Sheffield Wednesday (A)

[only2garners]

2 hours ago, Fraserkirky said:

Thought Rothwell was brilliant today, as he was against Birmingham. 
Don’t know what people are watching sometimes.

He was a lot better today but still some way away from the best Rovers player on the pitch. A needless booking which Led to his substitution.

I’ll draw a veil over an awful performance at Birmingham.

[joey_big_nose]

26 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Hes obviously even worse on the wings but hes been really poor even when he has played up top which is easily forgotten. As much as I am pleased for him to score an excellent finish today, you look at justifying a central role for him, which is the only position he should be considered for, and Holtby should be the number 10 for the forseeable future in Dacks absence and obviously got 2 today. So there is one place left, and whilst Armstrong is comfortable wide right, he has had a couple of very productive games up front so I would not move him to accomodate Gallagher.

For me Armstrong is as effective wide as up front, while Gallagher looks better through the middle. So I'd play them that way.

But Mowbray is absolutely committed to Gally on the wing, and it worked quite well today, so I doubt it will be changing soon.

Will be interesting what happens if we sign a right winger as rumoured.

[Amo]

5 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

For me Armstrong is as effective wide as up front, while Gallagher looks better through the middle. So I'd play them that way.

But Mowbray is absolutely committed to Gally on the wing, and it worked quite well today, so I doubt it will be changing soon.

Will be interesting what happens if we sign a right winger as rumoured.

You're right. And more often than not it won't work. Sheff Weds had an absolute stinker and judging from their fans they're a real Jekyll and Hyde team. I don't think one game is going to change the fact that Gallagher rarely looks effective on the flank. 

[SBlue]

We would have beaten them with 9 today so don’t let the red card sway your judgement.

Possibly the best all round Rovers away performance I have EVER seen.

Yes they were shite, but we were electric. 

So assured and in control of the ball with positivity, threat, quality and intent.

The Travis/Downing axis was absolutely ridiculous. A throwback to Sav and Tugay.

God I love Trav.

Arma, Gally, Holtby, Darragh, Tosin, Nyambe and even Bell were all absolutely excellent.

Not a kick or step out of out of place.

Play like that every week and we’ll make the playoffs.
 

We have some very, very good players.

Just keep it up.

This can be a big turning point.

 

A happy Sheffielder tonight!

Edited January 18, 2020 by S8 & Blue

[SBlue]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

Good. For too long we’ve been a friendly team of pushovers, fist pumping and ‘making a good go of it’. 

I love that Trav is a shithouse. You can see him mouthing off, tugging, nipping all game at the opposition midfielders. Ignore the dingle connection, and the obvious scouse connection too - but he’s our Joey Barton, and thank God.

Smallwood was the “king of Ewood” in League One because he was the first defensive midfielder we’ve had with that kind of attitude in that decade. I’m so relieved Trav is filling that role.

Trav had wound up the “quality” “experienced” Bannan so much that he looked in danger of losing it, finger pointing and giving him aggro when he was on the ground.

For me - this lad is our most important player.

That attitude and will to assert yourself on the game can’t be taught.

[47er]

57 minutes ago, WIR Second Coming said:

Am very happy for big Sam Gallagher this evening - he took his goal this afternoon very well and it was a real 'striker's finish'. I just hope that it was enough to turn Tony's head so that he will play him as a striker and in front of the goals instead of making him labour in vain on the wings.

Its rather odd isn't it? Mowbray accepts we have to put players on each wing, however they must, in no circumstances, be wingers!  

[joey_big_nose]

4 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

Trav had wound up the “quality” “experienced” Bannan so much that he looked in danger of losing it, finger pointing and giving him aggro when he was on the ground.

For me - this lad is our most important player.

That attitude and will to assert yourself on the game can’t be taught.

I agree that if you took Travis out of the team we would be a much worse outfit. The ground he covers is phenomenal. He knits everything together.

Also when he first came in he looked like a pure physical water carrier. But over the last couple of months he's started to add a real bit of technical quality. His strike today and some of his passing was excellent. Also love the way when he's closed down he can just shift the ball, skip away and drive past the opposition player with ease. Does it half a dozen times a game.

Really promising.

[darrenrover]

Wow. A fantastic performance and result.

The question has got to be how can we be so shit for several games and then pull a performance and result like this out of the bag from nowhere yet again?

Tony, if you've stumbled across a formation and tactics that work, for fucks sake don't feel the need to tamper with it!

COYB!!

[47er]

14 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

We would have beaten them with 9 today so don’t let the red card sway your judgement.

Possibly the best all round Rovers away performance I have EVER seen.

Yes they were shite, but we were electric. 

So assured and in control of the ball with positivity, threat, quality and intent.

The Travis/Downing axis was absolutely ridiculous. A throwback to Sav and Tugay.

God I love Trav.

Arma, Gally, Holtby, Darragh, Tosin, Nyambe and even Bell were all absolutely excellent.

Not a kick or step out of out of place.

Play like that every week and we’ll make the playoffs.
 

We have some very, very good players.

Just keep it up.

This can be a big turning point.

 

A happy Sheffielder tonight!

Don't make the mistake of judging the team or the manager on any one game. We all hope for more of the same but we have to be realistic. 

[SBlue]

Just now, 47er said:

Don't make the mistake of judging the team or the manager on any one game. We all hope for more of the same but we have to be realistic. 

Tell that to my liver right now

[Tugay-is-God]

Full credit to Mowbray for the win.

[SBlue]

3 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

I agree that if you took Travis out of the team we would be a much worse outfit. The ground he covers is phenomenal. He knits everything together.

Also when he first came in he looked like a pure physical water carrier. But over the last couple of months he's started to add a real bit of technical quality. His strike today and some of his passing was excellent. Also love the way when he's closed down he can just shift the ball, skip away and drive past the opposition player with ease. Does it half a dozen times a game.

Really promising.

They’ve called it the Kroos shuffle when yer man at Real Madrid done it.

So simple looking and comes so natural, but the lad can always buy a yard where others can’t.

[47er]

edit

Edited January 19, 2020 by 47er

[Tom]

Nyambe for me is the player with the most premier league potential that we’ve had in years, they call him Rhino, an absolute unit of a man, when he’s confident he destroys full backs.

I don’t think he’s changed much this season, it was always baffling for Benno to start ahead of him, I recall Chaddy and others saying Bennett was better at right back but it’s never been the case.

He has the potential to have it all and seems like he’s not a lad distracted by bright lights, a humble lad from a poor country.

Hope we can hang onto him a little longer but really hope he makes it.

Still beaming at that win today, lovely when it all comes together, well done to the manager and each and every one of them

That finish from Gally looked effortless, like a striker who knew exactly what was going to happen; incidentally I can’t recall our strikers getting balls like that to run onto for a long time, exactly what Gally and Brero need 

Edited January 19, 2020 by Tom

[Husky]

Today's ref.

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

[Sparks Rover]

13 minutes ago, Tom said:

I don’t think he’s changed much this season, it was always baffling for Benno to start ahead of him, I recall Chaddy and others saying Bennett was better at right back but it’s never been the case.

I agree, 3 seasons ago he was roughly the same player, he's had his development stifled by a poor coaching set up and seemingly unhealthy boys club. Same to an extent with Bell, no development going on....a better manager would get a lot more out of this lot

[speeeeeeedie]

Days like today are why I like this messageboard. 

It was an almost universal opinion that Wednesday were nailed on for a home win. Cue a stonker of a performance and post after post singing the team's praises.

That's football. It allows people to dream.

Come Monday it will be back to the usual uncertainty. Mowbray has a full week and more with his team. If Klopp, Guardiola, or even Dyche had that much time to prepare there would be a massive improvement in team performance.

Let's keep dreaming.  

 

[DeeCee]

59 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

Tell that to my liver right now

Wondered where you'd been. Rehab? ?

[harryhealless1928]

Best performance I can remember since we beat Norwich 7-1 at home with Shearer(2 goals) & Wegerle(2 goals)in 1992.

We hit 7 against Sheffield Wednesday in 1997 but I didnt see that game!

 

All credit to the defence for keeping a clean sheet which rarely happens with such a tub-thumping win! This is the sort of scoreline you get with Klopp or Pep as manager!

[Neal]

I personally think Nyambe hasn't changed that much, he's just being played and has 2 decent centre halves along side him rather than a panicy Mulgrew with poor positioning. I watched him when we got relegated against Brentford and he was, by a long way, the best player on the pitch. I don't want to criticise the manager after an outstanding result but in this case he got it horribly wrong and its cost us an unknown amount of points. 

[bluebruce]

4 hours ago, darrenrover said:

Wow. A fantastic performance and result.

The question has got to be how can we be so shit for several games and then pull a performance and result like this out of the bag from nowhere yet again?

Tony, if you've stumbled across a formation and tactics that work, for fucks sake don't feel the need to tamper with it!

COYB!!

It really is a mystery how we went from serving up what we have been, to today.

Sadly I missed most of the game as I had things I needed to do, so I just caught chunks here and there. But every time I did, we were nearly flawless. Wednesday were a bit poor, but by god we were on fire. Every touch, bit of movement, every dribble...it all looked top notch. The more it went on, from every player, the more astonished I was. A really, really long time since I've seen us so on the ball. So long I can't even remember when.

That can't come from the manager. Credit to him for, obviously, getting it right, and he presumably said something that struck a chord with the lads, but ultimately that performance has to come from within. That each and every player looked at or very close to the top of their game...that's a real rarity in football. This is a real win to be cherished. Given what we have seen previously it's probably going to go down as a rare confluence of everyone being on it all at once, but the players really need to look at themselves and ask, where did that come from? And can they do it again? Because if they can, and keep doing it or somewhere close, their dreams will come true. Not many teams will be able to live with us playing like that.

They've shown what they can do now. God knows what big chunks of the rest of the season were about, but they've no excuse to go back to that from here. They'll be doing the manager, the fans and themselves a huge disservice if they do.

[philipl]

Exactly bluebruce.

The frustration of watching Rovers has been knowing individually and collectively we are so much better than what we have been seeing.

Yes a game in which everything comes together like that comes along only once in a while but the gulf between that performance and Luton or Charlton is unacceptably large.

Let's enjoy the next ten days but puts big pressure on Mowbray to make sure we kick on. QPR are in many ways the form team of the division so the perfect opponents a week on Tuesday.

[arbitro]

Yesterday was hugely enjoyable, that goes without saying but I thought we were better against Bristol City just prior to Christmas. I just hope we don't get carried away again and lulled into this mindset where our approach is too relaxed and over confident.

On the sending off it looked harsh but after seeing some of the antics of the likes of Preston I have no issues with us becoming horrible to play against. As I said after the Bristol game that kind of attitude is part of our heritage and identity.

Yesterday was the first time I have seen us score five away from home since I first went in the mid sixties, some fifty odd years. I took my granddaughter to her third away game yesterday and when I told her she beamed knowing she has put one over on me. ??

[matt83]

12 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Yesterday was the first time I have seen us score five away from home since I first went in the mid sixties, some fifty odd years. I took my granddaughter to her third away game yesterday and when I told her she beamed knowing she has put one over on me. ??

Apparently it was our biggest away win since 1964 (5-0 vs Bolton-Pickering x2, Ferguson, mcevoy, Harrison).

[Ossydave]

7 hours ago, Tom said:

Nyambe for me is the player with the most premier league potential that we’ve had in years, they call him Rhino, an absolute unit of a man, when he’s confident he destroys full backs.

I don’t think he’s changed much this season, it was always baffling for Benno to start ahead of him, I recall Chaddy and others saying Bennett was better at right back but it’s never been the case.

He has the potential to have it all and seems like he’s not a lad distracted by bright lights, a humble lad from a poor country.

Hope we can hang onto him a little longer but really hope he makes it.

Still beaming at that win today, lovely when it all comes together, well done to the manager and each and every one of them

That finish from Gally looked effortless, like a striker who knew exactly what was going to happen; incidentally I can’t recall our strikers getting balls like that to run onto for a long time, exactly what Gally and Brero need 

Nyambe is, understandably so, a real confidence player. If he has it like he most certainly did yesterday he's just brilliant. I think it was the second goal were he absolutely mugged their defender off and sent him for a hotdog, sheer class.  Let's hope he stays fit for a considerable spell now. Such a shame Cunningham got crocked because if he hadn't it would have been the best back 4 for some time.