Tony Mowbray Discussion

[Burrells Boy]

There were 3 points to be won at that stage, completely the right decision taken by Mowbray. If anyone’s to blame it’s the referee for an awful decision.

[JHRover]

When was the last time Leeds, West Brom, Burnley etc. had players sent off in such circumstances? I admit the referee was a joke but as ever we gave him an opportunity where others wouldn't.

[Mashed Potatoes]

Just now, JHRover said:

When was the last time Leeds, West Brom, Burnley etc. had players sent off in such circumstances? I admit the referee was a joke but as ever we gave him an opportunity where others wouldn't.

No idea but I do know that the two best managers in English football - Guardiola and Klopp - have had players sent off this season. Sendings off happen to everybody.

[tomphil]

Amazing turn around although no doubt the back to basics square pegs in square holes approach laid the foundations. You can manage change when everyone is fit and playing well it's amazing what confidence can do.  Seems it's running through the club again now and we are a handful for anyone when that's the case.

Credit to Mowbray today it could have backfired spectacularly and i think we all know he'll have been itching to change it around big style for ages now.  Its worked though not long ago we'd have been 3-1 down in that type of game by midway in the second half.  He's got a grip of it again and long may it continue.

[Exiled in Toronto]

I think something major happened in the dressing room after Barnsley, Mowbray’s post match comments and demeanour were quite different to usual. Since then we have been transformed.

[tomphil]

Something happened somewhere for sure. For him to go right back to basics and stick at it with the same ream and tactics constantly for the first time in his entire time here win, draw or lose.

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by tomphil

[Tugay-is-God]

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

Amazing turn around although no doubt the back to basics square pegs in square holes approach laid the foundations. You can manage change when everyone is fit and playing well it's amazing what confidence can do.  Seems it's running through the club again now and we are a handful for anyone when that's the case.

Credit to Mowbray today it could have backfired spectacularly and i think we all know he'll have been itching to change it around big style for ages now.  Its worked though not long ago we'd have been 3-1 down in that type of game by midway in the second half.  He's got a grip of it again and long may it continue.

Not sure many on here would've called Downing at left back a "square peg in a square hole" before a few games ago.

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

I think something major happened in the dressing room after Barnsley, Mowbray’s post match comments and demeanour were quite different to usual. Since then we have been transformed.

IMO, They have a team meeting between Mowbray and the players where they discuss and clear the air. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

His excellent signing doing the business. We look to have so many options pretty much everywhere except CB. 

Great to see 4 4 2 today. Another string in our bow and a useful weapon to have. 

Travis ,Johnson and Evan's are great. Absolute pests to play against. 

[old darwen blue]

6 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

His excellent signing doing the business. We look to have so many options pretty much everywhere except CB. 

Great to see 4 4 2 today. Another string in our bow and a useful weapon to have. 

Travis ,Johnson and Evan's are great. Absolute pests to play against. 

 I think Corry Evans has been amazing as of late. 
 

There, I’ve said it. 
 

?

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

Three points off 3rd place just under halfway through the season - would've never predicted that and absolutely snapped your hand off for it 6 weeks ago.

I think yesterday was massive. It was something we could never have achieved last season. I believe we had a similar winning streak actually but there's no way we could've gone to Bristol and got 3 points.

TM has gone back to basics and deserves all the plaudits for the turnaround. I could never see that coming 7 games ago and I'm so very happy to be proved wrong. I'm not even 100% sure on how he has done it outside of putting round pegs in round holes. I mean even Amari Bell looked like a proper player yesterday according to most - how the fuck has that happened!? 

Anway fingers crossed we can sustain it and we've got to take advantage of two relatively easy home games coming up. That's really something we've failed to do this season (Charlton and Luton spring to mind) and if we can get 4-6 points from the next two and actually be in the play offs at the halfway stage I genuinely will start to get excited. 

 

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 hours ago, old darwen blue said:

 I think Corry Evans has been amazing as of late. 
 

There, I’ve said it. 
 

?

Fair play. I mean he's playing the best and most consistent football of his time here, so people had the right to be sceptical. The entire unit is performing and that's bringing the best out in everyone 

[Pedro]

22 minutes ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

Three points off 3rd place just under halfway through the season - would've never predicted that and absolutely snapped your hand off for it 6 weeks ago.

I think yesterday was massive. It was something we could never have achieved last season. I believe we had a similar winning streak actually but there's no way we could've gone to Bristol and got 3 points.

TM has gone back to basics and deserves all the plaudits for the turnaround. I could never see that coming 7 games ago and I'm so very happy to be proved wrong. I'm not even 100% sure on how he has done it outside of putting round pegs in round holes. I mean even Amari Bell looked like a proper player yesterday according to most - how the fuck has that happened!? 

Anway fingers crossed we can sustain it and we've got to take advantage of two relatively easy home games coming up. That's really something we've failed to do this season (Charlton and Luton spring to mind) and if we can get 4-6 points from the next two and actually be in the play offs at the halfway stage I genuinely will start to get excited. 

 

It really is as simple as having a solid defence and playing as many players as possible in their proper positions. Lenihan has been a key player for us but Mowbray was massively to blame for sticking random players in random positions, having us tapping the ball about with poor movement and not pressing the opposition - he had lost the plot and deserved the fans on his back.  The opposition were having a field day against Bennett at fullback, whipping in crosses towards non-dominant centre backs. Now, the teams selected play to the strengths of the players. I'm so glad he has seen sense and everyone to a man has upped their game so far, as we were massively underperforming. We seem to be focussing on our strengths, rather than the opposition's.

[philipl]

One thing I will say is that I never heard even the faintest whisper of Mowbray losing the dressing room. Yes he acted decisively shipping out Charlie Mulgrew, but even after the Prestojn game when I was convinced he should go, the players were solidly with him.

That doesn't detract from the reality of being ten points worse off than we should be had Mowbray not got things so horribly wrong against Charlton, Luton, QPR and Preston.

We can get away with horrible long runs in the Championship but we ain't going up and certainly not staying up with these sorts of prolonged patches of defeats. 

[tomphil]

14 hours ago, Tugay-is-God said:

Not sure many on here would've called Downing at left back a "square peg in a square hole" before a few games ago.

I don't see why not.

[tomphil]

31 minutes ago, philipl said:

One thing I will say is that I never heard even the faintest whisper of Mowbray losing the dressing room. Yes he acted decisively shipping out Charlie Mulgrew, but even after the Prestojn game when I was convinced he should go, the players were solidly with him.

That doesn't detract from the reality of being ten points worse off than we should be had Mowbray not got things so horribly wrong against Charlton, Luton, QPR and Preston.

We can get away with horrible long runs in the Championship but we ain't going up and certainly not staying up with these sorts of prolonged patches of defeats. 

Totally agree i think at times him and the dressing room are probably too loyal if there is such a thing.  He's sticks by some of them too much in the first team at times and they follow his tactics to the letter on the pitch. It was the wrong selections and tactics then confidence takes a hit, i think all that has been proven now.

He's been rewarded with their loyalty recently and he put his neck on the block yesterday giving others who've been left out a game and resting some.  We'd have lost that a month or two ago for sure but he's manged to get a spring back in the step of the whole squad again for now so that has to go down as good management.

Would he have been so bold at home yesterday or a closer away game with a bigger following in attendance ?  Highly unlikely but he got away with it so kudos to him.  As always in football it's what happens over the next month that will define the season, as we know now with him and this team.....you never know !

[Exiled in Toronto]

Interesting comments in the LT from Bristol’s manager on the non-appearance of Casey Palmer, whose lack of impact for us last year was all due to Mowbray's inability to get the best out of him. Turns out he’s just a Chelsea show pony who gives the ball away too much.

[Paul Mani]

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

He downplayed the importance of the game and the title in the build up.

He also made numerous of changes in terms of taking out players who were perhaps not at 100% but had proven capable of winning games in the weeks prior and who returned the week after for the last home game. 

To be honest my main curiosity at the moment is how numerous Rovers fans are showing total disinterest in winning a league title! Since when do titles not matter?!

It genuinely 100% did not matter me. A bit like winning the sherpavan trophy back in the day. Complete irrelevance in the context of our illustrious history. The ONLY thing I wanted was to get out of that league.

My main curiosity is why you believe that everyone else desperately wanted to win the third tier league? Since when did that matter?

[Leonard Venkhater]

Just now, Paul Mani said:

It genuinely 100% did not matter me. A bit like winning the sherpavan trophy back in the day. Complete irrelevance in the context of our illustrious history. The ONLY thing I wanted was to get out of that league.

My main curiosity is why you believe that everyone else desperately wanted to win the third tier league? Since when did that matter?

Really?

The Full Members was a very proud moment, as was 1975.

For that matter,I always used to tell Utd and Arsenal fans that a 2-1 away win at Port Vale mattered just as much as a win at Highbury

[tomphil]

I hope you're not downplaying the Full Members Cup victory it was massive at the time. The shot in the arm it gave the club was immense. Winning the title in league 1 might just have had a bigger longer lasting positive bounce than just promotion, we'll never know though.

That FMC win doesn't get mentioned enough imo, it was a cup knock out competition and we won it !

[chaddyrovers]

23 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

It genuinely 100% did not matter me. A bit like winning the sherpavan trophy back in the day. Complete irrelevance in the context of our illustrious history. The ONLY thing I wanted was to get out of that league.

My main curiosity is why you believe that everyone else desperately wanted to win the third tier league? Since when did that matter?

exactly my point. Getting promoted out of league 1 was a must after seeing how Sunderland are struggling to get out, Then It took Leeds United 3 years to get promoted from league 1 back to championship, and it took Sheffield United 6 seasons to get promoted from league 1 back to the Championship. Thankfully Mowbray got us out at the 1st attempt and deserved huge credit for doing so

[roversfan99]

50 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

exactly my point. Getting promoted out of league 1 was a must after seeing how Sunderland are struggling to get out, Then It took Leeds United 3 years to get promoted from league 1 back to championship, and it took Sheffield United 6 seasons to get promoted from league 1 back to the Championship. Thankfully Mowbray got us out at the 1st attempt and deserved huge credit for doing so

I know he did and of course he deserved the credit he got, I have never once tried to discredit him for that. I have never said that promotion wasnt the main priority, nor tried to discredit Mowbray specifically for achieving that. Mine and many others point was about something once promotion was already achieved, therefore is irrelevant to our point.

[unsall]

18 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

The answer of promotion is not valid to the question asked. Promoted was in the bank, secured, and was celebrated with Mowbray rightfully given plenty of praise. The comparison to Sunderland isnt correct because they have been festering for more than a year and crucially they havent already secured promotion.

You can be grateful and happy about promotion whilst also criticising the manager for publically dismissing and thus acting upon the potential of winning a league title. The 2 are not mutually exclusive.

We do not regularly win titles or even compete for them, so to dismiss it as irrelevant is bizarre.

Mowbray did well overall to achieve the minimum expectation, and was rightly celebrated. That doesnt mean that he was justified for not going 100% for the title once promotion had been secured. The bug bear is not even that we didnt win the league, its that it wasnt seen as important.

How you do know it wasn’t important, of course he wanted to win it, just didn’t happen, do you know of anybody giving Dalglish stick for coming sixth, no you don’t, just stupid arguments, we wanted promotion, end of, and if we won it, a bonus.

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, roversfan99 said:

I know he did and of course he deserved the credit he got, I have never once tried to discredit him for that. I have never said that promotion wasnt the main priority, nor tried to discredit Mowbray specifically for achieving that. Mine and many others point was about something once promotion was already achieved, therefore is irrelevant to our point.

No roversfan99 my point isn't irrelevant. 

Cant believe you still going on about league 1 title that is 19 months ago. You would have thought by now you would have move on like many posters have. If you that bothered about the league 1 winner trophy take a trip to Wigan and have a look at it. 

we are close to the playoffs and that's should be everyone focus not keep looking back at not winning league 1 winner trophy. 

Like I said at time when we finish second that promotion was the aim and we achieved it. 

[JBiz]

6 minutes ago, unsall said:

How you do know it wasn’t important, of course he wanted to win it, just didn’t happen, do you know of anybody giving Dalglish stick for coming sixth, no you don’t, just stupid arguments, we wanted promotion, end of, and if we won it, a bonus.

Also seemingly forget (easily I might add) promotion looked a forlorn hope in October. I remember travelling back from the Oldham game thinking “this is it now..!”