• 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 Ipswich

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Norwood
If you extrapolated ours and Southend's performance in the last six matches over the remaining games, they would still finish below us. That is assuming that our form can't improve at all, which I think it can.
... then extrapolate from the last 5 games then - we have a grand total of 2 points and they have 6 so on that basis they could catch us well before season end. The point I am making is they are now 4 games unbeaten so many on here assuming that there are 2 teams guaranteed to go down and we only have to claw ourselves above one other team is not necessarily true though of course we can improve yes...
 
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We clearly have one of the lower budgets but too much has been wasted, Payne and Ray are two of our highest earners and now rarely get any game time, we have a large squad in terms of numbers and have 6 centre midfielders on our books.

The messages coming from MM & MP appear very mixed to say the least, MM has let it be known we have to ship somebody out to get another player in yet MP says we are looking at further signings. If we win on thrusday then maybe the purse strings will be relaxed a bit to bring tin the quality going forward that we need.

I don't for one minute want to change the manager even if we go down but I really lthink it will b a missed opportunity if we do gown down due to the execptional circumstances in league 1 this season.
Of the central midfielders you mention, one is a loanee, one is a youngster and one is panay as you play contract. So while the numbers might superficially appear large, the wages we are paying them are not large.
 

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I am not sure what 'tough decisions' can be made that are not already being made. All we can do is try and bring better players into the club, which we have done with Clarke and Woodyard.

If we can afford it, more will follow. If we can't, we might be relegated, but it is better to go down as a financially stable club rather than end up as a Bury or Macclesfield.

Things are looking very difficult, because they always were going to be difficult this season, after back-to-back promotions.
The tough decisions are whether to spend money we haven't got by borrowing some more and whether to stick with MM on the assumption he is the best man for the job.
 
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... then extrapolate from the last 5 games then - we have a grand total of 2 points and they have 6 so on that basis they could catch us well before season end. The point I am making is they are now 4 games unbeaten so many on here assuming that there are 2 teams guaranteed to go down and we only have to claw ourselves above one other team is not necessarily true though of course we can improve yes...
So I would guess your suggestion would be firing the manager, as it was last December (you were wrong then as well). Yes, we are struggling this season but there is only so much the club can do to address the situation. League Two next season is preferable to the Conference.
 
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The tough decisions are whether to spend money we haven't got by borrowing some more and whether to stick with MM on the assumption he is the best man for the job.
Yes, Mellon is the best man for the job. And no, the club should not spend money it has not got. That would be very daft.
 

Boz

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Ipswich still have vastly better players than us, even if they did not play particularly well in the first half. The fact that we were not completely outplayed is testament to our tactical set up and the workrate of the players. It does not imply the manager got the tactics wrong. I don't know how familiar you are with the Ipswich squad, but Norwood, Jackson, Garbutt, Judge atc. are light years away from any of our players.

We were right to set up with five in midfield, in this game. If we had not, Ipswich have the quality to have completely overrun us as Coventry did a few weeks ago, and Sunderland a few weeks before that.

The gulf between the two sides is more accurately reflected by the 4-1 scoreline in the reverse fixture. The fact that we stayed in the game for eighty minutes and were not battered tells us that the tactical approach was fundamentally correct. We did not create a great deal over ninety minutes, but then neither did Ipswich, despite their superiority.
Agreed Ipswich have vastly better players than us, but so do Rotherham and Peterborough for example, who we managed to take a point off. I did think that our starting formation looked a bit negative, but in part that was down to my impression that Woodyard was primarily a defensive midfielder, when he's clearly much more than that. I think we started with 5 in the midfield for the reverse fixture, where on your report the final score was a bit flattering to the hosts and at home to Coventry, where you say we were overrun, though missing Monthe was a factor in that one. 5 in midfield is not the cure for all ills, though understandable why we started that way here. Where I think we went wrong was not reacting to their h/t change to loading the wings so you often had two Ipswich players attacking one wing back. Switching to 442 or bringing CBT on to give them more to think about defensively on one side might have helped at that point. I also felt that the substitution decisions didn't work. Arguably CBT should have been introduced earlier, while Micky presumably wouldn't have brought on Banks if he'd known how ineffectual he would be. My feeling was Micky should have used the 3rd sub, either replace Ferrier who was getting nowhere and had taken a bit of a knock with another lone striker, put Mullin/Payne with him as a front 2 or as a long shot try Gilmour in the Jennings role. So I do think MM should have adapted the system and line-up to react to how Ipswich modified their play, though don't know it would have changed the outcome. I shared overthewater's "real sense of inevitability" about the outcome after their equaliser and once Ipswich went in front it didn't look like we'd get back into the game. If the final 15 minutes had been a battling effort, even if unsuccessful to get back on levels terms, think there would have been less negativity at the final whistle. 0 points for a home league game can rarely be viewed as a success.

I don't think Micky should be sacked, but neither is he perfect and as fans we are entitled to air our thoughts on what is wrong, while accepting the realility that most of us (myself included) wouldn't last 5 minutes in the Rovers hot-seat. While there may have been some errors on recruitment, I don't think we're making the best use of ALL the players currently available. As for spending beyond your means, most clubs run at a loss to some degree. I think there is a speculate to accumulate argument to be put forward in the unusual situation of only 3 down, that if we could get the players in to keep us in L1, then maybe it is worth trying given the greater income we will generate by staying in L1. Thankfully that's not my call...
 

bigmart

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I do not agree that the budget has been wasted. We have to take risks on players like Ray and Payne because we have limited resources and can't sign proven, established players in key areas. In any case, I would say only Ray has been an unequivocally 'bad' signing which is not a bad ratio considering the low wages we are paying. Even clubs with healthy budgets will make mistakes on certain individuals. Recruitment will never be 100 pet cent successful at any club. I also don't accept that the squad is large, once you subtract the loanees, youth players etc. And if we had not had reasonable numbers we would have been completely screwed with the injuries we have suffered this season.
besides Morris who has been by far our best signing few of our signings have done much, ray, potter, woods, miller, maddox, pontacelli, bo rthwick_jackson. Ferried has been good in some games poor in other Payne similar.

Mm has gone for quantity over quality and it is showing
 
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besides Morris who has been by far our best signing few of our signings have done much, ray, potter, woods, miller, maddox, pontacelli, bo rthwick_jackson. Ferried has been good in some games poor in other Payne similar.

Mm has gone for quantity over quality and it is showing
It is not possible to say that we have gone for quantity over quality unless you know which other players were available to us on our budget. I maintain that the squad is not particularly big once you exclude the youth players and the loanees where we only pay a proportion of the salary.
 
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Agreed Ipswich have vastly better players than us, but so do Rotherham and Peterborough for example, who we managed to take a point off. I did think that our starting formation looked a bit negative, but in part that was down to my impression that Woodyard was primarily a defensive midfielder, when he's clearly much more than that. I think we started with 5 in the midfield for the reverse fixture, where on your report the final score was a bit flattering to the hosts and at home to Coventry, where you say we were overrun, though missing Monthe was a factor in that one. 5 in midfield is not the cure for all ills, though understandable why we started that way here. Where I think we went wrong was not reacting to their h/t change to loading the wings so you often had two Ipswich players attacking one wing back. Switching to 442 or bringing CBT on to give them more to think about defensively on one side might have helped at that point. I also felt that the substitution decisions didn't work. Arguably CBT should have been introduced earlier, while Micky presumably wouldn't have brought on Banks if he'd known how ineffectual he would be. My feeling was Micky should have used the 3rd sub, either replace Ferrier who was getting nowhere and had taken a bit of a knock with another lone striker, put Mullin/Payne with him as a front 2 or as a long shot try Gilmour in the Jennings role. So I do think MM should have adapted the system and line-up to react to how Ipswich modified their play, though don't know it would have changed the outcome. I shared overthewater's "real sense of inevitability" about the outcome after their equaliser and once Ipswich went in front it didn't look like we'd get back into the game. If the final 15 minutes had been a battling effort, even if unsuccessful to get back on levels terms, think there would have been less negativity at the final whistle. 0 points for a home league game can rarely be viewed as a success.

I don't think Micky should be sacked, but neither is he perfect and as fans we are entitled to air our thoughts on what is wrong, while accepting the realility that most of us (myself included) wouldn't last 5 minutes in the Rovers hot-seat. While there may have been some errors on recruitment, I don't think we're making the best use of ALL the players currently available. As for spending beyond your means, most clubs run at a loss to some degree. I think there is a speculate to accumulate argument to be put forward in the unusual situation of only 3 down, that if we could get the players in to keep us in L1, then maybe it is worth trying given the greater income we will generate by staying in L1. Thankfully that's not my call...
Can't disagree with a lot of that.
 

bigmart

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It is not possible to say that we have gone for quantity over quality unless you know which other players were available to us on our budget. I maintain that the squad is not particularly big once you exclude the youth players and the loanees where we only pay a proportion of the salary.
Look at the size of the squad we have been operating with for most of the season it is fairly big to say the least, even now we have 6 centre midfielders
 
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Look at the size of the squad we have been operating with for most of the season it is fairly big to say the least, even now we have 6 centre midfielders
As I have said , if you consider that the loan players and the youngsters are not paid full salaries, I don't think the squad is big. If you want to see a genuinely big squad, check out the number of Ipswich players on the back of the programme yesterday.......
 
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I have to admit to still being frustrated after Saturday, frustrated that pilling wasn,t given a chance when davies was out, frustrated when he comes straight back in then reverts back to normal by delaying his kicks/throws until Ipswich defenders are all back in position frustrated with his subs I always feels he only reacts when other teams make subs/changes formation instead of being pro-active, mullin/payne should have either come on for ferrier or at least 1 on to help him out as CTB is not the player you want in the trenches in a relegation battle I know Ipswich upped their game 2nd half but still felt we could have achieved something from the game, we can haep on about the budget all we want but at times think our team selection/tactics leave a lot to be desired
 
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just happy im not having to watch it to often at the mo . thank god for work . seen em twice and both times been crap . Things have to change . st tickets will drop watching this crap week in week out . so mp and mm need to sort things
 

Ian

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Bit harsh chaps. It’s only crap because we aren’t winning. The games have been reasonable quality to watch. Certainly much better than a few years ago!

@keep the faith keep the faith!
 
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you might be right IAN just nice to post on a forum where we can pass comments and not get slaughtered unlike the paddock forum which I no longer post on maybe a couple of wins on the trot however unlikely at the moment will cheer us all up, roll on thursday
 

ONIGP

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I think everything that could be said about the match probably has been said somewhere above. I think "disappointment" was my overriding emotion after the match. I would absolutely have taken a point in this one and was expecting a defeat but to have succeeded in making Ipswich look ordinary, taken the lead, had a good chance to extend it and then lose was quite hard to take. It is starting to feel that our season will be defined by results against the higher placed teams as much as the ones in the "mix" at the bottom. I actually found it quite demoralising that Wimbledon were able to beat Peterborough which gives an idea of the kind of results we are going to have to pull out of the bag if we are going to survive.
 
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I actually found it quite demoralising that Wimbledon were able to beat Peterborough which gives an idea of the kind of results we are going to have to pull out of the bag if we are going to survive.
In the other hand, you could argue that our recent win against the Wombles wasn’t a bad result. And seeing the way Southend performed winning away on Saturday, our point there the previous week must have been decent. ;)

But you’re right, we do need to start winning the odd game. We can catch MK Dons, but only if we win at least one of the games in hand.

What gives me hope is what happened twelve months ago after signing Perkins, Morris and Pringle. Results really picked up. Give Clarke and Woodyard a chance to settle. The next three or four games (including the cup) will make things clearer as to where we stand.
 

ONIGP

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In the other hand, you could argue that our recent win against the Wombles wasn’t a bad result. And seeing the way Southend performed winning away on Saturday, our point there the previous week must have been decent. ;)

But you’re right, we do need to start winning the odd game. We can catch MK Dons, but only if we win at least one of the games in hand.

What gives me hope is what happened twelve months ago after signing Perkins, Morris and Pringle. Results really picked up. Give Clarke and Woodyard a chance to settle. The next three or four games (including the cup) will make things clearer as to where we stand.
Yes, my glass had certainly started tilting from being half full to half empty! I know I can always rely on you, BBTC, to redress the balance!
 
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