Bristol City vs Blackburn Rovers, Sunday 1st September, 1.30pm KO

[Bigdoggsteel]

20 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

What's the betting that those out of form clubs miraculously find their form against us?.....

Oh of course. 

Mowbrays approach, publicly at last is to build up our opposition. He was doing it last season in league 1. I can imagine his comments about villa and Stoke already. If they are struggling for confidence, they will just need to read what he says about them. 

Obviously behind the scenes he is working with the team on our opponents weaknesses. So if we get a good result, we move on. It's just when we don't and he has built the opposition up it grates on me. It's actually one of the things that he does that annoys me the most. I presume all managers do it, I just really notice him doing it. 

[roversfan99]

3 hours ago, Parsonblue said:

With regard to his subs he gambled to try to get something from the game.  When he doesn't he's often accused of being negative.  The poor guy can't win.

I honestly haven't seen anything thus far that suggests that Rovers can't finish in somewhere between 9th or 15th in this League.  Not challenging for promotion but not involved in a relegation scrap.  We have a decent squad when everyone is fit and the new players are up to speed.  Of course we'll lose games this season - the opposition is that much better - and there may be times when we might drift uncomfortably close to the wrong end but on what I've seen so far I have no doubt we will be fine come next May.

 

4 hours ago, Parsonblue said:

Bang on philipl.  Some of the reaction on here is pitiful.  In the first half we played some decent football, created chances but didn't take them.  On another day we could have been three up by the break and it's a different game.  In the second half they dominated and made the most of their chances.  The mistakes we made in the second half we would have possibly got away with in League One but in the Championship better players are going to punish them.  Bristol City are a club that have been rebuilding for a few years now - look at how the stadium has been transformed from what it was.  They have been steadily rebuilding on the pitch and played some decent stuff in the second half.  Why anyone should think that going to Bristol and winning would be a formality for a newly promoted club is beyond me.  The second half yesterday was the first time that we have looked second best in any game thus far and to be fair the last two goals came when we were chasing the game and took risks with the number of attacking players we had on the pitch.

We have looked a solid Championship side in the other games and that is where we are at the moment - a mid-table team that probably won't challenge for the play-offs but will stay away from trouble at the other end.  Mowbray has talked about a long term project and that is what it is and will probably take another two or three transfer windows before we have a team ready to challenge at the top end.  We have come on leaps and bounds in the past eighteen months and surely a little perspective is required at this point.  

You are as guilty as anyone of taking tbe game out of context. In the main people are solely judging on yesterdays game. No over the top conclusions that we will go down, or Mowbray should go or any crap like that. In this individual game thread people will comment on tactical choices, subs and selections ect that people feel he did wrong. Mowbray will make mistakes, he is human and football is a game of opinions.

"The poor guy cant win" is nonsense. Last week he seemingly got his tactics absolutely spot on and look at the praise he got then in the Brentford thread.

[JHRover]

 

26 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Oh of course. 

Mowbrays approach, publicly at last is to build up our opposition. He was doing it last season in league 1. I can imagine his comments about villa and Stoke already. If they are struggling for confidence, they will just need to read what he says about them. 

Obviously behind the scenes he is working with the team on our opponents weaknesses. So if we get a good result, we move on. It's just when we don't and he has built the opposition up it grates on me. It's actually one of the things that he does that annoys me the most. I presume all managers do it, I just really notice him doing it. 

Doesn't help when Rovers fans are of the same mindset. Too much respect towards the opposition. We're already hearing talk about the formidable run of fixtures coming up getting excuses in early. Villa look to be in some disarray after Saturday's thrashing and haven't won in 6 now having played the likes of Sheffield Utd, Reading, Burton and Ipswich in that time. They'll be desperate to bounce back but we should see them at home as a glorious opportunity to get back to winning ways at home. Sounds like Sheffield United blew them away early doors - took their chances when they came and there was no coming back from that.

Then we've Stoke who have had an abysmal start to the season. Lots of people going off names and reputations rather than results and performances which by the sounds of things have been absolute garbage so far.

We showed early on yesterday that we can play and cause problems for teams. Unfortunately I still think we're making it too easy to score against us and we don't capitalise when on top. Ipswich was another - should have had that game buried when Palmer had almost a chance from 2 yards out - missed it and then end up bemoaning luck at the other end as we only get a point.

[OJRovers]

Last season we got away with a few bad performances with moments of individual skill and by our fitness in the last 15 mins of games.

It's not going to happen this season. Play badly for a half = lose the game.

Best thing is to move on, get everyone fit and ready to go after the international break.

 

 

[Hasta]

6 hours ago, philipl said:

I don't know why folks are saying who should have started. We were comfortably the better team in the first half.

It all went upside down in the second half when they played to their capability and we didn't.

I'm not sure that's true. We got battered for the first 10 minutes and could have been two down. After that we won the ball back and created good situations but so did they. We missed the better chances but to say we were comfortably the better side ignores how they started.

What didnt help us was falling behind fairly early in the second half. It allowed Bristol City to sit back a bit more so we had less space to pinch the ball and run into. We pushed up more to try and impose ourselves and they kept hitting us on the break.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Hasta

[booth]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

 

You are as guilty as anyone of taking tbe game out of context. In the main people are solely judging on yesterdays game. No over the top conclusions that we will go down, or Mowbray should go or any crap like that. In this individual game thread people will comment on tactical choices, subs and selections ect that people feel he did wrong. Mowbray will make mistakes, he is human and football is a game of opinions.

"The poor guy cant win" is nonsense. Last week he seemingly got his tactics absolutely spot on and look at the praise he got then in the Brentford thread.

If it wasn't for people being objective and critical, Kean and co would be taking us into none-league about now.

Parson obviously loves the club to a fault, but it's unrealistic to think people aren't going to criticize the team after a 4-1 loss, especially when we've been crying out for the defense to be strengthened and many have said it over the Summer.

"The poor guy" has won quite a lot I'd say but yesterday was a shambles.

[booth]

6 hours ago, philipl said:

I don't know why folks are saying who should have started. We were comfortably the better team in the first half.

It all went upside down in the second half when they played to their capability and we didn't.

I think you watched a different game to me Philip. Before Mulgrew scored we could have been 2-0 down only for reflex saves by Raya. He was keeping us in the game till someone drugged his half time oranges.

[Paul]

29 minutes ago, booth said:

I think you watched a different game to me Philip. Before Mulgrew scored we could have been 2-0 down only for reflex saves by Raya. He was keeping us in the game till someone drugged his half time oranges.

I never feel this is a valid argument. Raya is part of the team it's his job to stop us going 2-0 down. I haven't seen the game but I'd wager he's not the only one who contributed to this position.

[booth]

13 minutes ago, Paul said:

I never feel this is a valid argument. Raya is part of the team it's his job to stop us going 2-0 down. I haven't seen the game but I'd wager he's not the only one who contributed to this position.

Raya was the one who pulled off the two fantastic saves. We were just as inept at defending during those first half moments as the second half, which was the point I was making.

I just don't agree that we played particularly well in the first half. We scored against the run of play and Bristols heads dropped. Their manager knew our players weren't up to much so told his at half time to go for us, and that was that.

I don't think bringing Graham off helped matters as after that we had no one to hold the ball up.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, booth said:

If it wasn't for people being objective and critical, Kean and co would be taking us into none-league about now.

Parson obviously loves the club to a fault, but it's unrealistic to think people aren't going to criticize the team after a 4-1 loss, especially when we've been crying out for the defense to be strengthened and many have said it over the Summer.

"The poor guy" has won quite a lot I'd say but yesterday was a shambles.

Theres a noticeable swarm of people, and this isnt specifically aimed at Parson at all so apologies if it seems it, who seem to only be willing to accept praise and if we lose, or do something that could potentially be critiqued, its put down as "one of those things, we cant win them all, have some perspective, dont be negative etc." In the main, supporters will praise and criticise when due in equal measure.

Id argue its part of our culture to go to the game and go to the pub or whatever afterwards and say what youd do differently etc to your mates. Nothing wrong with putting yourself in the managers shoes, weve all got different opinions and it doesnt mean we think we can do a better job than Mowbray or think overall we are doing badly. Yesterday I felt that Smallwood had ran out of credit and should have been dropped, and I felt that Palmer and Armstrong should have been in the opposite roles to which they ended up in. And I stand by those criticisms. Does that mean I think I would make a better manager than Mowbray? Obviously not. Does that mean I fear for our season after that solitary game, or that Mowbray should go? Again, certainly not.

As you say, we are specifically in a thread for a game we lost 4-1 in. The majority of criticism has been about decisions made during this game, and its only those who seem desperate to highlight these criticisms who are in fact the ones ironically guilty of lacking perspective. For all the criticism in here, there is an equal amount of praise in the Brentford thread, mainly for the characteristics that were absent yesterday.

[Mattyblue]

Indeed rovers99,  me and my crew would have some reight boring train/coach journeys home and we would seem a very dis-passionate lot if after a defeat we just said “ah well, can’t win ‘em all!” And no critiques of the manager’s decisions were permitted.

[Mike E]

5 hours ago, Ossydave said:

To be fair I think he was actually looking for options on a few occasions yesterday and nobody was forthcoming. Really poor in the final third yesterday but looked much more threatening when Rothwell came on. 

Having watched back Armstrong's awful miss, it looks like he expects someone to pass to in the box and he goes to pass but nobody is there. So he changes foot shape to try and keep going and loses his balance.

Could be talking crap mind...

[blueboy3333]

3 hours ago, JHRover said:

Doesn't help when Rovers fans are of the same mindset. Too much respect towards the opposition

It's irrelevant what the fans think. It won't affect how the team plays.

[philipl]

8 hours ago, Ossydave said:

You're wrong on a consistent basis, to the point you don't even know the names of our own players 

I do, spellchecker autocorrect doesn't unfortunately.

OK you are not going to man up and apologise when I suggested there was a risk we could get beaten by a few. 

In fact I have called every game correctly this season- Ipswich draw, Millwall draw, Hull win, Reading draw, Brentford win, Bristol City defeat.

For what its worth I think we will shade a win against Villa...

 

[Silas]

42 minutes ago, philipl said:

 

For what its worth I think we will shade a win against Villa...

 

Nice one, that's the cheeriest thing I've read on this board in over 24hrs. 

I'll put the razor away now. 

[Stuart]

3 hours ago, booth said:

If it wasn't for people being objective and critical, Kean and co would be taking us into none-league about now.

Could you expand on what you mean with this?

[booth]

2 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Could you expand on what you mean with this?

It was a reaction to the resident point-scoring superfans on here who complain that you can't pick apart a managers decisions or a performance, no matter what. Some of the same people who were quick to jump on people's backs when Kean was taking the club apart, the same people who did sweet fa to try and quell it and in some cases blamed the fans.

Fancy people feeling down that we lost 4-1 within a couple of hours of the match ending. I would never have expected it.

 

 

[Stuart]

9 minutes ago, booth said:

It was a reaction to the resident point-scoring superfans on here who complain that you can't pick apart a managers decisions or a performance, no matter what. Some of the same people who were quick to jump on people's backs when Kean was taking the club apart, the same people who did sweet fa to try and quell it and in some cases blamed the fans.

Fancy people feeling down that we lost 4-1 within a couple of hours of the match ending. I would never have expected it.

Cheers. Last point is spot on but, sadly, lost on many.

[ben_the_beast]

Seen it in a couple of places that Mowbray gambled and it backfired but if he didn't gamble then he'd be slated for that as well.

In my opinion he tactics were shocking yesterday. Nuttal should be nowhere near this side. Gambling doesn't have to consist of throwing on extra strikers. What about the supply. It was amateurish. Like a kid going gung ho whilst playing a game of Fifa. We had attackers on the pitch already. How about keeping Palmer on, putting benno in centre mid and Conway or Rothwell wide right. Improve the supply. All he did was kill any semblance of creativity we barely had. 

For the record I love mogga. His tactics made zero sense yesterday though

[booth]

Just now, Stuart said:

Cheers. Last point is spot on but, sadly, lost on many.

I think some people would enjoy this site more if it consisted of a single button with a love heart emoji on it.

You know we haven't played well when Chaddy is critical. That worries me more than Dacks injury or our defensive prowess, it must have been bloody bad.

[DE.]

16 minutes ago, booth said:

It was a reaction to the resident point-scoring superfans on here who complain that you can't pick apart a managers decisions or a performance, no matter what. Some of the same people who were quick to jump on people's backs when Kean was taking the club apart, the same people who did sweet fa to try and quell it and in some cases blamed the fans.

Fancy people feeling down that we lost 4-1 within a couple of hours of the match ending. I would never have expected it.

Couldn't agree more. There's no doubt that there are some overly negative posters on here, just as there are overly positive posters. The best debate lies somewhere in the middle and too often it's unfairly jumped on by both sides on the extreme ends of the spectrum. There's nothing wrong with being critical somewhere like this. It's not like the players or management are going to read comments on there and spiral into depression and stop performing. I'm sure TM has been plenty critical to the players behind closed doors regarding the latest defeat. By the same token there's nothing wrong with taking a positive outlook and pointing out the good things happening at the club. In my view the positives are the team spirit, the energy and the overall atmosphere around the club. You have to give kudos to Mowbray and his staff for that. On the other hand there are some serious question marks over the transfer strategy this summer, our tactics at times and blind loyalty to certain players who clearly aren't cutting it at this level. Again, nothing wrong with expressing either side or disagreeing constructively. I just don't know why it has to devolve into cheap digs or silly arguments. 

[mick]

It's a loss. It won't be the last. Time to move on. With the new players that TM is trying to integrate into the team, Rovers could be a complete change from what has been on view thus far. I, personally, am excited at the possibilities. 

[roversfan99]

1 minute ago, mick said:

It's a loss. It won't be the last. Time to move on. With the new players that TM is trying to integrate into the team, Rovers could be a complete change from what has been on view thus far. I, personally, am excited at the possibilities. 

I'd argue that the best place to move on isnt the thread of the game we got hammered in.

[blueboy3333]

1 minute ago, mick said:

It's a loss. It won't be the last. Time to move on.

We can't. There's nowt happening for two weeks. ?

[HowieFive0]

39 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

 

 

45 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I'd argue that the best place to move on isnt the thread of the game we got hammered in.

Wont be last hammering we take ..welcome to the Championship ..where every team can hammer  anyone ..