Let's talk about the Leicester City game and the MK dons games

[roversdude]

It seemed like a very early pre season kick about no heart or desire. Daniels seems to get worse each game after impressing when he first arrived. Amos did ok first half but second half he passed to their players just about every time. We just looked lost and disjointed.
Bring on Saturday and let’s put this to bed.
Final words for me, can’t decide if Leicester were good (definitely talented) or if we made them look a lot better

[NickDRFC]

D-Day for Darren on Saturday, never heard so many mutterings about a very poor performance, or words of that effect.
If they score first on Saturday, it will light the paper, get ready because, in my eyes, there was something a miss tonight. Certain players didn't seem to be playing fully, more of a half hearted type of performance. Something behind the scenes isn't right, and tonight, it showed. Need a plan B.

No we don’t need a plan B. What we need is to get back to basics and play the formation and team which outplayed, Fleetwood, Lincoln, ipswich, (Drew) Rotherham, Peterborough, Portsmouth (even though we lost that one) Bristol Rovers & Southend.
Unfortunately Ennis is injured so we have a striker problem.

We have a striker problem? So Thomas and Bingham aren’t up to it?

[steve@dcfd]

Without Ennis and he’s not a natural goal scorer we have no body. I’m not blaming DM. But on Saturday he must go back to 4 2 3 1 although we don’t have Anderson our best centre half.
Dieng in goal
So Halliday, Wright (must be more composed), John (if fit),  James
 Sheaf and Whiteman
Taylor(must improve his finishing), Coppinger, Sadlier( can score overall game to improve.
Striker???

They are the best 10 players we have at the moment. This is why we need better in January. The rest who are available are not at the level we require for a top six side.

[drfchound]

The best 3 players for us tonight were Halliday, Amos & Blaney.
2 of them went off at half time Halliday & Blaney. So Amos rightly got m.o.m. As he got a full game.
That was desperately poor tonight. Leicester were sharper, and their movement was far superior to ours. We were far too static. Based on that Thomas and Bingham are going backwards and neither looked like they would score if they stayed out there all night. Partly not their fault as no service but they just were not quick enough in thought or movement to get on the end of anything that came into the box.
Greaves does not look any where near ready for 1st team football and Sheaf was badly missed in midfield.
Alfie May well don’t know what he was doing but every time he gets the ball he turns  backwards and plays a negative ball. Never seems prepared to run at any one and try to go past his opponent. Probably because he is not capable. Simply put not good enough.
Lawlor has gone backward in all departments and is completely lacking in confidence.

This team tonight admittedly not our strongest starting 11 looked a pale shadow of the team that took teams apart earlier in the season and only 6 weeks ago at Southend.
I don’t know what has gone wrong but it needs addressing quickly or our season is going to disintegrate.
It is a very long time since i have been so negative on a Rovers performance.
If we were worse than that on Sunday it must have been bad. Very bad.

Saturday is massive. We need a win, any old scrappy win. Winning breeds confidence and there doesn’t seem to be much of that just at the moment.

Paul, the team tonight would look like a pale shadow of the one that battered Southend though wouldn’t it.
Because it was nothing like the same eleven out there.

No it wasn’t the same team that started at Southend but it was strong enough to have done much much better than that performance i saw tonight.
Halliday, Daniels, Anderson, Whiteman, Taylor & Thomas all started at Southend. Wright, Gomes & May were on the bench at Southend and all featured tonight. Wright & May started and Gomes came on as a sub.

They were a pale shadow of 6 weeks ago, all of them.

Deing, James, Sheaf, Copps and Sadlier were the only ones not to get on the pitch tonight who played a at Southend.

So five players (half a team) didn’t get on the pitch at all and three of the Southend subs played SOME part against Leicester.
Eight players in all then.

[wing commander]

   Is Hasani injured does anybody know?? When he had those couple of games last season and then we had such a poor recruitment in the summer I expected him to push through this season?? Yet he's not been anywhere near the team..

[Retdon1]

Until Ennis is back fit, I think Idd play Sadlier up front... I prefer him out wide but he’s a much better option than Thomas or Bingham IMO

[Chris Black come back]

The two big performances on Saturday have to come from Wright and Thomas.

Wright needs to concentrate more and on Saturday lead by example because John is raw and needs guiding.

Thomas should start. He is given where we are a better one up than Bingham.

Rest of team picks itself but Joe needs to step right up and lead that defence.

[drfchound]

I think that Hasani got on the pitch at Luton because the snake was braised off with what he had seen on the pitch and wanted to make a point that one of the kids could do better.
To be fair to Hasani, he did ok but did give the ball away leading to a Luton goal.
If we had been doing well in the game he would not have got on.

[selby]

  I must have been sat in a funny part of the ground last night, Because people around me and myself thought that Thomas looked much improved, has dropped some weight off and is much sharper and fitter.
  It seems that people have made their mind up about him because of the club he came from and made their mind up about him before even seeing him play, mostly the same people who have championed Alfie May for the level he played at coming to us, who is, and has never been good enough to play at this level and did absolutely nothing in that game, but again someone said he tried in fairness to him, well dipsy doo.
  Trying to ship dead wood out in January will be just as important as bringing in new players, the good news is a scout from Hartlepool was at the game last night, but it has never been plainer that our fringe players are miles away from the standard needed, and that our past managers left us with a number they signed extensions to contracts that are now lying heavily around the present manager's and the clubs neck, and in McCanns case alienated some of our better player who promptly left.
   We have a small number of players who are of league one standard who can compete week in week out if fit at that level and can do well. More than one or two missing in certain positions and we have no cover good enough. Central defence  it is OK, goalkeeper I would promote Jones, Horton and Amos are promising, Mid field we need a good one in Gomes is a cover player who may improve, Greaves promising with a way to go, but needs playing time at a good level.
   Up front we need someone in, either both Ennis and Sterling plus Thomas as an alternative, or someone else in. wide players we need Blair fit.

[Campsall rover]

Please. D-Day for Darren? Panic stations yet again from some corners of the fanbase any time we lose or are on a bit of a bad run.

I'm not excusing back-to-back 3-0 defeats. But anyone talking about the manager not being up to it or stoking conspiracy theories is being ridiculous in my opinion.

We need a run of league games with a consistent XI to get going again and thankfully we now have that opportunity, December weather permitting. One or two wins in the next couple of weeks and it all looks bright again.

Clearly we need better strength in depth and I would hope Moore and Baldwin are aware of that. I expect they are and that, now Adam Henshall has arrived, they are all working hard to identify players who will improve this squad in January.

Campsall - I understand the frustration tonight but it hasn't been that long since you, me and everyone else had good reason to be very negative about Rovers performances. It's only been three years since the shambolic relegation under Ferguson and, really, only 18 months since some of the most tepid performances in recent memory from his Rovers side too.

Yes but but May 2018 is quite a long time ago. We haven’t had as bad a performance as that last night and the previous game at Gillingham ( although I wasn’t there ) for probably considerably longer than May 2018.

I am certainly not one of those calling for DM’s head. Quite frankly that is ridiculous.
I would like to think this is a blip and as you say RA if we get 7 or hopefully 9 points from the next 3 league games all will look rosy again.

We have some very good players in this team as they have shown this season the problem is 7/8 of them have gone off the boil all at the same time. No team is going to win a football match with only 3/4 players playing at their optimum level.

[steve@dcfd]

   Is Hasani injured does anybody know?? When he had those couple of games last season and then we had such a poor recruitment in the summer I expected him to push through this season?? Yet he's not been anywhere near the team..

He’s just back from injury but he’s not ready for the first team yet. In fact none of the U23 or U18 are ready.

[Alan Southstand]

Hasani hasn’t been getting regular starts for either u18’s or development sides, so he’s not going to be playing first team football anytime soon.

[Campsall rover]

D-Day for Darren on Saturday, never heard so many mutterings about a very poor performance, or words of that effect.
If they score first on Saturday, it will light the paper, get ready because, in my eyes, there was something a miss tonight. Certain players didn't seem to be playing fully, more of a half hearted type of performance. Something behind the scenes isn't right, and tonight, it showed. Need a plan B.

No we don’t need a plan B. What we need is to get back to basics and play the formation and team which outplayed, Fleetwood, Lincoln, ipswich, (Drew) Rotherham, Peterborough, Portsmouth (even though we lost that one) Bristol Rovers & Southend.
Unfortunately Ennis is injured so we have a striker problem.

We have a striker problem? So Thomas and Bingham aren’t up to it?

Not on that performance last night they aren’t. But I have seen some quality from both of them in some of the previous games.

[Campsall rover]

The best 3 players for us tonight were Halliday, Amos & Blaney.
2 of them went off at half time Halliday & Blaney. So Amos rightly got m.o.m. As he got a full game.
That was desperately poor tonight. Leicester were sharper, and their movement was far superior to ours. We were far too static. Based on that Thomas and Bingham are going backwards and neither looked like they would score if they stayed out there all night. Partly not their fault as no service but they just were not quick enough in thought or movement to get on the end of anything that came into the box.
Greaves does not look any where near ready for 1st team football and Sheaf was badly missed in midfield.
Alfie May well don’t know what he was doing but every time he gets the ball he turns  backwards and plays a negative ball. Never seems prepared to run at any one and try to go past his opponent. Probably because he is not capable. Simply put not good enough.
Lawlor has gone backward in all departments and is completely lacking in confidence.

This team tonight admittedly not our strongest starting 11 looked a pale shadow of the team that took teams apart earlier in the season and only 6 weeks ago at Southend.
I don’t know what has gone wrong but it needs addressing quickly or our season is going to disintegrate.
It is a very long time since i have been so negative on a Rovers performance.
If we were worse than that on Sunday it must have been bad. Very bad.

Saturday is massive. We need a win, any old scrappy win. Winning breeds confidence and there doesn’t seem to be much of that just at the moment.

Paul, the team tonight would look like a pale shadow of the one that battered Southend though wouldn’t it.
Because it was nothing like the same eleven out there.

No it wasn’t the same team that started at Southend but it was strong enough to have done much much better than that performance i saw tonight.
Halliday, Daniels, Anderson, Whiteman, Taylor & Thomas all started at Southend. Wright, Gomes & May were on the bench at Southend and all featured tonight. Wright & May started and Gomes came on as a sub.

They were a pale shadow of 6 weeks ago, all of them.

Deing, James, Sheaf, Copps and Sadlier were the only ones not to get on the pitch tonight who played a at Southend.

So five players (half a team) didn’t get on the pitch at all and three of the Southend subs played SOME part against Leicester.
Eight players in all then.

Correct.
There was enough talent on the pitch last night to have beaten that U21 team.
Yes Leicester were talented but we would have won that if we had turned up.

[the vicar]

D-Day for Darren on Saturday, never heard so many mutterings about a very poor performance, or words of that effect.
If they score first on Saturday, it will light the paper, get ready because, in my eyes, there was something a miss tonight. Certain players didn't seem to be playing fully, more of a half hearted type of performance. Something behind the scenes isn't right, and tonight, it showed. Need a plan B.

No we don’t need a plan B. What we need is to get back to basics and play the formation and team which outplayed, Fleetwood, Lincoln, ipswich, (Drew) Rotherham, Peterborough, Portsmouth (even though we lost that one) Bristol Rovers & Southend.
Unfortunately Ennis is injured so we have a striker problem.

We have a striker problem? So Thomas and Bingham aren’t up to it?

I agree about the striker problem, but it shows getting in a striker will be a waste of time if we don't get in a play maker as he will not have anything to feed off

[steve@dcfd]

Selby Thomas like May like Jones are ok but that’s it they are not at the standard we need to progress. We seem have to accept these players because we can’t or won’t sign better.

[Campsall rover]

Until Ennis is back fit, I think Idd play Sadlier up front... I prefer him out wide but he’s a much better option than Thomas or Bingham IMO

Disagree totally. You lose a lot of creativity if Sadlier doesn’t play in his natural position.
He can still score goals from a wide position. We need more goals from Taylor as well.

[drfchound]

The best 3 players for us tonight were Halliday, Amos & Blaney.
2 of them went off at half time Halliday & Blaney. So Amos rightly got m.o.m. As he got a full game.
That was desperately poor tonight. Leicester were sharper, and their movement was far superior to ours. We were far too static. Based on that Thomas and Bingham are going backwards and neither looked like they would score if they stayed out there all night. Partly not their fault as no service but they just were not quick enough in thought or movement to get on the end of anything that came into the box.
Greaves does not look any where near ready for 1st team football and Sheaf was badly missed in midfield.
Alfie May well don’t know what he was doing but every time he gets the ball he turns  backwards and plays a negative ball. Never seems prepared to run at any one and try to go past his opponent. Probably because he is not capable. Simply put not good enough.
Lawlor has gone backward in all departments and is completely lacking in confidence.

This team tonight admittedly not our strongest starting 11 looked a pale shadow of the team that took teams apart earlier in the season and only 6 weeks ago at Southend.
I don’t know what has gone wrong but it needs addressing quickly or our season is going to disintegrate.
It is a very long time since i have been so negative on a Rovers performance.
If we were worse than that on Sunday it must have been bad. Very bad.

Saturday is massive. We need a win, any old scrappy win. Winning breeds confidence and there doesn’t seem to be much of that just at the moment.

Paul, the team tonight would look like a pale shadow of the one that battered Southend though wouldn’t it.
Because it was nothing like the same eleven out there.

No it wasn’t the same team that started at Southend but it was strong enough to have done much much better than that performance i saw tonight.
Halliday, Daniels, Anderson, Whiteman, Taylor & Thomas all started at Southend. Wright, Gomes & May were on the bench at Southend and all featured tonight. Wright & May started and Gomes came on as a sub.

They were a pale shadow of 6 weeks ago, all of them.

Deing, James, Sheaf, Copps and Sadlier were the only ones not to get on the pitch tonight who played a at Southend.

So five players (half a team) didn’t get on the pitch at all and three of the Southend subs played SOME part against Leicester.
Eight players in all then.

Correct. There was enough talent on the pitch last night to have beaten that U21 team.
Yes they were talented but we would have won that if we had turned up.

But I was emphasising that the team last night was between five and eight players different from the team that played Southend.
Evidently what we did put out wasn’t good enough to beat Leicester.

[the vicar]

The two big performances on Saturday have to come from Wright and Thomas.

Wright needs to concentrate more and on Saturday lead by example because John is raw and needs guiding.

Thomas should start. He is given where we are a better one up than Bingham.

Rest of team picks itself but Joe needs to step right up and lead that defence.

where did we get Bingham and Thomas from? Was it a lucky bag or an unlucky bag

[Donnywolf]

/quote]
Correct. There was enough talent on the pitch last night to have beaten that U21 team.
Yes they were talented but we would have won that if we had turned up.

Campsall - dead on

I posted (somewhere) previously that when I saw our Team I was pleased because we had not gone "too weak" AND that a Division One Team with nous and experience etc should be too much for an Under 21 Team at least 8 out of 10 times

How wrong was I - because we would not have beaten that Leicester Team twice out of 10 with that performance

[5 on Tour]

  I must have been sat in a funny part of the ground last night, Because people around me and myself thought that Thomas looked much improved, has dropped some weight off and is much sharper and fitter.
  It seems that people have made their mind up about him because of the club he came from and made their mind up about him before even seeing him play, mostly the same people who have championed Alfie May for the level he played at coming to us, who is, and has never been good enough to play at this level and did absolutely nothing in that game, but again someone said he tried in fairness to him, well dipsy doo.
  Trying to ship dead wood out in January will be just as important as bringing in new players, the good news is a scout from Hartlepool was at the game last night, but it has never been plainer that our fringe players are miles away from the standard needed, and that our past managers left us with a number they signed extensions to contracts that are now lying heavily around the present manager's and the clubs neck, and in McCanns case alienated some of our better player who promptly left.
   We have a small number of players who are of league one standard who can compete week in week out if fit at that level and can do well. More than one or two missing in certain positions and we have no cover good enough. Central defence  it is OK, goalkeeper I would promote Jones, Horton and Amos are promising, Mid field we need a good one in Gomes is a cover player who may improve, Greaves promising with a way to go, but needs playing time at a good level.
   Up front we need someone in, either both Ennis and Sterling plus Thomas as an alternative, or someone else in. wide players we need Blair fit.

This exactly. Thomas is looking better and better each game for me. He’s big and strong and wins an awful lot of his headers. That Leicester CB was massive, bigger than Thomas, and he was still loosing 70-80% of the headers when Thomas was competing with him.

Thomas won us a penalty - the ref just missed it. He was bringing players into the game and being a general nuisance all night.

Bingham might not deserve a new contract but Thomas certainly does for me.

[Campsall rover]

Tranmere Rovers beat Man U. U21’s last night.

I am pretty sure (although we have not played them yet) we are a better team than they are, based on number of points we have from less games played.

So why were they capable of winning with a weakened team last night and we managed to get mullered by another U21 side.

We need to take Cup matches much more seriously than apparently we are doing.

[Colemans Left Hook]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCNzh5FT51I

[steve@dcfd]

  I must have been sat in a funny part of the ground last night, Because people around me and myself thought that Thomas looked much improved, has dropped some weight off and is much sharper and fitter.
  It seems that people have made their mind up about him because of the club he came from and made their mind up about him before even seeing him play, mostly the same people who have championed Alfie May for the level he played at coming to us, who is, and has never been good enough to play at this level and did absolutely nothing in that game, but again someone said he tried in fairness to him, well dipsy doo.
  Trying to ship dead wood out in January will be just as important as bringing in new players, the good news is a scout from Hartlepool was at the game last night, but it has never been plainer that our fringe players are miles away from the standard needed, and that our past managers left us with a number they signed extensions to contracts that are now lying heavily around the present manager's and the clubs neck, and in McCanns case alienated some of our better player who promptly left.
   We have a small number of players who are of league one standard who can compete week in week out if fit at that level and can do well. More than one or two missing in certain positions and we have no cover good enough. Central defence  it is OK, goalkeeper I would promote Jones, Horton and Amos are promising, Mid field we need a good one in Gomes is a cover player who may improve, Greaves promising with a way to go, but needs playing time at a good level.
   Up front we need someone in, either both Ennis and Sterling plus Thomas as an alternative, or someone else in. wide players we need Blair fit.

This exactly. Thomas is looking better and better each game for me. He’s big and strong and wins an awful lot of his headers. That Leicester CB was massive, bigger than Thomas, and he was still loosing 70-80% of the headers when Thomas was competing with him.

Thomas won us a penalty - the ref just missed it. He was bringing players into the game and being a general nuisance all night.

Bingham might not deserve a new contract but Thomas certainly does for me.

How many goals did he Orr we score from his towering headers. Answers on a postcard blank one with a second class stamp

[Donnywolf]

Tranmere Rovers beat Man U. U21’s last night.

I am pretty sure (although we have not played them yet) we are a better team than they are, based on number of points we have from less games played.

So why were they capable of winning with a weakened team last night and we managed to get mullered by another U21 side.

We need to take Cup matches much more seriously than apparently we are doing.

Salford beat Wolves U21s the night before as well

[Campsall rover]

Tranmere Rovers beat Man U. U21’s last night.

I am pretty sure (although we have not played them yet) we are a better team than they are, based on number of points we have from less games played.

So why were they capable of winning with a weakened team last night and we managed to get mullered by another U21 side.

We need to take Cup matches much more seriously than apparently we are doing.

Salford beat Wolves U21s the night before as well

Exactly.
We don’t seem to be interested. Well not as interested as we should be let’s put it that way.

[selby]

Steve , were you actually at the game? he headed against the post from a corner that others around him fluffed the rebound that was cleared, and should have been awarded a penalty.
  Taylor and the two full backs were the only others with Whiteman to pose a threat around their area in open play, and add the central defenders from set pieces.
  The rest of the team are either not good enough, or are not ready to play at this level, the youngsters are playing at an academy standard below the standard of Leicester, Gomes, Bingham,  and Thomas have played at that level with some success in the past but have stalled career wise since, and May and Daniels have never been their standard.
   We have made the same mistake now in all three U21s fixture's we  have played, and have failed result wise all three times, against young sides, and on numerous occasions against lower standing sides such as Rochdale, Notts County, Grimsby, Rotherham reserves, 
 Just how many chances, and times has it to go on before some people admit that we have to take a different approach to cup football, and much needed funds  before it is realised that we have players at the club who are not good enough to play at the level required?
 

[5 on Tour]

Well said Selby.

We could sign Harry Kane and Aguero to go up front and this forum would still kick off after 1 bad game.

Thomas arguably the best player on the pitch last night IMHO.

[IDM]

We can have the best approach to cup football and team selection but if for whatever reasons the players underperform, what can we do.?

This is the same set of players minus Ennis realistically, who were playing good teams off the park until recently.

Therefore ability wise they are good enough, just out of form at the moment. 

We have to look at things one game at a time and pick the best available team to win on Saturday..

I wonder if the same posters who comment when we are playing badly and go 2-0, 3-0 down will reappear with positive comments should we be winning by those scores with 20 mins to go.?

[goalkick]

Does not say much for the rest of the team.