Lancaster Rover

We've been going backwards since Christmas, the two positive results under Lowe were blip rather than the norm over the last couple of months

Yeah to be fair, I'd not noticed they were at the start of the school holidays, I had it in my head the old fashioned dates of the Champ final being on Bank holiday monday

Well, I reckon I'll know by 5.15 on Saturday whether I can book a holiday for May half term or need to be looking at London hotels!

This just has a Derby 1-0 win written all over it, it would be peak Rovers. It's what we do, year on year even pre-dating Venky's. Whenever a team is in dire form and desperate for a win we roll over and get our tummy tickled.

Absolutely, it’s certainly the way we’ve played the last 12 months. Brittain and Beck almost always orient their body to show the player down the line rather than back inside. I think this is in part because JE was confident in our ability to win aerial duels. It’s definitely a modern coaching nuance where keeping players out of the central zone around the D is the main objective when defending

To be fair to eustace it was a passive press with hedges and Dolan curing off full backs and shadowing the pivot until they crossed into the middle third and then it became a more engaged press. Yesterday was horrible, whether that was a poorly executed JE press or a badly advised VI I don’t know

This is what I was saying in an earlier post, the awful press led to them being able to go deep on our left, drag us across leaving their opposite full back and winger playing 50/50 all the time and cheating out wide, left Brittain totally exposed most of the first half with the switch from their right to left

I’m sorry but you’ve made no sense there chaddy, yes a high press can be open to being played through if you get it wrong. A poor midblock is even worse as your starting position is so much deeper the midblock we played today with poor cover shadowing and incorrect distances, with poor triggers to slide led to us being played through and being massively unbalanced with the cross field pass with supporting numbers underneath being on everytime. The least compact midblock you’ll see this season. You talk about the danger of Sainz, we literally let him have the ball in ‘zone 14’ continually due to the tactics. A starting position of activating a press after the half way line made the situation almost comical, we wanted to restrict sainz yet let them play through to him at will. We didn’t engage until Norwich were in the final third and attacking centrally. Really poor out of possession tactics imo.

They played through the non existent mid block anyway

The most frustrating aspect of today was the Norwich are crap, if the manager had anything about him he’d have pressed the life out of them and that’s the worrying thing. The instructions they’d been given did not match the opposition at all

Sits in the cuck chair

I think Dennis was getting increasingly frustrated with the ponderous speed the ball was being moved forward. He was constantly looking to get behind Chrisene and directing where he wanted it only for it to not come and is lose the ball, which I think played a part in his rashness, albeit the second wasn’t a yellow.

If I was either Brittain or Ribeiro I’d have had Pears up against a wall for the amount of hand grenades he chucked Brittain and passes to Ribeiro in poor areas. He takes so long to make a decision and then clips a ball to them under oressure. I didn’t understand the pressing structure. Front line far too passive and not creating cover shadows on midfield. 2nd line stood too far off, so when they tried to apply high pressure the gaps were too big and they got popped off. Why on earth we didn’t press Duffy who we know turns like a bus is beyond me. The few times we did they shit the bed and gave it away. We should have done everything we could to get the ball in between Duffy and the right back for Kargbo to run at them Thought Travis had his worst game of the season

I think his career has gone the same way at each of his last 2 (arguabley all 4) clubs, starts with fanfare. fails to deliver, becomes others faults, downs tools, falls out with fans, and it goes on.

Surely Waggot collects a bigger bonus if we go up

I think everyone expected him to leave for Derby the minute the rumours started circling, in fact I'd say most fans on here were surprised he didn't go to West Brom and to some extent Coventry, although I'd say they had their heart set on Lampard.

Only problem is there is barely a tackle in that front 4, puts too much pressure on Buckley and Trav to cover everything. One thing Hedges does better than anyone is organise a press in terms of creating cover shadows and cutting passing lanes.

Sanderson very luck there, the forward could easily have gone down and Brittain mopping up makes it look less of a mistake

Forshaw knows he’s playing for Rovers right?

Can only think Forshaw is a picked in the hope he’s desperate to get one over on them, no idea what Cantwell done to warrant a start.

If Wellens hadn't been on TV at the weekend absolutely nobody would have been talking about him for the job.

That’s just categorically untrue of what academies are currently looking for. In Cat 1, 2 and 3 academies over 85% of players are September - January births with a similar number having a biological/developmental age which outstrips their birth age. So the idea we’re recruiting small players is rubbish. The current trend is selecting the oldest and biggest in each year group. There are a few outlier clubs/players but look anywhere cat 1 - cat 3 and you’ll see the same

I beg to differ, if Celtic hadn’t been an absolute joke they like every other year for 9 before and those since would certainly have had a day in it

Only reason Rangers won it that season was Celtic repeatedly shooting themselves in both feet and then bringing in Neil Lennon. Coyle could have won the SPL that year

From watching Derby a few times this season I think their biggest problem is that they're just not very good, JE will get them organised, etc but the players at their disposal are inferior to those at Rovers and will leak goals whilst struggling to convert them. Looking around them a number of teams have better squads and are hitting a bit of form, whereas they seem to be treading water in a very dangerous area. Long term I don't think JE will regret it as working in a toxic environment would be bad for your health over a sustained period however I think in the immediate 6 month term he will look back and regret it and the decision be viewed as a poor career move on his part.