v Wigan Athletic (a) 11/10/2022

[Sparks Rover]

1 hour ago, roverstdt said:

my first love of football comes with Blackburn

Who? 🙈

Edited October 12, 2022 by Sparks Rover

[RoverDom]

58 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

No we don't need to get rid of JDT or Broughton at all. It's time people like you actually give them time and patience.

3 points off top and people want to sack the manager. Ludicrous. 

There's a middle ground between sticking with mowbray for 5 years and giving a manager with a 50% win rate the boot after 14 games

[onlyoneDuff]

Men versus boys all night long...no bite in midfield.....and say what you want about him, but it's nice to see an old fashioned winger whip in crosses like McClean can do..we have no one close to him on the wings

[RevidgeBlue]

4 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I couldn’t understand how he was starting and Gally on the bench. Was Gally not 100% fit ?

Not sure if Gallagher was 100% fit but one thing is for sure - he is 100% shite. I'm not sure how we've managed to stumble upon two strikers as bad as Gallagher and Hirst. If you gave anyone on here c £6m (£5m plus a loan fee) and said "Find me 2 strikers" you'd be seriously hard pressed to do worse than those two

[RevidgeBlue]

Worrying night again - when you boil it down football is a fairly simple game and imo from what I've seen this season we've too many poor players in and around the starting eleven. You might be able to get away with one passenger like Gallagher but when you've got a plethora of players that imo aren't up to it such as Gallagher, Hirst, Szmodics, and Hedges then you aren't going to achieve results on a consistent enough basis. in fact the only surprise is that our win ratio is as high as it is. Unfortunately I dont see that 50% rate continuing  unless there is a massive uplift in performance levels in general.

Conversely our most talented player, who badly needs game time to recover match sharpness can't get a look in and Morton as far as I can see isn't a patch on our own homegrown talent Adam Wharton and is merely serving to keep him out of the side and hinder his development. For me we need to start Dack and the younger Wharton and the other players should be covering for them if required, not the other way round

However we can change tactics /personnel the thing that arguably worries me the most is seeing us tip tap the ball about at the back with zero urgency when we're a goal down. We saw the same thing at home a few weeks ago against Bristol City when 1-3 behind. To me that indicates a lack of passion and desire and maybe indicates the players aren't fully buying into what they are being asked to do by JDT.

[1864roverite]

6 hours ago, Hasta said:

Wait till it's 0-0 on the Turf in injury time and Ayala's one-two with Kaminsky goes astray and they score.

He won’t be playing!

[Tricky]

9 hours ago, CambridgeRover said:

JDT is like our own Southgate. Same exact approach

Yep, no plan B

[Blue blood]

I'm all for giving JDT time and patience but what a woeful performance and result. 

Given the run we were on last season, the way the team was decimated in close season - to a paper thin squad anyway - and it was always odds on this season would be a struggle. 

That said JDT isn't immune to criticism. Not sure Hedges is that good, I mean the shower that was signed at the same time of him makes him seem good, but his attacking potential will never be realised at wing back. And some of his signings Hirst in particular look way below the standard needed. 

Biggest issue is though we need experience. Tough guys who can mix it and have the mentality to be up for the fight. Every successful Rovers team has had this, whereas when I look at this team there's so little steel in it - mentally or physically - that it's no wonder we told when plan A doesn't go as hoped. 

Fix that, and get a few of the new signings correct, and we could go places. We're not turning up half the time and still up near the top. If we don't we will continue to struggle.  

[arbitro]

We have scored four goals away from home, three of them in one game. We just aren't creating anything with this possession, slow, deliberate football. Our most creative moves last night were from long right to left diagonal balls trying to get Brereton in behind.

[Tricky]

Most of our downfall is giving the ball away and being bullied off the ball, both far too easily and it's frustrating to watch.

All the tactics, technical ability and pass play can go out the window without a physical presence. The whole midfield needs to get in the gym and eat more if they want to start winning physical battles. 

[Mercer]

What a superb job Leam Richardson has done with Wigan under the most difficult circumstances.  Ably assisted by other former Roverites in Rob Kelly and James Beattie (would take these two in a heart beat over the likes of Johnson, Lowe and Benson)  Think several clubs looking for new managers could do much worse.

[Torgeir]

10 hours ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Two shots on target in two away games.

And one of those was Hirst’s penalty.

Jesus Christ.

Not too dissimilar to last season when we played three at the back. 

At times last night we defended so low against the mighty Wigan that it was impossible to hit them with any force on the break. Pressing deep inside our own half can't be how JDT wants things, surely? 

[Upside Down]

To not have a single shot on target is absolutely unacceptable. 

[JHRover]

10 hours ago, tomphil said:

 

Seems to me the 'project' is get rid of all the higher earners.

Convenient I said last night that the one player who we tend to avoid turning to and giving a chance happens to be the biggest earner and at the wrong end of the age scale for the 'project'

I've seen enough over the years to question whether that one is purely footballing.

[Upside Down]

17 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Convenient I said last night that the one player who we tend to avoid turning to and giving a chance happens to be the biggest earner and at the wrong end of the age scale for the 'project'

I've seen enough over the years to question whether that one is purely footballing.

We've seen this before. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

6 hours ago, onlyoneDuff said:

Men versus boys all night long...no bite in midfield.....and say what you want about him, but it's nice to see an old fashioned winger whip in crosses like McClean can do..we have no one close to him on the wings

That’s because they’re all playing on their “ wrong “ wing and want to come inside on their “ stronger “ foot all the time. Modern football - City do it so we expect our dollopers to be able do it.

[Polky]

I’m struggling to understand what the game plan was last night. It was worrying to see that none of our players closed down Wigan crosses and they were free to whip balls into the box as they pleased. 
 

I think most agree that JDT isn’t a big fan of Dack and that may be due to his pressing/fitness. I can’t say that he would have done worse than Szomdics in the first half. I don’t think Szomdics ran himself into the ground?
 

If Hirst can show that he’s an half decent football player and Dack playing off him we might start to see some better results away from home?

[CambridgeRover]

The whole thing about this project is we can not play the way the manager wants. We are farting around at the back and ineffective going forward.

Carlos Carvahal said it best, you suit the tactic to the players not some arbitary vision of the football you want. But then again we wanted to keep Billy Benson so Carlos walked.

 

[yellowsubmarine]

The only consistent thing is our inconsistency. Why do we perform to get a result for one game and then played badly in the next, repeatedly.

I'm worried once we start losing 2 in a row, it will be hard to find the confidence again. Our play so far has been underwhelming. All the passing at the back, hole in the middle of the park, our creative player is on RWB duties, to be honest, i dont even know what style of football are we playing. 

While 7 wins is nice, the 7 losses are also quite damning.

[TheKitGuy]

6 hours ago, onlyoneDuff said:

Men versus boys all night long...no bite in midfield.....and say what you want about him, but it's nice to see an old fashioned winger whip in crosses like McClean can do..we have no one close to him on the wings

We had Giles but we just didn't know how to play with someone who gets the ball into the 18 on a constant basis.

[AllRoverAsia]

George and David Hirst, Nigel Pearson, Remy Reijnierse. Connection: Sheffield Wednesday

OH Leuven, managed by Pearson, and Leicester City. Connection: Pearson and both clubs owned by King Power.

Hirst is not looking good and not a kid in footballing terms.

I had look at his career path and influences on it. A dot joining exercise.

What possessed Leicester to move him from Belgium only King Power can answer.

If we pay any sort of fee for this 4th rate Ashley Ward then frankly, something is amiss.

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by AllRoverAsia

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, CambridgeRover said:

The whole thing about this project is we can not play the way the manager wants. We are farting around at the back and ineffective going forward.

Carlos Carvahal said it best, you suit the tactic to the players not some arbitary vision of the football you want. But then again we wanted to keep Billy Benson so Carlos walked.

 

I remember reading a coaching book about 50 years ago. It was by an English guy who’d coached teams abroad extensively. He’d taken the Swedish national team to the World Cup final in 1958. “ George Rayner “ seem to ring a bell. He said the first thing to do when taking over a team was to evaluate the players individual skill sets and then devise a way of playing that got the best out of each player within the unit. It seems obvious to me. How else are you going to be successful ? 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, TheKitGuy said:

We had Giles but we just didn't know how to play with someone who gets the ball into the 18 on a constant basis.

Exactly my argument. We played a guy with a great left foot out on the right wing. Because it’s what Pep does ! Consequently he kept having to stop and get the ball onto his good foot and the moment was usually gone.

Another issue in that case is that the direction of flight of the ball with a left footer out on the right is normally in to the goalkeeper. With a good right foot crosser of the ball he can make the flight of the ball go towards the keeper initially but have it swing away later on.

[G Somerset Rover]

1 hour ago, Upside Down said:

To not have a single shot on target is absolutely unacceptable. 

Save for Swansea and Blackpool, you'd have been forgiven for thinking we were playing against the Premier League Top 6 for our matches on the road this season. 1 goal in 6, an XG that is embarrassingly low, no shots on target last night, two the match previous (one of which was a penalty). It's like we're little minnows aiming for a giant killing...against the likes of mighty Luton, Wigan and Cardiff!

Edited October 12, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

What a superb job Leam Richardson has done with Wigan under the most difficult circumstances.  Ably assisted by other former Roverites in Rob Kelly and James Beattie (would take these two in a heart beat over the likes of Johnson, Lowe and Benson)  Think several clubs looking for new managers could do much worse.

In the running for the WBA job apparently.