Rovers away at Villa this Saturday: 30th March - KO - 3pm

[jim mk2]

We've taken 4 points out of 30 so with the players still "onside" with Mowbray.  Should we be grateful? 

 

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Chaddy being chaddy.

But I’d wager he’s closer to the thoughts of the majority of Ewood than most on here. He’s the most bomb proof manager I can remember.

Been two further away defeats since we were last at home, but I doubt there’s been much change - look at the LT comments and most Facebook groups as proof of that.

He's built up quite a lot of leeway with a chunk of the fanbase I get that. And in some ways I wish I was given to that way of thinking. But in truth it's naivety at best for me; we're getting nowhere near the PL with Mowbray as manager. 

His player recruitment, the fact he still doesn't know our best system, playing people out of position, sticking with players that got us promoted from an inferior league last year and sound bites in the media blaming the players every week are just some of the reason he's reached the end for me. 

As you say though... Bomb proof. 

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

Horrible first half. Slow start and scarcely improved.

Agree with everyone that games this season are now about the future so why start with Conway and Bennett? In fairness Conway was not bad yesterday but Bennett is sadly now exposed as an athlete and not a footballer.

Lenihan with Magliore is a combination I would like to see. Would Magliore have been so comprehensively beaten for Villa's second?

Half time stats were possession 67-33 to Villa and at full time overall possession was 51-49; that alone is some turnaround against a team that needs continuing building goal difference when 3 of the chasing pack have games in hand and one really bad result could drop Villa to 10th. 

Glad Rothwell and Brereton helped change the tide. Both have been guilty of losing possession cheaply but not the case yesterday which for me dictates both should get starts against Stoke.

Having said that, we didn't play like a side that believed it could equalise. If you are a top 6 Premier League side you can build a platform of second half possession and know you can grab the goal you need in the last ten minutes. Saying Rovers are not at that level is beyond a statement of the bleeding obvious.

Mowbray's post match comments sounded slightly desperate to me.

 

 

Our second half possession went up due to Villa being confident they could defend a 2-0 lead. They decided to conceed territory.

Second half a lot of our possession was actually non productive passing it around often sideways,  backwards and not threatening to Villa.

Conway was OK but his crossing abject. Rothwell made us look more attack minded but it lead to just a couple of chances,  including Armstrong's pathetic shot. 

First half was atrocious by us,  played off the park. 

Edited March 31, 2019 by AllRoverAsia

[blueboy3333]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I agree With @S8 & Blue that Jokanovic is overhyped. Seem more obsess with his wage pocket then owt. Hasnt got the WBA job due to wage demands. Was reported at 1.5 mil I think. 

£1.5m for an apparently quality manager who could get them up to a division worth £150m. Absolute bargain....especially when you consider the money we've wasted. 

[Tom Stinny]

6 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

Time will tell.

But I’m not up for turning the card table over just in case the next hand has an (overhyped) Jokanovic.

Think he's got promoted to the premier league twice in recent years, Fulham and Watford I think so he's an upgrade on what we have at the moment.

 

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I agree With @S8 & Blue that Jokanovic is overhyped. Seem more obsess with his wage pocket then owt. Hasnt got the WBA job due to wage demands. Was reported at 1.5 mil I think. 

I'd give the guy 5 million a year if he got us up. You don't get out of this league by cutting corners. If he's overhyped then what is our current manager? 

 

Some on here really can't see the bowyer effect has kicked in and been here from the start. Just wait till the better players leave, Mowbray gets sacked and we hire another coyle and go down because that's the route it's heading.

 

I think they'll back him for one more season and then cut ties. Said in January it was go big or go bust and he's picked the go bust option.

 

That was the one and only chance to sneak 6th and try and win the lottery but he wanted to build slowly slowly. Unfortunately it's in the backwards direction though.

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

I disagree. The situation currently isnt farcical at all. 

We played well second half. Mowbray stills have the players onside. 

And on Jokanovic knowing his worth. Do you think realistic we pay this? Deluded. Was Allardyce even on thst?.

Players onside?  Just fancy that.

Are they the bunch who got us relegated, promoted in second place and rewarded with contract extensions and presumably pay increases and are now playing like relegation fodder. 

[Ewood Ace]

9 hours ago, tomphil said:

We've invested 7 million in an overated kid and we are given a generous budget for a club our size by billionaire owners allowing us to pay good championship wages to some players.

I think yesterday just showed how much we over paid for Brereton he came on and barely resembled a footballer yet cost £7 Million. McGinn ran the game yesterday and he cost just £2.75 Million.

[JHRover]

They were streets ahead of us in the first half and to go in only 1-0 down at HT was nothing short of a miracle. 

We improved in the 2nd half but always felt every time they applied any pressure a goal was coming and their inevitable second came eventually.

We manage to get a goal back through Mulgrew once again (the only way we seem to be able to unlock teams) and from there on the game changes as Villa entered defensive mode and tried to protect what they had and ultimately did so.

Our attempt at unlocking the Villa defence in the last 10 minutes I found to be extremely frustrating and futile. We had so much possession and were dominating, Villa were nervous and desperate and we were simply unable to come up with anything which would enable us to get the 2nd. Nobody able to deliver a pass or cross to create an opportunity. Countless times it was pass back and go around the houses again getting nowhere. Boring to watch. 

I reckon between 80 and 95 minutes the ball was only in play for about 5-6 minutes. Villa effective at running the clock down and seeing the game through when we were on top. I wish we had that nous.

It seems we will probably survive now even if we lose all our remaining games, as surely Bolton are too far behind and Rotherham can't win, In that regard it can probably be regarded as 'job done' for the season.

But I'm afraid there's a bigger picture here than just being happy with safety after promotion last season. There should be a medium term plan and an idea as to where the club wants to go. It isn't acceptable, IMO, to celebrate survival and ignore the deeply concerning issues that we have. 

There's no indication the club has any plan beyond the end of the season and probably won't do until Tony turns up in India and asks for his budget from madame. As far as I am concerned that is a pathetic and shambolic way to operate and it is no wonder we are so far behind other clubs who operate professionally and have a strategy in place. I am deeply concerned by our trajectory, recruitment, performances and results and I cannot just ignore all that on the basis we should survive. ANY continuation of that into the summer and beyond and it is a cert that we will be in a relegation battle next season. We weakened in January by letting Palmer and Downing depart and signing nobody for the first team and will probably weaken again in the summer by letting Reed and Dack go and unless we invest heavily or extremely intelligently I've little faith in finding the calibre needed to make a difference.

Turning to Villa's crowd, it is interesting that they are getting bigger gates now than they used to get in the Premier League. They're obviously doing something right. Around the ground before the game I was amazed at how many kids there were. Then they were advertising early bird season tickets for £14 per game for adults, £6 per game for U21s and £3 per game for U18s, along with family packages where 2 paying adults get 2 free kids tickets. 

Note - we don't have the cheapest tickets in the league any more.

We're so far behind the pack it is scary. Lots of moaning about them getting nearly 40000 on whilst we trundle along with our 10000 without analysing our woeful marketing and unimaginative ticketing. We're already at a disadvantage to the City clubs and yet they make more effort than we do. Unacceptable.

Edited March 31, 2019 by JHRover

[Ewood Ace]

7 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

The Bowyer years are overrated on here.

We were nowhere near.

We are even further away now, despite having spent more on players in the summer than Bowyer did during his entire tenure. 

[arbitro]

I spoke to a player yesterday on the way back from Villa (please don't ask who because I'm not saying and frankly couldn't care less if anybody doesn't believe me). Amongst other things I mentioned that there were murmerings amongst some supporters about Mowbray and he genuinely looked surprised. We spoke about how mistakes costing us goals and I said it was the same players making them and they still kept their place. Whilst he didn't verbally agree his facial expression and wry smile told me he agreed. If the players are aware of this then I can't see how this is conducive to a good team spirit and players being "onside".

[blueboy3333]

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17539748.match-verdict-as-rovers-beaten-at-aston-villa/?action=success#comments-feedback-anchor

"And the performance of the dynamic John McGinn just shows what an oversight it was for Rovers not to push harder for his services when he was available last summer".

Interesting line from Sharpe. It's not like we didn't have the money, it was obviously a football decision by Mowbray not to pursue him. He obviously didn't want to upset 'the lads' already at the club. 

[blueboy3333]

Just now, arbitro said:

I spoke to a player yesterday on the way back from Villa (please don't ask who because I'm not saying and frankly couldn't care less if anybody doesn't believe me). Amongst other things I mentioned that there were murmerings amongst some supporters about Mowbray and he genuinely looked surprised. We spoke about how mistakes costing us goals and I said it was the same players making them and they still kept their place. Whilst he didn't verbally agree his facial expression and wry smile told me he agreed. If the players are aware of this then I can't see how this is conducive to a good team spirit and players being "onside".

If it was Mulgrew I'm not surprised he smiled wryly. 

Anyway, who was it? Conway or Bennett. I know I'm right. ?

[Mattyblue]

Doesn’t surprise me that player x was surprised.

He’s not had single negative chant his way since probably Doncaster at home in August 2017. They are still generally clapped off or at least not booed after another home defeat.

I think back to the days of Sam and perhaps a more apt parallel - Bowyer, and the grief they and their sides got in comparison is day and night.

Best thing to happen to Mowbray was relegation.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17539748.match-verdict-as-rovers-beaten-at-aston-villa/?action=success#comments-feedback-anchor

"And the performance of the dynamic John McGinn just shows what an oversight it was for Rovers not to push harder for his services when he was available last summer".

Interesting line from Sharpe. It's not like we didn't have the money, it was obviously a football decision by Mowbray not to pursue him. He obviously didn't want to upset 'the lads' already at the club. 

Who needs John Mc Ginn when you have Ritchie Smallwood ? It's a bit like the old Sherwood v Zidane story.

Edited March 31, 2019 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Stuart]

7 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

If we spread these results out over a season? What kind of nonsense spin is that? Using that logic we could be in the relegation paces as maybe the wins wouldn't have come yet either. 

What if we lost 8 out of our first 10?

You can spin the run we are on. It's unspinnable. It's the manner of the defeats, groundhog day. It's the summer signings not playing. It's ending up weaker after January when every other club I can think of ended up stronger. 

Quite right. Losing becomes a habit, form dips, players lose belief. Bad runs need to be short or they become self-fulfilling. It’s not about just a mixture of random WDL results that happened to be clumped together.

The reverse is also true. Our good run in January was the result of some momentum.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Stuart said:

Quite right. Losing becomes a habit, form dips, players lose belief. Bad runs need to be short or they become self-fulfilling. It’s not about just a mixture of random WDL results that happened to be clumped together.

The reverse is also true. Our good run in January was the result of some momentum.

Quite right, losing is habit forming. So is only playing for 45 minutes, getting caught cold at the start of the game, conceding at the death.

[matt83]

With runs like this I think back to roy Hodgson. We were top or as near as dam it at Xmas. Finished the season 7th ish which in isolation was fine but at the start of the following season we started how we’d finished the last season so he was potted.

It’ll be very hard to break the losing cycle now. My gut feeling is we won’t. We should stay up but next season by Xmas I think we’ll be firmly in the relegation zone and then Mowbray will get his marching orders. 

Edited March 31, 2019 by matt83

[Neal]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I disagree. The situation currently isnt farcical at all. 

We played well second half. Mowbray stills have the players onside. 

And on Jokanovic knowing his worth. Do you think realistic we pay this? Deluded. Was Allardyce even on thst?.

Chaddy, as you know, Ive defended him for long periods of the season but I simply can't do it anymore. You need only look at the evidence, 4 points in 30, shipping goals everywhere and to me he looks to have lost the dressing room. Every manager has a lifespan at a club and I think TM has had his unfortunately. 

[LDRover]

3 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I agree With @S8 & Blue that Jokanovic is overhyped. Seem more obsess with his wage pocket then owt. Hasnt got the WBA job due to wage demands. Was reported at 1.5 mil I think. 

When you consider we paid Jason Lowe 1 million a year to get us relegated I'd say that's a snip.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

What was Dacks overall contribution yesterday?.. I've seen nothing from this player for months.

So many star performers from last season have gone awol...or probably more like found out at this level.

Edited March 31, 2019 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

What was Dacks overall contribution yesterday?.. I've seen nothing from this player for months.

So many star performers from last season have gone awol...or probably more like found out at this level.

It's a big step up. How Mowbray though last seasons team would be up to the challenge is beyond me.

[Bigdoggsteel]

3 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I disagree. The situation currently isnt farcical at all. 

We played well second half. Mowbray stills have the players onside. 

And on Jokanovic knowing his worth. Do you think realistic we pay this? Deluded. Was Allardyce even on thst?.

Losing 8 out of 10 isn't farcical? Chaddy, go back to bed. 

It doesn't matter if we played well second half. Games are 90 minutes  we still lost, again. 

We paid 7 million for a player who doesn't play so I don't see why paying 1.5 million for a good manager is "deluded" 

Edited March 31, 2019 by Bigdoggsteel

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Losing 8 out of 10 isn't farcical? Chaddy, go back to bed. 

4 points out of a possible 30 ? We'd do well to get to 20 points at that rate next season !

[JBiz]

Thought we played well overall yesterday - made a big difference to have Lenihan back, he is very dominant in the air. Much better finish than start mind.

Confidence is low for obvious reasons, Dack is the epitome of the at the minute, however I felt the performance warranted at least a point - and against a good team in form. The soft underbelly conceding from basic mistakes is obviously our main issue this season. Lack of organisation isn’t simply down to young players. 

Im not convinced Tony will achieve that level of resilience with this lot - he’s no BS/Pulis type, and I think our current first team would only be consistently challenging in this division with a manager of that ilk.

With some patience though - this team and squad will grow - the changing of style was apparent again yesterday. (Reed, Brereton, Rothwell on for Dack, Graham and Bennett)

We showed some slick movement, Rothwell and Ben particularly looked lively -Joe is crazily one footed but a real threat with the ball at his feet, his effort would’ve been goal of the season the way he beat 3 players.

Ben should’ve had a pen at the death although I wouldn’t blame the Ref since he dived minutes earlier in peculiar fashion!

Final shout for Conway - other than a few poor final balls, really played well yesterday, looked to turn back the clock with his energy- helped Nyambe and looked a threat at times, particularly in the second half. What better professional to mentor the next youngster into the team, Chapman et al.

[K-Hod]

1 hour ago, blueboy3333 said:

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17539748.match-verdict-as-rovers-beaten-at-aston-villa/?action=success#comments-feedback-anchor

"And the performance of the dynamic John McGinn just shows what an oversight it was for Rovers not to push harder for his services when he was available last summer".

Interesting line from Sharpe. It's not like we didn't have the money, it was obviously a football decision by Mowbray not to pursue him. He obviously didn't want to upset 'the lads' already at the club. 

To be fair, he’s no Richie Smallwood....