Look out for: Notts County

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Players 

Derek Adams could name an unchanged side when they travel to John Sheridan’s Notts County for their third consecutive away game. Nauris Bulvītis made his Football League debut at the weekend, as he received international clearance late Friday, he showed great eagerness to make a good impression.  The only players still unavailable to Adams are Ryan Brunt (knee) and Karleigh Osborne (thigh).

Notts County haven’t started too well either, only having picked up one point themselves in the league, coming in their home draw to Stevenage. One familiar player in the Notts County squad is former premier League midfielder Alan Smith, who has gained valuable experience playing in the top flight for Leeds United; Manchester United and Newcastle United; where he was part of the Teeside squad which won promotion back to the Premiership in 2010 with a 2-0 victory at Home Park.

Managers 

Adams will be eager for his team to get their first points of the season, as they lie joint bottom of the table with rivals Exeter City, with only goal difference separating the two clubs. Following on from the defeat in the Play-off final, is the pressure getting to players and management this early on? Has the new deal from Adams come too early on in the season? Do the players still need to know each other’s game? What is next for Argyle? For me, Adams needs to look at bringing in wingers from the loan system sooner rather than later as we have limited width currently.

Former Argyle manager John Sheridan, now in charge at Meadow Lane, will face the Pilgrims for the second time since leaving at the end of the 2014-15 season, as the club failed to reach League One. John’s first meeting with his former employers since leaving Argyle came after he took charge of Newport County, with Argyle coming away with a 2-1 victory. Before arriving at County in the summer, Sheridan had a stint at his boyhood club Oldham Athletic, saving them from what seemed like an inevitable drop into League Two, before signing a three-year deal Meadow Lane. With John Sheridan nearing his five hundredth game in management, the former midfielder has a win percentage of 34.4.

Tactics 

With the inclusion of Nauris Bulvītis in the starting lineup, Adams was able to rotate his squad to a 3-5-2 formation in the first half of the Carlisle fixture. Nothing really went Argyle’s way as they conceded in the thirty seventh minute and only had one shot on target for the entire duration of the game.

With neither team starting the season off how they would of liked will Derek Adams go for a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2 formation? Adams has changed tactics and formations each half of the three games the Pilgrims have played. Is Adams still working out his best formation? It seems like that to me, there is a lot of frustration among fans due to the poor start to the season.

Opposition Tactics 

Notts County have only picked up a single point so far as that came at home on Saturday to Stevenage. John Sheridan, who has previously won promotion with Chesterfield from League Two has a vast amount of knowledge of how to gain the breakthrough to League One. With his time at Argyle, fans will know the former midfielder likes to play a 3-5-2 formation, as the team sheets came in on Saturday lunchtime that was the formation Sheridan went for. Captain Michael O’Connor along with Stanley Aborah and Jonathan Forte all called up to the starting line up, with Alan Smith, Graham Burke and Vadaine Oliver dropping to the bench. Could Sheridan’s favored formation be used against his former club on Tuesday evening in a 7:45pm kick off?

Head to head 

Argyle and Notts County have competed with each other forty-four times both in the League and Cup games, County have the edge over Argyle with twenty three victories. The first ever meeting came in the FA Cup in 1923, the fixture finished as a draw. The sides met for the first time in the Football League eight seasons later on 10th October 1931 at Home Park, what a cracker of a game it was too, with the visitors taking all three points in a 3-4 thriller, as consolation goals came from Sammy Black, Tommy Grozier and Jack Leslie.

The last time the teams faced each other was on 27th February 2016, the Pilgrims came out on top for this fixture winning 1-0, as the goal was scored by Graham Carey.