[Archived] Boxing Day, Rovers v Weds, 26th December 2013

[Waggy76]

Without Dunn the team is devoid of class.....

We are mid table fodder , which is better than last season, but the division is so poor a bit of posiTivity could put us in the mix....

[Plastic Head]

Boos at full time when it's 0-0. I have no words for the thickness of some 'fans' in NO1.

Ewood park is a soulless void you go through on the way to oblivion, a bit like the team really.

I think any passion at all would have been helpful today, on or off the pitch.

As for the game today,

If you combined our 4 midfielders today you would have a half decent player.

Unfortunately, they are all good at just one thing, and none are any good at scoring goals.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

TBH i thought he was alot of the problem today.Seems like we paid £1m for him and GB is having to justify it by playing him.He was crap on the right , then slightly better on the left then finally we have im in 'the hole' where he was poor.He should have been off 30 mins earlier to give Rochina a chance.

And then just to prove what a good judge i am- he gets MoM.. Must just have been that kind of day.

MoM today had to be Hanley by a distance.

He was never MOTM, Hanley was the pick of the defenders, but quite frankly Taylor deserved it for his first half display, and putting his head in where it hurt! Agree GB got a few things wrong today.

[den]

I haven't seen him, so any of our fans not blinded by blue and white want to give us their opinion of Gestede?

The lack of mention suggests he's another crock of s.....

[Mike Graham]

We had a big home gate today (14,500 !!!!!! Plus 4K from Yarkshire) by recent standards.....and we turn in this poo pants display.

[K-Hod]

He played alright, he seemed to be too far from Rhodes, that being the case I wouldn't have picked him.

He had a good chance not long before he was subbed where he showed a change of pace and went through, but Kirkland saved. Overall, imo he looks a little off the pace, but some promise.

[Mike Graham]

I haven't seen him, so any of our fans not blinded by blue and white want to give us their opinion of Gestede?

The lack of mention suggests he's another crock of s.....

Clumbersome, and invisible, he and Rhodes and were playing a different game.

[Stuart]

I haven't seen him, so any of our fans not blinded by blue and white want to give us their opinion of Gestede?

The lack of mention suggests he's another crock of s.....

Poor man's Berbatov - and people call Rhodes lazy.

Needs the ball to his feet but doesn't appear to have Rhodes' finishing ability. Early days but I sense we will be relying on him a lot during the embargo period with Rhodes long gone.

Let's hope he comes good.

[Mike Graham]

Most of the discussion at the game today was how much will we get for Rhodes and Dann next month, and will Citeh get double figure goals against us.

[RevidgeBlue]

There's no suggestion Rhodes will be leaving in January is there Stu? Or have I missed it?

[Tom]

We've had too many games this season at home playing poor teams and the manager can't out think his opponent and see us to a win

If a team comes for a draw more often than not they get at least that we don't seem to have the nouse to overcome it

[K-Hod]

Most of the discussion at the game today was how much will we get for Rhodes and Dann next month, and will Citeh get double figure goals against us.

Hoping they put out their second string and it ends up 0-3.....

[Tom]

Was there any reaction to DJ?

[K-Hod]

Was there any reaction to DJ?

Couple of boos in NO1. Gerald got his number wrong when announcing the subs...

[Stuart]

There's no suggestion Rhodes will be leaving in January is there Stu? Or have I missed it?

Only in my head, Rev. And a couple of terrace comments but nothing to hang your hat on.

[Waggy76]

Most of the discussion at the game today was how much will we get for Rhodes and Dann next month, and will Citeh get double figure goals against us.

Unlikely we would get much for Dann a poor player.would save wage but no great loss.

For a team chasing the playoffs, an awful result.

For a team aiming for mid-table, acceptable enough.

Depends what your expectations are I suppose.

For a team chasing the playoffs, an awful result.

For a team aiming for mid-table, acceptable enough.

Depends what your expectations are I suppose.

[Roverthechimp]

So we go 442 with two wingers and a relatively lightweight 2nd central midfielder (cairney) and GB is accused of being negative??

When it's clear we are being overrun in midfield he replaces a striker who is effectively anonymous with a centre mid to mitigate the oppositions superiority in midfield and reshuffle to the formation that has proved most effective previously. Another Clean sheet despite a "bad day at the office" - how long was it we went between clean sheets under our previous "managers"...

FFS - the players should be roundly bollocked by GB but we ain't gonna win every game.

[Stuart]

So we go 442 with two wingers and a relatively lightweight 2nd central midfielder (cairney) and GB is accused of being negative??

When it's clear we are being overrun in midfield he replaces a striker who is effectively anonymous with a centre mid to mitigate the oppositions superiority in midfield and reshuffle to the formation that has proved most effective previously. Another Clean sheet despite a "bad day at the office" - how long was it we went between clean sheets under our previous "managers"...

FFS - the players should be roundly bollocked by GB but we ain't gonna win every game.

You seriously can't have been at the game today.

Besides, 4-4-2 isn't necessarily positive due to the personnel deployed. Just as a 4-5-1 isn't necessarily negative for the same reason.

Playing Williamson together with Lowe in the centre is absolutely negative, and it showed in that we didn't play the ball there with the defenders and keeper regularly launching the ball up to Rhodes.

Just taking today's result as a good one, having watched it, really is making the best of a bad lot.

[arbitro]

In no other game this season has our lack of quality been more apparent in my opinion. In the first half I thought Gestede was playing in the hole. Either that or his positional sense is lacking. Possession is fine but unless there is an end product it is generally futile. There are no gimmies in this league and now we are looking like a solid unit goalscoring seems to have become an issue.

I was extremely disappointed to hear Bowyer having a go at the fans for booing at full time. The booing was borne out of frustration and it goes with the territory. The fans (quite rightly) saw today as a chance to kick on and it just wasn't taken.

We need a fit David Dunn for Sunday or I fear that may be another frustrating afternoon.

[LDRover]

So we go 442 with two wingers and a relatively lightweight 2nd central midfielder (cairney) and GB is accused of being negative??

When it's clear we are being overrun in midfield he replaces a striker who is effectively anonymous with a centre mid to mitigate the oppositions superiority in midfield and reshuffle to the formation that has proved most effective previously. Another Clean sheet despite a "bad day at the office" - how long was it we went between clean sheets under our previous "managers"...

FFS - the players should be roundly bollocked by GB but we ain't gonna win every game.

Surely if we were being overrun in midfield Wednesday would've had more possession and created more?? Not sure I remember them threatening at all during the game.

Added to that the change to 2 defensive mids came after our best attacking spell of the game and certainly didn't help us nullify any threat they did have. In fact we were under pressure more after the change because we couldn't keep the ball.

If you want to take a point and a clean sheet at home against a managerless team in the bottom 3 then that's your prerogative. I look at it as a great chance to really get in the promotion mix squandered, and the manager has to shoulder a lot of the blame for that IMO.

[Roverthechimp]

Wasn't at the game (in another country) and i don't dispute that it was frustrating to be there - my point was that playing rhodes, gestede, Taylor(king), cairney and marshall in the same team is a pretty attack minded line up. Problem was it didn't work.

Putting williamson in was a direct result of our performance during the match or was the existing plan working?

[West Yorks Rover]

In no other game this season has our lack of quality been more apparent in my opinion. In the first half I thought Gestede was playing in the hole. Either that or his positional sense is lacking. Possession is fine but unless there is an end product it is generally futile. There are no gimmies in this league and now we are looking like a solid unit goalscoring seems to have become an issue.

I was extremely disappointed to hear Bowyer having a go at the fans for booing at full time. The booing was borne out of frustration and it goes with the territory. The fans (quite rightly) saw today as a chance to kick on and it just wasn't taken.

We need a fit David Dunn for Sunday or I fear that may be another frustrating afternoon.

And if he's not fit, Rochina to start, with Cairney central and leave him there.

[Roverthechimp]

LD - never said i was happy with either the result or performance merely that i disagree with the view that the manager was negative from the start and that all his decisions were wrong during the game.

(can't quote for some reason - ie11??)

[LDRover]

Fair play klc, the original selection and formation wasn't negative. For me, when the 2nd sub was made we were having our best spell of the game yet Bowyer reverted to type and effectively killed any hope of us winning the game.

[Stuart]

Wasn't at the game (in another country) and i don't dispute that it was frustrating to be there - my point was that playing rhodes, gestede, Taylor(king), cairney and marshall in the same team is a pretty attack minded line up. Problem was it didn't work.

Putting williamson in was a direct result of our performance during the match or was the existing plan working?

It's very difficult to discuss with you as you weren't there and you think that Bowyer wasn't negative because he played 4-4-2 but to answer your question, IMHO, we needed to try to make a breakthrough (score) and Bowyer took of Gestede (a striker) and brought on a second defensive midfielder. That is incredibly negative in my opinion and Wednesday became stronger (particularly in the centre) because of it. It seems clear that Bowyer does not fancy Rochina at all. Worse still, Taylor was playing well - not fantastic - and he swapped King and Taylor over putting King on the left making crosses from that side much more difficult and took Taylor completely out of the picture. Too often Bowyer shuts up shop rather than tries to win a game.

Now clean sheets are a good place to start and building on a strong defence is a sound plan BUT in a game like today Wednesday were a team struggling, with a caretaker manager on charge, and we handed them a point and dropped two in a crucial season.

We did NOT look like promotion hopefuls, let alone candidates out there today.