I was not in favour of SE's appointment and was slagged off for saying so.
I am struggling to see what he has brought to the club and even the pre match warm ups seem so lacking compared to last year - maybe this is why we concede so many early goals?
Our central defence has looked weak all season but yesterday I thought we were totally over run in midfield with Tutte spending most of his time in the back four - SE's answer was to take off JK who is far and away our best player at closing down.
The team look like a bunch of strangers with half from the KH days and half SE's mates from the City Academy - unless we buy some quality rather than pick up cast offs then we are heading back to the days of Lg 2 strugglers and crowds under 2000.
The only bright note is that JLAA is twice the player he was last season..............

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We need to play with more grit.

Too weak and easily rolled ovber but it will come

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Hit bar 3 times I think qpr going right way with this new players in we will get better

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unlucky not to get a point. defence an issue....and up front

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One thing became apparent yesterday - we are a little off the mark in the essential central defence area, where despite the usual biting tackling of Holness we suffered from an almost total lack of ball winning headers in the air, distribution which lacked so much quality it was putting pressure straight back on the side. Up front Akpro is having to work so hard to create something and the lay offs were going no where as Grimes seems to always be running in the opposite direction to his partner ( it is early days to be sure and this may come good in time).
In midfield it was just hard work as Hartlepool moved the ball around quickly and effectively - too effectively as too often tackles were not made or able to be made.
It is early days and on the positives Steve and the staff have plenty of material to analyse and work on - which I am sure they will. We did make more chances than in previous matches and that's progress. I believe the side will be disappointed with that result and will bounce back next Saturday.

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Geraldo, you make a fair comment....I'm still hoping you are proved wrong, as I'm sure you are, but for this to happen the men being paid need to stand up and be counted! Analysis is fine, execution is another matter.

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I don't understand kirbys comment about analysis - we have lost a lot of football matches ( remember Wrexham and Crewe as well as the 3 league games) and we need some action.
Does our management team watch the players we get in on loan our just pick from sort of list of who is available - their record to date is pretty poor.
Phil my concern about SE is that coaching at academy level is a million miles away from managing in a tough league like Lg 1 where the physical side of the game is so key.

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I was excited in having a possible link to a Premiership set up. As we know here at Rochdale, there has always been a small group of loyal fans, and a lot of that small fan base is the result of constant poor football over many years, which quite simply people apart from the genuine fans, will not pay to watch, and who can blame them? We have the opportunity to keep away from division 4, arrrgh!

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Agree MelakaRanger, but Agyemang certainly did put pressure on the Wigan defence in the first half, but why HE wasn't taken off second half, I don't know, others must have had injury or fitness problems... Also, and I do like him, Smith couldn't make a pass in the second half, he should have been subbed too...
One of those matches where things didn't go our way, like the Bolton match, the score doesn't reflect the match, but we have to get on with it, still 35 matches, and we're looking like making signings++

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I came to Rochdale in 1974 and have watched dale since about 1980 so have seen lots of dross as you have.
I can see that the link to city is an exciting one but to date it hasn't produced anything.
We need to bring in some real experience if we are to stay in this lge - but I am concerned that SE is only interested in young players.
His treatment of JK who is one of our best players sums this up for me.Note that SE consistently scores 2/3 on this forum......

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