v Hull City (a) - 19/1/22

[Armchair supporter supremo]

49 minutes ago, BRFC4EVA said:

We can talk about all night about wrong selections and wrong formations. However you can't play like the Harlem globe trotters every week. I blame that defeat wholly and solely on that disgraceful, cheating, biased ref. He had done his job properly then none of that selection or formation stuff would have mattered. We'd have been 1 each playing 10 men and gone on the win the game.

It keeps happening time after time. I'm sick of it. That complete tosser might have cost us promotion. And if he hasn't I'm sure another one of his idiot colleagues will.

We haven't remotely being playing like "the harlem globe trotters" during our good run! Our form was built on finding a system that works, playing players in their more natural positions and having a solid defence. Most of that went out of the window before the start whistle was even blown last night. 

 

But hey ho! Hopefully trying to stay positive and putting it down as a blip(instead of a turning point🤞) 

[G Somerset Rover]

I believe I read somewhere last night that JRC’s pass completion rate was an appalling 50%. 

To be honest I am surprised it was that high! Needs to spend a few weeks in the under 23s as he was like a rabbit caught in headlights last night. My concern is that TM loves him - he always used to pick him over Nyambe - so I really wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in on Monday somewhere in the eleven.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[AllRoverAsia]

45 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I know Scotland aren’t great at the moment but they’re better than that. Gallagher wouldn’t get a game with Treasure Island  going off last nights performance. That could possibly be the worst performance by a Rovers centre forward in a long while.

He could be  a substitute for Long John's peg leg, or the parrott, if there was one. Or just a mate to Allardyce and Anderson .....

[AllRoverAsia]

30 minutes ago, booth said:

Nyambe should be back at least, hopefully Travis too which would allow Buckley to return to his forward role, but Brereton is out so I expect more tinkering. I’ll be very surprised if Gallagher isn’t playing.

We could really do with signing a player who knows where the goal is today.

One who could trap a bag of wet cement would do.

[AllRoverAsia]

3 hours ago, neophox said:

It was.

So there are still YTS goings on. Socially responsible Rovers.

[MarkBRFC]

3 hours ago, neophox said:

WHEN WILL DACK BE BACK?? Seems he's been out for a longer time this time around?

It's not been longer.

His first injury he was out from December 2019 and made his first team comeback in December 2020.

This time he got injured in March 2021 and it's only January 2022, so in reality he is probably a good month or so away from playing for the first team.

[Mattyblue]

Two years of his career gone, in his prime too.

Even if he comes back as good as he was, still a real shame.

[Irish_Rover]

Jesus that was a massively hard watch.

Haven't read all the comments but I do agree with most of what you said above @Tyrone Shoelaces
I posted after the Birmingham game naively thinking that this was a new dawn and citing that Mowbray had left Gallagher on the bench and stuck with the formation and players that were serving us so well.
Unfortunately his first chance to make changes (suspension to Nyambe) has resulted in Mowbray shoe-horning Gallagher back into the team. When I first saw it I was of the mind fair enough, let him play up front and see how he does with Khadra and BBD playing off him. But of course no, Mowbray has to shunt him out to the sidelines yet again.
It was shocking. And can I just say on Gallagher, I have always wanted to him to succeed even when a load of lads here were being fairly negative on him but by Christ he seemed the most dis-interested, unmotivated individual I have seen in some time. You would think given a rare start he would be chasing everything, coming short to get on the ball, look lively and try to make his mark to give the manager a headache. The fact he didnt even try is unforgivable.

It was clear as day the 2 mids was not going to work from around 20 mins in. Mowbray should have pro-actively done something about it then, namely take off Gallagher and throw Davenport back into the middle.

Also can I just say that I have never had any ill feelings against Hull, but after the shenanigans to get the first game postponed and then after their player basically bulled into Kaminski for the second goal I'm hoping for a long stay in Leagues one and two for them.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Irish_Rover

[TonyM]

A work commitment meant this was the first game I hadn't been able to watch for quite a while - managed to see the last 20mins, but from that I was glad to have missed the rest. But we haven't really played well for a couple of games now and this was coming.

On to the next one.

Edited January 20, 2022 by TonyM

[Leonard Venkhater]

16 minutes ago, Irish_Rover said:

Jesus that was a massively hard watch.

Haven't read all the comments but I do agree with most of what you said above @Tyrone Shoelaces
I posted after the Birmingham game naively thinking that this was a new dawn and citing that Mowbray had left Gallagher on the bench and stuck with the formation and players that were serving us so well.
Unfortunately his first chance to make changes (suspension to Nyambe) has resulted in Mowbray shoe-horning Gallagher back into the team. When I first saw it I was of the mind fair enough, let him play up front and see how he does with Khadra and BBD playing off him. But of course no, Mowbray has to shunt him out to the sidelines yet again.
It was shocking. And can I just say on Gallagher, I have always wanted to him to succeed even when a load of lads here were being fairly negative on him but by Christ he seemed the most dis-interested, unmotivated individual I have seen in some time. You would think given a rare start he would be chasing everything, coming short to get on the ball, look lively and try to make his mark to give the manager a headache. The fact he didnt even try is unforgivable.

It was clear as day the 2 mids was not going to work from around 20 mins in. Mowbray should have pro-actively done something about it then, namely take off Gallagher and throw Davenport back into the middle.

Also can I just say that I have never had any ill feelings against Hull, but after the shenanigans to get the first game postponed and then after their player basically bulled into Kaminski for the second goal I'm hoping for a long stay in Leagues one and two for them.

Why, this is Hull. Nor am I out of it...

 

[rovers11]

Last night proves what we already knew, we have a good first 11 but not a very good squad. Edun is a poor lb, JRC is massively unfit and can't even run at the moment, Buckley is not very good in a deeper role, and Gallagher is just hopeless.

I'd certainly say central midfield reinforcements are needed after last night. A player who can be an understudy to Travis.

[riverholmes]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That was truly terrible. The only redeeming feature was that if anybody had the idea that Tony had turned into a footballing genius, think again. At least the thought of him getting another contract is disappearing over the horizon. We just carried on from were we left off in Cardiff. It was shambolic. It’s obvious that the tinkering around did us no favours. JRC was no where near ready for first team football and it showed. That should have been obvious to the manager.  When you look down the line up outside the back 3 there wasn’t a tackle in the team. I was disgusted with our lack of aggression. Why weren’t we surrounding the ref after that ridiculous second goal ?  We just shrugged our shoulders and looked at each other. . We had four bookings last night, all for trivial ,avoidable, incidents.
 

What bugged me is that you could see the system wasn’t working after 15 minutes but we had to play an hour before any changes were made, and then it was all three at once. We should have subbed JRC at half time, moved Lenihan to RB and brought Ayala on. Gallagher off and Davenport on and reverted to our normal system.
 

Buckley ( my MOTM for what it’s worth ) was playing way too deep. Rothwell had a couple of good runs and that was it. What Davenport has to do to get a game I just don’t know, why is he still at the club if the manager doesn’t rate him ? There was a massive gap between the back five and the front three that Hull played in all night. Khadra’s all pace and no brains. He should have taken the ball in closer for that shot. BBD was back being Brererton last night but he was really unlucky with the pen. The ref must have had his eyes painted on . Gallagher was awful, he seems to go backwards every time I see him. Edun was poor first half but got better as the game went. JRC, awful but not entirely his fault. The centre halves weren’t really at the races, they allowed their striker to do a “ Kevin Davies “ on us.
 

If you’re going to play with wing backs it’s imperative that they play as much as they can in the opponents half. In the first half ours barely got over the half way line.

On the plus side we should be able to get to 50 points before the end of the season so we won’t be going down.

I can't fathom the tall striker out wide tactic. I recall Del Bosque playing Morata there in a recent international tournament, for Spain. Has any team ever made it work consistently?

A somewhat averagely paced tall striker out wide is not going to be much of a threat or offer strong defence. Perhaps, the only threat would be arriving at the far post from crosses and, also, competing with full backs for long balls. So, perhaps, in a direct or long ball team, where he's the target, it might have value but it's clearly not the role set-up for Gallagher.

Edit: I do think posters who remind us that the team was poor in the previous game against Cardiff have a real point too. Even the preferred line-up, albeit, without Pickering, has shown signs of flagging. Perhaps, some fatigue plays a role - as well as other teams combating our tactics. So, we certainly need some variation to our play, rather than pure counter-attack every time.

It looks like Hull were looking for long balls to test the pace at the back and, perhaps, by-pass the Rovers press. I think we'll see more teams doing that, seeing how effective it was.

Just had a look at the match highlights and it's notable for Hull's second goal, Rovers are playing  a back six. Looks like they were struggling with organisation and reminiscent of the Fulham defeat when despite virtually the whole team being in our own penalty box, we were still getting picked off. (A Rovers forward points at Eaves overloading Lenihan at RB and runs away - perhaps, assuming that the six at the back would be enough to stop him).

Edited January 20, 2022 by riverholmes

[TheRoversReturn]

12 hours ago, Miller11 said:

Another awful display by the officials. Have they got so much worse, or is it just that it matters more now? Bit of both I reckon.

Bringing Gallagher in instead of Davenport was a predictably bad decision. I actually think Gallagher has some value to us, but not in that role.

Travis and Nyambe have come in for varying levels of stick on here lately. Some reassessments needed. Both were sorely missed.

Brereton was always going to hit a barren patch, hopefully a trip to Chile helps him get over it. Big questions over who can step up to the plate.

It’s blindingly obvious we need to keep as close to our first 11 as possible. Enforced changes we will have to live with, but altering players for no reason, or the system at all will lead to disaster. That said, I think the stick Edun seems to be getting tonight is odd, thought he did pretty well.

Great post. Agree with all of it. 

[rigger]

1 hour ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

I believe I read somewhere last night that JRC’s pass completion rate was an appalling 50%. 

To be honest I am surprised it was that high! Needs to spend a few weeks in the under 23s as he was like a rabbit caught in headlights last night. My concern is that TM loves him - he always used to pick him over Nyambe - so I really wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in on Monday somewhere in the eleven.

JRC has played for the U23s, and he was awful.  Also Johnson had a game for the U23s and he was awful as well.

Edited January 20, 2022 by rigger

[Oldgregg86]

12 hours ago, bluebruce said:

What happened to being sent off because you're the last man?

I think there is some double jeopardy rule now

[windymiller7]

Couldn't be arsed posting when I got back last night mainly thanks to the numbties who shut the A63 on a night when a couple of thousand people needed to use it on their way back to Lancs. I bet the people living in their sleepy little villages on the diversion route were made up!!

Also, a special mention to the bellend who smashed up his seat and threw it, narrowly missing the guy next to me - this is your own fans, dickhead!!

Can't really add much more to what's already been said. Gally crap, JRC crap. Should've been Davenport for Travis, Zeefuik for Nyambe (he can't have been any worse or less fit than JRC) And then same formation as usual. We got bullied last night in midfield & by Eaves.

Lenihan on the right wing at the end! WTF?

I'm not even gonna get started on the Ref. Even at the opposite end of the ground it looked a clear pen & foul on Kaminski.  Watching it back on TV I can't believe he's not given either of them.

Anyway, let's hope it's a blip & not the start of Tony's messing about and resulting g death spiral.

[yeti-dog]

Well, that was anti-climactic. 

Had a bad vibe from the off given as we were live on TV (that usually doesn't end well).

It was a strange, lacklustre performance - started off poor, we did improve at times throughout the game but not to the extent that we in any way deserved to win that. 

You could possibly argue a point might have been fair given a couple of the appalling refereeing decisions but it is what it is. We now need to respond like we did after the Fulham loss.

We need a few more in too - the squad quality and strength in depth needs improving.

Hard to truly believe we can end up in the top 2 after that performance but we had to lose some time, we'll learn now about their strength of character, resilience etc....  

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, riverholmes said:

I can't fathom the tall striker out wide tactic. I recall Del Bosque playing Morata there in a recent international tournament, for Spain. Has any team ever made it work consistently?

A somewhat averagely paced tall striker out wide is not going to be much of a threat or offer strong defence. Perhaps, the only threat would be arriving at the far post from crosses and, also, competing with full backs for long balls. So, perhaps, in a direct or long ball team, where he's the target, it might have value but it's clearly not the role set-up for Gallagher.

Edit: I do think posters who remind us that the team was poor in the previous game against Cardiff have a real point too. Even the preferred line-up, albeit, without Pickering, has shown signs of flagging. Perhaps, some fatigue plays a role - as well as other teams combating our tactics. So, we certainly need some variation to our play, rather than pure counter-attack every time.

It looks like Hull were looking for long balls to test the pace at the back and, perhaps, by-pass the Rovers press. I think we'll see more teams doing that, seeing how effective it was.

Just had a look at the match highlights and it's notable for Hull's second goal, Rovers are playing  a back six. Looks like they were struggling with organisation and reminiscent of the Fulham defeat when despite virtually the whole team being in our own penalty box, we were still getting picked off. (A Rovers forward points at Eaves overloading Lenihan at RB and runs away - perhaps, assuming that the six at the back would be enough to stop him).

They had some money and wanted a marquee signing so knowing Gallagher they dived in and signed him when he became available. I think that's the top and bottom of it with him and they quickly realized he can't do the Danny Graham role, Mowbray doesn't like using a battering ram type system either. 

So its been a case of just fit him in somewhere because at least he'll run around a lot so gallop up and down the right, looking to come inside. That's where we are at with him the squad has to carry this 5 million pound 15k pwk signing somehow because he wasn't signed for a specific role.

Painful to watch this scenario at times and i like the guy i think he can serve a purpose but what we've seen since he came back isn't really it.

[Exiled_Rover]

I'm still angry about those refereeing decisions.

[CambridgeRover]

Morning after thought. I think the reason I was so angry with Gallagher last night  was that in the past, even though he has been poor in terms of performance level, he always seemed to try whether that be challenging for the ball or pressuring. There was at least some level of commitment. But last night he didn't even turn up, he didn't impose himself physically or show any passion. That combine with her lack of technical skills was really really hard to watch.

[davulsukur]

2 hours ago, Danny O.Brien said:

Gallagher gets a new deal and respondes by going missing. Could be excused if he was a young lad, not use to first team football but he isn't. If you're not playing very well work hard win the ball and win fouls do something. Show a bit of bite and desire. Dack is brilliant at this if he isn't having the best game, he gets stuck in and wins fouls all over the pitch. He affects the game however he can and puts himself about. I get he's being played out of position but Jesus, can you imagine us having him up top and depending on him to lead the line.

He didn't go missing, he was very much there screwing up all our attacks.

Not sure he did anything right last night. I'll have to check he even managed to put his shirt on the right way round.

[G Somerset Rover]

29 minutes ago, CambridgeRover said:

Morning after thought. I think the reason I was so angry with Gallagher last night  was that in the past, even though he has been poor in terms of performance level, he always seemed to try whether that be challenging for the ball or pressuring. There was at least some level of commitment. But last night he didn't even turn up, he didn't impose himself physically or show any passion. That combine with her lack of technical skills was really really hard to watch.

He wasn't alone either. And we had the chance to get into the top two. It's baffling. And concerning.

As I said last night, would anyone really be that surprised if we turned up like last night in the play-offs?* I wouldn't be.

*We'd be lucky to even be in them if we keep up the work from last night!

Edited January 20, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[Butty]

Edun wasn’t great first half at all but I thought in the second half he was our best player. Not that that’s saying much. 

[roversfan99]

Poor refereeing first and foremost, 2 terrible decisions. If we had VAR both would have been corrected, but people don't seem to be keen on that idea.

But I always think that there is little to be gained from focusing too much on the referee, I am much more worried with certain cracks that are appearing. Mowbray has managed to get the team playing more than the sum of its parts in the last couple of months, consistent selections amidst tactics and a formation that has worked perfectly, but there have been signs of weakness in recent games and as soon as you get beyond that first 11, the team becomes massively weakened.

Gallagher is an absolute donkey, why he got a new deal is beyond me and his inclusion also upset the balance, Khadra was poor and didn't suit that role and we have seen how reliant we are on Brereton's goals, it is similar to last year with Armstrong, the supporting cast don't get enough. We have lots of attackers that I would consider to be ill suited to being paired with a similar partner from the same group; Dolan, Butterworth, Khadra and Markanday, with Gallagher being a donkey leaving only Brereton as a slightly more physical, regular goalscorer. We badly need another striker before the window that fits into the way we play and can play either with or without Brereton, perhaps as the right sided striker, that can offer a serious goal threat.

Rankin Costello was beyond poor, understandably rusty but I don't think that he is particularly good to begin with, he seems to have a reputation as an attacking full/wing back from nowhere really. It isn't a major worry in that Nyambe can come back in on Monday and we also have Zeefuik ahead of Rankin Costello. Edun is also nowhere near the standard of Pickering and it just shows that there is a drop off past that first 11. There has been talk of Buckley developing to be a deeper midfielder, it did not suit him at all yesterday.

The subs were weird choices, I can only presume it was to add physicality but it seemed a strange choice.

A really important game on Monday. Nyambe has to come back in for Rankin Costello, Travis has to come in (or Davenport if he doesn't recover in time) to replace Gallagher. The big worry is up front, without Brereton, who will score? I would start Markanday, possibly with Khadra but that doesn't seem like it is well balanced.

[danger19_80]

11 minutes ago, Butty said:

Edun wasn’t great first half at all but I thought in the second half he was our best player. Not that that’s saying much. 

Agree with this, especially going forward