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

[SBlue]

Is that a fact then?

We could’ve signed McGinn over Aston bleeding Villa if we just really wanted to?

And it’s just because Mowbray didn’t want to upset anyone?

If you say so guys.

 

[Angry_Pirate]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

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

That made me want to vomit.

Honestly, I'm past caring if we lose now for the rest of season, we're going to finish 17-19th now regardless so please TM look to the future. We simply have to play as many under 23's as possible who are close to the first team.

Smallwood, Evans, Mulgrew, Conway, Bennett, Williams, maybe even Dack and Graham, can all begin their holidays now as they are the known commodity.

Raya, Lenihan, Nyambe, Bell and Travis all feature regularly and should continue to do so as all have struggled at times and more games is what they need.

Give Chapman, Brereton, Rothwell, Davenport, Magliore, Nuttall, Butterworth, Buckley, Rankin-Costello, Mols etc 6 games to show what they can do. The crowd will understand this and support, even if they lose.

Ps. does anyone else notice that as soon as Reed said in the media that he wanted to weigh up his future in the summer, he's spent more time as a substitute... seems a bit childish from the manager. "Well Smallwood, Bennett, Evans and Conway would sign lifetime contracts here, so they will play instead, thanks Harrison".

Edited March 31, 2019 by Angry_Pirate

[K-Hod]

Just now, S8 & Blue said:

Is that a fact then?

We could’ve signed McGinn over Aston bleeding Villa if we just really wanted to?

And it’s just because Mowbray didn’t want to upset anyone?

If you say so guys.

 

What Rich Sharpe of the LT said, actually....

‘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.’

Edited March 31, 2019 by K-Hod

[SBlue]

Just now, K-Hod said:

What Rich Sharpe of the LT said, actually....

‘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.’

I read that.

That doesn’t say “we 100% could’ve got him to sign for us over Villa” to me.

I’d like to see him elaborate as to the situation but for now that’s ifs and buts.

 

There’s enough to gripe about without resorting to using our imaginations.

 

[blueboy3333]

Just now, S8 & Blue said:

I read that.

That doesn’t say “we 100% could’ve got him to sign for us over Villa” to me.

I’d like to see him elaborate as to the situation but for now that’s ifs and buts.

 

There’s enough to gripe about without resorting to using our imaginations.

 

You're missing the point. Sharpe is implying we didn't push hard enough and if we had we might have got him. Sharpe would know that more than you or I. Sharpe is rarely critical, that is him being critical. 

No-one on here (or Sharpe) is saying we would have got him. What Sharpe is saying is we didn't really try. Read in to that what you want. 

[Ewood Ace]

57 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

I read that.

That doesn’t say “we 100% could’ve got him to sign for us over Villa” to me.

I’d like to see him elaborate as to the situation but for now that’s ifs and buts.

 

There’s enough to gripe about without resorting to using our imaginations.

 

Villa paid £2.75 Million for him in August after their new owners came in before they came in they had no money to spend. So if we were on the ball we could have got him in July when Villa weren't even in the picture. Also given we threw away £7 Million on a bench warmer then £2.75 Million for a player of McGinn's quality was surely a no brainer.

[roversfan99]

10 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

I think we’ve shown more positive signs in an attacking sense, moving the ball etc than we have since we were relegated.

 

The Bowyer years are overrated on here.

We were nowhere near.

Thats blatantly untrue. Bowyer, who is not a particularly good manager I would say, had us finishing on 70 points and 67 points in 8th then 9th.

He didnt take over a good situation either, the squad he inherited was poor. His recruitment was far, far better than Mowbrays, ultimately he was incapable of getting the team he assembled into the top 6 despite having a 40 goal strikeforce.

One of his main flaws was blind spots towards certain players, Lowe was Bowyer's Bennett and Williamson his Smallwood. The football wasnt entertaining but far more effective and it was better on the eye than Mowbrays boring crap.

We were much better off under Bowyer than Mowbray as a Championship team, however.

[Mattyblue]

The common denominator since this lot arrived has been a succession of has-beens, never-beens and rookie appointments.

Bowyer was learning his trade on our time with a squad of good players he just couldn’t get a proper tune out of, the rest of them were just a shower.

Nothing will ever change with this lot at the helm.

 

[Fraserkirky]

1 hour ago, Angry_Pirate said:

Smallwood, Evans, Mulgrew, Conway, Bennett, Williams, maybe even Dack and Graham, can all begin their holidays now as they are the known commodity.

Raya, Lenihan, Nyambe, Bell and Travis

Give Chapman, Brereton, Rothwell, Davenport, Magliore, Nuttall, Butterworth, Buckley, Rankin-Costello, Mols etc 6 games to show what they can do. The crowd will understand this and support, even if they lose.

Ps. does anyone else notice that as soon as Reed said in the media that he wanted to weigh up his future in the summer, he's spent more time as a substitute

Completely agree with this. Tony is probably still pushing hard for another 4points just to be absolutely safe, then it will happened.  

I would be delighted even if we got hammered every week. I want to see the young lads and see if they can hack it for a spot on the squad next year.

Raya

Nyambe Lenihan Rodwell Bell

Chapman Buckley Travis Rothwell

Butterworth Brereton

[Bigdoggsteel]

Watched the goals again, I think it's fair to say that Mulgrew was shocking for both. Maybe you could blame Lenihan for the first one too, anyway neither of them picked the one player who could potentially have gotten on the end of the cross. 

The second goal though. Some belly flop by Mulgrew. He probably told the ref that "the big strong boy knocked me down". It looked pathetic to be honest. Your centre halves can't be doing that. 

As usual his set pieces were good and one of our biggest threats, but it is pointless when he usually needs to do something due to him leading such a shoddy defence. 

Edited March 31, 2019 by Bigdoggsteel

[rigger]

Was there a player offside in the buildup to the first goal?

[roversfan99]

43 minutes ago, Fraserkirky said:

Completely agree with this. Tony is probably still pushing hard for another 4points just to be absolutely safe, then it will happened.  

I would be delighted even if we got hammered every week. I want to see the young lads and see if they can hack it for a spot on the squad next year.

Raya

Nyambe Lenihan Rodwell Bell

Chapman Buckley Travis Rothwell

Butterworth Brereton

Seems a bit too nuclear considering youve missed out players like Dack and Graham who will be here next season (youd bloody well hope) so surely we should try and fuse players around them and see who can work with them?

Agree in playing Rothwell and Chapman, feel like theres scope to see between maybe Rodwell and Davenport as potentially a partner for Travis, and the 3 other young lads in and around the picture, but I'd like to see experimentation done a tiny bit more structured than that.

The key is to remove the likes of Bennett, Conway, Smallwood and Williams from the squad entirely.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Just now, rigger said:

Was there a player offside in the buildup to the first goal?

No. Mulgrew was playing him on then stepped up after the pass to leave his man free for a tap-in. Nyambe also had no idea there were two players behind him, ball-watched the whole move.

 

Edited March 31, 2019 by Exiled in Toronto

[JHRover]

2 hours ago, Angry_Pirate said:

 

Ps. does anyone else notice that as soon as Reed said in the media that he wanted to weigh up his future in the summer, he's spent more time as a substitute... seems a bit childish from the manager. "Well Smallwood, Bennett, Evans and Conway would sign lifetime contracts here, so they will play instead, thanks Harrison".

My theory is that Reed is being systematically phased out of the team by Mowbray, because Mowbray knows Reed won't be here, either because Reed has told him that or because the finances involved in getting him here permanently are out of scope. 

As a result Mowbray has dropped him to the bench.

For me it is one of the biggest frustrations of Mowbray's management that Reed, who in my opinion has been one of our standout performers this season, and is certainly a better player than most of the alternatives we have, is now benched and limited to 20-30 minutes, more often than not out wide, whilst Bennett and Smallwood are still starting games in Reed's preferred position.

I doubt Reed would want to come here and waste his career on the right of our midfield. Shame as he'd have been top target for me this summer.

[Ewood Ace]

Just now, JHRover said:

My theory is that Reed is being systematically phased out of the team by Mowbray, because Mowbray knows Reed won't be here, either because Reed has told him that or because the finances involved in getting him here permanently are out of scope. 

As a result Mowbray has dropped him to the bench.

For me it is one of the biggest frustrations of Mowbray's management that Reed, who in my opinion has been one of our standout performers this season, and is certainly a better player than most of the alternatives we have, is now benched and limited to 20-30 minutes, more often than not out wide, whilst Bennett and Smallwood are still starting games in Reed's preferred position.

I doubt Reed would want to come here and waste his career on the right of our midfield. Shame as he'd have been top target for me this summer.

I think you are most likely right about Reed but if that is the case it is very worrying that Conway was starting yesterday.

[JHRover]

Just now, Ewood Ace said:

I think you are most likely right about Reed but if that is the case it is very worrying that Conway was starting yesterday.

Reed will probably end up at an alternative Championship club next season and will play every week in CM and earn rave reviews. I'm confident of that. Meanwhile we'll be turning up every week with the tombola selection ensuring no CM can pass the ball forwards.

[rigger]

3 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

No. Mulgrew was playing him on then stepped up after the pass to leave his man free for a tap-in. Nyambe also had no idea there were two players behind him, ball-watched the whole move.

 

I didn’t mean the scorer but at the pass to the player who delivered the final ball

[Ozz]

1 hour ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Watched the goals again, I think it's fair to say that Mulgrew was shocking for both. Maybe you could blame Lenihan for the first one too, anyway neither of them picked the one player who could potentially have gotten on the end of the cross. 

The second goal though. Some belly flop by Mulgrew. He probably told the ref that "the big strong boy knocked me down". It looked pathetic to be honest. Your centre halves can't be doing that. 

As usual his set pieces were good and one of our biggest threats, but it is pointless when he usually needs to do something due to him leading such a shoddy defence. 

I'd be tempted to play Mulgrew in midfield, and get a proper centre half instead. 

[Exiled in Toronto]

1 hour ago, rigger said:

I didn’t mean the scorer but at the pass to the player who delivered the final ball

That’s the pass about to be played. The recipient out wide is clearly played onside by Mulgrew and also perhaps Nyambe

[G Somerset Rover]

43 minutes ago, Ozz said:

I'd be tempted to play Mulgrew in midfield, and get a proper centre half instead. 

He’s barely got the body to play CB any more, let alone CM. He’d break down the in the first match, I’m sure of it.

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, Ozz said:

I'd be tempted to play Mulgrew in midfield, and get a proper centre half instead. 

He needs to be moved from defence anyway. Or in a back 3 with quick and tough players either side 

[RevidgeBlue]

Apologies if all this has been mentioned above but I  find the second half of this season extremely odd. In January we had a theoretical chance of the play offs so any manager worth his salt should have been hammering the owners' door down demanding a couple of impressive additions to freshen things up and try to sneak into the top six. Instead TM declared himself largely satisfied with the tools at his disposal and as a result we predictably fell away immediately the window was over.

Thereafter it was soon obvious the remainder of the season was a dead rubber so it should have been all about planning for next season yet there is little or no sense that this is the case. What is the point of playing Mulgrew, Williams, Evans, Smallwood Conway and Bennett? We know they're not good enough going forward already.

At the front we also need to develop a style of play that involves passing the ball along the ground and which brings Dack into play and doesn't simply consist of hoofing the ball long and high to Graham.

It wouldn't particularly have mattered if we'd brought in a load of youngsters and never won another point all season. That has more or less happened with the old guard  anyway and we're learning absolutely nothing. whereas at least we might have seen if various players might be useful going forward and make a start on implementing a new style of play.

Get as many youngsters in as possible use our best central midfielder Reed in his correct position alongside Travis whilst we still have him and up front get Rothwell Dack and Chapman in behind Brereton, play to feet and stick with it until the end of the season. The likeliehood is that BB may not be ready or good enough yet, but at least we'll find out. Alternatively he might surprise us.

But let's not limp on losing week after week with players who need the big heave ho in summer. Let's use the remainder of this season productively.

The worst thing that could happen is we carry on as we are and have to try and change things around having lost the first four or five games  of next season.

[rigger]

7 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

He needs to be moved from defence anyway. Or in a back 3 with quick and tough players either side 

Thanks for clearing that up. My original post was to say that the linesman was miles behind the play and could not have given any correct decision.

[West Yorks Rover]

7 hours ago, Biz said:

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.

Deserved a point ?

We were comprehensively outclassed for long periods of the game, we got what we deserved, nowt.

[JBiz]

Just now, West Yorks Rover said:

Deserved a point ?

We were comprehensively outclassed for long periods of the game, we got what we deserved, nowt.

Watched an entirely different game to me.

Edited March 31, 2019 by Biz