‘Sloppy goals at one end and profligacy at the other’

It’s fair to say that Bristol Rovers and bad starts to the season go hand in hand. August is typically a tougher month than most to be a Gashead, often dealing up a string of demoralising, but not unexpected, defeats.

And unfortunately, with the club having suffered two more losses in the past seven days, the opening to this campaign has proved to be no different, with manager Darrell Clarke calling the showing in Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Southend United “shocking”.

The performance in that game was probably as bad as it gets from the Gas, as Rovers registered a meagre one shot on target in a disjointed display that was littered with unforced errors.

However, despite coming out on the wrong end of a more emphatic 3-1 scoreline in Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup tie at QPR, there were certainly some signs of encouragement for the fantastic 1,750-strong Rovers following to take away from the night.

In what was a much-improved display from Clarke’s side, Rovers played some of their most free-flowing football this season, but yet again fell foul of conceding sloppy goals at one end and profligacy at the other.

So what are the reasons behind a poor first month to the 2018/19 season for the Gas? Here are five possible explanations:

1. Defensive deficiencies

Whilst it’s still early days in this campaign, the evidence so far suggests that not enough was done over the summer to fix the problems that plighted our backline last season, with Rovers now having kept just two clean sheets in our last 20 League One fixtures.

Many fans would love to see a dominant centre-back brought into the club before the August 31 loan deadline, after QPR’s Matt Smith was the latest opposition player to head home unchallenged.

2. Chopping and changing

Whilst Clarke has built his reputation on being a tinker man, perhaps the constant chopping and changing to the Rovers XI could be one of the causes behind the disjointed performances we’ve seen?

In defence in particular, Clarke has already deployed three different centre-back partnerships in our first seven matches, while three members of the squad have had to fill in at left-back so far as we wait for summer signing Tareiq Holmes-Dennis to get fit.

3. Square pegs, round holes

One of the biggest frustrations to date has to be Clarke’s insistence on playing central midfielder, Liam Sercombe, on the left of the Gas midfield.

The currently-injured Sercombe scored an impressive 14 goals from his usual central midfield berth last season, but is often much less influential in matches when used out of position on the left wing.

4. Dodgy keeper?

It’s often said that the bedrock of any successful side is having a safe pair of hands in goal, and this is one thing that many Gasheads feel has been lacking after the early performances of Adam Smith.

Gaffer Clarke is clearly in agreement, shipping out Sam Slocombe to Lincoln City last week before bringing in Brentford’s Jack Bonham until the end of the season.

5. Misfiring attack

Rovers’ attack underwent major change over the summer, but only new number nine, Stefan Payne, has managed to get himself off the mark up until now. The much-maligned Tom Nichols has certainly started this season in brighter fashion than he ended the last, but is still yet to register in a league game since October 28 2017.

Clarke will be hoping for more goals from both his strikers and attacking midfielders, with Kyle Bennett, Alex Rodman, Liam Sercombe and Sam Matthews all expected to add goals to the side.

Oliver Neno is one of the presenters of Bristol Rovers podcast, GasCast. Find the latest episode at www.gas-cast.co.uk/blog/podcast/33-square-pegs-round-holes/