• 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 Stags v Rovers

Match result

  • Mansfield

    Votes: 5 71.4%
  • Draw

    Votes: 2 28.6%
  • Tranmere

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .
Stags v Rovers
Posted by Ian
One Call Stadium
Saturday, August 6, 2022 - 03:00 PM
Until: Saturday, August 6, 2022 - 05:00 PM
(Adjusted for timezone: Europe/London)
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Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
Next up it’s a trip to last seasons losing play off finalists Mansfield. The hosts are an experienced side and I expect them to be in the top seven come the end of the season. Despite a defeat at Salford last Saturday Mansfield still have plenty of players capable at league two level including ex rovers Lucas Akins, Bowery and Rhys Oates.

As for rovers whether the likes of Davies, turnbull and mumbongo are fit remains to be seen. And of course a loan striker may join before Saturday. I fully expect Micky to stick with 5-3-2 because rightly or wrongly (the latter in my view) our recruitment doesn’t gives us many other options. I did wonder if Lewis might come in to give us a bit of presence and experience in the middle but that means Hawkes or mclear dropping out.

Prediction: always a tough place to go and the hosts will likely dominate possession. I can’t see anything other than a home win sadly
 

Sparky

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Apparently Mumbongo, Turnbull, Davies and Hockenhull will all miss the Mansfield game.

Oates is a doubt for Mansfield but Ollie Hawkins returns from suspension. 1 win in our last 8 games v Mansfield
 

bigmart

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Ian Muir
Can only see a home win as we look very weak at the back and lacking in creativity.
 

ALDO MUSSY

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ALDO
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we looked poor last week and knowing rovers we will go and win 2-0 that's what I am going for two very late goals after a back to the wall performance
 

ONIGP

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Eddie Bishop
we looked poor last week and knowing rovers we will go and win 2-0 that's what I am going for two very late goals after a back to the wall performance
That sounds good but we will have to improve an awful lot defensively to put in a "backs to the wall performance". Fingers crossed that the defence are on first name terms by Saturday and show that necessary improvement. It doesn't help that none of our absentees are available yet. It is difficult to see past a defeat but, being an incurable optimist so early in the season, I'll go for a 1-1.
 

Charlton1975

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Jason Koumas
Looks a very difficult trip on paper, and anything other than a defeat will be a fantastic result. I do hop that we dont adopt the same approach to away games that we did last season.
 
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It is disappointing that the three centre halves are still out. However, our biggest problem defensively last Saturday was defending aerial balls into the box, whereas both Robinson and Jameson looked reasonable in pre-season when defending on the deck. Mansfield are much more of a footballing side than Stevenage and will pose a very different type of challenge, and I think it is wrong to simply assume we will concede a hatful.

The only change I can imagine being made is either Lewis or Nolan replacing Hawkes in midfield, the former for his physicality and workrate, the latter for his ball retention. Above all else, I think it is vital that we keep possession for longer periods than we did last week, to protect the back three and retain some control in the game.

Still full of Covid so won't be there, but at least the commentary on TRFC Radio is improved these days.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
Never an easy place to go and after last week's shambolic performance and our lack of options to change things am not expecting Rovers to come away with anything from this game. It is more a question of whether we can improve the quality of performance from the Stevenage game, or turn in something similar, whereupon Mansfield are likely to be much more clinical with a hammering a distinct possibility.

While Stevenage switched to a more aerial attack after List was stretchered off, before then their approach had been to mix things up and some of their better earlier attacks came from moves on the deck. I didn't feel that Jamieson dealt with attacks on the ground any better, while he won a number of headers but switched off at key moments. Given the central defensive absentees, there is an argument to go 4 at the back, but this was something barely explored in pre-season, so it won't happen. I think that Hawkes should be sacrificed for this game so that we can offer more protection to the defence, while finding a way to enable the left side of the team generate more attacking play than we managed in the last game.
 
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While Stevenage switched to a more aerial attack after List was stretchered off, before then their approach had been to mix things up and some of their better earlier attacks came from moves on the deck.
They were far more direct than Mansfield will be on Saturday. It is a very different challenge for the defence and I think most people agree that Jameson and Robinson looked better against the footballing sides we played in pre-season.
 

Boz

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They were far more direct than Mansfield will be on Saturday. It is a very different challenge for the defence and I think most people agree that Jameson and Robinson looked better against the footballing sides we played in pre-season.
I’d be concerned if we’d recruited central defenders, who are incapable of dealing with the more direct style of play we expect to see from most L2 sides. I wouldn’t like to judge Stevenage on last Saturday as we were so poor, but they mixed things up quite well and were not just a long ball kick and rush opponent.

Robinson only played one pre-season game for us v Huddersfield. I was a bit concerned about how he would adapt to a central defence role, since he’s not that tall. Thought he managed fine in the air, while his main.difficulty seemed to be adjusting to the more central role, but expecting his positional radar to adjust as he plays more there. I don’t know how many games Jamieson managed pre-season, but last weekend, particularly in the first half, he looked uncomfortable whether the ball was in the air or on the deck.
 

Sparky

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I think judging players on their pre season performances isn’t ideal. We can’t really count Warrington and Southport and both the other games we lost, although v hearts Micky did name changes at HT.

The real issue is if we have enough players with the necessary attributes required to be a success in league two. With a fully fit eleven including the likes of turnbull, Davies and Morris we’ll do better but I still don’t think we’ll score enough.

As I’ve said before we’ve put all our eggs in one basket by effectively playing 5-3-2 all pre season and recruiting lots of central defenders and midfielders and not enough wingers and strikers. Micky and Mark keep saying we’ll need to be patient this season - hinting a top 7 finish may be unlikely but that is ok if we develop these new players. I just personally think they could have looked at last season when ok at times it wasn’t entertaining, but our points tally was decent. Couldn’t we have just improved a few things in terms of personnel to be better? Rather than a complete overhaul (including half of the outfield players being debutants), which may well lose Micky his job (and impact attendances), if we start the season poorly.

I’m probably going over the top of course but a defeat on Saturday and more questions will be raised about the recruitment and arguably unnecessary large swing in policy
 
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I’d be concerned if we’d recruited central defenders, who are incapable of dealing with the more direct style of play we expect to see from most L2 sides. I wouldn’t like to judge Stevenage on last Saturday as we were so poor, but they mixed things up quite well and were not just a long ball kick and rush opponent.
I did not say we were recruiting players for a particular style of play. However, different players have different attributes, and Jameson and Robinson look more comfortable when the ball is on the floor.

Stevenage's playing style is very direct even by League Two standards, as Mellon pointed out in his post match comments.
 
Last edited:
Joined
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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I think judging players on their pre season performances isn’t ideal. We can’t really count Warrington and Southport and both the other games we lost, although v hearts Micky did name changes at HT.

The real issue is if we have enough players with the necessary attributes required to be a success in league two. With a fully fit eleven including the likes of turnbull, Davies and Morris we’ll do better but I still don’t think we’ll score enough.

As I’ve said before we’ve put all our eggs in one basket by effectively playing 5-3-2 all pre season and recruiting lots of central defenders and midfielders and not enough wingers and strikers. Micky and Mark keep saying we’ll need to be patient this season - hinting a top 7 finish may be unlikely but that is ok if we develop these new players. I just personally think they could have looked at last season when ok at times it wasn’t entertaining, but our points tally was decent. Couldn’t we have just improved a few things in terms of personnel to be better? Rather than a complete overhaul (including half of the outfield players being debutants), which may well lose Micky his job (and impact attendances), if we start the season poorly.

I’m probably going over the top of course but a defeat on Saturday and more questions will be raised about the recruitment and arguably unnecessary large swing in policy
I think we need to give the new tactical set up and recruitment method more than ninety minutes before we judge it. I think the prospect of playing a more adventurous style in a 532 is a very exciting once the players gel, and the full backs we have are perfectly suited to that game.

Mellon does not have a particular 'style' that he favours. In the National League years he was adventurous, last season less so because he did not have the players for that approach.

It is also worth remembering that some of the best football we played under him was in a 532 with Lee Vaughan at wing back.
 

ADD

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Yes but as Boz alluded to even the "passing sides" seeing how useless are two were in the air last week will surely punt a few balls in there - horses for courses and all that! Mansfield for sure will do that Saturday...
Have to hope that after another week of training sessions they are more acclimatised to their roles.
Re the injuries I am hoping MM is doing a bit a false rumouring that none are available either this week or Tuesday at the least to get some minutes.
 

Sparky

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I think we need to give the new tactical set up and recruitment method more than ninety minutes before we judge it. I think the prospect of playing a more adventurous style in a 532 is a very exciting once the players gel, and the full backs we have are perfectly suited to that game.

Mellon does not have a particular 'style' that he favours. In the National League years he was adventurous, last season less so because he did not have the players for that approach.

It is also worth remembering that some of the best football we played under him was in a 532 with Lee Vaughan at wing back.
Yes I agree 5-3-2 can worth perfectly and absolutely Micky needs more time. We’ll see how things are after 10 games as although Palios may be willing to be patient, if we have a low tally of points by that time then the pressure will be on
 

Sparky

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Just watched Micky pre match. He wants us to fight harder and win the physical battles compared to last week. They’ve worked on it this week so hopefully an improvement but part of me thinks the character and being more vocal etc is hard to coach. Byrne for example is an experienced player but from what I’ve see. doesn’t seem to be the vocal or leader type. Last season we had a good spine in that regard with Murphy, Clarke and spearing and obviously that’s gone now.
Even Hemmings who has been given the armband recently doesn’t seem the vocal type. Same for OConnor and hawkes so we are lacking in that sort of thing.

He still maintains we’re short up front which some would say why loan Burton out now. Mumbongo hasn’t trained properly all week so we only have Kane and Nevitt and presumably no recognised striker on the bench. Questionable decision at the very least
 
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Davies and particularly Turnbull will provide leadership when they are available. I think Hemmings is actually pretty vocal on the pitch, but not in a domineering, Peter Clarke fashion.

I think Mellon believes Taylor is better than Burton, which is why Jake has been allowed to leave.
 

Ian

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Burton has hardly featured for many years under Mellon so no reason to think we would need him now. Obviously with the injuries, we are a bit light but the squad will gel after a few games and we’ll get some better players returning to the squad before too long.
 
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