[Archived] The 2-1 Villa Preview Thread

[Paul]

They would still need good quality crosses delivered into the box and how many crosses (of any quality ?) were delivered last night ?

I thought we played exceptionally well for seventy minutes last night but once again, we look weak were it matters most - in the opposition penalty area and defending our own goal! Some of our football last night was wonderful to watch but at the end of the day it's results that matter.

Rovers simple passing game leaves only one issue to discuss, the lack of support for the striker. Its great to see fancy passing but it brings the lone forward much deeper and leaves a lack of support in the penalty area where we only appear to see our midfielders and not the forward (s).

These comments neatly sum up the problem. Three goals at home so far and TBH honest I haven't seen many dangerous balls into the box. Neither have I seen us looking dangerous in the box, far too often we have a lone player there trying to beat 2 or 3 defenders. It won't work. If we don't have a Bentley to supply the bullets we need the mdifield to understand they must get up and support the front man all the time. The Boro game was far more entertaining than I expected, Rovers played some very good football but lacked the cutting edge in the final third. This was not simply down to RSC being half fit.

[modes98]

Robinson - 4. At Villa Park you are going to need your goalie to come up big at some stage and he didn't

All of your ratings are harsh but Robbo's is obsurd! The first goal was a triple deflection and the luckiest goal villa will ever score. The second was a tap in from about 5 yards out and the final goal was a one on one. Robinson also pulled out an amazing one on one save, which later turned out to be offside and didn't have much else to do because of our dominance.

[Rover4ever]

Our team is crying out for a pacy player, even Lennon with his dodgy crosses will do as a pacy player will compensate for the other slower playersw...

[brfcs5359]

Our team is crying out for a pacy player, even Lennon with his dodgy crosses will do as a pacy player will compensate for the other slower playersw...

I'd agree with that. We mustn't get carried away with personnel. Ince has brought a new style to Rovers and it is very very impressive. New players are required though to see Rovers turn domination (Bolton, Boro, Villa) into points. You don't have 55% possession on the road and get relegated. You might underperform.

[tonyoz]

I have stayed away from the boards since the result.........I was too disappointed and knew some of the vitriol that was likely to be thrown. However, i couldn't stay away for long and I have really enjoyed the posts from the guys who went to the game. (This is the first game this season that I haven't seen live (they did show 6 other live matches though!!!!)

It reminds me of that great match against Spurs away when we played really, really well and still got beat. Parsonblue #385, I particularly enjoyed your post - thanks for the detailed report.

It's really important that our pretty football starts to bring some due reward. I hate the thought that we have to go back to being unambitious cloggers in order to survive. I am reassured somewhat by the thought that there are a lot of pedestrian teams that we should be too good for - in theory! West Brom falls into that category.

One particularly satisfying point from these posts is the positive report of Andrews performance. There is no great logic to my feelings....it's just that I like it when someone who is pilloried unmercifully for no good reason (except that he didn't come from a swanky big name club) manages to prove all the detractors wrong.

Another oft-mentioned point is the need for a bit of pace and quality on the wing(s). Didn't I read somewhere (maybe Matthias?) that Ince favours attacking with 2 pacy wingers? Let's hope that he finds a couple in the January window.