Lincoln, 14th October
During the international break both of my dogs passed away - one from old age and one from cancer. I don’t really have anything to say about the football, but I’m still on match threads so here’s a match thread.
Comments
Chin up mate.
I look forward to your wonderful synopsis of all things football when you are up for it.
Subs: Areola (GK), Walker-Peters, Golambeckis, Scarles, Magassa, Soucek, Solomon, Pablo, Piroe
Playing a 4-5-1 just to see if Lincoln can deal with it. Need to start winning games on a regular basis. Kante sits in front of the back four and the other 4 midfielders going forward just run riot with Taty or Piroe.
Lincoln had a massive season, they finished 12 points clear of runners up Cardiff after a 29 match unbeaten run and were promoted back to the 2nd tier for the first time since 1961.
Four weeks later manager Michael Skubala joined Bristol City
Rather than bring in a new manager the board decided to promote both Skubala’s assistants, Tom Shaw and ex-Hammer Chris Cohen, as joint head coaches and it’s turned out rather well
They lost the first two games playing with a back 4 and switched to 3-4-3. They drew 2 and won 3 including a very satisfying 1-0 victory at Bristol City but then they've lost the last two. They even got to the 3rd round of the Carabao before coming up against Bournemouth.
Even more impressive they’ve done it with pretty much the same squad as last season, the only new arrival to get any significant playing time is Romanian RWB/CB Andrei Coubis (U Cluj £2,6m) but he suffered a knee injury on international duty so was out at the weekend and isn't 100% for this one
RW Reeco Hackett scored 12 last season and has 2 goals this season, he also missed the loss at Sheffield United for concussion protocol but should be available tomorrow. LW Ben House usually lines up on the other side, scored 9 last season, 2 so far this season
Up front is 22yo CF Freddie Draper who missed a large chunk of the end of last season with injury but has started 8 out of 9 Championship games with 2 goals. Hes actually Lincoln's longest serving player, came up from the kids and got his first team debut when he was 17 in 2021
Draper is keeping record signing CF Mikkel Ladefoged (Vasteras £4.3m) out of the starting line up, just one goal in 4 substitute appearances in the league. CF Rob Street also scored 12 goals last season but has only been given 4 starts.
Looking at the stats its not going to be pretty
They've only scored 7, joint bottom with Watford but they’ve only conceded 11, 3 of those coming at the weekend against Sheffield United. We’ve conceded 12
They have the lowest possession 36.5%, lowest pass completion 69%, joint top for long balls and bottom for short passes
Defending they’re 2nd for tackles per game, 3rd for interceptions and 4th for offsides
They’re also 2nd for fouls and are joint top with Pompey for yellow cards. Draper and CM Conor McGrandles both on 4 yellows
Hoooooooof
There's no rain forecast and its going to be 15°C (cool to mild)
Curious to see if we go with a back 3, Nuno has reverted to a back 3 in both 2nd halves (albeit out of necessity) but surely at some point the horrific back 4 has to improve
Problem is we dont really have a LWB, maybe Scarles naturally but hes used a winger in Austbø
I hope Pablo plays, we look massively better with him in the team
Taty and KWP (and Mukasa) maybe need some time out the team untill they start performing
- - - - - - - - Hermansen - - - - - - - -
- - Dinos - - Kilman - - Morato - -
- - - - - - Mukasa - Engels - - - - - - -
- Bowen - - Solomon - - Austbø -
- - - - - - - Pablo - Piroe - - - - - - - -
Thats essentially the formation we've had out in the 2nd halves of the Millwall and QPR games
Maybe its too attacking to start, but you coupd bring in Scarles at LWB or Soucek instead of Solomon or Mukasa
Subs: Areola (GK), Walker-Peters, Scarles, Golambeckis, Orford, Mukasa, Souček, Austbø, Taty