Rochdale 3-2 Rovers

[Rob]

yeah, and bring in who?

i'm not a huge fan of les, but he's doing well to have us fighting and in contention given our budget.

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Budget is irrelevant to the issue of Les being sacked.

He has a squad of players capable of doing a job but is tactically inept, that has nothing to do with money.

+ he is hardly "having us fighting" - all I have seen is us losing to teams who are no better than us.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

We could have easily got a point from the game yesterday if Les had made some better decisions - not playing Wooton at right back, not taking off Taylor when Broomes was sent off which left Rovers in effect playing a 4-1-1-3 (with Labadie running round like a headless chicken) The set up of the side after the sending off left the defence completely exposed, we still had 3 strikers on the pitch - none of whom can defend and Labadie playing attack midfield/upfront. The sensible thing to do after Broomes was sent off would have been to bring on Blanchard for Elford-Alliyu and move Wooton to centre back and put Blanchard at right back.

We had the better of the play in the 2nd half but our inept defending - particularly down the flanks, meant we were always going to concede goals. I thought the main positive was that Goodison and Welsh had good games.


Player Ratings:

Wotton: 0 - Clearly not a right back, appaling performance, lost his man for the 3rd goal.

Surely Wootton would still have lost his man for the third goal if he had been playing centre-half, no?

Your logic seems flawed. Despite having 10 men for an hour we were the better team for the 2nd half. So surely you should be praising Les for keeping three strikers on and going for it?

As for the comment elsewhere about Hartlepool, we are only three wins off where they are.

If people want to criticise Les fair enough. I don't. I think he's doing a good job in difficult circumstances and has had to cope with horrendous injuries. Some of the loan players he has brought in haven't worked, but let's not be selective - some have: Joss, Gulasci, Grandison.

Les isn't going to get the sack any time soon, so I'm going to get right behind him and the team and I'm sure we'll get back to winning ways.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Before criticising Les for playing too adventurous a formation after going down to ten men, I think we have to remember we were actually a goal down at the time. We had to have sufficient attacking options on the pitch to force an equaliser, which we did, twice.

I am not sure Rochdale's second and third goals had anything to do with our formation, more simply a case of going to sleep having equalised. It wasn't as if Rochdale were cutting us open and peppering our goal; I think we actually matched them for chances over the ninety minutes.

Les is clearly far from the best manager in our division, but I support him. Regardless of your opinion of him, the idea that Johnson would sack him and replace him with someone better qualified is frankly laughable. No experienced manager, Keith Hill included, would touch us with a bargepole last October, so what has changed now ? Johnson has no intention of shelling out additional money, even if relegation looks likely, so sacking Les would probably result in an even less appealing candidate getting the job, as well as creating yet more turmoil at the club.

 

[roverstillidie]

Surely Wootton would still have lost his man for the third goal if he had been playing centre-half, no?

Your logic seems flawed. Despite having 10 men for an hour we were the better team for the 2nd half. So surely you should be praising Les for keeping three strikers on and going for it?

As for the comment elsewhere about Hartlepool, we are only three wins off where they are.

If people want to criticise Les fair enough. I don't. I think he's doing a good job in difficult circumstances and has had to cope with horrendous injuries. Some of the loan players he has brought in haven't worked, but let's not be selective - some have: Joss, Gulasci, Grandison.

I never said Wooton wouldn't have lost his man. As for leaving 3 strikers on the pitch - I will criticise him for that as it may have cost us at least 2 of their goals. I also dont think Alyiu played much part in any of the goals anyway.

I wouldn't include Grandison as been succesful just as his 2nd spell seems to have recieved more negative reports. Having a 2/8 ratio of getting a decent player on loan isn't very good...

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

A valid criticism of Les is that we have gone purely for quantity rather than quality outside the first eleven. As has been stated, Morrow, Akins, Wood + majority of the loan players are not good enough, so perhaps we could have opted for say, one or even two fewer strikers and looked for more quality in that area.

It is noticeable that our squad is not particularly small by League One standards this season, but the majority of the squad players are makeweights.

 

[roverstillidie]

A valid criticism of Les is that we have gone purely for quantity rather than quality outside the first eleven. As has been stated, Morrow, Akins, Wood + majority of the loan players are not good enough, so perhaps we could have opted for say, one or even two fewer strikers and looked for more quality in that area.

It is noticeable that our squad is not particularly small by League One standards this season, but the majority of the squad players are makeweights.

I totally agree, we have no money, but a relatively big squad compared with previous seasons. It's the exact opposite of Ronnie Moore who went for quality over quantity in the squads.