Tony Mowbray Discussion

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

  On 01/03/2020 at 13:12, Paul Mani said:

Let’s get something straight mate. Richie Smallwood was bloody brilliant for Rovers. Knew his job brilliantly and was extremely effective. His ability is limited and that is the reason he was replaced.

I think you’re confusing ability and understanding a role. Of course Reed was a far better footballer than Smallwood. But that’s not the same metric as whether or not someone understands a position. 

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Who would you rather play in that midfield role ?

[roversfan99]

  On 01/03/2020 at 13:12, Paul Mani said:

Let’s get something straight mate. Richie Smallwood was bloody brilliant for Rovers. Knew his job brilliantly and was extremely effective. His ability is limited and that is the reason he was replaced.

I think you’re confusing ability and understanding a role. Of course Reed was a far better footballer than Smallwood. But that’s not the same metric as whether or not someone understands a position. 

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Smallwood was good in League 1 yes. Reed felt somewhat restricted and at times ineffective from that wide role whereas he put in his best 3 performances in a Rovers shirt from central midfield and played well there for Fulham pre injury so I dont agree that he doesnt understand the position and thus am not confusing anything. When we initially came up Mowbray was very cautious with his team selections therefore a natural central midfielder out wide fit his definition of a defensive winger.

  On 01/03/2020 at 13:05, Paul Mani said:

Would feel weird calling him anything else. Sorry if that offends you. I’ll remember to call Dunny, Flit, Janny, Shorty, Trav and Bucko by their Sunday name too in future!

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Not at all. I was just wondering and am still in the dark if I am honest.

[jim mk2]

  On 01/03/2020 at 12:53, Paul Mani said:

No, I think it tells the story that he doesn’t know how to play CM. Played RB, RM and CB for Southampton, RB for Norwich, RM and CM for us and CM and RB for Fulham. He can play...he just hasn’t settled in a position. He hasn’t nailed CM.

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 Down to the manager and coaches to find his best position and leave him there. The lad can play

[K-Hod]

  On 01/03/2020 at 12:59, Paul Mani said:

I agree with most of your points. But the point here was that Mowbray didn’t believe he performed that CM role well enough. In fairness he had his best games  at RM for us, played RB for Norwich and tbf didn’t play every week for Fulham even when he was fit. Onomah, Cairney and Johanson have been preferred.

As I said, he’s a very good footballer. But I don’t think he’s a specialist anywhere.

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I’ll be honest, I don’t think that’s true at all.
He always seemed inhibited on the right wing, even if Mowbray selected him there the most, then when he eventually played in CM alongside Travis, amazingly, he played his best football! 

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by K-Hod

[Paul Mani]

  On 01/03/2020 at 21:22, K-Hod said:

I’ll be honest, I don’t think that’s true at all.
He always seemed inhibited on the right wing, even if Mowbray selected him there the most, then when he eventually played in CM alongside Travis, amazingly, he played his best football! 

 

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Argh no way for me. Always thought he flattered to deceive in CM. Was a funny player too. Started off The season  brilliantly and then tailed off. 

[OldEwoodBlue]

He's off again.... "Defenders are coming!"

 

Tony finally catching up with the rest of us. He's a slow one.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18275402.mowbray-knows-rovers-summer-transfer-priorities-lie/

[Stuart]

  On 03/03/2020 at 05:32, OldEwoodBlue said:

He's off again.... "Defenders are coming!"

 

Tony finally catching up with the rest of us. He's a slow one.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18275402.mowbray-knows-rovers-summer-transfer-priorities-lie/

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He doesn’t half know how to insult our intelligence.

[Blue blood]

"We probably need to recruit a whole back 4 for competition" TM

Nothing like forward planning! Not sure how this counts as a slow build progress needing 4 defenders and a keeper. (Actually 2 keepers if Leuits is the back up). 

Although if I am honest I may have heard him say this before...

[47er]

  On 03/03/2020 at 06:17, Stuart said:

He doesn’t half know how to insult our intelligence.

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He must think we have no memory!

[Mattyblue]

  On 03/03/2020 at 08:00, 47er said:

He must think we have no memory!

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Looking at the comments below the article... we don’t!

[Mashed Potatoes]

  On 03/03/2020 at 06:17, Stuart said:

He doesn’t half know how to insult our intelligence.

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Hardly - there's been a significant improvement in our goals against record - down from 1.5 per game last season to 1.17 this.

[arbitro]

  On 03/03/2020 at 06:17, Stuart said:

He doesn’t half know how to insult our intelligence.

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At the supporters meeting he was asked about the 'defenders are coming' comment and he said that defenders did come. Whilst that happened it's stretching the truth somewhat as the three that came are all on loan and reading between the lines he doesn't inspire me to believe they will be back either on loan or permanent.

I terms of improving the squad we will be in the same position this summer as we were last summer.

[Blue blood]

  On 03/03/2020 at 08:04, Mashed Potatoes said:

Hardly - there's been a significant improvement in our goals against record - down from 1.5 per game last season to 1.17 this.

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And yet we only have 5 recognised defenders in the squad. 6 if you count Cunningham but that's still pretty appalling. 

It's not solely about the defensive improvement, which is highly laudable and a step in the right direction, but the fact we have only 5 defenders and the fact our improvement leaves in the summer! This suggests the "defenders are coming" comment needed an amendment - "but they won't be here for long."

[chaddyrovers]

  On 03/03/2020 at 08:16, arbitro said:

At the supporters meeting he was asked about the 'defenders are coming' comment and he said that defenders did come.

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Well defenders did come in tho whether on loan or permanent. Think people including myself expect 4 defensive signings. 

Would you not agree that Tosin and Cunningham were improvement on the players they replace? Of course we would like permanent signings but didn't happen that way. 

Going off his comments about summer signings I would hope we make 3 defenders and 2 keepers signings. 

[tomphil]

  On 03/03/2020 at 07:50, Blue blood said:

"We probably need to recruit a whole back 4 for competition" TM

Nothing like forward planning! Not sure how this counts as a slow build progress needing 4 defenders and a keeper. (Actually 2 keepers if Leuits is the back up). 

Although if I am honest I may have heard him say this before...

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I've come to the conclusion the slow build they kept mentioning was in reference to bringing our own through. Knowing there is quite a few there plus the ones already in. Intention is probably to sell a load at some point and recoup a few years running costs and outlay, everything in between is just plugging gaps.

The won't invest in defenders debate is open to argument but whats been clear in Venkys time is the reluctance to actually buy a decent goalkeeper. 

[arbitro]

  On 03/03/2020 at 08:45, chaddyrovers said:

Well defenders did come in tho whether on loan or permanent. Think people including myself expect 4 defensive signings. 

Would you not agree that Tosin and Cunningham were improvement on the players they replace? Of course we would like permanent signings but didn't happen that way. 

Going off his comments about summer signings I would hope we make 3 defenders and 2 keepers signings. 

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Whilst you are right with your first sentence (as was Mowbray) I don't think anybody thought that 60% of our first choice defence would be loans. In anybody's book it's not healthy and smacks of a lack of succession planning.

We are better defensively, without doubt but in the summer we are pretty much starting from scratch again from a defensive point of view. Do you think that's a healthy situation for a club with supposed ambition?

 

[Leonard Venkhater]

  On 03/03/2020 at 05:32, OldEwoodBlue said:

He's off again.... "Defenders are coming!"

 

Tony finally catching up with the rest of us. He's a slow one.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18275402.mowbray-knows-rovers-summer-transfer-priorities-lie/

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Well, I admit that the headline irritated me. TM said something similar about previous summers.

[Leonard Venkhater]

  On 03/03/2020 at 09:23, arbitro said:

Whilst you are right with your first sentence (as was Mowbray) I don't think anybody thought that 60% of our first choice defence would be loans. In anybody's book it's not healthy and smacks of a lack of succession planning.

We are better defensively, without doubt but in the summer we are pretty much starting from scratch again from a defensive point of view. Do you think that's a healthy situation for a club with supposed ambition?

 

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Agreed. And I seem to remember Desai spouting that the future was loans, just after the takeaway...

[Dreams of 1995]

He has no choice but to go after defenders. Our problem lies with whether or not India sanctions money being spent on them. They hate money being spent on defenders / goalkeepers, hence why we've mixed it about with awful journeymen or loans for the most part. Must be frustrating for the coaches.

Lenihan and Nyambe remain but we are back looking for replacements for our left side. If we can get Tosin again it's a winner but I doubt it- I suspect a top league loan is likely for him. 

[JHRover]

We've heard all this before. Rightly or wrongly there will be no appetite to overhaul the defence in the summer, even if by some miracle the owners authorise significant expenditure on it.

Mowbray attaches a lot of weight to trust and doing his homework on players. He won't want to risk upsetting the apple cart by bringing in 2 keepers and 3-4 defenders.

I expect one of the first pieces of business will be a new contract for Bell and possibly also Leutwiler.

[Bigdoggsteel]

We will be priced out of moves for Tosin or Walton unless we go up. So hopefully the Euro scouting network have identified a hard as nails Serb or 2 ,along with a couple of exotic and highly skilled full-backs 

[Bigdoggsteel]

  On 03/03/2020 at 10:24, JHRover said:

We've heard all this before. Rightly or wrongly there will be no appetite to overhaul the defence in the summer, even if by some miracle the owners authorise significant expenditure on it.

Mowbray attaches a lot of weight to trust and doing his homework on players. He won't want to risk upsetting the apple cart by bringing in 2 keepers and 3-4 defenders.

I expect one of the first pieces of business will be a new contract for Bell and possibly also Leutwiler.

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I think it's needs must at this stage. 

[47er]

  On 03/03/2020 at 09:23, arbitro said:

We are better defensively, without doubt but in the summer we are pretty much starting from scratch again from a defensive point of view. Do you think that's a healthy situation for a club with supposed ambition?

 

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And look how long it took us to get going this season!

Not helped, of course, by changing the side every week.

[47er]

  On 03/03/2020 at 10:24, JHRover said:

We've heard all this before. Rightly or wrongly there will be no appetite to overhaul the defence in the summer, even if by some miracle the owners authorise significant expenditure on it.

Mowbray attaches a lot of weight to trust and doing his homework on players. He won't want to risk upsetting the apple cart by bringing in 2 keepers and 3-4 defenders.

I expect one of the first pieces of business will be a new contract for Bell and possibly also Leutwiler.

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Inspiring----not!

[Bigdoggsteel]

  On 03/03/2020 at 10:30, 47er said:

And look how long it took us to get going this season!

Not helped, of course, by changing the side every week.

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We are having the best season since we were relegated from the Premier league, at least try and enjoy it