[Archived] Rovers v Oldham

[DE.]

I feel like a broken record, but if we keep conceding two plus goals a game we aren't going to get anywhere. Caution would be fine if we had a solid defence to rely upon, but clearly we don't. Attack seems to be our best form of defence but I've given up hope that TM will ever see that. The next few months are going to be much of the same, so we will just have to hope one of Wigan or Shrewsbury suffer a major drop in form.

[Preben]

10 minutes ago, Biz said:

Minority of 4... :-) 

I'm Spartacus!

[Waggy76]

23 minutes ago, tugayislegend said:

We have to count ourselves lucky, wigan and Shrewsbury wont lose every other week. If we have aspirations for automatic promotion we need to win on Tue and need to stop conceding 2 goals a game!

And neither team will win every game !

[Preben]

Just now, Waggy76 said:

And neither team will win every game !

Indeed, we will all lose more points

[JBiz]

We need to start with 3 at the back next game, same 11 that started the second half just swap Travis for Smallwood, which in itself is harsh on Travis but realistic. I think we are destined to concede goals but I think we will score for fun if Dack is given two strikers to work with up top for 90 minutes.

I know that we did this earlier in the season, albeit with Williams as LWB - the additions of Bell, Payne and emergence of Travis make this more feasible- with more depth and option. I think we’d deal with counters better as Del and Ryan make up for other defensive frailties in mobility.

Its only fair to share the frustration with defending today though, I mean; Nyambe should either tackle or foul the guy for the opener today, extremely frustrating. As for Mulgrew backing off on the second... thank god he can take free kicks..!  

[scotchrover]

14 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Why no Samuel for last ten mins? Bennett was knackered - dead on his feet - Oldham down to ten men.   We need the win but he doesn't roll the dice.  After the first half,  a draw is acceptable but we were down because of the line up/tactics. 

Because Samuel is absolutely awful. Last week, we might as well have played with 10.

Bad first half- the players just didn’t look interested. It was only when our goal went in, we woke up. Oldham came with a game plan, and it worked in that first half. What worried me is try got in our faces, and we didn’t like it, just like that week. Mulgrew was absolutely dire those first 45 minutes.Tony set us up completely wrong too.

Second half- better, but the players still looked slow- are they tired? Mowbray changing it round helped Why didn’t set up like that either? For anyone wondering- 1 up, 1 behind is absolutely garbage and doesn’t work! Graham’s too old to be running around for 90 minutes along. He need support. 

Overall, we should have won that and could have done with Nutall alongside Graham. Instead he wasn’t even on the bench, after playing a few days ago, in the youth set up or reserve team. What a strong decision! B

[Cherry Blue]

Just now, DE. said:

I feel like a broken record, but if we keep conceding two plus goals a game we aren't going to get anywhere. Caution would be fine if we had a solid defence to rely upon, but clearly we don't. Attack seems to be our best form of defence but I've given up hope that TM will ever see that. The next few months are going to be much of the same, so we will just have to hope one of Wigan or Shrewsbury suffer a major drop in form.

Agree DE. TM will not risk going all out for a high score win. As he's said before and in his after match today he;s far too much respect for the opposition. Oldham were strong but lacked quality and that's why they're towards the bottom. He should have built up that motivation in his team at the start of the game then we could have gone second.

Even when Wigan & Shrewsbury do suffer, we fail to take advantages. Too late in season to change managers. 

[Preben]

I also agree we should go three at the back, especially with Lenihan back. It gives us more options to attack and we concede goals for fun whatever the formation.

[Preben]

One other point is that we don't seem capable of changing our game plan during play. We never seem to have a plan B until we get to half time

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

3 minutes ago, scotchrover said:

Because Samuel is absolutely awful. Last week, we might as well have played with 10.

Bad first half- the players just didn’t look interested. It was only when our goal went in, we woke up. Oldham came with a game plan, and it worked in that first half. What worried me is try got in our faces, and we didn’t like it, just like that week. Mulgrew was absolutely dire those first 45 minutes.Tony set us up completely wrong too.

Second half- better, but the players still looked slow- are they tired? Mowbray changing it round helped Why didn’t set up like that either? For anyone wondering- 1 up, 1 behind is absolutely garbage and doesn’t work! Graham’s too old to be running around for 90 minutes along. He need support. 

Overall, we should have won that and could have done with Nutall alongside Graham. Instead he wasn’t even on the bench, after playing a few days ago, in the youth set up or reserve team. What a strong decision! B

Samuel has been poor but he should have been on at the end against ten men. 

[scotchrover]

Just now, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Samuel has been poor but he should have been on at the end against ten men. 

I agree another forward would have been useful. Nutall would have been better though. I just don’t get he played a game in midweek- he’s been miles better than Samuel recently.

[K-Hod]

I thought Bell had a bit of an off day today as well come to think of it. I must say though, I feel like the team we finished with is an interesting one and I wouldn’t be averse to us using that again.

Good to hear about Chapman coming back as well. I saw on instagram he’s back in these ends and at training again. He really could be the difference between now and the end of the season imo....

[JHRover]

Opportunity missed - again - to close that gap. I have a feeling this is how it is going to go until the end with us unable to string a run together and unable to take advantage of slip ups. We had the easiest fixture today with Shrewsbury and Wigan having tough ones and yet we couldn't take advantage (again) and have dropped yet more crucial points against one of the weaker sides in the league, in the process actually making them look decent.

The only consolation is it could have been worse and we showed some fight.

Unfortunately once again we have only turned up for 30 minutes of the game whilst offering very little in the other 60 minutes. Happens every week. Horrendous defending - happens every week.

The concern is that the manager and team keep on making the same mistakes.Either unable or unwilling to learn from experiences earlier this season. 

Mowbray has now been outwitted by Hasselbaink, Adams and Wellens in the last 4 games. All those managers possess a fraction of the resources and ability that Mowbray has had at his disposal yet all have managed to find ways to take valuable points off us whilst our manager seems to be preoccupied with making endless changes to our formation and team.

What I hope doesn't happen is that this is treated as a good point gained and lessons aren't learned from it. What Shrewsbury and Wigan do is immaterial if we don't get ourselves sorted out. That first half was a disgrace and the manager needs to have a long hard look at himself after that. 

Once again Mulgrew has come to our rescue with a sublime free kick which has ignited our fightback. Prior to that we hadn't looked remotely like getting back into it. 

A win at Portsmouth is now essential yet I expect we'll have 3 days of people convincing themselves it is mission impossible to go there and win because they get big gates.

[Hasta]

35 minutes ago, Gav said:

...... felt like a win at the end.

 

 

No it didn't. It really didn't.

[Guest]

Just now, Biz said:

I know that we did this earlier in the season, albeit with Williams as LWB - the additions of Bell, Payne and emergence of Travis make this more feasible- with more depth and option.

I'm not sure if you watched the game today (not being funny BTW), but Payne was out on the right side, yet constantly caught out of position when Oldham got forward down the flanks. Nyambe had very little support in that respect. Payne was quite poor, defensively, and I think he's being played out of position out wide.

I'm beginning to wonder about our wide forwards, as we STILL don't have the right players for those positions, it seems. IF Tony is going to tinker, I'd propose the following...

                                    Raya

Nyambe      Downing      Mulgrew      Bell

                              Smallwood

                   Bennett             Travis

                      Dack            Payne

                             Graham

I reckon Payne and Dack in their best positions, centrally and behind behind Graham, could be devastating; they've both got the ability and skill to play in tight spaces, so why we mess about with wide forwards who are ineffective and out of position, I don't know.

For width, I'd encourage Bell and Nyambe to get forward, and Smallwood/Bennett/Travis can help cover.

IF we have to go long ball, which we often seem to do anyway (and we're not the only ones), then at least we could have a better chance of picking up the second ball with an extra player in the centre.

What have I just written? Is it a load of bollocks? 

[LDRover]

What bothers me the most is that all the talk coming from Ewood this week has been of getting a 'reaction' after the Plymouth defeat. Seems there wasn't even a flicker and that worries me in regard to Mowbray's ability to motivate.

[Cherry Blue]

37 minutes ago, Gav said:

......felt like a win at the end.

 

So you did stay in the pub 

[Hasta]

4 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

I thought Bell had a bit of an off day today as well come to think of it. I must say though, I feel like the team we finished with is an interesting one and I wouldn’t be averse to us using that again.

Bell was poor all game but that's because he played out of position. 

Even despite the second half rally, the only person who I think comes.out of that with any credit is Armstrong. 

[LDRover]

Just now, OnePhilT said:

I'm not sure if you watched the game today (not being funny BTW), but Payne was out on the right side, yet constantly caught out of position when Oldham got forward down the flanks. Nyambe had very little support in that respect. Payne was quite poor, defensively, and I think he's being played out of position out wide.

I'm beginning to wonder about our wide forwards, as we STILL don't have the right players for those positions, it seems. IF Tony is going to tinker, I'd propose the following...

                                    Raya

Nyambe      Downing      Mulgrew      Bell

                              Smallwood

                   Bennett             Travis

                      Dack            Payne

                             Graham

I reckon Payne and Dack in their best positions, centrally and behind behind Graham, could be devastating; they've both got the ability and skill to play in tight spaces, so why we mess about with wide forwards who are ineffective and out of position, I don't know.

For width, I'd encourage Bell and Nyambe to get forward, and Smallwood/Bennett/Travis can help cover.

IF we have to go long ball, which we often seem to do anyway (and we're not the only ones), then at least we could have a better chance of picking up the second ball with an extra player in the centre.

What have I just written? Is it a load of bollocks? 

I'll stop short of calling it bollocks Phil, but if you want to get up the pitch in this league it has to be 2 up top for me. Especially if you go long because it asks an awful lot of just one to work the whole back line.

[DE.]

3 minutes ago, JHRover said:

What I hope doesn't happen is that this is treated as a good point gained and lessons aren't learned from it. What Shrewsbury and Wigan do is immaterial if we don't get ourselves sorted out. That first half was a disgrace and the manager needs to have a long hard look at himself after that. 

I imagine there were plenty of occasions when people were calling home draws "good results" and "a point gained" in the 2013/14 season. We missed out on the playoffs that year by 2 points,  technically 3 if you take GD into account. 

So to suggest a draw against poor teams at home is OK is nonsense imo, and also nonsense not to be concerned about our habit of letting the opposition score multiple times against us per game. Every point dropped matters and every goal conceded potentially adds an extra point to the teams above us with better defensive records.

[JPTSwindon]

Phew... Back from the abyss and so close to the full 3 points.

Oldham fans were great in the stadium, not so outside - grow up kids, there is no need!

Travis made a massive difference to the 2nd half, definitely deserves to start the next match.

Controlled the game, but I felt Raya could and should have done better which left us with much to do.

Missed opportunity but better than it looked half-time!

[Mike E]

I'd be going either:

                         Raya

Nyambe  Downing  Mulgrew  Bell

               Bennett  Smallwood 

            Payne    Dack    Armstrong

                        Graham

Or:

                          Raya

        Downing Mulgrew Williams

Nyambe    Bennett   Smallwood    Bell

        Armstrong   Graham   Dack

 

I'd put Travis in there after an apparently good game but not seen him in the flesh yet.

[Leonard Venkhater]

19 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Samuel has been poor but he should have been on at the end against ten men. 

What..to make it 10 v 10 ?

[Cherry Blue]

Just seen goals on Sky. Raya poor for both & its not like Charlie to let us down. 

Brilliant free kick, again. Well taken by Armstrong, think he should start ahead of Graham on Tuesday.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

We would win more games if we had a forward like that big unit for Oldham. Lad gave our back line a torrid time.  Someone like that off the bench should have been a priority signing for this league.