Summer Transfer Window

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

I take the point and Rhodes undoubtedly did well but we had to build the team around him which stifled others. Rhodes was not THE reason we failed to get promotion but I’d argue that building the team around him limited us in the long run. He offered nothing outside the box. The modern striker needs to do more than just score these days. Comparing him to Shearer just proves my point.

That being said, Ive got a lot of time for Rhodes and fully appreciate what he did here. 

 

57 minutes ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

Armstrong is a completely different player, He poses more of a threat than Rhodes does. Armstrong has pace and can score from anywhere. Rhodes is a poacher who needs a team built around him to score goals. He relies on service. If it doesn’t arrive, he offers nothing. He did phenomenally well to score as often as he did when you look at his relatively limited skill set. 

The modern striker needs to occupy defenders and pose a threat off the ball. Rhodes too often was a passenger. If we played well, he’d score. If we didn’t, it’d be like playing with 10 men. He was never a game changer. Look at how he has faired at a higher level and at other championship teams.

He wasn’t the sole reason we didn’t go up but I maintain that we would have faired better in those early years under Bowyer with a team built around King/Gestede instead.
 

This is going off topic so I’ll leave it there.

One last thing, and to be fair there is very little going on that is on topic anyway! But it was a myth that we ever built the team around him. He scored goals in a team in the first year in which we were dysfunctional across the team, had a lack of quality out wide, a lazy central pair and a series of different players playing as a 10. He scored nearly 30 goals. Then we changed again to the team in the early Bowyer days and he scored more than 20. Then we signed Gestede and Conway, changed to a 4-4-2 and mainly played to the strengths of Gestede, getting in plenty of crosses, that didnt stop Rhodes scoring. Then we sold most of our best players and Rhodes still kept on scoring until he left. He played in quite a few teams, some that struggled, with different partners and different styles and the only thing that stayed the same was the goals he scored. He often scored crucial goals in games that we didnt play well in.

[bluebruce]

9 minutes ago, philipl said:

Apparently Ancelotti is trying to sign him.

You have to wonder if Man City need him most after today' s defensive debacle

Not like we didn't have defensive debacles, at our lower level, with him in the side though.

[Sparks Rover]

16 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Not like we didn't have defensive debacles, at our lower level, with him in the side though.

Aye, can't imagine old Toisin keeping up with Vardy.  He's a laid back type.

[Vilesinner]

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

By the same token, Armstrong was the one who stopped us from getting into the top 6 last year. He only got 16 goals whereas if he had got 25 we might have got into the top 6. Lets not focus on the inept goalkeeper, shaky defence and lack of balance.

If a striker is scoring 20 plus goals then he is doing his job, even before you appreciate that Rhodes wasnt quite as one dimensional as people made out. The reasons we couldnt make the top 6 were Lowe and Williamson in midfield, a leaky defence, poor goalkeepers in an overweight Robinson (post blood clot) and a terrible Steele, a manager who rarely outwitted his opposition etc. Not the striker who was consistently one of the top scorers in the division.

Lol! You explain Rhodes lack of mobility by picking one of our most mobile players. Our success these season has been because of our super fast defending from the front.

Remember Germany winning the world cup that way 

[roversfan99]

7 minutes ago, Vilesinner said:

Lol! You explain Rhodes lack of mobility by picking one of our most mobile players. Our success these season has been because of our super fast defending from the front.

Remember Germany winning the world cup that way 

Theres more than one way to skin a cat. Rhodes throughout his time here was performing at a level worthy of challenging for promotion. It was the rest of the team and the manager that stopped us.

[philipl]

If Sheffield United come in for Lenihan I would take it. 

Don't get me wrong, I admire Lenihan but we have Ayala, Wharton, Carter and the two under 23 central defenders look very promising. 

On current performances Williams would be a bigger loss to replace.

It would give us the necessary to cover our left back and back up keeper weaknesses.

[AllRoverAsia]

I see the history re-writers are back again, well shit floats so no surprise really.

OH and Armstrong is a top defender from the front! Did I dream that? Someones having a laaaarf

Tosin to Leeds

[Stuart]

20 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

What worries me is that when Gallagher is back fit, he'll drop Dolan straight away, when Dolan is miles better in that RW role.

Not even Mowbray is stupid enough to drop Dolan right now. But when Dack and Gallagher are fit we will sadly go back to our rotation policy.

We have been here before. When injuries mean his options are limited we become more consistent.

Mowbray is his own worst enemy. We have to hope that this new system dictates who plays where rather than shoe-horning Gallagher back in for £5m other reasons. I’d go so far as to say Gallagher and Brereton shouldn’t play in the same XI.

[philipl]

35 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Not even Mowbray is stupid enough to drop Dolan right now. But when Dack and Gallagher are fit we will sadly go back to our rotation policy.

We have been here before. When injuries mean his options are limited we become more consistent.

Mowbray is his own worst enemy. We have to hope that this new system dictates who plays where rather than shoe-horning Gallagher back in for £5m other reasons. I’d go so far as to say Gallagher and Brereton shouldn’t play in the same XI.

Terrible thing to say but the injuries are sufficiently long term that Mowbray's options are limited for the next two games which hopefully will bed this brilliant 4-3-3 system in with current personnel more firmly.

The other silver lining is Mowbray tends (not always) not to change a winning team- so carry on winning lads.

Looking at other teams in the division, perhaps Bournemouth are the only club with individuals you absolutely have to account for when setting up a team to play against them. So hopefully Mowbray won't over think the opposition and cripple Rovers in the process which he did in several matches last season.

[Mashed Potatoes]

3 hours ago, philipl said:

If Sheffield United come in for Lenihan I would take it. 

Don't get me wrong, I admire Lenihan but we have Ayala, Wharton, Carter and the two under 23 central defenders look very promising. 

On current performances Williams would be a bigger loss to replace.

It would give us the necessary to cover our left back and back up keeper weaknesses.

Sheffield United can't score goals so I would think an attempted panic buy of Armstrong is more likely than a centre half.

[tomphil]

7 hours ago, Vilesinner said:

Lol! You explain Rhodes lack of mobility by picking one of our most mobile players. Our success these season has been because of our super fast defending from the front.

Remember Germany winning the world cup that way 

Very true and it's not something you could get from a goal poacher like Rhodes our many others of his ilk. It's a team ethos though not one player and it was mostly non existent under Bowyer. Similar under Mowbray odd games aside its not been his core style so hopefully now it is using the younger legs.

[Guest]

It’s not just Rhodes, nearly every player that leaves gets their Rovers history re-written.

[Mercer]

34 minutes ago, philipl said:

Terrible thing to say but the injuries are sufficiently long term that Mowbray's options are limited for the next two games which hopefully will bed this brilliant 4-3-3 system in with current personnel more firmly.

The other silver lining is Mowbray tends (not always) not to change a winning team- so carry on winning lads.

Looking at other teams in the division, perhaps Bournemouth are the only club with individuals you absolutely have to account for when setting up a team to play against them. So hopefully Mowbray won't over think the opposition and cripple Rovers in the process which he did in several matches last season.

But if you think Accie Stanley are Real Madrid..................................................

[joey_big_nose]

3 hours ago, philipl said:

If Sheffield United come in for Lenihan I would take it. 

Don't get me wrong, I admire Lenihan but we have Ayala, Wharton, Carter and the two under 23 central defenders look very promising. 

On current performances Williams would be a bigger loss to replace.

It would give us the necessary to cover our left back and back up keeper weaknesses.

That's mad imo - Lenihans the captain and the only defender whose been reasonably consistently good over the long run, and can dominate in the air and recover on the turn.

Williams has played very well recently but no one we've played have really gone direct and hurt him where he always suffers - balls in the air or in behind. My expectation is when that happens he will have some really tough games and everyone on here will have the pitchforks out for him again.

I fully expect Lenihan and Ayala to become the eventual first choice with Williams frequently filling in due to injury or suspension.

[had.e.nuff]

4 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I see the history re-writers are back again, well shit floats so no surprise really.

OH and Armstrong is a top defender from the front! Did I dream that? Someones having a laaaarf

Tosin to Leeds

after watching city last night Tosin should walk inti the first team at city

[Gav]

15 hours ago, Vilesinner said:

If we had played Gestede and King we would've been promoted. Rhodes doesn't compare with the quality we have now.

Did you actually see King play?

He was useless until the cameras turned up against Stoke and Swansea, he also refused to play when Bowyer picked him, threw his dummy out, sulked, good riddance. 

As for Rhodes, Mr Goals, best scoring record since Shearer, that says it all.

[Guest]

Josh King to Tottenham is heating up. £25m the reported fee. Would give us a nice £4-5m onto the budget. Can see us utilising that in January if we're close enough to the play-offs

[Admiral Nelsen]

15 minutes ago, Gav said:

Did you actually see King play?

He was useless until the cameras turned up against Stoke and Swansea, he also refused to play when Bowyer picked him, threw his dummy out, sulked, good riddance. 

As for Rhodes, Mr Goals, best scoring record since Shearer, that says it all.

I didn't know that bit, certainly paints him in a different light for me.

On his performances, his final ball was a times really bad, but his good patches were not just limited to that FA cup run. The spell under Bowyer when Marshall was injured, so we played King out wide for a protracted period and he was absolutely devastating at times. I'm thinking Birmingham and Charlton away, but I'm sure there were others. Rudy picked up a first half hat trick in one game, and it was entirely off the back of King having completely taken his fullback apart in the opening 20 minutes or so.

Highly frustrating player, but he showed plenty of glimpses here of what he was capable of.

[DE.]

5 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Josh King to Tottenham is heating up. £25m the reported fee. Would give us a nice £4-5m onto the budget. Can see us utilising that in January if we're close enough to the play-offs

Based on past January windows I would say that's unlikely. More chance of us using it in this window, even if we only had a day or two to do so.

[tomphil]

Rewriting history to suit one's own narrative is a phenomenon these days in all walks of life.

Alan shearer up top would've struggled to single handily drag Rovers to promotion under Bowyer there were still to many weaknesses and a bland approach to games.  For the first time since Allardyce we are starting to resemble a square pegs in square holes functional team for more than the odd game. Any striker or set of forwards needs that behind them to make their contribution really count so lets hope it really is a new dawn not another flash in the plan.

The last word on Rhodes is we'd have been relegated sooner without him and once he'd gone we went down despite having an all round stronger better player as his replacement. People saying he wasn't a game changer need a reality check, yes not an impact player but he dug out so many poached goals in an insipid team it kept our heads well above water for a spell despite everything else.

Stick to facts not fantasy where he's concerned.

Edited September 28, 2020 by tomphil

[Guest]

Christ you know this message board's got excited from the last 2 performances when bloody Jordan Rhodes is getting called a poor striker!

He was the best striker in the division for at least 4 years. Mismanagement elsewhere doesn't effect his ability and just how good he was for us. If Bowyer's team created the chances we should have done given the creativity available (Cairney, Marshall, Conway, King, Olsson) and not gone route one to Gestede, he'd have hit 30 league goals both seasons. 

[philipl]

29 minutes ago, DE. said:

Based on past January windows I would say that's unlikely. More chance of us using it in this window, even if we only had a day or two to do so.

We will have at least a week as our Summer window closes 7 days after the PL window.

[DE.]

"Just a poacher" ? Not having that. Some brilliant goals in there. It's obviously gone downhill for him since he left Rovers, but he's hardly the first player that's happened to. He was superb for us. 

Edited September 28, 2020 by DE.

[Kie_BRFC]

Can't get my head round the stick Jordan gets and got, the lad was a shining light in what was a dismal 3 or 4 years. Plenty more things to complain about back then than a striker with a 1 in 2 goal record.

The idea we'd have got promoted without him and King up top instead is the same fantasy that we'd have been promoted if Dack didn't get injured last season. Which the same people are now saying Dack doesn't get into our team.

[joey_big_nose]

5 minutes ago, DE. said:

"Just a poacher" ? Not having that. Some brilliant goals in there. It's obviously gone downhill for him since he left Rovers, but he's hardly the first player that's happened to. He was superb for us. 

An absolutely exceptional finisher.

That said I really didn't like his all-round game. Ball didn't stick to him, couldn't run in behind, didn't link up, lost all his physical battles. 

There's a reason he has never played at a higher level and struggled to get into midtable Wednesday and Middlesbrough teams despite his incredible goal scoring record.