Ben Brereton Diaz

[rigger]

16 minutes ago, Trinidad Rover said:

Looks like he's out for weeks/months. Disaster in the context of our lack of goals recently and failure to sign a striker in January.

Big big miss.

But he has been playing during our recent lack of goals.

[Bad Boy]

18 minutes ago, Trinidad Rover said:

Looks like he's out for weeks/months. Disaster in the context of our lack of goals recently and failure to sign a striker in January.

Big big miss.

We did sign a striker, the lad from Spurs.  Sadly he got injured.  It is time to get Jack Vale into the squad.

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Nobody is saying spend £10m on a striker. But bringing in someone on loan who is a natural striker, giving us a plan B, was surely sensible. Hedges is a winger, up until a few months ago Markanday hadn't played up front either. And he got injured with 11 days to spare of the window left, so we had ample time.

It's about quality though and we have discussed the type of fees you pay for average here, along with the type of loans clubs sign from PL clubs.

It's not easy find a goal scorer. Boro signed Connolly off Brighton, I would prefer Khadra or Dolan all day. QPR didn't sign a striker even. No point bringing someone for the sake of it. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

It’s pretty obvious given our signings  that Mowbray thought we could get away with playing the withdrawn No 9 and wide strikers playing on the break for the whole season. No thought seems to have been given to other ways of playing.

Why would we change something that works so well? 

We have forwards, they just need to step up now. Same with Buckley, Rothwell and Dack. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

It's about quality though and we have discussed the type of fees you pay for average here, along with the type of loans clubs sign from PL clubs.

It's not easy find a goal scorer. Boro signed Connolly off Brighton, I would prefer Khadra or Dolan all day. QPR didn't sign a striker even. No point bringing someone for the sake of it. 

But they didn't need a striker, they've got 3/4 already. Charlie Austin, Andre Gray and Lyndon Dykes. They needed a CM, and got Hendrick in on loan, a good bit of business.

There are loan deals out there, we just weren't clever enough to pull them off and tried bids for players like Dembele (which was pure bullshit as far as I'm concerned, a bid to say 'at least we tried' if ever I've seen it) and had a manager who tried to sell Rothwell (!!!). 

Make no mistake about it, if we don't grab playoffs from here, it falls well and truly on the shoulders of those at Ewood. Our fixtures turn after the next 3, think we don't play anyone in the current top 10 and have very winnable home games. Just hope we've not damaged the winning mentality too much by then.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Why would we change something that works so well? 

We have forwards, they just need to step up now. Same with Buckley, Rothwell and Dack. 

Agreed with this though. It is time for others to step up. If Dack's not on the bench for QPR then Mowbray really has lost the plot. Talking down Dack's involvement in a team that's scored 2 goals in 8 games is it? Give us a break Tony.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, Mellor Rover said:

But they didn't need a striker, they've got 3/4 already. Charlie Austin, Andre Gray and Lyndon Dykes. They needed a CM, and got Hendrick in on loan, a good bit of business.

There are loan deals out there, we just weren't clever enough to pull them off and tried bids for players like Dembele (which was pure bullshit as far as I'm concerned, a bid to say 'at least we tried' if ever I've seen it) and had a manager who tried to sell Rothwell (!!!). 

Make no mistake about it, if we don't grab playoffs from here, it falls well and truly on the shoulders of those at Ewood. Our fixtures turn after the next 3, think we don't play anyone in the current top 10 and have very winnable home games. Just hope we've not damaged the winning mentality too much by then.

Their fans thought they needed a striker. Austin and Grey have bad injury records and Dyke is fairly inconsistent. Hendrick is shite. 

Name one striker we could have signed on loan as an example

I agree it would be a disaster to miss out on the play offs from here 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, Mellor Rover said:

Agreed with this though. It is time for others to step up. If Dack's not on the bench for QPR then Mowbray really has lost the plot. Talking down Dack's involvement in a team that's scored 2 goals in 8 games is it? Give us a break Tony.

I think he will be.....

Imagine he scores the winner-scenes!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Why would we change something that works so well? 

We have forwards, they just need to step up now. Same with Buckley, Rothwell and Dack. 

Other teams have worked us out. They just defend deep and don’t give us room to play in. They let our centre halves have the ball and just mark up all over the pitch. We  just play in front of teams now.

[Bigdoggsteel]

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Other teams have worked us out. They just defend deep and don’t give us room to play in. They let our centre halves have the ball and just mark up all over the pitch. We  just play in front of teams now.

I dunno. If its that simple nobody will score against us, ya know they will have to try and attack us sometimes. I think our issue is just not taking chances the last few games. Whereas we were very clinical earlier in the season. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

I dunno. If its that simple nobody will score against us, ya know they will have to try and attack us sometimes. I think our issue is just not taking chances the last few games. Whereas we were very clinical earlier in the season. 

We’re not making enough chances to win games. One or two shots on goal won’t do it. 

[MarkBRFC]

 

19 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Their fans thought they needed a striker. Austin and Grey have bad injury records and Dyke is fairly inconsistent. Hendrick is shite. 

Name one striker we could have signed on loan as an example

I agree it would be a disaster to miss out on the play offs from here 

Maja.

The same folk on here suggesting its not a disaster that we didn't bring in a striker after Markandey was injured are the same folk who will be saying what a great season we have had when we finish 8th.

Edited February 22, 2022 by MarkBRFC

[Hasta]

30 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Why would we change something that works so well? 

 

Because our "2nd striker" isn't suited at all to playing out wide.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Two lads who have just gone out on loan from Villa seem to be doing ok - Davies and Archer.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Two lads who have just gone out on loan from Villa seem to be doing ok - Davies and Archer.

Davies was fantastic against us

[islander200]

12 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

 

Maja.

The same folk on here suggesting its not a disaster that we didn't bring in a striker after Markandey was injured are the same folk who will be saying what a great season we have had when we finish 8th.

Maja who is injured now?

Stoke took the risk on him and he scored a couple but he was out injured again at the weekend.

He had played less than 45 mins all season due to his injuries prior to signing for Stoke.

We asked Brighton about Connolly and we made an offer for Forrs who wanted more of a guarantee of playing time.

We shouldn't be offering any sort of guarantees for players of that Ilk.

Edited February 22, 2022 by islander200

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, Mellor Rover said:

Davies was fantastic against us

Yeah, exactly what we are short of, some physicality up front. I bet Van Hecke won’t be looking forward to playing against him again.

[roversfan99]

9 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Maja who is injured now?

Stoke took the risk on him and he scored a couple but he was out injured again at the weekend.

He had played less than 45 mins all season due to his injuries prior to signing for Stoke.

We asked Brighton about Connolly and we made an offer for Forrs who wanted more of a guarantee of playing time.

We shouldn't be offering any sort of guarantees for players of that Ilk.

Maja isn't injured, he has covid.

The Forss one with the guarantee aspect was more of a rumour but Mowbray mentioned Connolly which itself shows that he did want a forward. Was always difficult on a low budget, always risk v reward (risk is perhaps not the right word as it is a small risk, worst case scenario they dont play) but its a shame we couldnt get one who could offer more of a goal threat than what we have, minus Brereton.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

16 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Maja who is injured now?

Stoke took the risk on him and he scored a couple but he was out injured again at the weekend.

He had played less than 45 mins all season due to his injuries prior to signing for Stoke.

We asked Brighton about Connolly and we made an offer for Forrs who wanted more of a guarantee of playing time.

We shouldn't be offering any sort of guarantees for players of that Ilk.

I wouldn’t have signed Maja because of his previous history of back trouble but he’s out because of Covid at the moment.

[MarkBRFC]

Maja was just an option as the poster asked for one.

He scored 2 in 2 before getting covid didnt he? 

I'm sure there were others about if we tried hard enough. Too busy messing about with Hedges, who might be useful a this level next season, but who i predict will contribute nothing in the run in.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I would like to see a slight change in playing style - with Khadra left, Buckley (or Dolan) right and Gallagher through the middle. Though not a huge fan of Gallagher - if played as an out and out striker - rather than spending his time tracking back all the time - I think he might be able to fill the gap (goals wise).

[glen9mullan]

Which ever way you look at it, BBD out for weeks is a disaster.

I don't really care for this "but we play wide strikers"

We've been massively foundout since Christmas.

Teams know if they sit off, and give us the ball in wide areas then we are as sharp as a plastic knife.

Good teams know how to mix it up, change things when its not working. We are one dimensional and more so now that we dont have an able replacement for our 20 goal plus top scorer.

Not signing an out and out centre forward in January was criminal.

The stats dont lie, our goal to game ratio has seriously dropped off. 

Our season has been built on being tight at the back and hitting teams on the break. Once the opposition figured that out and gave us the ball, its pretty much nullified our threat.

The 40/50 balls we put in the box against Swansea showed why we needed a plan B. An Andy Carroll buries 2 or 3 of them and we bag three points.

Massive pressure now on the two young boys Khadra and Dolan, I wont add Gallagher to those two, as he just aint good enough, and anything he does contribute is a bonus.

 

[glen9mullan]

2 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

I would like to see a slight change in playing style - with Khadra left, Buckley (or Dolan) right and Gallagher through the middle. Though not a huge fan of Gallagher - if played as an out and out striker - rather than spending his time tracking back all the time - I think he might be able to fill the gap (goals wise).

Wife did a video of every Gallagher touch in our last game, to haunt me over the weekend. Its that bad, i do wonder what game some people are watching.

Poor positioning, poor ball retention, and I generally think he'd struggle in league 1

[speedies gonna get ya.]

As gutting as it is, It would feel much worse if we had turned down £20 million for him in Jan. 

[G Somerset Rover]

I had often wondered if BBD was going to be a one season wonder. Due to mainly injuries and a lack of form, that one season may need to be revised as a half season wonder! It'll take a brave club to bid big bucks in the summer unless he lights up the end of the season.