[Archived] The Relegation Scrap Hots Up

[RevidgeBlue]

............courtesy of Newcastle's 1-0 victory over Portsmouth.

Thing is, Savage apart, do we have enough players willing to roll their sleeves up and battle their way out of trouble?

[Blackpool_Rover]

relegation? trouble?....behave

Were playing alright aside from a couple of bad half performances and decisions. We will be fine.

[RevidgeBlue]

relegation? trouble?....behave

Were playing alright aside from a couple of bad half performances and decisions. We will be fine.

Admirable optimism but I hope the management and players aren't treating our situation that lightly.

[thenodrog]

We need to cultivate a sense of urgency and get the right combination up front. The current first choice front two are under achieving big time, and imo a lot of that is down to lack of effort. A lot depends on how soon and how well the injured players return.

[1864roverite]

pointless thread, we are far better than Newcastle and we should hopefully start to move up the table from this point onwards. We have no worries or distractions now with euro knock out stages guaranteed, that is on the back burner now until February. We are also out of the Carling Cup so again, a break from taht should see us now concentrating on the league.

we have some very winable games coming up and I look forward to seeing Rovers move on up

the transfer window will soon be here, players will be returning from injury, some will be going and others will come in.

The pending return of Reid and Nelsen will fortify Rovers, both in defence and midfield. Roberts will ease the burden on the front two as will a effevescent Jeffers. The selling of Matteo and Todd and probably others will see the wage bill lessen, the addition of a loan player and more importantly a midfielder and attacker will see us again on the edges of the top 6.

Who knows, you might just see Rovers enter the last 16 of the eufa cup and get the draw of our dreams whilst some favourites bite the dust. The New Year cannot come quickly enough for Rovers as Santa I beleive has a bloody great big parcel all wrapped up for Mark Hughes and co.

[Modi]

Unless I'm mistaken, we stay in 16th due to both teams having the same goal difference, but Rovers having scored more?

[Eddie]

We are still in 16th, but we do need results very soon.

[Tony Diamond Inc]

Admirable optimism but I hope the management and players aren't treating our situation that lightly.

Similarly, I hope the management and the players don't have the same laughable pessimism as you Rev...then we would be in trouble!!!

[Alan75]

IMO Revs post is more reality than pessimism.

I remember a few seasons ago, when there was an attitude that we were to good to go down.

In the current crop of players do we have the players prepared to battle it out. Where are the Flitcrofts and Shorts. I hope Im wrong but will the likes of Benni, Zurab and Nonda have the bottle when things turn pear shaped. Neil is already packing his bags to jump ship in January and Pedersen hasnt got the bottle even when things are going ok.

The sooner we can get Reid and Nelsen back the better.

[jim mk2]

Pessimism comes naturally to all proper Rovers supporters .... it's a consequence of decades of disappointments.

[LeChuck]

Why the horrible talk about our players having to 'battle'? It's only November for crying out loud, we're nowhere near having to contemplate scrapping our way to survival. We'll finish comfortably in the top half by playing good football, as we did last season. Calling for the ugly stuff already is ludicrous, and quite insulting to the talent of our squad, which is nowhere near relegation fodder.

Edited November 26, 2006 by LeChuck

[Paul]

Surprised to see this thread as it hadn't occurred to me we might have any sort of problem. Overall I fel we are playing well, tending to give the ball away too much perhaps, but the front pair worry me. Nonda looked good in his first appearance but not much since then and while McCarthy may be a good footballer he's hardly delivering the goods at the moment. As theno says the strikers need a good kick up the backside.

[rover6]

When Tugay drops out of the team, we are going to struggle without Reid back in.

[allan]

Will the missing players return in time if at all this season?. Already peesimistic noises about Nelsen - and his injury is ceratinly a very serious and unpredictable one. Reid has a stress fracture of a vertabrae which may well take longer than expected to recover from. As for Roberts well he is unproven as a goal-scoring Prem striker - only 10 in 65 appearances in this league. Plus other injuries can be expected ti take out other players. Fact is the squad of useful playrers is too small - an aspect that simply must be addressed in January. Where is the cover for Bentley or at right back? Moving players around is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul. In my book its between Charlton and Rovers for the final relegation spot. Next week's visit there is a must-not -lose.

[LeChuck]

Next week's visit there is a must-not -lose.

Absolute nonsense. Lose next week and we won't go down.

The pessimism here is stunning. We've had six or seven poor games (contributed to by a side constantly disrupted by injuries and suspensions), prior to that we had gone eight unbeaten. At that point people were talking about another top six finish. The truth probably lies somewhere in between those two, relegation talk at this point is absurd though, there are no 'must win/not lose' games at this stage of the season.

[MCMC1875]

Absolute nonsense. Lose next week and we won't go down.

The pessimism here is stunning. We've had six or seven poor games (contributed to by a side constantly disrupted by injuries and suspensions), prior to that we had gone eight unbeaten. At that point people were talking about another top six finish. The truth probably lies somewhere in between those two, relegation talk at this point is absurd though, there are no 'must win/not lose' games at this stage of the season.

I would have to agree LC - the board seems to consist of aged pessimists, cynics and kids.

Anyone else stand up and be counted.

[thenodrog]

I would have to agree LC - the board seems to consist of aged pessimists, cynics and kids.

Anyone else stand up and be counted.

Only fools would be unconcerned about our recent results in the Prem and our current position. I'm sure Hughes and Co are not in with the 'anyone else stand up and be counted' school of thought.

[herbergeehh]

More injuries...

... to Newcastle that is. Somewhat OT, but I can't help thinking that NUFC has about ten senior players injured at all time every year. Hardly just bad luck, probably time to do an internal checkup on the staff if you ask me.

[Presty On Tour]

relegation are we having a laugh!

if we are bottom at xmas then maybe we are in trouble but a couple of wins and we are back in the top half.

it's not as if we are getting pastings every week in the prem, if or shall i say when we beat fulham this weekend, all this nonsence will be forgotten and champions league threads will start apearing

[philipl]

11 points off 3rd with a game in hand.

Champs League is a shoe in.

[Bobby G]

The table doesnt lie. People should stop misleading themselves like they did a couple of seasons ago with Souness in charge.

We are in bad form, forget about decisions. How about two pens against Bolton yet we couldnt score? We have had our fair share of decisions go our way too I believe.

However, our main problems are injuries to key players and lack of thrust up front and I dont see that changing till the end of January at least, on both fronts.

We have missed pace in the team with Reid and Roberts out and up front, well Benni cant turn it on every single match and the burden of scoring has been firmly on one player this season.

Our makeshift defence has only started to settle during the last couple of games now as well.

Overall, I think we need to turn the corner as soon as possible cause there are games coming thick and fast and we dont want to be down there X-mas time.

[roversmum]

I'm not worried - no need imo - but it would be nice to see a few goals from our strikers...........

[Ricky]

I think Roversmum has hit the nail on the head, we need to start seeing a return from our forwards. Personally I think it's time to give Jeffers a run, he has looked sharp when he has come on and I wouldn't mind seeing him replace Nonda, who has not been firing on all cylinders recently.

I'm personally not too worried as I think we will start picking up points soon. There is absolutely no doubt that the UEFA cup has stretched our small squad to the full. Maybe a little blame has to go with Hughes for not strengthening the squad in the summer. To be fair I think every member on this site could see we were short at LB and CM.

[Wolverine]

Similarly, several members questioned the need for so many strikers and the signing of Henchoz. I don't think our squad isn't big enough, it just isn't getting the results because they aren't playing to thier potential.

Players like Gamst really need to stand up and be counted at this stage. Although I feel for him as he is playing through the pain barrier - why isn't he being rested? Hasn't it already been mentioned elsewhere that he hasn't had any clear competetive time off for nearly two years?

Brad and Tugay can't do any more than they already are, Bert and Grey are performing beyond our expectations and Savage just doesn't stop. While Ooijer and Zurab are playing better, I would like to see more concentration. Henchoz is performing better than I expected too. Bentley and McCarthy need to work on thier consistency, and Nonda and Jeffers should be battling for that final spot in the team.

I had hoped that Peter would have taken his few chances to shine this year, but he didn't do enough unfortunately. He, Gally, Axe, Todd and Jay should be looking at this poor form as thier opportunity to perform and proove thier worth.

Alas, they just seem jaded.

That said, we should take this short break as a positive and look towards a positive December. With enough focus, and with no real pressure on us for the Euro game we could rack up up some points and be looking at the rest of the table from the opposite end as we are polishing off the turkey.

[AxesFirstTouch]

Gamst was playing @#/? before he hurt his poor little ribs.