v Millwall (h) - Saturday 19th February

[Aqualung]

17 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

They said how long he is out?

According to the LET, at least the Millwall match. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

13 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Very vague from TM..."days, weeks or months"...I'm not joking either.

The decision to not bring in another striker (NOT Markanday) pre-window ending is looking like one absolute balls up from the club. It was a very risky decision, and you could argue it's been backfiring for some time given we can't hit a barn door, even with BBD.

We brought in Hedges and Markanday who can play in one of the 2 front positions. One got injured after 10 minutes. We also have Gallagher, Khadra and Dolan who can play there. 

It's always easy to say we should have signed players after someone gets injured. 

Brereton was always going to start with one of the others mentioned above. Bournemouth signed Moore for £3.5 million and on more than we pay anyone, to sit on the bench. They have parachute payments, we can't afford to do that. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19931975.ben-brereton-diaz-injury-update-blackburn-rovers-boss/

Sounds like 2 games max 

[Bigdoggsteel]

20 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Very vague from TM..."days, weeks or months"...I'm not joking either.

The decision to not bring in another striker (NOT Markanday) pre-window ending is looking like one absolute balls up from the club. It was a very risky decision, and you could argue it's been backfiring for some time given we can't hit a barn door, even with BBD.

Where does he say potentially months? 

[G Somerset Rover]

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

We brought in Hedges and Markanday who can play in one of the 2 front positions. One got injured after 10 minutes. We also have Gallagher, Khadra and Dolan who can play there. 

It's always easy to say we should have signed players after someone gets injured. 

How many career goals do those guys have between them? Barely hits 30 I would imagine. It doesn't matter if we play with these wide forwards, we still need them to hit the back of the net. I'm not looking at this with hindsight - I said throughout January that Markanday wouldn't be enough. We need someone who can sniff out a goal. We don't have that.

[G Somerset Rover]

2 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Where does he say potentially months? 

@Rovers: TM on Brereton Diaz: "He's in good spirits, but he's not going to be available for the next game or two.He twisted his ankle, it could be a few days, few weeks, few months. Let's wait and see."

As an aside, Ayala is out again. The winter break strikes yet again for our Spaniard.

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

@Rovers: TM on Brereton Diaz: "He's in good spirits, but he's not going to be available for the next game or two.He twisted his ankle, it could be a few days, few weeks, few months. Let's wait and see."

As an aside, Ayala is out again. The winter break strikes yet again for our Spaniard.

Quote directly from LT is different

He won’t be available this weekend which is a blow but it’s an opportunity for someone else to come in and see if they can knock the goals in.

“Ben filled a void when Adam Armstrong left and if Ben is going to miss a game or two then someone else has to step up.”

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

How many career goals do those guys have between them? Barely hits 30 I would imagine. It doesn't matter if we play with these wide forwards, we still need them to hit the back of the net. I'm not looking at this with hindsight - I said throughout January that Markanday wouldn't be enough. We need someone who can sniff out a goal. We don't have that.

How many did Brereton have before this season? These guys need to step up now 

[jim mk2]

It's OK saying "someone has to step up" to replace Brereton but who exactly?

Dack - forget it, he'll never be the same player again

Butterworth - schoolboy player, not ready for the first team

Gallagher - maybe but highly unlikely

The failure to add forward firepower in January was a serious mistake. Injuries to key players was always going to happen

As its stands, unless the midfield contributes (not on present form) and defenders start chipping in (even more unlikely) where are the goals coming from? 

[roversfan99]

This idea that someone will always step in unexpectedly when the key striker departs/is out is flawed, hopefully it will happen again but there is a reason that goalscorers cost so much.

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

It's OK saying "someone has to step up" to replace Brereton but who exactly?

Dack - forget it, he'll never be the same player again

Butterworth - schoolboy player, not ready for the first team

Gallagher - maybe but highly unlikely

The failure to add forward firepower in January was a serious mistake. Injuries to key players was always going to happen

As its stands, unless the midfield contributes (not on present form) and defenders start chipping in (even more unlikely) where are the goals coming from? 

I assume you didn't give Brereton much chance of stepping up when Armstrong left? 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

This idea that someone will always step in unexpectedly when the key striker departs/is out is flawed, hopefully it will happen again but there is a reason that goalscorers cost so much.

Flawed? I would say more hopeful, but really what else can we do? As you say goalscorers cost a lot of money. 

Brereton, Dack, Khadra, Hedges, Markanday, Gallagher, Dolan and even Vale. Thats 8 for 2 positions, although Dack will probaby play in Buckleys position and vale is young, but still its 6 players. 

QPR fans are complaining they didn't sign a striker too  

[AllRoverAsia]

0-0 it is then, if played.

Hopefully it will piss down tomorrow and Saturday and Ewood Lake is unplayable.

[jim mk2]

11 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

I assume you didn't give Brereton much chance of stepping up when Armstrong left? 

Silly post and doesn't answer the question of the predicament Rovers now find themselves in

[Displaced Rover]

I feel like Diaz being out might force Tony's hand re Dack reintroduction. That said maybe not the best conditions to throw him into. Perhaps better to hope it's postponed given the lack of forward options.

[roversfan99]

2 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Flawed? I would say more hopeful, but really what else can we do? As you say goalscorers cost a lot of money. 

Brereton, Dack, Khadra, Hedges, Markanday, Gallagher, Dolan and even Vale. Thats 8 for 2 positions, although Dack will probaby play in Buckleys position and vale is young, but still its 6 players. 

QPR fans are complaining they didn't sign a striker too  

My point wasn't aimed at you, just a general point that it is naive to expect there to be always someone banging in goals amongst the top scorers in the league, the Brereton situation has been unexpected but I don't see a similar case from the current cast.

Of course there is nothing to do other than hope, in reality the likes of Rothwell, Buckley, Dolan and Khadra need to chip in far more than they currently do, although none have a track record of scoring goals anything other than very occasionally. Gallagher is our biggest source of goals and he is far from prolific, Hedges doesn't have a particularly prolific record either. I don't hold much hope there based on logic, the key is to keep other teams out and hopefully we have enough to nick games.

I did feel that we needed a forward extra in the window, for me we had 5 main options for 2 positions, Brereton, Gallagher, Dolan, Khadra and Hedges. The latter signed having initially been earmarked as one for the summer following the Markanday injury, so we knew of that prior to the window closing. I do get as I mentioned though that firstly any team is weaker without their main goalscorer, and on a small budget already depleted by signing someone who instantly got injured, and also someone with the qualities to fit into the current season.

[Crimpshrine]

1 hour ago, Aqualung said:

Brereton out of the Millwall game. Twisted ankle. 

Looked like he was rubbing and bending his knee when he came off on monday. Didn't look like a twisted ankle type of hobble

[Butty]

50 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

We brought in Hedges and Markanday who can play in one of the 2 front positions. One got injured after 10 minutes. We also have Gallagher, Khadra and Dolan who can play there. 

It's always easy to say we should have signed players after someone gets injured. 

Brereton was always going to start with one of the others mentioned above. Bournemouth signed Moore for £3.5 million and on more than we pay anyone, to sit on the bench. They have parachute payments, we can't afford to do that. 

Well the club obviously felt we needed another in as we tried to sign Dembele.

[bluebruce]

28 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

It's OK saying "someone has to step up" to replace Brereton but who exactly?

Dack - forget it, he'll never be the same player again

Butterworth - schoolboy player, not ready for the first team

Gallagher - maybe but highly unlikely

The failure to add forward firepower in January was a serious mistake. Injuries to key players was always going to happen

As its stands, unless the midfield contributes (not on present form) and defenders start chipping in (even more unlikely) where are the goals coming from? 

Butterworth is out on loan anyway. Vale is our youth team emergency backup striker for now. Tbf we did add firepower, in Markanday and Giles. Just that Markanday got injured immediately...we've barely seen Giles so he could still come good, but he hasn't done much so far. I was never convinced by that deal but we will see how he gets on.

[Bigdoggsteel]

13 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Silly post and doesn't answer the question of the predicament Rovers now find themselves in

Well it's true. You would complain the club didn't sign a replacement if someone in any position got injured, from goalkeeper to Striker and every position in between. 

Then you would complain if we signed players who didn't play because the players who start didn't injured and were starting ahead of them "Why did we waste money on so and so" 

All this stuff is easy to moan about in hindsight 

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

We brought in Hedges and Markanday who can play in one of the 2 front positions. One got injured after 10 minutes. We also have Gallagher, Khadra and Dolan who can play there. 

It's always easy to say we should have signed players after someone gets injured. 

Brereton was always going to start with one of the others mentioned above. Bournemouth signed Moore for £3.5 million and on more than we pay anyone, to sit on the bench. They have parachute payments, we can't afford to do that. 

Plenty of people were saying it before Brereton got injured and before the window closed.

Personally, I agreed but disagreed with that at the time. As in, I agreed we needed another proven goalscorer, but I felt our budget was likely to be too limited to get one of the required quality and that we had other positions that needed sorting more urgently which should be cheaper to deal with (CM, backup goalie, and probably a backup CB, though I'd rather have kept Carter around). In the end we did neither.

[Bigdoggsteel]

9 minutes ago, Butty said:

Well the club obviously felt we needed another in as we tried to sign Dembele.

Is he a striker? Think he's more of a winger/midfielder. Anyway, for the figures quoted, it would have been a good permanent signing. It seems the Hedges transfer was brought forward from Summer when we missed out and/or Markanday got injured

We have 6 players for the 2 roles upfront. 

[roversfan99]

It isn't a question of hindsight to be fair, many people raised the issue upon the closure of the transfer window that they felt that we were a striker short.

I don't think it is as straightforward as it seems, in that firstly, any team would miss and struggle to replace their main striker, especially one on 20 goals. Also, we had a small budget further depleted by the sunk cost of the Markanday deal considering his injury. To find a striker that could offer anything close to a similar goal threat to Brereton on a small budget to fit our current formation was always going to be challenging, Dembele seemingly was bid for, a talented player but he isn't a regular goalscorer himself.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, bluebruce said:

Plenty of people were saying it before Brereton got injured and before the window closed.

Personally, I agreed but disagreed with that at the time. As in, I agreed we needed another proven goalscorer, but I felt our budget was likely to be too limited to get one of the required quality and that we had other positions that needed sorting more urgently which should be cheaper to deal with (CM, backup goalie, and probably a backup CB, though I'd rather have kept Carter around). In the end we did neither.

This is it. It's easy for us all to say we would like to sign a 10 million striker in January, but in reality we can't afford that and then you are taking gambles of loans or foreign players. 

It's a pity Markanday got injured 

[islander200]

15 minutes ago, Butty said:

Well the club obviously felt we needed another in as we tried to sign Dembele.

Not really a striker though is he?

31 career goals most at a lower level than this doesn't suggest he would have been the answer to our goalscoring problems.