Ben Brereton Diaz

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

25 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

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

That last sentence could be applied to Brereton prior to last season. 

Personally I am shocked at how poor his first touch is for an ex-Premier League player - however he does have a hard shot when given space, and is big enough to create a nuisance for Khadra etc to pick up the second ball. I remember seeing him score as a youth team player when he was the next big thing - doesn't seem to have progressed since then,

[roversfan99]

Brereton's injury could be terminal to our promotion hopes, I don't see where the goals will come from.

Also affects our summer too. With essentially a year left, other teams perhaps will be reluctant to pay as much due to his injury, but if he doesn't want to sign a new deal, we are stuck in limbo and might have to accept less.

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

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

Ya, this is a point alright, but the likes of the chance Buckley missed against Forrest and some Lenihan missed against Swansea simply must be hitting the net. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour 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.

So Maja has started ok, but has played very little and if Brereton was fit you could argue he would rarely if ever play. We were interested before , but I could see why he himslef would go to Stoke instead of here, firstly gametime and secondly they could probably pay him more. Having said all that, it would be nice to have him now alright. 

I don't think any folk will be saying anything other than top 6 is acceptable from here 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

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

Ya, great shouts. Archer would have been good and you would imagine doable 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Hasta said:

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

He doesn't play out wide necessarily. His main issue is hes not instinctive enough in the box when he should be

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

1 hour ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Ya, this is a point alright, but the likes of the chance Buckley missed against Forrest and some Lenihan missed against Swansea simply must be hitting the net. 

I think this has been the big difference - score first or equalise quickly makes a big difference to those matches. We haven't got the quality to unpick parked defences - but are adept at hitting on the break.

[Exiled_Rover]

5 hours ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

TM on Brereton Diaz: "He's strained some ankle ligaments. It's not a short injury, it's not going to be a week or two. We shouldn't put a timescale on it. He'll be back when he's back."

There we have it. Kudos again, @Mellor Rover.

Is it any wonder we have so many soft tissue injuries if our backroom medical staff can't put a timescale on his return?

Amateur hour. 

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Is it any wonder we have so many soft tissue injuries if our backroom medical staff can't put a timescale on his return?

Amateur hour. 

It's laughable, but I think it's more a case of Mowbray and co downplaying it. 'Out for a few weeks' sounds better than what it is, which is the next 7/8 games. They know the time scale, and their is an element of 'everyone heals at different speeds' which I get, but they know the timescale.

[jim mk2]

4 hours 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. 

 

It doesn't work well, we've been well and truly sussed out by the league's other managers

Same old "stepping up" mantra won't solve the lack of goals crisis. That should have been sorted in January

 

 

[tomphil]

6 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

We signed 2 forwards, Markanday and Hedges. A guaranteed (if there is such a thing) goalscorer at this level could cost £10 million. Not straightforward. If Mitrovic got injured, who would Fulham replace him with? I don't think they signed a replacement in January   

They aren't strikers or have any previous between them for notching.  One is a punt on another youngster for the future the other is just another squad player.

Maybe playing a forward in his forward position would help !!!

So i stand by my point we have no other strikers in the entire club with any sort of scoring ability and that's poor. I don't know why you cherry pick Mitrovic as your example he's a luxury player only a club with loads of cash can sign. Meanwhile lots of other clubs around the country manage to find back up strikers for their squads.

We should have been looking for final pieces of the jigsaw to get us over the line whilst being in such a good position. It's always a gamble whoever you sign and i'm certain the loan market could have thrown something up. It might cost wages short term but they've been happy enough to do that in the recent past when the manager has presented Downing, Holtby and the like.

Even if a short term loan costing 20 grand a week only scores 2 goals he might be labelled a flop. Not if those 2 goals win 2 games or similar and yield 4-6 points, absolutely vital to where we are. 

Mowbrays preference is always multi positional squad players, the recruitment depts preference is always youth. Sometimes you need to think a bit more square pegs for square holes. Wouldn't matter if we were say were we usually are in mid season but we aren't.

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by tomphil

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 hours ago, glen9mullan said:

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

It wouldn’t be too bad but we had him for a  season previously. That was enough for me. The fact that he didn’t pull any trees up at big club and when he was back at Southampton told me we needed to stay away. I used to think he might have made a striker playing through the middle but I’ve more or less given up on him now.

[Bigdoggsteel]

32 minutes ago, tomphil said:

They aren't strikers or have any previous between them for notching.  One is a punt on another youngster for the future the other is just another squad player.

Maybe playing a forward in his forward position would help !!!

So i stand by my point we have no other strikers in the entire club with any sort of scoring ability and that's poor. I don't know why you cherry pick Mitrovic as your example he's a luxury player only a club with loads of cash can sign. Meanwhile lots of other clubs around the country manage to find back up strikers for their squads.

We should have been looking for final pieces of the jigsaw to get us over the line whilst being in such a good position. It's always a gamble whoever you sign and i'm certain the loan market could have thrown something up. It might cost wages short term but they've been happy enough to do that in the recent past when the manager has presented Downing, Holtby and the like.

Even if a short term loan costing 20 grand a week only scores 2 goals he might be labelled a flop. Not if those 2 goals win 2 games or similar and yield 4-6 points, absolutely vital to where we are. 

Mowbrays preference is always multi positional squad players, the recruitment depts preference is always youth. Sometimes you need to think a bit more square pegs for square holes. Wouldn't matter if we were say were we usually are in mid season but we aren't.

 

I picked Mitrovoic because he's the only player ahead of Brereton with goals scored. My point being anyway that you take a teams top scorer out and they will need to find a replacement. 

You mention a loan scoring 2 goals, but what's to say the forwards we have don't score those goals? 

We have 6-7 players for the front 2 positions. I can understand why ,within our budget, we didn't sign someone who could move ahead of them in the pecking order. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

I think this has been the big difference - score first or equalise quickly makes a big difference to those matches. We haven't got the quality to unpick parked defences - but are adept at hitting on the break.

I saw a stat the other day, can't remember where but it was something along the lines of we havent lost in the last 21 games we scored first in and won 17 of them 

[Bigdoggsteel]

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Brereton's injury could be terminal to our promotion hopes, I don't see where the goals will come from.

Also affects our summer too. With essentially a year left, other teams perhaps will be reluctant to pay as much due to his injury, but if he doesn't want to sign a new deal, we are stuck in limbo and might have to accept less.

I doubt such a minor injury will impact on clubs who had planned to sign him. He will score less goals though, which may impact his fee. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Is it any wonder we have so many soft tissue injuries if our backroom medical staff can't put a timescale on his return?

Amateur hour. 

I suppose people do heal at different rates to be fair. Depending on age, physiology, diet ,rest etc etc 

[Bigdoggsteel]

Poveda back at the club next month. I wasn't a fan from what I saw,but my mate supports Leeds and he he said he's talented. I said why isnt he with ye then 😂

 So that will mean we have for 2 positions the below players.  14 games left. This is what I think they can score in those games ,taking that Brereton will be back for 7.  So that adds up to 14 and it's pretty conservative looking at our fixtures. Then you have Dack and the other midfielders, defenders chipping in. We have a solid defence. I think we would miss Wharton as much as Brereton, if not more, he has been immense this season. 

Brereton -4

Gallagher - 4

Dolan- 2

Khadra- 2

Hedges -1

Markanday-0

Poveda -1

Vale-0 

Have faith! Believe! 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Bigdoggsteel

[yankfan]

7 hours ago, rigger said:

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

Not really. Missed two on international duty, cameo in another and in the last match put the ball in the net twice before he went off injured but both were ruled off. Only played 90 min in one out of the last 5. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by yankfan

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

I picked Mitrovoic because he's the only player ahead of Brereton with goals scored. My point being anyway that you take a teams top scorer out and they will need to find a replacement. 

You mention a loan scoring 2 goals, but what's to say the forwards we have don't score those goals? 

We have 6-7 players for the front 2 positions. I can understand why ,within our budget, we didn't sign someone who could move ahead of them in the pecking order. 

BBD was out on his feet before he even went to his last Chile call up so at some point he needed rest and he needed help on the pitch. I think we've seen the pressure on his shoulders recently his body language has shown frustration. 

The forwards haven't been scoring them though have they and the evidence always suggested they wouldn't it's more hope than planning. Even Mowbray seems to think if he says they need to step up they will, he's been in football long enough to know it rarely works like that.

Pecking order is a fair point to mention as there is an elephant in the room there in the shape of big Sam G, he's very high in the order. I'm not as down on him as some are but again it's like TM and the rest of us are just praying he hits a run of scoring.

So in my opinion in order to give us the best chance of keep competing at the top something should have been done that resembles something with a bit of scoring pedigree. 

[Hasta]

4 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

He doesn't play out wide necessarily. His main issue is hes not instinctive enough in the box when he should be

That’s one issue. He’s not instinctive enough when he is in the box, nor does he get into the box at the right times.

But playing in the role he is asked to means he regularly picks the ball up outside the box in non-central positions. Whereas the other strikers can drive forward, Gallagher simply can’t. Weirdly, he actually was better at it in his first spell. 

[rigger]

27 minutes ago, yankfan said:

Not really. Missed two on international duty, cameo in another and in the last match put the ball in the net twice before he went off injured but both were ruled off. Only played 90 min in one out of the last 5. 

I have been through this arguement before, so I won't go over old ground. But he has appeared in 7 of the last 9 Rovers games, and has not scored. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, tomphil said:

BBD was out on his feet before he even went to his last Chile call up so at some point he needed rest and he needed help on the pitch. I think we've seen the pressure on his shoulders recently his body language has shown frustration. 

The forwards haven't been scoring them though have they and the evidence always suggested they wouldn't it's more hope than planning. Even Mowbray seems to think if he says they need to step up they will, he's been in football long enough to know it rarely works like that.

Pecking order is a fair point to mention as there is an elephant in the room there in the shape of big Sam G, he's very high in the order. I'm not as down on him as some are but again it's like TM and the rest of us are just praying he hits a run of scoring.

So in my opinion in order to give us the best chance of keep competing at the top something should have been done that resembles something with a bit of scoring pedigree. 

Any free agents available? Hopefully won't be needed. They seem a tight knit group. Hopefully a positive end to the season...

[tomphil]

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Any free agents available? Hopefully won't be needed. They seem a tight knit group. Hopefully a positive end to the season...

I'd like to see Hedges given a start in his proper position to see what he can do. Maybe in a home game rather than away.

[alcd]

4 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

It wouldn’t be too bad but we had him for a  season previously. That was enough for me. The fact that he didn’t pull any trees up at big club and when he was back at Southampton told me we needed to stay away. I used to think he might have made a striker playing through the middle but I’ve more or less given up on him now.

Gallagher was overpriced and a total waste of £5m. His contribution against WBA was utterly dismal as he continually lost possession. No aerial presence no awareness no bottle. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

5 minutes ago, alcd said:

Gallagher was overpriced and a total waste of £5m. His contribution against WBA was utterly dismal as he continually lost possession. No aerial presence no awareness no bottle. 

David Speedie was half his size and twice the player.