Reading v Rovers

[Ewood Ace]

4 hours ago, Miker said:

There’s always so much criticism slung Mowbray’s way after games like this, but I simply don’t get it. Be careful what you wish for, we already had that experience when people kept calling for Allardyce’s head and then we ended up with Kean.

Let's be honest though Mowbray is no Sam Allardyce. 

 

[tomphil]

Burnley had big strong direct lads at the front and back and although with their style they often bypassed midfield we have no big strong lads anywhere on the park really.

Still with Gladwin and Samuel coming back i'm sure that'll change...?

[arbitro]

35 minutes ago, Hasta said:

If we'd have won last night, we'd only have been 5 points behind 6th place Middlesboro with them coming to Ewood on Sunday.

But we lost - because he thought Danny Graham "looked fatigued"

It's us supporters who should be fatigued with the excuses and ramblings of our manager.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

Having money in any division is no guarantee off success - look at Mourinho at United.

I think people forget what a mess the club was in when TM took over. Many predicted we get relegated again. So please don't under estimate how well he did to get us to second. Even this season to hopefully keep us up is further progress.

He spent circa 12 million quid this summer and only 2 players get into our 11 one of which isn't even our player and the other was here last season.

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Said it before and say it again you can’t get away with playing two cultured CB’s together these days. We need 1 tough bugger back there. Recipe for disaster. 

We need someone in a Dan Burn/Shane Duffy mold.

[JHRover]

10 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

The. Fucking. Championship.

 

Have a nice night everyone.

The Championship is unpredictable by nature. Sadly we are the opposite - very predictable, certainly in our performances if not our results, and it is quite boring in my opinion.

The way we play is predictable, slow and easy to stop. Bucket loads of possession and yet very little penetration, urgency or end product. Our only decent chances yesterday were on the counter attack with pace, mainly through Armstrong. Other than that we have Mulgrew, Rodwell or Smallwood with the ball at their feet stood still on the half way line taking an age to decide what to do with it, before it ends up going nowhere.

Our game 'management' comes in the form of chucking on 3 attacking players between 50 and 70 minutes and hoping they can get us a goal. Trouble is whether it works or not we reach 80 minutes knackered, have lost the balance to our team as we have too many players on the pitch chasing a goal and not enough able to defend ours, and we can't make any more changes, whilst usually fitter opposition keep subs back.

Same old mistakes and it happens too often. Bristol City, Swansea, Brentford, Sheffield United, Preston, Wigan, Reading - each and every one has followed a very similar pattern and each has ended with us conceding late on.

On the whole happy with the season so far but last night was an atrocious result but sadly a predictable one. Reading battling for a win in their survival push, 1 win since November, can't score - along come Rovers and they score 2 and get the win - despite us equalising at a good time to at least take a point or if not all 3. We haven't a clue how to approach the game having got the goal we chased for so long. It's embarrassing. Almost as though scoring takes us by surprise and we don't know what to do next. Same story at Leeds, Brentford, Middlesbrough. Garbage.

[Tugay's Right Foot]

I saw a clip of Jay DaSilva, LB on loan at Bristol City. Could be one target.

here: Vid on some fan's tweet

Edited February 14, 2019 by Tugay's Right Foot

[Neal]

Is Davenport fit or what? Surely time to give him a game now and prepare him for next season. 

[JHRover]

11 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Rovers didn't take their 1st half chances and it was very costly. Armstrong twice, Bell and Conway should all have scored. But all didn't and it proved costly. 

Second half we created more chances Brereton, Dack and Bell. Bell scored and good on him keep getting in there. Brereton should scored. 

Brereton was alot better today and he can build on this. His touch and movement was good. if Armstrong plays a better ball to him 1st half he 1 and 1 with Keeper instead it was poor ball but he still manage to pull it back to Armstrong who should scored. 

Defence not good enough for goals but why do you show Oliveria inside when he is all right footed. Clueless. 

Thought Dack was far too deep when he came on. 

Today's defeat wasn't down to poor team selection(as some/most people will say) but failure to take your chances. The game should have been dead and buried by the time they scored 1st goal. after that we still created chances. Yes our defending was poor for the goals. no question of that

There's no such thing as a game being 'dead and buried' with us. Even if we'd have been 2-0 up I'd have had no confidence in our ability to hold on. See Brentford as an example.

We can't defend and can't grind out results away from home. Nothing really to do with not taking our chances. At worst the game should have been 0-0 or 1-1 yet we conspired to concede 2 goals against the 2nd worst team in the league who couldn't score before last night.

[BlackburnEnd75]

Had some time to digest last night and still don't feel any less frustrated.

When i saw that starting 11 I immediately feared the worst and I was hoping to be proven wrong, sadly I wasn't. We lost a very winnable game with that decision.

The positives... the  actual shape of the side wasn't too bad, first half we had them sussed, they were trying to pass the ball out from the back with bang average players, we pressed well and caught them in possession in good areas, Evans created two good chances for Armstrong from this. We recycled the ball fairly well too first half. The two cb's looked very comfortable in possession. Brereton's performance eased my worries about him a little, looked better in central areas than when he was out wide. Rothwells impressed also when coming on getting a good assist.

Mowbray rested arguably our best 3 players in Dack, Graham and Reed. Now i understand 3 games in a week is too much for Graham at this stage of his career and he needs to be managed thats fine. Dack and Reed have also shown signs of fatigue of late but all 3 at once was too big of a gamble from Tony, if your going to rotate you've got to stagger it. The midfield 3 was far too negative of a selection. Bennett just isn't a right back as much as he is better going forward than Nyambe, who really be in his bad books if he's still not getting a game. We wasted some good chances 1st half we really should've taken control of that game.

Conway, why does he still get starts?  picking him over Rothwell, just why? The only thing I can think is Mowbray doesn't trust him defensively but we played with 3 DM's last night, it was the perfect time to play him, could even have played him left of a midfield 3. Back to conway he's past it, he was on the down-slope for 18 months before we went down and wasn't good enough for us when we were chasing promotion in League 1. He's past it and doesn't offer anything going forward for us anymore stop throwing him pity games!

Like Saturday I didn't think individually Smallwood was that bad but I still wouldn't be picking him any time soon. He does what he does fine but his limitations hold us back as a team, especially when we've got the diagonal to Danny Graham to bail us out when the passes aren't flowing in midfield. Travis didn't have a great game for me last night, he plays a higher percentage of forward passes which i like but too many went astray last night, he also looked jaded again i'd rest him Sunday and go with Reed -Evans as the Cm's.

The centre backs didn't cover themselves in glory for the 1st goal despite it being a big mistake from Bell. Rodwell didn't get close enough to their striker for the winner. My opinion on him as a centre half changes a lot needs to learn the fundamentals of being a CB quickly. Bell is a really strange player, he's not good enough but I still think he's better than Williams.

Overall i'm really losing faith that Tony has a plan, I don't see us challenging next season unless the management get ruthless bin the players we need to and get 4-6 good players in.

 

[rog of the rovers]

Having slept on it, still disappointed with the result and complete lack of quality in both of the final thirds.

As said by others it seems to be a real mish-mash team at the moment, players out of position, no set XI and predictable substitutes.

Upgrades needed in the summer, particularly across the back. A LB, CB and RB on the transfer target list, for both depth and competitiveness.

Other reflections:

• Brereton showed some positives, though that miss in the second half was a shocker.
• I've enjoyed watching Craig Conway and championed him on here several times, but he's a winger who needs bodies in the box to be effective, Graham isn't that striker and with Chapman now signed his days are surely numbered
• Dack's form has dipped 
• Travis has been average the last 3 games (Brentford, Bristol City and Reading) he should be held to the same standards as Evans and Smallwood
• Amari'i Bell's goal shouldn't mask another poor performance
• Elliott Bennett should play in the midfield or not at all
• We're 4 or 5 short of being competitive in this league

 

[JHRover]

11 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

a) Tm got us promote

b) We are safe

c) He's helped to pull the club together after the worst period in out history

d) Look at wigan and co

e) Calm down

I must have missed safety being achieved in February. We've 14 games to go, 42 points to play for, some of our rivals have 45 to play for and the way we're shaping we won't be getting very many. Bolton and Reading have come up with wins this week, PNE have overtaken us having been well behind in January, and Wigan and Brentford demolished us not long ago.

The only saving grace is our home form where we are dull but quite hard to beat. That should be enough to scrape the couple of wins needed to rubber stamp survival. But I'm not cracking open the bubbly in mid-Feb with a 3rd of the season left as we plummet.

 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Tugay's Right Foot said:

I saw a clip of Jay DaSilva, LB on loan at Bristol City. Could be one target.

here: Vid on some fan's tweet

I think i read in January they were after him permanently... Don't know if they got him or not though

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Mowbray's response to last nights game is worrying.  Rovers last few managers since Sam all lost touch with reality at some point and started talking bollocks and I fear he's going the same way.

[superniko]

11 hours ago, Silas said:

How many were on the board?

Missed it.

It was out of play "lost" for about 2 mins in injury time tho. 

4 on the board

[Madon]

That game was screaming out for a Chapman-esque player last night. Can't wait until he's ready to play.

 

4 3 3 would probably work if we had 2 proper wingers, Brereton and an ageing Conway isn't the answer. 

 

[BlackburnEnd75]

20 minutes ago, Neal said:

Is Davenport fit or what? Surely time to give him a game now and prepare him for next season. 

Played for the under 23's on Friday so should be back soon. You'd think another 90 mins for them and he should be in contention.

[den]

14 hours ago, Hasta said:

I think he will play:-

Travis and Conway wide.

Brereton in Dacks role. 

Armstrong through the middle.

We need a bit of Howard Kendall’s approach. The first thing he said he would do - and did do - was make us hard to beat. In other words he concentrated on and succeeded in keeping clean sheets. We are far too easy to score against.  The two goals we conceded last night were down to firstly awful defending from Bell and then poor marking in the box - and for the second goal people are blaming Rodwell. If you get the chance to look again, see if you can spot any cover from the midfield. There was none. Far too many midfielders caught chasing the ball upfield. Why - we had just got back level, we weren’t losing. That all comes back to player discipline and being hard to beat.

still, I personally put this defeat down to Mowbray. I can understand PL clubs leaving some of their better players on the bench against inferior sides, because they would still have the fire power to beat these teams. For Rovers though leaving a host of our better players on the bench away at another Championship club? Do me a favour, we’re not that good yet. Starting under strength then going behind possibly because of it is giving the opposition an immediate advantage and like I said, were not that good yet. Start with a strong side then if things go well change it if you have to. Don’t give them the advantage before we kick off.

Edited February 14, 2019 by den

[USABlue]

11 hours ago, Tom Stinny said:

One question to everybody. Why is Bennet starting as an out of position right back over our young but promising actual right back who is fully fit?

 

Though Brereton had a good game. Only thing he messed up was the chance in the second half. Big improvement compared to recently.

 

Dack looks 100% unfit and why not bring Travis off as he was absolutely knackered by 70 minutes.

 

Don't think Mowbray a good manager I just think a lot of Rovers fans are that terrified of who Venkys could appointment instead that he's put up with. Bottom 6 manager for me.

This is one if the things that has me moving one foot toward the Mowbary out camp.  His idiocy and dereliction of duty is starting to wear on me now.  The problems are obvious, have been all season, they are repetetive and are.now quite friggin predictable.  Mercer if you want to print your money wait till we go ahead the drop a wad on us to lose.  Rothwell? why is he not getting more time.  I can inly repeat the same questions we all have they involve, schoolboy defending, concedeing late, players out of position, players on the bench, ir not in the squad who are better than those on the pitch.  Surely our habit of throwing away goals late was the basis for the Groundhog day movie.  Really is summat wrong with this group, great performance against Hull and we are thinking we turned a.corner but we have been crap ever since.  Mowbary fix it or eff off.

Yet after all this I find myself thinking Ipswich fans and McCarthy.  Whoever put the Kabosh on Warnock only to hire Coyle needs tarred and feathered.  Sorry for the verbal diarrhea but imma steaming mad.

 

[jim mk2]

13 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Mowbray's response to last nights game is worrying.  Rovers last few managers since Sam all lost touch with reality at some point and started talking bollocks and I fear he's going the same way.

What did he say Tyrone ? 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Tom Stinny said:

Don't know if your slating Brereton but I genuinely think he was our best attacker out of the three last night. Created a few chances. Drove through players. The only mistake he made was his chance in the second half.

 

I called it at the 50 minute mark and knew he would come off first. I didn't agree with it then and still don't now.

 

Not to be unpopular but Burnley a few seasons ago went up with basically a dangerous front two and a solid back four and goalkeeper. 

 

Rovers have a good front two. A workmanlike midfield but no solid back four or goalkeeper.

 

Attackers win you games. Defenders win you titles. Sums the situation up.

I wasn't criticising Brereton, I was criticizing the decision not to play him centrally and Armstrong on the wing. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

On Nyambe, everyone makes mistakes, but his defending for Bristols goal last weekend was simply atrocious. You wouldn't see it in Sunday league. 

[USABlue]

11 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Rovers didn't take their 1st half chances and it was very costly. Armstrong twice, Bell and Conway should all have scored. But all didn't and it proved costly. 

Second half we created more chances Brereton, Dack and Bell. Bell scored and good on him keep getting in there. Brereton should scored. 

Brereton was alot better today and he can build on this. His touch and movement was good. if Armstrong plays a better ball to him 1st half he 1 and 1 with Keeper instead it was poor ball but he still manage to pull it back to Armstrong who should scored. 

Defence not good enough for goals but why do you show Oliveria inside when he is all right footed. Clueless. 

Thought Dack was far too deep when he came on. 

Today's defeat wasn't down to poor team selection(as some/most people will say) but failure to take your chances. The game should have been dead and buried by the time they scored 1st goal. after that we still created chances. Yes our defending was poor for the goals. no question of that

More, repetitive problems, been there all season yet none of it addressed by our Messiah.

[Mercer]

10 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

we don't know what Graham and Dack would have done. so lets stop rewriting history and about WHAT ACTUALLY happened on the pitch

History is we lost to a team in the bottom 3 to make it 3 losses on the bounce and I think we have conceded more away goals than any other team in the Championship.

When Mowbray spends money, ie Brererton, he neglects crucial areas of the team that need strengthening.

When he has money to spend, and he doesn't ie January, he claims it's difficult to improve on what we've got with available budgets.  One could therefore conclude that either, we haven't got a pot to pi$$ in or that Mowbray is useless on recruitment if he cannot strengthen one of the worse defences in the Championship.

Should you ever decide to meet me Chaddy at an away game instead of buying you a pint I'll get you a very strong coffee to smell as boy you really need one. 

 

[roversfan99]

The thing is as well, just say Dack and Graham werent fit enough to start. That doesnt excuse the selection. Would have made more sense to start Williams and Nyambe full back, Reed instead of Smallwood to add some dynamism to the middle 3, Brereton central and Rothwell and Armstrong either side. That would have been far more balanced even assuming Dack and Graham couldnt play.