Lancaster Rover

If Adam is unhappy enough about leaving then he doesn’t sign a contract with CP. Nobody has a gun to his head, let’s not get into hysterionics and paint a picture of the lad being frog marched at gunpoint into the PL and 50k a week. I’m sure he would like to stay until the end of the season but liking in an ideal world and reality of the football industry are 2 very different things

Not the move we all thought he'd get first off but then I can see the attraction, at CP he plays every week rather than being loaned out or back playing U23 football. We know how good he is but I just don't see him playing at Brighton, Newcastle, etc at this stage, not down to ability but down to the competition and conservative nature of PL clubs.

We've dodged a bullet there, I've mentioned before that I follow Celtic (family) so watch most the games. Phillip's has been a disaster for Celtic, up there with the debacle that was Shane Duffy. His final game against Killie was as bad as I've seen and he had a proper stinker against Hibees.

Think it was the other way around, to help Arsenal with FFP. They can put the Raya purchase into next cycles figures, I remember them talking about it on the Athletic Tactics Podcast recently.

I see Waggot and Fraser Read have acknowledged (to some extent) they got it wrong on ST and looking at them coming down, also stating they viewed Watford as a success but took less money than normal. I find that hard to believe to be honest given the numbers that were there.

I think this is a really good and often ignored point re Adam. He’s wonderful with the ball however the gaps he leaves in midfield are criminal. Given the risky nature of the way he plays, he needs to develop his awareness of the impact of losing possession/not covering certain areas. For someone who sees a pass so well going forward he’s not great (or not bothered) at reading the game defensively.

I’m rubbish with link on here, it’s on the radio lancs sport Twitter page, it’s about 4 1/2 mins long

As I’ve said many times, I thoroughly enjoy JDT’s style of play and his philosophy but have become dismayed with his lack of flexibility, plan B or ability to recognise when things need to change. For the first time however last night I thought you arrogant/smug prick after watching his interview with Andy Bayes. On the one hand he’s inviting media and fans to blame him yet when questioned about the impact of being on the touchline or sat down he states that the most important thing is winning personal duels. I accept that all footballers are arrogant and that singleminded ness is needed however last night it was arrogance bordering on delusion and a total inability to accept his role in our current failures. I’ve seen all the stuff on Instagram about the dressing room having gone, no idea whether I believe that or not however I can’t imagine the players being too happy with him throwing them under the bus when he sat and washed his hands of them second half.

These are my overriding memories of him, played well 1 in 4 or 5, usually on telly. Rest of the time was a passenger with terrible decision making. Always got the feeling he had ideas way above his station and thought being at Rovers was beneath him.

No doubt or argument that some ex players have gone on to play and have some success (fleeting in most cases) at higher levels but there are some heavily rose tinted specs being worn too. Josh King for instance was a waste of a shirt 3 games out of 4.

When we had JRC, Hedges and Dolan fit his system makes sense as their are the players needed to rotate on the pitch (JRC and Hedges are great at it) with those injuries he needed to recognise what he’s got and adjust the way we play. It’s what good managers do, they still stick to their underlying principles but make slight tweaks to get the best of what they’ve got at the time. JDT appears to have pig headed lay tried to (unsuccessfully) ram square pegs in round holes for 6 weeks and learnt nothing

I’ve been a big admirer of JDT and his style of play until recently when his total Unwillingness to be flexible and make tweaks to a system that clearly isn’t fit for the players we’ve got has cost us 15 points. Fans can just about forgive a poor run of festive fixtures, but back that up with losing at home to a league 1 team. No chance.

Hill has been absolutely terrible the last few weeks, I’ve still not forgiven him for the horror show against Watford. Which if Tronstad hadn’t saved him he’d have been responsible for 2 huge opportunities down to basics like not checking his shoulder and getting played behind

No red button tonight?

Didn’t mention earlier but huge congratulations to all involved in organising todays fan takeover. It was brilliant looking round each stand to see them heavily populated, hopefully those in power have taken notice

Can’t complain about the first 75 minutes, they looked absolutely shattered after that and I thought Hill contributed to us playing deeper and deeper by constantly playing backward when he could play forward. He also had the ball played behind and turned really easily on 2 occasions. Also, played the ball into marked players when they clearly didnt have the energy to turn or nip in front. Largely been impressed by him but thought he was very poor when he came on.

There was a booming north lancs(Lancaster & morecambe) rovers supporters club in the Prem days, filled a coach most weeks. Still a lot of fans but attendance at games has dwindled due to ownership and ticket prices. That and I suppose lads getting older, habits changing and there being no younger lads to take their place

Waggot dropped an absolute clanger with the pricing of ST’s of that there is no doubt. Bolton fans are as fickle as any but a team with a good chance of promotion and an ST at £229 almost sells itself. If only our hierarchy understood basic marketing and sales strategy. At £250 for BBE we’d sell 15k, nailed on, 25 quid a month (10 months), it’s cheaper than a 4 man round and a couple of bags of crisps!

There was a really good example with maybe 10 mins to go of the potential effect of hoofing it in to the corner to compare against playing out. (this example is caveated with our side being knackered and several tactical changes having been made) Wahlstedt sent one over the top of everyone, giving possession right back to them. they then had space to drive at pace into our half unopposed; this drew our players in, creating space for them to play into and ended up drawing a brilliant save from Wahlstedt. Now I'm not saying that the high risk stuff we play at times is always the best decision however there were a couple of occasions last night (not just this) where playing the ball long for it to come straight back at you has greater risk of creating chances than playing out from the back. More often than not when playing out you're doing so with an overload position, against largely static opposition. Surrendering the ball by playing long often means you're defending against more players, at higher speed and with runners beyond the ball.

Moran was absolutely having one tonight, very young lad in his first run of men’s football so he’s going to have them. Important thing is he looks at what didn’t work, be at it in training and forget about tonight’s performance next game

He’s probably been out most consistent player all season, never below 6/10 and often a 7 or 8. There were genuinely people on here giving it that he wasn’t good enough at the start of the season. He’s in the top few RB’s in the league. Fantastic signing, massive shame he spent so much of last season (uncharacteristically) injured.

I said to my little lad before the game yesterday that it had loss written all over it. Having such a young side, that’s paper thin and whalloped by injuries doesn’t help. But two good wins and losing away to a team who can barely buy a point is text book Rovers. As we’ve said many times most the young lads have played more games this season than they’ve played in their careers to date. It’s always going to be a couple of steps forward and one back this season. If we can keep in an around the play offs they and JDT will have done a phenomenal job.

Depends what you mean by unreserved, I know at Celtic Park they have absolute murder keeping those without tickets for the standing section out. I am all for them but one of the main considerations is around access to the section and effectively fencing it off so you don't end up with 100 people standing in an area designated for 50. Whilst standing sections are unreserved once you get in there you do get allocated a seat.

I take it all back, 20% off both home and away kits over will have boosted the coffers with them selling out.

Let’s see at the end of the season, I think you sell more if you offer incentives. You also increase the number of casual buyers and on the fencers. The more Rovers shirts on kids the better. A kid kit costs best part of £100 quid, kid gets a choice of that or say the new FIFA, a lot choose fifa and we have less rovers shirts on kids. There are differing pricing strategies of course but I just think they’ve missed a trick of directing loads of traffic and business to the site today who might make secondary purchases that they wouldn’t normally make. Whereas I bet there will be plenty like me who looked on and thought what a joke and bought nowt.