John Eustace - our head coach

[roversfan99]

To go into a game where a win at home to second bottom seals your place in the league next season with the sole focus of not losing is not constructive. A back 5 (not a back 3, as very much a 5) kept until 15 minutes from the end, not good enough. And even if your primary focus is to avoid defeat, you have to outline some sort of plan as to how to attack. We again didnt have one, Gallagher and Dolan were ineffective but its not helped when the only sort of way of getting it forward that I could see was for our centre backs to aimlessly lob it into the channels. All they spent their day doing is chasing them down where at best you win a throw in.

He said after the game that we controlled the first half. Laughable.

[smiller14]

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

To go into a game where a win at home to second bottom seals your place in the league next season with the sole focus of not losing is not constructive. A back 5 (not a back 3, as very much a 5) kept until 15 minutes from the end, not good enough. And even if your primary focus is to avoid defeat, you have to outline some sort of plan as to how to attack. We again didnt have one, Gallagher and Dolan were ineffective but its not helped when the only sort of way of getting it forward that I could see was for our centre backs to aimlessly lob it into the channels. All they spent their day doing is chasing them down where at best you win a throw in.

He said after the game that we controlled the first half. Laughable.

To compound it, he stuck with 5 at the back until Wharton was injured. There was no indication he planned on a change of shape beforehand and was happy for us to stick with 5 at the back at 3-1 down. Conscious of goal difference perhaps? Piss poor either way. We were 3-1 down at home to a team in 23rd! 
 

I know the bench is crap, but he then waited until the 85th minute to make a treble sub. He had watched Wednesday control the game for 40 minutes that half with us barely laying a glove on them and did nothing. 
 

We may and should see a different approach next year, but right now he isn't filling me with confidence. We don't even know what league we will be playing in! The odd solid performance but 2 stinkers in 3 games when the pressure's on isn't a glowing endorsement of his managerial ability, although our soft bunch of players are no doubt huge contributory factors as well. 
 

I was extremely complimentary after Leeds and other games, but Bristol City/Wednesday are both borderline unforgivable. Even he-who-shall-not-be-named got a win at Old Trafford and I dearly hope this isn't his equivalent. 
 

One thing I will say - we seem to play better against better teams. That is the only thing giving me hope that there is some element of tactical nous or acumen there. And given we will probably be the worst team in the league next year (if we stay up) then it might bode well.... 

I think I'll be switching off his interviews now though, even by football manager's standards  his last one was absolutely infuriating. Those grins will come back to haunt him if we go down. 

[RoversClitheroe]

31 minutes ago, ElTwis said:

The tactics yesterday were straightforward - don't lose.

You reckon? I'm not so sure.

[roversfan99]

10 minutes ago, smiller14 said:

To compound it, he stuck with 5 at the back until Wharton was injured. There was no indication he planned on a change of shape beforehand and was happy for us to stick with 5 at the back at 3-1 down. Conscious of goal difference perhaps? Piss poor either way. We were 3-1 down at home to a team in 23rd! 
 

I know the bench is crap, but he then waited until the 85th minute to make a treble sub. He had watched Wednesday control the game for 40 minutes that half with us barely laying a glove on them and did nothing. 
 

We may and should see a different approach next year, but right now he isn't filling me with confidence. We don't even know what league we will be playing in! The odd solid performance but 2 stinkers in 3 games when the pressure's on isn't a glowing endorsement of his managerial ability, although our soft bunch of players are no doubt huge contributory factors as well. 
 

I was extremely complimentary after Leeds and other games, but Bristol City/Wednesday are both borderline unforgivable. Even he-who-shall-not-be-named got a win at Old Trafford and I dearly hope this isn't his equivalent. 
 

One thing I will say - we seem to play better against better teams. That is the only thing giving me hope that there is some element of tactical nous or acumen there. And given we will probably be the worst team in the league next year (if we stay up) then it might bode well.... 

I think I'll be switching off his interviews now though, even by football manager's standards  his last one was absolutely infuriating. Those grins will come back to haunt him if we go down. 

He obviously has mentioned to want to become harder to beat, and fine, although conceding 3 v Wednesday and 5 v Bristol City hardly is a ringing endorsement. But you have to have some sort of strategy in how you attack.

Games against the weaker sides at home have to be your bread and butter and you need to win them more often than not. The onus should be on you to attack more than the opponent.

Also, he seems to put everything down to individual errors. Most goals have defensive mistakes in them, but you cant absolve yourself of responsibility as if its one of those things. Im just as worried that we created 2 chances all game.

[arbitro]

19 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

To go into a game where a win at home to second bottom seals your place in the league next season with the sole focus of not losing is not constructive. A back 5 (not a back 3, as very much a 5) kept until 15 minutes from the end, not good enough. And even if your primary focus is to avoid defeat, you have to outline some sort of plan as to how to attack. We again didnt have one, Gallagher and Dolan were ineffective but its not helped when the only sort of way of getting it forward that I could see was for our centre backs to aimlessly lob it into the channels. All they spent their day doing is chasing them down where at best you win a throw in.

He said after the game that we controlled the first half. Laughable.

It was absolutely a back five with the sole purpose of keeping a clean sheet. He has set up this way in most of his matches so far and it simply puts us in defensive mode. It worked really well at Leeds and was the main reason we won. It's horses for courses though and against the likes of Plymouth, Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday at home we should play a more attacking formation with an extra midfield player. In two really good performances at Middlesbrough and home to Southampton we played a four at the back and kept clean sheets. In my view it was because we had the numbers in midfield to stop them playing. 

It shows a real fear and lack of tactical acumen from Eustace. One of the criticisms of Tomasson was that he was one dimensional, had no plan B. Eustace is pretty much the same.

[smiller14]

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

He obviously has mentioned to want to become harder to beat, and fine, although conceding 3 v Wednesday and 5 v Bristol City hardly is a ringing endorsement. But you have to have some sort of strategy in how you attack.

Games against the weaker sides at home have to be your bread and butter and you need to win them more often than not. The onus should be on you to attack more than the opponent.

Also, he seems to put everything down to individual errors. Most goals have defensive mistakes in them, but you cant absolve yourself of responsibility as if its one of those things. Im just as worried that we created 2 chances all game.

The thing with individual errors is that better managers see less of them. It isn't 'luck' of misfortune. Allardyce came in after Ince and the stupid errors reduced considerably. And yes, I fully agree. Creating the square root of fuck all against a team as defensively poor as Wednesday really isn't a good sign. Yesterday felt a bit like that Forest game in 99. 

[Hasta]

43 minutes ago, ElTwis said:

I know how this will be received but I feel like someone needs to defend Eustace to an extent.

 

The tactics yesterday were straightforward - don't lose.

Exactly. Negative.

Edited April 22, 2024 by Hasta

[ElTwis]

1 minute ago, Hasta said:

Exactly. Negative.

You're right of course but that's deliberately an attempt to scrape together the necessary points

[Hasta]

4 minutes ago, ElTwis said:

You're right of course but that's deliberately an attempt to scrape together the necessary points

I mean personally I'd rather we went for 3 necessary points  against one of the worst teams in the division rather than cling on to one.. But we should have learnt what the approach would have been after we did the same against Millwall.

It's proof Eustace didn't take the Stoke game. We actually attacked them from the first whistle that day.

[superniko]

13 points from 14 games now under Eustace (average 43 points across the season and 2nd bottom).

2 points taken from 4 matches against Millwall, Plymouth, Wednesday and Birmingham (3 at home).

He will have been our manager for 1/3 of a season, and it's highly likely that he'll only amass 13 points and 2 victories in that space of time across 16 games!

 

Edited April 22, 2024 by superniko

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, smiller14 said:

It felt negative given we had 1, maybe 2 shots on target. 5 at the back is much more suited to when we expect to surrender possession, but yesterday played perfectly into their hands. 

We had 3 shots on target yesterday. 

Which defender would you drop for another forward or midfielder? 

1 hour ago, ABBEY said:

NEXT SEASON?????? NEXT SEASON??? WORDS FAIL ME WHAT ABOUT ERM THIS SEASON... WHY DO YOU GET OFF ON WINDING FANS UP AFTER ONE THE WORST SHOWINGS OF OUR HISTORY

Its you winding yourself your self up Abbey, not me. 

Yesterday wasn't one of our worst showing of club history, Stop going OTT after a defeat. 

31 minutes ago, arbitro said:

It was absolutely a back five with the sole purpose of keeping a clean sheet. He has set up this way in most of his matches so far and it simply puts us in defensive mode. It worked really well at Leeds and was the main reason we won. It's horses for courses though and against the likes of Plymouth, Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday at home we should play a more attacking formation with an extra midfield player. In two really good performances at Middlesbrough and home to Southampton we played a four at the back and kept clean sheets. In my view it was because we had the numbers in midfield to stop them playing. 

It shows a real fear and lack of tactical acumen from Eustace. One of the criticisms of Tomasson was that he was one dimensional, had no plan B. Eustace is pretty much the same.

Who would you drop for extra midfielder or attacking player? 

[superniko]

You'd drop Dom Hyam in a heartbeat Chaddy. Everyone in the world can see it bar yourself and Eustace.

Should have had the rest of the season on the bench at HT in Bristol.

[DuffsLeftPeg]

8 minutes ago, superniko said:

You'd drop Dom Hyam in a heartbeat Chaddy. Everyone in the world can see it bar yourself and Eustace.

Should have had the rest of the season on the bench at HT in Bristol.

Spot on 👍

Hyam & Pears should both be dropped v Coventry. Both directly responsible for the 2 shambolic goals conceded, otherwise we’d have got a vital point.

Eusless is a weak manager though & hasn’t got the balls to do it.

[ChrisyG]

5 minutes ago, DuffsLeftPeg said:

Spot on 👍

Hyam & Pears should both be dropped v Coventry. Both directly responsible for the 2 shambolic goals conceded, otherwise we’d have got a vital point.

Eusless is a weak manager though & hasn’t got the balls to do it.

I agree on Hyam, but who would you replace Pears with?

[wilsdenrover]

2 minutes ago, Mr Cool said:

I agree on Hyam, but who would you replace Pears with?

 

[Ghost7]

39 minutes ago, superniko said:

13 points from 14 games now under Eustace (average 43 points across the season and 2nd bottom).

2 points taken from 4 matches against Millwall, Plymouth, Wednesday and Birmingham (3 at home).

He will have been our manager for 1/3 of a season, and it's highly likely that he'll only amass 13 points and 2 victories in that space of time across 16 games!

 

 

Shocker of results. Plenty of winnable home fixtures now and we'd be safe if he could have pulled off one "expected" result. Poor manager IMO, suspected it from the off.

[smiller14]

29 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

We had 3 shots on target yesterday. 

Which defender would you drop for another forward or midfielder? 

Its you winding yourself your self up Abbey, not me. 

Yesterday wasn't one of our worst showing of club history, Stop going OTT after a defeat. 

Who would you drop for extra midfielder or attacking player? 

I'd drop Dom Hyam 100%. Or do you think we simply have to play 5 defenders? We didn't at Boro and played well. Id be comfortable playing 4 at the back vs Wednesday, especially if it adds a bit more steel in midfield - we completely lost the battle in there. 

And ah, 3 shots on target! Ignore me, I forgot what a barnstorming display it was - Wednesday were clearly lucky not to ship a hatful! 
 

Quick question Chaddy - at 3-1 down, would you have sacrificed a defender for a more attacking player or were you happy with our attacking play and continued with 5 in defence? And if so, would you have waited until an injury in the 75th minute to make said change? 

Edited April 22, 2024 by smiller14

[DuffsLeftPeg]

6 minutes ago, Mr Cool said:

I agree on Hyam, but who would you replace Pears with?

The 17 year old kid Michakski, he couldn’t do any worse than Pears or Leo.

Or a cone 

[AllRoverAsia]

Eustace's managerial record puts him in the Jim Iley bracket.

It will be argued that he's only managed a small number of games.

So did Jim, and he was then rightly booted.

There's no point in doing it now, the darlings would cry but over the summer get shut of this never will be.

[ABBEY]

31 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

We had 3 shots on target yesterday. 

Which defender would you drop for another forward or midfielder? 

Its you winding yourself your self up Abbey, not me. 

Yesterday wasn't one of our worst showing of club history, Stop going OTT after a defeat. 

Who would you drop for extra midfielder or attacking player? 

3 shots ..woppy do

1-3 against a bottom 3 side and we rolled over and it don't rank with all time worst..really ?

When do you start blaming maggotvenks or useless? 

L1 , l2 , liquidation  ?

 

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, superniko said:

13 points from 14 games now under Eustace (average 43 points across the season and 2nd bottom).

2 points taken from 4 matches against Millwall, Plymouth, Wednesday and Birmingham (3 at home).

He will have been our manager for 1/3 of a season, and it's highly likely that he'll only amass 13 points and 2 victories in that space of time across 16 games!

 

In the league he's on 0.92 ppg, and that includes the 2 somewhat unexpected away wins.

Pathetic is not the word I'm looking for.

[ruggles1995]

3 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

and plenty we lost aswell with him here. 

We seem to be better team when we have less possession. 

As my original point was we have decide what type of team we want to be next season and whether we become more of counter attacking team or possession based team or wing based team 

those stats go to show us we are not very good with the ball. It shows we make our own problems.

We have a group of players not capable of the passing game. We have a group of players not capable of the route one game either. We have a 6ft + striker not capable of holding a ball nor heading a ball, works hard but lacks any sort of real quality. We are very youth teamy naïve, mentally weak, heavily reliant on someone to get us out the Sh!t (szmods). 
Nothing bodes too well. I also dont see them sacking Eustace whether we avoid the drop or not. We are the club where you have your contract until it expires so we don't have to pay off anyone. 

I do see a lot of posts that say such and such should be dropped, but then I think who the heck replaces them, not much is really any good which is why we are near the bottom. The only player I think we can maybe chuck in at some stage that we just might get something out of would be Gilsenan, not saying hes the answer, but hes someone with something to prove, and has at least shown glimpses. Id for one shove that player in the starting 11 at home to cov. 

[superniko]

48 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Eustace's managerial record puts him in the Jim Iley bracket.

It will be argued that he's only managed a small number of games.

So did Jim, and he was then rightly booted.

There's no point in doing it now, the darlings would cry but over the summer get shut of this never will be.

Yeah, Ince only had 21 games in charge for us, but it was obviously the correct decision to pot him.

[AllRoverAsia]

11 minutes ago, superniko said:

Yeah, Ince only had 21 games in charge for us, but it was obviously the correct decision to pot him.

Ince had a win ratio double that of Eustace's current ratio, achieved in the PL, but rightly potted.

Edited April 22, 2024 by AllRoverAsia

[J*B]

LET Ratings:

Pears - 3;

Brittain - 6, Carter - 5, Hyam - 4, Wharton - 6, Pickering - 5;

Tronstad - 4, JRC - 6;

Szmodics - 7;

Dolan - 5, Gallagher - 6.

 

BRFCS Ratings: 

Pears - 1.2;

Brittain - 3.3, Carter - 4.7, Hyam 2.7, Wharton 4.5, Pickering - 3.8;

Tronstad - 4.4, JRC - 4.5

Szmodics - 6.1

Dolan - 3.5, Gallagher - 3.3