BFTG - Bristol Rovers

[leon]

I think crowbar6753 summed it up well- the manager is over complicating everything and the team look confused and shot of all confidence.

They clearly don’t know what to do at any point. What would Warnock do with an inexperienced team like this? Keep it very simple. Do the basics, set up to not concede and build some confidence.

In any high pressure situation the last thing you learn is the first thing you forget.

[Millsy]

Whats absolutely certain is the squad is good enough not be be bottom of the league.

Selles really is an arrogant ****. Why doesn't he just bugger off. At least if he walks before he's pushed he can cite the difficult circumstances as the reason.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Agree about going back to basics and, in fairness, it does seem like reverting back to a 4-3-3 within itself might put players in a more familiar starting shape at the very least, although it's just another message given in amongst others he's already given.

[Royalwaster]

My rough ratings for last night:

Button - 7 - some excellent save and not his fault for the goal
Yiadom - 6 - good going forward but at fault for the goal but Azeez did not help with getting in his way
Bindon - 6 - did OK, a few stray passes and got over-run a few times
Abbey - 7 - generally a good game, providing some excellent cover at times
Dorsett - 6 - did OK ... a great tackle first half and generally OK, but weak going forward
Wing - 7 - probably the best player on the pitch for us; lots of energy and hard work
Hutchinson - 5 - lots of loose passes and did not dominate enough
Savage - 4 - very weak performance ... so many of his passes went astray
Azeez - 1 - a night to forget ... did nothing first half and partially at fault for the goal
Smith - 6 - a well-taken goal but otherwise not much; struggled up front on his own with lack of service from midfield and wide players
Knibbs - 5 - assist for goal but otherwise very anonymous and should have scored to take us 2:0 up

Subs:
Craig - 6 - did better than Hutchinson - some good tackles and energy
Elliott - 6 - an improvement on Azeez but his final pass was often more hopeful than accurate
Kelvin / NGW - too little time to really make a difference

[Royalwaster]

PS: just don't understand how the opposition always seem to have the freedom of the wings in our half, whereas for us it always seems completely congested up front ... there's something wrong with the system that means our LWB/LB and RWB/RB are not contributing to attack but also not in right position to defend

[Stranded]

The squad is good enough. It's the manager.

Pretty sure we've been saying that about squads for most of the last few seasons. Usually turns out the squad also wasn't good enough.

To be honest, I was saying at the start of the season it was important we got off to a good start and didn't go on a prolonged poor run because the lack of experience and age of much of the squad would see heads drop and they'd struggle to recover.

And that's exactly what we have got.

There's lots of talent in the squad. But the inexperience also means a lot of errors, and a struggle to make the best decisions.

Give them a new voice, an injection of confidence and enthusiasm plus an effective way of playing and they are more than good enough to finish safe. But the longer this goes on the less likely a recovery is, even with a genius at the helm.

Dean was a poor signing because he's just another waining CB used to losing.

Losing Smith before the season started has destroyed us. Those early narrow margin games mostly turned to defeats because we didn't have an experienced goalscorer. A couple of better results early on and things are very different.

I think losing McIntyre was also huge. He's one of the few experienced players we have who is full blood committed and positive.

At the moment the team are going through the motions, still trying, but there's no confidence or belief.

All fair - likelihood is that they aren't quite up to it but the only way to test that hypothesis is to get them working under a better manager - or frankly any other manager.

[Hound]

Agree about going back to basics and, in fairness, it does seem like reverting back to a 4-3-3 within itself might put players in a more familiar starting shape at the very least, although it's just another message given in amongst others he's already given.

Problem is now we’re playing a formation/change which Selles doesn’t really believe in, and the players haven’t been training for

Again didn’t see this game but statistically it’s as poor as any game all season in an attacking sense. And we still concede stupid goals

I’d honestly rather Selles sticks with what he believes in if he has to hang around, though it’s getting to the point no matter what he decides we’ll be useless because he’s lost the confidence of the players, and he seems unable to get them to play anywhere near the level they should be capable of

[Hound]

Pretty sure we've been saying that about squads for most of the last few seasons. Usually turns out the squad also wasn't good enough.

To be honest, I was saying at the start of the season it was important we got off to a good start and didn't go on a prolonged poor run because the lack of experience and age of much of the squad would see heads drop and they'd struggle to recover.

And that's exactly what we have got.

There's lots of talent in the squad. But the inexperience also means a lot of errors, and a struggle to make the best decisions.

Give them a new voice, an injection of confidence and enthusiasm plus an effective way of playing and they are more than good enough to finish safe. But the longer this goes on the less likely a recovery is, even with a genius at the helm.

Dean was a poor signing because he's just another waining CB used to losing.

Losing Smith before the season started has destroyed us. Those early narrow margin games mostly turned to defeats because we didn't have an experienced goalscorer. A couple of better results early on and things are very different.

I think losing McIntyre was also huge. He's one of the few experienced players we have who is full blood committed and positive.

At the moment the team are going through the motions, still trying, but there's no confidence or belief.

All fair - likelihood is that they aren't quite up to it but the only way to test that hypothesis is to get them working under a better manager - or frankly any other manager.

Can’t use inexperience as an excuse any more. We could play

Button
Yiadom Dean Holmes NGW
Knibbs Wing Hutch Ejaria
Smith Mukairo

If he so wanted to. It’s his choice now. And absolutely no one would look at that team and say it should be anywhere near the bottom of L1 on paper

Agree on Smith (and Wing) being injured being a huge blow though. They’d have cashed in the way we were playing start of season

[NathStPaul]

Didn't go, would never go but it was shite.

[paultheroyal]

Eastleigh management team took over one of the executive boxes yesterday - imagine they came away with a lot of smiles after watching that.

[Wycombe Royal]

One incident summed up the football intelligence of that team last night. Bristol Roversd were attacking down there right. I can't remember why, but Yiadom was over that side of the pitch helping out leaving the Rovers left winger all on his own on the left corner of the penalty area. Luckily they didn't get the ball to him. But the question is, and this isn't an isolated incident as it happens more than once every match, why did no one cover Yiadom's position? Did no one see it or could they be arsed? Ben Elliott was just standing in his right midfield position watching the game and made zero effort to track back and cover. Non eof the central midfielders made an effort to cover.

This is basic football. You work for each other, if some one is caught out of position you cover for them. Terrible.

[genome]

Here's something telling. It's the morning after the game and I've only just realised Reading were playing last night and have only just seen the result.

I'm not sure that's happened to me before...

[Snowflake Royal]

Pretty sure we've been saying that about squads for most of the last few seasons. Usually turns out the squad also wasn't good enough.

To be honest, I was saying at the start of the season it was important we got off to a good start and didn't go on a prolonged poor run because the lack of experience and age of much of the squad would see heads drop and they'd struggle to recover.

And that's exactly what we have got.

There's lots of talent in the squad. But the inexperience also means a lot of errors, and a struggle to make the best decisions.

Give them a new voice, an injection of confidence and enthusiasm plus an effective way of playing and they are more than good enough to finish safe. But the longer this goes on the less likely a recovery is, even with a genius at the helm.

Dean was a poor signing because he's just another waining CB used to losing.

Losing Smith before the season started has destroyed us. Those early narrow margin games mostly turned to defeats because we didn't have an experienced goalscorer. A couple of better results early on and things are very different.

I think losing McIntyre was also huge. He's one of the few experienced players we have who is full blood committed and positive.

At the moment the team are going through the motions, still trying, but there's no confidence or belief.

All fair - likelihood is that they aren't quite up to it but the only way to test that hypothesis is to get them working under a better manager - or frankly any other manager.

For me, they're a team with a big variance bar in terms of how they can do. They're capable of top 6 if things go well. They're also capable of rock bottom and a record low points if things go very badly. And everything in between.

[Brogue]

Knibbs has got away with criticism but honestly what does he offer? He couldn't finish inside of his missus let alone any of his goalscoring chances. He doesn't score or assist anywhere near enough for the advanced position he has. Knibbs should be dropped for Mukairu.

Knibbs is just a bang-average footballer isn't he? I think people, including me, assume when you have someone who plays wide they have something about them - a few tricks up their sleeve, they can beat their man from time to time get in behind them, and swing a few balls in. Knibbs doesn't have that in his locker, don't think I've ever seen him do a marauding run beat his man get in behind, and pull a cross back for us to tap one in from the edge of the six-yard box. He just seems to amble up and down the wing doing nothing at all. I think one of the reasons we have looked so poor at LB this season isn't just because we haven't got any decent LBs but because Knibbs doesn't even really help out with defensive duties leaving the LB too exposed all the time.

[Millsy]

I liked Dorsett.

[Brogue]

I liked Dorsett.

Lyme Regis? i hear it's nice at this time of year

[Silver Fox]

I liked Dorsett.

I agree

As Hiram might say

[Stranded]

TBF to him he did very well in working the space for the chance to make it 2-0 but then decided to go near post when the high percentage chance was to go across the keeper. Again, low football intelligence or trying to overthink it - oh the keeper will expect me to go across him, so I'm going to go near post.

The keeper wants you to go near post as it does most of his job for him!

[Elm Park Kid]

It's going to be like this until the takeover happens. Nothing anyone can do to change it.

[Millsy]

I liked Dorsett.

Lyme Regis? i hear it's nice at this time of year

No no I didn't mean that.