v Sheffield Utd (a) - 23/2/22 - Match Preview

[arealbrfcfan]

8 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Yep,  Wigan and the January window debacle felt like turning points at the time - and so it's been proved. 

The worst thing is fans saying someone else has to "step up and score" when we clearly haven't the players who can do it.

Brereton's been great but a loss of form or injury was always likely, and there's no one else. 

100% agree. And add in poor team selections and we just go back to square 1.
 

Watching Wigan unravel us made me think, what can championship teams do. 
 

I think Brereton’s form started to dip that day! 

Edited February 23, 2022 by starscascade

[G Somerset Rover]

5 minutes ago, 47er said:

WellI gave it as my opinion before we signed him that he isn't really very good. You could argue he hasn't had a chance to show what he can do but then why sign him in the middle of a promotion push if he doesn't play him?

 Mowbray's reputation in the transfer market has not been enhanced by he signing of Hedges.

Blatantly a John Park signing and not  Mowbray’s. He must be sh*te if he can’t get a minutes action when we’ve just broken our club record goal drought.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[Dan]

12 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

scott sellars would`nt have got a sniff,far to good at getting quality balls in the box for tony`s liking and alan wright darting down the wing on the overlap,what a flighty piece of work,completely unneccesary

I was thinking tonight, that even with Ripley and Wilcox whipping crosses in we wouldn’t score. 

[garnersfags]

45 minutes ago, Gav said:

Its called trolling, who on a Rovers website ever predicts a 0-4 Rovers loss? 

I sometimes think you actually believe this IS a club website. 

Your Putin-esque refusal to accept even the merest criticism of the club, team, or manager, makes me feel like you should be on a club forum, or stood outside the ground with your signature book. 

I'm sure you weren't always this blinkered. Have you been hacked?

I've been fairly critical of our performances over the last 2 months, after being fairly supportive over the 2 months before that. I say what I see, and try to predict what will happen based on recent performances. 

Tonight, I've been ostracised as a happy clapper by daring to say we were by far the better side, and if we play like that, we'll win on Saturday. But what I won't do, is defend the indefensible, and act like the club 'plant' at every opportunity.

Apologies, I don't mean to be personal, but please try to be more balanced.

Edited February 23, 2022 by garnersfags

[Darrenbot]

As the playoffs start slipping away with every defeat i was thinking getting promotion would be amazing but just think what some teams would do to us in that division,we'd get slaughtered by Man City and Liverpool,look what they did to Leeds tonight,the best thing would be clearing some club debt and the exposure we'd get in the Prem might get us a new owner and get rid of Venkys.

[garnersfags]

3 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Blatantly a John Park signing and not  Mowbray’s. He must be sh*te if he can’t get a minutes action when we’ve just broken our club record goal drought.

This is a really good point. He seemed obviously a Park signing, and Mowbray is reluctant to play him.

That's is partly due to having most of our original winning side back in the squad, and you can't begrudge him the chance to give them one more chance. It sooo nearly paid off tonight.

I worry, tho, that Park will continue to lobby on behalf of sub-standard Scottish talent, tho I would have 100% put Hedges on ahead of Dolan tonight. 

COYB!!!!

[Tom]

50 minutes ago, Gav said:

The Tranmere game was the turning point, thousands of Rovers on a Friday night on Merseyside, 2-2 I think.

We had pots of cash back then, we haven't got a pot to piss in now, but we can do this, despite some on social media having already given up.

My first ever away game as an 8 year old, remember standing right behind the goals shouting for Bobby Mimms! “Yellows yellllowwws”

[garnersfags]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Sorry but that is not a factual statement, it's an opinion. We dominated somewhat once they went down to ten, but they actually had 13 shots to our 11, and 6 on target compared to our 4. We only really had one clear chance which was a long ranger by Pickering of all players. What you saw as dominant I saw as clumsy and mostly ineffective.

These are facts though:

5 games without a goal

2 goals in 9 matches

2 defeats against teams who were down to 10 men in the last 4 matches

9 points from our last 27

Down from 2nd at the start of January, 7 points clear of 7th, to 5th now, out of the top 6 if Boro or potentially Luton (dependent on GD) win their games in hand on us.

Those, unfortunately, are actual facts.

 

I agree with a lot of that, but it highlights my point that no-one seems to have noticed that we retained possession, pressed well and passed the ball skilfully and effectively for the whole of the 2nd half. And created decent chances. And should've been deservedly one up. 

That's how I saw it, and why I'm optimistic for Saturday.

We'll pick this up on Sat at 2.30. 

I do, tho, share everyone's pain. It's tough to take at the moment. 

Edited February 23, 2022 by garnersfags

[Ghost7]

The lack of investment in January or whoever was responsible for bringing in players that couldn't make an immediate impact on the starting 11 has let current group down. It seems to be a combination of recruitment team, manager and owners.

There was a huge amount of effort tonight, it was just missing that extra bit of quality to kill it off. An extra 500,000 - £1m spent could have done it, who knows! Instead we've been left hoping the bounce goes our way in "17 cup finals" and that nobody gets injured. To get promoted you have to control it, if we go up it will be an absolute miracle - deserved by the players but completely undeserved for the not very savvy and uninterested owners.

It's worth remembering we felt their current investment or lack of was going to get us relegated this season, that is the expectation with their current rate of investment in permanent singings. The players are defying the odds and this is still largely thanks to Jack Walker... but sadly the reality is that we still aren't set up right to execute or expect a promotion.

[tomphil]

On 20/02/2022 at 16:56, tomphil said:

We really really could've done with playing yesterday and making home advantage count. Refs seem determined to do their level best to try and stop us having a tilt at promotion this season. No doubt this one will be a 'homer' as well taking the opposition numbers to 12 !

Another narrow defeat here i'm afraid.

Blades   1     Rovers   0

it's become all to predictable again.

[DE.]

11 minutes ago, garnersfags said:

I agree with a lot of that, but it highlights my point that no-one seems to have noticed that we retained possession, pressed well and passed the ball skilfully and effectively for the whole of the 2nd half. And created decent chances. And should've been deservedly one up. 

That's how I saw it, and why I'm optimistic for Saturday.

We'll pick this up on Sat at 2.30. 

I do, tho, share everyone's pain. It's tough to take at the moment. 

We all have different opinions and that's certainly fine. It wasn't all bad tonight, but honestly despite some nice play I never felt like we were going to score, and that's very concerning. Considering our current form and our lack of goalscorers we simply have to score penalties. If Khadra is the best we've got then that's a big worry. 

We really need to work on our set pieces too. They are simply awful, and when a team is struggling to score from open play set pieces become absolutely vital. 

[G Somerset Rover]

8 minutes ago, DE. said:

We really need to work on our set pieces too. They are simply awful, and when a team is struggling to score from open play set pieces become absolutely vital. 

Yep. Even when we managed to put a half decent ball in, there was yet more 50p heading from our centre halves. The three of them are useless at attacking balls - save for JPVH’s header against Bournemouth.

[Bbrovers2288]

Bigdogg , genuine question because we had a discussion the other day about it but are you still sticking by your mowbray has to use this formation and buckley up top? 
it clearly isn’t working and we aren’t scoring, we carry no attacking threat.

yes we look somewhat solid at the back but if that’s impacting our attack then the best we can hope for is 0-0s, maybe a sneaky 1-0. Not for me 

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, XLM said:

Everything about that is so depressing.

Getting to 5th midseason isn't brilliant, it's a half-baked cake.
We have a squad that - although the culmination of 5 years of "progress" - isn't actually good enough to get into the playoffs and is being propped up by Mowbray? The man who couldn't get a side good enough to finish in the playoffs, into the top half?

It's so obvious that the extra points in Nov/Dec were flukey, we happened upon a system that worked a bit better than last year's. We always do well in Nov/Dec under TM. We had a chance to take advantage of it, failed in the Jan window (again), and are in our standard "we've been figured out" post Jan slump (again), supplemented by the usual injuries we couldn't foresee. AGAIN. Fool me once and all that.

It will be the same next year, but with even lesser players, fewer points and probably the same manager in the dugout. Just a couple of hundred fewer in the stands clapping along. Tony Mowbray's Blue 'n' White Army.

The fact that 5th is overachieving for us is rather dissatisfying and a perfect sign of the real problem in that it is a peak under these dickhead owners.

Like I said, for me a top 6 finish solely in my opinion is less than 50% likely. A change of manager at this stage would not increase that for me. If he doesnt make it, by all means id not renew his contract.

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

That's why I wouldn't renew his contract.

Look at the best players in the team - Nyambe, Wharton, Travis, Buckley (and begrudgingly Lenihan this year). All Academy graduates. 

Mowbray has been gifted half a good Championship XI for free and he's not been able to consistently build on it. In fact he's lead the charge to downgrade our Academy - madness. 

Plus Brereton, Kaminski, Van Hecke, Rothwell and Khadra. Lets be fair and not exclude the half of a team that doesnt suit the narrative.

He hasnt been gifted that team either, those players have matured and developed under his coaching.

[Sparks Rover]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

If you're playing Dolan he has to play as the False 9. His energy causes problems there - he harries defenders and he's quick enough to turn Championship CBs. 

Not having him me mate...he's a one trick pony easily sussed

[arbitro]

Hugely disappointing night as we pretty much frittered away three points which we deserved. A slow, tentative start didn't really inspire me but after about fifteen minutes we upped the tempo, found our passing range and were, I thought really good. In real time I thought the penalty miss was a shocker from Khadra. Although he put pace on the ball it was too straight and an easy save. For all our dominance we didn't actually create much and the fundamental difference between now and the excellent run we were on is that we the goals per chances ratio was excellent and now we don't look like we could hit a barn door. However playing well and losing to me is far less palatable that playing poorly and losing.

My sincere hope was that in January the owners would really push the boat out and bring in some real quality to keep the momentum going. As it was it was an average kind of window when the squad was made bigger but the quality just didn't improve. I honestly think that in years to come we will be talking about it a a real missed opportunity. I can only see regression I'm afraid when we lose the out of contract players soon. All in all it's a real worry.

[Nuttall is lost]

Khadra was shite.  The penalty was awful. and his all round play was poor.  That foul throw as well.  How can a professional footballer not throw in correctly!?

[Sparks Rover]

4 minutes ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Khadra was shite.  The penalty was awful. and his all round play was poor.  That foul throw as well.  How can a professional footballer not throw in correctly!?

Very lazy way about him.  Off side when looking down the line...wasteful

[Nuttall is lost]

1 minute ago, Sparks Rover said:

Very lazy way about him.  Off side when looking down the line...wasteful

Yeah his body language was poor. Moping around.

The thing with the penalty was this and its a mistake I see  a lot of strikers make.  They put the ball down on the spot too early and allow the keeper to delay the taking with his gamesmanship. All the time the pressure building and time to overthink.   He should have picked the ball up and walked away and only put the ball on the spot once the keeper had stopped acting the bollox and returned to his line.  Then hit it without delay.

[1864roverite]

Saddened to see the result even sadder that no one other than Khadra stepped forward to take the penalty🤬

season is gone in a flash in the back of another lost 3 points that’s fatal to our play off chances 

[SuperBrfc]

That one is tough to take. We grew into the game after weathering a 20 minute spell of pressure and had them looking rattled at times. I didn't think Sheff United were anything special and as the second half wore on I thought the win was there for the taking.

We get a golden chance to win the game, against 10 men, yet lose to a late sucker punch. It's not happening, is it? We aren't going up.

If this goes the way many are fearing and we end up 8th or 9th from here it would be the spiral of all spirals for me and it will sting like mad. There would be no coming back from that for us under Mowbray, he would have to go.

Nobody expected us to be 2nd or 3rd, but once you find yourself in that position come January, you don't just freeze and admire it. Who knows when or if the opportunity will ever come again. "2nd? Flippin' heck, let's see what happens". That's exactly what the chumps at Ewood and in Pune have done and it has backfired already.

Venky's wanted back to back promotions in the summer of 2018, did they? Did they balls.

[Iceman]

Can't remember who the poster was, that told me no chance we don't make the playoffs. I said, that Mowbray not signing a striker or 2 over other areas on the pitch, would come back to bite us big time. 

People got relaxed when Gallagher scored a goal, and thought he was more than enough to backup Brereton. Mowbray and his scouts messed up, and you can defend Mowbray all you like, but he failed in the January window. If we don't make the playoffs, there is no way that anybody can defend Mowbray, or believe that he should continue as manager. 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Iceman

[Iceman]

2 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

That one is tough to take. We grew into the game after weathering a 20 minute spell of pressure and had them looking rattled at times. I didn't think Sheff United were anything special and as the second half wore on I thought the win was there for the taking.

We get a golden chance to win the game, against 10 men, yet lose to a late sucker punch. It's not happening, is it? We aren't going up.

If this goes the way many are fearing and we end up 8th or 9th from here it would be the spiral of all spirals for me and it will sting like mad. There would be no coming back from that for us under Mowbray, he would have to go.

Nobody expected us to be 2nd or 3rd, but once you find yourself in that position come January, you don't just freeze and admire it. Who knows when or if the opportunity will ever come again. "2nd? Flippin' heck, let's see what happens". That's exactly what the chumps at Ewood and in Pune have done and it has backfired already.

Venky's wanted back to back promotions in the summer of 2018, did they? Did they balls.

It's not about just rattling the opposition, and then realise oh wait, we don't have anybody to put away those chances. How do we expect to stay in contention, when we have 1 striker in Gallagher who can't score goals. The other striker is injured, and that's it. We are moving to where we thought we would be, and that's mid table. 

Failure to make the playoffs from the position we were at, will be down to Mowbray and those in charge. We had the perfect chance to invest in some strikers to guarantee us a playoff place, instead we went and bought a Scottish player who can't even make the team the starting lineup  

[glen9mullan]

22 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Can't remember who the poster was, that told me no chance we don't make the playoffs. I said, that Mowbray not signing a striker or 2 over other areas on the pitch, would come back to bite us big time. 

People got relaxed when Gallagher scored a goal, and thought he was more than enough to backup Brereton. Mowbray and his scouts messed up, and you can defend Mowbray all you like, but he failed in the January window. If we don't make the playoffs, there is no way that anybody can defend Mowbray, or believe that he should continue as manager. 

It was bordering on desperation people thinking Gallagher would come good. He has been a waste of £5 million, and it does not surprise me he signed a new deal. Probably couldnt believe his luck he'd been offered one.

I don't buy into this, playing out of position. He has played centrally plenty of times.

How many times as our tallest player has he got on the end of a free kick or offensive corner in the oppositions box?

I'd be writing out those P45's for the clubs administration. Totally blew the transfer window, and the fault lies solely with them and TM.

The players are giving their all, but with no goalscorer its a thankless task

[yankfan]

8 hours ago, garnersfags said:

This.

I've not seen a single post saying how well we played tonight. 

We survived a difficult first 5 minutes, then progressively grew into the game with our slick passing, good pressing, and individual/collective skill.

They were so frustrated, they totally lost any professionalism, and should have had at least one more red card. But still we dominated.

The penalty decision was our downfall, ironically, as it proved we have ZERO COMPOSURE when it really matters. Only in the schoolyard do you let the boy who wins the pen actually take it. Where were the senior players putting Khadra in his box, and giving the ball to our chosen penalty taker? NO COMPOSURE when it matters. 

But still we retained the ball, and created chances. Khadra played well. I really think he is considerably better than Dolan, who people have been clamouring for. I'm worried TM isn't working with him to improve his final ball, or desperation to score at every half opportunity. 

The withdrawal of Nyambe cost us the game, I would have taken 'anyone' else off. We didn't need to sacrifice our defensive solidity to freshen the attack up. Dolan was a little boy lost, in a man's game. 

The fact remains that we played well for 80 minutes, created a number of good chances, and should have won the game. TM will always play his love child Sammy, but we need to learn to by-pass him in attack, and leave him to defend corners....

How Buckley gets more criticism than Gally is beyond me. If you watch that game back, Buckley gets 90% of things right, and Gally gets 90% of things wrong.

Before the penalty miss, I thought tonight was looking like the turning point in our bad run, and if we continue where we left off, on Saturday, I genuinely believe it will be.

At 5pm tonight I was worried, but now I'm optimistic.

Lots of pressure on Saturday, tho.

COYB!!!!

 

The problem is we’ve played well yet again and have not scored. Outside of the missed penalty, we never looked likely to score. The back 3 has been solid but when you couple that with Travis, 2 defensive minded wing backs, and a donkey center forward playing on the wing, it falls apart. Up a man we could have played another 45 min and still wouldn’t have scored. Khadra was great, created chances that fell to no one because Rothwell, Gallagher, Buckley are not finishers. Without BBD we’re impotent in the final third.