EFL Trophy Burton v Rovers (Pizza Cup)

[Brightonian]

Good point about many of our players compared well in terms of technical ability, although concerned we may not keep hold of all. I had really written off Jon Nolan as always unavailable through injury or illness and when seen not inspiring. However wonder if you all believe he may now have a part to play as thought Kane responded to having a higher quality technical player to help orchestrate the play and the midfield seemed to be so much more cohesive? Could he be the catalyst (as admired him in the past) after all, or was it just all a flash in the pan with pizza cup games allowing more time on the ball than league games .
Had seen great potential in Rhys Hughes really hoping he would get more street wise to add to his obvious ability but agree he was really poor when he came on not only the inept headed clearance. Obviously not easy when been getting very few minutes at all of late but disappointing as really wanted him to do well.

 

[Ian]

Rhys Hughes is typical of our setup at the moment. A young, inconsistent player. We can't rely on the youngsters to produce every week.

 

[Boz]

Rhys Hughes is typical of our setup at the moment. A young, inconsistent player. We can't rely on the youngsters to produce every week.

Inconsistency isn’t just a monopoly of the youngsters though Ian. As Brightonian points out above Nolan has been fairly inconsistent during his Rovers career and just one example amongst the senior players.

 

[Ian]

No, but it doesn't help with so many. I don't think Nolan has been fit most of the time and certainly has only played a small amount of games. I'm sure with fitness and a decent run in the side he would be more of an asset to the team.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

No, but it doesn't help with so many. I don't think Nolan has been fit most of the time and certainly has only played a small amount of games. I'm sure with fitness and a decent run in the side he would be more of an asset to the team.

Yes, I agree.

I think the inconsistency is about the squad as a whole, not individual players. As a team we have not responded well to adversity on a number of occasions this season (conceding early against Carlisle x 2 and Wimbledon, and the collapse at Newport being some examples) and I think that reflects the inexperience of the side.

Having said that, if we had a couple of decent, in form strikers I think the first eleven would be good enough to challenge for promotion.

 

[drwhoman]

Yes, I agree.

I think the inconsistency is about the squad as a whole, not individual players. As a team we have not responded well to adversity on a number of occasions this season (conceding early against Carlisle x 2 and Wimbledon, and the collapse at Newport being some examples) and I think that reflects the inexperience of the side.

Having said that, if we had a couple of decent, in form strikers I think the first eleven would be good enough to challenge for promotion.

I agree entirely with your second paragraph RLC,. Any inconsistencies would not be a huge issue if we had forwards who were able to score goals regularly. At present, we simply know that we will struggle if the other side score first.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

If you can’t score goals, you can’t win matches.
If you do score a goal but can’t defend for 90 minutes, you can’t win matches.
If every time you go behind or concede a goal, you let your heads drop, you can’t win matches.
Too often this season, we have failed on at least one of the above. It was bad enough last season but is worse this time