Dean Saunders

[timdrfc]

Ive just listened to DS on the aftermatch interview & i agree with him 100%.
He talks about defenders not defending & for a supposed  passing team we kept giving the ball away. Our midfield were outgunned in all departments last night & i have to say a few looked L1 players , maybe another off night but not good enough for this league.

How can anybody blame DS, i find it incredible we haven't performed well the last year so how is this DS fault?
He comes across as a man who is going to  succeed & sort out the mess he inherited, so lets get behind him. For all those with short memories we were bottom of the league & 1 game away from our worst winless sequence in our history, the football being played was dire & we were on destination L1 !

[DRFCBRADFORD]

timdrfc
i told every one on thursday if we play 4-4-2 we would get slaughtered we needed a extra man in midfeild and we did .no top teams play 4-4-2 any more.

[One_Matty_Lucas]

timdrfc
i told every one on thursday if we play 4-4-2 we would get slaughtered we needed a extra man in midfeild and we did .no top teams play 4-4-2 any more.

Nice to see you would rather be proved right than back your team, typical Donny fan!

[prince]

If we're a passing team what is Saunders saying to them in training that makes them hoof it 80% of the time?

[VikingJames]

If we're a passing team what is Saunders saying to them in training that makes them hoof it 80% of the time?

\"Jon Parkin will start the next match\"

[timdrfc]

How anyone can blame Parkin for last nights defeat is beyond me , he worked his socks off & looked like our only threat. Billy was very lucky to stay on the full ninety minutes as he didn't support his fellow striker .

[VikingJames]

How anyone can blame Parkin for last nights defeat is beyond me , he worked his socks off & looked like our only threat. Billy was very lucky to stay on the full ninety minutes as he didn't support his fellow striker .

To be fair, I wasn't blaming Parkin. I just think his presence in the team encourages the defenders to aim for him with the same ball all the time. As Saunders said a few weeks ago, our defenders pick the \"easy way out\" and just aim it up to JP rather than trying to pass it into the wide areas where we can give him some proper service.

[timdrfc]

At least with Parkin in the side we now have someone in the side who offers us something different . We  [under SOD ] seemed to have been worked out by sides in this league & we imho seemed unable to counter this , plan B if you like.

[I-was-there1976]

put yourself in the defenders place


you ve got the ball, youre low on confidence.

You dont want to miss place a place cos the lovely Rovers crowd might boo and hiss.
You want to pass it short into midfield.
You see Stock, man marked. You see Coppinger, man marked. Oster, man marked and Gillet wide open but has a touch of a rapist and the ball will come straight back probably with Leeds in control.

Mmmmmm, think think think

You whack it to Parkin and clear the danger for a few more seconds and hope it sticks upfield a bit

Midfield last night and for a few months have been poor and over run. Would you as a defender give them the ball ?

[john_donc857]

Ive just listened to DS on the aftermatch interview & i agree with him 100%.
He talks about defenders not defending & for a supposed  passing team we kept giving the ball away. Our midfield were outgunned in all departments last night & i have to say a few looked L1 players , maybe another off night but not good enough for this league.

How can anybody blame DS, i find it incredible we haven't performed well the last year so how is this DS fault?
He comes across as a man who is going to  succeed & sort out the mess he inherited, so lets get behind him. For all those with short memories we were bottom of the league & 1 game away from our worst winless sequence in our history, the football being played was dire & we were on destination L1 !

.                                Here,here. We were only heading in one direction under S.O.D and that was down. I like parkin but I'm not sure about him and billy together. Billy needs to be the main man to get the best out of him as proved over the last few seasons. I don't know how friend got MOM though it was a school boy error that led to the 1st goal. Touch another player with 2 hands and its a foul all day long. J.O.C, copps and gillett will be the next players to lose there places. Sorry but they're lightweight and not good enough for this division

[CusworthRovers]

Seeing as you lot brought SOD into this, how have we come to the conclusion that we were heading down before Deano came?

In fairness, we'd been in this position before and further on into the season and survived. We were always very good when Sean had his best 11 available to him

[Timbo042]

Good post Timdrfc, I can remember watching some of SOD's early matches and guess what?? we were shite then as well, think everyone whos slagging DS off must have been down swilsborough/bramble lane back then though, ringing up dee dah FM demanding more money to be spent on their adopted south Yorkshire club!

[Wild Rover]

timdrfc
i told every one on thursday if we play 4-4-2 we would get slaughtered we needed a extra man in midfeild and we did .no top teams play 4-4-2 any more.

So Man u dont play Rooney/Berbatov/Hernandez/Welbeck as a pair up front.

Chelsea dont play Drogba/Torres/Anelka/Sturridge

Liverpool dont play Suarez/Carrol/Kuyt/Bellamy

Man city dont play Tevez/Balotelli/ Aguero/Dzeko

Spurs dont play Defoe/ Pavlyachenko / Adeybayor /Dos Santos

The list goes on and on, right down the leagues.

The big difference is they all have midfield players who can and do join the \"Striker pair\", and generally speaking they all have at least 1 out and out wide player as a midfielder.

So dont give me that \"No top teams play 4-4-2\", many do.

[grayx]

Ive just listened to DS on the aftermatch interview & i agree with him 100%.
He talks about defenders not defending & for a supposed  passing team we kept giving the ball away. Our midfield were outgunned in all departments last night & i have to say a few looked L1 players , maybe another off night but not good enough for this league.

How can anybody blame DS, i find it incredible we haven't performed well the last year so how is this DS fault?
He comes across as a man who is going to  succeed & sort out the mess he inherited, so lets get behind him. For all those with short memories we were bottom of the league & 1 game away from our worst winless sequence in our history, the football being played was dire & we were on destination L1 !

I was also impressed with Saunders comments ,in fact that was the only positive to take from last night. Perhaps last nights performance told him what I think a few of us have realised for a while. The current players aren't good enough or fit enough .
The midfield was anonymous last night & Sharp would have struggled to beat Parkin in a sprint. Bloody awful performance from everyone,except Kirkland who wasn't at fault.

[benaldo]

Poor old Dean. He's been given crap to work with.

It's going back to the \"get the cheque book out if we want to go any further\" argument. Rovers really do need to get some quality in in the midfield because our \"stars\" aren't stars anymore. Stop the hero worship and smell the division below....because with stock, gillett, coppinger, and an underperforming oster, that's where we're headed!

[Dr Fundlekrotch]

I've gained a lot of respect for Saunders after watching the DROS interview.  Some people in earlier threads had blamed him and suggested he should be out on his ear already.  I think he talks a lot of sense and has seen exactly what the experts on here have seen.  His next test will be to communicate it to the players and I look forward to the improvements on Tuesday

[grayx]

I've gained a lot of respect for Saunders after watching the DROS interview.  Some people in earlier threads had blamed him and suggested he should be out on his ear already.  I think he talks a lot of sense and has seen exactly what the experts on here have seen.  His next test will be to communicate it to the players and I look forward to the improvements on Tuesday

I think the time to judge Saunders is when he's had time to bring in a few players that HE wants,not those that he's inherited. He said initially that he would give the current squad chance to prove they are good enough & show \"major surgery\" wasn't required. Well a good few of the current players should be shitting themselves because up to now I don't think they've convinced him. This isn't just on last nights performance where practically everyone was dire. There's a few players who have got used to being an automatic choice under SO'D and wrongly so.

[The Red Baron]

Poor old Dean. He's been given crap to work with.

It's going back to the \"get the cheque book out if we want to go any further\" argument. Rovers really do need to get some quality in in the midfield because our \"stars\" aren't stars anymore. Stop the hero worship and smell the division below....because with stock, gillett, coppinger, and an underperforming oster, that's where we're headed!

I'm sure when SO'D takes his next job he'll be signing the players you mention (probably for a fraction of what they're worth) and we'll soon be saying how well they're playing. Stock, Gillett and Coppinger are not any good in a direct, 4-4-2 side. Put them in a team that builds through midfield and you soon see their worth.

As for \"the cheque book\"- if someone had found this mystical thing during the close season I dare say we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[DonnyNoel]

I've gained a lot of respect for Saunders after watching the DROS interview.  Some people in earlier threads had blamed him and suggested he should be out on his ear already.  I think he talks a lot of sense and has seen exactly what the experts on here have seen.  His next test will be to communicate it to the players and I look forward to the improvements on Tuesday

No doubt he talks sense, and whilst the \"Soundbite Saunders\" tag from another thread is cruel I still think its fair to say the proof will be him fixing things, not pointing out what they are. There's still another 12 or so games before he can make significant changes to the team/squad and I think most are waiting to see what he does with the current crop before passing judgement either way on him. I was more impressed with the comments he made after the Peterborough game tbh about changing the strategy of how we defended and built on that.

Criticism of him at this stage is ridiculous, but I don't think we should be getting carried away based on him observing that we can't defend set pieces. Opposition scouts have been doing that for months

[steve@dcfd]

Poor old Dean. He's been given crap to work with.

It's going back to the \"get the cheque book out if we want to go any further\" argument. Rovers really do need to get some quality in in the midfield because our \"stars\" aren't stars anymore. Stop the hero worship and smell the division below....because with stock, gillett, coppinger, and an underperforming oster, that's where we're headed!

But you blamed Sean for our poor performances not the players, apart from Hird. Now it's the players not the manager. wells it's always been the players.Sean when he had them made the whole better than the individuals. unfortunately we did not have enough over the last twenty games even for Sean to work with. We have lacked investment and the team is moving backwards because of that.

[sedwardsdrfc]

judge him next season even if we get relegated it was going to happen if we stuck with SOD.
i belive the basics of football were coached out of the players by SOD like fitness and defending imo he coached the life out of the team. how many times did we come out after half time and play crap with even less fire and passion than normal the players he bought normaly you would onlt hav 2 of there type in the team (oster copps muzzy barnes mason bennett gillet) all in the same team what a suprise we cant defend no matter how good the centre halfs hard to defend wen they are pouring through midfield like they are allowed 2 do