Ben Brereton Diaz

[roversfan99]

3 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

As I say, worrying thing for me here is Mellor broke the Rothwell news last month, so clearly has a line in somewhere. 

That he was staying?

[G Somerset Rover]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

That he was staying?

No, he was the first to come out and say he wanted out to Bournemouth and that’s why he’d be missing that particular match (forget who it was against now).

Edited February 19, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

You were spot on about Rothwell first, so I’m not doubting this. I posted yesterday about the boot and crutches too which were more than ominous. That could well be that for our play off chances if he’ll only be back for a few matches.

Just goes to reiterate what a shit show of a window it was given the complete lack of goals elsewhere in the side. It was all too obvious and you can’t say TM and the club weren’t warned right up until deadline day.

Yep I don’t claim to be in the know too much, cos I’m not really. But this is as close to the horses mouth as you’ll get without sitting down and asking him yourself. Be pleasantly surprised if we see him before April.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

No, he was the first to come out and say he wanted out to Bournemouth and that’s why he’d be missing that particular match (forget who it was against now).

To be fair, I also said I believed the bid in question was Brentford not Bournemouth, so I’m not spot on always, but this source is bang on. 

[USABlue]

55 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

If Brereton is out until April minimum, I cant help but think that our play off chances are quite slim.

Looking at the table only 6 points seperate 6th from 14th so we should be able to plummet to our comfy spot in the league pretty quickly.  Hudds win makes this a bit if a must win.  So still 0-0 i think.

[1864roverite]

59 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

If Brereton is out until April minimum, I cant help but think that our play off chances are quite slim.

I would say they are totally gone if this is true

[Tom]

Let’s not kid ourselves it’s a bad one

 

 

[roversfan99]

You do wonder if he will be seen in a Rovers shirt again with only 3 months of the season to go.

[islander200]

6 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

You do wonder if he will be seen in a Rovers shirt again with only 3 months of the season to go.

Be a shame if that's the case, if Dack somehow got back to being fit and showing his typical standard and Khadra could show some of his better form it would be one of the better front lines in the championship

[Guest]

On 15/02/2022 at 16:55, Bigdoggsteel said:

Someone, eh 

😬

[G Somerset Rover]

I just cannot see where our goals our coming from. It’s all good and well to say ‘others need to step up’ but their careers to date would suggest that they won’t. Huge problems for us - we couldn’t even score with him. Only Sheff Utd and Fulham away to come in two of our next three fixtures (QPR at home too!).

Edited February 19, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

I just cannot see where our goals our coming from. It’s all good and well to say ‘others need to step up’ but their careers to date would suggest that they won’t. Huge problems for us - we couldn’t even score with him.

January shortcomings are starting to rear their heads. All we need is Rothwell to pick up a knock and it’s goodbye playoffs full stop.

[chaddyrovers]

16 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

I just cannot see where our goals our coming from. It’s all good and well to say ‘others need to step up’ but their careers to date would suggest that they won’t. Huge problems for us - we couldn’t even score with him. Only Sheff Utd and Fulham away to come in two of our next three fixtures (QPR at home too!).

The players have always step up whether its Gallagher against Boro or Rothwell at Cardiff. We have always found a way. and we would have done today

[G Somerset Rover]

4 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

The players have always step up whether its Gallagher against Boro or Rothwell at Cardiff. We have always found a way. and we would have done today

We’ve barely scored a goal this year Chaddy - in fact they’re our only two goals scored in the league in 2022 - so no, we haven’t always found a way. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[chaddyrovers]

7 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

We’ve barely scored a goal this year Chaddy - in fact they’re our only two goals scored in the league in 2022 - so no, we haven’t always found a way. 

Yet we are 3rd in the league despite this slight loss of goalscoring form. But this team this season have always found a way. We would have done today IMO. 

I think we were right not to bring in another striker as we have enough quality in the squad IMO

[Guest]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

Yet we are 3rd in the league despite this slight loss of goalscoring form. But this team this season have always found a way. We would have done today IMO. 

I think we were right not to bring in another striker as we have enough quality in the squad IMO

Chaddy we’ve lost half our league goals for the next 2 months.

[G Somerset Rover]

6 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I think we were right not to bring in another striker as we have enough quality in the squad IMO

As I say, we haven’t been able to score with him, let alone without him! A true CF option off the bench - some kind of plan B at least - would have been perfect. 

[chaddyrovers]

3 minutes ago, Mellor Rover said:

Chaddy we’ve lost half our league goals for the next 2 months.

We have to see how long he out for. Rovers or Brereton haven't confirmed how long he is out for, But I see it has an opportunity for others to step up. People in the summer said who and how we would replace Armstrong's goals. But we did this and players step up and score the goals to get us into the top 6 and fighting for second place 

[chaddyrovers]

2 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

As I say, we haven’t been able to score with him, let alone without him! A true CF option off the bench - some kind of plan B at least - would have been perfect. 

I would give Jack Vale a go

[DE.]

37 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

The players have always step up whether its Gallagher against Boro or Rothwell at Cardiff. We have always found a way. and we would have done today

Well, this isn't true in recent times, is it? We didn't find a way in 6 of our last 8 matches. You can't cherry pick the two games we did score a single goal in and say 'we always find a way'.

[Dan]

12 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

We have to see how long he out for. Rovers or Brereton haven't confirmed how long he is out for, But I see it has an opportunity for others to step up. People in the summer said who and how we would replace Armstrong's goals. But we did this and players step up and score the goals to get us into the top 6 and fighting for second place 

You’ve just quoted Mowbray. We were very lucky with Ben starting the season on fire. No one predicted it, 1000/1 odds shows how likely it was. Now we are hoping for a second miracle, as Gallagher will be lucky to hit double figures this season and our midfield is pretty goal shy. 

[Dan]

12 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I would give Jack Vale a go

I guess it can’t do any harm, but haven’t we rushed youth team players through before and it’s ended up killing their development? Desperate times call for desperate measures though I guess. 

[Mattyblue]

We largely ‘always found a way’ between mid November and the new year. We’ve ‘not found a way’ on many occasions before or since.

 

Edited February 19, 2022 by Mattyblue

[roversfan99]

28 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I would give Jack Vale a go

For some perspective, for a team chasing promotion from the Championship to the Premier League, you are entrusting a rookie with about 20 minutes of senior experience who has had a loan spell at Halifax Town in the National League this season where he only scored 1 in 10, yet are in denial that we needed a striker?

Let's not pretend that we didn't need a striker. I factor in the fact that to find a striker who could score at a reasonable, competitive rate, to fit within our current formation on a limited budget was a difficult task and seemingly was not helped by rejections in the transfer market. It may have well been that no one was deemed good enough to improve us, and it was impossible to find someone to be as good as Brereton should he become injured, which unfortunately he has. But it was a disappointment that we didn't get anyone in.

Let's also not be of the naive assumption that every time a goalscorer is lost, others will naturally fill that void. It isn't impossible, it will happen at times, the Brereton story is a fairly remarkable one though all told. It will not happen every time, and those particular circumstances were fairly unique. Goalscorers cost the most money for a reason.

Any team losing their main striker is a huge blow, and one that will weaken them, it would be the same if Fulham lost Mitrovic. If any of the current squad start scoring to 100% compensate for the absence of Brereton, they would be scoring well in excess of what they have proven in their careers to date. To suggest that "we have always found a way" is blatantly untrue, and indeed in half of the games that we have failed to score in, Brereton has been unavailable from the start. No one has really found much of a way as of yet, we have looked toothless in recent weeks.

I suspect that any response will be to this that I am being negative, that I need to give Vale a chance or indeed a look back to last summer when Brereton (in fairly unique circumstances) did indeed step up to the mark, something that I have acknowledged CAN happen from time to time, but more often than not, it won't, hence why I and most people do not forsee our remaining players filling that void fully by scoring miles more than they have to date in their careers.

[chaddyrovers]

29 minutes ago, DE. said:

Well, this isn't true in recent times, is it? We didn't find a way in 6 of our last 8 matches. You can't cherry pick the two games we did score a single goal in and say 'we always find a way'.

We found a way at Forest away or Bournemouth away or Stoke away. Other examples out there.