[Archived] Jordan Rhodes

[roversfan99]

We play 3 players off Rhodes. Due to the fact that Rhodes managed to hold up the ball v Millwall, Marshall, King and Taylor all got plenty of the ball. Goals scored = 3.

[RevidgeBlue]

Technique is one thing, Rhodes just does not work hard enough for me. Look at all the top strikers in the big clubs across Europe - they work their socks off for 90 minutes.

As does Rhodes. You obviously don't get chance to make it to many games due to location.

[RockinRover]

Are we really still debating Rhodes after how many months?!

He scores goals, goals win games, simples!

Yes he has weaknesses to his game but every single player in our squad have weaknesses to their game!

Rhodes however is the one who is most likely to carry us to those promotion spots simply by being in the right place at the right time as he has been so often.

[RevidgeBlue]

Ok. Do you think our squad is good enough for promotion if Rhodes was the complete striker everyone wants him to be?

If your answer to that is yes, then fine we'll agree to disagree.

The answer to that in my view is that with the current squad including Rhodes we have every chance of the play offs. Without Rhodes we would have no chance.

To turn the debate around do Den, jmmy and the rest of the sceptics think we'd be better off with say Jason Roberts or Shefki Kuqi up front instead of Rhodes? Both more physical presences but neither ever going to contribute more than 5-10 goals. I find it hard to believe anyone would actually think that.

[RevidgeBlue]

1. Remove Coco

2. Competent board in place

3. thorough managerial selection procedure

4. Allow any further funds to be spent constructing a strong, organised TEAM, capable of competing in the Championship.

By the way, Carrying out steps 1 - 3 would also have saved us a further kings ransom by ignoring/rejecting Murphy, Best, Etuhu, Gomes etc etc. God what a bloody waste of money this whole scenario has been.

All the above happened (or didn't happen) long before Rhodes arrived at the club and it's not his fault they didn't. Yet for some reason you seem intent on laying the entire woes of the Club at Rhodes' feet. Despite the fact he's our best player. It's quite bizarre.

[FGS5635]

Uuuuggghh my head hurts again. Time for more rehab

[yoda]

yawn

[yoda's brother]

ok then.

instead of a rhodes thread only.

start a thread for each player and have a bash'em or love'em after every game

why just pick out rhodes for the treatment.

sounds fair to me.

[DE.]

Wingers

Watched videos of Yakubu at Rovers and see how often he brought Hoilett and Olsson into the game with his hold up play, Rhodes can do that although he'll never be as strong (or chunky)

King and Cairney/Taylor/Marshall aren't exactly in the same bracket are they?

More to the point though who are the wingers crossing to if Rhodes is outside the box having laid it off to them?

To me the answer is simple enough - if we want to play with a target man then we should have that guy AND Rhodes in the team, rather than trying to shoehorn Rhodes into a position that wouldn't benefit us. The problem we have is that to do this we'd have to take one out of midfield, and that leaves us quite fragile through the middle. All I can imagine happening in that scenario is we start to drop points at home and continue to get destroyed away from home.

If we have better options than the likes of Lowe and Williamson we can certainly look at changing styles... until then this is probably the best we can hope for.

[thenodrog]

Technique is one thing, Rhodes just does not work hard enough for me. Look at all the top strikers in the big clubs across Europe - they work their socks off for 90 minutes.

They should send JR to train with Liverpool for a week and strap him to Suarez every day. It'd make or break him.

Jordan is a great goalscorer but no good at anything else. It's not his fault he just doesn't have the natural ability just like most of us. You either accept that or you don't. I do.

But at the end of the day it's not a question of what we accept. It is entirely up to the manager and he obviously believes that he is an asset and so do I.

But there's the rub Al. Natural ability is for goal scoring! The stuff that he doesn't do well (although there were signs v Millwall that he is coming to a bit) can be easily improved by a mixture of coaching, fitness and above all attitude.

[Al]

They should send JR to train with Liverpool for a week and strap him to Suarez every day. It'd make or break him.

But there's the rub Al. Natural ability is for goal scoring! The stuff that he doesn't do well (although there were signs v Millwall that he is coming to a bit)can be easily improved by coaching, fitness and attitude.

The amount that you can improve pace and to some extent strength by coaching is marginal and depends much on natural gifts otherwise we would all be world beaters.

[thenodrog]

Because, sadly, Den is not alone. There's a group of posters who think Rhodes should carry the can for the team's shortcomings.

Their is no 'i' in team. If he isn't careful his team mates will start to think the same thing. If his goals dry up they will surely come to resent his lack of effort for the team. Why should they pull their tripe out every match when he is content to saunter through the 90 mins waiting for someone to put it on a plate for him?

[T.J.Newton]

Wingers

Watched videos of Yakubu at Rovers and see how often he brought Hoilett and Olsson into the game with his hold up play, Rhodes can do that although he'll never be as strong (or chunky)

sorry, my point was meant to be that its up to the wingers/attack mid to get forward fast to support Rhodes when he does get the ball, which never happens fast enough, when Rhodes gets the ball its like they just think Rhodes is going to do it all himself and score(which he often does)

[Leonard Venkhater]

They should send JR to train with Liverpool for a week and strap him to Suarez every day. It'd make or break him.

But there's the rub Al. Natural ability is for goal scoring! The stuff that he doesn't do well (although there were signs v Millwall that he is coming to a bit) can be easily improved by a mixture of coaching, fitness and above all attitude.

Absolutely. The ugly bread and butter can be taught.

I am sure I remember Southampton people saying that Shearer wasn't always that great at a number of essential, centre forward skills. I think one phrase was "couldn't trap a bag of cement".. Well he certainly could by the time he came to Rovers.The point was that he had worked very hard on aspects of his game during those early years.

[T.J.Newton]

how anybody can question Jordan Rhodes "attitude" of all things is pretty pathetic.

[thenodrog]

Strawman.

It's about the unwarranted Rhodes-bashing that has become in vogue on this forum. People like Den saying the team isn't gelling and isn't any stronger than it was last year, BECAUSE of him (he'll deny it, of course). That's the kind of nonsense I'm calling out.

'bashing'??? Not bashing surely. Don't be so bloody precious. Bashing is what numpties did to the likes of Neill, MGP, Andrews and now Lowe. I've seen criticism of Rhodes on here but only of the constructive variety. Show me some examples of 'bashing' please.

[Stuart]

Their is no 'i' in team. If he isn't careful his team mates will start to think the same thing. If his goals dry up they will surely come to resent his lack of effort for the team. Why should they pull their tripe out every match when he is content to saunter through the 90 mins waiting for someone to put it on a plate for him?

You're thinking of Best. (L not G).

[JAL]

Their is no 'i' in team. If he isn't careful his team mates will start to think the same thing. If his goals dry up they will surely come to resent his lack of effort for the team. Why should they pull their tripe out every match when he is content to saunter through the 90 mins waiting for someone to put it on a plate for him?

Has he got to that stage or is somebody feeding your ear Theno.

Question is if Rovers sold Rhodes can anyone have any confidence that the club would bring someone better in to replace him especially after the last three years.

[Rover_Shaun]

Not automatic, but 5th / 6th is a possibility. At this stage I'd put other temas ahead of us if betting cash, but its not impossible, especially now everyone is now fully fit. Games come so fast over xmas and new year that the league really takes shape by early Jan and we will know alot more by then. I base this not on aything I've really seen from rovers to convince me, but more the fact that I havent seen anything in this division thats significantly better than us. All in all it seems a pretty poor league

The christmas season will end fanciful notions of promotion. Not that the push for it ever began as witnessed during a summer of quality dilution and money saving.

[Amo]

'bashing'??? Not bashing surely. Don't be so bloody precious. Bashing is what numpties did to the likes of Neill, MGP, Andrews and now Lowe. I've seen criticism of Rhodes on here but only of the constructive variety. Show me some examples of 'bashing' please.

You really are exposing your bias once more, 'Drog. Basically, the difference between "bashing" & "constructive criticism" is what players you have a soft spot for? Pedersen was criticized for being careless in possession and a powderpuff in the challenge. His overall game was lacking as a midfield player and yet his fanboys were always quick to tell us what an asset he was from set-pieces etc. Well we're only doing the same with Rhodes and his deadliness in front of goal. Don't like it when the shoe's on the other foot?

[Jimmy612]

Has he got to that stage or is somebody feeding your ear Theno.

Question is if Rovers sold Rhodes can anyone have any confidence that the club would bring someone better in to replace him especially after the last three years.

Correct Jal. And the exact reason I suspect not one Rovers fan wants Rhodes to leave.

[Jimmy612]

You really are exposing your bias once more, 'Drog. Basically, the difference between "bashing" & "constructive criticism" is what players you have a soft spot for? Pedersen was criticized for being careless in possession and a powderpuff in the challenge. His overall game was lacking as a midfield player and yet his fanboys were always quick to tell us what an asset he was from set-pieces etc. Well we're only doing the same with Rhodes and his deadliness in front of goal. Don't like it when the shoe's on the other foot?

Maybe someone should take extracts of posts based on Jason Lowe and then posts about Jordan Rhodes following the Yeovil match. Or better still, after the Sheff Wed game. Perhaps then we would be able to correlate the difference between constructive criticism and downright dislike for a player.

[Jimmy612]

The answer to that in my view is that with the current squad including Rhodes we have every chance of the play offs. Without Rhodes we would have no chance.

To turn the debate around do Den, jmmy and the rest of the sceptics think we'd be better off with say Jason Roberts or Shefki Kuqi up front instead of Rhodes? Both more physical presences but neither ever going to contribute more than 5-10 goals. I find it hard to believe anyone would actually think that.

Very poor example Rev, but I'll run with it. A club doesn't always need to have high scoring players to do well. Just look at Cardiff last year. Top scorer - 8 goals, but one of the top scoring teams in the championship and won it at a canter. Strange isn't it, what a TEAM can do. A TEAM with a proper manager, playing a proper system with proper players suited to that system. Not virtually retired lazy keans and a Roy of the Rovers type record signing. What a load of old tosh last summer was!

Now, we spoke at length last week about whether in hindsight we would spend that £8m on Rhodes again. Unbelievably you maintained that you would re-spend that £8m, knowing exactly how poor that squad was (and is). Knowing exactly what would happen with the managerial merry go round, knowing exactly what a financial mess we are in, and knowing exactly how poor that season would be. Astonishing.

As I alluded to earlier. I think we would have been better off not with Kuqi or bloody Roberts (who for the record I couldn't, and still can't stand), but with a proper managerial selection policy, a proper board structure, a proper player target list with realistic budgets and fees, and a proper squad capable of competing at this level. Perhaps not going up first season, but developing a squad that wanted to play for each other. Unfortunately, like the transfers of Murphy, Best, Gomes, Etuhu etc, Rhodes joining this club was just another farce in an endless episode of stupidity.

I like Rhodes, he's a good lad and a good player (not escaping the fact he could work harder than he does). But we were never in a position to go splashing valuable money around on what in my opinion is probably always going to be a bottom half PL player at absolute best.

For what it's worth I also agree with Stuart as I'm sure most people would, that Rhodes is by some margin not our biggest concern. But it still creates interesting (and sometimes) intellectual debate between supporters. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. I understand completely why Rev, Stuart and whoever else appreciate Rhodes, he's a goalscorer, plain and simple.

Maybe I reflect too much on what should have been rather than what is now, and I should learn to accept and enjoy Rhodes for what he is. However, there will always be that nagging feeling for me that it's just another mistake in the catalogue. After all, he was brought here to take us up, if he doesn't do that then surely we can only reflect on his time here as a costly mistake?

[T.J.Newton]

As far as the Rhodes vs Lowe comparisons go, id say this, Jordan maybe could do more but but he rarely does anything wrong, Lowe maybe couldnt work any harder but his mistakes mire often than not lead to an opposition attack or goal.

[Mike E]

As far as the Rhodes vs Lowe comparisons go, id say this, Jordan maybe could do more but but he rarely does anything wrong, Lowe maybe couldnt work any harder but his mistakes mire often than not lead to an opposition attack or goal.

As a defensive player isn't it a given that his mistakes lead to more oppo chances than Rhodes' mistakes?

I know that isn't quite what you're saying but it's worth a mention imo.