Academy & U21s

[Exiled_Rover]

This Greek GK doesn't command his box at all. 

[bluebruce]

Brighton have some tidy players.

[bluebruce]

5 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Mols has been terrible. Pass success % must be at 20%. Slowing everything down. Can see why he's going in the summer.

In fairness, he won't be as match sharp as the others.

[Guest]

Just now, bluebruce said:

In fairness, he won't be as match sharp as the others.

Been playing recently for Burnley in games

[bluebruce]

9 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Been playing recently for Burnley in games

Yeh what, a couple of games recently? But hasn't played for most of the season. 

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

1-1 Confident penalty from Mcbride. 

[Guest]

89th minute and Mols wastes yet another chance for Rovers. Really poor. More than just sharpness that

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

LOL at Saadi leaving that Brighton player on his arse. 

[Guest]

Just now, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

LOL at Saadi leaving that Brighton player on his arse. 

Lovely play. He's looked much better at CB than he did at RB and CM last year. Like him.

[rigger]

Has Mowbray been coaching these lads this week?

[riverholmes]

Just watched the second half which, from the sounds of things, was an improvement on the first for Rovers. It was even in the second but, I think, this match confirms to me that Rovers are doing so well at this level, against Premier League outfits, with a lot of reliance on superior organisation and hard work rather than exceptional technical talents in the team.

McBride and Whitehall look the most comfortable and intelligent players for Rovers. McBride looks at ease playing No.9 or No.10, generally, holds the ball well and brings in teammates, and Whitehall seems a steady defensive midfielder with good passing ability. Burns played well up front and wide and players like Durrant, Nolan, Annesley (out of position at left back), Barnes and Saadi did a solid job.

Rovers lacked width, at times, with Mols struggling and the full backs not getting too far forward. I think Lenni Cirino not playing left back today was a big miss with his speed and wing play. 

Stergiakis' distribution and handling looked inconsistent but he made at least one good save in the second. Dan Pike is a prospect and physically seems stronger than others at the level but, I feel, he has a lot of improvement to make to his game. His distribution with his feet and throw ins was disappointing, in the second half. His relative lack of pace means that he needs to improve his positioning to compensate. I wonder if CB might be a better role for him.

Brighton had a lot of good players and seemed to match Rovers press and tough tackling. The Scottish CM Leonard looked very good, a decent left winger and their RB, No.2, Tanimowo looked a tremendous prospect with good speed and trickery. He rarely seemed to lose the ball. Their centre backs defended well and rarely made an error.

Edited March 19, 2021 by riverholmes

[inflikted]

Annesley's been named in the Gibraltar squad for next week's internationals. Considering their first game is in five days I suppose he was jetting off as soon as the game was over. Good test for him though against the Netherlands feat. Memphis Depay, Montenegro feat. Stefan Jovetic and Norway feat. Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard. He contains them, he should be starting for Blackburn.

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by inflikted

[Guest]

The curious case of Louie Annesley.

6ft 4”, playing CB for Rovers (and apparently sometimes LB) and then playing as a box to box midfielder for Gibraltar!

His age tells me he’ll never be a first team player at Rovers. I’d say he’s one of the most peculiar youth players we’ve had for a while!

[K-Hod]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

The curious case of Louie Annesley.

6ft 4”, playing CB for Rovers (and apparently sometimes LB) and then playing as a box to box midfielder for Gibraltar!

His age tells me he’ll never be a first team player at Rovers. I’d say he’s one of the most peculiar youth players we’ve had for a while!

Him and Brad Lyons. Why make a big effort to buy a player from NI, only to play him in the reserves? Bizarre.

[inflikted]

6 hours ago, JoeH said:

The curious case of Louie Annesley.

6ft 4”, playing CB for Rovers (and apparently sometimes LB) and then playing as a box to box midfielder for Gibraltar!

His age tells me he’ll never be a first team player at Rovers. I’d say he’s one of the most peculiar youth players we’ve had for a while!

Apparently he has trained with the first team this season, and his versatility might help his chances. I mean, Aaron Wan-Bissaka was already 20 before he got his chance at Crystal Palace.

[Ulrich]

10 hours ago, K-Hod said:

Him and Brad Lyons. Why make a big effort to buy a player from NI, only to play him in the reserves? Bizarre.

TM does not seem to like playing younger players in general.  I find the Celtic lad signing a strange one as you would have thought given how he has done at U23s he would have gotten the odd cameo from the bench, but no.  Johnson you would have thought given his heritage, would be championing the cause for some younger players to be included,but again we don't see any being given a chance.  Even his 7m star signing had to wait a season before he started getting some chances.  What a confidence booster that must have been, we have enough faith in you son to spend 7m on you, but not enough faith in you to play you.  That must have done BB the world of good as he was starting at Forest, if I remember rightly BBs lack of confidence was then blamed on us, as we are the most votriolic fans in the UK by a country mile, even Millwall cower before our notorious Ultras. 

The man has the man-management skills of a rather DIM person, he was probably a late bloomer at school as he cannot see how his own actions clearly impact the other younger players.  If I was Mcbride (a midfielder on Rovers.co.uk, well done TM), I'd be asking for a loan to get some playing time as U23s after Celtic and previous loans will just stunt his development, he needs pitch time.  He's hardly the type of man we need when we have a CAT 1 academy.  These players should be playing much more often (Dolan also aprings to mind), as confidence can carry kids to new heights and enthusiasium. 

Image what TM would have done to Phil Jones, no debut against Drogba would have happened there for sure.  We need a manager who is prepared to play the kids to help bring them through otherwise our CAT 1 academy is useless.  No wonder he doesn't seem bothered at the potential prospect of losing that with his buddies not crooked training ground "improvements".

[riverholmes]

I actually think that signings like Lyons and Tom White make some sense from a football point of view because, as the best and, often, most experienced, reserves go out on loan, it can leave the squad bare and promoting younger players from U18s or even younger in an unstructured way could damage not only them but the rest of the team, if results and performances of the team as a whole fall away.

White has, himself, mostly been on loan - it seems he prefers lower league football than appearing for the reserves but Lyons performed well for the U23s before getting a break at St Mirren, where he also did quite well, I believe. Last I saw, he wasn't in the Morecambe match day squads, so not sure if he's not made the cut or injured.

However, from a financial point of view, signings Lyons and White etc. is something I can't really comment on without knowing the details of fees paid, wages and how the club manages their likely exits. I suppose, as they seem to be dedicated and quite promising players, it may have been worth taking the punt to see if they could make the grade and if not, they might support the development of peers at the club whilst playing here and, potentially, earn the club a small transfer fee.

I thought Lyons would do well for Morecambe but hasn't quite made it into their first team.

Incidentally, loan spells that don't work out must be hard for players to recover from mentally. I wonder whether Stefan Mols, Luke Brennan and Jack Vale will be able to recover from their seemingly unsuccessful lower league spells (not sure about why Vale's not been in the Rochdale match day squads) and still have decent football careers.

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by riverholmes

[Exiled_Rover]

13 hours ago, JoeH said:

The curious case of Louie Annesley.

6ft 4”, playing CB for Rovers (and apparently sometimes LB) and then playing as a box to box midfielder for Gibraltar!

His age tells me he’ll never be a first team player at Rovers. I’d say he’s one of the most peculiar youth players we’ve had for a while!

He's only 20! He's looked solid when I've seen him.

A better manager would have given him a game or two in the First XI.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Exiled_Rover

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

27 minutes ago, riverholmes said:

I actually think that signings like Lyons and Tom White make some sense from a football point of view because, as the best and, often, most experienced, reserves go out on loan, it can leave the squad bare and promoting younger players from U18s or even younger in an unstructured way could damage not only them but the rest of the team, if results and performances of the team as a whole fall away.

White has, himself, mostly been on loan - it seems he prefers lower league football than appearing for the reserves but Lyons performed well for the U23s before getting a break at St Mirren, where he also did quite well, I believe. Last I saw, he wasn't in the Morecambe match day squads, so not sure if he's not made the cut or injured.

However, from a financial point of view, signings Lyons and White etc. is something I can't really comment on without knowing the details of fees paid, wages and how the club manages their likely exits. I suppose, as they seem to be dedicated and quite promising players, it may have been worth taking the punt to see if they could make the grade and if not, they might support the development of peers at the club whilst playing here and, potentially, earn the club a small transfer fee.

I thought Lyons would do well for Morecambe but hasn't quite made it into their first team.

Incidentally, loan spells that don't work out must be hard for players to recover from mentally. I wonder whether Stefan Mols, Luke Brennan and Jack Vale will be able to recover from their seemingly unsuccessful lower league spells (not sure about why Vale's not been in the Rochdale match day squads) and still have decent football careers.

 

Vale got injured almost as soon as he arrived. I think he’s only been back a week at the most.

[only2garners]

Lyons has been injured recently as well.

[bluebruce]

There is a Bolton fan at work. He didn't even know who I was talking about when I mentioned Tom White.

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, Meesh said:

White played 14 times for them in the first half of this season. Probably says more about your colleague as a Bolton "fan" than it does about White. Or he's in denial about how far they've sunk.

Oh for sure, I knew White had played a bunch of games for them so it meant the lad probably isn't watching the matches etc. But it also suggests he didn't make much impact, or even a casual fan would have heard the name. He does talk about their results every week so he is paying a bit of attention.

[riverholmes]

Rovers U18 1 Arsenal U18 4, in the FA Youth cup fourth round, at Ewood Park, recently. Looks like, at times, Rovers couldn't perform the intense, coordinated press that worked so well for the U23s, in their match against Arsenal.

 

[chaddyrovers]

Former player Lewis Hardcastle forced to retire due to Heart problems 

 

[inflikted]

Interview with Louie ahead of the internationals. He starts in midfield tonight against Norway, tasked with keeping Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard at bay.

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by inflikted