Let's talk about the Walsall game

[dickos1]

Every time we lose, we had chances that didn't fall to players, but if they had and we'd scored them, we'd have won.

Everytime we win it’s because we’re playing a team that’s not very good.
I know which point of view I’d rather have

[ForsolongaRover]

Dabermoo told us that Mr Purkiss had never reffed us to a win and despite our 71% possession, Walsall only officially conceded 8 fouls in trying to regain the ball, yet did so without a single caution as against our 5 yellow cards for 13 fouls. Hoden expressed surprise at his leniency with Walsall and the Faal challenge on Lo Tutala was such an instance.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I thought the ref was shocking today. Number of clear pushes by them he missed.

[Canadian Rover]

"The decisions we made as a staff has hindered the result today."

That's our manager, he took accountability.

We move on.

#RTID

[drfchound]

Every time we lose the same posters come on the forum picking the bones out of why we lost.
They are never as conspicuous when we win.

[Dabbermoo]

Dabermoo told us that Mr Purkiss had never reffed us to a win and despite our 71% possession, Walsall only officially conceded 8 fouls in trying to regain the ball, yet did so without a single caution as against our and 5 yellow cards for 13 fouls. Hoden expressed surprise at his leniency with Walsall and the Faal challenge on Lo Tutala such an instance.

The refs last game he had for us was also a 3-1 loss to Harrogate, very harsh on rovers yellows today considering the amount of fouls for and against today, I do think the shot cleared off the line had crossed the line but with how crowded the 6 yard box was I can understand it not being clearly sighted, I felt Sterry had a game to forget today but win as a team and lose as a team, onwards to bradford and get back on track.

[GazLaz]

We lost to a better team today. Simple as that. They were better than us and we played into their hands. They are a counter attacking team that sit in, let you pass it around in the areas they want you to and then spring. They are very good without the ball.

[ncRover]

We lost to a better team today. Simple as that. They were better than us and we played into their hands. They are a counter attacking team that sit in, let you pass it around in the areas they want you to and then spring. They are very good without the ball.

We’ve seen this a lot haven’t we. Teams can let us have the ball knowing that we haven’t got the individual creativity to break a tight defence down.

When looking at League 2 players “chances created” you don’t see a Rovers player until 29th (Molyneux) and then 70th (Ironside) on that list.

We haven’t won a league game after going behind all season.

[GazLaz]

We lost to a better team today. Simple as that. They were better than us and we played into their hands. They are a counter attacking team that sit in, let you pass it around in the areas they want you to and then spring. They are very good without the ball.

We’ve seen this a lot haven’t we. Teams can let us have the ball knowing that we haven’t got the individual creativity to break a tight defence down.

When looking at League 2 players “chances created” you don’t see a Rovers player until 29th (Molyneux) and then 70th (Ironside) on that list.

We haven’t won a league game after going behind all season.

Having the ball isn’t necessarily a positive. As Jose says “you are most vulnerable when you have the ball”. There isn’t a better example of that fact than us.

Win 5-1 at Grimsby having less of the ball. Loads of ball today and beaten comfortably.

[Goole Rover]

Words can be used to fit the situation.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Walsall clearly had a game plan that neutralised our main tactic of the last few weeks. We've been drawing centre forwards into a press on our centre backs when we have the ball at the back. That's left space for Craig to receive the ball in a deep lying midfield position and launch attacks.

They neutralised that by simply not being pulled in, and thereby gave Craig zero space. So we had to move the ball out to full backs, at which point their midfielders tigerishly pressed us.

It was really quite impressive to watch how disciplined they were. We didn't have a clue how to deal with it for the first 30 minutes. We got better after that, at getting down the flanks at them. But Craig was nothing like as effective as he had been recently. And as a result, we created very few good chances.

Baby steps. I've liked the new tactic, but we do need more quality through the middle, or stronger and more confident full backs if we are to cope with a team playing like Walsall did today.

[ForsolongaRover]

We lost to a better team today. Simple as that. They were better than us and we played into their hands. They are a counter attacking team that sit in, let you pass it around in the areas they want you to and then spring. They are very good without the ball.

That is a very telling observation and one I’d not noticed amongst the stats. In all the recent games they have won they’ve had less than 50% possession. When they’ve not won they’ve had more than 50% - remarkable really. We had more possession than any other opponent recently, but a fair amount of it in our own half.

[drfchound]

My guess is that most teams possession is gained in their own half.

[roversdude]

From what I had read before the game, Walsall played a pressing game, they definitely did their homework on us and just let us pass around where we couldn’t hurt them. Our stats probably looked brilliant.
They are on a tremendous run but personally I thought we were poor yesterday and missed Moly.
Surprised Nixon wasn’t in the squad as Maxwell looked to be blowing out his arse yesterday

[GazLaz]

From what I had read before the game, Walsall played a pressing game, they definitely did their homework on us and just let us pass around where we couldn’t hurt them. Our stats probably looked brilliant.
They are on a tremendous run but personally I thought we were poor yesterday and missed Moly.
Surprised Nixon wasn’t in the squad as Maxwell looked to be blowing out his arse yesterday

Thought Maxwell had another good game yesterday, probably our MOTM.

[In the box]

Every time we lose, we had chances that didn't fall to players, but if they had and we'd scored them, we'd have won.

Ifs & Buts and Maybe’s .its the name of the game . We didn’t prove much of an opposition when you allow their chances to be converted and we barely created enough ! Back to the drawing board 

[roversdude]

Every time we lose, we had chances that didn't fall to players, but if they had and we'd scored them, we'd have won.

Ifs & Buts and Maybe’s .its the name of the game . We didn’t prove much of an opposition when you allow their chances to be converted and we barely created enough ! Back to the drawing board 

Welcome back

[dickos1]

Every time we lose, we had chances that didn't fall to players, but if they had and we'd scored them, we'd have won.

Ifs & Buts and Maybe’s .its the name of the game . We didn’t prove much of an opposition when you allow their chances to be converted and we barely created enough ! Back to the drawing board 

We created the same as they did they were just more clinical. Can’t remember Timmy making a save

[ncRover]

Looks like Richard Wood had an off day. I think with that attacking full back combination both centre halves need to be on it.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Every time we lose, we had chances that didn't fall to players, but if they had and we'd scored them, we'd have won.

Ifs & Buts and Maybe’s .its the name of the game . We didn’t prove much of an opposition when you allow their chances to be converted and we barely created enough ! Back to the drawing board 

We created the same as they did they were just more clinical. Can’t remember Timmy making a save

Peak Dickos here.

We conceded 3. And you reckon not being able to remember us making a save is a positive?

[dickos1]

If they create 3 chances the whole game and score all 3 then. Then that means we either defended well throughout the game or they were very clinical.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Walsall have been struggling for years, the manager has done a good job there. Our run was going to come to an end somewhere. Just start another run, keep doing the same things. We lost to a decent side for this league. Very disappointed at having to say that. At the start of the season I saw a lot of hope for us doing well. Never saw us in this position.

[GazLaz]

If they create 3 chances the whole game and score all 3 then. Then that means we either defended well throughout the game or they were very clinical.

Quantifying how threatening a team is by something as open as “chances created” is just meaningless isn’t? Does every threatening passage of play have to end in a direct shot to be threatening? They are a playoff standard team and they have proven that this season. We’ve shown no evidence of being anything better than a lower half team so far this season.

[dickos1]

Not sure it’s meaningless no. If I side creates nothing over 90 mins then in no way can they be described as threatening.
I never mentioned a shot as I’ve stated many times on here that shots on target is a meaningless statistic. A chance created to me means getting balls flying across the 6 yard box, getting into 2v2 situations, getting players in behind.
We’ve been good at that over the last few weeks, you can argue we’ve not played anyone any good, but we’ve played these shite teams earlier in the season and created nothing.
We’ve definitely improved

[BillyStubbsTears]

Dickos.

Who are you arguing with?

No-one, literally no-one is saying that we haven't improved. The point most of us are discussing is how much further we still have to go. While you are saying that if Walsall hadn't scored 3, and we'd made contact with balls that we didn't, and their keeper hadn't saved the resulting effort, we'd have been ok.

[GazLaz]

Not sure it’s meaningless no. If I side creates nothing over 90 mins then in no way can they be described as threatening.
I never mentioned a shot as I’ve stated many times on here that shots on target is a meaningless statistic. A chance created to me means getting balls flying across the 6 yard box, getting into 2v2 situations, getting players in behind.
We’ve been good at that over the last few weeks, you can argue we’ve not played anyone any good, but we’ve played these shite teams earlier in the season and created nothing.
We’ve definitely improved

I think we have improved as well. Just to nowhere near a playoff quality side as some think.