Reading v Rovers

[Dreams of 1995]

Have I woke up in May? The amount of people saying our season is over must mean it is.

There's 15 games left for Christ sake

[Leonard Venkhater]

4 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Have I woke up in May? The amount of people saying our season is over must mean it is.

There's 15 games left for Christ sake

The powers that be clearly decided not to invest in a realistic push this year. I guess they have much more confidence than I do that the all the building blocks will still be in place come next August.

Standing still usually means going backwards in football.

 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Leonard Venkhater

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, JeffRover said:

He has also made some outstanding saves that have won us points in certain games.

Undoubted but all keepers make reflex saves, thats standard, they need to be able to eliminate mistakes and be competent at coming for crosses. Looking in the last couple of months, he made that big error v Birmingham, a horrible mistake for Joselus goal and then was poor for the 4th, a bad mistake v Brentford and poor for the goal on Saturday. Thats far too many mistakes.

Im not doubting that he has improved, that he is a good shot stopper or suggesting that Leutweiler should play instead. But he needs to stop being do error prone.

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, JeffRover said:

He has also made some outstanding saves that have won us points in certain games.

He is employed to make saves. For two years now he has been first choice and without checking must be close to 100 games. It was said that Friedel was worth twelve points a season to us and we need that from a keeper. His shot stopping and reflexes are up there with the best but his weaknesses haven't been improved upon since his debut. That said I don't for one minute believe Mowbray will drop him and let Leurtwiler have a run of games.

[Mercer]

6 hours ago, JacknOry said:

Season over so I hope to see some of the kids blooded over the remaining games. Obviously not straight in as starters as Mercer has suggested but the likes of Magloire, Butterworth etc I would like to see off the bench. Any decent fullbacks down there? We could do with a couple.

Think there is far too much 'nannying' of our 18 to 24 year olds going on.  Think it's ridiculous how Mowbray refers to them as 'kids', or words of similar meaning (especially those at 20+).  I honestly think we are holding back our young talent.

We see PL clubs playing 16, 17, 18 and 19 year olds in 'big' games.  Look at Rashford, debuted at 18 and over 30 England caps to his name at just 20.

Isn't Magloire 20 and Butterworth going on 20?  For goodness sake, this is the Championship with little at stake for us in terms of promotion / relegation.  Give the lads a decent go, not all at once, and let's see what they are made of.  Mowbray's hand was forced with Travis and the lad's been a revelation, though probably needs a bit of a break now. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Think there is far too much 'nannying' of our 18 to 24 year olds going on.  Think it's ridiculous how Mowbray refers to them as 'kids', or words of similar meaning (especially those at 20+).  I honestly think we are holding back our young talent.

We see PL clubs playing 16, 17, 18 and 19 year olds in 'big' games.  Look at Rashford, debuted at 18 and over 30 England caps to his name at just 20.

Isn't Magloire 20 and Butterworth going on 20?  For goodness sake, this is the Championship with little at stake for us in terms of promotion / relegation.  Give the lads a decent go, not all at once, and let's see what they are made of.  Mowbray's hand was forced with Travis and the lad's been a revelation, though probably needs a bit of a break now. 

Worse is when he talks of Armstrong and Brereton! He spoke after Arma's award that he 'cant wait until the day Adam operates centrally but there's a process to go through to get there'. What fecking process? We've got 5 strikers on the books when Samuel is fit and play one up top! It's baffling. Unless he's referring to bulking him up or something like that I don't get it at all. Pukki, Abraham, Maupay, Gayle, Grabban, Roofe all on 15+ this season and hardly the next Arnie.

Edited February 11, 2019 by Mellor Rover

[philipl]

35 minutes ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

The powers that be clearly decided not to invest in a realistic push this year. I guess they have much more confidence than I do that the all the building blocks will still be in place come next August.

Standing still usually means going backwards in football.

 

Very few players anywhere moved in January.

I understand decisions were made to invest but Rovers weren't going to be legged over to use the vernacular.

[Mercer]

10 minutes ago, philipl said:

Very few players anywhere moved in January.

I understand decisions were made to invest but Rovers weren't going to be legged over to use the vernacular.

In your view, do Rovers think they were 'legged over' with Brereton or has Mowbray just screwed up on that signing?

Edited February 11, 2019 by Mercer

[JHRover]

5 minutes ago, philipl said:

Very few players anywhere moved in January.

I understand decisions were made to invest but Rovers weren't going to be legged over to use the vernacular.

It appears we were legged over in the summer, quite heavily, on a player Mowbray either doesn't trust or doesn't think is good enough.

Lets look at it the other way - if we'd have gone out and signed 2 quality players at over-inflated fees some eyebrows would have been raised, but if those players came in and did the business we might have made the play-offs and got promoted. Unlikely, but possible. I'm sure nobody would complain about paying over the odds on a couple of players if those players gave us sufficient depth to kick on and win promotion.

We'll never know the answer though, because we signed nobody and have subsequently fallen away from the pack again, but at least we can console ourselves that we 'didn't pay over the odds' whilst we stay mid table.

Personally I don't think money was available, or certainly not at the level required to make worthwhile additions to the team.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Think there is far too much 'nannying' of our 18 to 24 year olds going on.  Think it's ridiculous how Mowbray refers to them as 'kids', or words of similar meaning (especially those at 20+).  I honestly think we are holding back our young talent.

We see PL clubs playing 16, 17, 18 and 19 year olds in 'big' games.  Look at Rashford, debuted at 18 and over 30 England caps to his name at just 20.

Isn't Magloire 20 and Butterworth going on 20?  For goodness sake, this is the Championship with little at stake for us in terms of promotion / relegation.  Give the lads a decent go, not all at once, and let's see what they are made of.  Mowbray's hand was forced with Travis and the lad's been a revelation, though probably needs a bit of a break now. 

Nyambe, Travis and Armstrong (21) and Raya (23) are all regulars, as are Lenihan and Bell (24) so lets not make out that we dont give any of the kids a chance.

As much as a play off push and equally a relegation scrap seem miles off at the moment, there are far too many games to go to just solely focus on the future. 

I do suspect that your expectations are unrealistic, and constantly namedropping world class players like Mbappe and Rashford does nothing to help your cause, yes they are young but they have obvious masses of ability. For example, suggesting that Butterworth should be in the 18 would be a fairly reasonable suggestion. Suggesting that he should be chucked in ahead of our best player is a laughable suggestion.

I would be open to potentially giving a couple of the academy players a go in the squad if with 3 or 4 games to go the play offs are mathematically out of reach and we are safe but im not for making wholesale changes yet. The 2 youngsters not currently with the first team squad that I suspect are first in line are Chapman and Davenport, 2 prospects as of yet not able to play due to fitness issues.

[ruggles1995]

We are unpredictable because we are a mid table side! Thats what mid table teams do, there inconsistent, can get any result (win lose or draw) at anywhere in the league.

Were too good to go down, and were not good enough to go up. We will end up between 10th - 13th IMO. Am I angry about it? no... am I frustrated a bit with it? yes.

I have NO idea what result to expect for this lol.

I'm going to go with what someone else said earlier, a nail biting win, or a bad defeat.

Prediction: 0-0 ?

We should look to finish as strong as possible, then more league progression next season without spending big.

Thats the reality folks. We haven't got Pepe in charge, its Tony Mowbray. I think since hes taken over hes deserved to have a bit of time to see what he can do with us in the championship. He is frustrating but its much better than the previous 7 years we've had.

 

 

 

 

[JacknOry]

Have we had a 0-0 this season as it goes? Doesnt feel like it lol

[Ewood Ace]

7 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

Have we had a 0-0 this season as it goes? Doesnt feel like it lol

Millwall at home and Derby away.

[1864roverite]

It will be a tough game Reading are in must win mode now. Rovers need freshening up a little through the middle.

Would happily take a draw but something in me thinks we might just nick a result 

[JeffRover]

Mowbray suggesting that he may chop and change the side a bit during the run in. Hints that Brereton and Rothwell will get much more game time.

[Ossydave]

1-0 win here I think

They're going for their 3rd clean sheet in a row but we've only failed to bag twice away all season.  Not expecting much in the way of entertainment mind.

 

[davulsukur]

On 11/02/2019 at 00:54, Mercer said:

Clearly, Pulis (who has achieved more in management than Mowbray ever has) thought the lad was fit enough.

Neither have really done much??

2 promotions each is about it.

In fact they both got promoted to the premier league in 07/08 where Mowbray won the league with West Brom and Pulis finished second with stoke 2 points behind.

[blueboy3333]

1 hour ago, davulsukur said:

Neither have really done much??

2 promotions each is about it.

In fact they both got promoted to the premier league in 07/08 where Mowbray won the league with West Brom and Pulis finished second with stoke 2 points behind.

Pulis kept Stoke in the prem for the next 7 years or so, getting into Europe along the way. Mowbray got relegated the year after. 

[davulsukur]

12 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

Pulis kept Stoke in the prem for the next 7 years or so, getting into Europe along the way. Mowbray got relegated the year after. 

Indeed. I assumed he was referring to achievements as honors. My mistake. 

To be honest i didn't even remember he got them into Europe!!

[blueboy3333]

25 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Indeed. I assumed he was referring to achievements as honors. My mistake. 

To be honest i didn't even remember he got them into Europe!!

I don't think it was one of the great European campaigns by a British club!

[only2garners]

22 hours ago, Lancaster Rover said:

Any London based fans point me in the direction of somewhere to watch this nearish Kings Cross? 

Yes. Tube to Paddington, fast train to Reading and £2 bus to the ground.

[K-Hod]

I've got a bad feeling about this one with where they are in the league and two defeats on the spin for us.

But knowing us, we will probably spring a surprise and win there! Let's hope we do...

[arbitro]

Our current form is all over the place. Out of the last ten we have won four, drawn one, lost five. conceded sixteen and scored fifteen. The four wins were back to back and the draw was the first of that sequence.

Given them stats it's really difficult to predict a result for tomorrow. The priority should be a clean sheet and build from there.

[Dreams of 1995]

21 hours ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

The powers that be clearly decided not to invest in a realistic push this year. I guess they have much more confidence than I do that the all the building blocks will still be in place come next August.

Standing still usually means going backwards in football.

 

Leonard it is more than possible that finances weren't right on the deal. More than anyone I'd have loved Assombalonga here (or similar) but if it meant giving him 50k p/w then no thankyou. There's a clear wage structure in place to prevent a financial situation that we have seen before. We can't go breaking that structure on the possible chance of a play off place.

The summer is the time to buy. In truth we failed to invest in a realistic push back then. By failing to land a central defender we all but limited our chances of promotion to out-scoring everyone. You can't do that in this league, clearly. You are right though - this approach, whilst cautious and "safe", also leaves us open to losing our better players and scrambling around to replace him. Dack may go in the summer and that would leave us needing defenders, midfielders and a talisman. It's a tricky balance - I don't want Mowbray's job that's for certain

[Mercer]

3 hours ago, davulsukur said:

Neither have really done much??

2 promotions each is about it.

In fact they both got promoted to the premier league in 07/08 where Mowbray won the league with West Brom and Pulis finished second with stoke 2 points behind.

Not a big Pulis fan but respect his record.

Took Stoke up and spent six years or so in PL with them including FA Cup Final appearance which got them a place in Europe.

Rescued Palace from threat of relegation leading him to be voted PL Manager of the year.

Rescued WBA from threat of relegation.

In essence, 10+ years of relative PL success which Mowbray can't match.

Managers have a shelf life and I think Pulis is nearing the end of his - another yesterday's man.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Mercer