The Silkmen are on a Roll (in)
A delve into Menayese’s stats
What a difference a week makes. Three wins, including the scalp of the previously unbeaten league-leaders South Shields, have catapulted Macclesfield from 15th to 9th in the National League North – two points outside the play-offs and (just as significantly) increasing our cushion from the relegation zone to 11 points from 3.
And all this amidst the backdrop of competing in the FA Cup 1st round for the first time since the club reformed in a (potentially) winnable tie against Totton at the weekend. From the doom and gloom following our loss to Marine, boardroom changes and the impending sale of Sean Etaluku, its been quite a turnaround. Huge credit must go to the players, manager John Rooney and his coaching staff.
Slaying South Shields
Saturday’s spirited 1-0 win over South Shields thanks to Danny Elliott’s bundled effort on the stroke of half-time was a result few envisaged. The North East side were unbeaten prior with 10 wins from their opening 12 league games, and topped the table with the meanest defence in the National League North (just 5 goals conceded).
The visitors had also smashed third placed Scarborough 4-0 in midweek and oozed class with their possession-heavy style, complimented by the goalscoring threat of ace marksman Paul Blackett. Despite the Silkmen only having 34% possession, they restricted South Shields to few clear cut openings, aside from two long-range efforts which were brilliantly kept out by Max Dearnley who registered his second successive clean-sheet.
In truth, the significance of the result was more impressive than the quality of the performance. Macclesfield had to defend doggedly and only occasionally looked threatening in the final third as evidenced by a 30-yard half volley by Danny Elliott which produced a good save in the first half, a pearoller from Justin Johnson when he cut inside, and a breakaway from the excellent James Edmondson after the break which saw him tamely shoot into the keeper’s hands after running out of steam at the crucial moment.
Elliott’s winner, converted from two yards out following a goalmouth scramble, was as ugly as they come, but the build-up play which led to it was of scintillating quality. Whitehead, Elliott and Johnson exchanged one-touch passes, and JJ promptly released the returning Josh Kay who timed his run to perfection to spring the offside trap and burst into the box – immensely satisfying considering the visitor’s were (correctly) flagged offside themselves on five occasions – more than any other game this season.
Kay ultimately fluffed his lines when his weak shot was parried, but thankfully D’Mani Mellor and Elliott kept the move alive, Macc got their noses infront and crucially held on for the most significant win of our season against opponents who will surely stay the course in the battle for promotion.
Man-of-the-match Menayese
The Silkmen are on a roll, and our own Rollin (Menayese) was crucial to securing victory against South Shields as he produced his best performance since joining in January to deservedly be named player-of-the-match.
Menayese presided over 13 wins and a draw in his first 14 starts (with 8 clean sheets) in a Macclesfield shirt, handling Northern Premier League attackers with ease. This was to be expected from a player who had arrived from the National League with over 100 EFL appearances behind him.
The imposing central defender’s no-frills style and aerial dominance were also seen as ideal qualities to combat the more industrial threat of the National League North. Not everything has gone to plan though for Menayese who has, at times, looked less dominant in adapting to the challenges presented by a more competitive division with changes in personnel around him. The defender’s straight red card against Spennymoor earned him a three-match ban, and the 27-year-old was also dropped after Macc’s 3-2 defeat against Chorley when John Rooney preferred a central defensive pairing of Dawson and Heathcote against Curzon.
Menayese has had to adjust to playing alongside three different central defensive partners (Yarney, Dawson and Heathcote), whilst his regular partner from last season (Lewis Fensome) switched to right back to cover the sale of Tre Pemberton and the subsequently injured Luke Matheson.
Early on in the season, Rollin seemed to be carrying the defensive burden for both himself and new central defender Josef Yarney who made a shaky start to his Silkmen career. Against Worksop, Menayese won 5 of his 8 aerial duels in comparison to Yarney who won only 1 of his 8. The new pairing were also at fault for Oxford City’s opening goal when failing to track a runner and push up for offside in unison.
Beyond that, the departure of Laurent Mendy and John Rooney hanging up his boots has placed additional pressure and responsibility on Rollin to domore than just defend. For a player who prefers to keep things simple at the back, it’s perhaps surprising that no Macclesfield defender has made more passes than Menayese so far this season.
On occasions we’ve seen Rollin receive the ball higher up the pitch, suggesting a greater willingness to step out of his comfort zone and/or a lack of available options for the Silkmen in midfield. Against Oxford and Alfreton for example, half of the passes Menayese made were in the opposition’s half (47 and 39 passes respectively). It sometimes came at a cost though as the defender uncharacteristically made two errors which directly resulted in chances for Alfreton.
More recently however against Curzon and Leamington, Rollin has looked much more confident in advancing forward with the ball from defence instead of just passing sideways. But it’s the bread-and-butter defending where Menayese offers the most value, which was firmly in evidence against South Shields.
The big man was in the right place at the right time as he made 5 crucial interceptions, most notably in the first half where he showed excellent awareness to cut out a dangerous cross at the last moment when Paul Blackett was primed for a tap-in. Menayese also made 17 ‘recoveries’, which equates to how many times he regained possession from South Shields through a combination of intercepting passes, winning loose balls and making clearances.
In summary, Rollin had a busy afternoon and didn’t put a foot wrong! And other than some positional lapses from Luis Lacey, our entire backline played well. Whilst we’ve bemoaned Macc’s lack of goals and chance creation this season, after South Shields we have the joint second best defensive record in the league alongside Radcliffe – 16 goals conceded in 13 matches.
With and without Menayese (in the league)
10 starts
With: 6 wins, 2 draws*, 2 losses
Without: 1 draw, 2 losses
*one of the draws was against Spennymoor when Menayse was sent off in the 41st minute.
Fine performances or fine margins?
Three consecutive league victories (make it 4 including the FA Cup qualifying win v Stamford), two against teams in 7th and 1st place at the time, suggest Rooney’s men have turned a corner.
And on reflection, Macclesfield looked likely to beat Marine until Josh Kay’s avoidable red card turned the game on its head. The graph below illustrates the intensity of pressure during the game with the height of each column reflecting a combined score from various attacking metrics. The chart in green highlights how much the Silkmen were in the ascendancy prior to Kay’s sending off and the subsequent drop off in attacking output thereafter.
To offer balance though, we were somewhat fortuitous to beat Curzon Ashton. Curzon hit the post in the second half, missed a sitter from six yards out and wrongfully had a goal disallowed for offside in injury time. In contrast, with some justification you could argue that Macclesfield were very unlucky to lose at Chorley when big decisions at both ends of the pitch went against us.
Tuesday’s 1-0 win though came against an abysmal Leamington side in freefall, and arguably our victory against South Shields somewhat flattered us on the overall balance of play. Nevertheless, 9 points out of 9 is a fabulous return to put Macclesfield’s season back on track when it was urgently needed.
Players in form
There have been some noticeable improvements in individual performances recently. At the back, Menayese looks more assured and our full-backs are notably offering much more going forward. Lewis Fensome in particular was absolutely outstanding against Curzon, involved in the build-up to two goals and making a total of 90 passes, a whopping 64 in Curzon’s half, which is more than double the amount of times he typically he receives the ball beyond the halfway line.
James Edmondson, who doesn’t turn 20 until Saturday, has produced his best two performances against Leamington and South Shields after returning on loan from Blackburn. Furthermore, the return ofJosh Kay from suspension highlighted how influential he can be at this level due to his speed-of-thought, energy, directness in playing the ball forward and his positive, timely runs.
We’ve also benefitted from the re-emergence of Justin Johnson and Danny Whitehead who previously were surplus to requirements. And we mustn’t forget Danny Elliott’s contributions – two more winning goals, 7 in 13 games in the league, underlining his importance to the team despite moans from some supporters that the striker should run around more.
With confidence flowing throughout the side now, combined with our injury list gradually receding, there is no reason why the Silkmen can’t push on with consecutive home games to come against struggling Peterborough Sports and AFC Telford.
But first things first, let’s try and reach the second round of the FA Cup by overcoming Totton on Saturday!