Football Five things which could see Evans lead a Rovers revival

FOLLOWING the _ sacking of Darrell Clarke on Saturday, Bristol Rovers have appointed Steve Evans as the new manager on a deal until the end of the season.

- Will MURRAY [e-mail]

Steve Evans with assistant head coach Paul Raynor

(Bristol Rovers FC)

The 63-year-old will need to try to find a way to end Rovers’ 10-match losing streak in League Two, which has them drift into the League Two relegation zone. A relegation to the National League would be catastrophic for the Gas, and Evans seems like a sensible appointment in testing circumstances. Having that said, here are five things that will be on the new manager's in-tray...

AS has been mentioned many times, the feature of Clarke’s second spell at Rovers was a lack of consistency in team selections and formations, which wasn’t helped by a growing injury list.

The 47-year-old often tinkered between a back four and a back five, with the lack of a clear formation and an identifiable style of play, meaning Rovers never managed to gain any momentum, apart from the eight-match unbeaten run in August and September.

During that run, the Gas played a back four in six out of the eight matches, but Clarke has been spoilt for choice in terms of centre-back options, and as a result, a back five has typically been his preferred system.

The system returned in the home defeat against MK Dons in early October before Clarke switched to a back four in the following game, with the result the same - a home defeat and four goals conceded. A back five then returned in November and performances were largely improved, even if results didn’t reflect it - I'm thinking about the 1-0 home losses against Gillingham and Notts County.

Ultimately, the system came unstuck against Barnet on December 9, though, with a 4-0 defeat at The Hive. This prompted another shift to a back four in the most recent fixture against Swindon Town, which ended in a 3-0 defeat.