Dead wood (again)

[mushRTID]

I know it’s not football manager and not that easy. But we aren’t going anywhere until we get rid of Taylor, Anderson, Clayton, Williams, Mitchell, Griffiths, Agard.

Another clear out needed and we start again.

What a shit show.

[andyst79]

What's Mitchell done wrong?

[Scooter]

Agreed. But you are missing a few names from that list

[mushRTID]

What's Mitchell done wrong?

Is this a serious question?

[andyst79]

Yes

[scawsby steve]

What's Mitchell done wrong?

Is this a serious question?

Which of the 3 goals was he responsible for today, Mush?

[mushRTID]

Probably none of them.
I didn’t blame him for any goals.

How about how slow he is throwing the ball out when people do actually run for him.

Or his atrocious kicking, every f**king match.

He might not directly be at fault for individual goals, but he has a serious negative impact on how we play.

I am sure Schofield will release him whenever his contract is up. He’s absolutely useless.

[andyst79]

He's improved this season, takes crosses , good shot stoping and his distribution is getting better. He obviously did what he was instructed to do today. I'd be looking at replacing our 2 centre mids before anything else

[monkeytennis]

I’d keep Mitchell I think he’s alright. The slowing tactics I think must be an instruction as I can’t see any earthly reason to do it otherwise.

[Reg of the Rovers]

Moving Clayton and Taylor on has to be an absolute priority - Taylor is poor when he's on the pitch, usually injured and earns good money which we could use to bring in much much better. Clayton sets the pace on the pitch, I think he's the reason we're so slow - we're definitely slower when he plays - when Biggins dropped deep and had Molyneux and Hurst to play up to we did look slightly brighter (or slightly less terrible).

[Chris Black come back]

Mitchell is a decent keeper for us. I’d definitely keep him.

[Reg of the Rovers]

Mitchell is a decent keeper for us. I’d definitely keep him.

I agree, he's not perfect and distribution is a weakness, but actually he's pretty decent overall. Not an area I'd be focussing on in the window given we have much bigger fish to fry in order to get a tune out of this lot - decent centre half, decent ball playing midfielder with legs, decent partner for George first on the shopping list!

[selby]

  Long was the player and the area that Tranmere rightly attacked from the start of the game, sorry but not for me at all, too slow and gets caught out of position and no pace to recover situations, and nearly always passes the ball back to the keeper which pens us back in our own half.

[Canadian Rover]

  nearly always passes the ball back to the keeper which pens us back in our own half.

Likely as per instructed same as Anderson

[Colin C No.3]

Mitchell (whether by instructions or design) & Clayton are a match made in heaven…slow, slow..slow, slow, slow.

Anderson made it a ‘complete trio’ with his back & forth to Mitchell. Jeez, I was ‘calling’ their movements after 20 minutes of watching it time, after time, after time.

Keeper to Centre Back to Defensive (?) Midfielder all looking for the ‘safe option’.

When Clayton did look forward his pass was either cut out (because of age of thought & skill) or his pass was over hit or to a player tightly marked. He’s not savvy enough or ‘committed’ enough at this level.

Hurst is our only ‘saving grace’ in that midfield imo, when TR is not fit.

[roverstillidie91]

You live and die by your recruitment, unfortunately it has been poor ever since DM came in where loans papered over the cracks

[i_ateallthepies]

Probably none of them.
I didn’t blame him for any goals.

How about how slow he is throwing the ball out when people do actually run for him.

Or his atrocious kicking, every f**king match.

He might not directly be at fault for individual goals, but he has a serious negative impact on how we play.

I am sure Schofield will release him whenever his contract is up. He’s absolutely useless.

Perhaps those who think Mitchel is ok are actually convinced that (given our last two season's transfer dealings) if we were to get a new keeper he'd be even worse.

[mushRTID]

Probably none of them.
I didn’t blame him for any goals.

How about how slow he is throwing the ball out when people do actually run for him.

Or his atrocious kicking, every f**king match.

He might not directly be at fault for individual goals, but he has a serious negative impact on how we play.

I am sure Schofield will release him whenever his contract is up. He’s absolutely useless.

Perhaps those who think Mitchel is ok are actually convinced that (given our last two season's transfer dealings) if we were to get a new keeper he'd be even worse.

Possibly you are right.

I do agree that he’s the best of a bad bunch of recent signings. Says it all.

[Barmby Rover]

I know it’s not football manager and not that easy. But we aren’t going anywhere until we get rid of Taylor, Anderson, Clayton, Williams, Mitchell, Griffiths, Agard.

Another clear out needed and we start again.

What a shit show.

Get rid? You seriously think the board will fund buying that many payers in? And of a better quality?  Good joke.

[steve@dcfd]

I know it’s not football manager and not that easy. But we aren’t going anywhere until we get rid of Taylor, Anderson, Clayton, Williams, Mitchell, Griffiths, Agard.

Another clear out needed and we start again.

What a shit show.

All these players are contracted until the end of the season at least. So nothing can happen until then. We have then got to bring in players that are better, when did we last do that unless they were good loan players. So let’s get real. With the finances we have and crowd’s getting smaller the loss of good ambition at the club which good players will come.

[selby]

  Steve, it all comes down to where you look, there are good players out there.

[Padge_DRFC]

How long are we stuck with Taylor. Still enquiries need doing into that 3 year deal.

[steve@dcfd]

  Steve, it all comes down to where you look, there are good players out there.

Well I wonder if Copps and Schofield are looking in the same place

[danumdon]

Defence and midfield for me. If you have two immobile central midfielders who don't show for the ball then its a big ask to expect your central defenders who by default are not going to be the best ball players in the squad to distribute successfully. When the same central midfield are also slow and weak to close down attacking players and thus give the defence little protection then you have chaos.

Our wide and attacking midfield are not proactive enough to move and try to force the opposition defence to lose their defending shape, they also need to show more for the ball and mix up when to play the ball early or take a man on. they also need to run beyond the centre forward to create more options when we attack, especially if we have attacking full backs who in effect become the wide player, so they need to be able to get up and down and deliver a decent ball into the box for the forwards and late arrive attacking midfield.

We could well do with a proper ball winning defence midfielder who can play alongside Biggins, Moly needs to up his workrate and take his man on more frequently, Hurst if DS does not fancy him needs a loan and a replacement. We need alternative strikers to Miller, Agard and Griffiths are not the answer.

Goalkeeper  is ok for now, he's upped his game and his command of his box is far better than when he first came into the side, kicking and distribution needs addressing, how much is instructed who knows but its helpful if the players are moving and looking for space as soon as he has the ball in hand, how often does that happen?

Defence is another major issue, in a DS system fullbacks need to be very mobile and also attacking minded but its always a balancing act, if they are good in this regard they are usually weak in defence, only works if the central defenders are big, mobile and can defend so we have a major issue here.

Very difficult to correct in two never mind one window so it will be interesting to what materialises .

We need key rebuilding, are the club up for this?

[Cramby10]

If we need all these specialised players to play this over complicated dross that DS is foisting on us then why give him the job in the first place? If we haven’t the funds, then give someone the job that can get the best out of what we have.
Football isn’t that difficult yet we make it so.
Just watching a top of the table clash Orient v Stevenage. Stevenage aren’t any great shakes but they make it work and are 2nd in the league.

[steve@dcfd]

Cramby neither side have static midfield players with no pace. Both the sides have players working and have the skills in front of their defenders .

We don’t have that and then we blame the defenders who yes have their faults but there are more faults infront of them.

[LincolnDonny]

You can tell many have lowered their expectations on our players

Mitchell is not on parr with many goalkeepers we have had with the odd 1 or 2 exceptions

[Arsenal Of The North]

We need to get rid of half a dozen players. Andrews was a waste of time, clearly something gone off behind the scenes with that one, replacing someone of Tomlins ability an essential.

But for me it’s important to sign players who know how to get out of this league, we need players who can handle physical league 2 football

[swintonrover]

You can tell many have lowered their expectations on our players

Mitchell is not on parr with many goalkeepers we have had with the odd 1 or 2 exceptions

Since Sullivan (best keeper in our history), we've had
Gary Woods
Ross Turnbull
Stephen Bywater
Jed Steer (L)
Marko Marosi
Chris Neal (L)
Remi Matthews(L)
Sam Johnstone (L)
Thorsten Stuckmann
Ross Etheridge
Ian Lawlor
Louis Jones
Seny Dieng (L)
Joe Bursik (L)
Joe Lumley (L)
Ellery Balcombe (L)

Bar some outliers (Turnbull, Dieng and Johnstone, maybe Marosi) I'd prefer him over most.

[turnbull for england]

A brief cameo from an injured Chris Kirkland too, doesn't alter that I agree with your choices though