• 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.

League Two Dale v Rovers

Match result

  • Rochdale

    Votes: 2 25.0%
  • Draw

    Votes: 3 37.5%
  • Tranmere

    Votes: 3 37.5%

  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
Think mickey was watching a different game. Yes it was decided by a moment and we hit the post but if you create so little then it’s asking a lot to have to score from the few chances you do create
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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John King
I thought the scoreline was a fair reflection of the ninety minutes. However, having weathered the storm in the first half, we should have taken something with an improved display after half time.

In the first period Rochdale caused us a lot of problems in midfield with the movement and positional play of Newby and Odo, but I thought we defended the eighteen yard box very well to restrict them to relatively few chances despite a lot of pressure. However, our attacking threat was sporadic, with Nevitt too isolated and MacManaman ineffective, although on the occasions when Hawkes did link the play with the other attackers we looked threatening, most notably in the move which resulted in Hawkes hitting the post with a brilliant effort.

In the second half I thought we improved significantly. We got tighter in midfield and did not give Rochdale as much freedom, and the injury to MacManaman helped us as Feeney was more effective and helped us retain possession better high up the pitch. We started to threaten more down the right side through Cogley who delivered a number of decent balls into the box, which again were not attacked. Rochdale's winner was slightly against the run of play at that point in the game, but was probably deserved overall.

Individually, I did not think there were any standout performers. Nevitt worked hard, but his movement and sharpness around the box was limited again. Maynard looked decent when he came on, and certainly gave us more of an attacking threat. Morris was fine on the ball, but struggled again defensively. I think the centre halves were our best players and deserve credit for keeping us in the game when we were not functioning in the first period.

Our performances are very disjointed at the moment, and there is no real pattern of play. However, it is far too early to talk about useless recruitment and writing the season off: I am not sure we have enough in the centre forward position to challenge for promotion, but I certainly think we can improve given the huge number of players we have had to absorb in a short period of time.

How can we get more creativity and goals into our game ? I think we have to play two up front and get Maynard fit, as I think he is the only striker we have who is capable of scoring regularly, certainly on the evidence so far. The five at the back could also be ditched, at least at home, and the shape of midfield changed to bring greater fluency, and make us less reliant on the full backs as our only real attacking threat. In particular, I think Watson needs to do more and justify his place, as he is a passenger at the moment for the most part.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
I found Micky's post-match quite troubling. Why are we persisting with 5 at the back when Morris is both uncomfortable and not particularly good at playing wing-back? What was the point of having Walker on the bench, if not match-fit, when Merrie/Maguire could have been there instead, giving us more options. Rochdale had about half a dozen decent chances, which didn't go in for either poor finishing or decent defending/keeping. Aside from our two efforts against the woodwork, can only recall a teasing cross/shot from Feeney, which had their keeper back-peddling.

I don't think many Rovers players came out of today's game with much credit. Hawkes had his moments, although wasted a good second half attack by trying to be too clever with a backheel which didn't come off. Nevitt worked hard but at this level doesn't look like scoring many and needs another striker alongside. Doohan did ok, though his distribution needs working on. Cogley probably MoM
 
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aldo
Micky has just moved into his new house if I was him I would leave the boxes full because the way it is going he will be moving again soon,I feel for the huge amount of fans who went to see that crap 2 goals in 7 games ok we are only 3 points off the playoffs but also the same from the bottom 2 if we think with this setup we are going to mount a promotion challenge we are going to Struggle big time, enough from me rant over
 

drwhoman

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We have signed twenty new players and have only played seven games, so I think this is slightly premature.
I always admire your positivity RLC and I agree that MM will not be going anywhere anytime soon but there needs to be a radical transformation if we are to have a decent season. I gather that one reason he only lasted a season in Dundee (other than not being a local!) was that his team was set up to defend and to avoid defeats while sneaking the odd victory. We badly lack a Norwood to achieve the latter.
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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I always admire your positivity RLC and I agree that MM will not be going anywhere anytime soon but there needs to be a radical transformation if we are to have a decent season. I gather that one reason he only lasted a season in Dundee (other than not being a local!) was that his team was set up to defend and to avoid defeats while sneaking the odd victory. We badly lack a Norwood to achieve the latter.
I don't think there does need to be a 'radical transformation'. We are well organised defensively and concede hardly any goals, so it is about fine margins really.

We are not getting battered every week, so the improvement in the attacking third does not need to be huge in order to get results.

I think the suggestion he is a negative manager by instinct is also wrong, as was demonstrated by his first spell here. We have operated for most of this season without a recognised forward, which explains his caution.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
We are giving opponents a fair number of chances and sooner or later are going to come up against an one who will be more clinical and take full advantage. When we lost the ball from an attack, it managed to reach the edge of our area without a great deal of resistance. We needed some Les Parry style defending from the front today.
 
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The back five defended well again and Rochdale had relatively few clear chances despite a lot of pressure. We have just played the teams in 4th and 5th place and conceded one goal, so I am not sure who this team is that is going to annhilate us......
 

drwhoman

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The back five defended well again and Rochdale had relatively few clear chances despite a lot of pressure. We have just played the teams in 4th and 5th place and conceded one goal, so I am not sure who this team is that is going to annhilate us......
No one is going to annihilate us but at present we are not going to annihilate anyone either. I take your point that MM was more positive in his first spell and let us hope that he can return to that. This said, he can only do what he can with the squad he has. I am not sure that this one is as good but we can only wait and see. Onward to the next game!
 

ADD

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Norwood
I will preface this by saying I have not been able to attend or indeed watch the game but it sounds dire again which is becoming a bit of a broken record. Attendances will drop off big time at this rate.
Yes we have signed lots of new players but then again so has everyone else so is it really a decent excuse? Sadly it looks as if MP/ MM/ Beck (although I read elsewhere he has left the building ?) have again fallen into the trap of going for quantity over quality and for too many experienced "last contract" players rather than youngsters. We surely have the oldest team in the League again.
We have also signed players like Mani and Maguire who disappear without a trace, signed Glatzel and play him out of position out wide and then drop him and have clearly given up on Jolley who we paid money for. As others have said this squad is missing a quality goal scorer yes but it is still a lot better than it is showing now and we should be able to conjure goals from midfield/ set pieces but we aren't.
MM's tactics also surprise to put it mildly - why continue playing 5 at the back when it means we are toothless and Morris is constantly exposed and why play Nevitt a non League striker learning his trade up front with zero support?
MM needs to change things and change things quickly before the gap is too big.
 
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aldo
yes I agree, but it is going to be a really hard season I like MM but we are not making chances and can't score to save our lives, also marl palios also has to take the flak, with Beck, a few more games, and no goals and the fans will not be so happy, we have no goals upfront and no goals from the center mids something has to change, the formation I don,t know but we will be struggling if it don't
 

bigmart

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Ian Muir
What worries me the most is the system we are playing clearly doesn't work yet Micky seems oblivious to it.
We create very little every game and won't score many goals any time soon
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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I will preface this by saying I have not been able to attend or indeed watch the game but it sounds dire again which is becoming a bit of a broken record. Attendances will drop off big time at this rate.
Yes we have signed lots of new players but then again so has everyone else so is it really a decent excuse? Sadly it looks as if MP/ MM/ Beck (although I read elsewhere he has left the building ?) have again fallen into the trap of going for quantity over quality and for too many experienced "last contract" players rather than youngsters. We surely have the oldest team in the League again.
We have also signed players like Mani and Maguire who disappear without a trace, signed Glatzel and play him out of position out wide and then drop him and have clearly given up on Jolley who we paid money for. As others have said this squad is missing a quality goal scorer yes but it is still a lot better than it is showing now and we should be able to conjure goals from midfield/ set pieces but we aren't.
MM's tactics also surprise to put it mildly - why continue playing 5 at the back when it means we are toothless and Morris is constantly exposed and why play Nevitt a non League striker learning his trade up front with zero support?
MM needs to change things and change things quickly before the gap is too big.
Not every team has had the turnover of players we have had, nor did they all bring in several players on deadline day. In any case, seven games is an unreasonable period of time to judge any squad or manager.

You are scathing about the historic performance of Palios and Mellon in terms of squad building, yet they were the duo that delivered back to back promotions and our greatest successes in twenty years. Who claims the credit for constructing those teams (and don't say Brabin - he did not even want to sign Cook and Jennings) ?
 
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Lies, damned lies and statistics as the saying goes.
By that perverse logic we have got the most potent strikeforce in the division !

I watched the game and we defended the box well. Rochdale have scored 2, 3 and 4 regularly in recent weeks, but were relatively restricted by our defence today.
 

Charlton1975

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4 Dec 2009
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Jason Koumas
Yes, true but I can pretty much guarantee you that even if he did play is his preferred position, he would not get us the goals we need. You cannot expect a kid with no real professional games to his name to start banging them in at this level. Same can be said of Nevitt. We need experienced players, ones that have done it at this level and above and have proved they are capable.

As @bigmart mentions above, the recruitment was a shambles really.
Where are these youngsters supposed to get the experience from? This is league 2, it is an awful standard, these players are more than capable of this level.
 
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