v Sheff Utd (h) - 6/11/21 - 146th Birthday

[garnersfags]

Even in the depths of introspective, emotional, desperate despair on Wednesday at around 11.30pm, I somehow wrote on here something about how we would feel different at 5pm on Saturday when we have beaten Sheff U. 

Even as I was writing it, it seemed surreal and unlikely, but someone had just ironically highlighted the table, showing we were still only 2 points off 6th.

That's why I was so euphoric when I checked the table when I got home tonight and (ahead of the Blackpool result) we were in 6th. 

It unf shows that we will probably never actually finish as high as 6th as TM will unconsciously sabotage our chances with his crass inability to select the correct personnel and tactics, esp when we reach the heady heights of 7th or 8th.

But that was far from my thoughts as I watched the sublime pass from trav, the perfect cross from Pov, and the perfectly positioned finish from BB.

It was incendiary, inspirational, joyous, euphoric (sorry to repeat the word) and all the better because of how far we had come in 3 short/long days.

This is why we keep coming back.

I love this club....

[DaveyB]

2 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

For me, Davenport was MOM today. Kept it simple and kept the ball moving. 

Why oh why can't Mowbray just stop his needless tinkering and play to our strengths? Bloody infuriating.

I realise that it’s not the done thing on here to defend Mowbray, but I don’t think it’s quite as simple as just stick with the same 11 and stop tinkering - our players just aren’t consistent enough. 
 

Take Poveda for example. He was fantastic today, but up until now he’s been terrible - who’s to say what kind of performance we’ll get out of him next time round. 
And it’s not just him. Brereton was as good today as we was awful on Wednesday; Lenihan, Travis, Buckley, Rothwell, Gallagher, Nyambe- all capable of being brilliant or terrible on any given Saturday. 
We could easily put out the same team, in the same formation, with the same tactics next time out and get thumped - that’s just the nature of having a young team I think 

[bazza]

Now THAT was a team performance. Especially after going down 1-0 before two minutes had elapsed.  Every player deserves at least 8/10. Any time a Sheffield player had the ball in our half there were at least two Rovers players on him.

Travis, Davenport and Buckley had blinders. And Poveda...............what has happened to him? Has he been called up to the Chile squad?

I've never felt so good leaving Ewood for a long, long time, mainly because of the effort of the lads.

[garnersfags]

As good as we were from 1 to 11 today, and it really was all 13 players contributing more or less equally, for some reason Sheff U were walking/running in concrete. Poveda's goal was a good example. 

They were physically and mentally unable to match us for the whole 90 min. 

Strange to watch, but obviously very enjoyable....

Edited November 6, 2021 by garnersfags

[Armchair supporter supremo]

56 minutes ago, unsall said:

You’ve got to take the positives out of the last 3 games, if someone said would you take 5 points most would say yes, beat Derby and a point off Fulham and Sheffield.

Or would you take 6 points out of the 3 games, yes no brainier, credit to TM picking that side, don’t think many including me would have picked that side, played well and really enjoyed the game, let’s give a bit of credit to the management for a change, COYB.

the thing is, I and i think many people would have chose that side pretty much from the start of the season!! its Mowbray thats only just decided to go thay way,give it a couple of games though and then compare the starting line ups again and you can bet he will have reverted back to his usual square peg, round hole aproach... 

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 hours ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

Really? 

 

beating a poor team at home is equal to getting stuffed 7-0 at home!? 

 

not that my dislike of Mowbray really has much to do with that 1 result

 

Mowbray out

Waggot out 

Hughes in. 

Ya, really. If he apologised and we lost today, I would be angry. He didn't apologise, but we won today, so happy days.  Talk is cheap! 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Bigdoggsteel

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

21 minutes ago, DaveyB said:

I realise that it’s not the done thing on here to defend Mowbray, but I don’t think it’s quite as simple as just stick with the same 11 and stop tinkering - our players just aren’t consistent enough. 
 

Take Poveda for example. He was fantastic today, but up until now he’s been terrible - who’s to say what kind of performance we’ll get out of him next time round. 
And it’s not just him. Brereton was as good today as we was awful on Wednesday; Lenihan, Travis, Buckley, Rothwell, Gallagher, Nyambe- all capable of being brilliant or terrible on any given Saturday. 
We could easily put out the same team, in the same formation, with the same tactics next time out and get thumped - that’s just the nature of having a young team I think 

What Mowbray has never had is a coherent way of playing and a settled team. He’s too keen to tinker with the team to suit our opponents.
 

I was listening to the Blackpool coach on Radio Lancashire tonight. He said before they played us he’d had Rovers watched. He was expecting us to play in a certain way when they played us but he found on the day that Mowbray had changed our system to try and combat Blackpool’s style.

[Mercer]

8 hours ago, Mercer said:

Some bizarre selections and Mowbray needs a face saving win.  

Can only be one outcome against an unconvincing Sheff Ud.

Rovers' win at 11/4 - just full yer boots.

Won a packet today on Rovers' win but would give the lot away for a guarantee of a new manager by the time Rovers play another league game.

Feel today's win was inevitable but risk is could be yet another papering over the cracks / false dawn.

Edited November 6, 2021 by Mercer

[DaveyB]

22 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

What Mowbray has never had is a coherent way of playing and a settled team. He’s too keen to tinker with the team to suit our opponents.
 

I was listening to the Blackpool coach on Radio Lancashire tonight. He said before they played us he’d had Rovers watched. He was expecting us to play in a certain way when they played us but he found on the day that Mowbray had changed our system to try and combat Blackpool’s style.

I heard that too, but he said that we confused them by playing 3 in midfield, which I would say we have done for the majority of the season, so I did begin to question just how closely they had had us watched 😂

He also said that pretty much every team that had visited Blackpool this season had played differently to how they were expecting, which shows that either their scouting really isn’t up to much or that pretty much every manager at every club changes their personnel and/or tactics depending on the opposition 

Edited November 6, 2021 by DaveyB

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, unsall said:

You’ve got to take the positives out of the last 3 games, if someone said would you take 5 points most would say yes, beat Derby and a point off Fulham and Sheffield.

Or would you take 6 points out of the 3 games, yes no brainier, credit to TM picking that side, don’t think many including me would have picked that side, played well and really enjoyed the game, let’s give a bit of credit to the management for a change, COYB.

It's all well and good extrapolating the points total over 3 games but whether you take any of the last three seasons or calculate our points total from the last 46 games played all the evidence tends to suggest the manager is nowhere near good enough to deliver a genuine play off push.

Could be wrong of course but it seems to me the proverbial case of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

[47er]

I don't see how you can take the positives out of 3 games when 1 was an absolutely unprecedented 7-0 home defeat.

Some how or other we have recovered for this game and I'm delighted about that. But the fragility of the squad makes me worry where the next battering will come from.

Personally I just think we are treading water, we almost certainly won't be relegated but haven't the talent or nous at any level of the club to be promoted.

If we managed it by a miracle, I would shudder at the prospect of seeing us  back in the Premier League. We have been promoted there 2 times, but each time the squad just needed topping up. We had plenty of players whom we could confidently predict would do well in the top league. Lucky if there's 2 now.

[Wheelton Blue]

1 hour ago, DaveyB said:

I realise that it’s not the done thing on here to defend Mowbray, but I don’t think it’s quite as simple as just stick with the same 11 and stop tinkering - our players just aren’t consistent enough. 

I totally get that players lose form, fitness etc and that it's a squad game.

It's the needless tinkering which lets Mowbray down. Change for change's sake most of the time.

[riverholmes]

A brave move to shake up the team by Mowbray and it paid off. The decision to bring back Davenport rather than field Johnson or Rothwell was, perhaps, the biggest surprise.

Skilful players make a difference. I would like to see Rovers continue with two wingers and Brereton as a striker.

However, this game does shed more light on the appalling choices in prior games. Considering the wingers we currently have in Dolan, Poveda, Khadra and, even, Rothwell, the decision to play a false 9 and to use Gallagher out wide is simply unforgivable.

If Mowbray reverts to that, or drops Davenport from the squad, to accommodate others, there can be no defence for him. Not that there was much.

Players need consistency of selection to perform. Davenport might not be the future and his contract expiring but he now at least deserves to be on the bench. Likewise, Poveda and Khadra deserve to stay in the side.  

Mowbray has been publicly talking about Liverpool as a model for his team. The front three that started today are closer to that mould, if that's what the management are going for. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by riverholmes

[47er]

5 hours ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

we can look ahead to a season that promises much.

You sure about that?

[47er]

13 minutes ago, riverholmes said:

A brave move to shake up the team by Mowbray and it paid off. The decision to bring back Davenport rather than field Johnson or Rothwell was, perhaps, the biggest surprise.

Skilful players make a difference. I would like to see Rovers continue with two wingers and Brereton as a striker.

 

Amen to all that but Davenport is a classic case of Mowbrayism. He has had no chance to carve out a meaningful career here.

He plays now and again, looks like there's something to build on , then disappears for weeks.

 You would like to think he'd figure regularly now but will he?

[davulsukur]

How come no highlights on sky?

[joey_big_nose]

58 minutes ago, 47er said:

Amen to all that but Davenport is a classic case of Mowbrayism. He has had no chance to carve out a meaningful career here.

He plays now and again, looks like there's something to build on , then disappears for weeks.

 You would like to think he'd figure regularly now but will he?

I get that. But equally he has supported the likes of Travis, Rothwell, Buckley, Brereton, Dolan into quality players. You can't beat him with Davenport on one hand and not recognise who he has done a good job with on the others.

When it comes down to it he's a decent Championship manager, but not a brilliant one. There's a mentality on here that whoever we get will be better and that's just not true in my view. The Championship is a hard league where the vast majority of managers fail, and that's before our know nothing owners get involved  We could do a lot worse, and I am sure will in time.

[Exiled_Rover]

4 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

I get that. But equally he has supported the likes of Travis, Rothwell, Buckley, Brereton, Dolan into quality players. You can't beat him with Davenport on one hand and not recognise who he has done a good job with on the others.

When it comes down to it he's a decent Championship manager, but not a brilliant one. There's a mentality on here that whoever we get will be better and that's just not true in my view. The Championship is a hard league where the vast majority of managers fail, and that's before our know nothing owners get involved  We could do a lot worse, and I am sure will in time.

Give over, he's terrible at developing talent. Let's look at your list:

In the space of a week Buckley has played at RB, as a False 9 and as an AMC.

He tried to shoehorn Rothwell into the AML role for two years and now alternates him between AMC and CM. 

Travis he's beaten the creativity out of - he's forced him to be a DM when in reality he had the potential to be a quality CM (a classic Box-to-Box one at that). 

Brereton carved a role out for himself at AML because Mowbray didn't know what to do with him. The only playing time he gave to his £7m man in his first year was as a 10 minute sub every other game. 

[Paul Mellelieu]

What a great day.  I was in two minds at lunchtime about heading up the M61, but thankfully I stuck with it.

 

An intense experience today.  And Poveda - wow, beautiful.

[Beafo]

3 hours ago, harryhealless1928 said:

Big shout out to the supporters who put the banner outside the training ground.....motivational?

Tomphil called it correctly for today...cunning Mowbray normally dredges out a victory when in dire need of one.....perhaps thats why hes the longest serving manager in the Championship?

Great performance and stunning goals.....anyone think Ben plays a bit like a "ghost" where the ball somehow appears over the line as if by magic following a clumsy run-in despite the best attempts of defenders to stop him? Or is it the red wine talking?  

What banner was this?

[AllRoverAsia]

This will be the first full replay I will watch on RoversTV since SW was forced into fulfilling obligations.

[RevidgeBlue]

6 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

I get that. But equally he has supported the likes of Travis, Rothwell, Buckley, Brereton, Dolan into quality players. You can't beat him with Davenport on one hand and not recognise who he has done a good job with on the others.

When it comes down to it he's a decent Championship manager, but not a brilliant one. There's a mentality on here that whoever we get will be better and that's just not true in my view. The Championship is a hard league where the vast majority of managers fail, and that's before our know nothing owners get involved  We could do a lot worse, and I am sure will in time.

He isn't a decent Championship manager. 

He's shown he's adequate at League 1 level with a budget many times that of anyone else but has shown he is completely out of his depth at Championship level both on the pitch and off it in terms of results and as regards recruitment in terms of attracting new players and retaining the better ones already on the books.

IMHO.

Edited November 7, 2021 by RevidgeBlue

[cesus]

After conceding so early with a huge away following and what happened on Wednesday I thought it was going to be a party for them. All I could think was Fulham mercilessly battered us, this lot will take the piss. 

Absolutely delighted with the character shown by so many of the players. I don't think I will get over Wednesday as long as Mowbray is manager but I enjoyed this game.

[OsloRover]

6 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

An intense experience today.  And Poveda - wow, beautiful.

I prefer his new haircut too but I wouldn’t go that far.

[Doogs]

First game of the seadon for me today. What a game. The wing play was very good. Not seen wing play like this under Tony before. Big Ben tore them to shreads at time. Really enjoyed.