It has been a while since I wrote a new blog post, most probably feel that is a good thing, however for my one loyal reader, here are my latest musings on all things Northampton Town related.
There seems to be an air of doom over Cobblers at the moment due to very poor pre season results. Some of the doom is well placed, other parts are just mindless over reactions. We are yet to win a pre season game, in fact we have only drawn one and lost the rest, the draw being against Oxford City and it was mainly a reserve fixture.
I will explain why I feel a bit concerned, it has nothing to do with the results because you often see odd pre season results and they are not really important, unless you get bum snaffled 7-0 or something. My biggest issue is that Gary Johnson has assembled a squad of his own picking and it seems to have too many 'mights' in the squad. By that I mean players that might come good but equally might be awful. The players in question are Lewis Young, Ashley Corker, Nana, Sam Walker, Nick McKoy, Byron Webster and John Johnson.
I suspect the last two names on that list will raise a few eyebrows, let me explain why I included them. They are both unproven centre backs who, in my opinion, both need an experienced centre back alongside them and at the moment the partnership just is not working. That isn't to say that they are both bad players, far from it. It might come good eventually, it might not, can we afford to bumble our way through the first part of the season with a shaky centre back partnership? At the time of writing we still don't have an experienced centre back and that is a glaring mistake from Gary Johnson.
Ashley Corker seems such a strange signing, at one point it looked like we might have Aziz Deen-Conteh on loan from Chelsea. That seems to fall through so we sign John Johnson's mate who has been playing at a low level of non league. Again, he might come good but the performances so far suggest he is probably going to end up getting replaced by a loanee.
Nana only just snuck onto my list, 95% of the time each game he is absolutely fine. The remaining 5% is the mistakes he makes, he is sure to make 1 or 2 serious mistakes each game that lead to a goalscoring chance for the other team. Fantastic athlete, as is Corker. That seems to be the issue with Gary Johnson, he has forgot to sign people that can actually defend, good news is though if we get involved in a team race, we'll fare pretty well.
Nick McKoy hasn't looked to bad this pre season actually, he is probably only on the list because he looks a bit of a gormless twat, sure he is a lovely fella though. Still the jury is out, he might come good.
Lewis Young, a guy who couldn't get a game for Forest Green last season. Famous brother plying his trade for Man Utd, perhaps he is struggling to cope with having such a famous brother? Another 'might' signing. Stunned to see him playing as back up for Nana at right back, however reports are he has done quite well in that position so far.
Sam Walker is only really included because goalkeeper is a very important position and at the moment he looks no better than Chris Dunn, who was ridiculed by most NTFC fans but then secured a move to Championship club Coventry. The biggest problem with Walker is lack of experience, a few bad results and our whole defence could end up just shouting madly at each other during games with none of them knowing what is going on! Equally they could turn into the best back 5 unit in the league, it's another 'might'.
Is it all doom and gloom? Personally I don't think so. As an attacking unit we seem quite slick, yes we haven't scored many goals in pre season. However in brutal honesty the flashier players, Davies, Bayo, Robinson etc don't seem to have been giving their all in the friendly matches, that is honestly how I've viewed it. I think going forward we will be absolutely fine and will score goals, providing Gary Johnson is willing to use the 442 formation as well as 4231. If he insists in using 4231 in every single game then we won't get promoted. He needs to have a plan b and he needs to be willing to use it. That was Ian Sampson's downfall, he rarely had a plan b and had no tactical nous whatsoever, of course he is still a legend, before everyone cries that I have taken Lord Sammo's name in vain.
It looks like we will probably sign Marin Pozgain and Lumbardh Salihu, both from Austria, although apparently originate from Croatia. Pozgain is 17 and seems to be classed as an attacking midfielder, not really sure we need another in that position, however if he is as good as Peter Johnson thinks then why not sign him? Salihu is a striker aged 18 who is apparently rated as better than Pozgain, with Harrad being injured for 3/4 weeks then another striker is needed so this ties in nicely. I believe there is some red tape to sort out before they sign but the deals should be completed soon. It would be lovely if we were to sign an experienced centre back but i think that ship has sailed and if anyone else comes in they will most likely be young loanees from prem
So in short there are a few issues that need addressing, however that is what pre season is for. They have two weeks to turn into a team capable of promotion, can they do it? Yes they can. Will they do it? No fucking idea.
A more upbeat post will be made after we trounce Wycombe 5-0 on Saturday in our final friendly!
Cheers for reading and feel free to call me a twat in the comments bit below :)
