the bench. Our full backs are quality and all offer something different.

I often disagree with you and I think you are well wide of the mark again.

[Gone_Shrimping]

Once we got over the early season disappointments of Cambridge and Newcastle at home and Crawley away I think we looked pretty good defensively. We don't concede many of those 20/25 yard shots that we used to do when we didn't close down the opposition.

Letheren has looked really solid , what a save from that header yesterday to keep another clean sheet.

I would be quite happy for all the defenders to be with us next season but I fear they won't.

[redrobo]

I personally think we have a fantastic defence with a very capable defender left on the bench. Our full backs are quality and all offer something different.

I often disagree with you and I think you are well wide of the mark again.

Healthy disagreement is fine and I welcome it but we had the 5th worst defense in the league with 58 goals against.

The promoted 3 had 36, 50 and 50.

If we are to be future automatic promotion candidates in the future (which we will) then we have to get the goals against column down to below 50 for me.

Thankfully we have a superb goalscoring record which we all hope will continue next season. Put that together with an improvement in the goals against record and.....what a season we could / will have.

[Keith]

I disagree, I think the defence is excellent.

22 goals conceded in first nine League games.
9 goals conceded in the last eleven League games.

Two clean sheets in first 14 games.
Three clean sheets in our last four games.

The defence is looking really solid and good cover in each place. The problem in the early season has been sorted in my opinion.

[Morecambe Jack]

I also disagree.

If you remove the two outliers of Cambridge (5) and Crawley (4), we have hardly leaked goals.

I'd argue we have never had such a strong group of defenders as this season, where the back four could be made up of a number of combinations and still be as strong.

[Little Shrimp]

Those two games brought an impact of -9. If we'd still lost those but by more respectable scorelines and, for example, only had an impact of -3 from those games, our goal difference would be 17 (higher than Newport's).

It's definitely fair to say our defence in the second half of the season has been relatively solid. My one issue would be we've not kept loads of clean sheets. But over the last few games it's been excellent, which bodes well for the play-offs!

I'm not sure I can quite put my finger on why we have struggled defensively a bit at times. I think the vulnerability is balls in behind as our centre backs aren't particularly quick, but they are very strong, positionally aware and aerially dominant. Might just have been we weren't coordinating how high we pushed up the pitch with how intensely we pressed particularly well etc which can lead to being vulnerable to balls in behind.

I think our organisation has (understandably) improved throughout the season, meaning we are now better able to cope with the lengthy periods we generally have without the ball. Earlier in the season I often felt like we were in danger after a while and playing the averages against ourselves. Now I don't feel that so much, particularly over the last few games.

[BerlinWaller]

Rather than just post for the sake of posting Neil, have a look at these graphs put together by the brilliant Ben Mayhew. I would love to hear your conclusions.


https://twitter.com/experimental361/sta ... 15361?s=19

[Andy D]

its the whole teams whats defending better now, Songo again as been instrumental in protecting the back four, anchoring midfield.

[Keith]

its the whole teams whats defending better now, Songo again as been instrumental in protecting the back four, anchoring midfield.

That's exactly my thought too. In the early part of the season, we were sitting deep and allowing the opposition to control the ball for long periods, which frequently led to opportunities for the opposition. You could frequently feel an opportunity coming.

Once the side 'clicked', we changed to still sitting deep and letting the opposition have the ball, but they were kept at distance and their possession rarely led to a clear opportunity. Songo'o & Diagouraga are immense in midfield. Earlier in the season, they were both midfield wreckers, simply stopping the opposition, but in the later part of the season, their passing play & ball control has improved massively too.

In Jim's last season I felt that O'Sullivan, Wildig & Tutte were his main problem. All clearly had talent but simply weren't producing. I was delighted when Tutte left and to be honest, was a bit disappointed that Wildig in particular remained. But they have been superb this season. O'Sullivan's defensive play has improved massively and Wildig is possibly playing his best football of his career? Carlos has improved defensively too. Everyone works really hard.

All the players in defence do their jobs really well. Knight-Percival has been 'under the radar' in my opinion. He's rarely mentioned, yet rarely puts a foot wrong. He's played 31 games and picked up just two yellow cards, unfortunately, both in the same game, and I think the second was because he was knackered, having just returned from injury. Rarely, if ever, MotM, he just quietly and without fuss, gets on with the job.

I'd be happy if we could keep all the current defenders for next season, whichever League we're in and I reckon we'd be hitting the ground running & performing as a unit. If we keep the defence together, I'll expect to see our goals conceded total drop considerably.

[redrobo]

Looking at the final league tables of the previous 5 seasons those who got promoted and in particular those who became champions had conceded less goals than ourselves and my reasoning is that we need to improve that area this close season if we are to maintain our push for even greater glory.

Season 20/21 Cheltenham F 61 A 38 Cambridge F 73 A 49 Bolton F 59 A 50
Season 19/20 Swindon F 62 A 39 Crewe F 67 A 43 Plymouth F 61 A 39
Season 18/19 Lincoln F 73 A 43 Bury F 82 A 56 MK Dons F 71 A 49
Season 17/18 Accy Stanley F 76 A 46 Luton F 94 A 46 Wycombe F 79 A 60
Season 16/17 Portsmouth F 79 A 40 Plymouth F 71 A 46 Doncaster F 85 A 55

It takes on average 41 conceded goals in a season to win EFL2 whilst scoring on average 70 goals in a season.

We are well in line regarding goals for but NOT goals against.

However we've had a brilliant season and the best is yet to come.

[Phil Anderer]

Neil, you seem determined to ignore the simple fact that we had a couple of games early doors where we conceded a hatful, but at the end of the season the defence had tightened up into champions standards. We don't need a new defence, we just need to retain the one we've got as they now know exactly what they're doing.

[redrobo]

Just an opinion but to win the league we've got to reduce the number of goals we concede by around 15 a season which we could do with our current defense.... BUT It seems more than likely that our club captain may go to the Championship or at least EFL1 which as a result we would need to recruit a suitable replacement.

This season we've conceded the following EFL2 goals 5x1; 4x1; 3x3; 2x9 ( a total of 36) the rest of conceded league goals are all in 1's which is a superb record. To reduce the figure to 15 conceded goals is quite possible by ensuring that we do not concede more than 2 a game for circa 7 games which to become Champions is quite possible whilst maintaining are brilliant goals for tally....

[Keith]

Just an opinion but to win the league we've got to reduce the number of goals we concede by around 15 a season which we could do with our current defense.... BUT It seems more than likely that our club captain may go to the Championship or at least EFL1 which as a result we would need to recruit a suitable replacement.

Now you are bringing in a different debate! Absolutely, if we lose key players, then we will need to strengthen. I'd be happy to see Carlos go for a decent fee, if that cash allowed us to strengthen elsewhere.