With the benefit of not one, but 2 international breaks and early elimination from the EFL Cup, our team should have recovered sufficiently for the challenge of tomorrow’s match versus Sunderland. They face several weeks of having to work/play as many as two times between now and Christmas before they get another rest. Some of us may look back and wonder how we had the energy in our twenties and even beyond for sport more than once a week. Oh, and of course we had to work at normal jobs during the week as well.
So to continue in a critical vein with a hard yet realistic view of the Table you could say that unless we improve, we will not have much chance of promotion. We lost to the team now bottom, we have been eliminated from two cup competitions by lower ranking teams when fielding almost full-strength 11s and we are not getting any better at scoring goals when we are dominant in attack. At the same time, our defence and defensive organisation cannot prevent goals against the weakest of attacks, like Wimbledon and FC United.
It will be interesting to compare whoever is in goal tomorrow with Bursik; either Lumley or Jones, and I hope that neither James nor John will be the last defender again at set-pieces. Sunderland are unbeaten away, but their record shows that they have not visited any team that was then in the top half of the table at the time, so it may be more indicative of their form that they are losing at home. That apart, perhaps a more direct attacking policy would have the effect of showing that we are not overawed by them as we have seemed to be in the past.
It would be good if Lyndon Gooch either does not play or has just an average game because our former loanee always seems the star of their team in these matches. Looking more closely at their away matches they have kept several clean sheets in all but one of the matches, so I will go for 1-0 and perhaps I should hope that either Anderson or Wright will be covering our attacking set-pieces, so I’ll say Okenabirhie to score instead.
DPL v Sunderland
posted on 21/11/20
Jones had very little to do v FC Utd and to be critical might have done better with the one on one. So not much of an indication of his ability.
posted on 21/11/20
2-1 to Rovers. Oke or Sims to score. Crowd 0
posted on 21/11/20
1-1 Whiteman
posted on 21/11/20
Rovers 3-1Sunlun
Okenabirhie to score.
posted on 21/11/20
time 15:27 - score 0-0 apologies for late submission - im going 1-0 rovers whiteman to score
posted on 22/11/20
This was the first game this season that Rovers have been outplayed.
They were totally bottled up in the first half, pressed into meaninglessly prodding the ball around the back with all the available passing space up-field blocked off by strategic positioning of the Sunderland attackers. Lumley was excellent in goal, but the Sunderland covering made it impossible for him to distribute the ball up-field. Yet our defenders had no other plan and kept trying to force it up the middle requiring more skill of the receivers than we possessed on a day with Sims was not at his best and Lokilo was just not good enough.
The attitude was improved in the second half, and Rovers demanded more of the ball, but they were kept well at bay by skilful defending and their inferior skill in close ball control. Smith worked hard, but in Sims case I could not be sure whether he just lacked his edge or was effectively supressed. An additional dynamic force like Taylor or John-Jules was needed and only Halliday was there to try to put them off balance which he obviously did in the final minute with equal credit to Oke who keeps his head down more often than most when he gets a kick in front of goal.
Gooch was really good and they probably had 75% of the best players on the pitch with credit too to Phil Parkinson for snuffing us out; perhaps they will feel robbed, but it has often happened to us, but what a finish! Marquis would have got it over the bar.
Unbelievably, Sunderland fans are up on arms which is sad because they obviously don’t realise just how good they were, imagining that Rovers are no better than any other League 1 also-ran.
posted on 22/11/20
Pathetic and lucky was my immediate reaction. but thinking things over, credit must go to Phil Parkinson for his tactics which made us look so poor, but also Sunderland's inability to score more from the chances they had, and it took a wonder strike for them to get one.
I felt sorry for Lumley for the pressure we put him under with the continuous passing back to him. I know the high press reduced our normal options, but our back four seemed to lack any imagination of how to overcome this. DM must allow them more flexibility, as I'm sure if let loose, our players might be able to find a solution to this.
Nobody had a really good game, and maybe Smith and Halliday were nearer their bests. Sims seemed almost out of it with no real spark which was really disappointing, and I do not know how I saw anything good in Lokilo in that one game last season (which I did). This season, so far, I've not seen anything to encourage me.
Another disappointment as compared with last season is Cameron John - may be it is that he really is a centre-back! James also seemed way out of place playing in the positions he did.
While I know managers should not be too critical of players in public, I think DM is too positive. While I agree with him that their spirit to keep going to the final whistle is admirable, he offered too much praise after the game.
I hope for something better on Tuesday.
Tonight the Portland Timbers have their first play-off game against Dallas - this season a one game knock-out, not the usual home and away to cut down on travel. Just like the Rovers, they have plenty of injuries. In the summer they won the MLS is Back Tournament, but Sebastian Blanco, the player voted player of the tournament (most goals and assists), is out with a torn ACL, and our new Polish striker (and our player with the best shot to goal conversion ratio) joined Blanco with a torn ACL. Our other main striker has been out for over a month, and is 50:50 for tonight. Two other players only arrived back from International Duty in South America on Friday, and by the Timbers flying them back alone on charter flights, have somehow avoided quarantine. Unfortunately the game is only on cable TV which we do not have.
posted on 23/11/20
A 93rd minute goal to deprive your Timbers of the win yesterday is a depressing coincidence when the penalties went the way of Dallas too.
To return to Saturday, I held back a little in my criticism of this match and nearly mentioned the left back weakness.
My thoughts are the same as yours on management’s reactions to the team’s shortcomings - weariness and then on Saturday, “rustiness”. Previous disappointing performances have brought only very generalised attributions of responsibility which might make a suitable impression on some, but if a particular “department”has failed it needs to be publicly acknowledged to satisfy the paying audience that it has been recognised. I have to confess that whereas I was an avid listener of managers like SOD and Fergie, Moore says nothing much which is not predictably bland, so I rarely tune in. In fact I think I could probably cover for him without really needing to know what was going on. Of course, I do not doubt that he is competent, but we should be entitled to a greater degree of insight into what he really thinks and expects.
So, instead of “Nothing but credit” for the performance, he should have assured us that he recognised how poor they were in the first half and never really looked like scoring in the second. I think that I would go as far as to say that they lost heart and most of the team deserve very little credit at all.
posted on 23/11/20
Agree with comments on DMs after match comments. The mark of a really good manager, as opposed to a competent one , is to first compliment the players on what they did well then explain to them what went wrong and what could be improved. Hands up also if the manager gets his tactics wrong. Mid table again at best for us. Unless DM turns out to be a "lucky" general.
posted on 23/11/20
Donaldo, it seems the Timbers' game was a little like some of the Rovers' as Dallas "parked the bus" and the Timbers could not get through them. Also, Ebobisse only came on in the 88th minute, so they played most of the game without three of their top scorers. It is also the sixth time this season the Timbers have conceded in added time!