Well, it's 4.03am and i'm sat here with Sky News mumbling in the background telling me that David Beckham has given his daughter a silly name, pondering what to write for my first NCM Diary. This is effectively a place where i'll analyse (well, mostly complain) the goings on at Meadow Lane throughout the season. Every couple of days, depending on how drunk I am in my first year at university, you can expect a fresh page of musings for you all to disagree with to your hearts' content on the NCM messageboard.
Is it really a goalscoring striker that is needed to sort out our woes going forward?
Let me start this by saying that I know we need to sign a striker and hoping to rely on Lee Hughes, who is now getting injured through such bizarre things as a scuba-diving mishap, Karl Hawley who hasn't scored a goal in eighteen months and the new slimline Ben Burgess is foolish at best. But, i'm not convinced that it's really the striker's fault that we look so goalshy and scored the fewest goals in League One last season.
It would appear that Martin Allen has undergone some form of footballing revelation, ditching the abrasive style that brought him early success at Brentford in favour of an attacking, passing game. Call it an Ian Holloway at Blackpool style revolution, if you will. However, Holloway was able to create an attacking, free-scoring side at Bloomfield Road thanks to the ambition and creativity of one man. I just don't see a player like Charlie Adam in the current Notts squad and I think this is where our biggest problem lies.
The signing of Hamza Bencherif has added some goals, courtesy of the Algerian's hefty right boot, but he is essentially a converted centre back who will sit infront of the back four and play simple passes. The sort which, for all of his hustle and bustle, Neal Bishop still struggles with. Factor in John Spicer having spent his Notts career on the periphery, Ricky Ravenhill essentially being a hatchet man and Jeff Hughes and Alan Judge being wingers at heart and it becomes apparent that we have a midfield utterly devoid of creativity and attacking intent. Adam's quality was able to transform Luke Varney, Gary Taylor-Fletcher and DJ Campbell into a goalscoring Premier League attack, whilst our lifeless midfield has converted three formerly dangerous League One forwards into a worryingly goal shy trio.
With Allen looking to play a 4-2-3-1 style, it is obvious we need a quick, strong striker who can hold the ball up to make this possible. They don't need to be a natural scorer of goals necessarily, we already have an extremely good one of those in Hughes. It's that attacking midfielder that is the issue, someone able to get their foot on the ball and make things happen, someone who can dictate a game of football and bring it under their spell.
The other major issue is goals from elsewhere. If we count Craig Westcarr as a forward, our striking duo bagged 25 goals between them last season. Whilst that is hardly awe-inspiring it still represents a passable return at this level. In fact, only nine teams had two players who scored more than that combined, with play-off sides Bournemouth and Milton Keynes having top scorers who only managed as many as Westcarr and Hughes respectively. Things compare somewhat less favourably when we look at goals from elsewhere, however. Both our midfield and defence were comfortably the lowest scoring in the entire Football League. This may have been remedied somewhat by the signings of Bencherif and Jeff Hughes, who both reached double figures last season, whilst a fit Alan Judge is also likely to find the net on a semi-regular basis. However, there is no true attacking midfielder who can both score goals and create them for others.
If you look at the top nine sides in the division last season, four of them did not possess a real goalscoring striker. But, without exception, they all had a central midfielder who both scored and created from the centre of the park. Champions Brighton had Gary Dicker, Peterborough boasted Grant McCann, whilst even Rochdale and Leyton Orient could call on the services of Gary Jones and Dean Cox respectively. We need a striker but, to get towards the top of this league, it is a creative man in the middle of the park who is the true missing link.
Are pre-season friendlies actually completed irrelevant?
After Notts succumbed 2-0 to Conference North outfit Hinckley United at the weekend, it has been asked on the NCM messageboard whether pre-season results actually have any relevance at all to the season that lies ahead. I personally don't think the results do, but patterns of play and weaknesses that become apparent in pre-season are likely to manifest themselves over the coming months. Notts are yet to score a goal they have properly created (one was from a corner and two long range strikes) against three weak non-league sides, a problem that we all fear will plague Notts this year.
The players have also looked uncomfortable with the 4-2-3-1 formation that Allen wants them to play and by the passing style of football which he is demanding. Whilst some, such as Alan Judge and Haydn Hollis, seem to have flourished the change in style is proving more difficult for others. Liam Chilvers looks like more of a liability, if that is even possible, whilst none of the wide players we have in our side have been able to make a real impact yet. What we really need to achieve this pre-season is a coherence amongst the players and for them to become comfortable with the shape that Allen clearly wants them to play.
Losing Michael Johnson looks like it could be a real blow
I think everyone was disappointed to hear the news that Michael Johnson had left the club this week after his contract as youth team manager wasn't renewed. Looking past his obvious achievements at the club as a player, he appeared to have done a fantastic job heading up the youth team since it's reformation two years ago. A second place finish in the league this season was an excellent achievement and four players is an impressive haul to get professional deals from any youth system at this level. Even more so when you consider that four others had deals on the table under Paul Ince. As long as Allen appoints a natural successor who will continue the good work under Johnson it is unlikely to be a disaster, but it seems a real shame to have lost someone who certainly cares deeply about the club and who seemed to be a very talented young coach.