[Archived] Rovers v Reading

[Blue blood]

With all due respect Blue blood this comment just highlights my real fear, the total dumbing down of fans expectations,the acceptance of medocrity...we really have fallen through the floor as a club.

No disrespect taken!

Do I think that Rovers could do better: with a more experienced manager, or a better transfer strategy and an experienced DOF helping Bowyer, in either of those situations yes we could. Indeed with normal owners implementing a decent strategy we could do a lot, lot better.

However that's not the case. We've owners who seem determined to remain clueless (suspicious in itself, that.) And given that leaves us with an inexperienced manager, a team that doesn't fit together, even against a poor Reading side, a draw is not a bad result imo.

[PAFELL]

Nope we had the first half, they had the second half. Both teams spurned 2/3 decent chances and we got a point simply cos the ref doesn't have a clue what a penalty is.

Can't argue with that. Though Josh king did get into decent positions in second half, then screwed up. Good, but very fustrating player.

[roversR4ever]

I haven't posted for a while. Just been to busy. The situation with the team does lead to quite a lot of head scratching.

Firstly theres no doubt how much we miss Evans with the form he was in. He is enough of an all round player to allow cairney to go out wide as Evans offered just about enough passing ability alongside Lowe. Without him im not so sure. Williamson looks solid enough but im concerned that him and Lowe is just a bit too defensive, well at home at least.

With Cairney and Lowe in the middle and Dunn in front you have a much better chance of keeping the ball and opening up teams. It does leave you more open defensively but at home it might work better. It leaves you trying to work out our wide areas but perhaps with Cairney in the middle you can get away with say Taylors graft in one of the positions and the use King in the other. With both Cairney and Dunn they may just put the ball into better positions for King to run onto and use his pace.

Important also is getting Rochina match fit and sharp then when Dunn tires he could make the difference. Of course its likely to take a few games before that happens.

Part of the issue is Rhodes, if he doesn't score then we struggle. Hopefully Rochina and Dunn can contribute they are our best hope at getting Rhodes into the game . Rochina is very frustrating as we all know as he often doesn't know when to pass. Part of me wants to see how he would do even further forwards and whether he could score enough goals. Problem is Rhodes hinders that, really you want a target man with someone like Rochina alongside him. Could Rochina have the same kind of impact as Ings?

I can see why Bowyer has gone for a target man. Either Rhodes and him, hoping the target man gives Rhodes enough chances. We have yet to see if that works as simply we haven't had anyone playing that role properly along side him. If your target man is good enough and dominant enough you don't always need that creative a centre midfield (perhaps for a period Bowyers hands were tied in that with the club spending so much on Best he might not have been allowed to get in another striker - Bests recent actions may have opened the door to him being allowed to). The issue of course is when we don't have possession im not sure either can drop enough into midfield to help. Or pull Rhodes off if its not working with Dunn/Rochina.

Until you try it its hard to tell. The problem really is that we could have done with being able to have already tried it and be in a position to know what works in different games scenarios. The loss of key players at the wrong times has robbed us of that. That and really having a manager in his first season. If Bowyer had been in charge all last season he would obviously be in a much better position to know.

So perhaps plan A is Rhodes upfront with Dunn/Rochina playing off with Cairney in the middle alongside Lowe or Williamson. I think in many games if those players are in form it would be enough.

Plan B is get target man uptop either alongside Rhodes or even Rochina. Move Cairney out wide to deliver better angled balls to target man. lowe and Williamson in middle to help balance out defensively (Evans in there after Christmas with either of them would make us stronger). Spurr can be used more with his long throws (Bowyer could give Sam a call on tips as we seemed to do ok and we didn't have a hugely prolific striker). If u aint conceding you don't need lots of goals. Of course then under sam we really were rock solid with cbs and goalkeeper so weren't likely to concede to much all be it at a much higher level - question is can our team be as strong defensively as it needs to be.

The encouraging thing is Bowyer obviously recognises the need for a different option/approach in that he seems to have wanted a target striker for a while now.