EFL Trophy Pizza Cup Fleetwood (2) v Rovers (0)

[Boz]

James Norris reminded me of Glatzel when he first joined us, taken by surprise at the physical nature of the gane at this level. To be fair to Paul he had become more robust after a few months at the club before he had his other injury issues. Given time Norris can get stronger, though currently on pre-season Mikey Davies offers more of a physical presence.

God knows we play on Saturday at the back. Dennis as wing-back perhaps

 

[roverstillidie]

Terrific piece of man management to take Norris off on debut 5 mins before half time, and probably now need him on Saturday due to injuries. His confidence will be shot. Amateurish.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Terrific piece of man management to take Norris off on debut 5 mins before half time, and probably now need him on Saturday due to injuries. His confidence will be shot. Amateurish.

Yes, ridiculous management. Both Leake and Norris have now been hung out to dry by Dawes, due to his persistence with 433.

 

[drwhoman]

Terrific piece of man management to take Norris off on debut 5 mins before half time, and probably now need him on Saturday due to injuries. His confidence will be shot. Amateurish.

Spot on. I thought the same thing. Extremely poor person management. If the Manager treats the whole squad with that sort of lack of empathy no wonder team spirit seems low.

 

[drwhoman]

Yes, ridiculous management. Both Leake and Norris have now been hung out to dry by Dawes, due to his persistence with 433.

Agree RLC. Surely when you only have a small squad you have to mould your tactics around the strengths of the players you have. This is not the Premier League with 25 man squads!

 

[Boz]

I agree that the timing of James Norris' substitution was ill=judged and Dawes' favoured 433 doesn't offer as much protection to raw youngsters like Norris and Leake as other formations. However, I felt that Dawes was correct to sub Norris and Rovers seemed much more vulnerable down the left, with Hendry in front of Norris than on the right, where we were fielding a pair of youngsters in Pike and Apter. While it's too early to form an impression of how good James Norris might be, hopefully the player will recognise that he needs to knuckle down and develop some resilience. Recall Micky leaving Glatzel out of the squad for a few games in the early stages of his loan spell.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

The decision to substitute Norris last night says everything about Dawes' incompetence as a manager and nothing about the potential of the player. Dawes has already done his best to ruin the confidence of two young full backs, and has also caused major problems for Merrie and Yarney when played out of position there.

It is harsh, to put it mildly, to suggest a young player should 'knuckle down' when he has been given less than forty five minutes of football to show his potential and been completely hung out to dry by his manager. We have not seen enough of Norris under a proper manager to know how good he is or is not.

It is particularly ironic as one of Dawes' strengths was supposedly going to be his rapport with youngsters, whereas in reality he seems more intent on ruining them before they even get started.

Glatzel was given a number appearances by Mellon before eventually being dropped for reasons of fitness / physicality, so the two circumstances are not comparable.

 

[Charlton1975]

completely agree with most of the comments above. Dawes is completely out of his depth and is making panic decisions similar to when Jacko was given the role. I don’t like calling for people to lose their jobs, but surely it is obvious to everyone at the club that this was the wrong appointment. Within the squad there is talent, especially with the young players brought in on loan, but with Dawes in charge I can only see us going backwards. Not sure what the answer is, I have alway been an advocate of progression and whilst I appreciate all of the success under Mellon, it was the right time for him to go. Time to look to a hungry manager from the league below? Problem is, Tranmere is never a glamour job, and the option to just try and keep a team in the league with no real genuine and realistic ambition isn’t going to excite many managers.

 

[drwhoman]

The decision to substitute Norris last night says everything about Dawes' incompetence as a manager and nothing about the potential of the player. Dawes has already done his best to ruin the confidence of two young full backs, and has also caused major problems for Merrie and Yarney when played out of position there.

It is harsh, to put it mildly, to suggest a young player should 'knuckle down' when he has been given less than forty five minutes of football to show his potential and been completely hung out to dry by his manager. We have not seen enough of Norris under a proper manager to know how good he is or is not.

It is particularly ironic as one of Dawes' strengths was supposedly going to be his rapport with youngsters, whereas in reality he seems more intent on ruining them before they even get started.

Glatzel was given a number appearances by Mellon before eventually being dropped for reasons of fitness / physicality, so the two circumstances are not comparable.

Only highlights admittedly, and Under 21s is not senior football, but Norris does seem to have something going for him as was the case with Glatzel, who is now playing again. If he was to be subbed, half time was only a few minutes away and then, maybe, , a quiet word as to why he was being taken out of the firing line. He then knows what he has to do and does not feel quite so embarrassed.

 

[Am on mobile]

Hope he plays at weekend and has a blinder and puts 2 fingers up to him lol

 

[ADD]

Only highlights admittedly, and Under 21s is not senior football, but Norris does seem to have something going for him as was the case with Glatzel, who is now playing again. If he was to be subbed, half time was only a few minutes away and then, maybe, , a quiet word as to why he was being taken out of the firing line. He then knows what he has to do and does not feel quite so embarrassed.

Yes he did look decent in the Livepoool U21 highlights however although Norris described himself as a LB in his welcome interview in Liverpool U21's Norris has played most of his football in midfield or even as a left winger so it must have been hard for him to slot in after not having played LB in almost a year. Irrespective, he looked very lightweight as others have said.
Apter by contrast I thought showed a great deal of promise especially as he apparently isn't fully match fit having had only one 90 minutes in early pre-season. He will do well for us I feel.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

As we are still supposedly a 'development club', I would love to know how we judge the worth of a young player after 35 minutes of his debut..........

I would not make a definitive judgement on any player in the current squad until Dawes has been replaced.

 

[O4anotherplayoff]

Has Dawes actually explained his reason for taking Norris off when he did?

I noticed the club only briefly summarised in written form his post match interview rather than releasing the full YouTube video of it (unless that was available for subscribers only?). Which itself was slightly curious given the criticism he got for the way he carried and presented himself in his YouTube interview after the Wrexham game, something even Nigel Adderley remarked upon.

 

[Ian]

I noticed the club only briefly summarised in written form his post match interview rather than releasing the full YouTube video of it (unless that was available for subscribers only?).

Nothing on YouTube for subscribers. I wonder what I'm paying a £1 a month for?

Has Dawes actually explained his reason for taking Norris off when he did?

I don't think he's said anything but the general consensus amongst those watching was that Dawes thought Norris was having a torrid time so pulled him, quick. Just bizarre really.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I don't think he's said anything but the general consensus amongst those watching was that Dawes thought Norris was having a torrid time so pulled him, quick. Just bizarre really.

The only rational explanation is if he got a slight injury - hamstring tweak or calf strain, in which case he'd have signalled this to the bench.

 

[Ian]

Yeah, he didn't look injured though, but it's a possibility.

 

[O4anotherplayoff]

Or just precautionary, for whatever reason.

Mindful too that he persevered with Leake for 75 minutes in the Salford game when, according to some claims subsequently, his hamstring was already starting to affect him in that game. No idea if that’s true, but it’s an injury that’s now keeping him out for a few weeks, so caution would be understandable if Norris wasn’t feeling 100%.

It did seem bizarre, so it’d have been an obvious question for an interviewer to ask him. Then again, if it was indeed just poor man management, then it’s probably best they didn’t air his answer!

 

[Sparky]

No doubt the pre match questions for this Saturday will be the usual dross. Nothing like given recent results has there been any thought to changing the formation?

 

[Ian]

Just watched Merrie doing his pre match interview, imagine trying to defend this manager? Anyway, they are working hard on the training ground to put things right..

Onto Dawes.. injury update Davies, Yarney & Luke Norris being assessed Fri. LOC, Saunders and Leake still unavailable. No direct replacements for injuries so other players have stepped in and had to adapt. Still looking for players to come in.

Colchester must win. From his tone it sounds like this could be hit or bust for Dawes. Wow, now he's talking about reflecting on the games and wondering what he can do differently for the next game. Dear me..

Message to supporters: Stick with us, we want a rocking bus on the way home!

 

[Ian]

No doubt the pre match questions for this Saturday will be the usual dross. Nothing like given recent results has there been any thought to changing the formation?

When they interview a player pre match, it's Merseyside asking the questions. When they interview the manager, I'm assuming from the tone and questions, it's just someone from within the club which does annoy me as they are pretty much scripted Q&A.