Early Observations

[Rother]

In some of the pre-season games the football we played was delightful. Intricate quick passing moves, generally playing to feet, always finding a spare man to receive the ball, even against the teams from higher leagues.

 

We look decent, but I think we are playing too much long ball at the moment. We are the smallest team in the division and whilst we will always create and convert chances by getting the ball in "the right areas" long ball is clearly not playing to our strengths. 

 

A couple of injuries in midfield have obviously disrupted things a bit but I am hoping we start keeping the ball on the deck a bit more.

Bevan Van Wyk is obviously a very fit young man and does a lot of the hard miles in a game that can sometimes go unnoticed I suspect, but he isn't quite on the right wavelength yet to be able to knit things together in midfield like Dexter or Dean can. Promising though, and I like his attitude.

 

Last season Ben Harris was a revelation - the improvement in him (albeit he'd been given few opportunities before) was amazing. Dan Hicks seems to have made similar improvement this year. Always decent enough, he now seems to have calmed down and is timing his challenges superbly.

 

They may not be available, and may not fit Mick's plans anyway, but there are times when I think a big ugly bugger to bring on up front would be useful. Dennison's kick is huge and, whilst I would rather see us play out from the back more often, that 6' 2" + lad to nod it on to Gould, Lazza, Warham / whoever would enable us to make better use of it.

 

Anyway, I'm happy and confident - but the forum is here to discuss and exchange thoughts etc. so that's what I'm doing. 

 

Anyone else have any thoughts on what we've seen so far?