Fulham Away

[DE.]

Just now, Sparks Rover said:

I think it's the opposite.  He's usually knackered and hasn't got the burst or energy to get beyond  defenders.  He should be around Gallagher more to win the second ball and try more to shoot.  

I thought he would have worked on his conditioning over the summer, looks like he's been auditioning for Fame the musical 

It might be that dropping back regularly is affecting his stamina a little. Hard to tell from watching it via a screen as I'm not seeing what he's doing when he's off the ball - the drawbacks of not being able to attend live unfortunately. My observations are limited mostly to what's happening on the ball at the time. That's part of the reason I appreciate the reviews of people who do go, as it helps fill some of those gaps!

[joey_big_nose]

Watched the extended highlights back. Confirmed a couple of things...

1) Armstrong's got a lot of criticism on here but basically he created absolutely everything for us yesterday. Loads more that Dack or Rothwell. He did his work very well, just the rest of the team couldn't finish off 

2) Johnson at fault for their first goal, he should have been out to Cairney

3) Tosin looks very good, Walton looks shakey

4) we did get one shot on target! Dack snap shot close to the end of the game off a Travis header.

 

 

[joey_big_nose]

7 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I got shouted down when I suggested that for a very tall striker Gallagher is not a good header of the ball. If you rolled Gallager and Brereton into one you wouldn't have a good header of the ball. You wouldn't even have a player of Matt Jansen's heading ability and what was he 5' 9" -5' 10".

I think I might be in a minority here but I thought Gallagher was very good in the air... He won virtually everything against the Fulham centrebacks pushing the ball onto a rovers player.

Edited August 11, 2019 by joey_big_nose

[Sparks Rover]

Just now, DE. said:

It might be that dropping back regularly is affecting his stamina a little. Hard to tell from watching it via a screen as I'm not seeing what he's doing when he's off the ball - the drawbacks of not being able to attend live unfortunately. My observations are limited mostly to what's happening on the ball at the time. That's part of the reason I appreciate the reviews of people who do go, as it helps fill some of those gaps!

He's dropping back because he's not fit enough to play his position.  Rooney started doing it for England. Time to get shut or seriously get him fit or motivated

[Vilesinner]

Just now, joey_big_nose said:

I think I might be in a minority here but I thought Gallagher was very good in the air... He won virtually everything against the Fulham centrebacks pushing the ball onto a rovers player.

I agree, he looked a handful. A bit raw, but he was a key part of our great play in the first half.

Would rather see JRC brought on as an attacking right back than Dack brought deeper and us finishing with 4 strikers; that never works.

A more encouraging performance indeed. 3 points next game is important though.

[47er]

3 hours ago, tomphil said:

Put Raya behind a more solid defence and he'll do better, put Walton behind a weaker one than he had before and he won't.

Not rocket science..........unless you're Mowbray.

We sold Raya who was our player, we had all the close season to find a solid replacement and we've ended up with a keeper on a one year loan who, at the moment at least, is unconvincing. And we have the same back-up as before.

Does anything sum up the confusion and inadequacy around the club than that?

[all you need is duff]

9 hours ago, Vilesinner said:

Maybe Brentford play with a defence. Raya was very lucky guy though, he was at fault for the goal that was incorrectly ruled out. 

Raya also let in a header from outside the area in their defeat to Birmingham on day 1. The mistake wasn’t getting rid of Raya, it was getting rid without having a suitable replacement lined up

[nathan_rovers1]

Having been to the game, I thought we were pretty good yesterday.... The results will start coming. 

We will be top 10 finishers this year and will do well, another season of progress. 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by nathan_rovers1

[Stuart]

9 hours ago, DE. said:

Our current system makes it virtually impossible to get the best out of Armstrong, Rothwell, Brereton or Gallagher individually, let alone in the same team. That's nearly £15m of talent who have been signed for a system that doesn't really suit them, and there is no evidence we are planning to change style any time soon. Worryingly Tony seems to be trying to retrain Brereton as a left winger (!), whilst Armstrong is wasted on the flanks and Rothwell is only partially effective out wide. Jury's still out on whether Gallagher can be the Graham replacement we need, but we better hope so as I don't see Venky's sanctioning another big splash on a striker. 

We have a squad now which is difficult to put into a system to get the best out of them.

Any new manager is going to need a couple of windows to get some balance back to the squad and jettison some of the duplicated central players.

[1864roverite]

No good whining about Raya being sold he asked to leave end of! 

[Mattyblue]

21 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

No good whining about Raya being sold he asked to leave end of! 

That was one of Mowbray’s tales over the summer, Another was that he needed to be sold to buy Gallagher.

Who knows what really went on.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Mattyblue

[JHRover]

28 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

No good whining about Raya being sold he asked to leave end of! 

Havent seen anyone complaining about Raya being sold, though it is concerning if he requested to leave us to join Brentford.

Personally I'm more concerned about Mowbray apparently deciding last season that he didn't want Raya, agreeing to sell him, then replacing him with someone with less experience on loan for the season. Meanwhile the goals continue to fly in whilst Raya is good enough to play every game for Brentford who are likely to finish above us.

 

[tomphil]

8 hours ago, 47er said:

We sold Raya who was our player, we had all the close season to find a solid replacement and we've ended up with a keeper on a one year loan who, at the moment at least, is unconvincing. And we have the same back-up as before.

Does anything sum up the confusion and inadequacy around the club than that?

Similar with Mulgrew who yes needed replacing but doing it with a young player who was playing RB most of last season and has very limited experience plus he's next to a converted midfielder still learning his trade. Key positions in the team that anchor everything GK & 2 CBs yet they are novices and not only that two are new to the team and club, why does the bedding in period not apply here that applies elsewhere also ?

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by tomphil

[DE.]

7 hours ago, all you need is duff said:

Raya also let in a header from outside the area in their defeat to Birmingham on day 1. 

That's very harsh, that header was an absolute rocket and might as well have been hit with his foot. 

@01:46, anyone calling that Raya's fault is showing a heavy bias imo. I'm pretty sure if he let that in for us there wouldn't be many people blaming him. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 hours ago, Stuart said:

We have a squad now which is difficult to put into a system to get the best out of them.

Any new manager is going to need a couple of windows to get some balance back to the squad and jettison some of the duplicated central players.

What have at the moment is a collection of players, not a team.

[MarkBRFC]

23 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

What have at the moment is a collection of players, not a team.

Completely agree with this, and feel like it's been like this for a while.

[FGS5635]

I always think if we played 3 at the back I could understand all his signings. But we dont, which leaves me scratching my head what he's thinking.

I always think he wants to play 3 at the back, but cant seem to pull the trigger on it.

The squad is set now, so I guess this oldham game will answer if he has any intention of doing it this season or not

 

[Stuart]

7 hours ago, FGS5635 said:

I always think if we played 3 at the back I could understand all his signings. But we dont, which leaves me scratching my head what he's thinking.

I always think he wants to play 3 at the back, but cant seem to pull the trigger on it.

The squad is set now, so I guess this oldham game will answer if he has any intention of doing it this season or not

I think they’ve a Go Ape event planned in October so maybe a month after that.

[USABlue]

On 10/08/2019 at 15:40, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

Just got back.

I haven’t read any comments so got no idea what the general consensus is.

Overall I was encouraged. I expected a battering and it never looked like occurring. We were by far the better side in the first half and marginally second best in the second. The end result was harsh and a draw would have been fair.

Positives:

Tosin and Williams. Solid throughout. We won’t miss Mulgrew if Tosin can keep that up. Williams looks far more accomplished at CB.

Dack. Was flying into everything and stood out in the first half. He won’t be here for much longer so we should make the most of it, Really encouraged by how well he played.

Travis and Johnson. It works. Really effective together. Best centre mid pairing in years.

Negatives.

Armstrong. He’s not a winger. Gets in behind but the end product isn’t there. Move him central or bring Chapman in.

Bell. Improved in the second half but was clearly our weak link. It’s Cunningham’s spot to lose.

Rothwell. Barely noticed him. Deserves more chances and did nothing wrong but didn’t provide much.

Everyone else did well enough. Bennett looked ok and Gallagher worked really hard. Main concern is the lack of clear chances we created today and last week. Disappointed with how we seemed to down tools after their second. We ran out of steam in the second half and the subs had no real impact. 

Fulham were solid but unspectacular. They will get better I’m sure. 

As a stand alone performance there’s plenty to be pleased about. But we need that first point to get things going, 

As if Mowbary is going to play a winger on the wing.

[Fraserkirky]

12 hours ago, FGS5635 said:

I always think if we played 3 at the back I could understand all his signings. But we dont, which leaves me scratching my head what he's thinking.

I always think he wants to play 3 at the back, but cant seem to pull the trigger on it.

The squad is set now, so I guess this oldham game will answer if he has any intention of doing it this season or not

 

The time is now, what other formation allows us to play 2 of our 4 natural strikers, Dack in his favorite position. Bennett/JRC at Right wingback, Even Travis could play right wing back as he did throughout his time in the under 23s, and you could put Rothwell in CM with Johnson playing the half back role. Downing/Cunningham/Bell will all excell at Left Wing back. I also love the balance at the back with a choice of Tosin/Lenihan/Williams or Nyambe/Tosin/Lenihan. 

Perhaps this has been the plan all along but we haven’t had all three ready centre backs yet.

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Fraserkirky