League Two Rovers v Stags

[ALDO MUSSY]

Like any job we all make errors and it falls on your head after seeing MM's interview think we all know he is Pissed off LOL it is good seeing him angry we might get a reaction for the next game

 

[ALDO MUSSY]

and Wow its Stevenage then Crawley it could be a bleak few weeks

 

[ALDO MUSSY]

if at the end of this run of games, we might have a dif manager

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

My previous post suggested just by changing the areas in which we loaned youngsters, the squad becomes more balanced, it doesn’t affect the financial position.

You are putting the cart before the horse. The financial position affects the balance of the squad. We don't have the resources to have depth and options in all areas, so we are forced to choose between different positions, shedding players in one area to get more competition in another. Mellon - or any other manager - is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

We can't get sufficient quality in the squad just by juggling players around as you suggest. It is nonsense. The gross spend is not sufficient to give us the quality we need.

On Saturday Mansfield brought one of the best midfielders in the division (Boateng) off the bench and decided they did not even need to use Danny Johnson. That is the kind of depth you need to challenge for promotion.

 

[Boz]

RLC we’re going to have to agree to differ on this. In a nutshell I think it was possible to improve the squad balance with our mid-season dealings under current financial constraints and you don’t. There will always be moneybags teams in L2 with more money to chuck at their teams than us, but that’s another topic.

 

[ONIGP]

and Wow its Stevenage then Crawley it could be a bleak few weeks

I assume the "wow" relates purely to Stevenage? Crawley sit 23rd and will be an expected win. If we are beaten in that one then meltdown will hit a whole new level!

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

RLC we’re going to have to agree to differ on this. In a nutshell I think it was possible to improve the squad balance with our mid-season dealings under current financial constraints and you don’t. There will always be moneybags teams in L2 with more money to chuck at their teams than us, but that’s another topic.

It was not possible to improve the squad to a standard where it could compete for promotion. No way.

Hendry and co. probably will improve it slightly in the creative areas, once they settle.

 

[Boz]

It was not possible to improve the squad to a standard where it could compete for promotion. No way.

Hendry and co. probably will improve it slightly in the creative areas, once they settle.

Where did I say it was?
Think it was possible to strengthen the squad within the limitations of budget to improve our play-off prospects.
I’m not convinced yet that overall the changes have improved us creatively or otherwise. Early days and Walker’s fitness/injury issues haven’t helped assess.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Where did I say it was?
Think it was possible to strengthen the squad within the limitations of budget to improve our play-off prospects.
I’m not convinced yet that overall the changes have improved us creatively or otherwise. Early days and Walker’s fitness/injury issues haven’t helped assess.

If it is only a trivial, marginal improvement, what difference does it make ? My fundamental point is that it is very difficult to strengthen if you have to ship a player out for money every time you recruit, unless the transfer fees received are substantial.

I think we have strengthened in midfield, as Hendry is better on the ball than Merrie or O'Connor, irrespective of the other signings.

 

[Ian]

Annoyingly, we are only a couple of players short of a decent side; however those players occupy crucial positions. Defensively we are fine when Turnbull returns, midfield is improved with Hendry and possibly Walker, we have Hawkes and Morris out wide. But.. we need a decent keeper and two good strikers, well, maybe just one that is able to find the net. We will always struggle with injuries/suspensions as we don't have a good enough or big enough squad to compensate for the loses. Making minor adjustments is neither here nor there when you do not have the required players to change games.

 

[ADD]

Annoyingly, we are only a couple of players short of a decent side; however those players occupy crucial positions. Defensively we are fine when Turnbull returns, midfield is improved with Hendry and possibly Walker, we have Hawkes and Morris out wide. But.. we need a decent keeper and two good strikers, well, maybe just one that is able to find the net. We will always struggle with injuries/suspensions as we don't have a good enough or big enough squad to compensate for the loses. Making minor adjustments is neither here nor there when you do not have the required players to change games.

We have a decent keeper. Murphy even at his age remains better than either Doohan or Hewelt. Issue was he either wasn't keen on playing/ was struggling fitness wise or most likely we wanted to "develop" Doohan and yet despite not impressing once again this season we got lucky with FGR wasting money on him.

Hemmings remains a good striker but as I said much earlier this season he would be much better off elsewhere and will surely look for a move season end given he is totally unsuited to our style of play and to my mind we are dragging him down.

 

[Ian]

Good strikers tend to score goals. I think Hemmings is past his prime. Yes, Murphy is a good keeper but I don't think he was meant to be playing into his 40s. Bit of a sorry state really.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Murphy does not want to play regularly, and it is pretty absurd if we have to rely on a 41 year old having recruited two other keepers.

Hemmings was not as prolific as Vaughan / Norwood / Cook when he was at his best. He is now 31 years old and far from at his best. Burton refused to offer him a long contract for a reason.

 

[Boz]

I assume the "wow" relates purely to Stevenage? Crawley sit 23rd and will be an expected win. If we are beaten in that one then meltdown will hit a whole new level!

We couldn’t beat Rochdale at home and Crawley have had some strange results. Most likely win, but I’m not counting any chickens…

 

[drwhoman]

Rovers are between a rock and a hard place. Some decent players but not enough of them to get us promotion. This is particularly evident at the front where we have no one capable of scoring regularly at L2 level. I am not suggesting that the guys do not try hard but they are either not good enough full stop or past it like Hemmings. I was amazed that Crewe took Nevitt off our hands. Again, another guy just not good enough. Some people want to sack the Manager - a perfectly understandable reaction - but without a significant cash investment in the squad nothing will change whoever is in charge. As I have said before, if you look through the National League and NLN there are a lot of clubs in the north of England that were once in the League but are never going to get back unless they get some Hollywood owners! Maybe we should be grateful for what we have?! Interestingly, it seems to be far less the case with clubs in the south of England but maybe that reflects the geographic location of L1/L2 clubs in past history, there being more of a northern bias, but also, and probably more importantly, the north/south of England wealth divide. This is still very much the case today whatever the government says about 'leveling up'!

 

[Stickman]

Like any job we all make errors and it falls on your head after seeing MM's interview think we all know he is Pissed off LOL it is good seeing him angry we might get a reaction for the next game

I'm not sure repeatedly using bad language is a good idea, especially when he appeared to be publicly criticising the players. He needs to stay professional and keep the players onside. I doubt Palios will have been impressed.

 

[Stickman]

Good strikers tend to score goals. I think Hemmings is past his prime. Yes, Murphy is a good keeper but I don't think he was meant to be playing into his 40s. Bit of a sorry state really.

I still think Hemmings has something to offer. For me, we simply don't make enough good chances and haven't done for a long time. If we had Kane and Harland up front all season they'd struggle to score double figures between them.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

In fairness, I think Kane and Haarland would score plenty of goals with the service the two fullbacks provide.

Hemmings has played in front of various midfielders and wide players now and at some point you have to question his performances rather than those of the players around him. Good strikers make chances for themselves through movement, anticipation etc.

 

[Stickman]

In fairness, I think Kane and Haarland would score plenty of goals with the service the two fullbacks provide.

Hemmings has played in front of various midfielders and wide players now and at some point you have to question his performances rather than those of the players around him. Good strikers make chances for themselves through movement, anticipation etc.

Perhaps a slight exaggeration on my part!

I think Hemmings form is as much to do with confidence as ability though. If he moves on in the summer it wouldn't surprise me to see him do well elsewhere.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I think it is more likely that he is on the wane.