v WBA (a) - Valentine’s Day 💙🤍

[windymiller7]

8 minutes ago, StubbsUK said:

BRFCS fans are HARSH on anyone that doesn't have a tip top game ...

I was half tempted to give JRC an extra point for clearly calling one of their players a "f*cking knobhead" last night. You definitely didn't need to be an expert lip reader to make that one out. It really made me chuckle at the time.

Anyway, although Nyambe got the Sky vote & played very well, Wharton gets my vote for MotM.

[yankfan]

1 hour ago, Silas said:

JRC look away now. 🙈🙈

“Daniel, I’ll sit and talk to him, but that’s why you have a squad and it was great to see [Joe] Rankin-Costello come in and played 75 really good minutes for us in Daniel’s absence.”

“Whilst it’s disappointing for Daniel, it was great for Joe Rankin-Costello.”

 

what Match was TM watching? JRC was by far the worst player on the pitch. 

[Trinidad Rover]

1 hour ago, Crimpshrine said:

Two teams lacking confidence on show last night. Momentum from earlier in the season has deserted us.

Promotion is often won behind the scenes and off the pitch in January and Bournemouth blew us out of the water in that respect. Lack of ambition, interest and action from Venky's. 

We need to hang on to a playoff place and hope we get our mojo back at the right time ( see 1992 )

 

Surely a lack of ambition would have been cashing in? Rothwell?

Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

1 hour ago, tonyoz said:

It doesn’t help that he’s offside so often. An average of 1.3 times per game, more than anyone else in the Championship. (Mitrovic averages 0.6). He had the ball in the net twice on Wednesday…..offside both times.

The second one was the worst - as he didn't need to be ahead of the defender to score. Possibly a sign that he is getting a little anxious - though I thought his general play last night was good.

[jim mk2]

33 minutes ago, StubbsUK said:

BRFCS fans are HARSH on anyone that doesn't have a tip top game ...

He wasn't just poor; he way off the pace. He couldn't even kick the ball properly. I've never seen much to suggest he could make it as a player 

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

1 hour ago, FortressEwood said:

Why begrudgingly?

I am not a fan of how TM has handled Rothwell - obviously I don't know Rothwell as a person, but feel we could have got more out of him sooner if handled better. But it is just an opinion, I'll leave it at that 😉

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

29 minutes ago, yankfan said:

“Daniel, I’ll sit and talk to him, but that’s why you have a squad and it was great to see [Joe] Rankin-Costello come in and played 75 really good minutes for us in Daniel’s absence.”

“Whilst it’s disappointing for Daniel, it was great for Joe Rankin-Costello.”

 

what Match was TM watching? JRC was by far the worst player on the pitch. 

Only good thing really - was a further 75 minutes towards full fitness and match sharpness (hopefully only as a sub). Though TM has done it to other players - why kick a player when he is down ?

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

28 minutes ago, Trinidad Rover said:

Surely a lack of ambition would have been cashing in? Rothwell?

Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

Agree - they could have balanced the books selling Diaz, Rothwell, Nyambe and Lenihan - £30m+ (Diaz being the biggest chunk) - with the contract position as the excuse. Keeping the squad together has cost the club a fortune in lost fees - lets hope it pays off.

Edited February 15, 2022 by DavidMailsTightPerm

[roversfan99]

18 hours ago, benhben said:

Kevin Davis laying into TMs tactics...saying what everyone apart fro  TM sees!

 

18 hours ago, superniko said:

Fair play Sky slamming how ridiculous it is playing Gallagher on the wing. Everyone knows it but the man in charge 

 

18 hours ago, RTM08 said:

Seemed obvious at the time we were doing well but if this run wasn't confirmation that Tony got lucky and is the biggest thing holding back this team I don't know what is. We absolutely must get rid in the summer if we have even the tiniest bit of ambition.

 

15 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Not sure you can say Ayala was swinging the lead on this occasion but what you can say with certainty is he has a career history of being injury prone and/or going awol for whatever reason so overall, given the money he's on he has to go down as a bad signing for me.

Dont agree with the bit about Travis.

The rest is absolutely spot on. It needs saying.

I can't believe how blase people are being about us having slipped so tamely and quickly out of the automatic promotion reckoning. It's not on, if form had tailed off very slightly then fair enough but if we were good enough to get into 2nd in the first place then the form over the last few games has been simply unacceptable.

If we were playing like this in any other season the pitchforks would be well and truly out but TM is getting away with it at the moment purely because we played well before Chrismas.

It's not on. We've already had quite enough dung thrown our way over the last 10 years without this to cap it all off.

 

There is such an obsession at the moment with the current tactics, for some reason people have forgotten that it is the current system that was key to us going on such an incredible run to push us so high up the table in the first place. Wide strikers and Buckley as a false 9 are apparently idiotic experiments on behalf of the manager, implying that they have only come into place since the run of incredible form. They were cornerstones of that very same form. Talk of Mowbray being "lucky" or that "everyone knows it but the man in charge" in regards to his tactics makes absolutely no sense, you credit when things go well and criticise when it doesn't, not just choose which side you prefer to best suit the fact that you have an agenda and your mind has already been made up.

Ultimately, its impossible to argue against the fact that we are struggling to score goals at the moment, and that is becoming more and more of a worry.

The aspect that is not getting the credit that it deserves is how the current system has overcome the constant achilles heel that we had prior to this season, our defensive record. People have constantly cried out for us building from the back and being solid and now we very much are. In the last 8 games, we have scored 2 goals which is really poor. That being said, those 2 goals were in 1 nil wins, and there are also 3 nil nil draws in there, 9 points in 8 games is not a promotion chasing run of form, but it is not as disastrous as focusing on the attacking woes may make out, and it shows that when you are hard to score against, you can grind out results even when you are misfiring in attack which will happen to all teams, and it even has to Fulham and Bournemouth.

The above is why I can understand the tactical conundrum regarding how we change things up. The natural first change people may recommend is to move from the 5 at the back but as shown above, we are defensively solid, Wharton and Van Hecke were again outstanding last night and Lenihan who himself has been superb this season returns on Saturday. So for me, it is about changing things ahead of that, a serious injury to Brereton would be a huge blow to that. 

And @RevidgeBlue we have "quite enough dung thrown our way over the last 10 years" you are certainly not wrong. That is due to the owners that you repeatedly defend, and we are currently at our best point within those 10 years (shows how poor those years have been) thanks to the man that you cannot bring yourself to praise no matter what he possibly does!

 

[Hasta]

5 hours ago, rigger said:

Rovers have played 9 times since BBD last scored, fact.

Rovers have gone over 40 games since Bradley Dack last scored. Fact.

It’s a useless one mind you.

[only2garners]

4 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Rovers have gone over 40 games since Bradley Dack last scored. Fact.

It’s a useless one mind you.

He scored on Monday!

[Hasta]

10 minutes ago, only2garners said:

He scored on Monday!

This is true, but therefore BBD scored against Argentina 😄

[rigger]

13 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Rovers have gone over 40 games since Bradley Dack last scored. Fact.

It’s a useless one mind you.

At the moment Bradley Dack is not a first team player. He has also scored in his teams last two games, but that has got nothing to do with BBD present goalscoring form, so lets leave it at that.

[rigger]

3 minutes ago, Hasta said:

This is true, but therefore BBD scored against Argentina 😄

OK so that is 1 goal in his last 9 games. 7 for the Rovers, 2 for Chile. That to me is a problem. 

[aletheia]

Formations?

With ball/attacking/goal behind

Kaminski

Lenihan    Van Hecke     Wharton

Travis

Nyambe      Buckley    Rothwell     Pickering

Dolan         Brereton

 

Without ball/defensive/goal up

Kaminski

Nyambe    Lenihan    Van Hecke     Wharton   Pickering

Buckley Travis   Rothwell   Brereton

Dolan

Gallagher to replace Brereton as needed

Khadra to replace Dolan as needed

Giles to replace several as needed

 

 

[rigger]

5 hours ago, yankfan said:

“Daniel, I’ll sit and talk to him, but that’s why you have a squad and it was great to see [Joe] Rankin-Costello come in and played 75 really good minutes for us in Daniel’s absence.”

“Whilst it’s disappointing for Daniel, it was great for Joe Rankin-Costello.”

 

what Match was TM watching? JRC was by far the worst player on the pitch. 

The imaginary one in his head.

[superniko]

23 hours ago, superniko said:

Fair play Sky slamming how ridiculous it is playing Gallagher on the wing. Everyone knows it but the man in charge 

 

4 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

There is such an obsession at the moment with the current tactics, for some reason people have forgotten that it is the current system that was key to us going on such an incredible run to push us so high up the table in the first place. Wide strikers and Buckley as a false 9 are apparently idiotic experiments on behalf of the manager, implying that they have only come into place since the run of incredible form. They were cornerstones of that very same form. Talk of Mowbray being "lucky" or that "everyone knows it but the man in charge" in regards to his tactics makes absolutely no sense, you credit when things go well and criticise when it doesn't, not just choose which side you prefer to best suit the fact that you have an agenda and your mind has already been made up.

Ultimately, its impossible to argue against the fact that we are struggling to score goals at the moment, and that is becoming more and more of a worry.

 

I don’t recall Gallagher playing on the wing when we went on the incredible run. 
Looking at it, he was injured and not on the bench for the first 5 unbeaten, then from Bournemouth onwards (the next 5 unbeaten) he started on the bench for all of them. 
The first game he came back to start I hear you ask…Hull away, where we lost 2-0 and ended our 10 game unbeaten league run, since then he’s started 4 of the 6 matches and we’ve (it was Gally) scored 1 goal in those 6 

So I’ll stick with my post that you quoted… everyone can see Gallagher on the wing doesn’t work, except Tony Mowbray.

Edited February 15, 2022 by superniko

[Bigdoggsteel]

12 minutes ago, superniko said:

 

I don’t recall Gallagher playing on the wing when we went on the incredible run. 
Looking at it, he was injured and not on the bench for the first 5 unbeaten, then from Bournemouth onwards (the next 5 unbeaten) he started on the bench for all of them. 
The first game he came back to start I hear you ask…Hull away, where we lost 2-0 and ended our 10 game unbeaten league run, since then he’s started 4 of the 6 matches and we’ve (it was Gally) scored 1 goal in those 6 

So I’ll stick with my post that you quoted… everyone can see Gallagher on the wing doesn’t work, except Tony Mowbray.

Bale didn't win loads of games at the start of his Spurs career, not saying Gallagher is Bale, but he scored  an important goal against Boro. I think he needs to attack the ball in the box more from where he is playing

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Everybody qouting Kevin Davies saying he would play Diaz and Gallagher as a front two - need to add the bit where he said just his opinion and that false 9 position had been part of the winning run we went on.

[superniko]

1 minute ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

Everybody qouting Kevin Davies saying he would play Diaz and Gallagher as a front two - need to add the bit where he said just his opinion and that false 9 position had been part of the winning run we went on.

Yeah and to follow up my post I actually like the false 9 and agree it’s been a mainstay of our great run. 
My concern was around one of the wide forwards being Gallagher (not used in our great run). I’d much rather see Dolan played there, or Khadra if TM can get him to lift his head and pass.
It’s based on stretching the opposition, and suits our non-possession, counter attacking style more (and worked for 10 unbeaten games)

[bazza]

I've just finished watching the whole game on Rovers TV. Previously I heard the commentary on Radio Lancs and have been reading this forum and the comments.

I think people are being harsh on JRC. He hasn't started a game since April last season. He has had a bad injury which kept him out for a long time. He didn't expect to start the game last night until a few minutes before KO. He was asked to play out of position; a square peg in a round hole.

The three cross field balls to him in the first half were way over his head. He looked very rusty at times. This was only to be expected. He did put some nice crosses in and didn't look half as bad as people said he was.

Whilst Nyambe and Wharton have had the accolades (which I agree with) Van Hecke looked so cool and full of class. Travis, Bucko, BBD, Rothy, and Giles played well. Khadra was a bit greedy and Dolan is a gem.

Sam Gallagher??   Nuff said on here already.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

We used to have a saying about players like Khadra. “ He dribbles when he comes to a pair of feet “.

[tomphil]

Used as he should be Gallagher can contribute and help this team. Used as Mowbray wants to use him he's more of a hinderence.

This one is on the manager more than the player.

[jim mk2]

 

2 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Bale didn't win loads of games at the start of his Spurs career, not saying Gallagher is Bale, but he scored  an important goal against Boro. I think he needs to attack the ball in the box more from where he is playing

That's the first time and will probably the only time that Sam Gallagher will appear in the same sentence as Gareth Bale

Unless it was being used as an illustration to compare donkeys and thoroughbreds

On another note, don't see the love-in with Dolan. He buzzed around like he always does but there wasn't much end product. I'd only ever use him as a sub. Same with Khadra

[Mattyblue]

He came on at 75 minutes created a chance by beating a man and putting a cross in from the byline (missed by Buckley) and saved a point by clearing off the line. 

Decent cameo from where I’m standing…