roversfan99

A third Saturday 12.30 in a row is an absolute joke. Sky really thinking of the fans as they always do.

He is not sharp enough for this standard. He gets caught offside so often and he regularly takes one touch too many and loses the ball.

Id rather leave Hedges at home.

The point was that those are the sort of options we are looking at it when we need to change things. It wasnt a criticism of fans suggesting those players, it just shows how weak our squad is. We needed a more mobile centre back instead of McFadzean, especially with Batth coming in. As for what I would do, I would only consider a back 3 if Beck is fit and put Pickering to left centre back.

I can see how understandably desperate people have become when you see the players that are being suggested as we scrape the barrel. McFadzean hasnt played a league minute and is approaching the age of 38. Sigurdsson is now injured but hes been suggested despite being shit throughout his time here. Buckley keeps getting suggested, that cant be on his own performances. Leonard is mentioned, he wasnt up to it last year and missed a sitter last night.

How do you look back at your comments about Gueye and Ohashi after a friendly v Stockport? They seemed to be the second coming but are both well off it.

Another bad night at the office and the fact that we have 2 goals and 4 points in 7 games is embarassing. I can not see who is going to score the goals to avoid us slipping into a relegation fight. It all comes down to the owners and their unwillingness to spend but Gestede has really found a couple of duds with the peanuts available. Ohashi, constantly offside or seeing the ball bounce away from him. And Gueye, wow, what a joke. Hedges again shite, summed himself up taking too long when clean through. Cantwell looks like he is frustrated because no one is on his wavelength, even better in a central role.

What a thoroughly depressing team. 1-0 Stoke.

I wasnt dismissing your expectations. I was saying that seeing as you would take anywhere in the top half, I am guessing you dont have faith in a play off push.

Neither were anywhere near good enough so it would say a lot if they did. Garrett cant even get a game in League 1.

A couple of things you never address: - Is creating chances solely on the rest of the team, does none of the onus fall on the actual striker finding himself in goalscoring positions through his movement and anticipation? Look how bad we were last season and how many Szmodics got, that was not because he had great creative players, he knew which runs to make and where the ball would go. Gueye is often static, he wont get chances like that - Why is it such a struggle to create chances when we have attacking players who you want to dish out new deals to, ie Dolan and Hedges? Surely if they are so good, they would be a strikers dream. I dont think confidence is the main issue for Gueye. I sadly dont think he appears to be very good. Very poor technically and lacks the intelligence and awareness to sniff out goals. I dont think he did, no. His cross came off a defender.

Yeah im not having this idea where the idiotic red card at Burnley saw his confidence fell off a cliff. Before then, he had only started 2 league games. Against Derby, he dragged one reasonable chance wide and then missed an absolute sitter. Against Norwich he did lay on a nice pass for Hedges to score but never looked like scoring himself, then he was dropped v Oxford. When he came on he did technically get an assist (was essentially just a very good individual turn and goal by Sigurdsson) and also shanked a shot of his own almost out of the stadium. He may be low on confidence, but thats not his main issue. He is technically so poor and clearly not someone who has the instinct to sniff out chances nor the technique to take them. He can bring the ball down usually on his chest but its of no use if he cant play a subsequent 5 yard pass. Lets hope he proves many of us wrong.

I dont think that happily taking a league position up to 4 places below our current placing suggests high confidence in the team. We can be difficult to break down. Going forward we are easy to play against due to a lack of quality.

Gestede can clear off and take his terrible main summer signing with him.

Khadra also had pace though which at least gave us a different dimension.

Travis should look to score more goals but there is naturally more onus on players in the final third to contribute more. I dont get why Baker has never been used in his correct position. He does have a track record of scoring from range yet Eustace seems to prefer Buckley who tends to be a waste of a sub.

Indeed. I get that money is always tight and recruitment as a result is made difficult, so maybe people would argue its better the devil you know. But the whole attack needs a makeover. The likes of Hedges and Dolan havent needed to contribute regularly when we had the goalscorers I mentioned, now we dont we need far more from them than they are capable of contributing. With Dolan, if we saw signs of improvement considering his age then it would be an easy decision to make. If anything, he appears to have regressed. I wonder if it was his decision or the clubs decision for him to bulk up and lose any explosiveness and pace he once had? Maybe it would be better for Dolan too to have a fresh start.

What do they provide that makes you so keen to keep them?

Eustace clearly is capable of making his sides difficult to break down, thats clearly where his strengths lie and our squad is devoid of attacking quality and excitement. But at the moment, the balance clearly isnt right because our recent run of 6 games has yielded only 4 points and only 2 goals. You cant just rely on being solid.

Has Hedges for example dipped in form? He has been consistently incapable of contributing in an attacking sense since he joined. He doesnt score or assist much, he isnt very quick, he isnt tricky, he doesnt really put in good deliveries, what does he offer? He turns 30 before the next season starts so is he suddenly going to burst into life? Dolan is obviously younger but the question is, is he improving, can anyone see a player who is getting better? He gets you 4 or 5 goals a season, is that going to suddenly increase? Does he appear to be a player to be getting better as he gets older? He still regularly makes poor decisions just as often, does needless ineffective skills and doesnt really cause an impact in the final third. If anything, he has lost the explosiveness that caused a bit of excitement when he broke into the team, its crazy how often his lack of pace causes him to lose a foot race with another sluggish Championship bruiser of a CB. The pair have always had a player in the team, whether its been Szmodics, Brereton or Armstrong to score the majority of the teams goals so it felt not as important how many they got. Now we have an absence of a goalscorer, they show no sign of being capable of doing their bit to cover that.

Problem is, I agree that its about results. At the moment though, we are both boring and getting shit results. Not the best combination. Im guessing that you would still reward years of nothingness from both Hedges and Dolan with new long deals with nice pay rises. I can see Cantwell soon becoming frustrated at the lack of quality around him. In the past, we have always tended to have one player who would at least give us goals. Now we simply do not have anyone who gives us any confidence in getting even to double figures. The likes of Dolan and Hedges havent and seemingly wont step up despite a more prominent role and Gueye is a laughing stock. Ohashi might be the best bet but I cant see him being prolific and he has really struggled.

Was Chris Brown crap? Leon Best? Jason Lowe? Dom Samuel? Hope Akpan? Obviously not comparing Hedges and Dolan to them, maybe crap is harsh but I am sick of seeing them, they repeatedly show an incapability to positively contribute at this level. We are well organised in the main but just have very little goal threat, pace, excitement or entertainment going forward. A hard watch.

Says a lot about our summer business that we signed 2 strikers, 3 further attacking players and 2 centre backs if you include McFadzean and we still need to sort all of those attacking positions out. And we still have Pears in net too.

The issue might be that he cant change much due simply to a lack of quality in attacking positions. But he should see trying to change the attack as a pressing concern, we have 2 goals in 6 games, no sane footballing man sees the likes of Hedges and Dolan and thinks that they have the quality to turn things around.

There is an argument that we arent a side best suited to utilising his supposed strengths. That would further suggest that he was a poorly chosen target by Gestede etc, but I would also say that he doesnt do enough to get himself into good positions, his movement is non existent and he doesnt anticipate things. But other parts of his game are also well below what you would expect of any Championship football. I am not expecting him to be a technically gifted footballer, a good passer, to have a good touch etc but he is so poor in most aspects. Look yesterday, who was surprised when he just ran the ball out of play? He feels like he is a ticking timebomb in terms of discipline and he seems incapable of even hitting a reasonable shot towards target or playing a 5 or 10 yard pass after chesting the ball down. Not good enough.