• 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 u.s v rovers

Match result

  • Colchester

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Draw

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tranmere

    Votes: 6 100.0%

  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .
u.s v rovers
Posted by Ian
Jobserve Stadium
Saturday, March 26, 2022 - 03:00 PM
Until: Saturday, March 26, 2022 - 05:00 PM
(Adjusted for timezone: Europe/London)
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bigmart

bigmart
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Ian Muir
Just watched Micky post match. Clearly identifies the issues we have in the box. A lack of desire or ability to get on the end of things. To be fairs that’s been our problem most of the season. He mentions we had 3 frontmen at the end but two of them were playing wide! Plus two of them (Jolley and Nevitt), aren’t good enough on a regular basis to score enough
Part of the problem with the poor recruitment last summer
 

ALDO MUSSY

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if mm went tonight I would not be too bothered just boring to watch and we are piss poor just glad our home form is great or we would be in the poop the two lads up top don,t have goals, and in them, it's not as if they have not had chances but I just feel they are not doing enough and yes the summer recruitment was utter piss poor, even if we made the playoffs witch I think we won't, we just don't do enough, MP put 400k into the Jan kitty he must be right pissed at the moment and you could not blame him rant over
 

frenchrover

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aldo
Do you think Hemmings decided himself to play wide and deep? Most of us probably think it was idiotic tactics by MM to play our best striker out there whilst letting a novice play up front by himself....
I honestly don't know ADD, but which ever it was an absolute waste of space as Hemmings had little or no impact on the game.
 

ADD

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Norwood
I honestly don't know ADD, but which ever it was an absolute waste of space as Hemmings had little or no impact on the game.
Sorry Frenchrover I didn't mean to be so questioning of your comment! My point like yours was yes it was an absolutely criminal waste. I just don't get MM this season away from home and then Sparky has just said that MM has said that apparently post match no one was in the box!!
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
If we don’t make the play offs I’d give Micky another season. At this level his record is very good. Not always easy on the eye but effective. This year he’s been working with a poor set of strikers, not helped by injuries to Maynard and glatzel. I’m sure in the summer our striking options will improve (although Jolley, Nevitt and Hemmings are all under contract), and I’m not sure the first two are good enough on a regular basis
 

drwhoman

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We always seem to be set up for a point away from home in the hope that we can sneak a goal or two and win the game. Is that a promotion winning strategy? Surprised that Spearing and Maynard sat on the bench for the whole game. It seemed that MM was happy to take a point rather than drive for the win we needed. This strategy backfired of course. I know we can make excuses about the midfield not providing chances but you start to wonder whether Burton knew something we did'nt when they let Hemmings go in January? As has been said, his historic goalscoring record looks ok but the fact that he is doing so little for us is perplexing.
 

bigmart

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Ian Muir
If we don’t make the play offs I’d give Micky another season. At this level his record is very good. Not always easy on the eye but effective. This year he’s been working with a poor set of strikers, not helped by injuries to Maynard and glatzel. I’m sure in the summer our striking options will improve (although Jolley, Nevitt and Hemmings are all under contract), and I’m not sure the first two are good enough on a regular basis
But the service to the strikers has been a big problem too, we don't create anywhere near enough chances and the football has been pretty poor to watch
 

Ian

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I don't think we are playing Hemmings to his strengths. Everytime I see him, he's playing with his back to goal and far too deep either trying to win the ball or setup others. He needs to be further forward feeding off balls from midfield. However, I'm not convinced the midfield is good enough to give him that service. He's our best striker and needs to be accomodated.
 
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Sparky

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Yes I agree Ian. I wonder whether it’s worth giving Maynard and Hemmings a go as a front two, depending on how fit the former is. It’s daft that you sign a striker like Kane with a decent record and play him out wide
 

ALDO MUSSY

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apart from a few games when was the last time we where properly entertained the last time i think of was Daws last game 5-0 Aganst grimsby sick and tired of boring Football
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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John King
Do you think Hemmings decided himself to play wide and deep? Most of us probably think it was idiotic tactics by MM to play our best striker out there whilst letting a novice play up front by himself....
In the absence of both defensive midfielders - Spearing and O'Connor - we had to play three in midfield, so we were never going to play two strikers today. The same 433 set up, with Hemmings on the right, was effective in the second half at Sutton and got us back into the game, so to start with the same system this afternoon was far from idiotic, and that phrase is disrespectful to Mellon.
 
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As most people saw the game, I won't give a blow by blow account of events.

However, I agree with Boz that we were not toothless this afternoon. It was always going to be a tight affair but we had three good chances - the two one-on-ones for Hemmings and Nevitt in the first half, and Nevitt's shot in the second half - and at least one of them should have been scored. We are not nearly ruthless enough, as it was always going to be a tight game of relatively few chances.

That said, given our dominance of possession in the second half we should have created more, and I lost count of the number of times reasonable balls into the box were not attacked or anticipated. That is the responsibility of the wide players in a 433 and the midfielders, not just the striker.

This was the toughest to take of all the recent away defeats, as a lot of our football was good this afternoon and there was plenty of effort from the players. However, we simply have not been good enough away from home this season, and that is not down to tactics, as the tactical set up has been virtually identical to the home games. We clearly did play for the victory this afternoon, not a draw. It is a psychological issue, with a lack of confidence and belief away from Prenton Park, and a lack of quality in some areas.

We have got two home games coming up, and we just have to ensure we get enough points to at least make the top seven.
 
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Yes I agree Ian. I wonder whether it’s worth giving Maynard and Hemmings a go as a front two, depending on how fit the former is. It’s daft that you sign a striker like Kane with a decent record and play him out wide
In fairness, we have only done it for one and a half games because of absences in midfield. The four successive away defeats all came with Hemmings playing in a front two, and we hardly created anything for him in any of those matches.
 
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Part of the problem with the poor recruitment last summer
The recruitment was hit and miss last summer, but things seem to have improved with the appointment of Vaughan in January.

The reality is we only had four or five players under contract last summer and it was a complete squad rebuild. It was always likely to take more than one season to build a squad capable of challenging for the top three, not that we are completely out of that picture yet.

FGR and Exeter look likely to take two of the automatic places, but they have been building for several seasons, with a lot of their better players already well established.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
I saw for myself what you guys have been watching for most of the season. Colchester are an average side, but they were unlucky not to be 2-0 up early on after a mix up allowed their forward to lob Joe and just miss the goal. Then the foul in the penalty area which was given outside. Gradually, we got into the game and dominated from the half-hour mark until the end of normal time. Wave after wave of attacks came towards the SWA in the North Stand, but either the final ball or the finish was lacking. As we got more confident/desperate, we took risks and allowed Colchester to break away a couple of times. It was always possible they would get lucky.

By the time the goal was scored, I was already fed up. I was already resigned to losing two points, so the defeat only made matters a little worse. The worst thing about the defeat is not the loss of the third point, but the damage it must have done to the team's already fragile confidence. At least it wasn't against one of our promotion rivals.

In trying to work out what is wrong, I agree with RLC. I thought both sides were playing with a lack of confidence, particularly in the first half. I thought all the lads put in a shift. I want to give a special mention to Chris Merrie, who has come back in from the cold and played with confidence and control, tackling and passing well. I agree about Hemmings, who looked lost. He is not a number ten and should have been up front or not playing at all.

In summary, I saw a lot of talent on display and some clever play, but I was not convinced we were ever going to win. We need a massive change of mindset to get the campaign back on track. We are no longer keeping clean sheets, we have started to concede a lot of late goals and we are more likely to score when we are behind. As things stand, even if we scrape into the play-offs, what chance will we have against teams in form?
 
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Outoftowner

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Micky Mellon
In the absence of both defensive midfielders - Spearing and O'Connor - we had to play three in midfield, so we were never going to play two strikers today. The same 433 set up, with Hemmings on the right, was effective in the second half at Sutton and got us back into the game, so to start with the same system this afternoon was far from idiotic, and that phrase is disrespectful to Mellon.
In the game I watched this afternoon I don’t think we missed O’Connor or Spearing, Merrie played a very good game indeed and I can’t understand why he’s been sidelined all season ?.
I thought we played decent football but just lacked finishing !
I really believe we were very unlucky to have conceded thst last second goal and we deserved at least 1 point and possibly 3 based on out performance in the 20 mins before half time and all of the second half with the exception of the last 30 seconds !
 
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In the game I watched this afternoon I don’t think we missed O’Connor or Spearing, Merrie played a very good game indeed
I agree that Merrie had a decent game. However, we did not miss Spearing and O'Connor defensively because we played three in midfield, which gave us more control. That meant we could not play with two strikers, hence Hemmings was shifted to the right side.
 

Ian

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It is a psychological issue, with a lack of confidence and belief away from Prenton Park, and a lack of quality in some areas.
As much as I like Micky I do think it's been a failing of his this season. Yes, there is definately a lack of quality but he has to get the players up for these games and get them out of this mental state regarding away matches. Some of the football I've seen away from Prenton Park has been awful quite frankly. It will probably cost us this season and needs to be addressed especially if we end up in the playoffs.
 

Charlton1975

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Another defeat away from home to a poor team. Whether we played well in patches or not is largely irrelevant. Our away form is dire and it does seem that Micky looks to not lose these games as opposed to going for the win.

We still have a good chance of making the play offs but I do think that we will fall short again which is a real shame.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
A few reflections on what's been already been posted.

{ can understand the logic for playing Hemmings out wide as part of a 3 yesterday, as RLC sets out and thought he did reasonably well in that role. It was interesting that Cogley seemed much more prepared to venture forward than he has recently and it seemed Josh had the confidence in Hemmings to cover his back. Burton fans did highlight Hemmings did a lot of grafting and we have seen some of this during his time at Rovers.

However, I'm less sure about some of the assertions that his lack of goals from open play are down to him being fed the wrong type of ball and not to his strengths when he's deployed as a forward. Perhaps he needs to do a little adapting to how we play, but on the positive we should recognise the contribution he's made by assists to other scorers. I would strongly dissent from some of the dismissive remarks made in respect of Nevitt. Like the team as a whole, Eliott started badly, getting caught offside a few times, though one looked fairly marginal, but grew into the game and did everything right with the second half effort; hit hard well-placed, ball moving in the air, but it was matched by a save of equal quality from George. He's come on in leaps and bounds while improving his fitness and I'm glad he's contracted for next season. Probably along with Merrie one of the main contenders for MoM yesterday.

We seemed to struggle on the left in this game. Macdonald was rarely able to venture forward due to their attacking threat down that side, with the right-back Coxe frequently pressing forward to support the attack. Hawkes is a bit of an enigma, has an eye for goal, but sometimes goes missing and was not at his best so could understand him being subbed. Putting Jolley on and sticking with front 3 made less sense. I did wonder if Micky should have looked at bringing Spearing on for either Foley or Warrington to try and give us more control in the midfield areas, as in the final 20 minutes the hosts were seeing more possession in dangerous areas.
 
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