Tony Mowbray Discussion

[Mattyblue]

You must have lower standards than me BDS.

Getting in the top 6 would show us as an upwardly mobile club and that’s not to be sniffed at going forward - would help ST sales, sponsors, player incomings and outgoings and so on. But it’s a 1 in 4 shot, you lose and it’s an ‘incredible’ achievement?

We go up and it would be incredible, akin to winning the lottery and something I thought I may never see again.

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Mattyblue

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

You must have lower standards than me BDS.

Getting in the top 6 would show us as an upwardly mobile club and that’s not to be sniffed at going forward - would help ST sales, sponsors, player incomings and outgoings and so on. But it’s a 1 in 4 shot, you lose and it’s an ‘incredible’ achievement?

We go up and it would be incredible, akin to winning the lottery and something I thought I may never see again.

 

I have very high standards. Hence why I'm not going to get into a pedantic back and forth with you over the word "incredible" 

[Mattyblue]

Forget about semantics, I had enough of that with Mix-gate.

Finishing top 6 in itself is not an achievement, it’s an arbitrary position in the table that opens the door to what we all actually want.

Of course there are positives to be had, promotion, obviously, or even in defeat if we build on a top 6 finish through increased crowds, better players and so on, become a real force next season then great. However, many a club doesn’t, loses players and momentum and falls away,

‘Remember that time we finished 6th in 2020?’won’t mean much if it isn’t a springboard.

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Mattyblue

[Dreams of 1995]

a year ago we were in 16th place with 44pts, today we sit 8th on 53pts
 

“We haven’t improved”

”We aren’t progressing under Mowbray”

It simply isn’t true folks. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

12 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Forget about semantics, I had enough of that with Mix-gate.

Finishing top 6 in itself is not an achievement, it’s an arbitrary position in the table that opens the door to what we all actually want.

Of course there are positives to be had, promotion, obviously, or even in defeat if we build on a top 6 finish through increased crowds, better players and so on, become a real force next season then great. However, many a club doesn’t, loses players and momentum and falls away,

‘Remember that time we finished 6th in 2020?’won’t mean much if it isn’t a springboard.

 

No,but no point worrying about that as we can't control it. 

We are doing well this year. I am enjoying the season immensely. Coming on here you would swear we are Ipswich,or Sunderland. 

Nobody predicted we would be doing this well. It seems some on here will start complaining we didn't get automatic if we make the play offs. Whereas at the beginning of the season they would have taken your hand off for that. Changing expectations down to success I suppose. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[Bigdoggsteel]

7 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

a year ago we were in 16th place with 44pts, today we sit 8th on 53pts
 

“We haven’t improved”

”We aren’t progressing under Mowbray”

It simply isn’t true folks. 

Or the best one "Mowbray and the players don't want to get promoted" 

People be crazy. 

[Mattyblue]

I didn’t say we weren’t doing well. 

I said 8th in the table isn’t incredible, which it isn’t.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

I didn’t say we weren’t doing well. 

I said 8th in the table isn’t incredible, which it isn’t.

Again,let's not get bogged down on that word. I will change it to "really great" ,if you are more comfortable with that

[Mattyblue]

If you think 8th is ‘really great’, then go for it...

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

If you think 8th is ‘really great’, then go for it...

I think being 3 points off the play offs this stage is really great, yes. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[Mattyblue]

I’ll let you know in May after a really great day at Wembley.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

He did openly say that they want Tosin back next year though it remains to be seen if the player or City will want to do that I guess.

I don’t think there’s anything to suggest we HAVE to sell, though a big bid for Lenihan or Nyambe would be hard to turn down. I think Travis is the one who will be getting noticed most though. Basically mom every match these days. 

I think we are pretty much all set in the attacking areas. Dack, Holtby, Rothwell, Buckley, JRC, Butterworth plus Armstrong, Gallagher and Brereton have all been used as attacking midfielders both centrally and in wide areas. (We don’t play with wingers so it’s not worth mentioning). Gallagher and Arma as the striking options and I think we’ll give Graham another year. I take your point if you don’t think they’re good enough but the manager thinks they are and tbf I don’t think we struggle to create chances or score in general. You’d also expect to see improvement (based on age / potential) in most of that group.

I don’t know how those European deals can be agreed mate. He just said that we already had agreements on a couple of European players for the summer.

 

If we keep playing people in wide areas who cannot perform there then indeed it will still repeatedly be mentioned.

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

This mornings LT interview with TM stating that we are all set with attackers and will be looking for a full set of defenders to play / challenge.

Based on my conversation with TM at the supporters event we have ‘couple’ of European signings already agreed.

Id hope that we can sign Walton and Tosin back, plus a keeper and CB from Europe as natural successors. Cunningham as first choice LB and another European RB with potential.

Start the season with Walton, Nyambe, Lenihan, Tosin and Cunningham ??

I'm not sure we will be able to afford Walton. I wouldn't be surprise if we went for Cunningham permanent in the summer, but I also think Rovers will exercise their option to extend Bell's contract. 

I would be delighted if our back 4 is Nyambe, Lenihan, Tosin and Cunningham next season 

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Toisin will be 23 early next season. In the old days he’d be either looking to make a breakthrough in City’s team or moving on.

But in this age of loan fees and loan managers, you can see him having another season (and another and another) somewhere... though possibly a PL loan next time.

depends whether there is any PL interest in Adarabioyo

2 hours ago, JHRover said:

 

I also think we will be lucky to hold on to both Nyambe and Lenihan given their progress. Just have to hope the Bank dont want the overdraft reducing.

How can European signings be agreed? Does Mowbray even know his budget yet? I presume you are referring to free agents but they will not have signed pre contract agreements with us. Why would we do that when we dont know what division we will be in?

have the Bank of India ever asked the overdraft reducing before? And Venkys cover the cost of the deficit doesn't they

You mention how can European signings be agreed? pre contract signings. We can agreed deals with players from Europe if they are in the 6 months of their contract. 

[K-Hod]

2 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

Interestingly they (TM, SW and MC) all looked Genuinely bewildered at the suggestion that Venkys wouldn’t spend money on defenders....I think that can be filed in the ‘conspiracy theory’ drawer.

Maybe when they spend a decent amount of  cash on one, it can.

Edited March 4, 2020 by K-Hod

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

(We don’t play with wingers so it’s not worth mentioning).

been saying this for ages on here. It isn't Mowbray way of playing. 

I feel we need a right wide player but after that we have enough players

[Stuart]

4 hours ago, tomphil said:

Tell them straight what is needed.

Or 

Spent what's available elsewhere via his mates and toe the line.

By the way Bauer was a free and there were others out there. You don't have to invest 6 million in every player.

A principled manager who was being forced to work under circumstances he didn’t agree with would walk.

Ergo, Mowbray is happy with the (alleged) arrangement of not being allowed to buy defenders.

Or he genuinely thinks we don’t need to spend money on them and would rather use what he gets to try to buy goals rather than clean sheets.

[roversfan99]

10 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

been saying this for ages on here. It isn't Mowbray way of playing. 

I feel we need a right wide player but after that we have enough players

The thing you cant accept is that just because its "Mowbrays way of playing" doesnt mean that people cannot criticise it or suggest alternatives. I think basically everyone would be in agreement that having either Brereton, Gallagher or Samuel as "wide strikers" doesnt work. We were rumoured to have tried for a few actual wingers in January so fingers crossed that a change is on the cards. Since though, Gallagher out wide has been a regular and has drawn much criticism.

We dont have enough players who can competently play wide.

[K-Hod]

17 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

been saying this for ages on here. It isn't Mowbray way of playing. 

I feel we need a right wide player but after that we have enough players

Right, that’s nice, but we probably should be.

 

[tomphil]

2 minutes ago, Stuart said:

A principled manager who was being forced to work under circumstances he didn’t agree with would walk.

Ergo, Mowbray is happy with the (alleged) arrangement of not being allowed to buy defenders.

Or he genuinely thinks we don’t need to spend money on them and would rather use what he gets to try to buy goals rather than clean sheets.

The top and bottom of it is he elected to direct his available funds elsewhere. Then used what was left for loans in goal and defence.

The loans have so far worked out far better than the investments so maybe we should be thankful.

Including wages and alleged loan fees it's still another chunk of money gone down the hole though. If we get to the play offs the gamble has worked. Still doesn't take away from the fact it's more newbies to bed in across the back line wasting about half of next season again doing so.

Possibly of less quality budget depending.

[Paul Mani]

37 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

If we keep playing people in wide areas who cannot perform there then indeed it will still repeatedly be mentioned.

We have the right players in those positions and they’re doing ok with potential to do very well.

The wide midfielders invert to create overloads in the middle and allow space for the fullbacks who provide our width. That’s how we’ve continued to score goals without Dack. 

[roversfan99]

11 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

We have the right players in those positions and they’re doing ok with potential to do very well.

The wide midfielders invert to create overloads in the middle and allow space for the fullbacks who provide our width. That’s how we’ve continued to score goals without Dack. 

Which players do we have who are effective in wide areas? I must be watching different games. We have been very reliant on our central players, notably Dack and now Armstrong. Also we often struggle against teams who sit in and we lack the width to be able to stretch them. 

Our full backs have provided precious little end product so wide areas are not a strong point of ours. 

Theres nothing wrong with having players on opposite sides necessarily as long as they are competent wide players. Joe Lolley, Anthony Knockaert, Ivan Cavaleiro, Helder Costa, Said Benrahama, they are proper wide men who do provide width and directness but also come inside and offer a goal threat. Im not saying our players should necessarily even be as good but our wide strikers bollocks are a world apart.

[JHRover]

54 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

have the Bank of India ever asked the overdraft reducing before? And Venkys cover the cost of the deficit doesn't they

You mention how can European signings be agreed? pre contract signings. We can agreed deals with players from Europe if they are in the 6 months of their contract. 

So why did they sell everyone of value between 2015 and 2017? Please dont say Ffp because no other club behaved as we did and no other club was sanctioned.

The suspicion therefore is the lenders in India wanted some back so instructed a fire sale.

We can agree pre contract deals with players, yes.

But why would we do that and commit to summer signings in January when we might get promoted which would change everything.

We've never done this before and it is unlikely Mowbray will know his budget until he goes off to India. 

I will eat my hat if foreign players arrive in the early days of the summer window.

[darrenrover]

24 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

We have the right players in those positions and they’re doing ok with potential to do very well.

The wide midfielders invert to create overloads in the middle and allow space for the fullbacks who provide our width. That’s how we’ve continued to score goals without Dack. 

I totally disagree with your opening comment. Teams doing well with that formation generally utilise attack minded midfielders or wingers and invert them to play as wide forwards, on the opposite side to their strongest foot. Name me a successful team that utilises 6 feet odd central strikers in either 'wide forward' role?

I agree with your principal of the method of play btw, as in your penultimate sentence but fail to understand the logic with the players we expect to excel there.

[Paul Mani]

18 minutes ago, Stuart said:

A principled manager who was being forced to work under circumstances he didn’t agree with would walk.

Ergo, Mowbray is happy with the (alleged) arrangement of not being allowed to buy defenders.

Or he genuinely thinks we don’t need to spend money on them and would rather use what he gets to try to buy goals rather than clean sheets.

OR the ones he wanted he couldn’t afford and so he decided to loan some at the right standard? 

[Amo]

We all know that Mowbray can do no wrong and some people will have an excuse for anything.