[Archived] Rovers v Blackpool

[Doug]

5 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

TM stumbled upon a line up and formation against Walsall at home at the end of January which worked really well and produced a resounding win and which off the top of my head has produced 3 points every other time we've started with it. (Portsmouth and Wimbledon away)

               Raya

Nyambe Mulgrew Lenihan Williams (or Bell)

Payne Bennett Smallwood Armstrong        

      Graham Dack

Whenever he's deviated from that in an attempt to be more defensive we've either failed to win or have squeaked home but struggled. 

Over to you Tony. Please don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Think I'd prefer Travis (or even Caddis)  at RB and Bell at LB, but agree with the rest.

[FGS5635]

300k when cash isn't exaclty flush is a an awful lot for a left back you wont play. Strange signing if he isn't going to be 1st choice

[tomphil]

It did seem an odd signing although a decent one but Williams needed back up yet Bell is a proven LB starter in this league so it's either filed in the bought to play in a new formation or someone's pushed it through

Personally I don't think there's much difference between him and Williams defensively but maybe bell is better going forwards and a bit quicker.

[blueboy3333]

1 hour ago, FGS5635 said:

300k when cash isn't exaclty flush is a an awful lot for a left back you wont play. Strange signing if he isn't going to be 1st choice

Probably one for the future. £300k isn't much if Mowbray thinks he can perform well at Championship level. Mowbray is probably itching to play him but feels he can't drop Williams who hasn't done much wrong. That nonsense when he play Bell on the left wing just to play him will hopefully never be repeated.

[tomphil]

16 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

Probably one for the future. £300k isn't much if Mowbray thinks he can perform well at Championship level. Mowbray is probably itching to play him but feels he can't drop Williams who hasn't done much wrong. That nonsense when he play Bell on the left wing just to play him will hopefully never be repeated.

It will be he's stacking a lot of investment and wages on the bench.

[Mike E]

Maybe he's preparing for '3 at the back', starting pre-season?

[blueboy3333]

7 hours ago, Mike E said:

Maybe he's preparing for '3 at the back', starting pre-season?

Very possible.

[rigger]

10 hours ago, Mike E said:

Maybe he's preparing for '3 at the back', starting pre-season?

This is what I think will eventually happen.

[benhben]

Williams has been terrible every time I've seen him. He gives the ball away so many times from being clueless in possession and panicking. His only redeeming feature is hes fairly solid defensively. Id personally play Bell above him 100% of the time, but I'm not the manager. Home against Blackpool we have to go for an attacking team as they will come with the sole intention of keeping things tight and slowing play down. As some others have said on here, think Smallwood needs a rest. 

 

                      Raya

Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Bell

         Travis Bennett Dack

                      Payne

         Graham        Armstrong

[RevidgeBlue]

16 hours ago, Doug said:

Think I'd prefer Travis (or even Caddis)  at RB and Bell at LB, but agree with the rest.

Yes, I'd much prefer Bell. I don't rate Williams at all and think he is fast turning into a bit of a liability, opposition players tend to run in behind him at will. He does however seem to be one of Tone's favourites so I doubt he'll be dropped at this stage and like blueboy I'd hate to see a return to the disastrous practice ot trying to shoe horn both him and Bell into the line up.

[Bigdoggsteel]

28 minutes ago, benhben said:

Williams has been terrible every time I've seen him. He gives the ball away so many times from being clueless in possession and panicking. His only redeeming feature is hes fairly solid defensively. Id personally play Bell above him 100% of the time, but I'm not the manager. Home against Blackpool we have to go for an attacking team as they will come with the sole intention of keeping things tight and slowing play down. As some others have said on here, think Smallwood needs a rest. 

 

                      Raya

Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Bell

         Travis Bennett Dack

                      Payne

         Graham        Armstrong

I love how, even at this stage of the season, fans are still coming on here and suggesting starting 11s in formations we have never played at any point in our history, let alone this season. 

Whats the point? 

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

I love how, even at this stage of the season, fans are still coming on here and suggesting starting 11s in formations we have never played at any point in our history, let alone this season. 

Whats the point? 

It doesn't stop Tony trying it!

[Dreams of 1995]

54 minutes ago, benhben said:

Williams has been terrible every time I've seen him. He gives the ball away so many times from being clueless in possession and panicking. His only redeeming feature is hes fairly solid defensively. Id personally play Bell above him 100% of the time, but I'm not the manager. Home against Blackpool we have to go for an attacking team as they will come with the sole intention of keeping things tight and slowing play down. As some others have said on here, think Smallwood needs a rest. 

 

                      Raya

Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Bell

         Travis Bennett Dack

                      Payne

         Graham        Armstrong

Williams has been poor all season. People get the impression that he is defensively solid because no glaring errors stick out in memory. There has been countless times he's given away silly free kicks in dangerous areas (I counted twice on Sunday, even after Power scored one) and given the ball away in areas which has put pressure on our backline. He isn't a good player and that's the bottom line on that one.

If you look at goals like the one at Oldham you'll see it comes from him being out of position and chasing back. This has been consistent throughout the season too. He might not have literally missed a tackle or made a bad back pass to result in conceding but his positioning and game awareness has more than contributed enough to our abysmal defensive record to suggest he's not good enough to be in this team.

Mulgrew, Downing and Nyambe have all had games were they have excelled. I can't remember a single game in which I have walked off and thought Williams has had a good one.

He's a blip on an otherwise good Rovers squad.

 

[tomphil]

Williams like one or two others yet again falls firmly into the standard steady league 1 player bracket some things he does ok game in game out other things he can't do or is poor at.

Nyambe on the other side is a rawer more physical version of him. Will Bell be any better ?   Well we won't find out whilst he's being shoehorned into other positions or on the bench when perhaps we could do with some fresh legs at the back.

[Dreams of 1995]

You'd hope Bell would be better because 300k for a player is far too much if he's not as good as Williams.

[Bigdoggsteel]

I am not one for slating a player, but I agree with all of the above on Williams. Giving the ball away and giving away needless frees will cost you more the higher up the leagues you go. He seems to do both regularly. Hopefully Bell is an improvement. 

[blueboy3333]

1 hour ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

People get the impression that he is defensively solid because no glaring errors stick out in memory.

How strange. Thinking someone who doesn't give goals away isn't solid. Yet you quote Downing as an example of solid when he's been dropped for being ruddy awful.

Williams does give the ball away though. That said, so does Downing with his pointless humps upfield.

1 hour ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

He isn't a good player and that's the bottom line on that one.

The bottom line on that one is that it is your opinion.  He got promoted with BCFC and he may well get promoted with us. He was also our POTS last year in the Championship. He isn't Roberto Carlos but he's a good League 1 player. Bell is better on the ball by the looks of it but if we do go up Williams will be a good player to have in the squad especially if we go three at the back which is where he played at BCFC.

[Dreams of 1995]

21 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

How strange. Thinking someone who doesn't give goals away isn't solid. Yet you quote Downing as an example of solid when he's been dropped for being ruddy awful.

Williams does give the ball away though. That said, so does Downing with his pointless humps upfield.

The bottom line on that one is that it is your opinion.  He got promoted with BCFC and he may well get promoted with us. He was also our POTS last year in the Championship. He isn't Roberto Carlos but he's a good League 1 player. Bell is better on the ball by the looks of it but if we do go up Williams will be a good player to have in the squad especially if we go three at the back which is where he played at BCFC.

No. I quoted Downing as someone who has excelled in some games. Point being that out of our poor defence (they have all been relatively poor defensive wise, save Mulgrew) all of them have had games which they shone except Williams. He is just an average player on his good days but, on his bad days, you can really tell that he is not good enough.

He does give goals away. He's part of a back 4, or 5, that has leaked goals all season. He's give away the same amount of goals as Mulgrew, Downing & Nyambe because a defence works as a team. It's disingenuous to claim the other 3 have leaked goals and he hasn't. Besides, I'm sure you are in the slim minority that completely dismisses his woeful positional awareness for a reason to as why we leak so many goals. A lot have come from out wide and set pieces - areas of the game he is directly responsible for.

Williams will be an ok squad player, not a good one. He's ok at centre back and ok at left back. There's not a position on the pitch he is good at. Last season I missed a lot of games so I kind of dismissed my opinion of him being wrongly given POTS. This season I've been more or less ever present, home & away, save a few months late Oct/November, and I can safely say he has been one of our worst regular starters. I'd like to hear who you think has been poorer than him.

 

 

[blueboy3333]

Just now, Dreams of 1995 said:

I'd like to hear who you think has been poorer than him.

That's the point, I don't think anybody has been poor, including Williams (although I'll admit to developing an irrational dislike of Raya, especially when watching the match back on Sunday I saw him giggling with the opposition at full time after he's thrown another one in his own net 15 minutes earlier)

[G Somerset Rover]

6 hours ago, rigger said:

This is what I think will eventually happen.

His recruitment would certainly back up the theory.

Huge game this - definitely a must win.

[DE.]

I wouldn't want Williams as a first teamer in the Championship, but he's good enough for L1. He makes some silly mistakes and is not particularly switched on positionally but then most players at this level have clear flaws. It's just about playing to our overall strengths and so far that's been enough to get us to where we are now.

[Mattyblue]

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/march/blackpool-ticket-update/

 

Canny move from the club, 'Pool fans can buy direct from Rovers, presumably means no 5% cut for BFC..

[Dreams of 1995]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/march/blackpool-ticket-update/

 

Canny move from the club, 'Pool fans can buy direct from Rovers, presumably means no 5% cut for BFC..

Someone seems to actually be trying down there at the moment. Fair play to them.

[OJRovers]

The fanzone is a great initiative. There was a live band on when we played Wigan. Stuff for kids too. It’s something you don’t see at many other grounds.

[Vinjay]

Oh well that will make one hell of a difference. I don't want to be pedantic but at the very least "Blackpool" not "Pool". For the youth game tonight I could care less about Bury's nickname so why refer to them like that? That's why back in December when I started a match thread and didn't refer to the opposition. Perhaps that was going too far but its like I said the goal should be solely to promote Blackburn Rovers and intimidate opposition. Details add up (however big or small) that's how you build a mentality.

Yes I note the irony saying this after dismissing the 5% difference as completely irrelevant.