Jon Dahl Tomasson - Officially No Longer Our Head Coach

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

And he'd reply with "ok, give me £10m in January to buy some attacking players".

He's hamstrung by the squad he's been left with.

People in one breath are saying losing to a squad assembled for £30m+ is completely unacceptable and puts JDT in the last chance saloon and in the next breath wondering why our 18 year old Academy graduate (who was just a promising player 5 months ago) wasn't on the field to save us - and don't see the hypocrisy.

He signed the attacking player he wanted, allegedly, in Summer. Where was he on Sunday ?

I’m not having this - “ they’ve spent more money than us so they should win” malarkey. How did Brentford win at City last weekend ? City must have out spent Brentford a thousand times over.

The bottom line is for what ever reason -  we weren’t up for that game. Not even nearly.

I saw my first derby in 1962, they were top of the league, probably the best team they’ve ever had. We were mid table but we out played them and won 2-1 after being 1-0 down at ht. Later on that season we went to Burnley and won again 1-0. If they would have had those 4 points they would have won the league that season.

In the sixty years since then we’ve had our ups and down but we’ve never waved the white flag like we did last Sunday. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Exiled_Rover]

13 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Again another one twisting the narrative.

People are unhappy with the performance or lack of it more than anything, it shouldn't need explaining.

I don't know why I bother.

I agree. JDT out! Bring back Mowbray I say.

[Wheelton Blue]

I couldn't care less about him giving some soft-arsed apology.

I care far more about him realising and addressing his mistakes out on the pitch where it matters, starting with Preston Noth End.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I don't know why I bother.

I agree. JDT out! Bring back Mowbray I say.

Nobody is seriously saying sack the guy.  He needs more time, that is obvious. What lots of people are saying is everything about Sunday’s performance was unacceptable. There wasn’t one plus point. For me that applies to the managers response after the game. There should be somebody at the club telling him exactly that but there won’t be. There in lies the crux of all our problems.

Do you think Jack Walker would have accepted that shambles with a shrug of his shoulders ?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, Wheelton Blue said:

I couldn't care less about him giving some soft-arsed apology.

I care far more about him realising and addressing his mistakes out on the pitch where it matters, starting with Preston Noth End.

Well the Preston game will be interesting. If we carry on where we left off against the dingles alarm bells will be ringing loud and clear.

[Norbert Rassragr]

Apart from the 7-0 against Fulham, the 7-0 or 7-1 against Man Utd, that game against Tottenham and many more that others with a better memory can recall.

Some people need a reality check if they think a team with a midfield with an average age of about 19, one decent forward,and a new manager picking up a squad that has had a few important players leave on Bowman's can really challenge consistently over a season. One bad result and JDT is as bad as Coyle, and then if we win the next two he'll be great again. 

[tomphil]

7 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I don't know why I bother.

I agree. JDT out! Bring back Mowbray I say.

I agree why bother trying to twist everything.

[Wheelton Blue]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Well the Preston game will be interesting. If we carry on where we left off against the dingles alarm bells will be ringing loud and clear.

I totally agree, Tyrone. 

If he doesn't change, results will soon start to drop and then he'll know about it.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

Apart from the 7-0 against Fulham, the 7-0 or 7-1 against Man Utd, that game against Tottenham and many more that others with a better memory can recall.

Some people need a reality check if they think a team with a midfield with an average age of about 19, one decent forward,and a new manager picking up a squad that has had a few important players leave on Bowman's can really challenge consistently over a season. One bad result and JDT is as bad as Coyle, and then if we win the next two he'll be great again. 

But it’s not one bad result is it ? It’s a succession of really poor, half hearted, away performances. It looks to me like the players haven’t bought into his way of playing and are just going through the motions.

[tomphil]

6 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

I couldn't care less about him giving some soft-arsed apology.

I care far more about him realising and addressing his mistakes out on the pitch where it matters, starting with Preston Noth End.

Exactly, words are meaningless now he's misjudged the intensity of this rivalry and gone for the safety first approach.  It's backfired big style so the best way to remedy it is get them up for another big one and take it out on them.

Refreshed, fit and raring to go there is absolutely NO excuse not to turn in a full bloody 95 mins in your face effort against another set of local gobshites.

Anything less and he's putting himself firmly in the firing line.

[booth]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

To be fair S. Wharton has been off the boil for a few weeks - and he was rewarding Mola for a fine performance against West Ham.

I don't think he over thought it - we got mullered when we went to a 4-2-3-1 (with everyone's hero Dack playing as a #10 btw) and tried to be more attacking.

Kaminski pulled off two excellent saves and we rarely got out of hour own half. Some of us could see that we were heading for a hiding (not you) at half time. Burnley committed more players when Gallagher went off because we had absolutely no one else to play that role so we had to change what we were doing. Because the club thought it better to sign a lad on loan who is useless in the Championship, and took his while to get going in League 1. The only team that tried to be more attacking was Burnley because they knew there was no risk.

"Rewarding Mola for a fine performance" One fine performance usurps pretty much 18 months of fine performances now does it?

Scott Wharton off the boil is still better than a lad who has been trusted to play one game, and will have been leggy from travelling and playing in London.

And what defines "off the boil?" His passing may have been off but his defending has still been very very good. You don't drop a local lad who is one of our best defenders in one of the biggest local derbies in world football - and lest we forget, the chance to top the table. The entire teams passing is off pretty much every match for at least one half, and has been for years. Do we drop all of them and replace them with the nearest 21 year old who hasn't yet played a Championship game?

We got mullered due to lack of foresight in pre-season by the likes of Broughton, massive naivety from Tomasson, mistakes made throughout the season, a team selection that came straight out of Tony Mowbray's playbook, and speaking of which an unbalanced, thin squad, relying on youth players, due to five years of moronic ideas.

[Mashed Potatoes]

26 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

But it’s not one bad result is it ? It’s a succession of really poor, half hearted, away performances. It looks to me like the players haven’t bought into his way of playing and are just going through the motions.

I bet there are supporters at a lot of other clubs who would like their players to be "just going through the motions" if it gets you 3rd in the table and a win away to a Premier League club in the Carabao Cup.

[oldjamfan1]

5 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

I bet there are supporters at a lot of other clubs who would like their players to be "just going through the motions" if it gets you 3rd in the table and a win away to a Premier League club in the Carabao Cup.

Not if they've just got absolutely dicked, outplayed and outfought by their bitterest rivals they wouldn't.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I remember going to a “ meet the new coach “ presentation at my Rugby League club.  He was an Aussie and obviously new to the area. After the usual niceties the meeting was thrown open to questions from the floor.

One guy got up and said - “ This isn’t a question Coach, it’s a bit of advice - Beat Oldham and beat Oldham and beat Oldham again, that’s all you have to worry about “.

So in the usual pre-season warm up “ friendly “ known as the “ Infirmaries Cup “ he treated it as a run out, played two entirely separate teams in each half, and we lost badly. That coach never really recovered from that start.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[AllRoverAsia]

2 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

And he'd reply with "ok, give me £10m in January to buy some attacking players".

He's hamstrung by the squad he's been left with.

People in one breath are saying losing to a squad assembled for £30m+ is completely unacceptable and puts JDT in the last chance saloon and in the next breath wondering why our 18 year old Academy graduate (who was just a promising player 5 months ago) wasn't on the field to save us - and don't see the hypocrisy.

It is the manner of the loss that is the issue.

I just don't get your "hypocrisy" angle at all.

It is hardly surprising that fans want to see a locally born genius at work, regardless of age.

 

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

Apart from the 7-0 against Fulham, the 7-0 or 7-1 against Man Utd, that game against Tottenham and many more that others with a better memory can recall.

Some people need a reality check if they think a team with a midfield with an average age of about 19, one decent forward,and a new manager picking up a squad that has had a few important players leave on Bowman's can really challenge consistently over a season. One bad result and JDT is as bad as Coyle, and then if we win the next two he'll be great again. 

Who has said that "JDT is as bad as Coyle?" They may have done and if so my apologies, but like the stuff about sacking Tomasson, they seem to be baseless allegations with the intention of making our fans seem unreasonable.

Should we be able to compete over a season? For the top 2, maybe not although you can reel off the names of recent top 6 finishers with less resources than us. But this was about one game, and I don't get how anyone (this isnt aimed at you) can react to such a beating in the first local derby in years with a shrug of the shoulders. We didn't compete and some of those factors were as a result of choice rather than selection, we had more experienced alternatives on the bench and Tomasson's supposed number 1 striking target left at home.

If we can't expect to be competitive against a Burnley side in the same league as us and one that we would have overtaken with a win, whats the point?

[Bohinen1983]

We have a good defence, and two good forwards but an appalling lightweight midfield, lack pace, creativity and snap.

We are punching way above our weight as the xg table shows. How JDT has got this group to third in the table is a miracle.  
 

I expected us to be in a relegation battle I think we're that poor in the middle.  But it seems we have a way of getting results.

When we come up against a decent pressing side, we get smashed.  Our pedestrian, skinny, small, sluggish, deep lying play makers can't find outlets or carry the ball when put under pressure. They play it back. Our back four then have limited options and end up looking like mugs. 

I think we've got a bottom 5 midfield. It's awful. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

We’ve got a good defence because with the exception of the two strikers everybody is playing in there.

[booth]

13 minutes ago, Bohinen1983 said:

We have a good defence, and two good forwards but an appalling lightweight midfield, lack pace, creativity and snap.

We are punching way above our weight as the xg table shows. How JDT has got this group to third in the table is a miracle.  
 

I expected us to be in a relegation battle I think we're that poor in the middle.  But it seems we have a way of getting results.

When we come up against a decent pressing side, we get smashed.  Our pedestrian, skinny, small, sluggish, deep lying play makers can't find outlets or carry the ball when put under pressure. They play it back. Our back four then have limited options and end up looking like mugs. 

I think we've got a bottom 5 midfield. It's awful. 

The midfield is poor but it doesn't help that Hedges is being used as he is. He seems to be a decent midfielder,  but as an "inverted wingback", whatever that's meant to be, his best qualities are wasted.

Also we have one good forward that plays mainly wide, and a mediocre forward that would be better off coming off the bench for a good centre forward that can hold the ball up and score regular goals.

[Upside Down]

After that totally gutless display on Sunday (not the first this season), I have decided what I am willing to accept this season from JDT.

Number 1 is obviously a promotion. This should be the goal for the season, if it isn't then what the fuck are we doing?

Number 2. Failing promotion, fair do's we haven't got the strongest or deepest squad in the league so I can understand that we could miss out but should that be the case the bare minimum I will accept is a win over the dingles at Ewood. 

If he fails to achieve either of these things then as far as I’m concerned he can go in the bin with Mowbray, Bowyer and Kidd. 

I also think that winning the Preston game on the return from the break is an absolute minimum requirement as well.

That display on Sunday was fucking disgusting. I have no time for projects journeys or any other bollocks I want a team that plays with passion, pride and desire to do something other than plod along in the second division shrugging off diabolical, gutless performances in important games.

12 years of Venkys, 12 years of failure. 

[roversfan99]

I find the topic of expectations an interesting one, there has been lots of post-Sunday talk about us being third as if we are doing exceptional things. This is an example of media conversation:

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-transfer-needs-opportunity-25520157

I took exception to the following:

"Whilst a top-ten finish would have been a fantastic achievement at the start of the season."

Why are our expectations so low? A fantastic achievement would be promotion, admittedly not one we could align with our budget, but equally we are not a minnow. We finished 8th under Mowbray and whilst I appreciate the position we was in and the time he spent in situ etc, he was rounded out towards the end, so how can 2 places below ever be "fantastic." A top 6 finish would be a good achievement, bordering on very good, but it is not this unfathomable prospect, many teams with similar and even less money have got into the play offs. 

[Rover_in_the_South]

I think overall I am just going to lower my expectations for the season, can't lose then! 

Another mediocre season sitting in mid table, maybe a good cup run as bonus. 

[tomphil]

I'd prefer a Bradley Johnson of a few years ago type sat in the middle than the Liverpool kid every day of the week.

I know he has some qualities but not enough contribution to start every game imo it's more about what he might do than what he actually does. 2 in 3 games he goes completely missing he's just too lightweight and wastes most set pieces he takes, we wouldn't end up camping in our own box against bottom of league at home if we actually had some solidity in the middle.

Such naive stuff it boils the blood.

[DE.]

Mid-table is about right for me this season.

The concern from my perspective is that I simply don't think we'll ever have the budget to bring in the players JDT requires to make his style of play effective enough to get promoted. There aren't many Championship sides without parachute payments who have tippy-tapped their way out of the division (in an upwards trajectory, at least). This 'project' just doesn't seem like it is realistic within our constraints. I desperately hope I'm wrong, mind.

Edited November 15, 2022 by DE.

[tomphil]

Mowbrays version of possession football was a disaster away from home and so is this version.