SBRed Match Thoughts Doncaster Rovers v Barnsley

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Originally Posted by EthelRed

Well that would explain it Shad cos there wasnt any sense in the selection.

We found out Rooney is slower than Russell and shouldnt be playing full back again. I get it that his hand might have been forced on that selection.
Kelly should be included on a regular basis he linked well with Bland. I thought the pair overshadowed Connell, I cant fathom whats behind his regressive performances.
Cleary looked tricky but faded out in the second.
Cooper really needs to get his kicking sorted hes lacking accuracy almost all the time.
The rest of the lads put in 5 out of ten performances for me but credit to them for coming away with the points.

Lets hope we get the illness out of the camp by the next match so thet we can play our first 11, whatever that is as im not sure.

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Its all about opinions Ethel and I totally respect your opinions but I do not get your comment about Connel, the whole team have struggled in the last month but the knives seem to be out for Connel yet yesterday he was excellent, he covered every inch of the pitch on and off the ball and his passing was excellent , Kelly stole the show and was superb , but Connel , Cleary and Bland were to me the driving force that got us over the line , one thing though, we are all delighted to see a well earned 3 points.

I may not be the best placed person to comment on this I'll admit because I've not seen every game this season , I've seen possibly half but definitely no more than that .

However what strikes me the most is that I actually think we've got some excellent players in the squad , Cleary , DKD , Kelly , Connell , Bland , Vickers and McGoldrick does a decent job when asked .

Trouble is we aren't a particularly good team despite having some quality players for this level in our ranks , when I say we aren't a particularly good team I'm judging it on not making the top 2 and only good enough to have an interest in grabbing 6th place , you could say that for over half the league though .

The goal we gave away yesterday wasn't a goal a good team would give away for instance , we had a throw in on the halfway line and within seconds it was in the back of our net .

It's far from the first time this season we've given stupid goals away , the Humphrey's goal at Bradford recently was another shocker and the 2 Wimbledon goals earlier in the season , I'm sure there's loads more too .

You could blame the defence but I don't think Roberts or Shepherd are poor players , the keeper isn't the best we've ever had but he's competent enough and the two full backs aren't awful players either yet we give away soft goals and we do it regularly .

So how can a team with significantly more good players than poor ones not be challenging at the top of this league ? , a league that doesn't look as strong as I've seen in recent seasons , definitely the worst since we went down from the championship 4 years ago .

There's something very Spurs about us , I'm sure we all know what I mean when I say that , no matter that Spurs had Harry Kane and Son or Gareth Bale and many more they were never really a team that troubled the top of the Premier League .

The easiest point would be to blame the HC and his staff I suppose but that's way too easy and unfair , Hourihane is new to the job and should be given time , if you set a HC on and it's his first job then you accept what comes with that in my opinion , or you should .

It's a very strange situation and pretty baffling.

I thought we had spells in the game where we were totally on top but just couldn’t make it count as much as we should have done. They also had their spells in the game and created some good chances.

Molyneux is clearly one of their better players and I thought Rooney struggled big time against him. I guess he can have some slack cut as it’s not his usual position. As of right now though, for centre back at least, he’d be last in the queue to get in the team for me.

Patrick Kelly was our best player I thought. His drive forward with the ball from central midfield is key and is something that none of the other midfielders offer. As much as I like Connell and Bland, they don’t have the pace and/or agility to do what Kelly does. That’s fine, they have other strengths. Cleary was also our attacking outlet again yesterday and had their defender on toast every time. I feel like once his final ball improves, he could explode with goals and assists and teams higher up will come sniffing immediately.

I have been to the last 2 away games and I think, overall, we have definitely been deserving of the 4 points we have got from them. We need to, again, make sure our home form and performances match up because poor home form seems like it’s creeping in again. I am hoping that with Luton being the next team to come to Oakwell in just under 2 weeks, they won’t sit everyone behind the ball (I think this is our biggest downfall when teams do this against us) and we can have a good performance and result.

Shads, my comment about Connell is borne from my feeling that he is not fulfilling the potential he showed before his illness. At that time I felt he had the prospect of making up to a player that would dominate games at this level and be ready for a step up the divisions. I dont doubt his effort I just think hes lost his way a bit. Hes never played beside an old dog in a Reds shirt and has had little on field guidance as a young player. He might benefit from that experience.

As for yesterday,I thought that the other lads in midfield had more impact on the game than Luca, opinions as you say.

When you say the knives are out for Luca, im not sure about that as I only read this board and generally there is very little comment these days, but if youre hearing that on the terraces fair enough. My thinking on that is that there is disappointment that he has not yet made up to the player people thought he would make.

Anyway on to Luton and another tough game.

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Originally Posted by EthelRed

Shads, my comment about Connell is borne from my feeling that he is not fulfilling the potential he showed before his illness. At that time I felt he had the prospect of making up to a player that would dominate games at this level and be ready for a step up the divisions. I dont doubt his effort I just think hes lost his way a bit. Hes never played beside an old dog in a Reds shirt and has had little on field guidance as a young player. He might benefit from that experience.

As for yesterday,I thought that the other lads in midfield had more impact on the game than Luca, opinions as you say.

When you say the knives are out for Luca, im not sure about that as I only read this board and generally there is very little comment these days, but if youre hearing that on the terraces fair enough. My thinking on that is that there is disappointment that he has not yet made up to the player people thought he would make.

Anyway on to Luton and another tough game.

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It is Facebook where the most criticism about individuals come from, I do not read twitter so I cannot comment but what I do pick up on is that it always seems to be our better players who eventually get targeted and whats so annoying is that by and large they are armchair critics, you only have to see the times of the posts to know that they are not at the match , last week they were having a pop at DKD and wanting him to be dropped , this season Connel has taken large amounts and in the years gone by there have been numerous , Woodrow got dogs abuse for an example , last year after Xmas Cole got the treatment but you actually have to really be at a match to judge a players performance properly, on tv the camera"s follow the ball but 98% of the time a player is off the ball and a lot of work and graft goes into tracking , moving and positional play , you do not see this on tv whilst at the match you can look around the pitch at any time and get a lot truer reflection of what is actually happening but hey it is only my opinion and you can write what I know about football on the back of a postage stamp !! , plus differing opinions gives us something to debate

There needs to be a reality check on what is happening atm.
Conor still learning, new assistant and new or young players still settling in after 13 games, flu bug has taken players out all week which is why he played Rooney at left back, cos Gent was out with it and Ogbeta still not 100%, I would still have had Farugia there though!
We have had a poor run, which all teams go through in a season, apart from Bolton all the rest at the top lost!
If we string a few results together we could conceivably be top of the table within 4-5 weeks, the 2 games in hand if won puts us joint 2nd as it stands, not bad when you consider we can't keep a clean sheet for live nor money!
We need to start looking up, not down and having a more positive outlook, when this lot gel and we get another CB and Striker in January all will be good.