[Archived] Rovers v Doncaster Rovers

[cn174]

Just now, AAK said:

He nearly cost us another two goals,  his miss touch nearly went in early on, and then a dropped ball in the area nearly cost another goal

Quite harsh on Raya imo. Those second two didn't amount to anything, you could say those things for any keeper in any game. 

The bigger problem is this 3-5-1-1 or whatever it is formation. Not working. 
Nyambe isn't a third centre back, Caddis (I quite like him) isn't a wing back - he is deffo a right back only. 

I was thinking during the game those who went to Southend wouldn't have ben too surprised, but I think they would be a little bit. I think today was worse. I think in this league we need to be more direct - who cares if we can pass it around the back/midfield and whatnot - we need to put presure on the oppositions back four, cos probably they'll not be that good (like ours).  

 

 

[AAK]

Just now, cn174 said:

Quite harsh on Raya imo. Those second two didn't amount to anything, you could say those things for any keeper in any game. 

The bigger problem is this 3-5-1-1 or whatever it is formation. Not working. 
Nyambe isn't a third centre back, Caddis (I quite like him) isn't a wing back - he is deffo a right back only. 

I was thinking during the game those who went to Southend wouldn't have ben too surprised, but I think they would be a little bit. I think today was worse. I think in this league we need to be more direct - who cares if we can pass it around the back/midfield and whatnot - we need to put presure on the oppositions back four, cos probably they'll not be that good (like ours).  

 

 

Those who went Southend saw the scoreline of Rotherham 5 Southend 0 and thought, well we are @#/? then

[RV Blue]

People saying this was the same formation as we played against Coventry are so wrong, this was a 5-4-1 not a 3-4-3. I said at half time that the first half performance was a sackable offence, little did I know it would get worse. Here are my thoughts:

I like Raya but he cocked up for the 3rd.

Nyambe was ok. Mulgrew was our best player (as usual) and needs to play in midfield from now on.

Caddis looked like he was playing in a testimonial.

Williams is F-ing awful, we seriously need a new left full back as he is simply embarrassing.

Evans is still hopeless, as he has been his whole career here.

Smallwood is sh1t.

Whittingham is Danny Murphy mk II, I said at the time I was concerned and it unfortunately looks like I was right, absolutely shocking.

Bennett was shocking.

Graham is an embarrassment and I hope I never see him in blue and white again. I said before the game that he shouldn't start but even I was shocked at his 'performance'.

All the subs should have started and looked decent today, Samuel looks like a handful.

As for Mowbray, resign! That was the worst performance I've ever seen from a Rovers side and if I was in charge you would be sacked on the spot. As it seems like he runs the club, he'll have to sack himself. Fraud. Get someone in who did well in their last job, the Cowley brothers or something.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Why would Mowbray play two upfront away from home last week and then 1 upfront at home this week? I'm doubting if he knows what he is doing 

[G Somerset Rover]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Utterly and completely shocked - speechless.

Having a nice few days away and will get well and truly blathered tonight to ease the pain.

And then forget all about it and predict that we'll hammer Bradford away 4-1.

Feel too deflated to be smug but I said before the match what a dreadful lineup it was given what he had at his disposal and that if the opposition scored first we were goosed. All too bloody obvious. Having huge doubts about TM, I won't lie. The guy is just over complicating everything and far too negative.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

50 minutes ago, DE. said:

He made plenty of mistakes during his brief first team tenure last time too. We can't afford to have a goalkeeper who gifts the opposition goals, we went through that once already with Jake Kean. 

And Steele

[Parsonblue]

13 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I think the majority of posters who know the game could cut and paste their posts from the Southend game. Three at the back is completely the wrong tactic in this league but when the manager over complicates the rest of the system with something unfathomable they play straight into the hands of 4-4-2 playing opponents. The number of times Nyambe, Ward and Mulgrew were exposed one v one in the first half should have forced Mowbray into a rethink but he carried on until the game was out of sight. The rest of the team, well I am still struggling to understand two defensive midfielders at home, where the hell was Whittingham supposed to be playing, the wide me didn't know whether to stick or twist and Bennett also looked lost in the debacle that Mowbray created. Danny Graham looked disinterested and his laziness angered a lot of fans. 

I like the honesty of Mowbray but he needs to understand that there is no place for complex systems in league one where hard work, commitment and intensity are some of the main requirements. This slow, sedate, unadventurous  and utterly pointless passing game he wants to play just won't work. He talks about artists and soldiers. In our two league games we have had none.

Totally agree with all of this.  A brilliant post.  Mowbray is simply overcomplicating the game at this level and the players look as confused as the supporters.  Pace and power are key in this League and we seem to have neither at the moment.  The pretty passing game is getting us nowhere and seems all about having possession just for the sake of it.  Above all we need to find a modern day equivalent of John McNamee.

[arbitro]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Why would Mowbray play two upfront away from home last week and then 1 upfront at home this week? I'm doubting if he knows what he is doing 

He didn't play two up until late in the game at Southend. Dack was behind Graham and Samuels played out wide left and then switched to the right.

[Waggy76]

Beyond me ! 

5 at the back too ...

Very Odd

 

 

 

[blueboy3333]

First game of the season, half decent crowd, a very beatable Donny team in the way and the air half-thick with anticipation and what does Tone E Mowbriniho do? He plays 3 Centre Halves, 3 SITTING midfielders, a centre-half as one wing-back and an old fat bloke as the other, a bloke with no creativity as the no.10 and a useless lump of lard up front on his own with nobody within 20 yards of him. Was Southend an aberration? Was it fook. MOWBRAY IS CLUELESS.

First half literally nothing happened. At Half-time Bradley and his mates flicked each others ears because they are all sh1t at keepy-ups. 2nd half we turned into the Keystone Cops and some lads on the DE chucked some cans and tried to start a fight with the Donny lads who also seemed up for a bit of fisty-cuffs.

That was it.

Raya - 3 - Dropped the two crosses he had to deal with, let one run under his foot 1st half  that nearly went in the net, a cracking assist on for their 3rd goal and a good save late on.

Caddis - 4 - He tried but god he's slow and ponderous. Hit a shot from 25 yards in the 1st half that took 3 minutes and 4 seconds to reach the keeper. Subbed

Ward - 1 - I missed his feck-up, I went into a coma after half an hour and only woke when they scored. Apart from that he's just a useless slow fat bloke who should have retired in the 80's. He also had the nerve to beat his chest and the badge at the end at the BBE. Get offthe pich, have a bath and fook off home and don't come back would be my advice. Don't slap the badge. Kn0b.

Mulgrew - 4 - Talented lad but him and Ward are the slowest CB's in the world. It was embarrassing trying to watch them catch Donny's quick young lads in the 2nd half.

Nyambe - 5 - At least he stuck to his task, got stuck in and could recover with a bit of pace when he messed up.

Williams - 1 - Who plays a cumbersome left back/ CB as your furthest man forward? He is a worse footballer than Lowe. If you're going to play him play him on the left of a back 3 or left back with instructions to never cross the half-way line. I actually felt sorry for him he was that bad and out of position. Subbed

Evans - 3 Got the ball, spun round in a tight circle, laid the ball of square or back. But never more than 7 yards. Passing accuracy 100%. Impact on game 0%.

Smallwood - 6 - The only bloke with any drive or determination. Put tackles, in won headers, played like it mattered.

Whittingham  - 1 - Lost the ball every time he got it in a tight area then just shrugged and gave up. When he got it with time to pass there was no-one to pass to. Literally a waste of time him turning up, but not entirely his fault. Subbed.

Bennett - 3 -  no creativity and expected to be the main creative outlet Ran around a lot but mainly into the opposition, giving free-kicks away in the process.Crossed the ball a few times to their keeper in 2nd half. Good catching practice.

Graham -  minus 17 - Fat,sweaty bloke (there's a theme in Tony's side) stood with his hands on his hips for an hour until someone joined him up front. Continued to stand with hands on hips but had someone close enough to talk to, which was nice.

Subs:-

Dack - 6 - Apart from his #topearflickingbantz at H/T he actually looks a player. Only on the pitch half an hour but think he did 12 nutmegs. Tried to play one-two's and get the ball moving with pace. Ran at their defence. One of their defenders was so shocked he had to put his cup of tea down.

Samuel - 6 - Looked quick and lively, held it up better than Graham and harried their defenders. Looked like he gave a @#/?. One of the two times we crossed it we scored. Imagine that Mowbray you useless @#/?. If you put the ball in the box you may score.

Gladwin - 5 -Did ok at left wing-back or wherever the fook Tony had told him to play. One great cross caused confusion. Imagine that Tony you tactical genius, a cross in the box causing panic in their ranks.

MOWBRAY - AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE. My mate turned to me at one point and said ' Coyle was better than this'. And he was. The signs were there last season. Horrible negative boring football played at a snails pace. Donny couldn't believe their luck.

I'd sack the @#/? now.

[cn174]

15 minutes ago, danger19_80 said:

As mince as the formation was all three goals were directly linked to horrific individual errors. Ward letting the ball run under his foot for the first, flying in for a tackle in midfield for the second - leaving Mulgrew exposed, and Raya heading the ball straight to their striker for the third.

But we will have more individual errors - we are League 1 team - ours players aren't that good. 

We just need to ensure that as a collective, our individual errors cause less impact than the opposition's players and that we are better as a team by them. So far, this isn't looking that good. 

[Tom]

Whittingham looks like Keith Andrews from a distance as well 

[RV Blue]

18 minutes ago, AAK said:

He nearly cost us another two goals,  his miss touch nearly went in early on, and then a dropped ball in the area nearly cost another goal, probably the pressure he was under.

Rubbish, his miss touch went nowhere near the net and his 'drop' was on purpose because there was no reason for him to try and catch it, he palmed it to the floor on purpose.

[funny-old-game]

15 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I think the majority of posters who know the game could cut and paste their posts from the Southend game. Three at the back is completely the wrong tactic in this league but when the manager over complicates the rest of the system with something unfathomable they play straight into the hands of 4-4-2 playing opponents. The number of times Nyambe, Ward and Mulgrew were exposed one v one in the first half should have forced Mowbray into a rethink but he carried on until the game was out of sight. The rest of the team, well I am still struggling to understand two defensive midfielders at home, where the hell was Whittingham supposed to be playing, the wide me didn't know whether to stick or twist and Bennett also looked lost in the debacle that Mowbray created. Danny Graham looked disinterested and his laziness angered a lot of fans. 

I like the honesty of Mowbray but he needs to understand that there is no place for complex systems in league one where hard work, commitment and intensity are some of the main requirements. This slow, sedate, unadventurous  and utterly pointless passing game he wants to play just won't work. He talks about artists and soldiers. In our two league games we have had none.

Thing is Tony,  he's been here before, so why doesn't he know this already?

As for Graham, he was all the player we needed when he first came, held the ball up well, brought other players into the game, gave defends a tough time and scored goals.Not blessed with pace but technically quite good, and now nothing. Just stealing a living.

[tugayislegend]

Unforgivable team selection and formation by TM. Why not play a simple 4 4 2 with graham and samuels? Samuels has pace and graham can hold the ball up. Is it better to use caddis and williams as wingers? Do they really have more pace/crossing ability/intelligence to play out wide than Bennett and feeney? Bennett is being played out of position, feeney can provide an outlet and is decent out wide. Absolute shambles of a team selection, when the team sheets were out nobody could figure out how they were gonna set up. Graham CANNOT play upfront by himself! We can accept that all the new signings may take a while to start playing fluid attacking football, all the more reason to start the first few games with a simple set up, organised shape, try to keep clean sheets and nick it 1-0 if needs must, but No mowbray has been banging on about philosphy and different systems, lets play 1 system first and do well before imposing different ideas on the players!

[glen9mullan]

I think you can over complicate football,

Mowbray has spent weeks stating he will change formations and tactics dependent on opposition.

Surely he should be letting the opposition worry about us instead of constantly changing things about?

Today we was just all over the place with no single player coming out with any credit.

Doncaster had a Team of honest footballers, playing for the shirt and enjoying being footballers.

We rolled up smoking cigars and thinking we are a cut above.

 

Take away the fancy training ground, the 31000 all seater stadium and we are left with a squad of never has beens who are overpaid and quite frankly the poorest shower of a team in decades at Ewood.

It's going to take time for all these new players to bed in, however long before then , they need to find some heart , grit and determination.

[Commondore]

Just now, Parsonblue said:

Totally agree with all of this.  A brilliant post.  Mowbray is simply overcomplicating the game at this level and the players look as confused as the supporters.  Pace and power are key in this League and we seem to have neither at the moment.  The pretty passing game is getting us nowhere and seems all about having possession just for the sake of it.  Above all we need to find a modern day equivalent of John McNamee.

If that's true, then what hope do we have of beating experienced League 1 teams at their own game? Tactics and formations isn't an unnecessary luxury, but something we need to embrace even more at this stage. Panicking and throwing everything overboard now would be the worst possible reaction, Mowbray needs to stick with his vision and get the players to do the same. 

[Dan]

I just want to see 442 with two proper wingers, creating for two proper strikers. Simple old fashioned football, with a splash of Arte and a dollop of Labore. 

Speaking to a mate at work about this league that watches Rochdale most weeks(he's a Citeh fan, but his lad plays for the dale) and he reckons our team is the best in the league. If that's true then we are being badly managed and coached. As well as the formations, tactics etc, the players have no fire in their bellies. As others have mentioned, they are just strolling around, with zero effort. There's been times before the the loons from Pune that we were awful. Coventry away in the snow springs to mind, but it was never down the lack of passion. I'd bloody love to be moaning right now about Andy Todd getting sent off for being too aggressive. 

Do we have any leaders on the pitch anymore? 

And to think I was actually starting to miss the football this summer...

[DE.]

7 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

And Steele

For me there are three types of keeper. Ones that gain you points, ones that gain and lose points in equal measure, and ones who just lose you points.

The first is rare, we were lucky to have one in Brad for so many years.

Second one describes the majority of keepers at professional level. I'd put Steele in this category. Never really did anything horrendous to gift teams goals, but rarely played well enough to say he saved us points.

Jake Kean was an example of the third type of keeper. We were lucky if he only made one cock up per match. Really hoping Raya will not end up in this category.

[Waggy76]

I just want to see 442 with two proper wingers, creating for two proper strikers. Simple old fashioned football, with a splash of Arte and a dollop of Labore. 

If it was good enough for Kenny , it is certainly good enough for Mowbray !!!!

 

[arbitro]

6 minutes ago, funny-old-game said:

Thing is Tony,  he's been here before, so why doesn't he know this already?

As for Graham, he was all the player we needed when he first came, held the ball up well, brought other players into the game, gave defends a tough time and scored goals.Not blessed with pace but technically quite good, and now nothing. Just stealing a living.

I haven't a clue what system Mowbray played at Coventry Tony but if he over complicated things by trying to be a smart arse there and is making the same mistake here he must be thicker than a table top. When Lambert signed Graham he described him as a street fighter. Under Mowbray he looks like a street walker. That show of greed in the first half when he should have played Whittingham in smacked of a player on a massive goal bonus.

[tugayislegend]

Can someone tell me do we have kyle walker and danny rose in our squad? Is that why we are playing wing backs??

[blueboy3333]

Just now, tugayislegend said:

Can someone tell me do we have kyle walker and danny rose in our squad? Is that why we are playing wing backs??

No we don't. But we do have a manager who thinks he is managing Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League every match. He'll be home playing Football Manager now working on a new system for Bradford.

[Butty]

442 with Samuel and antonsson upfront and Bennett and Conway on the wings. Or even feeney for a bit of pace. We need too be starting our two fastest wingers (who still aren't that quick) and two strikers up top. Why make league one players play in a formation so complicated it baffles me, if we lose next Saturday TM is going too be under huge pressure and rightly so. It's not about the fact we've lost our first two, it's the manner in which we have lost these games which is majorly worrying. Terrible terrible terrible start too the season, embarrassing. 

[DE.]

1 minute ago, blueboy3333 said:

No we don't. But we do have a manager who thinks he is managing Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League every match. He'll be home playing Football Manager now working on a new system for Bradford.

I think Freddy Adu is still available on a free...