Let's talk about the Barnsley game

[anton123]

Ro Shaun want dropping for me

[Prez]

I have been critical of our performances, but tonight at least we passed the ball better, had more energy,   & played on the front foot more in the first half, although not creating any chances.

 Yes Barnsley had the game won at half time & played knowing they had second, but I thought our application second half was good, certainly fought for the cause & didn't throw the towel in.

 If we can cut out the awful defensive mistakes & take forward that performance we may turn the corner, especially with the return of Anderson, Taylor & Miller, not forgetting Close. Just hope we continue & don't revert to type at Carlisle.

If we had played Faulkner instead of Williams I reckon we would have won that game.
You can’t legislate for defending like that.
Taylor best player 1st half. The one player who looked up for it.
The 2 subs Hurst and Miller the best players 2nd half.

We played with much more purpose 2nd half and could very easily had 4 goals with a bit of luck going our way.

What is it with the 1st 45 mins?

If games started at HT we would only have lost the Barrow game I think.

We would have lost to Swindon and Mansfield too BUT an interesting stat, is Rovers this season first half scored 5 conceded 13 Gd -8, second half scored  15 conceded 11 Gd +4.

It really needs sorting out our first half performances.

[jm291]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF7SWD4r0Sw

I have seen better defending at Sunday league level. Both Anderson & Williams just aren't the answer. Anderson has never looked the same player since the Balcombe knock and Williams has looked the same player the whole time... AKA he's woeful.

[Reg of the Rovers]

Ro Shaun want dropping for me

Taylor as well, thought he was awful again last night. Early second half ball cut back to edge of 6yrd box and he shins it straight out of play. No quality and no composure where we need it, just runs around like a headless chicken.

[EasyforDennis]

Ro Shaun want dropping for me

Taylor as well, thought he was awful again last night. Early second half ball cut back to edge of 6yrd box and he shins it straight out of play. No quality and no composure where we need it, just runs around like a headless chicken.

I've never understood all the fuss about Taylor. He is average at best.

[steve@dcfd]

Anderson and Taylor have just come back from long layoffs give them time to get up to match fitness before we judge. But both are available now and if they don’t start on Saturday our Bench will be stronger.
Whoever plays in defence against Carlisle they will have a stronger midfield infront of them than last night.

[roversdude]

Reading the free press analysis of the game
What can we say about the first half
Anderson Ravenhill Taylor Barlow all not played many games and certainly contributed to poor first half. Griffiths anonymous in the first half. Seaman is ok going forward but not a defender. Molyneux still not showing the rave reviews he got last season for Hartlepool. So what does it tell us first players need games to get up to speed Barnsley reserves have games in the PL 2 reserve league.
Other players are over rated by GMC are they really good enough were they brought in because they suited the funds we have.
Is GMC and his training team getting the best out of the squad. Even though they were different players we had a poor first half again. But did the second half improve because we brought on players who have been playing regularly and Barnsley had the game won so there was no pressure on them.
We move on to Carlisle can GMC get the more from the players we have. Anderson and Taylor are not ready to start yet. The Chairman will still give GMC more time he was his choice but at the moment we are not good enough to bounce back decisively

Think Anderson and Taylor may start on Saturday. Probably more likely they will be on the bench.
We need Anderson back in asap.

Granted Anderson is just back but he wasn’t up to it last night, might need a bit longer before starting.
I agree with other comments re Taylor I’m not that fussed, he helps out tracking back (last night excepted) but has no end product either crossing or in front of goal

[Reg of the Rovers]

I also think Anderson was a bit lucky not to get a red card for the pen foul last night. I think the score and non-competitive feel to the game helped him out a bit.

[Alan Southstand]

There’s nothing in front of the central 2, so it’s always going to be difficult. How long have we got to wait for a proper central defensive midfield player?

[jmt23]

Molyneux was man of the match for me, he is really starting to pick up, his crossing was superb last night.

[Campsall rover]

Molyneux was man of the match for me, he is really starting to pick up, his crossing was superb last night.

Just needs a goal. Yes he is improving.
Played very well at Hartlepool and was being subjected to considerable abuse from the home fans.

Just need more of an end product from him and he will be a top player in this league as he was last season.

[Padge_DRFC]

Anderson should have been sent off. Right now Faulkner and Owulu are our best CBS.

Right about Taylor. Probably injured until Xmas having played 1 for the month last night anyway.

[tyke1962]

There’s nothing in front of the central 2, so it’s always going to be difficult. How long have we got to wait for a proper central defensive midfield player?

That was your problem Alan in that first half and you've identified it pretty much spot on .

Once we broke that midfield line our lads were breaking in to acres of space which created a ton of one against one situations and sometimes one against nobody .

It was way too easy for us in that first half .

[Alan Southstand]

Tyke, DM knew what the problem was and he partnered Whiteman with Sheaf in his early reign. My God, if those 2, or even just one of them, we’re still with us, we’d be a completely different proposition.

Then, RW went on record to say he’d got a long list of central DM’ers but we couldn’t afford a single one of them. So he knew we had a missing piece.

Now, we have GM, who has seemingly not targeted the position with a ‘specialist’ but has tried to fill the void with a player who has experience, but not the legs to adequately fulfill the role. He’s also tried partnering him with someone who has the legs, but isn’t a natural sitter. It’s a shambles of a midfield, to be honest. 3 out of the 4 of them joined us in the summer and the understanding and interplay has been sadly lacking in most games. The management have had long enough to sort the problem, but I think it’s proving too much for them to resolve. We are so disjointed and, as you rightly say, there are gaps in a lot of games - not just between defence and midfield but between The striker(s) and midfield.

[Jonathan]

Molyneux was man of the match for me, he is really starting to pick up, his crossing was superb last night.

Just needs a goal. Yes he is improving.
Played very well at Hartlepool and was being subjected to considerable abuse from the home fans.

I thought we played away at Hartlepool?

[roversdude]

His former club Jonathan

[Jonathan]

His former club Jonathan

Ah yes. Normally it’s our own fans levelling considerable abuse at our players.

[Sammy Chung was King]

The team has an instability caused in the main, by a constantly changing centre half partnership-we need a run of two players who are good enough playing week after week. In my opinion Anderson/Long is the partnership out of what we have.
The full backs are doing ok but can improve a lot. The goalkeeper really hasn’t been at fault for much. Faulkner behind Miller has been our other success so far. He has taken his chances most of the time. He has bits to work on in his game, but he has shown a lot of ability for a young guy of his age. He needs to be given opportunities but go steady with him.

The midfield screen in front of the defence is very brittle. We have a player in Clayton conserving energy to get through the game.
Close hasn’t done anything since he came back-he needs to up his game.
Molyneux needs to get his rovers career started. Hurst is very good in patches, he’s young but he’s in with the men now. He has to find that consistency.

Rowe is picking up niggles more often when we rely quite heavily on him. Taylor just hasn’t done it since he came. He has the ability but because of the injuries he’s had his body keeps breaking down.

Miller is the success story of our season so far. With good service I can’t imagine how many goals he would have.
Agard has done better than I thought he would, but he isn’t prolific. I would like to see Goodman the youth striker in and around the squad. He deserves some opportunities.

The game against Barnsley was embarrassing. We were set up wrong. We needed a stronger side out than that. To let another Yorkshire team come to our ground and be four up before half time, absolutely abysmal.
I worry that our expectations are going backwards, when in a couple of seasons time, we will be satisfied just to stay up in this league.

For that reason the manager must go. He will not get us promoted. He sets us up with the tactics of a lower mid table team, when we have players capable with the right man in charge of going for promotion.

[adamtherover]

Nice to see 2 quality strikes from George..