Rovers vs Owls Boxing Day 3pm through a Socially Distanced Looking Glass

[BankEnd Rover]

5 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

He's doing more than anybody else. 

LOL. 

[roversfan99]

Goalscoring has become an underappreciated aspect of being a striker.

[superniko]

25 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

The 2nd highest scorer in the league with 15 goals and 3 assists from 18 games would like to come back to you. And that's in a team that creates very few clear cut chances. AA isn't the problem.

We create plenty of chances, as shown by the amount of shots he actually requires to put the ball in the net. (12 non-penalty goals now from 90 shots - 7.5 shots per goal)
see below for team shots in the league. We create plenty, he just isn’t much better than a championship striker. 
I do agree with other posts though, he isn’t the issue here or today. Far more pressing areas which Mowbray is getting wrong (although I’m usually first to call out Armstrong)

 

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by superniko

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

You accuse us of being predictable but want us to funnel the ball forwards towards a target man to "bring others into play"?

Was there a bit too much Christmas sherry left over from yesterday? 🙂

We might as well bring Pulis in. At least he'd sort out the defence. 

[RevidgeBlue]

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Goalscoring has become an underappreciated aspect of being a striker.

Never a truer word spoken.

Case in point Rhodes at his peak here.

Apparently it was his fault the team weren't performing.

Nothing whatsover to do with Jason Lowe and various other dollopers who were in the side.

[BlackburnEnd75]

Mowbray need to change it up at half time. He didn't. 1st half was slow and pedestrian, yes we had lots of possession but it wasn't good possession say like the possession we had the last 15 mins where we were probing. 

Gallagher needed dropping, he wasn't.

Johnson is reverting to type a little bit. Slow and sloppy, if we are going to be in a game with so much possession get someone else in the deep lying midfield 

Holtby anonymous. Needs dropping

Douglas has been a massive disappointment and is costing us points defensively. If it was an option to send him back and try get someone else I would take it. 

We looked better when shifting to a 4-2-3-1 after the changes. Dacks movement and sharp touches crested good space for armstrong who got to stretch them a bit more. That looks like it could be a winner going forward.

I've generally supported the change to 433 and wondered where dack fits into it but now I think we should alter the shape and aim for 

    Travis     Rothwell

Elliott     dack        Brereton

           Armstrong 

[Waggy76]

6 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

We might as well bring Pulis in. At least he'd sort out the defence. 

Unfortunately that boat has sailed , we are stuck with Tony 😂

[simongarnerisgod]

43 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

What am I reading. We have a manager who can't get a tune out of BB and SG as far as scoring goals goes but people want to sell the only player who can score. We'd be near the bottom without AA's goals. 

appreciate your point but getting 15/20 million for armstrong would be a great deal,the biggest sticking point would be letting mowbray loose will all that money😖

[superniko]

5 minutes ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

    Travis     Rothwell

Elliott     dack        Brereton

           Armstrong 

This is 100% our best front 6. It’s just knowing the format it works best. 
I tend to agree, if it’s 433 that we’d be a little exposed with Dack in there. However I’d worry we’d lose the burst from Rothwell like we saw today if he’s deeper like this. 
Either way, these are the 6 I want to see when fully fit in the new year, and Johnson/Trybull for Travis until he’s back. 

Edited December 26, 2020 by superniko

[Kie_BRFC]

1 hour ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

If someone offered £17 million for Armstrong,I would take their hand off. Finished tap ins when we steamrolled a few pants teams at the beginning, can't do it when it matters against decent defences. Doesnt link the play up, far too greedy with pointless shots and lacks that bit of cuteness in key areas to bring it round the keeper or finish when there is more to be done that a curler or arrow into the bottom corner. I would wager another manager would have him out from the centre and back on the left. We need a target man to get the ball into the box more directly to. 

We have too many midgets on our team. Gallagher, well what can you say. Brereton is no target man, but at least he has some strengths

Your criticism of our top goal scorer is bordering on weird

[RevidgeBlue]

3 minutes ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

Mowbray need to change it up at half time. He didn't. 1st half was slow and pedestrian, yes we had lots of possession but it wasn't good possession say like the possession we had the last 15 mins where we were probing. 

Gallagher needed dropping, he wasn't.

Johnson is reverting to type a little bit. Slow and sloppy, if we are going to be in a game with so much possession get someone else in the deep lying midfield 

Holtby anonymous. Needs dropping

Douglas has been a massive disappointment and is costing us points defensively. If it was an option to send him back and try get someone else I would take it. 

We looked better when shifting to a 4-2-3-1 after the changes. Dacks movement and sharp touches crested good space for armstrong who got to stretch them a bit more. That looks like it could be a winner going forward.

I've generally supported the change to 433 and wondered where dack fits into it but now I think we should alter the shape and aim for 

    Travis     Rothwell

Elliott     dack        Brereton

           Armstrong 

Generally whenever we've played well we've only played with one defensive midfielder.

When we've played two, or one plus Holtby in the same role, we've been rubbish. Various posters cottoned on to this a few weeks ago but Mowbray doesn't seem to have realised this.

[Bigdoggsteel]

14 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

You accuse us of being predictable but want us to funnel the ball forwards towards a target man to "bring others into play"?

Was there a bit too much Christmas sherry left over from yesterday? 🙂

It doesn't have to be from 40 yards. We seem incapable of going direct from the fringes of the opposition box. Yet our goals against Rotherham and Millwall came from this type of ball. Both games we only started doing that in injury time. 

You can surely see that teams are now sitting deep and not giving Armtrong space to run into? 

 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, Kie_BRFC said:

Your criticism of our top goal scorer is bordering on weird

Don't let it bother you, especially if you don't fully understand it! 

[BankEnd Rover]

Armstrong is a decent player.

Would we miss him? Yes

Do I think he’s with 30million? Never in a million years.
 

Is he premier league quality? Don’t be stupid

 

Is Armstrong overrated by rovers fans? Yes

 

 

 

[Kie_BRFC]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Don't let it bother you, especially if you don't fully understand it! 

Don’t patronise me. You’re digging out a player who’s performed out of his skin this season, over other players who consistently let the team down. He’s not the perfect striker by any means, and if he was he wouldn’t be here.

Every player has there value, but I wouldn’t look forward to watching tony try and spend a few million to replace him and end up with another donkey like Sam or Venkys pocket the money

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Maybe he'll go back to 4-2-3-1 to accommodate Dack? At least thta would mean getting another genuine goalscorer in the box.  

[Bigdoggsteel]

19 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I dont see how he cannot be bullet proof as centre forward. The only other one we have is Sam Gallagher.

Ive acknowledged the dry spell hes had in front of goal but that came on the back of a hot streak and within a season in which he is the second top scorer and in a year in which he is the top scorer in the league. Its a little premature to make out as if he is anything other than indispensable or that he has been "figured out."

As far as im concerned, the improvement on the 2nd top scorer in the league would be having the very top scorer.

There are other leagues you know, not just this one. 

He's not getting the space to run into, so something has changed. Plus he has clearly gotten greedier. He has the goals, can't take that away from him, but if he had 9, I'm sure people would be quicker to point out the issues. Now it seems some get offended if the GOALden boy is questioned. I'm not referring to you there by the way. I know you're open minded. 

I think a few are even starting to sound like Mowbray with your inability to see when something isn't working and going on regardless. 

Hopefully having Dack and Brereton with him will get him back amongst the goals. 

[BankEnd Rover]

5 minutes ago, Kie_BRFC said:

Your criticism of our top goal scorer is bordering on weird

It really isn’t.

[roversfan99]

It would be a total myth to suggest that teams only in recent weeks have tried to remove the space in behind for Armstrong to run onto, and it does him a disservice to suggest that the only goals he can score are from running in behind.

[Bigdoggsteel]

22 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

He could do the things you mentioned but he couldn't score a goal to save his life. That's what you're advocating, a big lumbering target man who wins the odd header and brings others into play but who can't score as many as AA. It's funny really. 

Chris Brown could do those things? Lol. Ok. Amazing he wasnt paying for a top club so. Particularly with good target men difficult to come by these days. 

Obviously I wouldn't rule out a target man that could score goals, I think you took a major leap there 😂 My point was we need someone who can actually make the opposition concerned we might do something different than tap the ball around outside their box. 

[Kie_BRFC]

2 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

It really isn’t.

Yes it is. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 minutes ago, Kie_BRFC said:

Don’t patronise me. You’re digging out a player who’s performed out of his skin this season, over other players who consistently let the team down. He’s not the perfect striker by any means, and if he was he wouldn’t be here.

Every player has there value, but I wouldn’t look forward to watching tony try and spend a few million to replace him and end up with another donkey like Sam or Venkys pocket the money

Ah no, I criticized other players too. As I said, if you don't understand the context, keep scrolling 

 

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

It would be a total myth to suggest that teams only in recent weeks have tried to remove the space in behind for Armstrong to run onto, and it does him a disservice to suggest that the only goals he can score are from running in behind.

Wycombe and Coventry were so naive. Didn't one of them get their centre half sent off for exactly this? 

Teams have clearly figured out how to play against us  to stop us 

[BlackburnEnd75]

15 minutes ago, superniko said:

This is 100% our best front 6. It’s just knowing the format it works best. 
I tend to agree, if it’s 433 that we’d be a little exposed with Dack in there. However I’d worry we’d lose the burst from Rothwell like we saw today if he’s deeper like this. 
Either way, these are the 6 I want to see when fully fit in the new year, and Johnson/Trybull for Travis until he’s back. 

Tbf Rothwell scored today from that position. I would worry that he can't be trusted defensively In a 2 man midfield.

[roversfan99]

12 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

There are other leagues you know, not just this one. 

He's not getting the space to run into, so something has changed. Plus he has clearly gotten greedier. He has the goals, can't take that away from him, but if he had 9, I'm sure people would be quicker to point out the issues. Now it seems some get offended if the GOALden boy is questioned. I'm not referring to you there by the way. I know you're open minded. 

I think a few are even starting to sound like Mowbray with your inability to see when something isn't working and going on regardless. 

Hopefully having Dack and Brereton with him will get him back amongst the goals. 

But thats the thing. He doesnt have  9 goals, he has 15. If he had scored 9, which would be not a bad tally, but people would naturally question his contribution a lot more than if he is the second top scorer. I dont understand why you think that is illogical.

He has always been greedy, goalscorers often are. Against Bristol City he was particularly poot but it was one game so to start implying that it has impacted on morale or making out as if that game was normal for Armstrong is totally unfair.

Hes in poor form in 6 games with only 1 goal and I havent seen anyone denying that but you are definitely underappreciating the number of goals hes scored and seem desperate to discredit him. It would be incredibly difficult to replace a striker scoring goals at the rate that he is.