Barrow AFC.net

mightywhite wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:36 pm I don’t think you can judge danns on two halves of preseason football. I think people are forgetting he has one thing we desperately need and that is football league experience in and around the dressing room and he has it in vast quantities.

A.B. wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:42 pm

mightywhite wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:36 pm I don’t think you can judge danns on two halves of preseason football. I think people are forgetting he has one thing we desperately need and that is football league experience in and around the dressing room and he has it in vast quantities.

Of course you can. He has been given 3 opportunities as a trialist and has performed poor against both Blackpool and FCUM.

Agreed rubbish.
Time for David Dunn to move on and look for someone else.

nationalman wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:30 am Why do people keep going on about Rooney, i recall people wanting him released at the end of the 18/19 season because he was no good. At the end of the day he bottled playing in the efl, God knows what he will do next summer if stockport get promoted, Barrow are where they are now because they are a team not 1 player, yes he scored a lot of goals but how many were penalties and free kicks were no other player got a look in

russell_anderson wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:57 pm

nationalman wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:30 am Why do people keep going on about Rooney, i recall people wanting him released at the end of the 18/19 season because he was no good. At the end of the day he bottled playing in the efl, God knows what he will do next summer if stockport get promoted, Barrow are where they are now because they are a team not 1 player, yes he scored a lot of goals but how many were penalties and free kicks were no other player got a look in

Maybe we're going on about him because he just happened to be voted the best player in the National League last season and scored about 27 goals from midfield!

chipmunx wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 12:20 pm having seen the last 2 friendlies my thoughts are this;-
GK;- Dixon +1 (the Wycombe guy or Lillis) - I think we are sorted there.
Central Defence;- Jones, Hird, Platt, Brough is a good 4 - Taylor and Brown and Beadling can also cover there. We might get another 1 in - in which case Younger would look like a cheap and competent option.
Wing backs/Full back;- James Jones and Brough can play there as can Kay, Barry, Burns and Connor Brown. i don't think we need another 1 - but if we do then on yesterdays showing i'd rather have Penfold there than Ash Smith Brown - who hasn't impressed at all.
Midfield;- Mike Jones and Hardcastle are automatic starters at present on what i've seen. The other place as others have said looks to be between Beadling, Taylor and Gribbin - although Kay, Burns and Penfold can play there. Danns though is a big no from me on the last 2 games - his performances were summed up by his 2 free kicks against FCUM which ended up in the wall - and about half way up the wall at that. This looks to be one area we need another option. If Croasdale had/does sign he would probably be a good fit - but maybe it's going to be A.N.Other...
Strikers;- Quigley has no competition at present, James and Dior are too similar to play together and not physical enough as a regular top 2. Hindle looks more like the player from 2 seasons ago (goal scoring wise) and might well earn a deal. which leaves us 1 or 2 strikers short. Vale i'm guessing will be 1 - possibly the bench option at least at 1st. I Don't know if the Humphrys (Southend guy) rumours have stopped - but they got a new manager in recently which obviously complicates things. He's scored at least twice in pre-season so far. either Humprys or someone who plays like Andy Cook is needed though.

Suffolk Blue wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:40 pm

chipmunx wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 12:20 pm having seen the last 2 friendlies my thoughts are this;-
GK;- Dixon +1 (the Wycombe guy or Lillis) - I think we are sorted there.
Central Defence;- Jones, Hird, Platt, Brough is a good 4 - Taylor and Brown and Beadling can also cover there. We might get another 1 in - in which case Younger would look like a cheap and competent option.
Wing backs/Full back;- James Jones and Brough can play there as can Kay, Barry, Burns and Connor Brown. i don't think we need another 1 - but if we do then on yesterdays showing i'd rather have Penfold there than Ash Smith Brown - who hasn't impressed at all.
Midfield;- Mike Jones and Hardcastle are automatic starters at present on what i've seen. The other place as others have said looks to be between Beadling, Taylor and Gribbin - although Kay, Burns and Penfold can play there. Danns though is a big no from me on the last 2 games - his performances were summed up by his 2 free kicks against FCUM which ended up in the wall - and about half way up the wall at that. This looks to be one area we need another option. If Croasdale had/does sign he would probably be a good fit - but maybe it's going to be A.N.Other...
Strikers;- Quigley has no competition at present, James and Dior are too similar to play together and not physical enough as a regular top 2. Hindle looks more like the player from 2 seasons ago (goal scoring wise) and might well earn a deal. which leaves us 1 or 2 strikers short. Vale i'm guessing will be 1 - possibly the bench option at least at 1st. I Don't know if the Humphrys (Southend guy) rumours have stopped - but they got a new manager in recently which obviously complicates things. He's scored at least twice in pre-season so far. either Humprys or someone who plays like Andy Cook is needed though.

To summarise IMO those players that have thus far impressed in these 2-3 games have been mainly our retained squad from last season, none of whom have had a particularly poor outing of note. That includes Brown, Hindle and even Penfold. Add to them the two Jones boys who've also looked competent. Possibly also Beadling.

Ian Evatt had an eye for finding players who's potential outweighed their reputation and who could fit in to our shape quickly and seemlessly. Its very early days and I'm not going to be judgemental but I've yet to see that in Dunn. We've yet to see what his style of play actually is and to be honest the games played have failed to clarify that other than to suggest the desired style of play may not have changed dramatically. My impression is that these games have been more useful for proving fitness than in building a new first string. So based on what I've watched so far the starting 11 against Stevenage (Quigley excepted) would look very much like the last starting 11 versus Notts County with Mike Jones and Luke James included.

In fact I'd go as far to suggest that because of the complexities and costs of now running a pre-season, the number of games will be limited and therefore iit would be logical that you put out a day one team that had in major part already worked with each other. In our case that's the retained squad. Two specific weaknesses one up front and one in midfield were identified early on and neither have yet been convincingly remedied.

I'm trying to disguise my sense of being underwhelmed by the new manager so far and I know that is unfair. But the likes of Gribben and Danns (albeit the latter not actually signed as yet) leave me with some discomfort. To me they represent the type of player that Evatt would probably never have touched. Whilst Gribben has some of the youthful indiscretion of Kay, Evatt had worked with Kay at Chesterfield and I think it was this that led him to believe that Kay could be improved (though he stated publicly that the decision to acquire Kay had been something of a risk). Gribben is already beginning to show signs of someone who is struggling to make the transition from boy wonder to street fighter. Danns he would have considered too old and past his best. To be frank I dont really understand why Danns is playing at all given that our defensive options look to be pretty strong. He is hardly the personification of the "Barrocelona" style. Other than the fact of course that he's a mate of Dunns. As I say its worrying.

Moribund wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:55 pm If ever there was an overreaction to a meaningless friendly result, this is it.

Steeley wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:22 pm

russell_anderson wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:57 pm Maybe we're going on about him because he just happened to be voted the best player in the National League last season and scored about 27 goals from midfield!

Rubbish at penalties though.

russell_anderson wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:50 am

Steeley wrote: ↑Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:22 pm
Rubbish at penalties though.

True! If he had been a bit better with those he'd have scored over 30 goals last season which is a bit special for a midfielder. That tally will take an awful lot of replacing. We've got a couple of good midfielders in Hardcastle and Mike Jones but I'll be surprised if they would ever manage more than 10 between them so unless another goalscorer is snapped up we're going to be very reliant on Quigley and to a lesser extent Angus for goals.