We dont have a devine right to just turn up and beat those sides, but the fact that we pay our players probably twice as much, we have spent more money on the likes of Harrold and Zebs than most sides in this league bar Crawley have spent on their entire squads, but what we do expect at Rovers is passion, workrate and endeavour, the fact that teams we have faced this season have evidently shown more of that than us and the fact that we have been playing atrocious, garbage football is why the fans have turned. We just expect more at Bristol Rovers than what we are getting. Is that our fault? I dont think so, I am sure West Ham fans would expect them to beat Peterbrough, I am sure when Leeds, Forest, Leicester, Southampton, Norwich and now both Sheffield clubs are in the 3rd tier, their fans expected/expect to beat Yeovil. That is just the nature of the beast.royalgull wrote:I can understand why Rovers fans would 'expect' to beat Torquay, Cheltenham etc but football is played on grass not a database of crowd size and what league you were in during the 1980's.
Whilst you might 'expect' to beat these sides and 'expect' to be in the top 3 you have pretty much got a completely new squad and management staff and when you have change of that magnitude it can take some time for it all to click into place. Again highlighting how well Buckle did in his first season here when he did exactly the same thing. Being given a budget and the opportunity to build your own squad straight away sounds easy but it doesn't always work that way. Takes time to actually form a team to play the way you want it to.
I do find the Carayol situation bizarre, you guys were raving about him yet he barely plays a minute for you when it matters. I'd pick him inf ront of Zebroski all day long. Was never a fan, a clumsy player with absolutely ZERO skill whose brute force, pace and awkwardness were his major plusses. I could never work out how he was so effective for us, like I said about Branston some players just work at certain clubs. Zebroski is one of those, there is no way his style will work at every club especially where the fanbase would be a) used to seeing hihger calibre players and b) less forgiving of his mistakes.
I still think Rovers will be there or thereabouts simply because they have enough good players for this level at their disposal, whether Buckle utilises them right is a thing for debate and whether he gets the time to do it is another. My flabber would be gasted though having spent so much time, effort and money on getting Buckle that they would bin him so early.
Of course with so many new players coming in, it was always going to be a rebuilding mission and most Gasheads were expecting inconsistency, but of late that hasn't happened, we have been consistent, consistently f*cking shit
In all fairness I think we have just signed bang average League 2 players and that is being proved, The likes of Harrold, Zebs, Bevan, Stanley, Carayol, McGleish are all League 2 standard players and are playing at there level, which is showing, if we do mount a push towards the right end and do unbelievably mount a promotion push, and we do end up going up then half the squd will have to be on their bikes again because they wont be good enough for the step up. I think us Gasheads got roped into thinking we were signing decent players, from certain other clubs fans, but from what we have seen they have turned out to be bang average. In our sqaud as it is now, I can only see Gill, Anyinsah, Brown and Smith having the ability to play at a higher level.Carayol is not the only one, Buckle is chopping and changing the whole team, and while we have had a few injury's, Buckles tinkering is having an adverse effect. I do like Carayol in that he can do something with a turn of pace and he has that little bit of magic sometimes, but Buckle has this thing where he likes to play 4 strikers, which **** me off no end. I think if we had Mussy and Anyinsah on both flanks and maybe play Harrold/Mcgleish and Zebs upfront we could be a force, but Buckle likes playing Zebs outwide when he is **** useless out there.
Looking at other clubs and who they are bringing in, I would be surprised that our squad(Unless even more wholsale changes are made) will be near the top 7. Bradford have signed Andrew Davies and Craig Fagan, if they can get them both fit, then that is 2 great signings for this level and they wont be down the bottom for long, Crawley will spend if they need too, Swindon have brought in a lad from West Ham who will be the dogs bollocks in the future, So I honestly dont think we are good enough.
It pains me to say it, as I was optimistic in the summer, but from what I have seen so far our squad is a bang average League 2 outfit.
