Notts County’s performance against Nottingham Forest sends out warning to fellow League Two clubs for the following season.
Despite the 1-0 loss to neighbours Nottingham Forest, Notts County showed their quality with their possession based football and tactical genius headed by coach Luke Williams…but what exactly did we learn from this match?
Notts Tactical Variations Cause Problems
Notts County today started the game in a 4-2-3-1 formation, a massive switch up from the 5-2-2-1 which they implemented last season and ultimately helped lead them to a record-breaking campaign.
This formation saw the former wing back Aaron Nemane shift further afield into a winger position with recently fit Tobi Adebayo-Rowling in the right back role, a position he admitted after the game to being a new one for him.
The versatility of the team is a scary prospect for any team to face and Notts used that to full advantage, changing from a fluid 3 back, to 4 and then to a 5 back when out of possession. A skill, i assume, Notts are currently working on and planning to use more throughout the season.
This makes them incredibly difficult to play against as the opposition attack will have to change throughout the game to exploit the weaknesses in the defense, it’s like the Notts County defense is fighting back.
Squad relationships at a high
Throughout the pitch, you can see excellent partnerships formed or currently forming, coming into effect for the benefit of the team. Nemane and Tobi Adebayo-Rowling for example are clearly going to be a formidable partnership down the right hand side, with two pacey and skillful players working with each other, they can terrorise any defense.
Matty Palmer and John Bostock may be the most important partnership in the entire team as they are the engine on the field, dictating play through the middle of the pitch and their understanding of each other, their movements and where they want to pass is unmatched. Both players ooze quality and that central midfield partnership wouldn’t be out of place in a league higher.
From today, i’m thinking a new partnership could be created through new signings Will Randall and Danny Crowley, the latter taking a central attacking role and Randall out on the wing. The quality of Crowley to neatly flick the ball around the corner to an onrushing Randall showed their communication skills and ability to work well alongside each other…definitely one for the future.
Possession based football…again
Last season the Notts playing philosophy was that of keeping the ball with slow build up play until a chance was created. This season they seem to be taking the same approach with what we have seen today against Nottingham Forest.
They had the quality to win the ball back quickly and were able to effectively move the ball around the pitch away from the pressing Forest frontmen. Strong ball playing defenders is exactly what they need for this to work and with Cameron and Baldwin (out of the recent game) at the back, that setup can be utilised well.
This means going into the new season, Notts will want to continue to dominate games, keeping the ball and reducing the opposition chances to a minimum whilst maximising theirs.
Aaron Nemane and Jodi Jones.
Obviously the huge signing for Notts in the off-season has been that of David Mcgoldrick but i’d argue just as, or even more, importantly is the retaining of Aaron Nemane and the signing of Jodi Jones.
Aaron Nemane showed his pure class yesterday, bombarding the right hand side of the pitch and constantly attacking Forest full back Josh Powell. I believe this came to a peak when he managed to flick the ball over his head and Powells twice before finding himself in the box playing a ball across goal.
Jodi Jones comes from an exciting euro-qualifier campaign where he faced England. There he showed his quality, speed and versatility after playing in a more no.10 role than out on the wing as we have come to see in a Notts shirt. Last season he was able to really get his career back on track after suffering from a long-term injury and Notts patience has been well and truly rewarded with the Maltese international.
Both Nemane and Jones can play on either side of the pitch and we have seen that utilised last season where they swap wings mid-game, possibly multiple times. This is something that the opposition will need to be incredibly weary of and something Notts need to take full advantage of.
Nathan Claxton should be an EFL player
Trialist for the Magpies, Nathan Claxton, made a 30 minute cameo yesterday and impressed both myself and other Notts fans with his confidence, pace and athleticism on the pitch.
The young centre half has been playing professional football in Portugal recently and has come over to Nottingham on trial, you may know him from his tiktok account which boasts over 25,000 followers.
He came onto the pitch and slotted neatly as a deep-lying centre back, a role usually taken up by Aiden Baldwin. The quality of pass from the young player and his ability to run forward and break lines was certainly impressive. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in black and white soon.
