Fulham Away

[Wood26]

My thoughts on the game today....

Keeper doesn’t look commanding considering his size. He’s not a player either, can’t see us passing it out with him.

Williams and Tosin look an improvement on what we had.

Bennett was better then last week, when he did 4 tackles in a row, including a vital one, that’s the commitment you want to see.

Bell was awful first half, not sure if wind was issue, but he couldn’t get ball under control at all.

Travis and Johnson ran out steam second half against 3 in the middle. I thought Johnson was class last week, couldn’t get a grip of it today.

Armstrong our best threat first half, second half ran it out of play about 3 times.

Dack much better this week. Moving him deeper made no sense.

Rothwell I barely noticed.

Gallagher, works hard, which helped shut down those new goal kicks, but Christ he can’t hold it up. Lots of flicks on to no one. When Graham came on he held his body, Shielded the ball then laid it off, reminded me of what a target man should be.

I feel both games so far we haven’t deserved to lose, so I’m encouraged by that, but concerned about where our goals come from. If Graham doesn’t start, and with Mulgrew gone that’s 20 odd goals we lost.

Long way too go, I think top half is still on from what I’ve seen from us, Fulham and Charlton.

[OJRovers]

Just now, Parsonblue said:

Goalscoring is looking a major problem at the moment.  Until the first goal we totally dominated without ever really looking like we would score.  I was very disappointed with Armstrong and Rothwell who looked good running with the ball but there was simply no end product.  Every ball they ball into the box found the first defender.  Gallagher looks mobile but very poor in the air and doesn't look much of a goal threat at the moment.  Tosin and Williams looked very solid at the centre of defence and Bennett had a much better game at full-back.  Johnson started OK and then went downhill pretty quickly.  Really not sure why Travis was taken off.  To say we had Gallagher, Graham, Brereton, Armstrong and Dack on at the end and couldn't muster a real threat on goal was hugely disappointing.  I'm not convinced with Walton - really ought to have saved the second goal.

Fulham are not really firing at the moment but they have quality players who will, once they get going, win more than they lose.  I was encouraged by the first half but overall came away concerned that, despite the attacking players on the pitch, we didn't force their keeper to make any real saves.  Certainly a lot of work to be done on the training ground to get the right blend on the pitch on matchday.

Both Armstrong/ Rothwell are being played out of position so not surprising to hear they struggled. 

I do wonder what this team would be like with 2 proper wingers on the pitch. Not seen that for a good while.

We need a goal threat up front. I’d bring Danny Graham back in or even give Brereton a go.

[barry_]

32 minutes ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

First half we played some really good stuff and based on that alone, I wouldn’t be concerned.

I've seen the 'we played some good stuff' line from a lot of people. 

The idea of football is to pepper shots/headers/anything at the goal (the thing in white at either end of the pitch) and hope it goes in. 

We haven't done that in 2 games. 

It's not good enough. 

Bye bye mediocre man. 

 

[rigger]

It was better than last week

[AAK]

1 hour ago, CambridgeRover said:

Johnson was at fault for the first goal and was awful in the second half. His touch had gone and he looked leggy

Hes shit. Gets far too much credit on here, loses the ball constantly and in dangerous positions. The first 11 looks dire.

[AAK]

Just now, rigger said:

It was better than last week

Wasnt fucking difficult 

[AAK]

Just now, barry_ said:

I've seen the 'we played some good stuff' line from a lot of people. 

The idea of football is to pepper shots/headers/anything at the goal (the thing in white at either end of the pitch) and hope it goes in. 

We haven't done that in 2 games. 

It's not good enough. 

Bye bye mediocre man. 

 

Whos gives a crap about ticky shitty football, we want effective football, something which is severley lacking.

[AAK]

16 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

Goalscoring is looking a major problem at the moment.  Until the first goal we totally dominated without ever really looking like we would score.  I was very disappointed with Armstrong and Rothwell who looked good running with the ball but there was simply no end product.  Every ball they ball into the box found the first defender.  Gallagher looks mobile but very poor in the air and doesn't look much of a goal threat at the moment.  Tosin and Williams looked very solid at the centre of defence and Bennett had a much better game at full-back.  Johnson started OK and then went downhill pretty quickly.  Really not sure why Travis was taken off.  To say we had Gallagher, Graham, Brereton, Armstrong and Dack on at the end and couldn't muster a real threat on goal was hugely disappointing.  I'm not convinced with Walton - really ought to have saved the second goal.

Fulham are not really firing at the moment but they have quality players who will, once they get going, win more than they lose.  I was encouraged by the first half but overall came away concerned that, despite the attacking players on the pitch, we didn't force their keeper to make any real saves.  Certainly a lot of work to be done on the training ground to get the right blend on the pitch on matchday.

Mowbray out, ill say it for you.

[Roverinbelfast]

Just home after a long day traveling and many beers along the way. I thought the atmosphere at the game today was excellent and fair dues to the fans who probably traveled further than I did to attend.

now about the game... I genuinely believe we played well today against on paper the best team in the league. If we play like that every game we will do ok. I thought Tosin was fantastic today and Travis really caught my eye. I thought we matched them for long periods. It’s just not really happening for us up front at the moment 

My concern is the keeper situation, Walton is a downgrade on raya, and I find it a bitter pill to swallow that we sold raya to replace him with Walton.

i definitely don’t think we should be shouting mowbray out just yet,but he has made some big calls this summer and he will live or die by his decisions.

..

[Wood26]

26 minutes ago, AAK said:

Hes shit. Gets far too much credit on here, loses the ball constantly and in dangerous positions. The first 11 looks dire.

He played well last week. Was a presence, his header led to our goal, and played a beauty of a ball to Gallagher in a good position who miss controlled it. I saw a Derby fan say he’s hot and cold, and I could see that from today. But compared to Smallwood and Evans he’s an improvement.

[Wood26]

40 minutes ago, barry_ said:

I've seen the 'we played some good stuff' line from a lot of people. 

The idea of football is to pepper shots/headers/anything at the goal (the thing in white at either end of the pitch) and hope it goes in. 

We haven't done that in 2 games. 

It's not good enough. 

Bye bye mediocre man. 

 

The shots on target thing doesn’t worry me. We created good chances first half, cut backs that another day fall for us, Gallagher header over bar, Johnson shot blocked.

The football isn’t that bad, we dominated a superior team on paper, time will tell but I’m not panicking yet. 

[AAK]

Just now, Wood26 said:

He played well last week. Was a presence, his header led to our goal, and played a beauty of a ball to Gallagher in a good position who miss controlled it. I saw a Derby fan say he’s hot and cold, and I could see that from today. But compared to Smallwood and Evans he’s an improvement.

Hes an imrpovement alright. However thats like saying mud is an improvement on shit.

[rossyrover]

Mowbray says at the end of last season we must tighten up the defence his answer to this problem sign Brightons forth rated goalkeeper and a 20 year old centre half from Man City youth set up thus two games no points one own goal for four goals against clutching at straws.

[Tugay's Right Foot]

Doesn’t look good for rothwell chances. Might be dropped on the basis of yesterday’s performance.

On the plus side, Tosin looks such an improvement over what we already had and against that Fulham frontline. He was giving some verbals to Travis etc. Bennett looked better than last week it has to be said but did slip for the second. All need to knuckle down ahead. Still think we will be so much stronger once we get nyambe, Cunningham and lenihan back sharpish.

will seriously judge after 5 matches, if its at least three points after 5 matches, would give TM until 10 matches to see if we can up the ratio. If it’s zero points after 5-6 matches, not sure if I can hold my nerves for 10 matches.

[Fraserkirky]

Well the good news today is that Tosin is good enough to keep us up this season. I thought he was superb today.

Johnson lost the plot second half, and was pretty terrible throughout. Lucky to stay on the pitch. He was right though, that was a disgraceful refereeing performance. Buckley time already?

Gallagher looks an absolute waste of money so far this year. Won a couple of high balls, everything else was crap.

Armstrong is just a headless chicken out wide, the fact he stayed on the pitch for 90 mins was surprising.

Bennett done okay but still responsible for collapsing during the build up, causing the second goal. Nyambe doesn’t fall down like that. He actually managed a couple of decent crosses in first half.

Thought Derrick Williams was good today didn’t put a foot wrong and won the ball a fair few times.

Tony needs a result next week.

Once Lenihan gets back I really think he needs to consider 3-5-2 again, we are getting zilch from the wide areas, and we have 4 natural strikers on the books.

 

[Mike E]

I'm going to desperately cling to the fact that last time we lost the first two games of the season, we were promoted.

[@roverseas]

Better display by Rovers on Saturday, however we need to be more clinical.  Fulham taking full advantage of their one and only chance and made us suffer.  Defensively I saw some positive improvements but no where near perfect.  Cunningham cant start quick enough.  Young Tosin was decent on his first outing.  Hoping we use this weeks cup match to kick start our season... more thoughts right here.  

 

Catch additional feedback from the Gaffa, the Maltese Rover Philip Lingard and Fulham fab Matthew Baldwin.

[AllRoverAsia]

iFollow now has the extended highlights online by midnight on a matchday Saturday which is a vast improvement on last season.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

5 hours ago, rossyrover said:

Mowbray says at the end of last season we must tighten up the defence his answer to this problem sign Brightons forth rated goalkeeper and a 20 year old centre half from Man City youth set up thus two games no points one own goal for four goals against clutching at straws.

If you saw Tosin yesterday you wouldn’t be so worried. He looked class. Jury is still out on Walton. 

It’s two games and the problem wasn’t how we played yesterday, it was Charlton. That’s where we dropped points. 

[Ossydave]

So Mowbray said post match that if he was fit yesterday Nyambe would have been 'involved'. Not sure whether to take that as though he would have started or if he just means he would have been in the squad.  I guess by making Bennett captain it strengthens his case to stay in the team though, unless of course he was actually planning for Lenihan to be captain.

I wouldn't usually be particularly bothered about the league cup but Tuesday serves an important purpose now. Go out there and bang some goals in for christ's sake, a clean sheet would be nice too. Oldham incidentally have had almost an identical shite start to the season as us and sit joint bottom on 0 points, looks like they didn't fare much better pre season either! If we can't notch a few goals against them then it really is time to get worried.

[Stuart]

8 hours ago, Parsonblue said:

Goalscoring is looking a major problem at the moment.  Until the first goal we totally dominated without ever really looking like we would score.  I was very disappointed with Armstrong and Rothwell who looked good running with the ball but there was simply no end product.  Every ball they ball into the box found the first defender.  Gallagher looks mobile but very poor in the air and doesn't look much of a goal threat at the moment.  Tosin and Williams looked very solid at the centre of defence and Bennett had a much better game at full-back.  Johnson started OK and then went downhill pretty quickly.  Really not sure why Travis was taken off.  To say we had Gallagher, Graham, Brereton, Armstrong and Dack on at the end and couldn't muster a real threat on goal was hugely disappointing.  I'm not convinced with Walton - really ought to have saved the second goal.

Fulham are not really firing at the moment but they have quality players who will, once they get going, win more than they lose.  I was encouraged by the first half but overall came away concerned that, despite the attacking players on the pitch, we didn't force their keeper to make any real saves.  Certainly a lot of work to be done on the training ground to get the right blend on the pitch on matchday.

Everything is built from the back. Until that is sorted nothing we will change and we will keep conceding goals.

No use blaming Rothwell and Armstrong when they are deployed in the way Mowbray does.

Having five strikers (Garner counted six) on the pitch does not mean you will score goals. We have no game plan. The buck stops with Mowbray.

Getting back on the training ground will not fix our problems.

[lraC]

13 hours ago, Spankus Munky said:

Yeah only Middlesbrough, Hull, Cardiff & Baggies up the next couple of weeks ?

Six points minimum from those, starting with 3 V Boro next week. ?

[JBiz]

8 hours ago, Roverinbelfast said:

Just home after a long day traveling and many beers along the way. I thought the atmosphere at the game today was excellent and fair dues to the fans who probably traveled further than I did to attend.

now about the game... I genuinely believe we played well today against on paper the best team in the league. If we play like that every game we will do ok. I thought Tosin was fantastic today and Travis really caught my eye. I thought we matched them for long periods. It’s just not really happening for us up front at the moment 

My concern is the keeper situation, Walton is a downgrade on raya, and I find it a bitter pill to swallow that we sold raya to replace him with Walton.

i definitely don’t think we should be shouting mowbray out just yet,but he has made some big calls this summer and he will live or die by his decisions.

..

I fall into this category - although one think I would say about Walton;

1. Very early days, still finding his feet/voice in the squad.

2. His kicking is a huge upgrade on Raya.

Overall - yesterday is another example that simplifying football down to sweeping arguments like “we can’t defend” has no value.

We are now two games into the season without creating a single clear cut chance, and yesterday I don’t think anyone can argue that it wasn’t our best front 6. (Maybe Graham for Sam, but you can’t press like we did with a 34 year old up front).

The reasoning comes down to a few key things for me;

1. Couple of new players, time to bed in. This also combined with new pressing/passing system as opposed to hitting graham with a diagonal to play Dack off

2. Substitutions. Both games I’m convinced TM got it completely wrong. Charlton we looking in the ascendancy until he changed it. More specifically Fulham; The minute he took Travis off, we couldn’t put a glove on them in the centre. You could almost tell from Bradley Johnson’s instant dip, what Travis gives us - pure energy and action in centre mid.

Finally - on the TM out stuff. The notion behind sacking any manager after 2 games into a season will never seem right to me. Doesn’t matter if people’s justification stretches back to last summer; the current context is we are 2 games into a season. Sacking a manager at that point would (in my view) be pretty much akin to blowing your own brains out.

Huddersfield did it with Robins. He left after 1 game I think, they finished 17th the season before. It took them 3 weeks or so to find Chris Powell (who then left 12 months later) who led them to finish 16th...

This is a club ran by a millionaire Huddersfield fan (Dean Hoyle).

Imagine how long it would take, and who we might get too.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

11 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

 Playing well and losing is a very bad sign.

It's what relegation teams do. 

I was going to point that out Jim. The first Rovers team I saw get relegated had that failing.

[Bbrovers2288]

Think it’s a big game next week, simply cannot lose or mowbray might start getting some serious heat. Personally I think his time is up already but for the lovers it might be time