Bournemouth away

[rovers11]

Still speechless as to how we lost that game. Unbelievable. 

I didn’t think the individual defenders did a huge amount wrong, apart from Bell who is playing in a league above his level. I thought the GK, Nyambe, Lenihan and Williams all did fairly well individually. I think the problem is there’s very little protection from the midfield. That’s a side effect of the pressing game we play, we are left wide open if a team bypasses our high press. 

[tomphil]

8 minutes ago, RovingRover said:

Yes we had positives. But how is he not concerned about the continuation of dreadful performances in our defence?

Boss: So many positives to take

Old school  stubborness and an unwillingness to upset his behind the scenes pecking order. 

[K-Hod]

9 minutes ago, RovingRover said:

Yes we had positives. But how is he not concerned about the continuation of dreadful performances in our defence?

Boss: So many positives to take

‘There’s lots of positives to take from today. There’s no negativity’.

I don’t know Tony, I wouldn’t call conceding three goals a positive tbh.

[Mike E]

Getting in a CB and LB is as important to keeping Lenihan and Nyambe here as it is to improving the defence imo.

Why should they stay if defence isn't a priority?

[Admiral Nelsen]

32 minutes ago, Doogs said:

Wouldnt call 10th just outside the play offs..Two centre halfs not good enough at this level. Left Back a joke..Fair enough on the Right Back..Keep him..

Agree that we need a better defence. Bell in particular needs replacing, but it was the relegation thing I was reacting against. Nothing in that performance suggested that that we'll need to be looking over our shoulders in my view. 

[arbitro]

Some good stuff to be upbeat about today, particularly Holtby, Johnson and Dolan. A draw would have been a fair result and to lose is something of a travesty but the manner of the goals we conceded leaves me worried once again. Scoring two away from home should be enough to secure at least a point but over the last few years clean sheets have been too rare for me. The new keeper looked fine and I liked the way he wasn't afraid to come out of the penalty area to cover the defence. The much maligned Williams was better than Lenihan today who I thought was poor. Likewise Bell did some good things and some poor things. Nyambe looked like has generally looked for too long - short of confidence in the final third. The number of times he could have gone one on one with their left back and didn't was annoying. He could power past most people in them situations but frustratingly just doesn't. Johnson did well but Travis still looks a yard short at times. Brereton just doesn't have it for me and Armstrong troubled them with his movement and pace.

Mowbray should be aware of our propensity to give away cheap goals but this has been going on for most of his tenure. I'm sure he wants to fix this, I genuinely doubt whether he and his staff have the wherewithal to do it.

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, rigger said:

Even Bennett is better than Bell and Bennett is useless at left back 

He isn't.

I still don't think Bell is quite as bad as people make out but he wasn't particularly good today. I think it's a common theme though that you can look at the defence after the game and individually no-one has had a stinker, (except when Bennett is back there) yet we've conceded 2, 3 or more goals. We just don't defend well as a defensive unit or when the ball breaks free on the edge of our box.

[Herbie6590]

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

I watch a bit of youth football and my 13yr old niece has a cracking left peg on her. I said to my wife the other day that I’d genuinely play her in front of Amari’i Bell. I meant it.

Literally like playing with 10 men! ???

If you played her ahead of Bell we’d still be playing with ten men...

[Herbie6590]

48 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

We gave Bell an new contract? Jesus.

Didn’t we just exercise a 12 month option ?

[RevidgeBlue]

45 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

‘There’s lots of positives to take from today. There’s no negativity’.

I don’t know Tony, I wouldn’t call conceding three goals a positive tbh.

He's bloody talking about bringing "one or two to help the group" again though I.e. squadfillers as opposed to a couple of stand out performers in the defence.

He'll never change. Either no-one will come in or a couple of peripheral signings will come in who aren't what we need.

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by RevidgeBlue

[Bohinen 22]

How is it possible we have just started the season with that sh!te defence? It was sh!te under Coyle, (apart from Bell).  It was sh!te in league one. It was sh!te when we got back in the championship and Tony blamed Raya and said defenders are coming. It was sh!te last season before lockdown. It was sh!te after lockdown. it is still sh!te today. And Tony refuses to panic, refuses to be bothered, refuses to sort it out. Therefore what hope is there? So depressing.

[bigbrandjohn]

1 hour ago, Claytons Left Boot said:

If only BRFCS could manage the lads. That’s not sarcasm, by the way. We have all known that our defence is the key failing in the team, has not been addressed and will cost us points. A Keeley and Faz in that team and we win 2-0.

Or we finish with 10 men?

[Tugay-is-God]

I'm sure TM knows we need a left back at the very least.

I'd personally be surprised if we don't bring one in before the window closes.

[bazza]

2 minutes ago, Tugay-is-God said:

I'm sure TM knows we need a left back at the very least.

I'd personally be surprised if we don't bring one in before the window closes.

I'd personally be surprised if we did. Defenders are coming TM ?

[tomphil]

12 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

He's bloody talking about bringing "one or two to help the group" again though I.e. squadfillers as opposed to a couple of stand out performers in the defence.

He'll never change. Either no-one will come in or a couple of peripheral signings will come in who aren't what we need.

 

If he stays here another 3 years he'll go down in history as the clubs best ever midtable manager.

[rigger]

19 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

He isn't.

I still don't think Bell is quite as bad as people make out but he wasn't particularly good today. I think it's a common theme though that you can look at the defence after the game and individually no-one has had a stinker, (except when Bennett is back there) yet we've conceded 2, 3 or more goals. We just don't defend well as a defensive unit or when the ball breaks free on the edge of our box.

Sorry I lost interest after your first sentence.

[roversfan99]

50 minutes ago, JoeH said:

I don’t think they come hand in hand. If we’d have sat back today it would’ve finished 3-0 to them. 3-2 in a game we actually should’ve won is much better, more positive for moving forward and in the end more entertaining to watch.

Totally agree that there isnt a perfect correlation between "unattractive" football and winning, there are many ways to skin a cat. That being said, I don't think we would have been battered had we been more conservative, they looked strongest after we had attacked on the counter attack, they had a lot of pace but not that much craft.

I do think a pressing style suits us but the way we played today, no part of the side totally convinced me. I dont think we "should've won" either, whilst I always think that the team that should've won will win, in terms of the game, I would say it was very even, quite scrappy at times, and I am surprised that there were 5 goals.

Defensively, we are obviously awful. I don't think that the midfield controlled the game particularly, and it is so easy to bypass it, so often they got between our midfield and defence and obviously could shoot from distance. Both wide players were ineffective and the 5 of them struggled to create any good chances, many of our 15 shots were speculative, including one of only 2 shots on target. Armstrong often was left isolated, his goal was when he came alive, but he often looked to peel off and our midfielder on the ball at that time was neither capable or brave enough to look to play him in, but it was on all of the time.

My main point is regarding an inferiority complex, not to sound too much like Vinjay, and this isnt aimed at you by the way, just a general point. I dont think anyone truly believes that we are good enough to be up in the top 6, or even close to it. We lost a game late on against another side who will be competing at the top end, it is only one game but it is gutting. Understand that the manager needs to come up with the usual spiel, full of positives etc and not too fussed about that but if we had got a result it would have probably felt like we had pulled off a shock as a plucky underdog.

I remember Brentford away last year. Quite a few people were preempting a loss before the game had kicked off, even though we were in good form at that time, we needed to make ground up and were playing a fellow play off rival. We threw a 2 goal lead away yet people seemed happy with a draw. 

[RTM08]

2 minutes ago, tomphil said:

If he stays here another 3 years he'll go down in history as the clubs best ever midtable manager.

If he persists like this for 3 more years we will waste a generation of decent youth and end up in an Ipswich/Mick McCarthy situation where we plummet because he's squandered the money we do have on players who are already at their ceiling.

[RevidgeBlue]

Difficult to know whether to draw anything either positive or negative out of today's game, decent performance overall but you aren't going to come away with even a point very often if you concede three.

Their first goal was due to the fact we didn't close the ball down on the edge of our own area which is something we've been guilty of for years.

Their second I thought was down to Johnson making a really poor attempt at a challenge and I thought the third was one of those things a bit of excellent play from their player you can't do a lot about. It would be ludicrous to suggest Dolan was at fault for losing the ball in the attacking third imo.

Individually I thought the two subs Dolan and Rothwell transformed us when they came on at a time when it looked like the game was slipping away. Dolan in particular looks a cut above the rest of the players for me. I would actually have hooked Armstrong rather than Brereton, other than subsequentlyrics score I thought  Armstrong was terrible and he doesn't look himself at all for some reason.

I don't get the Johnson love in, I'm not having him at all and thought he was culpable for the second. And I must be the only person who can't see anything at all in JRC.

So on we go not much wiser after today. The only thing we do know is that if we concede three every week we'll be in big trouble. I'm going to upset everyone now. Wycombe at home next week is a "must win"!

[tomphil]

8 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

If he persists like this for 3 more years we will waste a generation of decent youth and end up in an Ipswich/Mick McCarthy situation where we plummet because he's squandered the money we do have on players who are already at their ceiling.

That was me in 'positive' mode.

[Ewood Ace]

The defending by Lenihan for the winning goal was criminal. Just show him down the line the one place you don't show him is inside and allow him to get his shot away, that is worse than schoolboy stuff. And sadly he is one of our best defenders, which just sums up the sorry state of our defence. Mowbray got the result he deserved today for his negligence in the market but sadly reading what he said after it seems like he is as deluded as ever.

[lsp82]

It isn't all bad!

 

 

[m1st]

2 hours ago, Claytons Left Boot said:

If only BRFCS could manage the lads. That’s not sarcasm, by the way. We have all known that our defence is the key failing in the team, has not been addressed and will cost us points. A Keeley and Faz in that team and we win 2-0.

Yes, C L B; if we can see it, why can't the management? And DO something about it? Btw, if you're raiding the pantheon for Centre Halves, what wouldn't we give for a John McNamee in his pomp? A back four, and defensive midfielders, wouldn't need much coaching if we had a latter-day McNamee as their leader, I'd say.

We'd need a reasonable reserve Centre Half, though, to play as today's referees would be flashing their red cards in his direction almost every game!

[Wegerleswiggle]

Main thing to take from that game is that Dolan is more than ready to play Championship football. Absolute breath of fresh air. Like watching a young Damien Duff. 

[roversfan99]

Just now, Wegerleswiggle said:

Main thing to take from that game is that Dolan is more than ready to play Championship football. Absolute breath of fresh air. Like watching a young Damien Duff. 

Thats a big statement considering it was his first 20 minutes of League football in which his failed trick led to the winning goal.

He was very bright when he came on and I dont doubt that I would like to see more of him in the first team but I think that people are going a little over the top and could lead to potentially expecting too much from him.

Duff was a world class talent who not only was exciting but was very effective. Lets not go over the top.