Dorking Wandering
The Dorking Wanderers FC Fans Forum
Back at home against old rivals Maidstone United. The Kent side have had a similar start to us with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat so far.
The injury news seemed to suggest that Isaac Philpot may return for this one, but it might come too soon for Pybus and Francomb. Harry Pinchard, Muitt, Gallagher and Taylor all remain mid-long term absentees.
Predictions:
Dorking 2-2 Maidstone (Camp, Rutherford)
1,532 att.
Morris
Camp Annesley Laqeretabua
Forster Page Vincent Lewis
Barrett
Rutherford Rogalski
Subs: Sayers, Philpot, Grass, Tauta-Caballero, McShane, Wood, Nikaj
Not much more to add on the post match comments. Well summarised by everyone above 👍
Some stats from the game make for grim reading though...
Possession: Dorking 62% - 38% Maidstone - Our average possession this season is over 63%!
Shots (OT): 8 (5) - 17 (8)
xG: 0.64 - 2.98 - This is our 3rd lowest xG at home ever. Only Boreham Wood and Torquay a couple of seasons ago were lower. Probably up there with highest xGA at home as well.
Passes: 531 - 312
Crosses (Accurate): 26 (6) - 13 (5)
Duels: 46% - 54%
Top Performer (Dorking): Glenn Morris [7.7]
I thought the average position was interesting as well (attached). McShane was our deepest midfielder! Effectively a 3-2-5 formation...
A lot of good points.
The deepness of McShane's positioning highlights what Mark likes to call "the failure of the task".
We played a 3-5-2 with McShane, Barrett and Vincent as the central 3 in midfield.
McShane and Barrett do very little work off the ball and neither can play that CM role you need to block through passes and cover the pockets. It needed Page in there with either Barrett or McShane and Vincent. Or it needed a back 4 with Vincent in front of it as a DM.
The other good point is about Pybus and Francombe. Part of achieving the 80% of the game time objective needs to also consider moving players on who are just not naturally fit enough to play 2 games per week. Certain lads have proven they are not. That is not about workload or bad pitches, that is just a natural lack of fitness.
If you are paying these lads a wage they need to be available for selection for a certain % of games, otherwise you are just wasting your playing budget. Other players will pick up the slack no doubt, but then you risk overloading them.
