[Archived] Blackburn Rovers FC v Plymouth Argyle FC

[Dreams of 1995]

Just now, Tom said:

For those pointing out that Shrewsbury and Wigan have drawn unexpected games.

That may be true but they have afforded themselves the odd slip up, our odd slip ups are just as common as our good results so we don't have that luxury.

Dress it up if you will, we didn't win that game last night against bottom of the league, nor did we particularly deserve to, not enough urgency or desire from the sidelines or on the pitch.

Mowbray is failing overall, last night another example of that.

Yep. We are very quickly using up all of our chances and we aren't even at Christmas yet. Things are only going to get harder - the pitches we play on are going to be worse, the teams are going to be cemented and teams are going to have much more to fight for than simply "it's Blackburn". 

We've lost 4 games now. If we lose one of our game in hands that will be 5 games in 14. Quite simply, in my opinion, that is definitely heading into territory of sacking the manager. We cannot carry on with this rate of losses any more.

I can't be the only one that can't see where this huge unbeaten run is going to come from? If we don't pick up points rapidly we will fall out of touch & the inevitable will of the players to win this league will fall with every game.

A winning teams breeds confidence; confidence brings success. I can't see a single confident player in the Rovers squad right now. 

 

[Athlete]

Everyone can see Mowbray isn't taking us up via the play offs or automatically. 

He's signed absolute rubbish.. No excuses he needs to go 

[JBiz]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

Knew you weren't at the game.

Got a chest infection, which funnily enough kicked up a gear on the way back from Oldham. Maybe I'm having side effects from watching 11 overpaid shirkers? 

[Mercer]

7 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

We attacked tonight and created loads of good chances and should have won the game by 20 mins. Nyambe, Dack twice and Antonsson all missed good chances. 

If the Players had convert these chances we would have won 5 or 6 but they miss them. 

Players at fault NOT MOWBRAY!

But let blame the manager cos it easy and let appoint another manager would is another risk instead of backing the current manager who alot of fans believe in and want him to do well. Not sure certain posters want him to well on here

Give over man.

When will the penny drop.

He has a goal machine in the shape of Nuttall but refuses to give the lad a richly deserved opportunity.  He scores goals for fun whilst the likes of Samiuel, Antonnson, Gladwin and Graham (the first three being Mowbray signings!) are punchless.

[Blue blood]

Chaddy, I've a couple of problems with your posts:

 

1) For a guy who complains at any perceived personal dig you aren't half giving them out.

"Clueless muppets" (or was it idiots?) Erm... that seems like a personal dig to me - yet the only complaint of personal digs is from yourself. Practice what you preach.

 

2) Saying we want TM to do badly.

So let's say in the team I lead, I give one of the workers feedback on where they went wrong and they respond with I wanted them to do badly. We now are having a very different conversation about my integrity, as I've allegedly got it in for them. I'd also challenge them that they're trying to invalidate my judgement and ask them to prove I've got it in for them, by showing where the negative feedback is false.

Ok, it's a slightly different - and less dramatic context - but the principles are roughly the same. You're insinuating things about people to invalidate their judgement.

Btw the criticism was justified. TM dropped a number of clangers last night:

1) Not starting Chapman. Against a patched up 10 men behind the ball team, I'm not sure what defensive duties he'd have, so not playing him was a massive blooper given he has been in form.

2) Taking off Dack and ruining our shape.

3) Switching Antonson to a wing he was ineffective on.

4) Bringing on Gladwin

5) needing to use Nayambe at cb. I'd have been tempted played him there too but it meant we were lumbered with the offering nothing going forwards Caddis at rb. Nayambe rb and Warton or Platt cb.

Sure the team missed a host of sitters, but TM wasn't helping with the tactical changes he made.

And that's before we get into who brought/kept these players...

 

[blueboy3333]

Just now, Biz said:

Got a chest infection, which funnily enough kicked up a gear on the way back from Oldham. Maybe I'm having side effects from watching 11 overpaid shirkers? 

Your immune system has been Mowbrayed. I'm hoping to catch similar before Saturday  

Bed rest and avoid anything to do with Rovers would be Dr Blueboy's advice. Get well soon.

[AAK]

10 minutes ago, Mercer said:

and who signs, coaches and selects these players!?!?

Nuttall has a natural instinct for scoring goals yet Mowbray overlooks him match after match.

Chaddy, stop trying to defend the indefensible.

All the players Chaddy mentioned were signed by Mowbray - Samuel, Dack, Antonsson and Gladwin

[Brian-Potter]

So far I’ve refrained from posting on the Mowbray out debate, and indeed have waited until my initial reaction to last night’s result was less raw. 

I was not overly concerned about our slow start to the season as personally, considering all the changes in the squad over the summer I expected it. Indeed a few weeks ago the season seemed to follow what I expected, as after a shocking start there was a marked improvement, at least in results. However this has tailed off again and we are now in the middle of October and after Saturday and last night I am starting to seriously worry that things are not progressing as they should do. 

There is no doubt that last night’s performance was an improvement over the dire showing at Oldham and, had one of those many missed chances found its way in this would no doubt have been a very different thread. We have to be realistic in that there will be games that don’t go to plan, the ball doesn’t run for us, etc etc. The thing is that we’ve already had too many of these and also too many where we just haven’t turned up. Bottom line is that at this stage of the season we should be winning more games than we are.

I am very concerned that we still don’t have a settled starting 11 and nor does TM seem to know his strongest side.

We never seem to play the same system for two halves in a row never mind two games.

My personal view is that we should have a settled starting 11 and be playing the same system pretty much week in week out. That way the players gel, start to understand the system and their responsibilities and we get a much more consistent and polished performance. There is way too much tinkering going on and I think that on occasions the players are as confused as we are, who wouldn’t be. That is also compounded by the fact that we are still looking like a team of individuals. I also think this continuous tinkering is a major factor in the inconsistency in performance.

A lot of the problems are down to the manager who seems to be over thinking and over complicating things. In addition the inability to make a positive change during a game that’s not going to plan is a worry, the decision to bring off Dack last night when were desperate for a goal was baffling.

In conclusion I don’t think he will be, or indeed should be sacked at this moment in time. However, if we get to the end of October and into November with no marked improvement, particularly in terms of consistency then I think a change may be needed. He’s been backed in the summer transfer window and this is his team.

[Athlete]

9 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

Anyone asking for Mowbray to be sack after tonight is clueless and talking out of the back side. 

if we keep playing like we did tonight we will wins a lot more games and get top 2.

That fosters must have had a kick to it last night... 

We are 10th in league one as far as top two is concerned we're closer to the relegation spots 

[JacknOry]

I get so tired of the 'some posters want us to do badly' line. What Rovers fan in their right mind would ever want us to do badly so that we can 'moan', 'whinge' or say we told you so? A loss in the fashion of Saturday ruins my weekend and now after recovering from that, just a few days later another dour performance with just 4 shots on target and 49 blocked shots (cos apparently these count) I am back to feeling depressed and angry again.

At the start of the season Chaddy, I think you will find that TM almost had 100% backing from fans. He seemingly at the time recruited fairly well (with backing), kept hold of our better players (though im still convinced the plan was to get someone out the door but no-one wanted our chit apart from an injured Lenihan) and talked a good game. My confidence in him stopped on Saturday and many more have lost theirs after last night. That 100% support has now completely swung round the other way apart from you and a few others here and there. 

Everyone wants him and the team to do well but they are not and while the players obviously deserve some blame - the buck stops with the manager. This is his team now with the signings he brought in, he motivates them, he selects the team and formation. He has failed for whatever reason to have us on course for his OWN target of top two. He is failing by targets that he set for himself and should therefore walk and let us roll the dice on someone else - as it is clear we are not going up under him anyway.

What irks the most is that these defeats and performances have come against some of the dross at the bottom of this league. It is not as if we are dropping points against the better teams or our (cough) promotion rivals.

[Eddie]

28 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

Want to lay a bet Chaddy? 100 quid that we dont get promoted under TM this season (let alone finish top 2).

What odds are you offering? We're 6/4 with most bookies. 

[philipl]

OK so the performance wasn't so bad- we are arguing among ourselves rather than slagging the Rovers.

[Eddie]

I thought the performance was fine - apart from not having enough movement up front in the first half and not being clinical enough in the second. 

How we didn't score 2, 3, 4....is beyond me. 

That doesn't excuse poor finishing. It was a game we should absolutely be winning, but I find it hard to be critical of a manager after a side just wastes chance after chance. 

Not the first time that we haven't taken our chances and it isn't something that can continue. 

[Lie_still_Rover]

10 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Best gauge of our season so far is that we have been so under par that a fan base unceremoniously behind Mowbray in August is now almost entirely in favour of him being sacked. If hes in the dugout on Saturday hes a lucky man.

Theres no attacking strategy whatsoever, what are they doing in training? You can tell they arent in a settled, consistent shape and arent working on attacking as a team in training. 

The second half was a desperate attempt to stick on as many attacking players as possible, often in unfamiliar positions again, in an attempt to just aimlessly get it forward even though we dont have the height to do that, we need to get down the sides. The sub of Gladwin for Whittingham, who was offering our main threat from corners, summed up Mowbrays brainless attempts at trying to stumble across a win.

Whittinghams left foot, despite already being written off as a player, is a class above but often he looked forward and there was no movement so its wasted.  I thought Graham, albeit clearly rusty, needs a run of games but showed occasional positive link up with Dack, especially for the goal. Obviously that was ruined when Dack was taken off.

The 2 wide men, in particular Antonsson were hopeless. Would bring in Chapman and Conway at the weekend. Dack is our most consistent attacking threat and he showed more intelligent link up briefly with Graham than he ever has with Samuel.

Nyambe was appalling, I know he was out of position but he has no intelligence, hes more of a liability than Ward. If Wharton and Downing miss Saturday Mowbray needs to show some balls and pick Platt, he may be untested but the only 2 alternatives are massive liabilities.

Caddis was man of the match for me. Williams needs to stop shooting from distance, and Raya made a couple of good saves but another big mistake. And god knows what he was doing with that save in the second half, it was straight at him.

Totally agree about Whittingham, you could see early on, he had a great range of passing, it looked like he was under orders to sit a bit deeper and spray the ball around. Time and again though, he'd get his head up and look for some movement and there would be nothing, you could see his frustration. There was a foul mouthed muppet behind me and my boys berating him all game, what is he supposed to do though when there's no movement ahead of him?!

[Peteb2014]

I think the decision to take Smallwood off was because we were playing almost entirely in there half he had been booked and if they broke away there was a possibility that someone might have to "take one for the team" which he couldn't afford to do having been booked 

[Tom]

Just now, Lie_still_Rover said:

Totally agree about Whittingham, you could see early on, he had a great range of passing, it looked like he was under orders to sit a bit deeper and spray the ball around. Time and again though, he'd get his head up and look for some movement and there would be nothing, you could see his frustration. There was a foul mouthed muppet behind me and my boys berating him all game, what is he supposed to do though when there's no movement ahead of him?!

He wasn't wearing a cap and a premier league era home shirt was he?

[arbitro]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

I thought the performance was fine - apart from not having enough movement up front in the first half and not being clinical enough in the second. 

How we didn't score 2, 3, 4....is beyond me. 

That doesn't excuse poor finishing. It was a game we should absolutely be winning, but I find it hard to be critical of a manager after a side just wastes chance after chance. 

Not the first time that we haven't taken our chances and it isn't something that can continue. 

The manager is responsible for results and as such is as culpable as the players missing the chances. I'm not quite at the sack him stage yet but giving him a relatively free pass is not acceptable in my view. 

 

[Lie_still_Rover]

I'm not sure, I expect a bit of moaning and swearing at a football match, but it was non-stop, if anything it just got a bit tiresome after about an hour- haha.

[arbitro]

Just now, Peteb2014 said:

I think the decision to take Smallwood off was because we were playing almost entirely in there half he had been booked and if they broke away there was a possibility that someone might have to "take one for the team" which he couldn't afford to do having been booked 

I think he was taken off for his yellow card but that shouldn't influence Mowbrays thinking. We were well on top at that stage and Plymouth enjoyed more possession in midfield after Smallwoods departure. We just had nobody to compete for the second balls. For much of the game Smallwood was more advanced than Whittingham and at times Dack. 

[RV Blue]

I thought taking Dack off was criminal, it completely messed with our shape and meant that we started blindly hoofing it up to the two strikers who are both awful in the air, a really amateur substitution. Then bringing Gladwin on when Nuttall can't even get on the bench was laughable.

[mhead]

On relection I now see the performance last night as really quite good. It was as frenetic and frantic a match as I have seen for a long time. From 45mins to 66mins was like the end of a match!

The ability to release a shot on goal was very poor;the forwards hardly ever headed the ball;the substitutions were strange; and the refusal to blood our youngsters is bordering on criminal.

For Example: Joe Nuttall needs to be a sub. Nyambe is not a Centre-half so play a youngster who is a real Centre half. Gladwin could have made himself a hero but is a complete athletic lummox(suggest he takes up 5000m or Javelin).

The danger is that our youngsters are going to get side-tracked and generally disgruntled.

And yet the match was exasperatingly exciting.

 

 

[arbitro]

22 minutes ago, mhead said:

On relection I now see the performance last night as really quite good. It was as frenetic and frantic a match as I have seen for a long time. From 45mins to 66mins was like the end of a match!

The ability to release a shot on goal was very poor;the forwards hardly ever headed the ball;the substitutions were strange; and the refusal to blood our youngsters is bordering on criminal.

For Example: Joe Nuttall needs to be a sub. Nyambe is not a Centre-half so play a youngster who is a real Centre half. Gladwin could have made himself a hero but is a complete athletic lummox(suggest he takes up 5000m or Javelin).

The danger is that our youngsters are going to get side-tracked and generally disgruntled.

And yet the match was exasperatingly exciting.

 

 

I'm not sure that Gladwin is athletic. When he has the ball its like watching walking football (although in his defence that applies to most of our team).

For the life in me I can't see what Mowbray saw in him.

[Tom]

28 minutes ago, mhead said:

On relection I now see the performance last night as really quite good. It was as frenetic and frantic a match as I have seen for a long time. From 45mins to 66mins was like the end of a match!

The ability to release a shot on goal was very poor;the forwards hardly ever headed the ball;the substitutions were strange; and the refusal to blood our youngsters is bordering on criminal.

For Example: Joe Nuttall needs to be a sub. Nyambe is not a Centre-half so play a youngster who is a real Centre half. Gladwin could have made himself a hero but is a complete athletic lummox(suggest he takes up 5000m or Javelin).

The danger is that our youngsters are going to get side-tracked and generally disgruntled.

And yet the match was exasperatingly exciting.

 

 

The problem is after 66 minutes we just stopped, agreed there was a period where we looked destined to score but then just reverted to nothing.

Telling again that when the players came over for a drink when a player was down Mowbray was facing the other way with his arms folded looking down rather than barking instructions 

[Bbrovers2288]

It’s simple really, last year we were better than Wigan and Rotherham by some margin, both these clubs are currently above us. And that includes changing their manager so we should have been light years ahead of them in preparations for this campaign with players and positions identified. Yet we started like headless chickens, have had no consistency, change formation and team every week and show no sign of being a promotion contender. Iv logged in today gutted he is still here. It’s not good enough, nowhere near. Get Keith hill in to steady this ship and get the most out this squad who should be taking 3,4,5 past most of these mobs. I don’t buy this I never expected it to be easy blah blah. It’s LG 1 and the quality is so low here it’s unreal. A poor Bolton team walked it last year 

[ruggles1995]

I HATE FOOTBALL. There I said it. I hate the sport.