Oldham 0-0 Superwhitearmy

[SonkORLY?]

Horribly depressing game. Oldham created a lot of half chances, we didn't. Ball retention in midfield is not just awful, but nonexistant, and no attempt is made to keep posession or build basic attacks. Hoof it up to Enoch with nobody anywhere near him, then back into position and defend again...it's awful, we need to be more ambitious.

That said, 3 points clear of the relegation zone with a relatively decent goal difference and 2 games in hand.

Our official MOTM was Tony Warner, although I think McChrystal may feel unlucky to miss out on that title. Enoch did well too. Labadie was industrious when he came on, but what a stupid yellow card to pick up.

Post-match injury news: Robbo's done his groin, McCrystal - though not obvious during the game - has done his hamstring. Robbo will almost certainly be out for Sat, not sure yet about MM. Suspect Goodi's 2-game ban means he's more likely to start, fully fit or otherwise. Despite appearing to pull up before being brought off, Jenno's fine, just lacking in fitness and sharpness.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

With both clubs' recent results, a 0-0 draw is only to be expected. I expect more dire fair is to come before the end of the season. I suppose I should be pleased about a point and a clean sheet. I don't know how we are going to score many goals, but only nine more clean sheets and we should be safe!

Another MOTM display by Tony Warner, who must be Les's find of the season. Slightly off-topic, I notice that Gulasci has been on the bench regularly for Liverpool. Brad Jones has just been loaned to Derby, which makes Peter the Reds' number two goalie.

 

[Ian]

Listened to the game. It sounded dreadful.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Just got back, and I am not as disappointed as some of the other posters on here, whcih probably just goes to show how much my expectations have been lowered !

I would agree with Sonko's comments regarding our style of play, particularly in the first half. Every side we come up against, regardless of their form or position in the league, passes the ball better than us, and I am at a loss to understand what we do on the training ground in terms of basic ball retention and technique.

That said, I thought we were industrious throughout the game, and had a strong spell of twenty minutes at the start of the second half when we created our best (and probably only) chance of the game when Dale wriggled free of two defenders and whipped a dangerous ball int the box.

It was a strange game, in that Oldham created six or seven decent chances, yet I still felt on the balance of play we deserved a point.

McCrystal was man of the match, Warner made a couple of decent saves, Goodison had his ropiest 45 minutes of the season in the first half. Robinson looked decent before his injury, ditto Akins (despite getting relentless abuse from most of the people sitting near to me).

Basically, I think we were lucky we were up against a side hopelessly out of sorts in front of goal, or we may have narrowly lost tonight.

I have not digested all of the above comments regarding the injuries, but it seems we are seriously short up front again, at a time when we are desperately struggling to create and score goals.

A battling point tonight, and all the effort and commitment we have come to expect this season, but also the lack of quality and composure on the ball in much of the game. All is not rosy in the garden, as was obvious from the reaction of a minority of fans to Les at the final whistle.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Utter, utter guff. Total rubbish. Typical League One away team: park the bus and get a draw. We had a chance tonight to show what, if anything, we could do. We didn't. We were abject. A point won. Great? I'll be looking for excuses not to be at PP on Saturday. If that's football, I'll go and watch korfball. Just rubbish. Nearly had a heart attack when we strung two passes together. But we didn't, so I didn't.

Hats off to the players who battled away, did their job and got Tranmere Rovers a point which might ensure another season in League One. I've had enough. I can't watch any more of that.

Funnily enough, we were actually more effective when our two most talented players, Robinson and Jennings, went off. Says it all.

Lucas Akins. What's that all about? Waste of a shirt.

Sorry. Been a cheerleader for that mob all season. Had enough. Discuss.

 

[SonkORLY?]

I can understand you feeling that way. While Les has done a good in terms of getting points on the board, and (probably) keeping us in this division on a shoestring budget, the football is astoundingly negative and dire to watch.

It doesn't matter so much away from home, but at Prenton Park, our fans will be looking for better entertainment value. I think that simply by changing to a 4-4-2 we'd be forced into playing better football. Enoch wouldn't be so lonely for a start, and it would probably force Akins out of the reckoning. From a technical standpoint, 3-5-2 should work well at this level (based on the fact that most teams play 4-4-2 with a flat backline) so I'm surprised that none of the more forward-thinking managers have tried it out (to my knowledge).

I actually wouldn't mind the 4-5-1 if we played with particulaly good organisation, or transitioned well into attack, or if I could us utilising the extra man in midfield to retain possesion, but there's basically nothing to admire about it. We defend deep, we work hard. That's it. Our widemen have no idea what they're doing and our style of play stifles the likes of Jenno, Robbo etc who can't get on the ball. It isn't 4-3-3.

No Sky Sports Ian? Proper lower-league footy fan stuff right there. You probably could have found a pub with it on though? Drown your sorrows...

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I just wish we would string two passes together. Watching Rovers home and away feels like a second job at the moment, as the entertainment value is non-existent.

From Les's reaction to the fans at the final whistle tonight, I think he is pretty clueless as regards the levels of disconsistent at the moment, as I fear is Johnson. A case of the blind leading the blind.

As for Sky Sports, I could have it, but wouldn't give money to the scumbags on principle.

 

[SonkORLY?]

I couldn't live without Sky Sports, I enjoy watching football too much. I wish I could justify paying for ESPN too, since they cover Serie A and Bundesliga, but can't quite bring myself to do it. I probably watch Eurosport more than anything though

I just wish we would string two passes together. Watching Rovers home and away feels like a second job at the moment, as the entertainment value is non-existent.

Yes. The thing that annoys me is that we can pass the ball a bit and still defend deep, and work hard off the ball...these supposedly wonderful things that help us get 0-0 draws at Oldham have nothing to do with what we do when we're in posession. It's not one or the other. Les, though completely opposite to Barnes in terms of tactics, shares with his predecessor an obsession with working only on one aspect of our game, while completely ignoring the other. It's bizarre.

Look at Barca - you've never seen a more hard-working and tenacious midfield trio in your life, but when they get the ball, they try to keep it. Obviously I'm not saying that we should play like Barca, but working hard off the ball isn't an excuse for being lazy on it. Weir, Robinson, Welsh and Labadie are all capable of playing a few straight-forward passes. Both of our full-backs are good on the ball. Dale Jennings is a tremendous talent. We are capable of better.

Even the worst teams in this league constantly dominate posession versus us, and do so with a man less in the middle. It's atrocious.

 

[Ian]

From Les's reaction to the fans at the final whistle tonight, I think he is pretty clueless as regards the levels of disconsistent at the moment, as I fear is Johnson. A case of the blind leading the blind.

Yes, indeed. And of course you have people like Andy Doyle floating around the club with rose tinted specs on. Get real, everyone I've spoken to since the game has that it was abysmal to watch.

It may all be about the results right now, but people won't be flocking to PP to watch that rubbish.

 

[bigmart]

A totally dire performance against a team low on confidence who outplayed us throughout the game.

We should have tried to take the game to them and looked for 3 points rather than sit back and hope for a 0 0. Fair play to them they pssed the ball around quite well at times and made our tactics look a joke.

We will get battered on saturday unless there is a vast improvement in our performance and i think its going to go to the last game of the season again to stay up.

 

[Rob]

Crap game and a total waste of money making the trip there.

A large number of our fans were an absolute disgrace as well during and after the match.

 

[roverstillidie]

That was the first time I've watched Rovers in a while and our style of play has actually got worse, I didn't think that was even possible. All we do is hoof it to Akins/Showunmi and hope something happens. What happened to giving Jennings the ball? Les is playing him so deep that when he gets the ball he can't do anything with it, or it's been played to him via the outer atmosphere.

Les is ruining our style of play, ruining our attendances, wasting our budgets on endless loan signings and players such as Akins and now he's endager of ruing Jennings by turning him into a left wing back.

I was going to go to Sheffield Wednesday next week as it's very close to me, but the "style" of play makes me question whether the expense is really worth it. I don't want to pay £20 to watch our centre backs and goalkeeper hoof it off the pitch down the right hand side. It's absolutely awful. Les needs to get a grip and start trying to pass the ball, or the players need to do it themselves. God knows what goes on in training! Do they play lets see who can hoof it over the Mersey?

The most bizzare thing is we actually have a team that is capable of stringing a few passes together, it's just their told not to. The other bizarre thing that I really can't get my head around is that we have one of the shortest teams in the division yet we insist on hoofing it:-k

This kind of line up would be capable of passing the ball:

Warner

Kay McCrystal Goodison Creswell

Robinson Welsh Labadie Bakayogo/Fraughan

Showunmi Jennings

or if you prefer 4-3-3 (actual 4-3-3 not 4-5-1)

Warner

Kay McCrystal Goodison Creswell

Welsh Labadie Fraughan

Robinson Showunmi Jennings


I havn't included Weir in either of those line ups as I havn't seen him pass the ball yet, admittedly I havn't seen many games this season so correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Ian]

A large number of our fans were an absolute disgrace as well during and after the match.

For what reason?

All we do is hoof it to Akins/Showunmi and hope something happens. What happened to giving Jennings the ball? Les is playing him so deep that when he gets the ball he can't do anything with it, or it's been played to him via the outer atmosphere.

Summed up nicely. You should try sitting through the home games, tactics are exactly the same.

 

[Mal]

Dear Les,

I've removed my rant caused by watching one too many dross performances this season. Tomorrow's another day. And 3 of 4 results tonight went in our favour.

 

[Mal]

comment no longer appropriate

 

[DIW]

Sorry everyone. I cannot think of a positive comment just now.

How about we didn't lose?

 

[roverstillidie]

I would rather get relegated and play good football in league 2 than play this dire hoof ball and scrape by in league 1.

 

[Mal]

No further comment :0)

Except that, blow me down with a feather!

Swindon, Daggers and Wednesday all lost, so technically it really was a useful point gained for Rovers.

 

[Boz]

The bit of the game that I caught wasn't inspiring. Rovers were much worse last night than the 2 away games I've made to date (Huddersfield & Charlton) and Les was right to recognise that we were lucky. However to some extent, it doesn't matter how we play away; would accept the view that the end justifies the means and this point could prove valuable. It's entirely different when we play the same way at home and it's driving our own fans away. Frustrating, given we have some players who can play it quite well on the deck.

RTID's passing team includes McChrystal, who's a decent defender, but lacking on the distribution front. With Goodi out for the next 2 games, we're struggling for any central defender who will try to carry the ball out from the back. Blanchard is the best bet, but he seems to be totally out of favour with Les.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Goodi's distribution is markedly worse than McCrystals. Both should be capable of finding either one of our full-backs with a 5 yard pass or giving the ball to one of our 3 central midfielders to be honest. As a center-half, oftentimes your best bet is to just hoof it up...but they don't even look up or consider an alternative to twatting it as far as they can and that depresses me.

I would rather get relegated and play good football in league 2 than play this dire hoof ball and scrape by in league 1.

Sort of agree with this. In all honesty I don't care what we do away from home but we have to be more entertaining at PP. I'm not asking for total football, but playing 2 strikers would be a start.