Stoke City v Rovers (a) Sat. 19th Dec. 3pm

[tomphil]

16 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

I agree. He’s set up the infrastructure around him which has allowed Venkys to step back. I don’t think they’d know what to do if Mowbray left as others would probably follow him. 

100% this

He's got the whole of the inside of the club stitched up in his favour. Not in a dodgy way but nevertheless it makes change very precarious. These idiots allow it because they stripped out the entire heart of the club.

No proper directors means the void is filled with Venkys yes men and the managers pals.

A happy old boys club who just do enough to keep everyone off their backs, very easy when there are no fans there. I can guarantee he'd be in for some unrest this season if there was.

 

[Cherry Blue]

3 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

‘‘If we’d have got one then we might have got four or five today," 

Is Mercer writing TM’s post match scripts for him nowadays?

 

This line will be included in the match report to Venkys.

[G Somerset Rover]

1 minute ago, tomphil said:

100% this

He's got the whole of the inside of the club stitched up in his favour. Not in a dodgy way but nevertheless it makes change very precarious. These idiots allow it because they stripped out the entire heart of the club.

No proper directors means the void is filled with Venkys yes men and the managers pals.

A happy old boys club who just do enough to keep everyone off their backs, very easy when there are no fans there. I can guarantee he'd be in for some unrest this season if there was.

 

Absolutely. As far as tonight’s enquiry goes it’ll be Mowbray and Waggot discussing over a bottle of red.

[Tugayisgod]

2 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

well the progression has stopped and mowbray can`t get us any further,it`s as simple as that,i don`t particularly enjoy tippy tappy **** that goes nowhere and a defence that is virtually non existant,i think i speak for most fans on those issues

You maybe speak for most fans on this forum but not the majority of fans overall. This message board is the same as any other clubs,, just a chance to vent your spleen on anything and everything Mowbray,, 

I don't pretend to know more about football than a guy who has been in the game over 40 years like some on here. This isn't fifa 20 on your PlayStation, that doesn't count 

[matt83]

4 minutes ago, Yoogo said:

Short story: I've lost belief in how we play.

Possession is pointless. We have swathes of it away from home, and it comes to little fruition. So what's the point? Teams have clocked onto us - well and truly. We can play "so well" and get nothing agianst Stoke and Bristol City, and yet play "terribly" and get all the spoils against Millwall, Barnsley, Rotherham, etc. Why can't we just do the latter and get shut of this stupid possession stuff.

If the fans stop believing, the players will soon follow suit.

As a general comment I think we need less but better quality possession and fewer but better quality shots. Not particularly today to be fair but possession going backwards and sideways is useless and if my mum could stop the vast majority of shots why bother. 

[roversfan99]

Not good enough yet again. Our record v the top half cannot be defended, and we can not defend in general, you do not get anywhere conceding goals in basically every game.

Plenty of looking down on how Stoke played, which is baseless snobbiness. Never ever did we look like scoring, Stoke played the game perfectly to ensure that their win was never in doubt, which is why they are in the play off picture and under Mowbray, we wont be.

Performance wise, Nyambe was the pick of the bunch. Douglas I thought was better than usual, unlucky not to score and tidy enough, but hes not going to improve our goals against column. Johnson looked out of place for the first few minutes and they scored during that time, after that, him Lenihan and Kaminski could have gone home.

Trybull was a bit tidier, Holtby and Rothwell again flattered to deceive, they simply do not do enough to guarantee selection and are lucky that there isnt much pressure, and indeed that Mowbray doesnt think Downing fits with "how we want to play." When Dack is back I would suggest a change in formation with an acceptance that the current style hasnt improved us. Elliott obviously on a different level, Gallagher shocking and Armstrong quiet.

The substitutions were bizarre and seemed like they were done for the sake of it. Butterworth and Dolan didnt impact the game, the latter rarely does, he is still very raw. Taking off Nyambe was just absolutely bizarre.

If Mowbray is to be believed, we are going on a journey, but it isnt anywhere productive.

[West Yorks Rover]

We might just sneak a win at home against bottom side Wednesday on boxing day, but we'll lose

away at Hudds a week on Tuesday, they're on a good run at home and playing some excellent football too.

[Leonard Venkhater]

16 minutes ago, Yoogo said:

Short story: I've lost belief in how we play.

Possession is pointless. We have swathes of it away from home, and it comes to little fruition. So what's the point? Teams have clocked onto us - well and truly. We can play "so well" and get nothing agianst Stoke and Bristol City, and yet play "terribly" and get all the spoils against Millwall, Barnsley, Rotherham, etc. Why can't we just do the latter and get shut of this stupid possession stuff.

If the fans stop believing, the players will soon follow suit.

Imagine no possession, Yoogoo-hooo...

[Exiled in Toronto]

Douglas and Gallagher are killing us IMO, neither is capable of getting past a man; Douglas always plays it back and Gallagher always loses it. If he persists with those two then the season is over. Johnson might solve our centre back issues though.

[superniko]

1 minute ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

Douglas and Gallagher are killing us IMO, neither is capable of getting past a man; Douglas always plays it back and Gallagher always loses it. If he persists with those two then the season is over. Johnson might solve our centre back issues though.

Weird with Douglas isn’t it as he’s left footed. His first touch always seems to take him inside onto his right. I can only assume it’s as he knows he doesn’t have the pace to ever take it past the opposition so it’s always a negative first touch and a pass back to CB or CM

Edited December 19, 2020 by superniko

[slowmo]

38 minutes ago, TheRoversReturn said:

It's almost like we could do with a 6'4" centre forward being played in his actual position in the middle and not out on the left bloody wing...

Gallagher isn't working on the left and the difference compared to Ben is huge, he just doesn't have the craft, he's a limited CF . Previously we were strong down the left and now it's all down the right via Harvey . Feel slightly sorry for Gallagher, he's drifting central leaving Douglas with too much to cover on the left and when he does get in good positions team mates don't take his option.

[RevidgeBlue]

19 minutes ago, Yoogo said:

If the fans stop believing, the players will soon follow suit.

Looks like they already have. 

If we hadn't nicked the fortuitous victory midweek this would be a quite horrific run.

[joey_big_nose]

We should have won today, Stoke were unbelievably bad. One of the worst teams I have seen us play.

We generated a lot of good positions but slipped or stumbled or miscontrolled at the wrong moment.

Real sickener. But then we managed to win a game we should have lost on Wednesday so can hardly complain.

Basic point is we are no nearer to getting promotion despite having a better squad than last year's...

[joey_big_nose]

23 minutes ago, slowmo said:

Gallagher isn't working on the left and the difference compared to Ben is huge, he just doesn't have the craft, he's a limited CF . Previously we were strong down the left and now it's all down the right via Harvey . Feel slightly sorry for Gallagher, he's drifting central leaving Douglas with too much to cover on the left and when he does get in good positions team mates don't take his option.

Have to agree. I don't understand why when Stoke were so deep and clearly running at their defence was causing issues we didn't get Dolan on earlier. Not the game for Gallagher at all.

And when we did finally bring Dolan on we changed everything which seemed unnecessary considering we were in total control.

Baffling for me.

 

[ben_the_beast]

Stoke were atrocious today. They absolutely didn't deserve the win. We got ourselves into plenty of good positions but we really lacked ideas when we got into the final third. It definitely looks as though we don't practise any set ways of breaking teams down in training. Just a big of a case of play it around and look for the opening. 

We've only got ourselves to blame for not winning and that's why we won't go up. But at the same time we did more than enough to win today. Slips, dragging shots, blocks. Stoke won't go up. We'll probably finish around the place in the league. They are shite going forwards, we are shite at the back. They may have won but the future is no brighter for them than it is for us. 

[tomphil]

31 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

Douglas and Gallagher are killing us IMO, neither is capable of getting past a man; Douglas always plays it back and Gallagher always loses it. If he persists with those two then the season is over. Johnson might solve our centre back issues though.

There'll be far bigger tests than today for Johnson so i wouldn't put too much stock in that.

[roversfan99]

I dont get how Stoke didnt deserve the win. The game did become played solely in their half but obviously that was as a result of their early lead. They managed the game brilliantly and at no point did we ever appear to be about to score. They allowed us to pass it around in front of them and we never had the guile, the craft or the invention to break them down and even create decent chances, never mind score.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

32 minutes ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

Imagine no possession, Yoogoo-hooo...

I wonder if you can, 

No need for sideways passes, 

Just a big target man. 

[Leonard Venkhater]

1 minute ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

I wonder if you can, 

No need for sideways passes, 

Just a big target man. 

No need for greed or Armstong ?

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Just now, Leonard Venkhater said:

No need for greed or Armstong ?

A brotherhood of Big Sam

[joey_big_nose]

40 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

Douglas and Gallagher are killing us IMO, neither is capable of getting past a man; Douglas always plays it back and Gallagher always loses it. If he persists with those two then the season is over. Johnson might solve our centre back issues though.

Don't think Johnson was out under any pressure really. Stoke were abject.

[Leonard Venkhater]

4 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Don't think Johnson was out under any pressure really. Stoke were abject.

Abject Stoke Cruise to Victory 

[Uddersfelt Blue]

No one expected Johnson to do a great job yet he did, albeit that he didn’t come under a lot of pressure. No complaints despite a goal conceded.

Our problems lie in being unable to break down strong, stubborn and well organised defences. We can have 100% possession but it’s no good if we can’t get the ball in the net. 
 

Losing Travis and Brereton have been big factors in our slump. Not saying we would have won all games but we would have posed more threat going forward. I wouldn’t rely on Dack’s return changing things dramatically but hopefully he can help the team.

From a diehards fan’s point of view it hurts when we lose in such circumstances but the manager is paid to get results and he needs to sort it out. 

 

 

[Elvis Biro]

11 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

A brotherhood of Big Sam

Imagine all the players

Playing with a plan...

[Mercer]

Horrible, horrible and horrible.

Even the most staunch of Mowbray's fans must now realise we are going nowhere under, IMO, a dinosaurian manager who is way past his sell by date.

Almost half a season gone and we have still to beat a team in the top half of the table.

Nearly all aspects of Mowbray's management continue to baffle me.   

I'm struggling to recall a worse left back than Douglas in Rovers' colours.

I'm struggling to understand Mowbray's love-in with Gallagher.

Trybull was having a decent game by his standards and gets hooked.  Absolutely baffled.

I could go on and on but to be frank, I'm totally p1ssed off with Mowbray and Waggott.

Lost a bob or two today on Rovers but hey ho, take the rough with the smooth as they've made me plenty this season.

Urgently in need of some red wine therapy.