Bristol City v Rovers. Wed 9th Dec. 7.45pm

[Waggy76]

We are far too nice to play against ..

We need need more steel and aggression throughout the team..

[darrenrover]

I never, ever thought I'd be saying this but I think we are missing Brereton terribly. It just goes to show the enormity of his efforts ploughing up and down the left hand side and his general, overall influence on how the team performs.

Those criticising Arma's performance, for me he's always offered nothing other than goals and last night his 'range finder' was well and truly off.

Overall we probably still deserved at least a point, even with so many players having an off night.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 hours ago, darrenrover said:

After all the recent accolades, I thought Holtby was absolutely dire tonight. So much so, I had to keep checking if he was still on the park or not. His mind's elsewhere all of a sudden for me.

That's my take on Holtby, he has one good game and then four or five mediocre games. He'd be the one to leave out for me when Travis is fit again. You don't need luxury players to get out of this division. You need players who don't go missing in the tough away games. Looking back at the " Nostalgia " thread Gordon Cowans was his equivalent in that team and he made us tick most of the time.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 hours ago, Stuart said:

Williams was very poor and did a lot wrong. That’s all it takes to put uncertainty into a defensive unit.

Their goal was down to a lack of cohesion in our defence.

Let's be fair Stuart, under normal circumstances he wouldn't have played last night. He must have put his hand up to play knowing he wasn't 100% fit. I can't criticise him for that.

[alcd]

Holtby is a flat track bully who only shines when weaker opponents stand off or reduced to 10 men. Too lightweight to dominate better teams. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 minutes ago, Waggy76 said:

We are far too nice to play against ..

We need need more steel and aggression throughout the team..

How many years have we been saying that for now ? The manager has never signed anyone who you could describe as a " handful ". Travis is the nearest to that and he came up through the ranks. 

When we were getting pushed around back in the old third division days we signed John MacNammee, all of a sudden we weren't getting pushed around anymore. Anybody who tried it on would get sorted out and they knew it.

[Bigdoggsteel]

15 minutes ago, Waggy76 said:

We are far too nice to play against ..

We need need more steel and aggression throughout the team..

It's not simple anymore. We have players like Johnson, Ayala and Lenihan who I would describe as having those characteristics. Travis to come back in too.

The reason we lost last night was Armstrongs complete over indulgence. I hope he put his hand up after the game or the rest of the team had a chat with him. It's not good enough. I have never seen anything like it. You wouldn't see Ronaldo do it. 

It was a tight away game, we narrowly lost. Not a time for over reaction. 

[USABlue]

11 hours ago, neophox said:

Only a win on saturday will do now. Norwich having a lot of luck recently.

Not going to happen, still too close to the top 6.  Need tonget back to the comfort of midtable for a while.

[darrenrover]

On another, more positive note, young Harvey Elliott is going to be one hell of a player. In fact he already is and it's hard to believe he's still only 17.

One can't help but compare it to the time a young David Beckham was appearing for Nobbers.

A future full international in the making, of that I have no doubts.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

It's not simple anymore. We have players like Johnson, Ayala and Lenihan who I would describe as having those characteristics. Travis to come back in too.

The reason we lost last night was Armstrongs complete over indulgence. I hope he put his hand up after the game or the rest of the team had a chat with him. It's not good enough. I have never seen anything like it. You wouldn't see Ronaldo do it. 

It was a tight away game, we narrowly lost. Not a time for over reaction. 

Aggression has to be channeled in the right manner. Lenihan is a loose cannon, he's a card waiting to happen.

[chaddyrovers]

Sky shown some attacking stats which shown Rovers rank 1st in total goals in Championship, 2nd in total shots, 1st in shots on target, 2nd in touches in opposition box per game and 2nd in possession won in final 3rd. 

For Me, Nyambe and Ayala should have defended that cross much better than we did. But attacking wise we were the better side. Another day, Arnstrong scores a hat trick and we win 3 or 4 nil..

[JHRover]

We didn't lose because our shooting boots weren't on. The opposition don't score because we miss chances.

At 70 minutes it was 0-0 and level pegging was a fair outcome. We'd had some chances, they'd had arguably better ones. Certainly in the second half they had gone nearer. But it was an even affair. 

What frustrates me is that 0-0 doesn't seem to enter into Mowbray's vocabulary. At 70 minutes, away from home, mid week, with a point in our hands, there never seems to be an attitude of protecting that and coming away with it. A draw would have been a reasonable outcome and quite satisfactory. But we don't seem to ever accept that and strive to protect it.

The glass ceiling has been reached again folks, as many predicted. A muddled manager who is no nearer the top since than this time 2 years ago. Never mind, we're top of all the tables that don't matter and get loads of accolades from other clubs and the media so hooray.

[joey_big_nose]

23 minutes ago, alcd said:

Holtby is a flat track bully who only shines when weaker opponents stand off or reduced to 10 men. Too lightweight to dominate better teams. 

I think an important context for this is he was against five in midfield and three at the back. The room he gets to shine is non existent.

This trend where we perform poorly against teams that play three at the back and 4 or 5 in midfield points to me that we need a plan B. Mowbray himself alluded to this after the Millwall game.

Need to take a leaf out of Bristol City's book and be smarter tactically.

Norwich are a much more open team so probably not a problem this weekend. But looking ahead Stoke are tactically flexible and will probably change to 343 for our game.

Every team we play now will know if you go 343/352 you can shut us down. Would say solving this is going to be critical to our season.

I would say either have the option to match up in a 343 or go for a more old fashioned 442.

Edited December 10, 2020 by joey_big_nose

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 minutes ago, JHRover said:

We didn't lose because our shooting boots weren't on. The opposition don't score because we miss chances.

At 70 minutes it was 0-0 and level pegging was a fair outcome. We'd had some chances, they'd had arguably better ones. Certainly in the second half they had gone nearer. But it was an even affair. 

What frustrates me is that 0-0 doesn't seem to enter into Mowbray's vocabulary. At 70 minutes, away from home, mid week, with a point in our hands, there never seems to be an attitude of protecting that and coming away with it. A draw would have been a reasonable outcome and quite satisfactory. But we don't seem to ever accept that and strive to protect it.

The glass ceiling has been reached again folks, as many predicted. A muddled manager who is no nearer the top since than this time 2 years ago. Never mind, we're top of all the tables that don't matter and get loads of accolades from other clubs and the media so hooray.

When did we last win a game 1-0 ?

[darrenrover]

6 minutes ago, renrag said:

Seeing they like to make a song and dance about it. The fact is, Beckham only played five times for Nobbers, whilst Elliott has already had double that for us

That's a fair point: I didn't realise that Beckham only played 5 games for Nobbers. For years I'd always been told by Prestonian work colleagues, that he played a full season at least for them and they were totally instrumental in forging his future career.

Only recent accolade they can spout about I suppose! Bit like 50,000 on t'Turf every other week if they ever got in The PL.

Edited December 10, 2020 by darrenrover

[Bigdoggsteel]

11 hours ago, Stuart said:

If Lenihan plays tonight Williams doesn’t. Not something I find funny at all.

But I know that’s not really what you mean.

Not as simple as that, but I would have preferred Lenihan played as well. Maybe blame the ref. 

[Kie_BRFC]

19 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Sky shown some attacking stats which shown Rovers rank 1st in total goals in Championship, 2nd in total shots, 1st in shots on target, 2nd in touches in opposition box per game and 2nd in possession won in final 3rd. 

For Me, Nyambe and Ayala should have defended that cross much better than we did. But attacking wise we were the better side. Another day, Arnstrong scores a hat trick and we win 3 or 4 nil..

On another day Armstrong scores a hattrick from 30 yards out? What world are you living in? Was an even game but in no way were we the better attacking side last night.  Probably should have been a draw but we were not hard done to, and no way did we deserve to win  3 or 4 nil 

[Bigdoggsteel]

22 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Aggression has to be channeled in the right manner. Lenihan is a loose cannon, he's a card waiting to happen.

He has his moments alright. Many players with those traits play on the edge. 

[chaddyrovers]

1 minute ago, Kie_BRFC said:

On another day Armstrong scores a hattrick from 30 yards out? What world are you living in? Was an even game but in no way were we the better attacking side last night.  Probably should have been a draw but we were not hard done to, and no way did we deserve to win  3 or 4 nil 

He had one of one. That's goes in. Very different game. 

For me, we were the better team. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, Kie_BRFC said:

On another day Armstrong scores a hattrick from 30 yards out? What world are you living in? Was an even game but in no way were we the better attacking side last night.  Probably should have been a draw but we were not hard done to, and no way did we deserve to win  3 or 4 nil 

Maybe someone would score a hat trick if Armstrong passed it. I rememember 2 clear instances where a pass would have put players in a position to shoot. Once for Gallagher and once for Elliott. 

It was like playing co-op pro Evo or FIFA with someone who won't pass the ball in those positions (annoying). 

I highlighted this before, but he exceeded himself last night. Needed to put a hand up after the game. I'm sure it was mentioned. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

He had one of one. That's goes in. Very different game. 

For me, we were the better team. 

For a " top striker " he's hopeless when he's through on goal.  He's got no idea how to go around the keeper. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

The big lad they brought on started causing us problems immediately. I wasn't surprised when he scored. Wharton or Lenihan in there and it would have been preferable. Williams was ok, but not ideal him playing after being out for a few weeks. 

Freak injury and questionable red card killed us. Just gotta put it to the side and move on. We still could and probably should have won the game. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

For a " top striker " he's hopeless when he's through on goal.  He's got no idea how to go around the keeper. 

His touch when through one on one last night was dreadful. With the service the team are giving him, he should have 20 goals. How many this season are of his own doing? Last year, so many. This season he is scoring the tap ins, but the one on ones and shots from range have dried up a bit. Testament to the rest of the team. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 minutes ago, renrag said:

I think It would be about this time last year v Derby. We had about four 1-0 wins last season 

I just had a look in my record book - Howard Kendall's promotion team won 11 games 1-0. See that word lads - " Promotion ".

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

His touch when through one on one last night was dreadful. With the service the team are giving him, he should have 20 goals. How many this season are of his own doing? Last year, so many. This season he is scoring the tap ins, but the one on ones and shots from range have dried up a bit. Testament to the rest of the team. 

His game is limited at the moment. He needs to be working on the weak elements - like how to take the ball around the goalkeeper. My one and only trick - slip it past the keeper on the goal side and go around the other side. It doesn't fit every chance you get, opposition  players may be running back as well,  but If you're quick like he is you can do it.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces