2022/2023 Pre Season Thread

[RoversClitheroe]

You've gotta hope JDT can spot a shit player - we do have some deadwood.

[roversfan99]

5 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

You've gotta hope JDT can spot a shit player - we do have some deadwood.

Do we have that much? Not sure we do. A core of good players and then mainly kids beyond, barring the odd straggler.

[simongarnerisgod]

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Do we have that much? Not sure we do. A core of good players and then mainly kids beyond, barring the odd straggler.

pears,magloire,jrc,all of them not the require standard for the championship

[RevidgeBlue]

4 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

pears,magloire,jrc,all of them not the require standard for the championship

You can add Hedges and Gallagher to that list for me.

It's also only by dint of the fact that the contracts of Johnson and the unused Davenport and Chapman have just expired that the list of deadwood isn't a lot longer.

Edited July 13, 2022 by RevidgeBlue

[Mercer]

Friend of mine who's in Scotland for the golf went along to the match tonight.  Quite scathing in his phone call - felt 4 or 5 out there tonight were stealing a living as so called professional footballers and tonight just underlined what many think, our squad is threadbare and we need a minimum of half a dozen quality additions. 

[WacoRover]

17 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Friend of mine who's in Scotland for the golf went along to the match tonight.  Quite scathing in his phone call - felt 4 or 5 out there tonight were stealing a living as so called professional footballers and tonight just underlined what many think, our squad is threadbare and we need a minimum of half a dozen quality additions. 

Yes, I am afraid we are staring at the bottom third of the table, with the personnel on hand. But I am more afraid we will not see more than 2-3 additions- at least, by the start of the season.  

[RevidgeBlue]

Good to hear the positive reviews for Adam Wharton which ties in with what I've been told, albeit I've never seen him play.

[Paul Mellelieu]

29 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Friend of mine who's in Scotland for the golf went along to the match tonight.  Quite scathing in his phone call - felt 4 or 5 out there tonight were stealing a living as so called professional footballers and tonight just underlined what many think, our squad is threadbare and we need a minimum of half a dozen quality additions. 

We were playing our reserve team.

[Exiled_Rover]

3 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

We were playing our reserve team.

It's a long grind of a season. They'll be called upon with us playing 2 games a week.

The Championship is a squad game, really.

[tomphil]

29 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Friend of mine who's in Scotland for the golf went along to the match tonight.  Quite scathing in his phone call - felt 4 or 5 out there tonight were stealing a living as so called professional footballers and tonight just underlined what many think, our squad is threadbare and we need a minimum of half a dozen quality additions. 

Pretty much 100% the 2nd team though and a very young one plus it sounded like possession was the name of the game. That rarely leads to anything exciting but it gives young players time on the ball.

[oldjamfan1]

31 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Friend of mine who's in Scotland for the golf went along to the match tonight.  Quite scathing in his phone call - felt 4 or 5 out there tonight were stealing a living as so called professional footballers and tonight just underlined what many think, our squad is threadbare and we need a minimum of half a dozen quality additions. 

It was basically a youth/reserve team in a very early pre season friendly. Hyperbolic reaction from ‘your friend’.

First time I’ve seen the younger Wharton play tonight and as far as I’m concerned he will be a first team regular this season. That’s what I’ll choose to take from tonight’s game.

 

[bluebruce]

13 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

It's a long grind of a season. They'll be called upon with us playing 2 games a week.

The Championship is a squad game, really.

Some of them will be called upon, but unlikely to be all of them, and definitely not all at the same time.

The result, away, is fairly creditable given the 11 we put out. In fact so far the second string have 4 'points' and the first string none. I'm not too worried unless we only sign about 4 players or less.

I know they played 3 trialists tonight, but apart from that does anyone know how relatively strong this Dundee team was by its own standards?

Edited July 13, 2022 by bluebruce

[Guest]

The U23's with a few U18's have just gotten a draw away at a side who beat Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen & Motherwell last season. I'd say it's a really promising run out. Obviously the Pears goalkeeping was worrying, but that's nothing new, was the same at DW a few months back. 

Sam Barnes operating at LCB fantastic this evening, my MOTM.

Edited July 13, 2022 by JoeH

[RV Blue]

1 minute ago, JoeH said:

The U23's with a few U18's have just gotten a draw away at a side who beat Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen & Motherwell last season. I'd say it's a really promising run out. Obviously the Pears goalkeeping was worrying, but that's nothing new, was the same at DW a few months back. 

Sam Barnes operating at LCB fantastic this evening, my MOTM.

Did Dundee have a full strength side out? Fact that they had 3 trialists starting would suggest not. I think preseason games should always be taken with a massive pinch of salt.

[Guest]

Just now, RV Blue said:

Did Dundee have a full strength side out? Fact that they had 3 trialists starting would suggest not. I think preseason games should always be taken with a massive pinch of salt.

True, but going into panic stations is certainly ill advised given that our young guns have just given a EFL League One level side a decent game.

[Miller11]

We are in desperate need of a right back.

I really dislike this formation. Still waiting for JDT to put his stamp on things… they still seem Mowbrayesque.

[Norn Iron Rover]

Managed to watch this (without sound) on 'Dee TV' and thought it was a useful run out for what was, admittedly, a very young reserve team. Just a couple of observations though...

1. Adam Wharton looks a class act and still only 18. 

2. Dundee has an unusually high seagull population!

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

We are in desperate need of a right back.

I really dislike this formation. Still waiting for JDT to put his stamp on things… they still seem Mowbrayesque.

Quite like a 3-4-3, but there's huge emphasis on the wing-backs. Plenty of names in my head for that right side but let's see what they come up with. There's one in League One screaming out to be taken, another one from a PL club.

Think we'll end up battling Preston big time on anyone we go for, they're more desperate for quality WB's than we are, which is some feat.

[Giant]

148 Rovers fans in a crowd of 1300 at the game. I thought we played well first half, disorganised in the second. We should have been 4 up at HT. The Rovers fans were tucking into football’s greatest delicacy, the Scotch pie, by the bucketload. Biggest round of applause from us was for the Dundee PA announcer in the second half with this comment. “And now for the Blackburn Rovers substitutes, 5 players off and 5 players on. Sorry that’s the best I can do without a team sheet”. Forward and onward to Paradise next. 

[joey_big_nose]

9 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Quite like a 3-4-3, but there's huge emphasis on the wing-backs. Plenty of names in my head for that right side but let's see what they come up with. There's one in League One screaming out to be taken, another one from a PL club.

Think we'll end up battling Preston big time on anyone we go for, they're more desperate for quality WB's than we are, which is some feat.

343 worked really well for us first half of last season. However it really was very dependent on Rothwell picking up the ball centrally and driving forward, Van Hecke running the show from the middle of the back three, and Lenihan playing down the right of the centre backs. With all of those gone it will be a totally different proposition. 

Also it means Buckley/Dack will only get in as false 9s. And, as you say, we haven't really got any good wing backs. 

It seems more logical to me for us to go for 4231 as it suits the players we have left imo.

[tomphil]

I do worry a bit that what JDT sees as a high pressing high intensity game coming from the relatively laid back Swedish leagues and what we see as the same in the aggressive EPL are two different things.

[ItsRoverZ]

Two players I feel after tonight shouldn't be anywhere near the first time (yes it's a pre season friendly, but this goes on last season too) 

Magloire and JRC, I really don't think they have a future here unless we drop to around league 2

[inflikted]

Perhaps Annesley's next loan should be to Scotland. Sounds like he was comfortable against Dundee. Could be the place to bulk him out a bit.

[bluebruce]

55 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Quite like a 3-4-3, but there's huge emphasis on the wing-backs. Plenty of names in my head for that right side but let's see what they come up with. There's one in League One screaming out to be taken, another one from a PL club.

Curious who you've got in mind. DM me if you don't want to say in public, if you don't mind that is.

[damo100]

3 hours ago, Mercer said:

Friend of mine who's in Scotland for the golf went along to the match tonight.  Quite scathing in his phone call - felt 4 or 5 out there tonight were stealing a living as so called professional footballers and tonight just underlined what many think, our squad is threadbare and we need a minimum of half a dozen quality additions. 

Harsh, did your friend know we played with predominantly u18/23's?