Macauley Bonne - now at Maldon & Tiptree (p36)

I don't really dispute that Bonne has been poor, but it really is a thankless task playing the solo centre forward role in our team.

Unless you have pace, decent control and intelligence in addition to the strength we have typically had with out recent strikers, you won't get a lot out of them in L1 when they play alone up front. Bonne is simply another body to try and hold the ball up and/or try and get a flick on. Defences in this league love playing against that and will happily keep 1:1 while at least another defender covers. No risk of the ball over the top, no risk of clever movement - just 90 mins of physical play. The same thing happened to Stockley and it's just a player that tries to enable others.

Players like Bonne carry no risk for most defences. You match him on strength and then there's nothing else he can do. I feel like only Leaburn can do the strength+movement combo a bit and Aneke is well, Aneke. You have no other choice as Holden. Unless you bring Kanu through or start putting square pegs in round holes, you can't really start 2 up front regularly. Some of this is being facilitated though a number of things - Fraser not being anywhere near dynamic enough, CB-T being so hot and cold and having a lack of decent full backs (whoever comes in each week who isn't crocked + Clare being somewhat of a square peg in the role). Only Rak-Sakyi has any genuine quality, so anyone upfront is feeding on minimal scraps.

Our best attacking threats are our wingers, so we build around that. Playing one up top needs that player to be above average, and Bonne is not. It's also the players, not the system being the problem too. Ipswich and Derby play a very similar system and are just more dynamic and have better players.

th0rryy said:

I don't really dispute that Bonne has been poor, but it really is a thankless task playing the solo centre forward role in our team.

Unless you have pace, decent control and intelligence in addition to the strength we have typically had with out recent strikers, you won't get a lot out of them in L1 when they play alone up front. Bonne is simply another body to try and hold the ball up and/or try and get a flick on. Defences in this league love playing against that and will happily keep 1:1 while at least another defender covers. No risk of the ball over the top, no risk of clever movement - just 90 mins of physical play. The same thing happened to Stockley and it's just a player that tries to enable others.

Players like Bonne carry no risk for most defences. You match him on strength and then there's nothing else he can do. I feel like only Leaburn can do the strength+movement combo a bit and Aneke is well, Aneke. You have no other choice as Holden. Unless you bring Kanu through or start putting square pegs in round holes, you can't really start 2 up front regularly. Some of this is being facilitated though a number of things - Fraser not being anywhere near dynamic enough, CB-T being so hot and cold and having a lack of decent full backs (whoever comes in each week who isn't crocked + Clare being somewhat of a square peg in the role). Only Rak-Sakyi has any genuine quality, so anyone upfront is feeding on minimal scraps.

Our best attacking threats are our wingers, so we build around that. Playing one up top needs that player to be above average, and Bonne is not. It's also the players, not the system being the problem too. Ipswich and Derby play a very similar system and are just more dynamic and have better players.

I pretty much agree with all of what you say, but I am not sure the system we play isn't part of the problem. Other teams play the same formation, as you say, but the striker doesn't get as isolated as ours. Surely the manager needs to get the wingers to get closer to the striker, at least some of the time? They always seem miles away. The same applies to our attacking midfield players (usually Fraser). They need to be much nearer the striker when he gets the ball, or at least get near him much quicker than at the moment. Perhaps it is all down to the players not being good enough for the roles given them, but I am sure we could do better with what we have.

blackpool72 said:

cafcsinger said:

He wasn't great on Saturday, but no way near as bad as some have made out. He won a few headers, and created our best chance for JRS with one. 

Maybe so.
But he hasn't scored a single goal in over 40 matches. 
He's a striker for God's sake. 

Go back and review the minutes. It's not like that's 40 sets of 90

thetomahawkkid said:

th0rryy said:

I don't really dispute that Bonne has been poor, but it really is a thankless task playing the solo centre forward role in our team.

Unless you have pace, decent control and intelligence in addition to the strength we have typically had with out recent strikers, you won't get a lot out of them in L1 when they play alone up front. Bonne is simply another body to try and hold the ball up and/or try and get a flick on. Defences in this league love playing against that and will happily keep 1:1 while at least another defender covers. No risk of the ball over the top, no risk of clever movement - just 90 mins of physical play. The same thing happened to Stockley and it's just a player that tries to enable others.

Players like Bonne carry no risk for most defences. You match him on strength and then there's nothing else he can do. I feel like only Leaburn can do the strength+movement combo a bit and Aneke is well, Aneke. You have no other choice as Holden. Unless you bring Kanu through or start putting square pegs in round holes, you can't really start 2 up front regularly. Some of this is being facilitated though a number of things - Fraser not being anywhere near dynamic enough, CB-T being so hot and cold and having a lack of decent full backs (whoever comes in each week who isn't crocked + Clare being somewhat of a square peg in the role). Only Rak-Sakyi has any genuine quality, so anyone upfront is feeding on minimal scraps.

Our best attacking threats are our wingers, so we build around that. Playing one up top needs that player to be above average, and Bonne is not. It's also the players, not the system being the problem too. Ipswich and Derby play a very similar system and are just more dynamic and have better players.

I pretty much agree with all of what you say, but I am not sure the system we play isn't part of the problem. Other teams play the same formation, as you say, but the striker doesn't get as isolated as ours. Surely the manager needs to get the wingers to get closer to the striker, at least some of the time? They always seem miles away. The same applies to our attacking midfield players (usually Fraser). They need to be much nearer the striker when he gets the ball, or at least get near him much quicker than at the moment. Perhaps it is all down to the players not being good enough for the roles given them, but I am sure we could do better with what we have.

The system we play is certainly making Bonne (and previously Stockley) look worse. In the case of Bonne, he was already pretty limited but he's clearly only ever been used to playing as a pair. Due to his attributes, I just don't think he could ever be useful as one up top. However, we have what we have due to our budget and it is what it is. It's also not worth investing any time with Bonne to build around him because, let's be honest, I doubt he's going to be here past the end of his contract. As hard as it is to stomach, he's just a player with some experience that can play out the remaining games.

The bigger problem is, as you say, our midfield. Dobbo plays very deep and naturally defensive, whilst Fraser wants to play in the pocket behind the strikers, plus never put his foot in or be particularly mobile making runs either forward or backward. Players like Cullen and Gallagher (both exceptional loans) were very complete midfielders, able to do everything front to back. We have two of our better players that are relative specialists in not doing what the other does, meaning someone (Kilkenny/Morgan, typically) has to try and bridge the gap. With Fraser having very little pace, we're left with very little forward movement and entirely reliant on the wingers - our contracted one is hot/cold and the other is one that will be into the Championship next season. All very difficult to plan/work with.

Unfortunately, I just feel Fraser just makes our strikers worse. If he could play alongside Dobbo in midfield, we'd have the spare player to toy with two up top. Despite being our most "skillful" player, he goes absent too much. Much like when we were trying to facilitate Stockley by having a second striker play with him, we facilitate Fraser by selecting him in that role he wants most. When he's not firing on all cylinders, players like Bonne will naturally look a lot worse - and Bonne wasn't brilliant to start with. You could switch to two up top or three at the back, but this just causes issues elsewhere that probably end up with us leaking more goals. The squad quality is the bigger issue, but if you are Holden, you're just making the best of the ragtag bunch you got given.

soapy_jones said:

Scoham said:

https://twitter.com/hippsdontlie98/status/1629445238782607362?s=46&t=JBfCbEv0iMgsrVdSIsVeUw

No chance.

A bold statement. 

Fraser's had a couple of rare off games in a row, but to claim he's a big part of the problem, given his body of work this season, is absurd. The calumny that he doesn't get his foot in is worst of all the accusations. Maybe he's been better in a 2 than a 3, as the 3 makes his role slightly harder to balance, but in that 3 a bigger problem has always been the 3rd midfielder, and the biggest of all the absolute inadequacy of any CF not named Leaburn. Look at our PPG with Leaburn available vs Leaburn not available. So, sorry, Bonne is the problem. 

soapy_jones said:

Talal said:

soapy_jones said:

Scoham said:

https://twitter.com/hippsdontlie98/status/1629445238782607362?s=46&t=JBfCbEv0iMgsrVdSIsVeUw

No chance.

A bold statement. 

And i'll make another...   No way he'll get near 50 today!

Probably wont get another 50 in his career. 

The less than lukewarm reception when he came on today said it all, just a collective sigh from everyone.

eaststandmike said:

LargeAddick said:

The less than lukewarm reception when he came on today said it all, just a collective sigh from everyone.

Number one striker now.

Would rather see Ryan Inniss up front.

Wrote that initially as bit of a joke, but thinking about it, it might actually be true. 

Had more touches playing with his hair than with the ball today.

cafctom said:

eaststandmike said:

LargeAddick said:

The less than lukewarm reception when he came on today said it all, just a collective sigh from everyone.

Number one striker now.

Would rather see Ryan Inniss up front.

Wrote that initially as bit of a joke, but thinking about it, it might actually be true. 

Playing with Bonne is like playing with 10 players so any other player would be no worse.

Can see him going back to Leyton Orient in the summer. 

Amos on the wing said:

Can see him going back to Leyton Orient in the summer. 

That would be in the same division as us. If he's not good enough for us at this level then he almost certainly won't be good enough for Orient.