v Stoke City (a) - 10/3/23

[jim mk2]

8 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Edwards and  Andy Farrell should have been appointed a year ago.

 Yes, agree. Borthwick's looking like Berg or Appleton at the moment

Anyway, back to another debacle: Stoke v Rovers 

[booth]

17 minutes ago, R0verb0y said:

They'd have sacked Souness quicker than they 'potted' Big Sam!!

I was meaning in Souness's time, had he needed players through the door in January he'd have got them so would have fielded a stronger eleven from the off.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

21 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

What, are there no good Union coaches knocking about?

No.

[AllRoverAsia]

40 minutes ago, R0verb0y said:

Can't wait for MotD.

Oh no; I've just remembered!!😉

Messup of The Decade

[superniko]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Blimey you just can't give him any credit or praise can you? 

He deserves absolutely zero praise for that performance last night, stop being a WUM/Clown

[bigbrandjohn]

We now reach an interesting time of the season. We are hanging on by the skin of our teeth relying on motivated players performing at the very top of their ability. We have a threadbare squad. It could go either way. 
 

it must be cause for concern in Recruitment Mission Control. Do we target a list of championship or DIV 1 players for next season, or do we plan on recruiting premiership or continental top division  players  for next season ?  Mid table mediocrity would make the decision easier. 
 

Given our track record in January, the thought of filling the gaps for either scenario fills me with trepidation. 

[Ghost7]

Having seen the highlights back, Pickering and Hyam are marking the same man on every cross. Sometimes Carter, Pickering and Hyam are marking just one Stoke attacker in the middle, leaving their wingback and the fullback area completely open / in the hands of Dolan. A bizarre setup, essentially wasting at least one or two defenders. The fullbacks have got to track the runners if there is only one striker in the box, instead they're all heading for the same ball. Pickering could have been used to prevent both goals in the first half but was probably doing what had been asked - doubling up on Campbell or Gayle - if he wasn't asked to do this then he should be dropped next game. An unnecessarily complicated and costly tactic that encouraged two defenders to go for the same ball often. Why are we having 3 defenders defend the same area where there is less of a threat, with 4 defenders on the pitch we could have easily adjusted to how Stoke were attacking. It looks like zonal marking but of the wrong zones. Dolan didn't even need to be involved if the defenders were covering the right area and because he was replied upon so heavily defensively, we lost. A terrible performance on and off the pitch.

[roversfan99]

Seems like we played an Icelandic side today. Morton, Brereton, Hedges, Garrett and both Whartons seemingly played.

 

[Bbrovers2288]

3 hours ago, Ghost7 said:

Having seen the highlights back, Pickering and Hyam are marking the same man on every cross. Sometimes Carter, Pickering and Hyam are marking just one Stoke attacker in the middle, leaving their wingback and the fullback area completely open / in the hands of Dolan. A bizarre setup, essentially wasting at least one or two defenders. The fullbacks have got to track the runners if there is only one striker in the box, instead they're all heading for the same ball. Pickering could have been used to prevent both goals in the first half but was probably doing what had been asked - doubling up on Campbell or Gayle - if he wasn't asked to do this then he should be dropped next game. An unnecessarily complicated and costly tactic that encouraged two defenders to go for the same ball often. Why are we having 3 defenders defend the same area where there is less of a threat, with 4 defenders on the pitch we could have easily adjusted to how Stoke were attacking. It looks like zonal marking but of the wrong zones. Dolan didn't even need to be involved if the defenders were covering the right area and because he was replied upon so heavily defensively, we lost. A terrible performance on and off the pitch.

All our problems came from this side, Dolan is great going forward and when we are doing a successful high press, what he isn’t good at is tracking back. In this type of game you don’t want your resistance to be Dolan and Pickering on one side. Jdt didn’t change this quick enough. The middle was disconnected too, smallbone especially was finding pockets all over it. Not a game for buckley, again pretty much same as dolan. Not everyone’s favourite but I’d rather have Morton In there for this type of game. Jrc Iv loved him recently but he had a shocker, I’d have hooked him for brittain much sooner. 
back to Dolan I’d have had bbd left for this one as he is actually very good at defending , part of his game he doesn’t get credit for. 

[Ossydave]

4 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Seems like we played an Icelandic side today. Morton, Brereton, Hedges, Garrett and both Whartons seemingly played.

 

Fair play, see under our old manager who's ne shan't be mentioned, there's no way we'd have done this. The players would be told to have the weekend off and forget about it.

[tomphil]

Prepping a new look fresh side for the cup OR Reading ?

[AllRoverAsia]

3 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Prepping a new look fresh side for the cup OR Reading ?

Reading 

One game at a time 

Strongest possible v Reading, then move on.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 hours ago, Ghost7 said:

Having seen the highlights back, Pickering and Hyam are marking the same man on every cross. Sometimes Carter, Pickering and Hyam are marking just one Stoke attacker in the middle, leaving their wingback and the fullback area completely open / in the hands of Dolan. A bizarre setup, essentially wasting at least one or two defenders. The fullbacks have got to track the runners if there is only one striker in the box, instead they're all heading for the same ball. Pickering could have been used to prevent both goals in the first half but was probably doing what had been asked - doubling up on Campbell or Gayle - if he wasn't asked to do this then he should be dropped next game. An unnecessarily complicated and costly tactic that encouraged two defenders to go for the same ball often. Why are we having 3 defenders defend the same area where there is less of a threat, with 4 defenders on the pitch we could have easily adjusted to how Stoke were attacking. It looks like zonal marking but of the wrong zones. Dolan didn't even need to be involved if the defenders were covering the right area and because he was replied upon so heavily defensively, we lost. A terrible performance on and off the pitch.

I couldn’t understand why there was acres of space in the old left back position. They exploited it all the first half. Why Pickering thought he needed to get pulled inside all the time is a mystery. If he was told to play there - why ? If he wasn’t told to play there as you say he needs to be dropped.

What is really worrying is that nobody on the pitch did something about it. If the bench haven’t wised up, somebody goes down “ injured “ for a while and the captain has a quick  heads up to sort it out. We seem to lack leaders/thinkers out on the pitch.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[tomphil]

39 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Reading 

One game at a time 

Strongest possible v Reading, then move on.

That's my thinking, all out for 3 points forget the rest until later challenge the players to play themselves into contention.

[BlackburnEnd75]

14 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I couldn’t understand why there was acres of space in the old left back position. They exploited it all the first half. Why Pickering thought he needed to get pulled inside all the time is a mystery. If he was told to play there - why. If he wasn’t told to play there as you say he needs to be dropped.

What is really worrying is that nobody on the pitch did something about it. If the bench haven’t wised up, somebody goes down “ injured “ for a while and the captain has a quick  heads up to sort it out. We seem to lack leaders/thinkers out on the pitch.

For at least one of those goals Pickering is about 1 yard away from Hyam. He isn't marking anyone, there was no need for him to be that far across. He leaves a huge space for their fullback to attack into. I'm not sure their fullback would've made the run if that space didn't exist. 

On Dolan for one he loses concentration and the fullback puts the burners on and he can't get back at him and the second he tracks him but not very well, gets the wrong side and allows the fullback to loose him. 

[Herbie6590]

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/500-words-after-stoke-city-(a)/386

[chaddyrovers]

7 hours ago, Ossydave said:

Fair play, see under our old manager who's ne shan't be mentioned, there's no way we'd have done this. The players would be told to have the weekend off and forget about it.

good point and JDT has made the point from day one that squad players must been match fit and why they play so much for under 23's than ever before and taking parts in these sorts of games

[Herbie6590]

 

[JPTSwindon]

Never good to lose, but fair play to Stoke they are red hot at the moment and the spirit in the team managed to rally and make it respectable. Sometimes you will just come up against teams at their peak.

The Reading match will be one we absolutely have to win.

[yeti-dog]

On 10/03/2023 at 23:16, JoeH said:

Thoughts now after FT?

To be honest Joe the performance from most of the starters was disappointing so not sure you can pick out Pickering. Having said that Brittain did make a difference when he came on. 

As a player I do like Brittain a lot , was just making the point that if you perform you keep the shirt. What that means for Sunday and the cup is now anyone's guess after the Stoke performance and JDT has some thinking to do when deciding which 11 start...

[roversfan99]

Lies, damned lies and statistics. 

[chaddyrovers]

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Lies, damned lies and statistics. 

You disagree then?.

[roversfan99]

51 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

You disagree then?.

Yes. 

[chaddyrovers]

11 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Yes. 

It's beautiful of football thats people have very different opinions on players and their performance 

[Mattyblue]

You guys 💕