Friday 12th February Blackburn Rovers Vs Preston North End @ Ewood Park

[rigger]

17 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Ayala has only made 9 apps so far this season and 1 of those was a sub. 8 starts out 27. Not a great return.

How did we get on, in those 8 starts. To me that would be a better barometer of if we have had a good return for our money? Quality not quantity. 

[RoversClitheroe]

19 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Ayala has only made 9 apps so far this season and 1 of those was a sub. 8 starts out 27. Not a great return.

He was absolutely woeful for 2 of those starts as well. 3 year deal now looks absolutely shambolic

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Scratch that, Christ knows what the pitch will be like tomorrow as they are training at Ewood again. They can’t use the indoor pitches at Brockhall as Tony ‘doesn’t like artificial surfaces as they cause muscle problems’... 

Not sure playing on a cabbage patch is great for muscle pulls and strains either, but hey ho.

I find today's comments about 'having' to train on Ewood mystifying. I'm not an expert and it may not be this simple but...

1) Haven't we had time to source some other pitch temporarily from some other local club?

2) What you said

3) Apparently the frost sheets don't work at 'these kinds of temperatures'. I don't know the exact temps Blackburn has been at lately, no longer living there, but I'm guessing it's not really got any worse than -3, -4? Water doesn't freeze until 0 so...exactly what temperature DO these frost sheets work in? Did they buy them from poundland? It's been cold but it's hardly Siberia. During the day today Blackburn was above 0 according to the weather service.

[only2garners]

Results in Ayala's 9 games - 2 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats. 2 of those defeats were against Watford and Norwich though.

[Mercer]

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

from Mowbray's comments today it appears that Johnson, Holtby and Trybull are out of the game injured. 

None will be missed!

[rigger]

2 minutes ago, Mercer said:

None will be missed!

I don't get why Mowbrey insists on depressing people by keep harping on about players who are not available. Why not big up the players that are available. Give out a positive attitude. That is what the squad is for.

[Mercer]

31 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

He was absolutely woeful for 2 of those starts as well. 3 year deal now looks absolutely shambolic

It is.

Think it's symptomatic of an acute lack of nous at Ewood - we saw it with the Mulgrew deal and extended end of season contracts for Hart and Smallwood.

IMO, Mowbray and Waggott's financial stewardship leaves much to be desired and if you look at the money, IMO, wasted on Mulgew, Hart, Smallwood etc, we could have had the Ewood pitch replaced with the finest state of art playing surface.  IMO, it's just shambolic.

[Mercer]

Just now, rigger said:

I don't get why Mowbrey insists on depressing people by keep harping on about players who are not available. Why not big up the players that are available. Give out a positive attitude. That is what the squad is for.

Think it's all spin and bullsh1t for India in case we lose!

[simongarnerisgod]

4 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Scratch that, Christ knows what the pitch will be like tomorrow as they are training at Ewood again. They can’t use the indoor pitches at Brockhall as Tony ‘doesn’t like artificial surfaces as they cause muscle problems’... 

Not sure playing on a cabbage patch is great for muscle pulls and strains either, but hey ho.

as far as i know the indoor pitches were fine for every other rovers manager,what exactly has mowbray got them doing in training that could possibly cause muscle damage??,id`e rather play on astroturf than turn my ankle on the bog of a pitch ewood has become

[den]

5 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Scratch that, Christ knows what the pitch will be like tomorrow as they are training at Ewood again. They can’t use the indoor pitches at Brockhall as Tony ‘doesn’t like artificial surfaces as they cause muscle problems’... 

Not sure playing on a cabbage patch is great for muscle pulls and strains either, but hey ho.

Makes no sense in any way.

we are a side that can only play the one way, - a team that tries to play out from the back and on the floor. Obviously that demands a good playing surface. Training on it when it’s in such a poor condition to start with, is far more hindrance to results than any dubious extra risk there is from training indoors. 
 

No logic to this at all in my view. If we had a Shefki Kuqi to throw on and revert to a lumping forwards game, then at least there’s a back up plan. There isn’t even that though.

“let’s churn the pitch up even more than it already is, then try to out pass the opposition” is a strange approach.

[Blue blood]

3 hours ago, davulsukur said:

Ayala has only made 9 apps so far this season and 1 of those was a sub. 8 starts out 27. Not a great return.

3 years for that is criminal. Still it's not as if we have had these problems before or could have known about Ayala's injury record. Good job the rest of the defence never gets injured. 

Feel we will get something from the game. TM has crackpot formations but has assembled a pretty good squad we have a number of players who can produce a bit of magic and give us the win. We are on Sky so a bit of publicity for the great TM who plays football the right way. So a win for Rovers and then when the scrutiny dies down we can have another death spiral before anything gets too serious. 

2-1 Rovers. 

[StevenSK]

Will be the same old game, PNE coming to get 10 behind the ball, niggly fouls, slow the game down and get it hoofed in the mixer.

Good job we’ve lenihan and now 6.5 ft Branthwaite, though I see they’ve loaned Shockley out in the window, still have Riis but imagine he will be on the bench.

If we are on form and move the ball quickly we should paste them.

[J*B]

I just hope we don’t end up doing anything silly. Like playing Dack as a false 9. 

[arbitro]

1 minute ago, J*B said:

I just hope we don’t end up doing anything silly. Like playing Dack as a false 9. 

That distinctly sounds like you know something J*B 😁😁.

[bazza]

About a week ago I was talking to my PNE-supporting brother-in-law. As I listened to him a grin got broader and broader on my face. He complained about a club that isn't run properly, a manager who doesn't know what he's doing, playing players out of position, ridiculous substitutions, square pegs in round holes...............and on and on. It was like reading this message board.

Anyway, North End do well away from home. If they play in green we'll lose 2-0. And Mercer will have lost a packet.

[only2garners]

28 minutes ago, StevenSK said:

Will be the same old game, PNE coming to get 10 behind the ball, niggly fouls, slow the game down and get it hoofed in the mixer.

Good job we’ve lenihan and now 6.5 ft Branthwaite, though I see they’ve loaned Shockley out in the window, still have Riis but imagine he will be on the bench.

If we are on form and move the ball quickly we should paste them.

I’m pretty sure Ched Evans will start up front for them. He started on Saturday and Neill has been singing his praises since.

[StevenSK]

9 minutes ago, bazza said:

About a week ago I was talking to my PNE-supporting brother-in-law. As I listened to him a grin got broader and broader on my face. He complained about a club that isn't run properly, a manager who doesn't know what he's doing, playing players out of position, ridiculous substitutions, square pegs in round holes...............and on and on. It was like reading this message board.

Anyway, North End do well away from home. If they play in green we'll lose 2-0. And Mercer will have lost a packet.

I’m getting the wine in before K.O trying some new worlds 

[G Somerset Rover]

35 minutes ago, J*B said:

I just hope we don’t end up doing anything silly. Like playing Dack as a false 9. 

Well it was Elliot at false 9 last week, so by the law of averages it’s Bradley’s turn tomorrow. Didn’t Mowbray get funny with Sharpe for asking about it? He’s so stubborn, the flack he’s seen/heard about it will probably make him determined to do it again tomorrow night.

As for the result, I’m not feeling confident at all. We’ve had our mini purple patch and usually back up our first defeat in a while with another one. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

3 hours ago, rigger said:

I don't get why Mowbrey insists on depressing people by keep harping on about players who are not available. Why not big up the players that are available. Give out a positive attitude. That is what the squad is for.

Insists on depressing people by giving a squad update before a game..? So when asked about injured players, you’d rather he ignore the question? 
There are plenty of reasons to criticise Tony, no need to invent them.

[den]

52 minutes ago, J*B said:

I just hope we don’t end up doing anything silly. Like playing Dack as a false 9. 

We haven’t got a real one J*B

[darrenrover]

1 hour ago, StevenSK said:

I’m getting the wine in before K.O trying some new worlds 

New World Reds from South America, whites from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia and bugger all from USA and you won't go far wrong.

French is best but I'm biased!

Enjoy and hope you're toasting a Nob End pasting, cabbage patch or not.....

[rigger]

44 minutes ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

Insists on depressing people by giving a squad update before a game..? So when asked about injured players, you’d rather he ignore the question? 
There are plenty of reasons to criticise Tony, no need to invent them.

As I stated I would rather he concentrates on the players that are available

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, bazza said:

About a week ago I was talking to my PNE-supporting brother-in-law. As I listened to him a grin got broader and broader on my face. He complained about a club that isn't run properly, a manager who doesn't know what he's doing, playing players out of position, ridiculous substitutions, square pegs in round holes...............and on and on. It was like reading this message board.

Anyway, North End do well away from home. If they play in green we'll lose 2-0. And Mercer will have lost a packet.

I remember listening to a lot of Enders in a pub i used to visit years ago. They pretty much said the same things about Grayson we said about Bowyer.

Thing is we were both probably right at the time. Now whenever there are comparisons  it has to be taken into account what Mowbray has at Ewood compared to their manager.  Then chuck in them finishing above us and nobody would be surprised if they did again.

I think us being non plussed by water treading is more valid than them, i would say that though obviously.  

Because Rovers should be superior.

[joey_big_nose]

2 hours ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Well it was Elliot at false 9 last week, so by the law of averages it’s Bradley’s turn tomorrow. Didn’t Mowbray get funny with Sharpe for asking about it? He’s so stubborn, the flack he’s seen/heard about it will probably make him determined to do it again tomorrow night.

As for the result, I’m not feeling confident at all. We’ve had our mini purple patch and usually back up our first defeat in a while with another one. 

Pretty certain we will start  :

                        Kaminski

Nyambe.   Lenihan.   Branthwaite.  Douglas

          Travis.   Davenport.   Rothwell

            Elliott.     Dack.   Brereton 

Maybe could have Gallagher up front for Dack if Dack still isn't considered fit.

[RV Blue]

I’m pretty much certain we’ll end up playing with 3 at the back in order to accommodate the two loanees (Tony wouldn’t want to upset Pep or Carlo) and our undropable captain, leader, legend, Lenihan, wonder if we’ll do that tomorrow?