Rovers v Gills

[Boz]

It will be interesting to see what changes are rung after the disappointing showing in Cumbria. Wallace looks hopeful of a quick return, which is good, while Robinson and Jennings are also in contention, the former after a hernia op, the latter also injured. I wouldn't expect either to start and unless Jennings fitness has improved significantly would rather see others on the bench. Ronnie was all for blaming the defence, but unless he sees sense and restores Holmes at the expense of Otsemobor, there don't seem to be any options for change. More choice for the manager elsewhere on the park, but he'll probably start Atkinson although recent performances don't merit it. Akpa Akpro is another who's been consistently disappointing, but seems undropable.

Gillingham seem to have improved under Peter Taylor, although like Rovers are somewhat inconsistent. I'm always uneasy about the pre-Christmas game, we don't seem to do well in it. The cheap entry may increase the home crowd a little, though time of year, miserable weather and distance the visitors have to travel on a Friday mean it's unlikely to approach the numbers of some other cut-price games. I'd reckon somewhere between 6-7k. Hopefully they'll get more than their money's worth.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree that Holmes should be restored at right back. Although we are at home against limited opposition, I would like to see us play the 4-4-1-1 with Koumas just behind Lowe, and Kirby restored to the side ahead of Akpro. It seems Wallace is only 50-50 for this game and if he misses out we are likely to have problems in the centre of midfield again, as none of Power, Atkinson and Koumas can really tackle. Hopefully Jim McNulty will recover from two really disappointing displays and return to form.

This is probably our biggest game of the season, as another horrow show could leave us cut adrift in the New Year, given the tricky fixtures which follow.

Personally, I am gutted as I can't attend on Friday, the first game I have missed this season. Hopefully my absence will inspire a Rovers victory: I look forward to reading the reports.

 

[bigmart]

we badly need a win and im going for a 2 1 home win

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

The next few weeks will probably define our season. Matches come thick and fast, and injuries/suspensions will put our small squad to the test. It's vital we get back on track as soon as possible, as confidence is starting to drain away again after a good run of results in October and November. The strain is also telling on Ronnie, as his recent public criticism of players demonstrates. Even more important is the upcoming transfer window, which could leave us weaker if we lose most of our loan players. But hopefully we'll keep the better ones and with the return of Robbo things could improve. Meanwhile, I am predicting we put recent problems behind us and earn a nail-biting 2-1 home win.

 

[merseyside bossman]

If Robbo is 80 % I think he will start with Peterson moving the right.

if not, Jenno in the middle for me

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Not the side I was expecting, but it's stronger. Holmes is restored to right-back for Otsemobor and the undroppable Atkinson is on the bench. I'm hopeful. Expect to see Robbo at some stage and perhaps Cole.

 

[Ian]

Well Cole and Robbo did make it on the pitch but in truth it was a poor game. Defensively we were shocking and this was highlighted when McDonald caught McNulty on the break and we were reduced to 10 men. It was always going to be an uphill battle from this point and although their was a glimmer of hope as Lowe got his 14th of the season, it was too little too late.

Gillingham were by no means great and a win tonight could have shot us up a couple of places. We played too much long ball in the first half and wasted a whole half with a couple of half chances. Wallace was quiet tonight and wasn't 100% and generally our play was poor. Passing was sluggish and no-one really wanted to take a shot.

We really have to be winning these sort of game at home. We are going to find ourselves in a right mess soon if this doesn't improve.

 

[Sparky]

That was awful. Really bad. Moore has to take a large part of the blame.

Maybe I should calm down a bit but I don't think he can motivate the players any more. We started both halves poorly and they could have got a lot more than 2 with OFW saving us.

We can't defend the basics. They were clean through on at least 3 occasions.

Plus his team was wrong. Akpro has been poor all season and Cole deserved to come on at half time along with robbo. Too little too late.

I really like Ronnie but I am starting to think someone else needs to come in. Rightly or wrongly teams generally pick up when a new manager comes in and our squad should be higher up the league.

Won't be able to sleep now thinking about it.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

It sounded bad and Ronnie must be wondering where to turn. But he has never in his long career taken a team down and as I posted before the match, what squad he ends up with after the transfer window will largely determine how we do. We need to keep the best loanees and to sign a couple of fresh faces - pray that one of them is Jake Cassidy to give Ryan Lowe some support. If he was in the Premier League, Ronnie would have been fired long ago, but I still have faith that he can turn things around.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Deeply depressing result and the performance was not much better by the sounds of it.

I was pleased that Holmes and Kirby were restored to the side (although we could question why they were removed in the first place) and the starting line up had a stronger look about it, but by all accounts we were poor defensively again. I assume that we played a 4-4-2, so I have to wonder why we did not do more to protect the back four given the number of goals we conceded in the previous two games. Why no three man midfield or a holding player ? Was it too much to expect a half-fit Wallace and Koumas to cope alone in the centre ?

I agree with BBTC that the January loan window is going to be absolutely massive for us (it is particularly concerning, for example, that McNulty's performances seem to have gone south in the last couple of weeks) and with the games we have coming up we could be well adrift before we are able to make any changes to the squad. I think Peter Taylor described the Gillingham job as the most difficult of his career before the game, but I would suggest that Ronnie has the biggest job of his life on his hands in keeping us up this season.

 

[roverstillidie]

Playing Koumas and Wallace in the middle was always going to be suicide defensively. It should be Hately or Jennings and one other. If he wants to play Koumas or Robinson I would play either of them in the hole behind Lowe instead of JLAA. Having Koumas and Robinson on the pitch together isn't a bright idea due to their lack of stamina, you can have one player who can't trackback well but playing both of them is asking for trouble. Unfortunately Ronnie seems set against either playing a defensive midfielder or adjusting the shape of the team to get the best out of Koumas or Robinson.

In his post match comments Ronnie seems to blame the centre backs. Deeply unfair in my view as yes they made errors, but they were totally exposed. You defend and attack as a team - not as a back four or a front 1 (Lowe). If Ronnie can't see that's it's the team as a whole that's failing to defend it would be better for him to leave sooner rather than later.

 

[Boz]

Pre-Christmas games, cheap tickets and Rovers always seem a recipe for disaster. The last time I will see Tranmere play this year and currently I'm not sorry. This was a poor performance compounded by some odd tactics and substitutions. Gillingham were well-organised, had a strong defence aided by a ref who wasn't bothered by leading arms and elbows, a couple of pacy players and Akinfewa, who's built like the archetypal brick sh*t-house, but managed to get his first two goals since August here. Not a fan of the cerise-pink kit though.

Rovers started nervously and only good saves and poor finishing kept us level in the early stages. While never looking comfortable, we seemed to get back into the game, but Peterson and Ash seemed to go to sleep in first-half stoppage time and pink Aki volleyed home; suspect OFW might reckon he should have saved it. Second half we didn't come out positively, a Gillingham break saw McNulty foul the awkward McDonald; it was clumsy rather than cynical, but the red card inevitable. Horwood came on and Ridehalgh went into central defence. Shortly after, Lowe missed a good chance, but the visitors doubled their lead with Akinfenwa reacting quickest when his earlier effort came back off the post. A Lowe tap-in reduced the deficit with a quarter of an hour left, but despite a frantic period in stoppage time, we never looked like levelling.

Thoughts on players;

OFW Kept the score respectable, probably MOM
Holmes. Probably the best of our defenders.
Taylor. Seemed to be lacking confidence.
McNulty. Once he rescued Ash, but not at his best while on the pitch.
Ridehalgh Struggled against a tricky wide-player, but did ok in the centre.
Kirby. Worked hard little impact
Wallace. Some good attacking moves, but the defensive aspects of his game were below par.
Koumas Fairly anonymous.
Peterson The odd nice touch but didn't really take platers on.
Akpa Akpro. There were a couple of times where he ran at opponents and had them panicking, otherwise minimal impact.
Lowe. Worked hard.

Subs
Horwood. The usual; good going forward, poor defending for their second.
Stockton. His physical presence was more use against their defence than JLAA
Robinson. Some good distribution when he came on.

I agree a defensive midfielder could have been handy here. If Ronnie had done his homework, having seen their size and manner of play, there was an argument for using Cole from the off. When we went down to 10, why withdraw Kirby, whose work-rate is always decent? How did Koumas, who contributed little in the second half, stay on all game?

 

[bigmart]

We got what we deserved from the match nothing, they were easily the better team which is a massive worry as there not very good. We were all over the place at he back the midfield was lightweight and didn't create much and JLAA is a waste of space up front.Ronnie really doesn't know how to change things round, quite why Jennings or Hateley or not even on the bench is a joke.Fn for me was mom ahead of Lowe & Holms the rest were poor or worse.

We need to grind out some results play 4-5-1 even at home and try and nick a win as I don't see were the next 3 points are coming from. If he must insist on 4-4-2 at least try Cole up front he put himself about last night and may take some of the pressure off Lowe.

Worrying times ahead as by new years day I fear we will be in the bottom 4 several points from safety.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

We need to grind out some results play 4-5-1 even at home and try and nick a win

I agree entirely. Ronnie's insistence on playing 4-4-2 in recent weeks, even away from home, is baffling given how poorly we are defending and the success we had playing the 4-5-1 a month or so ago.

 

[bigmart]

he prefers 4-4-2 always has always will even though the game has changed and tactics have moved on but if he doesn't chang the system and tactics and soon the we will be in league 2 next season

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

As an aside, I see that Ryan Lowe is now second top scorer in league One. An incredible performance considering the side has performed so poorly for the majority of the season.

 

[roverstillidie]

We're going to end up with the divisions top scorer and get relegated!

 

[GroundsmansFork]

I don't understand 4-4-2, 5-3-1's 0r whatever. I see football as a simple game . We are plainly not good enough. If a player has the ball, in any position on the field, he only has to look around to see that there is no support around him. The players seem to buzz off and leave the player to hopefully sort it out! We seem, at all times, to have about 8 players on the pitch, not 11. We are totally unorganised anmd predictable to visiting teams. Defensively we are full of holes and better sides than Gillingham should hammer us. Its organisation we need and the players to be told that its a simple game, not complicated.
Oh and by the way, can anyone recall when we have ever scored from a corner, with a header?! If we continue like this a relegation battle is on the way. See you next match.

 

[Ian]

The defence last night was poor, really poor. Forget the rest of the team supporting the defence etc etc. I mean general defending was just not there. Like Ronnie says, centre halves are there to get rid of the ball. Take a lesson out of Higgy's book and boot the bloody thing over the main stand. Don't faff around with it in your own half. Defensively we were all over the place. I'm still not sure how Akinfenwa managed to score 2 goals.

But the same old problems exist. Once we go behind, we find it very difficult to get back into the game. Our forward play is too weak, we just aren't testing the keeper enough. How Ryan Lowe has managed to score 14 is beyond me. Imagine what he could do if he was given service! I do now think it's time JLAA was replaced. I've backed him many times before but he's just not contributing and someone else should be given a chance.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I can't comment on the defending on Friday as I was not there, but I still believe we need to put a holding player in front of the back four to give greater protection. Our most successful period of the season came when we played Hateley in a 4-5-1 and we know that both Taylor and McNulty are capable of defending properly, but as this point in time, with confidence low, they need greater assistance.

Ronnie has implied that McNulty will be replaced with a youth loan in the transfer window, but I don't like the sound of that idea at all. Edwards was out of his depth in his brief appearance and do we really believe we are going to get someone better than McNulty by scouring the youth market ?

I agree completely about Akpro. A number two striker should be getting 8-10 goals a season and he is nowhere near that level. Problem is, the alternatives are not any more convincing (although Cole probably deserves a go) and as the strikers are all under contract, we can't ship any out in January.