The Changing Style Of Tranmere Rovers

In the space of less than a year the football style being deployed at Prenton Park has changed massively, clearly the change of manager was what led to this but just why have the results turned around so drastically?

Let's go back twelve months to Les Parry's reign as Tranmere Manager. At this stage towards the end of December we had seen a disastrous run of  six defeats and one draw from seven games in all competitions, after thirteen days off between December 17th and December 30th we saw the team win 2-0 at home to Bury, after that the "one win in twenty" phase began, our next win wasn't until March 10th, a few days after Ronnie Moore had returned as manager.

Now, what went wrong for Les? I'm far from a football expert, indeed I have no coaching badges or anything of the sort but having watched every home and quite a few away games during that spell under Mr. Parry I feel I can give something of a educated view on the whole affair. In my view and the view of many Tranmere fans the problem was a relatively clear one, the formation; Parry played a rigid 4-5-1 which he continually insisted was 4-3-3, the striker (whether it be Showunmi or Tiryaki) was left on his own with nobody around him, the wingers often refused to move inside and instead hugged the touchline at every opportunity. In McGurk and Devaney we lacked supply for the sole striker and all too often on the rare occasion the ball did find its way into the opposition penalty area from a cross the attacker was outnumbered by two stronger and taller central defenders. The returns of main strikers Tiryaki (3 goals in 30 games) and Showunmi (14 goals in 70 games) during Parry's tenure emphasise the lack of chances we made. The only time we seemed to score goals was when we did our usual hoof to the striker and the ball either ricocheted off the striker into the path of whichever midfielder decided to try and support him or the ball hit a defender before bouncing to one of our players in lucky fashion. Looking back the football we played really was appalling and how I went into matches optimistic I don't know.

Now let's move forward twelve months to the football we see under Ronnie Moore. Ronnie took over with the team in a poor position and by finishing the season with a record of six wins, four draws and three defeats he more than earned the job on a full-time basis. In the summer he re-designed the squad, for me a few pieces of look were on our side (for once) firstly amongst the players we offered new contracts to John Welsh and David Buchanan were the only ones to turn us down, Welsh was a player who did little wrong last season but on reflection that probably disguised his lacklustre uninspiring performances. Buchanan was voted the player of the season (and indeed he got my vote) but he was a left back who defended well but rarely got forward and when he did was often left unsure as to where he should be standing - the team lacked organisation. The replacement for Welsh was Palmer, like Welsh before him he is expected to do the easy things but occasionally offer some flair going forward, from what I have seen of the Sheffield Wednesday loanee so far it is vital we can extend his loan deal until the end of the season - he is showing real quality and doing better than Welsh did with a similar role expected of him. Instead of David Buchanan we now play Zoumana Bakayogo at left back who is an extremely fast full back who has really come into his own this season defending brilliantly and overlapping the winger effectively in most performances, I did not expect "Zoom" to do such a good job but in the absence of Buchanan's direct replacement Paul Black through injury we have seen Bakayogo excel. The other player who left the club without being released was Lucas Akins who requested a transfer before moving to Stevenage in a rumoured £75,000 deal. Akins was the running joke amongst Tranmere fans for quite a while - he ran but all too often lacked the finish or cross expected of him, while most fans would have been content to see him stay getting a fee like that for him was seen as a goof bit of business. His replacement was Joe Thompson, signed for a fee rumoured to be below the one we received for Akins. While Thompson hasn't been the standout player this season he has done a good job when called upon on the wing, happy to supply the full back and confident holding the ball up, he also grabbed the vital solemn goal away at Notts County which led to amazing scenes in the away section at Meadow Lane. As well as these players coming in Ronnie also secured the services of Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro, Jake Cassidy, Ben Gibson, James Wallace, Abdulai Bell-Baggie, Paul Black and Jason Mooney. Max Power and Cole Stockton have progressed from the youth team and all of these players aside from Black who has had an injury-riddled start to his career have jelled into the new fluid style of play employed by Moore. 

When at our optimum we play the ball around with real pace and effectiveness, we look to get the ball to Wallace or Palmer, then on to Cassidy or Akpa Akpro and then either play it wide to Bell-Baggie or Robinson or a neat through-ball to whichever striker is not in possession. This has lead to great attacking football and a great number of chances being created, games against Colchester and Notts County come to mind as great attacking performances. Defensively we battle for everything and look composed when winning the ball, backed up by Owain fon Williams  the side have the best goal difference in the league thanks in no small part to our brilliant Welsh goalkeeper. Unfortunately injuries have hit the squad hard - at the time of writing we are without Black, Gibson (whose loan spell looks to be over) Bell-Baggie, Wallace and Akpa Akpro - for a small squad with a low budget this has been crippling. However we remain top of the table and while the football going forward hasn't been quite so strong we remain top of the table. In Max Power we saw a potential star of the future away at Sheffield United on Saturday and we have seen glimpses of what Cole Stockton could do should his talent be developed properly.

Whatever happens this season we have improved so much since last season under Les Parry that we can be forgiven for forgetting just how bad it was at times. The feeling around the club has gone from one of dull boring football and low crowds to excitement and at the back of most fans despite us not even being half way through the season yet a real hope that promotion could be on the cards. Should we finish outside of the top six it will be extremely disappointing but at the same time we must reflect on just how far we have come in twelve months, the end of the season is a long way - anything is possible. Super White Army!! 

Still Top Of The League!

I was at Prenton Park on Saturday to see Tranmere draw with a Portsmouth side struggling to put out a team and with no permanent manager in place. They are currently managed by caretaker Guy Whittingham following the departure of Michael Appleton to Blackpool and had not won a match in eight going into this clash at Prenton Park.

The first half was a cagey encounter, a few drummers operated at the bottom of the kop who made a bit of noise but the fans were more confused as to why their ears were suddenly being invaded by a few beats of the drum and sticks hitting together than interested in adding to the "beat". Portsmouth appeared to have more of the ball without creating any real goal scoring opportunities, when Tranmere took the lead in the 31st minute through Ash Taylor it was out of nowhere, the free-kick was a good one and the connection Taylor got on the header left Pompey goalkeeper Eastwood with no chance. The remainder of the first half was played out without much incident.

Half-time saw the pitch announcer inform the three men doing the "rock the crossbar challenge" that he had never seen all three contestants hit the crossbar successfully on the same day and that he felt confident today would be the first time all three qualify for the semi-final. Whether they did or not I don't know - I was in the unnecessarily long line for a hot chocolate, by the time I got to the till they had run out! I returned to my seat to jokingly inform my friend that it was his fault the half time entertainment had never had a 100% crossbar hitting success rate, last season me and another guy had hit it whilst my friend had missed all three attempts!

Onto the second half and after another cagey first few minutes Gyepes equalised for Portsmouth, based on the first half they probably deserved this goal but the manner in which we conceded it - all of the defenders stood still as Pompey's monstrous central defender ran through and headed it simply past fon Williams - was disappointing. When former Tranmere loanee Jake Jervis came on for Portsmouth in the 69th minute the Tranmere fans had a bit of a laugh, he was generally considered a bad player during his short spell at Prenton Park. Gradually we grew into the game and took a deserved lead in the 73rd minute through Michael O'Halloran after some brilliant skill from Andy Robinson put the ball on a plate. The celebrations ended up being extraordinarily short-lived, football is a funny old game and yes, you guessed it, Jake Jervis equalised about fifteen seconds after the restart, delight had turned to a feeling of "how did we know he was going to score?" football is a funny old game. As the game opened up, players tired and gaps in the pitch became bigger Liam Palmer almost won it for us after a good run, however his shot when one-on-one with Eastwood was straight at the goalkeeper, his and the Tranmere supports frustration was clear to see. After seeing Doncaster and Brentford score in injury time at Prenton Park this season we feared for the worse, Scott Allan somehow found himself inside the penalty area but thanks to Ian "god" Goodison's pressure he put it just wide. We left the ground with mixed emotions - after going 2-1 up at home we should have held out for the win and combined with Palmer's late miss we maybe should have won the game, however the miss from Allan right at the death saved us a point.

The usual routine of checking the other scores on our phones begun and we soon realised we were still top of the league. The team who went into this game joint on points with ourselves, Doncaster, had drawn with Swindon and a recent slight blip in form meant Sheffield United's win over Carlisle left them third. I was pleased to see national hate-figure MK Dons had lost to Brentford until I realised Brentford are now fourth and only two points behind us!

At the other end of the table Hartlepool had lost (again) meaning they are now a massive eleven points off safety, take the ten points Portsmouth are being deducted into account and it's thirteen points. A minor miracle is needed if they are to stay up, with the season not even halfway through saying that shows just how bad their results have been this campaign. The other team I always back to lose on the football coupon, Bury, also lost this time against Leyton Orient, they are only one point off safety though so with 25 games still to play they will be optimistic they can move away from the relegation zone under new boss Kevin Blackwell.

Mathematically by 5pm next Saturday we could be in fourth position... typical Tranmere fan, always pessimistic! However Sheffield United are certainly beatable and we are statistically still the best team in the league... bring on Bramall Lane! 

Moore Of The Same Please!

Five matches into his third spell as Tranmere Rovers manager Ronnie Moore has turned a depressingly stale season into one which breeds real hope for the next campaign. Wins against Leyton Orient, Preston and Rochdale added to hard-fought draws against Notts County and second placed side Sheffield United have created an extremely positive atmosphere in and around Prenton Park.

For most of his reign Les Parry's Tranmere were all about fighting for a draw, it appeared the players were given instructions pre-match telling them to try not to concede for ninety minutes while trying to score a goal if possible, vitally the most important thing to the former physiotherapist was the clean sheet. This mentality worked during the run in of the 2009/10 season which saw Parry gain thousands of admirers by keeping Rovers in League One against the odds but after this amazing survival we as a club needed to push on, we didn't.

The following season saw Tranmere rarely flirt with relegation as we finished a respectable 18th place, a whole nine points clear of the relegation zone. After Tranmere's performances the previous season staying away from the relegation zone in such a comfortable style was considered an impressive finish by many but in the minds of the fans something was missing. Parry insisted that he played a 4-3-3 formation, to Tranmere fans this was quite clearly not the case. Instead what we played was a defensive 4-5-1 in which we left one man isolated in the opposition half (normally Enoch Showunmi) with one player hovering around the half-way line (often the perceived wonder kid Dale Jennings) whilst the other eight outfield players focused on defending and trying to win the ball from the opposition. All too frequently the players won the ball from the opposition before hoofing it towards Showunmi, the result was often our lone striker being drastically outnumbered as the oppositions central defensive pairing either won the ball in the air or simply took it off Showunmi when he realised he had no support within his general vicinity. Occasionally we did have support for the big former Nigerian international but only ever when one of our players decided to gamble and join in the attack. What was missing last season was a tactic which allowed the players to pass around and play attractive football.

If last season was bad most of this season has been worse. All too often we have seen the central defenders smash the ball forward in the hope that the striker (this season normally Tiryaki or Showunmi) win the header, when our striker did win it the ball often fell to an opposition defender or midfielder who had tracked back, when they didn't win it the entire Tranmere team dropped back thus allowing the opposition to launch a counter attack. At the start of the season we grabbed goals on the break, from set pieces and generally against the run of play. We started the season with a brilliant defensive record and at one stage had the most clean sheets in the league. However when in around January the defence began to crumble we looked to have no answer offensively, any ideas we had at the start of the season dried up and by the end of January most of  Tranmere's fans had turned on the former cult hero Parry. After a defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday January the 21st most wanted him gone. It took another six matches (and no wins in that time) before Parry was given the proverbial boot by chairman Peter Johnson. By the time he left Tranmere had won only one of the last twenty matches.

Immediately after the defeat to Chesterfield on March the 3rd rumours that Peter Johnson had finally done what the vast majority of Tranmere fans had wanted him to do and sacked Les Parry began doing the rounds. By Sunday the 4th of March the confirmation had come through, Parry had finally departed Tranmere. His sacking actually came as a bit of a surprise to me, by then I had decided Peter Johnson wasn't bothered if we stayed in League One or got relegated to League Two.

What happened next took many by surprise. Just one day after the departure of Parry it was announced that former manager Ronnie Moore was to return on a deal until the end of the season. Given the fashion in which he left many thought he would never return with Johnson in charge, it appeared one or both had swallowed their pride. With the club now just one point above the relegation zone his job expectation was simple: keep Tranmere Rovers in League One.

Ronnie's first few press conferences brought hope to the Tranmere supporters. He seemed to say all of the things the fans wanted to hear - he will always play with two wingers and two strikers, he will get the team to pass the ball around and see how many crosses and shots the team can have, the team will not sit back but will go out to win every match. It sounded brilliant, to some people too brilliant. The more cynical out there believed that Moore was reading a pre-written script from Peter Johnson aimed at bringing fans back to the club on the promise of attacking football when in reality we simply wouldn't get what we were promised. How wrong those people were.

Since Ronnie took over we have seen a revitalised Tranmere looking to win every match and attack at any opportunity. Gone are the days when upon losing the ball the entire team would drop back and allow the opposition to have a go, now we press at any given opportunity. The opening game of Ronnie's third spell in charge was a home game against one of the leagues in-form sides, Notts County. The game started disastrously for Rovers as Damion Stewart gave The Magpies a fifth minute lead. Under Parry the fans may well have got on the team and his back but with this new lease of hope installed by Moore's appointment the fans were 100% behind trying to push the team on to get a result. When we scored a deserved 93rd minute equaliser through John Welsh a mixture of extreme relief and utter jubilation erupted in the stands. Let the revival begin.

Ronnie's second match in charge was again at home, this time against struggling Leyton Orient. The game went completely to plan as first half goals from Andy Robinson and Enoch Showunmi gave us a well deserved 2-0 victory. Aside from hitting the crossbar early on Orient rarely threatened. Our run of one win in twenty-one games was over!

The third match since Ronnie's return was against Preston, yet again this match was at home. After ending our horrible twenty-one game run in the previous match another streak was on the minds of the Rovers faithful - we had not come from behind to win a match since a 2-1 triumph over Leeds on December 6, 2008. The Tranmere manager that day was Ronnie Moore and coincidentally the man who scored the goal for Leeds was a certain Enoch Showunmi, the man who was to lead the line against Preston. When Preston took the lead on twelve minutes through Graham Cummins we feared the worse, I turned to my friends and once again informed them of our run of games in which we have failed to win from a losing position, it had become a bit of a running joke - we simply could not turn a game around. Move forward seventy-eight minutes and we had won the game 2-1, goals from Showunmi and Robinson (for the second game in succession) meant the streak was over at last! We had actually won two league matches in a row for the first time in almost five months and had come back from behind to win a game for the first time in over thirty-nine months. If this was all achieved in Ronnie's first week back in the helm what could the future hold?

Well in the immediate future was our first away game since Moore had come back, against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. The Blades were in great form and sat second in the league, this was always going to be an incredibly tough game. Ched Evans gave Sheffield the lead on the day but once again the fans saw the positives - they had scored in the first half, a lot of time still remained and we had come back from behind to win just four days earlier. Our faith was seen to be well-placed when in the 54th minute Lucas Akins equalised through a header. The game ended 1-1 and a brilliant point at one of the toughest grounds to visit in the league had been secured.

Ronnie's fifth match since he regained control was away at Rochdale, just three days after the Sheffield United game.  It was understandable that us Tranmere fans came into this game full of confidence. Two wins and two draws from Ronnie's first four games back in charge had us safely above the relegation zone. A win in this one would be a massive step towards securing our League One status for next season. A game in which we dominated for large periods ended in us leaving with a 2-0 victory. Rochdale are a side massively out of form and in massive trouble near the bottom of the table so it was a great relief to see us actually get three points from a game on paper we should have won. Under the guidance of Les this was the kind of match that we would draw due to playing too defensively, under Ronnie this was clearly not the case. The "shoot when you can" mentality brought in by Ronnie Moore had clearly reaped its rewards as both Wallace and Cassidy's goals were great strikers from around the edge of the penalty box.

We now sit 15th and are a massive seven points ahead of the relegation zone. We are certainly not safe yet but if we can keep this incredible form up it'll only be a matter of time before we begin our plans for next season. Some fans have called on Johnson to offer Moore a long term contract before another club does, I would certainly agree with those calls. In my mind there is no doubt that Ronnie Moore is the man to take this team into the 2012/13 season.

After witnessing dull and drab football for most of Parry's reign we as Tranmere fans now have a right to be blindly optimistic in the wake of our recent success. Ronnie's Unbeatable! 

The Problems With Modern English Football: Part One

Today I watched Liverpool beat Cardiff City to lift the 2012 Carling Cup. I will start this post by stating that I wanted Cardiff to win the trophy, I am a Tranmere Rovers fan, feel free to call me bitter but I will explain my reasoning.

In the past ten seasons the list of winners of the League Cup reads "Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Chelsea, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Manchester United, Birmingham City, Liverpool" so of the past ten winners of the trophy seven have been from the so-called "big six" premier league teams.  The exceptions to that rule are Blackburn Rovers in 2002 who achieved a tenth place finish that season, Middlesbrough who finished eleventh in the same year they lifted that trophy - 2004 and Birmingham, last year's winners who despite relegation had a relatively expensive squad with a number of high earners even if the premier league season did end in heartbreak for their fans.  

So regardless of Cardiff being a side from Wales and competing in the English League Cup I wanted the upset to occur. What we saw was a game largely dominated by Liverpool with Cardiff scoring against the run of play in the first half and later equalising after a scramble in the penalty box. Liverpool's first goal was also the result of a penalty box scramble but Kuyt's goal which put Liverpool ahead was a good strike. The Liverpool starting eleven had six British players starting whilst Cardiff had nine. The Cardiff sub bench had one non-British player whilst Liverpool's boasted three. I have pointed this out to emphasise the difference in resources the two sides, considering Cardiff are currently amongst the top teams in the Championship the fact that one side is able to attract so many players from overseas compared to the other this is somewhat worrying.

Some more quick research tells me that ten of Liverpool's starting eleven (the eleven excludes Steven Gerrard who was of course a youth system graduate)  cost them a total of £143,100,000. In comparison Cardiff's starting eleven (none of whom are youth system graduates) cost them a total of £3,220,000. In terms of wages I believe Steven Gerrard alone will be earning more per week than the entire Cardiff starting eleven. One division separates these two sides and Cardiff City Stadium, the home of Cardiff has under 20,000 seats less than Anfield, the home of Liverpool. The problem is simple: The Premier League. I believe we can all agree that more money in the sport we all love is generally a good thing but when it is so unfairly distributed it is not. Naturally the top tier of football is by far the most attractive to overseas markets but with the astonishing difference in TV money given to Premier League clubs even when compared to Championship clubs is disgraceful, in my opinion the football association should take all of the money received from TV rights and distribute them equally to its 72 football league members, the fact that this has not happened added to the draw of the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool to fans from outside their classic catchment areas has left such a divide between the financial power of Premier League and Championship clubs that competitions like the League Cup and FA Cup now produce fewer and fewer upsets even with top-flight clubs often fielding weakened teams. The fact that Liverpool expressed an interest in selling their own television rights is disgusting, they are a member of the Premier League and know full well that past glories have led to massive overseas support from people claiming to be "die hard" fans of the club, that's an argument for another day but if these same people focused on supporting a team in for example Norway they may well see the standard of football in that country increase.

As for the showing of live matches is it any surprise that such a gap between the top tier and the for example third tier has appeared? Sky show far more Premier League games than lower league matches and although Sky's defence would be that they do this because Premier League games are a lot more popular the only reason this is the case is because football has lost touch with its roots, top players from around the world have come to England to play paid by the money that Sky, ESPN and earlier Setanta have thrown into the premier league. The result is a much higher quality of football in the top tier (it could be argued that the way for example Barcelona play isn't real football and lacks passion, but again that's an argument for another day) which inevitably draws in the fans.

The fact that the majority of Premier League teams are in massive amounts of debt whilst lower league fight to break even in order to avoid the doom of administration is another problem with the English game. Rangers recently went into administration and are probably the highest profile British football team to do so and yet Manchester United for example are in hundreds of millions of pounds worth and debt but are allowed to continue without serious question marks regarding the future from the FA. Is this because they make so much money for the FA thanks to the draw they carry in overseas markets? It's up to you to make your own opinion on that one.

Hopefully the UEFA fair play regulations will lead to clubs actively reducing their debt in the future. Whether that be by spending less money on transfers each season or cutting their astronomic wage bills (rather than just servicing the interest on their loans whilst continuing to take on more debt like most premier league clubs are currently doing). If all clubs in the football league were aiming to break even (by living off what they make from TV revenue, ticket sales, match day revenue etc.) we would see a  much fairer system. Instances  like those which occurred at Portsmouth and a few years ago Leeds in which we saw a club aiming for the big time before seeing those dreams, along with the clubs financial stability, falling into pieces should not occur.

The Elite Player Performance Plan is yet another disgraceful stab into the heart of lower league clubs. For many sides such as Crewe and Tranmere Rovers developing young players is paramount to being able to operate at a level around break even. Gone will be the days when clubs could negotiate a fee with higher division clubs to take their best young starlets from them in a deal that would benefit both teams, after being held to ransom by top sides the football league members were all but forced to vote in favour of this new system. This will probably lead to lower league sides having to feed off players released by premier league clubs rather than being able to fully develop youngsters. Will this actually benefit the national team? Well I think this will lead to a far higher number of players being signed up by premier league sides for measly fees and only so many players can play in premier league sides first team and youth sides. While the standard of the top tier may increase the standard of the lower tiers will probably decrease with players who have spent time sitting on a bench in youth systems around the country failing to develop much as footballers signing for lower league sides.

To end this post I will congratulate any of you who read this in its entirety. If you would like me to discuss anything specific in a follow up "The Problem With Modern English Football" then feel free to leave a comment.