[Archived] Bolton V Rovers - 28/12/15

[Tardyrover]

It's as if the teams set up to make Rhodes look bad, surely a decent manager can see he needs service? What are they doing in training?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I said fourth from bottom would do me in August. We've accumulated a collection of losers. We could do with some fighters being signed ASAP.

[Mercer]

Totally depressed after that shambles.

Huge job for Lambert.

Almost 3 seasons of Bowyer has left us well and truly stuffed IMV.

[Mike E]

Totally depressed after that shambles.

Huge job for Lambert.

Almost 3 seasons of Bowyer has left us well and truly stuffed IMV.

If you even DARE to predict a win against Cardiff...

[dr who true blue]

Huge job for Lambert.

Almost 3 seasons of Bowyer has left us well and truly stuffed IMV.

[Gamst]

Offensively, that was absolutely abject. One of the most toothless performances since the famous away game at Tottenham under Keano. At least that was against decent opposition! This was against one of the poorest teams at this level for a long time, a team in absolute meltdown! The commentators were praising Wheater and their defence, but we couldn't have made it easier for them! We don't look like we will score anytime soon. I thought Marshall was particularly poor today and looked disinterested. Im not sure what PL and his side are trying to do, as it appears to be pretty basic stuff and poor utilisation of our main asset in Rhodes. It would surprise me if Guardiola taught him these tactics. They obviously need time to bring in their own players and their own ideas, which will hopefully be a bit more interesting that hoofball. I know he is trying to train and play with more intensity, but the players look less fit if anything, which is strange. We are definitely more defensively robust, which is very positive, but if you score literally no goals, you will lose games even with a great defence. January will be interesting and ultimately PL will be judged on how we progress over the coming months building momentum for a push next season. Early signs are mixed you would have to say. Fingers crossed it works out.

[chor808]

Terrible all over the park today. Made the bottom side look like a bunch of winners. Lambert needs to tell it as it is. They could have scored a few and had a couple of pens...rubbish.

[rigger]

It's as if the teams set up to make Rhodes look bad, surely a decent manager can see he needs service? What are they doing in training?

To me it is not a case of systems not working. It would seem that our players lack basic ball control and the ability to pass a ball accurately over ten yards. These to me are skills that should be taken as read, that every professional player should posses.

[JAL]

Oh, here's the football genius. Go on then halfwit, where are your suggestions to how this team improves?'he's not good enough,he's not good enough'. Your solution would be to get Messi and Neymar in you ******* clown.

It doesn't help when we've displaced poms like yourself pouring scorn on us suffering supporters when we make a counter claim to the Rovers Fans on here.

[Cherry Blue]

It's as if the teams set up to make Rhodes look bad, surely a decent manager can see he needs service? What are they doing in training?

Agree. In first few minutes Rhodes was screaming for Marshall to cross the ball and showed his disappointment with another non delivery. Feed Rhodes and he will score but either it's not in our game plan or the quality isn't there. I think the latter.

[jim mk2]

Totally depressed after that shambles.

Huge job for Lambert.

Almost 3 seasons of Bowyer has left us well and truly stuffed IMV.

A Rovers defeat a few months ago was the fault of the manager - so why is it not the manager's fault today ?

[Stonesrick]

I don't think I have felt more embarrassed in my 54 years watching Rovers. As we all know these idiot owners have put us in this position and it is going to be a long, long time before there is any chance of making progress. PL is not going to be able to change things overnight, the club needs a thorough cleansing from top to bottom. Sadly, any chance of keeping our season going was lost today in this inept performance. Some of the older posters on here talk about the poor centre forwards we had in the 60's - 80's. One name that regularly crops up is John O'Mara who we signed from Brentford. He scored 10 goals in 35 appearances for us - not fantastic by any stretch of the imagination but a far better return than some of our recent acquisitions.

A great chance missed against a club in dire straits.

Sad times indeed.

[DaveyB]

Can we please start (or continue) the debate on why we are playing worse under PL than under GB. I don't accept the different fitness routine or PL not knowing his best team as excuses.

We dont keep the ball as well, and don't create as many (or any) chances.

We are not getting anywhere near the best from our mediocre squad.

I don't want PL out and I don't think GB should have stayed but Lambert has been unable to even match the level we achieved under GB.

His style of play and motivational ability (so far) are disappointing.

Rovers are hard to watch.

This level of performance will continue to produce our lowest crowds since the 80's.

Yes, yes, I know it's early days.....just stating the facts.....

This.

I'm quite concerned now. A few friends who are Villa fans warned me about Lambert's style of play when he was appointed, but I dismissed it as certainly PL said all the right things and I wanted to believe in him.

But on the evidence so far I can see why the Villa fans weren't happy. I can see why Villa never looked like scoring goals under him.

For those complaining about Bowyer being negative, surely you can't be happy with how we're playing under Lambert so far? We're playing about 10 yards deeper, our central midfield never even get into the final third, let alone the box, and Rhodes looks completely isolated. It's easy to criticise Jordan, and he certainly hasn't shone recently, but the gap between him and the midfield is huge and so he's competing with 2 defenders most of the time, and the crosses into the box (the few that we do tend to put in) are more often than not aimed away from him - the one that was put toward him against Forest saw him narrowly miss into the side netting and I can't help but think that he would have buried the one that fell to Lawrence at the front post today.

Hopefully Lambert will able to add a couple of new players in January, and as the team adjust to him we will see an improvement in performances, but it's fair to say that I am unimpressed thus far

[deryck guyler's spoon]

It doesn't help when we've displaced poms like yourself pouring scorn on us suffering supporters when we make a counter claim to the Rovers Fans on here.

'Long suffering supporters'? You live 5 minutes walk from Ewood and by your own admission don't go to games.

You're a joke.

[BlueMonday]

I agree that we need rebuilding, but Lambert isn't going to be able to do all of it in January. He may only be able to bring in 2 or 3 players, and anyone we do bring in will need time to adjust to the team, training, and so on. He needs to do much better with the team we have, as poor as they are, or we're going to find ourselves right back in a relegation scrap.

What's most concerning is that as time goes on we're looking less and less like scoring. Our main threat in Rhodes has become an anonymous nothing since Lambert came in, and we know the rest aren't going to chip in on anything close to a regular basis. Lambert needs to get far more out of the players he has, now, or we may end up rebuilding from League One. It may seem like an overreaction, but four games and no goals from any of our players is extremely worrying, and it's getting worse rather than better.

January is going to be a huge month for us, and may well be the difference between mid table security or a relegation fight. There's no way we're getting close to the playoffs this season.

Don't disagree with what your saying, but it is what it is. Unless everyone is advocating getting rid of Lambert, which would be madness, we need to knuckle down and hold our nerve. I personally think we'll finish above mid table this season, and hopefully Venkys are going to fund a rebuild in the summer.

Guardiola would struggle with this squad, so there's no point giving Lambo pelters.

[Pedro]

A Rovers defeat a few months ago was the fault of the manager - so why is it not the manager's fault today ?

It is, the same one haha!

[frosty]

Reminds me of Appleton's time in charge at the moment. Can't score or create chances, Wheater replacing Shittu as the centre back we hoof it up to, but we don't concede many.

Hope Lambert can sort it.

[Spankus Munky]

A Rovers defeat a few months ago was the fault of the manager - so why is it not the manager's fault today ?

Oh I don't know maybe because the defeat a few months ago was a team built over nearly 3 years by the manager that was in charge, hence his fault.

Today was a manager who has inherited a squad and has has mere weeks in charge and has no players of his own in the squad, hence not his fault.

[AggyBlue]

A Rovers defeat a few months ago was the fault of the manager - so why is it not the manager's fault today ?

Yeah and what I need now is a smart arse trying to wind up the messageboard

[matt83]

The Bolton players did that for free. We should get a vote whether our players get paid this week. The answer a big NO.

[1arC]

I think we have to out this into perspective. After the first 10 games, I am sure most fans would have accepted that we would be where we are at the half way stage and not in the relegation places. Just because we have changed the manager and we appear to be getting some semblance of decent decisions, from the owners, does not men we will suddenly become a good team.

So far this seas, under Bowyer and Lambert, we have struggled to put in good performance. We had some bad luck in the early games, against Wolves for example and QPR. That seemed to even itself out in the first couple of games under Lambert. We are still the same team now as we were under Bowyer and I personally don' feel we have suddenly turned any corners. I would expect Lambert to have some Ideas up his sleeve in January, so transfers in and out, could be a plenty. I think we have to accept that we are not going to make the top six this season and hope we turn the corner in terms of performances and consistency in the new year and go in the summer with some impetus to give it a go next season.

[tomphil]

Absolutely no surprise whatsoever for me in that game, nil, zero, zilch.

Too predictable, too workmanlike with no movement around the final 3rd, continuous pub standard delivery into the box, ball watching at both ends and awful first touches time and again.

Add in poor use of subs and it's just a standard Rovers day. This team just cannot play any form of decent football on the deck. It was put together and coached just to hold teams and survive and we can't really expect it to do anything else. Effort there again from most but too many passengers today, Guthrie needs replacing soon as he's awful and he's swallowing up 10k plus per week.

Below average squad = below average results and league position. It's a complete rebuild job now otherwise we'll only ever continue the slow backwards slide. They've got the management in there now give them the cash.

[allanncd]

a whole more 23 games after that? Based on one result? Nonsense. We could lose, but finish in the top 6 for all we know.

Avoiding the drop is the only name of the game for the remainder of this season. Very few scoring chances are being created and the defence cannot be expected to keep a clean sheet everytimeas either a "wondergoal" or a blunder will occur in most matches. The first half was aimless hoofball towards a clueless Koita (probably a blessing he's out of the way for a while now). Akpan can't pass accurately even 3 yards and Guthrie is a totally nonentity. That leaves Evans (struggling with a persistent injury) and Williamson. Grim! The cupboard is absolutely bare of players with any creativity and footballing knowhow.

[jim mk2]

Can we please start (or continue) the debate on why we are playing worse under PL than under GB. I don't accept the different fitness routine or PL not knowing his best team as excuses.

We dont keep the ball as well, and don't create as many (or any) chances.

We are not getting anywhere near the best from our mediocre squad.

I don't want PL out and I don't think GB should have stayed but Lambert has been unable to even match the level we achieved under GB.

His style of play and motivational ability (so far) are disappointing.

Rovers are hard to watch.

This level of performance will continue to produce our lowest crowds since the 80's.

Yes, yes, I know it's early days.....just stating the facts.....

Absolutely correct. This is Lambert's team, he set it up to play this way and he dictates tactics. Bowyer's teams caved in too easily but we've not seen anything like the performance of the Burnley match since Lambert took over.

[Mercer]

Shearer would struggle to score in this team ...

No he wouldn't.

Good players make things happen.