Crunch time

[BillyStubbsTears]

Ok. Not panic stations yet.

But.

This is now turning into an extended run of poor form.

10 points from 8 games is lower than halfway-in-the-table form for more than a sixth of the season.

We are still well in the mix, but this form must not continue.

If we get 10 points from the next 8 games, we're going to require a finish something not far off last season's miracle to secure a top three spot.

The really concerning thing is that we still seem absolutely clueless at how to break down a side that doesn't play a high press against us. We've won three of the last 9 games. In all three matches, the opposition was set up to push us high up the pitch and in both cases we caned them on the breakaway.

But of course, opposition managers are not thick. Most of them will see this. Most of them will not play a high press against us. And when they don't, the current XI simply never looks like creating lots of chances.

Time for a radical change of plan? Bring Close and Westbrook back?

[drfchound]

Not quite worryingly bad perhaps. 

[scawsby steve]

Ok. Not panic stations yet.

But.

This is now turning into an extended run of poor form.

10 points from 8 games is lower than halfway-in-the-table form for more than a sixth of the season.

We are still well in the mix, but this form must not continue.

If we get 10 points from the next 8 games, we're going to require a finish something not far off last season's miracle to secure a top three spot.

The really concerning thing is that we still seem absolutely clueless at how to break down a side that doesn't play a high press against us. We've won three of the last 9 games. In all three matches, the opposition was set up to push us high up the pitch and in both cases we caned them on the breakaway.

But of course, opposition managers are not thick. Most of them will see this. Most of them will not play a high press against us. And when they don't, the current XI simply never looks like creating lots of chances.

Time for a radical change of plan? Bring Close and Westbrook back?

Very good post.

[dickos1]

The thing is everybody else apart from Walsall is in similar form to us. We’ve got 10 points from 8 games and are still where we were 10 games ago

[Alan Southstand]

Fully agreed until your last query. Time to get rid of the pair of them more like.

[dickos1]

This is our best team, he needs to stick with it for a while and get a bit of rhythm

                           Sharman-Lowe
Sterry             Olowu.       McGrath.    Maxwell

                Bailey.              Westbrooke.

Hurst.                 Clifton.              Molyneux. 

                         Ironside. 

[bpoolrover]

This is our best team, he needs to stick with it for a while and get a bit of rhythm

                           Sharman-Lowe
Sterry             Olowu.       McGrath.    Maxwell

                Bailey.              Westbrooke.

Hurst.                 Clifton.              Molyneux. 

                         Ironside. 

most of that line up i agree with, not sure westbrooke would get in thou

[Barmby Rover]

That's 3 points from 9 in this 18 point league that GM created, this is blowing up in his face at the moment. Without a significant change of results Rovers will be also rans this season. They have been lucky today with other results, that sort of break will not continue. 9 points from the next 3 games please!

[BillyStubbsTears]

The thing is everybody else apart from Walsall is in similar form to us. We’ve got 10 points from 8 games and are still where we were 10 games ago

Point is, that cannot and will not hold.

You're likely, as always, to need something like 78-82 points to make the top 3. There are so many sides in the mix that it's pretty much inevitable that a couple of them will step up their form and make that total.

I'll make you a cast iron guarantee. If we DON'T improve our form over the next 8 games, we will not be in third place, and we will be looking very long shots to make the top three.

The turn round must start pretty much immediately, and I'll be honest, I'm struggling right at this moment to see how this squad does that, without a pretty radical change of plan.

[BillyStubbsTears]

PS.
If matches in hand were worked through, it's unlikely we'd still be in third. It's technically possible we'd be 8th. I'd say overall during this first half of the season, we've looked like playoff candidates, but we are a way off looking like stuck on automatic promotion stuff.

[Bessie Red]

The thing is everybody else apart from Walsall is in similar form to us. We’ve got 10 points from 8 games and are still where we were 10 games ago

Point is, that cannot and will not hold.

You're likely, as always, to need something like 78-82 points to make the top 3. There are so many sides in the mix that it's pretty much inevitable that a couple of them will step up their form and make that total.

I'll make you a cast iron guarantee. If we DON'T improve our form over the next 8 games, we will not be in third place, and we will be looking very long shots to make the top three.

The turn round must start pretty much immediately, and I'll be honest, I'm struggling right at this moment to see how this squad does that, without a pretty radical change of plan.

To get 78 points we only need to replicate what we've already done in the first half of the season plus two additional wins I'm confident we can do that.

[Padge_DRFC]

Where is Westbrook again? Him and Close have to be the biggest waste of money ever. Probably spending close to £200k a year on them to combined

[colincramb]

I’ve said it on other threads previously, and I still think the same - this team is not as good as the one we finished last season with. It won’t get us promoted, in my opinion. We are doing our absolute best to balls this season up, in a league utterly devoid of any real quality (certainly nowhere near the standard of last season).

January is going to be massive.

[Chris Black come back]

Port Vale aside, it is a relatively decent run of league games over next month. Should be able to tell a lot come February. More than anything else, we need to rediscover some form of playing identity. Having the right players to fit that identity would help, but at present we appear to be all over the place. Am sure McCann will get this sorted.

[Usher wide.]

Westbrooke & Close will make not a jot of difference in midfield in fact adding them to the mix would be a step backwards in my view.

We need a midfield player in the mould of a Ben Whiteman. Someone who can dictate play, has a good engine, can pick a pass & drive the team on.

We have too many ‘pretty footballers’ Molyneau, Gibson, Hurst, Kelly that don’t have enough physicality needed in this division, especially in the ‘centre of the park’.

I do feel we need another forward. Billy has been a shadow of the striker we hoped to see back here & Joe was muscled out of the game at Walsall, he looked knackered second half.

But along with a forward to freshen & hopefully ignite that forward line we do need that midfield nouse to ‘release’ the forwards.

Grant has made successful signings for us in the past come the January window, he must pull another couple of gems out of the hat for us now if we’re to gain automatic promotion.

[Filo]

January is going to be massive.

How? We have a very wide but shallow midfield,  none of our contracted players will leave. Kelly signed to play instead of those given long contracts.
Seems Grant thinks a forward needs adding,  a kid on loan isn't going to change much

A couple of weeks ago I read something that Grant said he’ll not stand in the way of anyone wanting to leave, there is something happening behind the scenes for him to come out with that

[Usher wide.]

January is going to be massive.

How? We have a very wide but shallow midfield,  none of our contracted players will leave. Kelly signed to play instead of those given long contracts.
Seems Grant thinks a forward needs adding,  a kid on loan isn't going to change much

A couple of weeks ago I read something that Grant said he’ll not stand in the way of anyone wanting to leave, there is something happening behind the scenes for him to come out with that

Hopefully Close & Broadbent although I doubt it will be the latter; he’ll be wondering how he’s in the starting XI week after week. Well probably not, but I sure am.

[i_ateallthepies]

How does anybody justify keeping Westbrook, his injury history is diabolical.  He's contributed nothing this season yet.

[normal rules]

Things have to get better. At the current ppg rovers will finish on around 75 points. Which last season just scraped a playoff slot.

[danumdon]

Westbrooke & Close will make not a jot of difference in midfield in fact adding them to the mix would be a step backwards in my view.

We need a midfield player in the mould of a Ben Whiteman. Someone who can dictate play, has a good engine, can pick a pass & drive the team on.

We have too many ‘pretty footballers’ Molyneau, Gibson, Hurst, Kelly that don’t have enough physicality needed in this division, especially in the ‘centre of the park’.

I do feel we need another forward. Billy has been a shadow of the striker we hoped to see back here & Joe was muscled out of the game at Walsall, he looked knackered second half.

But along with a forward to freshen & hopefully ignite that forward line we do need that midfield nous to ‘release’ the forwards.

Grant has made successful signings for us in the past come the January window, he must pull another couple of gems out of the hat for us now if we’re to gain automatic promotion.

The point about "pretty footballers" is unfortunately close to the mark.

Yesterday was a good example of this, they had Lakin in their midfield, a player we had on loan and decided was surplus to requirements, as a player he is not pretty but he gets up and down, puts a foot in when needed and can see a pass, and more importantly execute it.

Can we say the same about any of our midfield yesterday?

Until we can correct this "in-balance in our squad (not just team) we will struggle to progress.

For me the worse thing about all this is that we look to be wasting the skill, desire and energy levels our players do have by constantly and repeatedly changing our setup. Players at this level are there for a reason, keep it simple and consistent and we may just see some progress from this squad.

If we continue to constantly have to chase games because our starting setup has backfired again then we will never see the true potential of this squad of players.

Pick the players who best suit the formation that you will get best value from and try sticking to this so the players can develop, finesse and improve it, at the moment we look to be chasing shadows and struggle to impose our gamelan because it changes so much in setup and personnel.

[GazLaz]

I don’t think we have enough “pretty” footballers for the way we want to play.

[leedshayter]

Grant did say he would not swap the front 6 for any other 6 in the league and his 2strikers were the best in this league……..We had a solitary shot on goal against Walsall .we were awful !

[GazLaz]

Grant did say he would not swap the front 6 for any other 6 in the league and his 2strikers were the best in this league……..We had a solitary shot on goal against Walsall .we were awful !

Well, if he has the best players he needs to look at himself.

[Lesonthewest]

Our midfield lacks mobility (Kelly apart), & strength.

[DonnyOsmond]

Grant did say he would not swap the front 6 for any other 6 in the league and his 2strikers were the best in this league……..We had a solitary shot on goal against Walsall .we were awful !

He's signing another forward so was probably just a comment to get the players' confidence up.

Everyone has an opinion on what we need, some seem to think we need a brand new team despite being 3rd, me personally I reckon we just need a pacey left winger so that we can get behind teams like we did well with Adelakun last season.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Grant did say he would not swap the front 6 for any other 6 in the league and his 2strikers were the best in this league……..We had a solitary shot on goal against Walsall .we were awful !

He's signing another forward so was probably just a comment to get the players' confidence up.

Everyone has an opinion on what we need, some seem to think we need a brand new team despite being 3rd, me personally I reckon we just need a pacey left winger so that we can get behind teams like we did well with Adelakun last season.

I don't think we need a brand new team.

I do think we need a very different approach.

Tell me any game this season where a team has set an organised low block against us, and we've poked like being able to unlock it regularly. I genuinely cannot think of one.

All our better performances have come when teams press us high up the pitch and give us space to hit them hard and fast. In THOSE games, we are comfortably the best side in the division. But who is going to play like that against us from now to April?

[BillyStubbsTears]

PS
Of course, SOME will, because there are some shit managers like Adkins and Alexander. Most aren't that bad and will now what they need to do to neutralise us.

[Padge_DRFC]

We don't have pretty footballers.

Players I'd say that are really technically good are

Close, Westbrook, Sterry and Gibson.

The rest struggle under pressure and in tight spaces and with one touch quick pass and move.

[Bentley Bullet]

If we can't be successful by playing to our own strengths then we are not good enough.

A team with promotion aspirations should be good enough to let the opposition adapt to their tactics instead of the other way around.

[GazLaz]

If we can't be successful by playing to our own strengths then we are not good enough.

A team with promotion aspirations should be good enough to let the opposition adapt to their tactics instead of the other way around.

I agree. We’ve got a bit of an underdog setup. We have been one of the favourites for the league since early on. We need to trust our own style.