[Archived] Birmingham Away

[chor808]

Good point away in isolation as others have said. A win at the weekend and we are heading to where we will end up mid table. Not good enough with this squad, the bigger concern is the lack of goals that's four in five we failed to score.

Once our goal threat decides that mid table championship is not good enough for him I've no idea where the goals will come from.

We limp on to Saturday, depressing stuff.

Tweet from Kamy:

For those hoping GB will be sacked. Mrs D didn't sack him last week after 1 point from 3 games, she certainly won't after last 2 results.

I believe that there was a push to get GB removed after Burnley defeat but Mrs D decided to stick with GB.

So on we go.

[chaddyrovers]

Bowyer is saying that Birmingham paid us a huge compliment with their tactics. He is, of course correct but once again it showed his deficiencies as we couldn't capitalise on their negativity. The majority of our possession was in our final third as Birmingham sat deep with their attacking players on the half way line. It was painful to watch as our back continually passed the ball amongst themselves under no pressure.

In the final analysis this was certainly two points dropped. A good, tactically aware manager would have soon sussed out Birminghams game plan and adjusted ours to go on and win the game.

What changes would you have made?

Did Moving Marshall further forward actually stop him being more involved?

Maybe bring on O'Sullivan or Delfouneso instead of Henley might have a more of an impact?

[shay777]

There are still many games to be played and in this league everything can happen. Its all about momentum.

If today despite the bad start of the season we are only 9 points away from the play-offs, I think we have a reason to be optimistic.

[AllRoverAsia]

Can I also point out that we had two days extra rest than Big Club did. Hardly made it count.

Good point. Maybe 2 days extra shooting practice would have been better time spent

[martonrover]

There are still many games to be played and in this league everything can happen. Its all about momentum.

If today despite the bad start of the season we are only 9 points away from the play-offs, I think we have a reason to be optimistic.

There is no chance of reaching the play offs with a manager who is content with draws.

9 points might not seem a lot but it's plenty in a congested league.

Mid table at best.

[cesus]

A good away point but it's hard to call single points that when we simply are not picking up enough wins.

Every positive at the moment seems to come hand in hand with a negative, we are looking far more solid at the back but then again we don't look we will score either. Both stand at less than one a game!

Marshall has been playing well at right back but are we missing his creativity further forwards? I'd say most fans would agree the vast majority of this season Marshall has been poor on the wing so do we push him further forwards and put in Henley (still not convinced by him) into the back line and risk upsetting a settled back line.

Lawrence looks a fantastic prospect but prospect he is, he is here to learn, improve his composure and to be honest make mistakes. So whilst we see him do many good things in the game we have seen him fluff good chances against Burnley and last night too.

I simply cannot see where the goals will come from, it makes last seasons position all the more criminal when we had a 40+ goal strike force!

[RoverNev]

An away day at work meant I couldn't get there last night, but sounds like the consensus say that we didn't create enough for the amount of ball we had? I'd have taken a point before the game and if we get all 3 on Saturday, a return of 7 points isn't bad from those 3 games (Leeds, Brum, Brentford). Another clean sheet on the road has to be encouraging, but not enough chances created for the goal machine up top! How many times have we heard that before?!

[joey_big_nose]

I simply cannot see where the goals will come from, it makes last seasons position all the more criminal when we had a 40+ goal strike force!

Yes. You do have to wonder if we had Guthrie and Akpan last season, and used the pressing tactics with Rhodes and Gestede up front, whether we would have made a better fist of promotion.

Sitting really deep last year with a non existent central midfield led to a lot of goals conceded. This year we look really solid.

Lawrence's athleticism and ability to close down at the front (which Gestede certainly can't do) makes a big difference.

[RoverNev]

There are still many games to be played and in this league everything can happen. Its all about momentum.

If today despite the bad start of the season we are only 9 points away from the play-offs, I think we have a reason to be optimistic.

I think you're spot on. This league is all about putting runs together and gaining momentum. It's all about picking up 4/6/7/9 points when you're playing twice or three times a week. Four points from our last two away games with 2 clean sheets is very encouraging indeed. I'd love to know the last time we did that?

When you've got momentum, those games you normally lose turn into draws, and those games we draw turn into 3 points.

[booth]

Under Bowyer what's the best "run" we've had?

[philipl]

There is no chance of reaching the play offs with a manager who is content with draws.

9 points might not seem a lot but it's plenty in a congested league.

Mid table at best.

Only Brum are 9 points ahead of us- 5th place is 14 points ahead.

If we go on a good run, the chances are that at least one of 6th to 14th will go on at least as good a run as us and they are starting a minimum of two points ahead of us.

A 14 point gap is simply too much even at this stage of the season so we still need to be more concerned about that 6 point gap beneath us and any one of the current three adrift at the bottom going on a good run.

As everyone points out, we simply are not winning games so thinking we can string a long run of wins together like the dingles are doing is fantasy stuff- cannot see it happening under Bowyer although the squad might be good enough to do it.

[JAL]

Koita winner all over this game

He's only ever scored 13 goals in his whole career so your being a biT ambitious there Tom M !

Bowyer and the scousers need to find a competent forward to play alongside Jordan Rhodes quickly before the seasons gone.

[joey_big_nose]

There are still many games to be played and in this league everything can happen. Its all about momentum.

If today despite the bad start of the season we are only 9 points away from the play-offs, I think we have a reason to be optimistic.

We can start being optistic when we win 3 or 4 out of 5 matches. He needs to do that to make up the deficit created at the start of the season.

Until he does that we are going nowhere.

[arbitro]

What changes would you have made?

Did Moving Marshall further forward actually stop him being more involved?

Maybe bring on O'Sullivan or Delfouneso instead of Henley might have a more of an impact?

I would have got on the front foot more than we did and made the pitch as big as possible. Taylor was drifting inside too much and we needed to stretch the game and make the game less condensed. We seemed content to keep possession without looking for a killer pass. This slow passing along the back four doesn't suit us. The last few weeks when we have played well it has been because of a high tempo, pressuring game and passing the ball at pace. Last night was far too sedate for my liking.

Bowyer is far too cautious and reading his comments he is delighted with a point which, under normal circumstances I would agree with but as we are so far behind I felt he should have taken the brakes off. That was the feeling of the group I was with.

[AllRoverAsia]

Under Bowyer what's the best "run" we've had?

Rumoured that once the whole squad managed a full circuit run around the pitch at Ewood. No video so can't be proved.

[G Somerset Rover]

Isn't our best run under Gaz 3 wins on the trot? We certainly did that at the tail end of 13/14.

We've only managed 3 all bloody season so far this time out.

[tomphil]

Rumoured that once the whole squad managed a full circuit run around the pitch at Ewood. No video so can't be proved.

Then he gave them 2 days off as a reward.

[Neal]

Its all about momentum.

I keep hearing this... This magical word that will solve anything, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow which Gaz is forever chasing "we just need some momentum".... Like a crack addict even.

What we need is leadership and a clear style of play.

[joey_big_nose]

What we need is leadership and a clear style of play.

I'd say we have both of those now. What we can't do is put our chances away.

[Iceman]

Jeez, am i the only one who didnt know about this game?

[AllRoverAsia]

Jeez, am i the only one who didnt know about this game?

Well to be fair you live under a bloody big rock not just an ordinary stone

[G Somerset Rover]

I'd say we have both of those now. What we can't do is put our chances away.

You can't expect to score every chance though. On the evidence of last night we only had one all game - Lawrence's. Duffy's header was far from clear cut.

[Iceman]

Well to be fair you live under a bloody big rock not just an ordinary stone

true, at least these days anyway... i saw the One Rovers tweet, and though okay, maybe an under 21 game or something. oh well, 0-0, seems like another boring game by some of the comments lol

[mustard]

You can't expect to score every chance though. On the evidence of last night we only had one all game - Lawrence's. Duffy's header was far from clear cut.

This is what annoys me. After every game Bowyer is like "we had this chance and this chance. Could have been 3-0 up at HT... bla bla bla" as if every chance deserves to go in, whilst totally discarding the fact that the opposition had just as many half-chances, if not more. I don't know if it's just spiel delivered to Pune, or to the small section of our fan base that hang on every word he says but it's surprising that people are willing to believe his selective analysis.

[arbitro]

Jeez, am i the only one who didnt know about this game?

No. I think you were probably in good company.........................................Venkys.