Rovers v Birmingham-Saturday ,December 15th

[Butty]

31 minutes ago, 47er said:

Isn't this the problem? All debated here at length but TM went ahead collecting mid-fielders whom he doesn't pick and ignoring the key positions we all identified.

And this is where Brereton comes in. Its not that he's to blame for the result, its people thinking that we could have sorted out those key positions for less than 7M. That's why the focus is often on Brereton.

So, we should be looking at" what did Brereton do when he came on?" Isn't the answer "not much"? Haven't we made a big mistake here? Its no good keep arguing "we can't judge Brereton till he's played a run of full games." He has not shown enough to be given that chance. In any case, the formation TM prefers doesn't allow 2 upfront in the middle which, apparently, is the only place Brereton can play! That position is Graham's till he can no longer walk!

Finally, as many have said, too much faith is being put in the players that took us up. Perhaps that's why TM did not address  glaring issues in the transfer window.

I think we will be at least 5 points off the play-offs by the end of the season and look back at what could have been.

TM has done a great job for us so far but he might not be the man to take us further. That's the sad conclusion I reach.

He may or may not be the man to take us further but we can’t say that till we’ve got a squad that’s expected to be getting promotion or a squad that is underachieving. Despite our shortcomings, we’re over achieving this season in terms of league position and if we were too finish the season where we are now on the edge of the top half it would be a fantastic platform to build on and we can’t judge Mowbray until that time comes... For me, Mowbray is getting the most out of this current squad if not more. We are hard to beat, we just lack that bit of quality. We have for me, Raya (despite his balls up today) Mulgrew, Nyambe, Reed, Dack and Graham who are all comfortably good enough for this level. The rest can be improved upon and that will take time, I hope that TM isn’t overly loyal to those players who should be gradually taking a backseat... This is going to be a long process but for now, we are doing okay. And for now, Mowbray is getting the best out of this squad of players. 

[roversfan99]

10 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

The questions you asked are much more than just a simple yes or no answers. 

I said one of the 4 was mid 30's. not all 4

Feel free to answer and accompany with further reasoning.

I dont go as a group of 4, it wasnt me, were these people shouting their opinions or just talking amongst themselves?

[Butty]

1 minute ago, Mercer said:

Two points.

Firstly re Bell - been totally unconvinced when I've seen him.  Buck stops with Mowbray - he picks the team.

Secondly re Brereton - when even a die hard like you Parsonblue expresses such concerns, the alarm bells must be well and truly screaming.

We desperately need a new left back and a striker to take the pressure off DG... Hope you cashed out at 2-0 today Merce  

[Bigdoggsteel]

42 minutes ago, 47er said:

Isn't that the whole point? 

No, because we can afford to use him sparingly with Graham playing so well. I would like to see his start soon though 

[roversfan99]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

No, because we can afford to use him sparingly with Graham playing so well. I would like to see his start soon though 

Surely that is a closed minded comment baring in mind our glaring deficiencies elsewhere? Why are we spending the majority of our budget on someone yet to start in the middle of December, when we are still so short in other positions.

[Mercer]

11 minutes ago, Butty said:

We desperately need a new left back and a striker to take the pressure off DG... Hope you cashed out at 2-0 today Merce  

Sadly not!

Lost £50 today on Rovers' betting but as I've said before, it's all a bit of fun where Rovers concerned and I did clear £85 net from previous two Rovers' games.

Trouble is, we are so short in so many areas and the Brereton signing really leaves me scratching my head.  If a Mowbray signing, how the hell can we trust the guy in the market when he's committed the club to £7million+ on a lad who, IMO, makes the likes of Ashley Ward, Nathan Blake, Kevin Davies and Grabbi look thoroughbreds!  If not a Mowbray signing then who the feck does run our club and make football decisions?  No matter which way you look at it, it doesn't look good.

[Husky]

2 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Sadly not!

Lost £50 today on Rovers' betting but as I've said before, it's all a bit of fun where Rovers concerned and I did clear £85 net from previous two Rovers' games.

Trouble is, we are so short in so many areas and the Brereton signing really leaves me scratching my head.  If a Mowbray signing, how the hell can we trust the guy in the market when he's committed the club to £7million+ on a lad who, IMO, makes the likes of Ashley Ward, Nathan Blake, Kevin Davies and Grabbi look thoroughbreds!  If not a Mowbray signing then who the feck does run our club and make football decisions?  No matter which way you look at it, it doesn't look good.

Perhaps you need to take more notice of my license to print money predictions? ?

I think Brereton could end up writing a book - "A linesman ruined my career" - (that's not a betting tip though ?).

[Bigdoggsteel]

16 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Surely that is a closed minded comment baring in mind our glaring deficiencies elsewhere? Why are we spending the majority of our budget on someone yet to start in the middle of December, when we are still so short in other positions.

Obviously we have deficiencies elsewhere. I was responding to a poster who said Brereton has had plenty of time. So, you're just taking my comment out of context. 

[47er]

23 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

No, because we can afford to use him sparingly with Graham playing so well. I would like to see his start soon though 

"soon"----I don't think so. Unless Graham is wheelchair bound, he starts.

[OJRovers]

I’m going to take the positives from the last 2 games, we should have had 6 points and were for the majority of the games the better team.

That is promising against 2 of the better /form teams in the league.

Just need to cut out the moments of madness and close out games.

A decent left back and a striker who can hold the ball up are needed. 

[Exiled in Toronto]

Having watched the penalty incident several times, I think Raya’s rush of blood was motivated by trying to save a corner. He clearly didn’t see that player till he clattered him. The mask can’t be doing him any good, it must be having some impact on peripheral vision if it’s stutdy enough to shield his nose.

Another egregious error as well as the full backs for the second was Charlie dozing off, loses track of his man, the scorer, going behind him and didn’t do much to recover.

[USABlue]

6 hours ago, AAK said:

When bringing up the stats of our dropped points this season, it was said that stat was pointless. Well I bring it up again, now 16 points dropped from winning positions (nearly 18 stoke game) that's the most in the league, it's becoming a bit a joke now, and highlights the poor transfer window, of which defenders were and still are needed and a replacement for Smallwood. 

You can almost script it, it is beyond ridiculous now, if we only salvaged half if those points we have thrown away we would be looking very good.  It's unfuriating we just looked so comfortably in control then a mad cap 2 minutes  and poof it's all gone.  It has to be fixed.

[USABlue]

3 hours ago, Parsonblue said:

Two individual errors - Raya and Bell - cost us today.  Raya had a major lapse for the penalty but goalkeepers do that at times.  Bell, who I thought was dreadful, lost possession for the second when he could easily have simply pumped it forward.  The fact that Bell made Mahoney look half decent just about sums up his performance.   I thought Reed, Evans and Graham were our best performers - which they have been on a regular basis.

Whilst Brereton was in no way to blame for the defeat it was noticeable that when Graham came off we struggled to maintain possession and missed Graham closing down defenders.  Having watched every minute of Brereton so far this season I must admit that I'm struggling to see how he's going to win a regular spot in the starting line-up, particularly if we bring in another striker in January.  He doesn't appear overly physical and he certainly isn't quick.  I hope the lad proves me wrong but I've seen any number of players brought in over the years who have failed to make an impact and at the moment Brereton is beginning to fall into that category.

Bell plays like a mistake waiting to happen he just always looks like he is out if control and his next touch will lose the ball.

[Fraserkirky]

I think Tony needs to change the formation, we are so bad going forward it really is painful at times. 

David Raya needs a word, that was a ludicrous mistake he made today. For 77mins I thought Birmingham were terrible and we weren’t much better. 2-0 we were a bit fortunate. 

Dack again for me was anonymous for much of today, unless he is on form we just don’t look likely to win a football match.

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by Fraserkirky

[@roverseas]

Bit of mess this one, despite my pre kick off reservations about taking a draw, we should have easily bagged all three today in what appears to be horrific conditions (which I look forward to experiencing against West Brom on NYD).  Days like this happen, shame it could not have happened elsewhere. Birmingham even had chances to snatch the win themselves, but failed. All up hill from here. Norwich next, which looks scary, but they are not Man City... think we can surprise a few next weekend, just need to get over this one quick time. Thoughts from the gaffa & more. 

 

[philipl]

Technical problem on the messageboard as well as in Rovers back line yesterday?

Well stupid me had just thought "this is our first rouine win this season"... 

Agree 100% with EiT on the Raya penalty incident.

[Stuart]

10 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

that's not my opinion at all. 

surprise you haven't mention Rovers fans booing Mahoney or were you one?

Why would I boo Mahoney? He did the right thing in leaving. Hope he returns one day.

[arbitro]

1 minute ago, philipl said:

Technical problem on the messageboard as well as in Rovers back line yesterday?

Well stupid me had just thought "this is our first rouine win this season"... 

Agree 100% with EiT on the Raya penalty incident.

For the life in me I just can't fathom out why he went for the ball with his feet rather than diving to punch the ball away. Two massively wrong decisions by Raya who, despite his excellent reflexes and shot stopping shows more frailties than strengths in my opinion.

[JacknOry]

Well that was fun yesterday. Board was down, couldnt find a river, we were 2-0, finally found a stream for a few minutes - unfortunately it was the few minutes we threw the game away. The stream then went down - how fantastic! 

What was going on with the forum?

[JacknOry]

We have thrown more points away when in winning positions than any other team in the league - if you just took the 2+2 points thrown in the last two matches, we're touching the playoffs. We're 12th now and this is probably where we're going to finish, maybe a little lower. Would have taken it at start of season of course but when you consider the points we've thrown away, it really should have been better.

[Songman]

It would be nice to hear Tony Mowbray say we have a problem with chucking leads away - and it will be dealt with. Rather than the "maybe this is just where we are at" interview he gave to Radio Lancs.

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, JacknOry said:

Well that was fun yesterday. Board was down, couldnt find a river, we were 2-0, finally found a stream for a few minutes - unfortunately it was the few minutes we threw the game away. The stream then went down - how fantastic! 

What was going on with the forum?

Mirrors my day except that I ended up on a radio stream and a Brum one at that. To be fair they were good radio commentators who also updated on a lot of other games too.

From that commentary Small Heath were on the front foot much more after DG went off and upped it again post penalty. 

Bell and Lenihan were mentioned a lot, usually after poor passes or tackles.

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Mirrors my day except that I ended up on a radio stream and a Brum one at that. To be fair they were good radio commentators who also updated on a lot of other games too.

From that commentary Small Heath were on the front foot much more after DG went off and upped it again post penalty. 

Bell and Lenihan were mentioned a lot, usually after poor passes or tackles.

Happens every game as Graham goes off, which I understand, then we are totally powderpuff up front and the opposition step it up. Sorry but it's rank bad management to keep doing the same thing week in week out when it causes such a blatant problem.

 

[K-Hod]

Very frustrating yesterday. 

Birmingham were completely disinterested until Raya handed them a lifeline. Then the second goal came from Bell losing the ball and some horrific defending and a lack of anticipation from Nyambe. 

[jim mk2]

3 hours ago, Songman said:

It would be nice to hear Tony Mowbray say we have a problem with chucking leads away - and it will be dealt with. Rather than the "maybe this is just where we are at" interview he gave to Radio Lancs.

 If "that is where we are at" he should be doing something about it.  It's his team and he takes responsibility. If he feels he cannot take the team forward perhaps he should consider stepping side