Richie looking forward to the two games

[steve@dcfd]

http://www.doncasterroversfc.co.uk/news/article/richie-relishing-remaining-friendlies-2574196.aspx?


He talks about fitness of players. Talking about Middleton says he get games in the league with Keegan and Chaplow out.

Must be ready for league 1 football which will be different to friendlies, how the opposition will play.

Also mentions could do with three or four players to add to the bare eleven. Which is slightly different to the managers view. I suppose if the injured players are already then less will be required.

[Alan Southstand]

Personally, I think we need 3 - 2 in midfield and 1 at right back. With Keegan and Chaplow, we have no idea how far away their respective fitness is, but I suspect Keegan is behind everyone. Going on last season, we struggled without him in the team, so we are short of cover in that defensive role. We've known about this for some time so there's no excuses.

There's a lack of pace throughout the side and we have to correct that, hopefully in the next day or so. It will give us an 'out' when we're under the cosh at the back. (A bit like when we had McIndoe, they could just knock the ball to him and he'd gallop away with it, with everyone trailing behind!) Pressure relieved. Our only means of doing that at the mo is to knock a long aimless ball which generally gives the opposition the ball straight back.

A quick wide man is a priority for me, followed by a defensive hardman and then I'd have a proper up and down RB, instead of McCullough filling in.

[Yorkiered]

Personally, I think we need 3 - 2 in midfield and 1 at right back. With Keegan and Chaplow, we have no idea how far away their respective fitness is, but I suspect Keegan is behind everyone. Going on last season, we struggled without him in the team, so we are short of cover in that defensive role. We've known about this for some time so there's no excuses.

There's a lack of pace throughout the side and we have to correct that, hopefully in the next day or so. It will give us an 'out' when we're under the cosh at the back. (A bit like when we had McIndoe, they could just knock the ball to him and he'd gallop away with it, with everyone trailing behind!) Pressure relieved. Our only means of doing that at the mo is to knock a long aimless ball which generally gives the opposition the ball straight back.

A quick wide man is a priority for me, followed by a defensive hardman and then I'd have a proper up and down RB, instead of McCullough filling in.

Personally I would prefer a RB who can first all defend. We have had a number of up and down full backs of late but not that many who could defend solidly. Wabarra and Dumbuya being classic cases.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

A couple more and then we can fill out a bit with one or 2 loan signings and/or a youth loan for an up and coming player that a Prem team wants to get some game time.

I can see what people mean about pace but, there's a difference between headless chickens and speed of thought.

We've seen plenty of players with pace over the years but few had enough between the ears to match it. There's no doubt pace can turn defences but so can playing early intelligent passes or making space with a turn or a drop of the shoulders.

[boro_rover]

I agree with baz - pace is only any good with vision to go with it. Arguably our best side under sod had barely any pace.

[drfchound]

I agree with baz - pace is only any good with vision to go with it. Arguably our best side under sod had barely any pace.

LewisGuy had bags of pace but little idea of what to do with the ball.
I still don't understand why SoD stuck with him up to Christmas that first season back in the Championship before putting Heff back in the team.
As for our current team, well Tyson is hardly slow is he.

[Alan Southstand]

Agree re Tyson, but he's the only one. When I say pace, I mean not just someone who can run fast. I thought that might be obvious, but no. We had no pace (other than Tyson) last season and that got us to 13th. Alright, it wasn't all down to a lack of pace, but if we have ideas of challenging this season, then we need it in our armoury. Without it we look average.

The longer we go without getting these players, the less chance there is we hit the ground running. I'm starting to worry that we can't afford exactly what we need. If we could afford it, then why wouldn't we have got them in already and gelled them into the squad.

It's looking more and more like last minute dot com!

[IDM]

Agents holding off for better deals I reckon Alan.

[Rovers91]

I agree with baz - pace is only any good with vision to go with it. Arguably our best side under sod had barely any pace.

Under SOD we controlled games though so we dictated the pace of the game a lot of the time. Under Dickov we haven't really had a style of play so we need some pace so that we have alternatives and pace is one thing defenders hate playing against.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Depends whether we're talking about individual pace or the ability to dictate the tempo of games.

The ability to up the tempo with slick passing and movement or slow the game down, keeping possession, making the opposition work really hard to get the ball back.

The sign of a good team is being able to do that.

[dickos1]

We had Robinson last year too, which shows pace isn't the be all

[DearneValleyRover]

Having pace on the wings also stops opposition full backs bombing forward and forces other teams wide players to defend, yes headless chicken running is pointless but some pace can help defend as much as attack, we need some because our team isn't as good as the one under sod and nor is our current manager.

[Copps is Magic]

Last time we won this league we didn't particularly have much pace.

[Al4475]

All this is very interesting - individual pace is a vital ingredient at higher levels - I reckon most Premiershit players would be comparably faster to most of their colleagues that play in the same position lower down the leagues!

[DearneValleyRover]

Last time we won this league we didn't particularly have much pace.

True but the standard was far lower than it will be next season, we didn't have pace last season and it caught us out, it will do so again this season if we don't address the issue imho.

[IDM]

I don't get the argument that the league is of a different standard.  The third division has teams that are there on merit - for sure the stature and "size" of the clubs varies year on year, but apart from the occasional outstanding player or team, the standard is roughly the same surely?

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

PACE can be an important asset to the team but it's not actually car Tyson something we've had a lot of.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Pace is useful if you have the brain to use it, we have had players a lot who didn't have that brain.