Sheffield United vs Blackburn Rovers: 29th December 2018

[West Yorks Rover]

 Smallwood wasn't good enough for Rotherham last time they were in this league, he was loaned  out to league 1, but he's a 1st choice

for Mowbray.

 

[broadsword]

Has he lost the dressing room? 

[Stuart]

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

West Brom must be quaking in their boots at the prospect of playing us next. 

There are so-called fans of this club who have already written off that game and have their excuses lined up.

[jim mk2]

Just now, broadsword said:

Has he lost the dressing room? 

 Good question which needs answering.  I would say the players don't believe in him any more and have stopped playing for him

[joey_big_nose]

How we handle the last 30 mins of a game has turned into a very significant problem. One that could ultimately cost Mowbray his job I think if it doesn't change between now and the end of the season.

Seems to be something fundamentally wrong. I'm not sure what it is, but it's happened far too often for there to be purely chance.

[philipl]

Norwich have been taking coaching lessons from us.

Went 3-2 up against Derby in the 81st minute, now 3-4. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by philipl

[Sparks Rover]

2 minutes ago, West Yorks Rover said:

 Smallwood wasn't good enough for Rotherham last time they were in this league, he was loaned  out to league 1, but he's a 1st choice

for Mowbray.

 

All the changes and the worst 2 players Smallwood and Williams still play. Sorry to say Tony is unfit to pick the team 

[blueboy3333]

3 minutes ago, broadsword said:

Has he lost the dressing room? 

I just think he's a bit average and now he hasn't got the best players in the league he's struggling. When you watch how we play then it's quite clear the coaching is limited. 

[Ossydave]

Gotta ask massive questions about our captain the way things are going this season. Mulgrew gets a lot less stick because of his goal contributions but that's simply not enough. He isn't a great defender and he's doing little to command the defence or the rest of the team. 

Unfortunately the only other real alternatives I can see are Conway who's not gonna play every week or maybe Graham but not a big fan of a striker as captain. 

That said, such odd subs again ?

[joey_big_nose]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

 Good question which needs answering.  I would say the players don't believe in him any more and have stopped playing for him

I can't really see why that would be to be honest.

Main mistake I can see Mowbray making is bringing in Brereton who looks no way good enough. Everything else he has done seems reasonable, performances  have largely been modestly good, and he's in a table position we would have accepted at the start of the season.

But to lose winning positions again and again is not sustainable.

[HowieFive0]

5 minutes ago, Stuart said:

There are so-called fans of this club who have already written off that game and have their excuses lined up.

You wrote todays game off stuart .."no expectation"

[jim mk2]

Just now, joey_big_nose said:

I can't really see why that would be to be honest.

 

But to lose winning positions again and again is not sustainable.

 

6 points from 27 is not sustainable either. 

Something;s not right at Ewood. 

[G Somerset Rover]

5 minutes ago, Stuart said:

There are so-called fans of this club who have already written off that game and have their excuses lined up.

Yep. Genuinely think we could lose 8-0 against West Brom and a fair few of our lot would still be saying ‘what do you expect?’ ‘Onwards and upwards’.

Heads in the sand from many right now - it’s one win in nine FFS.

[Miker]

15 minutes ago, philipl said:

70 minutes of solid hard work undone in under 15 minutes.

Terrifying thing about Rovers is the speed with which we collapse. 

Points to lack of character and strength in the playing staff again. 

Boy we need a leader on the pitch.

Agree 100%. Seriously don't understand what people are expecting from Mowbray here. Every capitulation we've had has been from ludicrous individual mistakes. The players have to take some responsibility.

IMO more questions need to be asked of Mulgrew. He is the captain, he is the one that should be organising the defence and rallying the players on the pitch. For all 3 goals he looked like a deer in the headlights, and all 3 goals came down his side of the pitch. His body language after every goal is one of resignation and defeat, it's just not good enough. The captain needs to be firing up his players and spurring them on. It's not the first time this season I've seen this from him. He gets away with far too much because of his free kicks.

[joey_big_nose]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

 

6 points from 27 is not sustainable either. 

Something;s not right at Ewood. 

Pretty bad when you put it like that...!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 hours ago, OJRovers said:

Mowbray clearly writing off the game, saving the best players for West Brom. Shame for those that travelled.

 

 

Exactly what I texted to my son at 2-30.

[Bbrovers2288]

When mowbray took over I wasn’t overjoyed, as iv said in the past up here in Scotland he is laughed at for the mess he made at Celtic. I was prepared to give him a chance. He initially done well and I didn’t blame him for the relegation although there was a few games I wish he had been more gung ho in the run in. It was a very big ask to keep us up tho after the mess coyle left.

going down to league 1, again I was prepared to give him his time, he done the necessary, but the performances started to grate me as there was very few great attacking performances, wee played in spells and had enough in games. Annoyed we didn’t go for the jugular at Charlton to win the league. 

We then get promoted, again I’m prepared to give him a shot here, he has money to spend to finally sort our defence but he doesn’t. Iv criticised Smallwood and Williams for years, not good enough but nice guy Tony sticks by them even giving them lovely new contracts. He can’t turn draws into wins. He can’t stop rots. He has taken us as far as he can. Nice guy Tony doesn’t have that adventurous attacking kill off teams that good managers have. 

Nice guy Tony is done here. Go and manage kids football where your non critical , encourage everyone mentality will work. Blackburn need and deserve better. Don’t let him waste another transfer window on whimsical ideas like brereton 

[tugayislegend]

Isn't reed & Bennett/Evans our strongest CM pairing? Why don't they play together?

[RevidgeBlue]

Weird game.

First half I thought was 1000% better than the stale old shite we've been watching since the QPR game. Smallwood was having a great game, Travis and Reed were providing the urgency we usually lack in midfield and Rothwell and Palmer were inventive on either flank. Without unduly threatning Brereton looked a very mobile outlet and at half time I was very happy.

Second half the worst thing that could have happened was them going down to ten. We seemed to lose all our urgency and started to knock the ball out aimlessly sideways and backwards as is our wont. Still no major need to panic at that stage though. However I thought the manager got the subs completely wrong. If he was bringing  Brereton off, Graham needed to come on and taking Palmer off was really harsh as he'd had a good game I thought. Armstrong came on and started on the right wing then floated about a bit and barely touched the ball. With Dack dropping deep the changes left us a goal down and no-one up front.

I'd like to see the sending off again. Smallwood may have gone in slightly studs up but it was a split second thing and the referee who'd been getting the bird off the crowd couldnt seem to wait to pull a red out and even it up.

After Smallwood was dismissed we completely fell apart. Goal 2 resulted from Rothwell taking an outrageous dive in their area to try and win a penalty and less than ten seconds later the ball was in the back of our net. The lack of resilience is frightning.

Not sure where we go from here. Fear TM will revert to the same old same old which hasnt been working whereas in the first half it looked as though we were on the right lines.

Dack looked exceptionally pally with the opposition players at the whistle. Somewhat worrying.

[AllRoverAsia]

22 minutes ago, Mellor Rover said:

Thought Brereton and Palmer we’re good ?

Yes they were, some decent individual performances. Reed, Travis and Lenihan too. Rothwell let himself down with his pathetic dive.

Charlie was below his best and no luck on his frekicks.

Williams was just so bad I could smell him from here.

Collectively doing ok, apart from not looking like scoring !, until the Mowbray meltdown. 

As @Stuart has said some of the subs were not required and weakened us.

Smallcock was a dick.

[Darwen Rover 007]

We have a mindset / mentality issue and it's purely down to the management...

 

The specifics are.. 

 

Beginning of last season when we thought we would win the league we were awful and needed a metaphorical kick up the rear to kick on..

Every game where we have had an advantage wether it be a goal up or another factor we have taken our foot off the pedal.. whenever we go a goal up we sit back...

 

Leadership is all about motivation and right now Mowbray and team are falling short 

[Angry_Pirate]

Before today we had conceded 65% of our goals after the 60th minute. 24/37. Now that's up to 27/40 at 67.5%.

0-60mins: 0.52 Goals per game

61-90+mins: 1.08 Goals per game

Debate Q: How can a team play 25 matches conceding only 13 goals in the first hour, concede more than double in half the amount of time after?

Unfortunately when you break it down like that, the answer is probably the managers subs and 'tactical' changes...

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, den said:

Smallwood red card

The first thing in your head when the opposition has a player sent off at home should be - "  The referee will be looking for an opportunity  to even this up now if he can, don't give him that chance ".

[Tugay's Right Foot]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

The first thing in your head when the opposition has a player sent off at home should be - "  The referee will be looking for an opportunity  to even this up now if he can, don't give him that chance ".

Yet the 28 year old goes jumping in, in the opposition half and no urgent need to

[K-Hod]

Look, I know we are all annoyed that we’ve lost 3-0, but can we cut out the sniping please? I’ve had to hide a number of posts from a number of posters.

No need for anyone to be captain hindsight, we are all suffering as we support the same club.