• Nigel Adkins has been given the Tranmere job on a permanent basis signing until the end of the 25/26 season. Continue the discussion here.

rovers v swindle town

Ian

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I don't think Perkins is a playmaker as such. We should leave that to Banks. He reminds me of a better Harris. Physicaly similar, hard worker but much better with the ball at his feet. Doesn't do anything fancy but he's neat and tidy.
 
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I don't think Perkins is a playmaker as such. We should leave that to Banks. He reminds me of a better Harris. Physicaly similar, hard worker but much better with the ball at his feet. Doesn't do anything fancy but he's neat and tidy.

Whilst trying to be positive (as they are doing so well in their position in the league), I'm not sure I get the Banks playmaker thing.
He gave away possession so much today, simple passes being misplaced, and holding his hands up in complaint to his team mates. He strikes me as a luxury player who may play one great pass out of 20.
He did set up Norwood for the goal, but missed so many simple passes...maybe just a poor game, and not on his own!
 
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Banks just had a poor game. It happens to every player, and might have been due to the presence of Ritchie Wellens, who he fell out badly with at Oldham.

He is by far our most creative midfielder and a vital component of the team, in my view. His good performances far outweigh the bad this season.
 
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Banks just had a poor game. It happens to every player, and might have been due to the presence of Ritchie Wellens, who he fell out badly with at Oldham.

He is by far our most creative midfielder and a vital component of the team, in my view. His good performances far outweigh the bad this season.

Quite possibly, as I don't see every game.
No one did that well today did they, so here's to the next one!
 

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A very poor performance, as bad a display as we have produced all season.

The first half was abysmal. The 532 formation does not work at home and I hope that is the last we see of the system at Prenton Park. We were too deep, with too many players in areas of the pitch where they were not affecting play, and we invited Swindon on to us. The same happened against Morecambe and Yeovil a few weeks ago, but the difference today was that Swindon had the quality to punish us. Irrespective of the tactics, I thought the attitude of the players collectively and individually was unacceptable in the first period: no energy, no pressure on the ball, lazy and sloppy passing. As has been mentioned, Woolery caused Caprice and Ellis all sorts of problems down our right hand side, and if Ellis was not fit he should not have started.

The second half was a bit better, after the change to 442. However, aside from the pressure of the first fifteen minutes, we created very little, with Swindon making defensive substitutions which nullified us.

Individually, I thought Jennings did ok when he came on, and Caprice at least gave us energy and width on the right hand side. Perkins again showed he is a good player, showing good energy and reasonable quality on the ball. Miller was very disappointing; he made one good surging run which should have resulted in a penalty, but did not hold the ball up as we needed him to and was quite sloppy. Nobody else comes out with credit, and Banks in particular was completely anonymous today aside from the assist for Norwood's goal.

We are still only two points off the play offs, but in reality I don't think we have the consistency to mount a promotion challenge.
A very good summary RLC - MM post match said Ellis substitution was purely tactical but our back line is simply too slow. For the first goal Steve was zonal marking - 2 or 3 yards nearer our goal than their attacker and was already on the 6 yard box line but moved less than a yard and did nothing while the scorer danced in behind him and then simply walked away as it was nothing to do with him.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
I don't think Perkins is a playmaker as such. We should leave that to Banks. He reminds me of a better Harris. Physicaly similar, hard worker but much better with the ball at his feet. Doesn't do anything fancy but he's neat and tidy.
I was expecting a Harris-type player, but in this game Perkins reminded me more of Norburn’s pass and move style, he didn’t hold onto the ball that long, but was trying to create space and frequently made himself available for the return ball. Didn’t carry the ball forward much in this game, maybe down to Swindon stifling play in the midfield. While he was one of our better players, need to see more to form a judgement

I was surprised Banks had such a low key game, expected him to try and make a point against his former boss Wellens, who clearly didn’t rate him.
 

Boz

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A very good summary RLC - MM post match said Ellis substitution was purely tactical but our back line is simply too slow. For the first goal Steve was zonal marking - 2 or 3 yards nearer our goal than their attacker and was already on the 6 yard box line but moved less than a yard and did nothing while the scorer danced in behind him and then simply walked away as it was nothing to do with him.
Ellis a bit unlucky if his removal was purely tactical, though I suppose the obvious one to hook given doubts about his fitness.

Haven’t seen their first goal again, but my initial impression was neither of McNulty and Monthe picked up the scorer. Generally Monthe had a reasonable game. However he’s not capable of organising a defence and neither is Ellis. Losing Sutton means we’ve only McNulty who can do that. However any repetition of this below par performance means big Steve’s place in the starting xi may be in doubt.
 
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IAN is it consistency or stubbornness on mickys part? we were rubbish against Yeovil at home so to persist with the same tactics is beyond me
 
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5/3/2/ away may suit us but recent games have shone at home we look lost, miller coming off and not putting mullin on to me shows that micky relies on his favourites, playing perkins before Gilmore who has some pace leaves me with the impression micky may be a bit stubborn for his own good
 
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The 532 system has been successful away from home and I think Mellon likes continuity and does not like to chop and change, which is why he has persisted with it at home. That will probably change now. Jennings was excellent up front alongside Norwood at Macclesfield and has been in great form recently, so to me he was the obvious choice to partner Nors when Miller went off. It is easy to exaggerate the difference another player (Mullin) would have made to a performance that was fundamentally poor. Steve struggled in the second half when he was isolated against their pacy strikers, but he was by no means the only poor performer out there and seems to be something of a scapegoat.
 
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IAN is it consistency or stubbornness on mickys part? we were rubbish against Yeovil at home so to persist with the same tactics is beyond me
We were brilliant at Cheltenham and beat Morecambe at home with the same tactics, so before a ball was kicked it was easy to see why he would use that system. In future I don't think we will use that formation at Prenton Park, but hindsight is twenty twenty.
 

Boz

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I don't think McNulty can be exempt from criticism after this performance, which was most unlike him. There were a few weak back headers and one poor back-pass which could easily have had similar consequences to McCulloch's. He didn't seem to be his usual vocal self either. While I don't think Monthe was at his best either, he was much the better of the central pair in this game.
 
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He did not strike me as being any worse than the other defenders in the first half. In fact, I thought Ellis was the poorest of the three before being subbed, both defensively and with his distribution.

I am a big fan of McNulty and have always defended him against some of the daft criticism he has received over the years. However, I thought in the second half there were signs of time catching up with him, when he really struggled to deal with the pace of their strikers.
 
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A very good summary RLC - MM post match said Ellis substitution was purely tactical but our back line is simply too slow. For the first goal Steve was zonal marking - 2 or 3 yards nearer our goal than their attacker and was already on the 6 yard box line but moved less than a yard and did nothing while the scorer danced in behind him and then simply walked away as it was nothing to do with him.
We have still got one of the best defensive records at home in the league, so I don't think you can make generalisations about the quality of the defence on the back of one defeat. I don't personally think McNulty's pace, or lack of it, had anything to do with the first goal. He just lost his man for a split second and Monthe did not cover him.
 

Boz

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It wasn’t his issue with the pace of Swindon’s forwards which troubled me as much as his struggling to do the things like back-pass and deliver on-field leadership, things which normally Steve does so well. Maybe team-mates poor showings dragged him down? Ellis was on the opposite side of the pitch to me, so will accept what RLC says though I didn’t notice any howlers.
 

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Just watched the goals. The first was caprices
fault as he lost his man. The second was McCulloughs altho it was a risk by Scottie throwing it out to him as Swindon were pressing high and Luke was a bit cumbersome and his pass was intercepted.

Looking back I think it was the worst first half performance I’ve seen at home for a few years. And it continues our overall poor form in the last couple of months apart from the 2nd half at a poor Cheltenham side.

Nors finish was brilliant and could be another reason why surely someone will come in for him before the end of the month. God help us when he does go.
 
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it continues our overall poor form in the last couple of months apart from the 2nd half at a poor Cheltenham side.
I think this just reflects the overall quality of the squad we have, which is probably middling at this level. We don't have the resources to cherry pick the top players like Lincoln, Mansfield and Bury - look at some of the signings they have made in the last couple of weeks - and I doubt we will be able to compete with them financially next season either. All of which makes me wish Palios had been a bit more circumspect in his predictions at the start of the season.

We have had quite a few ins and outs in the last few days, and although some people are clamouring for more signings, I would rather we just let the current players settle and gel and recruit again in the summer. It is difficult to recruit well and integrate players in January, and the 2014-15 season showed what can go wrong if you make too many changes, too quickly.

The pass to Norwood actually seemed to be slightly behind him, so as you say, a brilliant finish. The first Rovers player to score twenty goals by January since John Aldridge.
 

Boz

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We have had quite a few ins and outs in the last few days, and although some people are clamouring for more signings, I would rather we just let the current players settle and gel and recruit again in the summer. It is difficult to recruit well and integrate players in January, and the 2014-15 season showed what can go wrong if you make too many changes, too quickly.
More outs than ins. Do you think we've got enough depth in the squad to cover any likely contingency? In this game, the only starter with any pace was Caprice and he was reluctant to use it. Tollitt didn't even make the bench for Wrexham and seems out of the equation at Rovers. If McNulty's unavalable, unless Buxton or as a long shot Gumbs are great at organising a defence, we struggle there. The youth players seem light years away from the first team. We probably need about 3 more wins to ensure L2 survival, as a primary aim and if all the squad remain fit, I'd expect safety to be guaranteed in the next month.
 
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Do you think we've got enough depth in the squad to cover any likely contingency?
Perhaps not, but I suppose it depends what your target for the season is. I think promotion is unlikely, and as you say yourself, we are not going to be relegated.

On that basis, I would rather we wait until the summer before recruiting, when some players with genuine quality that are in our price range are available. I would not see the point in bulking the squad out with bodies who are no better than the ones who have just left.

Then again, maybe there are some top players we have lined up already. Who knows ?
 

bigmart

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Ive heard that Ash Taylor is due in for talks on thursday
 
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