Tranmere v Swindon pre match chat and match day thread

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

On a side note.

Our Supporters class last night.
Celebrating the life of little Nate Gidman. Only the gods would have allowed their team to score during the celebration.
Majority of our fans continued in celebrating his life, some things in life more important.

Anyway messages apparently from Tranmere pointing this out and reliability informed his Dad sending a message to Swindon respecting our class.

Bloody moving that was standing next to the tributes outside the ground.
RIP little Man 🙏

[kirky69]

Still don’t believe our biggest issue though is our defence, some may disagree.
Our midfield and front line for me. No depth and massive voids lacking and we haven’t recruited to fill.

Agree with this and has been caused by a mix of bad luck and poor judgement by both the management team and players. Bad luck in the sense of Payne getting injured and Simpson/KKH being recalled. Poor judgement in not replacing KKH with an attacking right wing back, which is absolutely essential to how we play and also not replacing Simpson with 2 similar options, in case of injury. Garner in seemingly being unable (blame therefore goes back to recruitment) or unprepared (too stubborn) to adapt the playing style and also playing Iandolo as a central midfielder ahead of East. Poor judgement by Reed getting needlessly sent off and missing 2 very important games, when he could have been hugely influential and the whole team for conceding a last minute goal against 9 man Colchester.

What was most concerning for me last night was how fragile both physically and mentally our players appeared compared to Tranmere. We never looked like mounting an attack let alone scoring and after about an hour looked absolutely knackered, whilst at the start of the season we got stronger as the games progressed. For the most part it was was men against boys and we desparately need 3 points on Saturday even if it's a hard fought 1-0 win. Prove we are up for the battle and show some desire to do the ugly stuff as well as the pretty stuff. Crucially we also need to move the ball quicker, so some of the backwards and sideways passing may have to be sacrificed. Get balls in to the box for Davison and McKirdy to attack. With Payne and Reed back at least Garner can change it up a bit. Hunt is not a wing back so if Garner sticks with a back 5, then Tomlinson should play on the right and Iandolo on the left.  Otherwise if playing an orthodox back 4, then Hunt plays on the right and either Iandolo or Tomlinson  on the left with the other deployed as effectively an attacking left midfielder. Reed, Gladwin and Payne as middle 3 (or Payne wide right if playing a back 4) and Mckirdy plus Davison up top.

Fail to win Saturday and the natives will be restless, any lingering play off hopes would likely have evaporated and the pressure on Garner will intensify. Get 3 points against Scunny with  3 very winnable games coming up, Carlisle away,  Walsall home and Salford home. 12 points from the next 4 games and the landscape will look very different.

[Posh Red]

I think the statement “we got schooled by a team that got the basics right” hits the nail on the head.

Teams don’t have to be outstanding, or even very good, to beat us just do the basics right.

We, on the other hand, have to play well to win games and with Lower league players that’s not going to happen consistently.

This is where Garner needs to earn his money, try and find a style that compliments the players we have without having to revert to just blindly hoofing it.

If he can do that then all good, if not then you have to question whether he has a long term future

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Hunt as captain is embarrassing, nearly as bad as letting Curran have the armband in pre season games gone by.

Agreed with the rest of the post, but this was harsh.

[Berniman]

As bad as Conroy has been in the past 3 or 4 games, it's no coincidence that the team has reverted to the longer ball game in the last few matches, that and the fact that Reed wasn't available to recieve short passes out of defence.

I don't necessarily disagree that it was time for Conroy to drop out of the team for a while, but to continue try to play in the same way without Conroy and Reed in the team is asking for trouble.  Point in case, trying to pass GK's out of the area last night with 2 CB's sitting back in the area to recieve the ball is bonkers.  Last night proved that we don't have the personel to be able to do that, receive the ball, relax, and pass your way out.  Therefore we revert to the longer pass, which bypassed the midfield and didn't stick with our frontline.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Scunny won their match last night, against Walsall, with only 10 men from the 53rd minute, with A Grant making the most tackles on the pitch 

Some on here will mock you for thinking letting him go was a bad decision though.

[Bob's Orange]

Agreed with the rest of the post, but this was harsh.

This also got me thinking about leaders in our squad, and the lack of them. Obviously Dion is club captain (but I don't necessarily think he is a leader) but who else in the squad would we actually consider as a leader? I'm struggling as I go down the list of players as who you would pick as players that can drag the team out of the doldrums. Jack Payne maybe? Grant was the obvious choice before he fell out of favour but we just don't seem to have anyone that wants to take games by the scruff of the neck. I certainly don't think Rob Hunt is captain material fwiw.

[MangoRed]

Agreed with the rest of the post, but this was harsh.

Glad someone agrees  ,

Possibly it is harsh, but Hunt himself I feel would say its not a gig he'd want or put himself up for.

As said many times by others, we defo are lacking leaders. Wellens side had Mcormick, Baudry, Caddis, Doughty, Rose, Doyle - all winners.

[Dr Pierre Chang]

Dare I say we might see Baudry come back in at some point…an experienced head at the back.

[JoeMezz]

Dare I say we might see Baudry come back in at some point…an experienced head at the back.

Wouldn’t be against this at all…

[MangoRed]

Don’t think he’s gonna be close to the player he was 19/20, but I’d certainly understand if he was reintroduced.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

This also got me thinking about leaders in our squad, and the lack of them. Obviously Dion is club captain (but I don't necessarily think he is a leader) but who else in the squad would we actually consider as a leader? I'm struggling as I go down the list of players as who you would pick as players that can drag the team out of the doldrums. Jack Payne maybe? Grant was the obvious choice before he fell out of favour but we just don't seem to have anyone that wants to take games by the scruff of the neck. I certainly don't think Rob Hunt is captain material fwiw.

Yeah, as sick as people are of hearing it. Grant was the one. Rob Hunt is one of the better choices and isn't captain material.

O'Brien has all the makings of a captain but he's young and you can't give it to a loan player, it wouldn't be right.

The sign of a good team is one with a good 5 or 6 choices for captain and we don't seem to have any good choices.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Don’t think he’s gonna be close to the player he was 19/20, but I’d certainly understand if he was reintroduced.

Against popular opinion, i wasn't overly a fan of him even then.

[RobertT]

The Grant discussion is pointless, unless I am the only one that sees that Garner is NEVER going to bring in or use players like him.  Players with experience and big characters who have seen it and done it at League 2 level, or League 1, are not what he will want.  They are not going to do as they are told.  Garners styles requires everyone to buy in and do it the team way.

On that style - his undoing is two fold for me.  First, you are asking inexperienced players to play a risky way.  Last night showed to me that Conroy's failings are more down to the team ethic than an individual.  He has one of the highest passing %'s in the league, by design.  The problem with that is the 10% that go astray are not medium passes forwards or long punts to nobody or into the channels like most defenders will do at this level.  No, they are crossfield passes, or short ones into a dropping midfielder.  They are risky and create easy possession in our half - so they look terrible.  The evidence for me is Cooper last night.  Same problem.  You put a player under pressure at this level doing what you have asked them to do, and it will create trouble.  We may get 60% possession, but the 30-40% the other team gets is not in their defensive third.

Second issue is pressure.  I will use Man City as an example because, not surprisingly, very few teams at our level try and play this way.  Man City score because their possession creates pressure.  Not always, but they build up that possession or they move defenders and midfielders into uncomfortable positions or tire them.  Earlier in the season we could achieve the League Two version of this at times - Reed connected the midfield to the passing defenders.  Simpson, even if not performing, made defenders worry.  KKH didn't have huge end product, but he scared the shit out of left sided players, often finding he would attract two.  I'm not a massive fan of Payne above this level, because he plays like a school kid and exhausts himself while leaving his station too often.  At this level though he tires out the other teams midfield.

All of those factors meant we created pressure in the minds and physically of the opposition players.  The past couple of months, with those players missing, we create very limited amounts of pressure.  Our passing is predictable.  Nobody is turning the defenders, nobody is dragging midfielders away from their defenders.  Teams have two options of how to deal with us - let us pass around until we make a mistake, or put a higher press on us and force us to play longer.  Either way we do not create any sustained pressure on them.

Reed and Payne returning will help, but we have not replaced Simpson and KKH.  It won't be enough if we insist on continuing this way.  Garner has to find a Plan B and quickly.  If he doesn't, he will just confirm my opinion of his long term chances as a Manager.

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

As bad as Conroy has been in the past 3 or 4 games, it's no coincidence that the team has reverted to the longer ball game in the last few matches, that and the fact that Reed wasn't available to recieve short passes out of defence.

I don't necessarily disagree that it was time for Conroy to drop out of the team for a while, but to continue try to play in the same way without Conroy and Reed in the team is asking for trouble.  Point in case, trying to pass GK's out of the area last night with 2 CB's sitting back in the area to recieve the ball is bonkers.  Last night proved that we don't have the personel to be able to do that, receive the ball, relax, and pass your way out.  Therefore we revert to the longer pass, which bypassed the midfield and didn't stick with our frontline.

Our game is possession based and take your best two passes of the ball out of the side and you get the result.