Shamrock Rovers need more risk and reward in their play

I’d like to see more risk and reward from Shamrock Rovers - starting this evening.

Their winless run is a great source of amusement to opposition fans but Stephen Bradley isn’t wrong. They’re not far off igniting their season because the performances have been decent, apart from a crazy game with Cork.

But watching them at Tolka Park last Friday, it struck me that Rovers were making hard work of things.

I can speak from experience here as I know Tolka like the back of my hand. It’s a great, old ground and I’ve had nothing but amazing experiences there.

Especially so on big nights, in tight games when the atmosphere is electric and everything is right on top of you.

But it’s flawed too. It’s an undulating pitch in parts - although you can still play football on it - and it’s not as big and expansive as Tallaght.

It poses a different challenge and that’s what I like about it. If we all played on the same pitches every week we’d have a very boring league.

But I don’t think you should go to Tolka Park and try to dominate possession.

In our Shels team, we had great footballers like Wes Hoolahan, Joseph Ndo and Alan Moore. You wanted them on the ball as much as possible, but we knew we had to go direct as well because it’s Tolka.

In Cheltenham week, let’s call it horses for courses. Teams need to be able to adapt their game at different grounds but we’re seeing less and less of it.

Rovers’ possession stats were off the charts but they had nothing to show for it.

Modern football is a data overload and it’s getting worse. There will come a point where it all gets too much and the ‘coaching manual’ just gets thrown out the window.

Players are human and they’re only capable of consuming so much of this info.

I’m not saying teams should just lump the ball forward without purpose when things aren’t working out in a game. But you need to box clever at certain grounds and show an ability to pivot from the plan and take more risks.

I’m not a fan of tiki-taka football. I’d take Real Madrid over Barcelona any day. I’d take Fergie’s United over Arsenal’s Invincibles.

In today’s game, too many teams play the same way and there’s no edge. Last Friday, Rovers fell into the trap of being too cautious.

Last season, they weren’t afraid to go direct to Rory Gaffney when merited - in fact, they got great joy out of it. They shouldn’t forget what serves them well.

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