Let's talk about the AFC Wimbledon game

[Padge_DRFC]

If they're like last season this could be a horrible game. I call them drinks break FC. They scored first and their keeper is going to have many injury problems today

[GazLaz]

The midfield balance was wrong. We can play EITHER Crew and Broadbent, not both. No need to play two No6 against Wimbledon. You need men in front of the ball not behind it. The space is in behind them, trying to play through them is pointless. We get it wrong tactically against them every time we play them. So obvious how to get at them. Just look at the style of teams they struggle against. There is a trend.

[In the box]

The midfield balance was wrong. We can play EITHER Crew and Broadbent, not both. No need to play two No6 against Wimbledon. You need men in front of the ball not behind it. The space is in behind them, trying to play through them is pointless. We get it wrong tactically against them every time we play them. So obvious how to get at them. Just look at the style of teams they struggle against. There is a trend.

The trend is we are becoming predictable, in our line up ,selecting the same formation and players continually , leaving very little to concern the opposition if they do they home work .
 It’s our reliance on one central striker Sharp looking for loose balls provided by only one left sided winger in Gibson as our right sided Molyneux is not got his game up and running and it’s getting to predictable when he looses possession.
Our midfield are not moving the ball quick enough going forward resulting in too many backward passes because of not taking on the oppositions midfield and passing back wards to avoid taking them on .
McCann never takes his share of the blame if his team failing to produce .. there is a lot of talent on the bench that should now start and allow a broader style with a bit more flair going forward .

[GazLaz]

The midfield balance was wrong. We can play EITHER Crew and Broadbent, not both. No need to play two No6 against Wimbledon. You need men in front of the ball not behind it. The space is in behind them, trying to play through them is pointless. We get it wrong tactically against them every time we play them. So obvious how to get at them. Just look at the style of teams they struggle against. There is a trend.

The trend is we are becoming predictable, in our line up ,selecting the same formation and players continually , leaving very little to concern the opposition if they do they home work .
 It’s our reliance on one central striker Sharp looking for loose balls provided by only one left sided winger in Gibson as our right sided Molyneux is not got his game up and running and it’s getting to predictable when he looses possession.
Our midfield are not moving the ball quick enough going forward resulting in too many backward passes because of not taking on the oppositions midfield and passing back wards to avoid taking them on .
McCann never takes his share of the blame if his team failing to produce .. there is a lot of talent on the bench that should now start and allow a broader style with a bit more flair going forward .

I think that when Grant makes tactical changes they are pretty sweeping or inconsequential. There’s never much in between. Today for example we had Sharp, Gibson and Moly all coming to feet every time. You need to spin Wimbledon and get in behind, he should have picked a team to exploit this.

[Usher wide.]

The midfield balance was wrong. We can play EITHER Crew and Broadbent, not both. No need to play two No6 against Wimbledon. You need men in front of the ball not behind it. The space is in behind them, trying to play through them is pointless. We get it wrong tactically against them every time we play them. So obvious how to get at them. Just look at the style of teams they struggle against. There is a trend.

The trend is we are becoming predictable, in our line up ,selecting the same formation and players continually , leaving very little to concern the opposition if they do they home work .
 It’s our reliance on one central striker Sharp looking for loose balls provided by only one left sided winger in Gibson as our right sided Molyneux is not got his game up and running and it’s getting to predictable when he looses possession.
Our midfield are not moving the ball quick enough going forward resulting in too many backward passes because of not taking on the oppositions midfield and passing back wards to avoid taking them on .
McCann never takes his share of the blame if his team failing to produce .. there is a lot of talent on the bench that should now start and allow a broader style with a bit more flair going forward .

I think that when Grant makes tactical changes they are pretty sweeping or inconsequential. There’s never much in between. Today for example we had Sharp, Gibson and Moly all coming to feet every time. You need to spin Wimbledon and get in behind, he should have picked a team to exploit this.

I know you have the benefit of hindsight but please do tell.

What would your team have been to beat Wimbledon today?

[DonnyBazR0ver]

We were just too safe today, taking too many easy sideways or backward options and on the odd occasion we made some headway, we gave up possession too cheaply with the midfield not pressing enough to get the second balls.

Crew, and Bailey at times, were pedestrian often walking about instead of getting into space. We often reverted to longer out balls but telegraphed what we were doing with those balls after falling short or being easy for their back line to mop up.

Around the tike we scored we had a bit of joy with free kicks and corners and for maybe 5 or 10 mins after we had the upper hand. I don't think the subs were particularly wrong (yes, maybe Moly should have been hooked before Gibson) I thought Olusanya looked quite lively but you can't legislate to the mistakes that were the catalyst to conceding the two goals. The basic errors have crept in and we're just not maintaining the standards set up to the Bradford game with the energy levels dropping off a cliff.

Thankfully, we're not the only ones struggling to find consistency at the moment but we can't afford to slump and go through the motions.

[Branton Red]

Tough conditions; tough hard to beat, organized, hard-working, spoiling opponents; Rovers got the midfield balance wrong in terms of Crew playing (nothing against him personally).

Was always therefore going to be a tough, challenging game.

We go 1-0 up and are in the box seat to claim a scruffy, hard-fought win and go on to the next game - with Wimbledon not looking likely to create anything.

Unfortunately silly mistakes then cost us. The same as silly mistakes in the first 15 minutes at Wigan cost us.

Rovers hardly made any such mistakes defensively before these last 2 games this season. That's the difference.

[colincramb]

Tough conditions; tough hard to beat, organized, hard-working, spoiling opponents; Rovers got the midfield balance wrong in terms of Crew playing (nothing against him personally).

Was always therefore going to be a tough, challenging game.

We go 1-0 up and are in the box seat to claim a scruffy, hard-fought win and go on to the next game - with Wimbledon not looking likely to create anything.

Unfortunately silly mistakes then cost us. The same as silly mistakes in the first 15 minutes at Wigan cost us.

Rovers hardly made any such mistakes defensively before these last 2 games this season. That's the difference.

Sorry, but you can’t call the conditions yesterday tough

[steve@dcfd]

Quote from Grant after the game
Grant McCann insists attention will only turn to Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Tottenham Hotspur once he is satisfied the issues from the defeat to AFC Wimbledon are put to bed.

Rovers head to the capital in midweek for the mouthwatering tie with the Premier League giants but McCann’s immediate focus is getting his squad back on track for league action after the disappointment of back-to-back defeats for the first time since February.

“I’m not even thinking about Tottenham at this moment,” McCann said. “I want to make sure we get the debrief right for the players come Monday.

“Then we can think about Tottenham.

“But the Tottenham game is the Tottenham game. Our bread and butter is the league and we haven’t performed to where I need us to be over the last couple of games.

“I can’t remember the last time we got beat back-to-back. We certainly don’t want that to happen.

“What we have to do is make sure we analyse the game. Two defeats in a row is not good enough and it’s not where we want to be so we’ll pick the bones out of it with a fine-toothed comb and make sure we improve from this.”

As Grant says we have to get our performances right for the next league game after at least two disappointing performances.