Nobbers v Rovers, Tues 24 Nov 7.45pm

[Stuart]

1 hour ago, philipl said:

Vinnie Jones on Gazza iconic image...

Meanwhile, £99 for a copy...

[bluebruce]

10 hours ago, den said:

Hope our lads are ready for this guy. Tap on it, it’s a video.

 

Oh we are ready.

Kaminski: "Oh you fondle genitals eh? Well guess what I do to them..."

[dallydally]

Do I need to purchase a match pass or is it on the Sky red button?

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

This one will begin the next Tony death spiral, though I'm not entirely sure we've stopped the last one in truth. 

Extreme apathy

[MarkBRFC]

Just now, dallydally said:

Do I need to purchase a match pass or is it on the Sky red button?

Match pass for this one, no red button this week it seems.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

10 hours ago, JHRover said:

Preston appear to have limped their way to a narrow win over Wednesday yesterday to finally get off the mark at home. They won't be bothered how they did it, they'll just be relieved to break the run and get the monkey off their backs.

Sometimes narrow or fortuitous wins are what are needed just to bring the bad runs to an end. Seen it many times before where sides do that and then turn a corner and go on a good run.

Preston have had the better of us now for several years. Time for that to change but they just seem to be able to find another gear when needed whilst Rovers just can't cope with it.

We don't have what it takes when the going gets tough I'm afraid. We're a team of nice lads.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Kie_BRFC]

Think we're gonna miss Johnson and Trav massively for this one, only players with a bit of bite that is massively needed against this lot

[den]

North end aren’t like us, they are well organised defensively and don’t play a game as openly as we do, so can’t see us scoring too many here. 
 

For once, we need to put a clean sheet top of the game plan, but has Mowbray got that in him?

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, Kie_BRFC said:

Think we're gonna miss Johnson and Trav massively for this one, only players with a bit of bite that is massively needed against this lot

I think Pearson is out for them and he provides a lot of that bite for them. Also Browne was missing on Saturday which I read was Covid related.

Edit: Scrap the Pearson comment - he played twenty minutes for them on Saturday.

Edited November 23, 2020 by arbitro

[Kie_BRFC]

7 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I think Pearson is out for them and he provides a lot of that bite for them. Also Browne was missing on Saturday which I read was Covid related.

That's very welcome news

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

1 hour ago, dallydally said:

Do I need to purchase a match pass or is it on the Sky red button?

All PNE games are now on PornHub.

[arbitro]

Just now, Kie_BRFC said:

That's very welcome news

I edited my original post. Pearson played twenty minutes on Saturday.

[Kie_BRFC]

Just now, arbitro said:

I edited my original post. Pearson played twenty minutes on Saturday.

Bollocks, that's very unwelcome news ?

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Holtby's back according to the LT. 

[@roverseas]

We are due a win against that lot down the road but will it be this week?  Positives from the weekend were the return of Douglas and the goal from Sam G.  Team selection will be interesting especially as to who will get the nod in midfield with out BJ.  Holtby may have arrived back just in the nick of time.  I believe we will get something here... will it be a win? Jury is out.

 

[Guest]

Big fan of Barry Douglas, and he did well against Luton Town. Also not a huge fan of Amari'i Bell and wouldn't normally choose him as first choice.

However, for me Tom Barkuizen is going to run BD ragged if we play him. The pace will simply be too much for him. We'll have to sacrifice BD's attacking output for the speed of Amari'i Bell in this one if we don't want to concede 2+ goals.

[den]

I put this in the follow thread, but no replies so I’ll try here.

Question please.

Ive paid my £10 for the north end game about an hour ago,  booked it on iPad. It said I would get a confirmation email which I haven’t had yet. Should I have had an email straight away?

how do I view the match? Do I need to download an App, or will I get a link sent to me?

Thanks.

[roversfan99]

14 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Big fan of Barry Douglas, and he did well against Luton Town. Also not a huge fan of Amari'i Bell and wouldn't normally choose him as first choice.

However, for me Tom Barkuizen is going to run BD ragged if we play him. The pace will simply be too much for him. We'll have to sacrifice BD's attacking output for the speed of Amari'i Bell in this one if we don't want to concede 2+ goals.

But Bell cant defend, which totally reverses any benefit that his pace might provide. Douglas had a good game and has a far better calibre than Bell, I cant fathom why you would play an inferior player, intelligence trumps pace every time.

You cant start changing your full backs anytime they come across a pacy winger, its the same as last year when we went to Stoke and you suggested making changes to counter Lee Gregory, or when you suggested dropping Downing v Wigan who had Jamal Lowe, really average players who do not warrant us making specific changes to counter act. If you get into the habit of playing inferior players in fear of players of the standard of Tom Barkhuizen then you know that you are miles off.

[only2garners]

31 minutes ago, den said:

I put this in the follow thread, but no replies so I’ll try here.

 

Question please.

Ive paid my £10 for the north end game about an hour ago,  booked it on iPad. It said I would get a confirmation email which I haven’t had yet. Should I have had an email straight away?

how do I view the match? Do I need to download an App, or will I get a link sent to me?

Thanks.

Den - I've replied on the iFollow thread, but basically you get in through the live match centre on the Rovers website.

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But Bell cant defend, which totally reverses any benefit that his pace might provide. Douglas had a good game and has a far better calibre than Bell, I cant fathom why you would play an inferior player, intelligence trumps pace every time.

You cant start changing your full backs anytime they come across a pacy winger, its the same as last year when we went to Stoke and you suggested making changes to counter Lee Gregory, or when you suggested dropping Downing v Wigan who had Jamal Lowe, really average players who do not warrant us making specific changes to counter act. If you get into the habit of playing inferior players in fear of players of the standard of Tom Barkhuizen then you know that you are miles off.

Bell is statistically a much better defender than Barry Douglas. Douglas in fact ranks as one of the Championships worst starting full backs for defensive output. His superior attacking and creative output tips him over the edge in 90% of games, but against Tom Barkhuizen, Douglas will be ran ragged. If Douglas plays, and they put Barky at RW - we'll concede at least two, if not more.

[joey_big_nose]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

Big fan of Barry Douglas, and he did well against Luton Town. Also not a huge fan of Amari'i Bell and wouldn't normally choose him as first choice.

However, for me Tom Barkuizen is going to run BD ragged if we play him. The pace will simply be too much for him. We'll have to sacrifice BD's attacking output for the speed of Amari'i Bell in this one if we don't want to concede 2+ goals.

Overall this is why I am concerned about Douglas in our system. We expect our full backs to get up and down and cover a huge amount of ground.

I am not sure Douglas can do it...

[roversfan99]

12 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Bell is statistically a much better defender than Barry Douglas. Douglas in fact ranks as one of the Championships worst starting full backs for defensive output. His superior attacking and creative output tips him over the edge in 90% of games, but against Tom Barkhuizen, Douglas will be ran ragged. If Douglas plays, and they put Barky at RW - we'll concede at least two, if not more.

Statistically? Defensive output? I have seen using my own eyes since Bell signed that he is a poor defender, you even said yourself that you arent a big fan, stats dont prove or disprove that, one on one Bell very rarely excels against anyone. He often stands off, he rarely prevents crosses coming in and hes been a weakness in our team since we got promoted.

If Douglas is worse defensively than Bell, or indeed if he individually would cause us to concede at least 2 goals simply based on his own lack of ability to defend against a bog standard player like Barkhuizen/Barky, then he really is an appalling signing. I would like to think that it isnt the case.

My issue with this suggestion is two fold. Firstly, I dont think that having pace necessarily gives a player the upper hand and in Bell's case, it doesnt seem to help him defensively, Downing played a few games last season at left back and invariably did better against quick wingers than Bell even in spite of his lack of pace because he had the intelligence and the positional sense to counteract his own weakness. If a full back is not fit for purpose against a quick but average wide man then he isnt fit for purpose full stop.

Secondly, I totally disagree with making individual selections especially of inferior players to counteract the opposition and based on specific skillsets, its over thinking things, its counterproductive and it goes back to one of Mowbray's historical weaknesses in which he over thinks things and ends up tricking himself. I think it was Oldham at home when Mowbray was laughably bigging up their random right back as a danger, he ended up playing Bell on the left wing in front of Williams and we ended up 2 down at half time before changing it. That doesnt mean that against the divisions best players that I dont respect their qualities but even then, I would suggest more subtle tactical tweaks would make more sense than to play inferior players.

Similarly last year off the back of an impressive win against Brentford, you suggested that we should bring in Williams I think for Downing and should change things up to try and counteract the physicality of Gregory and Vokes. We went unchanged and we won rather than compromising our own skills whilst overthinking of how to target average players. Again against Wigan you suggested dropping Downing because of Jamal Lowe's pace, Mowbray played Downing and Lowe didnt have a sniff.

There is also surely the obvious flaw in your theory too, that Barkhuizen scored 2 and Preston scored 3 last season, who was our left back? Amarii Bell!

[Ewood Ace]

28 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Bell is statistically a much better defender than Barry Douglas.

Visually though Bell isn't a much better defender than anyone. He is awful in one on one situations and most of the time doesn't even attempt to stop crosses coming into the box.

[Bigdoggsteel]

What a season for us so far. In a way, it's one of the most frustrating ever. So much promise, but I don't know if we will deliver on it. Too much chopping and changing. Mostly enforced, unfortunately.

Our best 11 could beat anyone, but when will we actually see it? If at all. 

Our front 3 are frustrating me a lot. I know he is top scorer, but Armstrong can be so annoying, he was awful on Saturday. More interested in complaining to the ref. He had some decent chances. Brereton has gotten going, but falls over too easy for my liking. Elliot , hot and cold, no doubt he will be a big player. It's just not balanced enough for me, with the 3 of them inconsistent. 

Good that Lenihan seems to be back playing ok. I think Ayala is our best defender though. 

Best player so far? Kaminski. He looks like the best keeper since Robinson, by some distance. 

Have a niggling feeling it will be a manager post Mowbray who benefits from some of the good work and groundwork Mowbray has laid. Not sure he himself is ruthless enough. 

[roversfan99]

The thing with Armstrong though is you cant argue with his numbers, the bad games can be accepted when his overall contribution is so vast.

That is the frustration with quite a few players for me, they fit in with this same narrative that we are about to suddenly string wins together and get into the top 6, that the best is yet to come without much evidence of that actually materialising. You look at Brereton and Rothwell as 2 examples, both will be in everyones teams tomorrow, both have got plenty of praise, both have got attributes of being good players, but even now at a point when both have started to establish themselves, neither are contributing enough tangibly to be important attacking players for a team in the top 6. There seems to be an article or a quote about Rothwell every week in the Lancashire Telegraph on how he "knows" that he needs to get goals and assists, or how when he does get one that this can kick start a run, but it never really comes about.

My team would be:

Kaminski

Nyambe Lenihan Wharton Douglas

Holtby Trybull Rothwell

Elliott Armstrong Brereton

Subs: Pears, Carter, Bell, Downing, Buckley, Gallagher, Dolan, Davenport, Chapman

The 2 changes are obvious and they both improve us, Nyambe is a better right back compared to Rankin Costello and Holtby coming in will give us more balance. I hope he doesnt meddle any further and bring in inferior players like Gallagher (despite his goal at the weekend) and Bell. Centre back is a worry with Wharton there, we could do with Ayala back but Preston arent the most prolific team in the league, until the play us usually.