Bristol Rovers' unsustainable elements will prove an even bigger issue if not addressed swiftly

Sometimes after a defeat like Tuesday night's it's best to say nothing and let the shocked silence do the talking. That may be true on this occasion but the terms of my employment require a dissection of what went wrong for Bristol Rovers in their 3-0 defeat to Leyton Orient.

If we listed everything, we'd have a thesis-length piece but if we covered what went right, there wouldn't be an analysis at all.

That's as poor as it's been from Rovers this season and no doubt is one of their worst performances since the club's return to League One two-and-a-half years ago. In the end, 3-0 flattered the Gas and, as said in a previous piece, that's probably the most damning assessment you can make of Tuesday night.

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As Dave Horseman walked out of the tunnel to address local media, you couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Credit to the man, he faced the music, with the Rovers coach already in a unideal position as Matt Taylor continues to have to deal with a family emergency, and absorbed all responsibility for the performance. Whoever's fault it was, the Gas lacked every element a competitive football team needs on the night.

Although they were left holding on at times with limited attacking quality produced, at least Rovers played with spirit at Barnsley three days prior as their defensive grit, plus some brilliance from Josh Griffiths, saw them keep their clean sheet intact for 120 minutes before going on to win the FA Cup tie on penalties. There was none of that at Brisbane Road.

The most concerning aspect is the continuous lack of offensive actions (more on that to come). Rovers have produced a handful of brilliant defensive displays this season but have scored more than one goal just four times in their 18 league games to date. You can’t always keep clean sheets and when that’s the case, you’d better be scoring multiple goals otherwise you’re in trouble.

Therefore, there is certainly substance to the suggestion that that particular defeat had been coming. A lack of shots and relying on your goalkeeper and defence to be excellent every single game is incredibly unsustainable and, frankly, a recipe for disaster.

The players do have to look at themselves but clearly something has to change in regards to the messages they’re getting from the coaching staff because there are talented individuals there who have shown brilliance in bursts this season.

Here are the stand out talking points on a grim evening for the Gas…

Foundations still yet to be built upon

As we went into the season, Matt Taylor said that the plan was to start with improving the defence and then build upwards. It was always going to be a gradual process with a new team, and a young one too, and, coming out of last season, that was certainly the clear area that needed to be improved. Rovers picked up a poor habit of conceding incredibly avoidable goals and ended the campaign with the second-worst defensive record of the teams that survived relegation.

18 games into the league campaign and six clean sheets is a decent tally; one every three games. For context, after 18 games in League One last term the Gas had just three, although their goalkeeper at the time was incomparable to Josh Griffiths.

However, if they hadn’t had their on-loan goalkeeper and some heroic performances from the likes of Connor Taylor, James Wilson, Taylor Moore and Clinton Mola in defence, the situation would be a whole lot worse because Rovers have conceded the highest xG in League One so far at 29.0.

I appreciate that for many that’ll be gobbledegook - essentially they are giving away a lot of high quality chances. Admittedly, they’re doing well to outperform this, having actually conceded three goals fewer, but it all goes back to that unsustainability point. How much longer can they keep it up?

Meanwhile, in all the attacking statistics they find themselves in the bottom half. For xG (16.6) they’re 19th in League One. Big chances created (29) they’re 14th. Accurate crosses per match (3.6) they’re 18th with a success rate of 25.5 per cent. Even with long balls, which are quite important in this division, they sit 21st with just 21.5 a game at a success rate of 32 per cent. Admittedly, that last statistic doesn’t really translate to the league table at all.

Although Rovers conceded three goals last night and it could have been more, the bigger concern, which has been the case for a while now, was the non-existent attacking play. That foundation set out at the start of the season still hasn’t been built upon.

Shots on target remain a binary figure

0, 1, 0, 1. No, that’s not binary code, that’s the amount of shots on target the Gas have had in their past four matches. Two defeats, a win and a draw followed by a penalty success is probably a decent return considering how little they’ve threatened the opposition goal in recent weeks.

The issues really stem back from the second half against Crawley Town in which Rovers had no issue creating opportunities in the first half and really should have been out of sight before the visitors dominated after the interval in a real game of two halves.

Even the week before against Lincoln City, Matt Taylor’s side only managed one shot on target, their goal, but battled so bravely against a top side that it was rightly classed as an excellent performance.

Although goalscoring has been an issue throughout the campaign so far, actually the shot totals in October were largely good, bar the Huddersfield defeat, and were averaging 1.6 goals per league game. Not incredible but certainly much better than lately. But since the start of November, the top end of the pitch has become a real issue.

How they fix it is something the coaching staff will have to figure out, alongside Taylor once he’s back, but Rovers certainly have an incredibly tough month of fixtures in December and starting it the way they did against Orient was far from ideal.

Miserable Leyton Orient returns

You couldn’t help but feel sorry for the two returning former Leyton Orient players, now sporting the blue-and-white quarters of Bristol Rovers. Shaq Forde has, of course, been a regular starter lately but Ruel Sotiriou has really struggled for minutes and the O’s youth product had a particularly tough night.

Orient boss Richie Wellens made a point in pre-season about wages when the East London club lost their forward, who scored 11 goals in League One last term, to the Gas, suggesting that Rovers were paying the Cyprus international 40 per cent more than their highest earner. Based on the crowd reactions, it seemed as though the fans hadn’t forgiven Sotiriou for seeking a new challenge.

“Ruel, what’s the score?” could be heard chanted frequently, especially in the second half, as Sotiriou struggled to get any meaningful sight of the ball and even when he picked up possession, he couldn’t do anything of note with it as was the general outcome for every Gas player.

Forde came out of the defeat with a bit more credit, attempting dribbles and showing his individual quality. However, it largely came in his own half. Having been a loanee at Brisbane Road, Orient fans seemed more happy to see the 20-year-old.

Inconsistency remains the buzz word

The only thing that’s consistent about Bristol Rovers at the moment is the fact that they remain inconsistent. It’s a word Dave Horseman plucked out when asked about expectations towards players gelling as a team with it still evident that intersquad chemistry isn’t at the end level yet.

Interestingly, executive vice president Abdullatif Al Saeed picked this out in his interview with the GasCast podcast about how he’s still yet to see three wins in a row. That remains to be the magic number and the record that continues to evade the club.

It’s not just been during Matt Taylor’s time. December 2022 was the last time Rovers strung a trio of consecutive wins together, two in the league and one in the EFL Trophy with successes over Port Vale, MK Dons and Charlton Athletic.

Since the start of last season, they’ve been able to win back-to-back matches nine times but that crucial third continues to evade them.

Out of those nine instances though, only one has come this season as the Gas started October with important victories over Charlton and Burton which seemingly kept Taylor in a job.

More recently, there was so much to like about the winning Mansfield performance, only to follow it up with a drab display against Blackpool. Against Barnsley, although their bright start offensively didn’t last long, they battled stoically at the back but then produced their worst performance of the campaign at Orient, in the league at least.

Horseman was right to suggest it’s inconsistency that’s the bigger issue because there’s enough evidence of this team playing well together. However, if they don’t work out how to produce good performances and results for multiple games in a row, they’re going to find themselves in a real predicament pretty swiftly.

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