After last nights pre match optimism soon turned to further disappointment I thought I’d leave it 24 hours before posting my thoughts, as I was very very depressed. I was convinced we would beat a poor Stockport side quite comfortably if Les and his team could give the players a more grounded approach to the game, which I was certain he would do. As it turned out it was an equally dispirited and lacklustre performance from Tranmere.
Luke Daniels didn’t have a great deal to do before his sending off, a couple of long range shots but nothing overly concerning. The defence had a good outlet through debutant Zoumana Bakayogo, but otherwise looked equally as shaky as in previous games this season. Les opted for a 3 man midfield utilising Alan Mahon and Gareth Edds as attacking midfielders and Paul Mclaren as the defensive playmaker, this is a formation I have been keen to see this season as its undoubtedly Mahon’s favoured position and I believe he holds the key to any success we have. It was actually Edds who came out with any credit from this midfield, with Mclaren gifting the ball to the opposition countless times. Mclaren really has been a major disappointment since his return, the same could be said for Mahon but I still think he will come good.
If you think back to when this formation was so successful for Aldridge, in attack we had a strong ball winner with Wayne Allison, and tricky wingers in Andy Parkinson and Scott Taylor/David Kelly who hugged the touchline. Last night our options were Craig Curran, Terry Gornell and Ian Thomas-Moore. I’m sure this system will work but not without Ricketts, who kept the bench warm all night despite us going down to 10 men and lumping the ball up for ITM and Chris Shuker! They didn’t stand a chance against the 2 giant Stockport centre halves.
It was a night of poor football and extreme frustration, all this in front of the Sky Sports boys.
Back to the original question then where do we go from here? It’s clear we need a manager who isn’t afraid to shake things up, knows how to get the most of the limited players and knows how to win football matches at this level when there is likely very little football to be played. There has already been a lot of names mentioned in the media, with Steve Cotterill, Steve Coppell and Mike Newell the forerunners, but my favorite would be Jim Harvey. The former Tranmere midfielder has recently taken over at Chester City I’m sure it wouldn’t take much convincing for him to return to his beloved Tranmere Rovers.
There’s my thoughts anyway, it would be great to hear what everyone else thinks…
Yeah agree with most points raised we need a ’shake ‘em up Matthias’ type manager because I am sick of seeing my beloved Tranmere put in lacklustre performances.
My vote would be for Steve Coppell. With his degree in Economics and sound tactical knowledge he might be the man to take Tranmere to the next step like he did with Reading.
Steve Coppell’s SWA!
Agreed on Edds and Bakayogo thought they really put a shift in for us the other night, Mclaren was so lethargic, it’s as if he thinks hes 25 still! Or is he the type of player that feels he is better than everyone so doesn’t need to work as hard as undoubtedly in my eyes he is very very technically gifted footballer but for some reason cannot apply it to a game.
Having watched the re-run on sky to, Curran stood out but for his work rate alone! If that boy could finish he would most certainly be playing at a very high level if not the highest!!!
As for the manager situ, we need to be realistic! Coppell would have been on an absolute minimum £15,000 a week at Reading toward the end of his tenure there. We will have around £75-100,000 a year to play maximum so I think somebody like Steve Cotterill would be a more feasible option.
Brighton saturday for me is the biggest game of the year! I hope we have a gaffer in place for saturday!!!
Who ever he is though has got a very tough task!