Swansea 9th March at Home

[jim mk2]

5 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Front 3 all busy but theres little goal threat there and thats why Armstrong walks back in. Brereton with a poor miss and Gallagher clumsy as ever for the penalty. Dolan 100mph as ever and full of tricks.

I wouldn't be quick to put Armstrong straight back in. For all the faults of Brereton and Gallagher, the shape of this team works with their physical presence and it's noticeable that it's working better for Dack too. 

[BlueBro]

30 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

Should’ve won that. Much, much better which makes all the shite performances even more frustrating.

Buckley motm - beginning to prove the doubters wrong.

Buckley would be first name on teamsheet at weekend for me. Would be interesting to see tackle count as he seemed to win most challenges he went in for....got a very tenacious streak. Will only get better with a run of games.......as usual this will be in spite of Mowbray and co

 

 

 

[jim mk2]

Amid the hope of the performance tonight we've still only taken 5 points from 27.

Even an average haul of 15 from 27 we'd only be 3 points off 6th.

20 points from 27 and we'd now be in a playoff place. 

[JHRover]

Good performance, disappointing we couldn't take the 3 points but this is a familiar feeling. 

We can play and we can cause the better teams problems but making the dominance count and having the discipline to keep it out at the other end are constant issues.

Chuck in a familiar hard luck blame the ref story.

End of the day these are the games promotion chasing sides need to win and mid table sides don't 

Cringeworthy levels of pro-Swansea talk doing the rounds. There's no reason we can't be them other than management. They're a crafty side that's for sure. 5-10 yards on every throw and free kick, know when and where to foul and go down.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

Amid the hope of the performance tonight we've still only taken 5 points from 27.

Even an average haul of 15 from 27 we'd only be 3 points off 6th.

20 points from 27 and we'd now be in a playoff place. 

Don't torment yourself Jim, It's over for this season.

[rovers11]

Didn't see the game but it sounded like the next generation - Buckley, Dolan, and Rankin-Costello - all shone brightly.

Good result but sadly pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Most important thing for the rest of the season is to give the younger players a run in the team and get them ready for next season. No point playing the likes of Harvey ahead of Dolan now. Harvey is a fantastic player but he's not ours and won't be here next season. 

Trybull staking a late claim to get a permanent contract here? 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by rovers11

[Stuart]

10 minutes ago, BlueBro said:

Buckley would be first name on teamsheet at weekend for me. Would be interesting to see tackle count as he seemed to win most challenges he went in for....got a very tenacious streak. Will only get better with a run of games.......as usual this will be in spite of Mowbray and co

Just a heads up on the off chance you hadn’t clocked it, we are playing again on Friday evening...

[only2garners]

39 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Seeing reading and Barnsley in the top six is really hurting me. Are we a top six squad or not is debatable until you see what’s in the mix. We were more than capable of finishing top six this season with a better manager. Really frustrating and could possibly be the best chance we had. Fans back and some big teams in the league next season . Frustrated , frustrating how rovers have made me feel no matter what for the last 3 years

On that performance seeing Swansea up there is infuriating too. I can only assume they must play better than that. How have they kept 17 clean sheets - the defence was frequently all over the place. And their only real goal treat was from set piece corners and long throws.

[jim mk2]

2 minutes ago, only2garners said:

On that performance seeing Swansea up there is infuriating too. I can only assume they must play better than that. How have they kept 17 clean sheets - the defence was frequently all over the place. And their only real goal treat was from set piece corners and long throws.

Contagno (spelling?) looked a good defender, held them together and was always there to foul when he needed to. This was a difficult match for them and it's players like him who get teams through

[BigBar]

39 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Buckley MOTM. As good as the weekend and keeps proving plenty on here wrong. Great to see.

I have been a critic and still am tbh but I have no problem saying he played well tonight but calm down. Does 1 good game undo his previous 10 performances? Has a long way to go.  

And he was poor Saturday unless you are rewriting history.

[joey_big_nose]

Really good performance, should have won easily but didn't. Have said that too many times this season..

I have a nagging suspicion that we caught them - and Millwall - out with our (frankly bizarre) 4231 false nine system. I think they  were expecting 433. It really suited everyone I think. Dolan with his energy plays the false nine role very well. Dack was picking up his old positions. Everyone played well really, Swansea couldnt cope.

My somewhat skeptical suspicion is that when other teams realise we are playing that way it may get a bit more tricky as they setup to cancel us out. But it underlines that you need some tactical flexibility when other sides figure you out. It would have been handy if we had landed on this new setup after getting well beaten in early Feb rather than waiting 6 games to steady the ship....

Anyway we've got a really promising young team. 6 academy players played today, more coming through, and good quality in the squad. We just need a manager who can build a resilient team out of them. It's totally unacceptable that we are lower mid table.

 

 

[only2garners]

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

Contagno (spelling?) looked a good defender, held them together and was always there to foul when he needed to. This was a difficult match for them and it's players like him who get teams through

Cabango? He was fairly lucky to stay on the pitch. He had no idea what to do with Dolan snapping round his ankles, particularly in the first half.

[joey_big_nose]

11 minutes ago, Meesh said:

Buckley has surprised time and time again. He's always shown bits of quality whenever I've seen him, but perhaps with a bit of naivety and lack of strength. Always had potential, but he's shown as of late that he can work on his weaknesses.  It's unbelievable that some on here have been comparing him to Jason Lowe.

He's pulled out a quite a few really decent tackles last two games. Looks like he could be a long term fit to play alongside Travis in the midfield engine room.

[only2garners]

3 minutes ago, BigBar said:

I have been a critic and still am tbh but I have no problem saying he played well tonight but calm down. Does 1 good game undo his previous 10 performances? Has a long way to go.  

And he was poor Saturday unless you are rewriting history.

For me he had a pretty good game on Saturday as well - he deserved to have at least two assists as well as a number of other fine balls. And there was plenty to enjoy in some of his other appearances too.

But then I’ve always thought he is a real prospect.

[jim mk2]

1 minute ago, only2garners said:

Cabango? He was fairly lucky to stay on the pitch. He had no idea what to do with Dolan snapping round his ankles, particularly in the first half.

Yes, but they only conceded one goal and they didn't crumble. He was always there to foil our attacks in the 2nd half.. A difficult player, wish we had him

[only2garners]

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

Yes, but they only conceded one goal and they didn't crumble. He was always there to foil our attacks in the 2nd half.. A difficult player, wish we had him

But we could easily have scored two or three more and it wasn’t down to him that we didn’t.

[yankfan]

31 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

I wouldn't be quick to put Armstrong straight back in. For all the faults of Brereton and Gallagher, the shape of this team works with their physical presence and it's noticeable that it's working better for Dack too. 

I think Dolan does a better job of pressing and moving than AA.  He drags defenders out of the space, leaving more room for Dack.  With that said, I would put AA right back in, get him top scorer to increase his value come summer.  Were showing that we can perform without him for next season.  If we can get 30 million for him and use some of that to bring in a central defender or two on a permanent basis, we could be in good shape next year. 

[yankfan]

4 minutes ago, only2garners said:

But we could easily have scored two or three more and it wasn’t down to him that we didn’t.

Right, except the chances fell to SG.  So we really couldn't have scored any more than we did. 

[roversfan99]

33 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

I wouldn't be quick to put Armstrong straight back in. For all the faults of Brereton and Gallagher, the shape of this team works with their physical presence and it's noticeable that it's working better for Dack too. 

I feel like the balance between industry and goals is too far towards the industry side at the moment, if you played a season with that front 3 im not sure theyd get 15/20 between them. I felt our only likely scorer tonight was Dack.

With Dack, I think it is the way he is being played rather than the absence of Armstrong, in a much more balanced side with the 2 behind him.

[RevidgeBlue]

40 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Good performance and dissapointing not to get a win.

The commentators are absolutely infuriating, especially Warren Lucy. Does anyone think they are any good? Absolutely transfixed from a bias viewpoint about refs, Lenihan jumps up and punches it and they dont say a word yet they go made at decisions that dont actually happen!

Dack for me was man of the match, he seemed the only goal threat really for us and is just levels above, such a clever footballer. Buckley was very good too, again combative and more decisive on the ball. Trybull again very good too, them 2 behind Dack have struck up the most unlikely of effective partnerships. Defence all 7 out of 10.

Front 3 all busy but theres little goal threat there and thats why Armstrong walks back in. Brereton with a poor miss and Gallagher clumsy as ever for the penalty. Dolan 100mph as ever and full of tricks.

The commentators make it virtually unwatchable for me, every foul committed by an opposition player is a yellow/borderline red. Every foul committed by us it's incredibly soft and the opposition player is making too much of it.

They're also frequently advocating that our players should go down easily and/or roll about a bit to earn fouls/penalties or cards for the opposition yet when the penalty was conceded tonight they had the gall to complain the ref gave it on the basis of who screamed the loudest!

[roversfan99]

7 minutes ago, yankfan said:

I think Dolan does a better job of pressing and moving than AA.  He drags defenders out of the space, leaving more room for Dack.  With that said, I would put AA right back in, get him top scorer to increase his value come summer.  Were showing that we can perform without him for next season.  If we can get 30 million for him and use some of that to bring in a central defender or two on a permanent basis, we could be in good shape next year. 

Armstrong is set to leave but we would have to bring in a couple of attacking players to replace him and Elliott. Not enough goals otherwise.

[Gav]

Swansea were relegated from Premiership on 2018, the money earned that season was around £100 million. For the next 4 seasons they'll receive parachute payments.  

In the same season we made massive losses of around £20 million, for the next 4 seasons we'll lose millions and millions more.

Can anyone explain to me how we can compete with clubs like Swansea, Bournemouth, Norwich, Stoke, etc etc?

Decent performance tonight, we could well have won, but the gap between Premiership and Championship gets wider season on season.

Midtable is about our level.

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Gav

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Just now, Gav said:

Swansea were relegated from Premiership on 2018, the money earned that season was around £100 million. For the next 4 seasons they'll receive parachute payments.  

In the same season we made massive losses of around £20 million, for the next 4 seasons we'll lose millions and millions more.

Can anyone explain to me how we can compete with clubs like Swansea, Bournemouth, Norwich, Stoke, etc etc?

 

 

 

 

How do you think Barnsley are doing it? 

[BigBar]

17 minutes ago, only2garners said:

For me he had a pretty good game on Saturday as well - he deserved to have at least two assists as well as a number of other fine balls. And there was plenty to enjoy in some of his other appearances too.

But then I’ve always thought he is a real prospect.

He gave the ball away at least 6 time before I stopped counting in the first half and even the commentators who usually ignore alot of poor displays commented on it and said the bench were screaming at him so not sure what you saw but I thought he was lucky not to be hooked inside the first half.

But anyway he did play well tonight but I don't think improving on poor displays deserves such high praise yet.

[BigBar]

20 minutes ago, Meesh said:

2 good games. 🙃 I really don't think he's been as bad as many seem to make out.

Dolan was superb. His resale value could end up being far more than any U23 squad that Preston could put together.

He didn't have a good game Saturday. Not having it at all🤣

Agree about Dolan, brilliant today and Saturday, fair play to him 😁