Gas search for their third manager of the season
FOR the second time in less than three months, Bristol Rovers are without a manager after a 10-game winless run saw Paul Tisdale sacked.
The Gas are left in a dreadful mess, hovering precariously above the relegation zone on goal difference. Tisdale leaves the club with just three league wins in 15 league games in charge, and his replacement faces the huge task of lifting players’ confidence and dragging the Pirates to safety with 20 games to go.
For the second time this season, director of football Tommy Widdrington has been placed in caretaker charge and will lead the Gas for Saturday’s huge relegation six-pointer against Swindon Town while the board assesses its options.
Tisdale was appointed to secure Rovers’ League One status and carry out the club’s plans to develop young players from within, but on his final night in charge he bemoaned a lack of experienced strikers following a frustrating transfer window. His comments after Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat to Oxford United likely angered the board, and by 4pm yesterday they had seen enough. That was just one of several moments in recent weeks which led owner Wael Al-Qadi, chief executive Martyn Starnes and Widdrington to this decision.
Accrington embarrassment There is only one place to start. Rovers’ 6-1 defeat to Accrington Stanley eight days ago surely will be the defining game of Tisdale’s tenure, a night that will live in infamy.
Tisdale’s side turned in an atrocious performance at the Crown Ground. There is little hyperbole in saying the scoreline flattered Tisdale’s side. His players let him down on the night, but Tisdale was ultimately culpable for overseeing a debacle so devoid of resolve.
The transfer window
The primary flaw of this squad has been known since the season began, Rovers lack nous and ruthlessness in the final third. But, with 31 days to address the issue, the sum total of Rovers’ transfer business was a goalkeeper and a right-back. Rovers tried and failed on the targets Tisdale wanted before scratching around on deadline day and leaving empty handed. Fast-forward a week and the 48-year-old was criticising his forwards publicly. It appears he became too focused on a limited shortlist of targets.
Strange formations
Losing Sam Nicholson and Erhun Oztumer to injury would be a blow to any manager at this level, but rather than reverting to basics Tisdale tried to be too cute with his tactics, leaving too many square pegs in round holes. Centre-half Max Ehmer was played at wing-back in a 3-5-1-1 formation for consecutive defeats at Crewe Alexandra and Oxford, despite Josh Hare, Alex Rodman and Mark Little being available, and negative momentum snowballed from those results. They have scored just two goals in their past six games and have 24 in 26 league games overall.
Set piece woes
Only two teams in the third tier have a worse defensive record from set plays, and it was a key issue on his to do list when he arrived. He initially found success, but since Christmas, Rovers’ dead ball frailties got worse. They conceded from set pieces in five of their six games from January 16 to February 2. The Gas have shipped 14 set play goals this season.
That final press conference Tisdale, after his final game in charge, told reporters: “I’ve got a team. A team that are committed, that are doing what I’m asking them to do and we’re doing everything right, up until that final third. We’ve got strikers of the future, we haven’t got the ones of here and now and I’m not a magician, I can’t get a rabbit out of the hat. I’m relying on a 20-year-old who’s got a dozen league matches carrying the responsibility of putting the ball in the back of the net and that’s not fair.
“We’re relying on strikers of the future. We need a here and now. We need to score goals here and now. I can do no more than I have today.”
Tisdale had previously been diplomatic regarding the club’s failure to sign a striker, but on Tuesday, he seemed to imply the blame did not lie at his door. With Rovers’ recruitment system giving managers the final say on targets, who are scouted in line with their instructions, Tisdale’s criticism of his resources was perhaps the final straw.