Championship - 22-23

[superniko]

5 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

They won't be state-of-the-art anymore, not compared to what a lot of the Premier League / Champions League clubs are rocking, but they're very good.

I heard that it's because JDT likes to train on grass... which then obviously defeats the point of having indoor training pitches I guess.

So because he likes to train on grass, we’re now not able to play our matches on grass….as I didn’t see much greenery on that surface yesterday. 

Yeah I guess the indoor facilities are not comparable to the biggest clubs in the world but I’m pretty sure they’re good enough for a Championship club for a few days training 

[simongarnerisgod]

5 minutes ago, superniko said:

So because he likes to train on grass, we’re now not able to play our matches on grass….as I didn’t see much greenery on that surface yesterday. 

Yeah I guess the indoor facilities are not comparable to the biggest clubs in the world but I’m pretty sure they’re good enough for a Championship club for a few days training 

im`e not aware of any profesional club in the whole country that trains on their own pitch,stupid and by this point in the season the team should`nt be doing heavy sessions,they should all be match fit,mowbray did the same last year???there must be a problem with the indoor areas,are they used for storage or are they falling down from lack of maintenence

[Mattyblue]

Yep, I thought it was TM that suddenly decided he liked to do that. We never trained on Ewood repeatedly until last season. Now it seems to be the default every cold snap.

Crazy when we have a poor pitch to start with.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Mattyblue

[Darrenbot]

16 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Yep, I thought it was TM that suddenly decided he liked to do that. We never trained on Ewood repeatedly until last season. Now it seems to be the default every cold snap.

Crazy when we have a poor pitch to start with.

You would have thought somebody at the club will have warned JDT the state the pitch would end up in if he trained on it in the weather we've had recently,the stodgy state its ended up in doesn't help his play out from the back philosophy that he seems to have adopted.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

15 minutes ago, Darrenbot said:

You would have thought somebody at the club will have warned JDT the state the pitch would end up in if he trained on it in the weather we've had recently,the stodgy state its ended up in doesn't help his play out from the back philosophy that he seems to have adopted.

That’s one good thing about the pitch cutting up. Playing out from the back is a non starter.

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

The intention was to do a full revamp including the pipes for the first time in 30 years. As per the fans forum, Venkys didnt release funding!

But funding was still given to improve the pitch and buy more lights to help the pitch grow faster. So your point about cutbacks is just wrong

[roversfan99]

3 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

But funding was still given to improve the pitch and buy more lights to help the pitch grow faster. So your point about cutbacks is just wrong

It really isnt. The improvements were not to the scale that were initially planned for financial reasons.

[Mattyblue]

5 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

But funding was still given to improve the pitch and buy more lights to help the pitch grow faster. So your point about cutbacks is just wrong

How’s that working out?

[Upside Down]

19 hours ago, superniko said:

West Brom have won 8 of their last 9 now, and only conceded 2 goals in that spell.
I’d be very surprised if themselves and Boro (won 7 in 9) miss out on the top 6 given their squad quality and how they’re statistically rated. 

That can't be right. It takes at least three years for a manager to be able to get a team to consistently perform well. 

[booth]

14 hours ago, 47er said:

I don't want it to happen, I'm merely telling you how I'd react if it did. Others maybe won't.

Some do want it to happen sadly. I’ll never understand why anyone would want to have a complete reset to get rid of venkys. For much of the last decade history is all we’ve had to cling onto.

[booth]

14 hours ago, Darrenbot said:

You would have thought somebody at the club will have warned JDT the state the pitch would end up in if he trained on it in the weather we've had recently,the stodgy state its ended up in doesn't help his play out from the back philosophy that he seems to have adopted.

I don’t think anyone from  TM’s staff has told JDT anything and he’s had to work it out for himself. It would seem so from possession football with players that struggle to pass to playing Dack upfront. 

[JHRover]

15 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

But funding was still given to improve the pitch and buy more lights to help the pitch grow faster. So your point about cutbacks is just wrong

This is the equivalent of having a car, not taking it for a service, not replacing the tyres when needed, not changing the oil, never cleaning it but then expecting credit for changing the screen wash when it runs out.

It is now 2 years since that famous January Sky game at Middlesbrough the week after we had to postpone a Championship game due to the state of our pitch. 2 years since Waggott or a subordinate spoke to Sky who stated during that Middlesbrough game that a multi-million replacement of the pitch was planned for the summer, and 2 years on it hasn't happened, it was just another throwaway 'promise' made when the spotlight and pressure was on but with no serious intention of ever doing it.

File it with the made up Brockhall project, new Riverside and just about any other scheme that would require serious effort or capital outlay.

[AllRoverAsia]

2 hours ago, JHRover said:

This is the equivalent of having a car, not taking it for a service, not replacing the tyres when needed, not changing the oil, never cleaning it but then expecting credit for changing the screen wash when it runs out.

It is now 2 years since that famous January Sky game at Middlesbrough the week after we had to postpone a Championship game due to the state of our pitch. 2 years since Waggott or a subordinate spoke to Sky who stated during that Middlesbrough game that a multi-million replacement of the pitch was planned for the summer, and 2 years on it hasn't happened, it was just another throwaway 'promise' made when the spotlight and pressure was on but with no serious intention of ever doing it.

File it with the made up Brockhall project, new Riverside and just about any other scheme that would require serious effort or capital outlay.

I suspect that they hold a Board meeting, hold hands and wish for a dry and not freezing winter.

Edited January 3, 2023 by AllRoverAsia

[47er]

9 hours ago, booth said:

Some do want it to happen sadly. I’ll never understand why anyone would want to have a complete reset to get rid of venkys. For much of the last decade history is all we’ve had to cling onto.

Whatever we want, it'll be Venkys who decide. If they are determined to hold on to Rovers forever, they will.

Sadly that seems to mean endless nothingness.

[Upside Down]

4 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I suspect that they hold a Board meeting, hold hands and wish for a dry and not freezing winter.

I don't think they put that much thought into it 

[Upside Down]

23 minutes ago, 47er said:

Whatever we want, it'll be Venkys who decide. If they are determined to hold on to Rovers forever, they will.

Sadly that seems to mean endless nothingness.

If the choice was between that and starting again I know which one I would pick. 

Sadly we won't get to choose.

[sympatheticclaret]

Going back again to the original topic .... and both our club's decent first half of the season

With the sole exception of Sunderland in 1997-98 ( they got 90 points and finished 3rd, losing out to Charlton in the play-offs ), 89 points has always been enough to clinch automatic promotion since the formation of the Premier League.

The average 3rd place finish has been achieved on 84 points or so in that time, although this year may be an outlier. There are 10 points that separate Blackburn in 3rd place ( 42 ) and Birmingham in 17th ( 32 ). This indicates that these teams are fairly even and on any given day, could beat each other.

If our form was to drop off, and finish with say 7 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses, we'd finish on 83 points .... the form teams, Middlesborough would then need 44 points from 20 games to tie with us eg: 13 wins, 4 draws & 3 losses and West Brom would need 45. A record of W9, D6, L5 would get your lot to 74 points, which, given the " dog eat dog " nature of the Championship, could well be enough for a play-off place.

Any thoughts ?

[J*B]

7 minutes ago, sympatheticclaret said:

Going back again to the original topic .... and both our club's decent first half of the season

With the sole exception of Sunderland in 1997-98 ( they got 90 points and finished 3rd, losing out to Charlton in the play-offs ), 89 points has always been enough to clinch automatic promotion since the formation of the Premier League.

The average 3rd place finish has been achieved on 84 points or so in that time, although this year may be an outlier. There are 10 points that separate Blackburn in 3rd place ( 42 ) and Birmingham in 17th ( 32 ). This indicates that these teams are fairly even and on any given day, could beat each other.

If our form was to drop off, and finish with say 7 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses, we'd finish on 83 points .... the form teams, Middlesborough would then need 44 points from 20 games to tie with us eg: 13 wins, 4 draws & 3 losses and West Brom would need 45. A record of W9, D6, L5 would get your lot to 74 points, which, given the " dog eat dog " nature of the Championship, could well be enough for a play-off place.

Any thoughts ?

Plenty of thoughts, thanks for asking. 
 

1) Don’t worry about our playoff chances, we’ve been here before, we know what happens next and it doesn’t involve Wembley. 
 

2) There’s absolutely no chance of us drawing six games. We’re win or lose. 
 

3) You’ve bought the league. 
 

Have a lovely evening. 

[yellowsubmarine]

Don't think we will finish 3rd. Happy with a playoff spot.

The points needed for 6th place in the last 5 seasons are around >70 points. We are still about 30 points away, which means we need 10 wins from the last 20. The fastest we get to that the better. I don't believe our football philosophy will change drastically now, so let's just scrape as many points as we can. We definitely need Diaz to start firing again or JDT to bring in a striker who can score goals.

 

[Blue blood]

3 hours ago, yellowsubmarine said:

Don't think we will finish 3rd. Happy with a playoff spot.

The points needed for 6th place in the last 5 seasons are around >70 points. We are still about 30 points away, which means we need 10 wins from the last 20. The fastest we get to that the better. I don't believe our football philosophy will change drastically now, so let's just scrape as many points as we can. We definitely need Diaz to start firing again or JDT to bring in a striker who can score goals.

 

Looking at the last half dozen games I think our win rate of late is more like 1 in 3. That would see us with 7 wins and short of what's needed. 

I appreciate that's a bit of an arbitrary place to slice the cake so to speak, 6 games, but it is a worrying niggle I have. 

What makes it more challenging is there a load of sides with momentum, who it seems will pick up a lot of points. Boro and WBA spring to mind. After that there are a lot of others that are pushing hard too - clubs with good budgets who are inconsistent like Watford and Norwich, as well as some canny teams making the most of their resources like Millwall, PNE and Luton. 

One positive of late is that we have beaten weaker/out of form teams. So with the fixtures we have over the next few games (Rotherham and Blackpool I think?) we could really give ourselves a boost and ease the pressure for later on in the season. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I’m not even thinking about the play offs. That way lies madness.

[Mattyblue]

They’ve lost 2 in 26, some stretch to see a side that is obviously the best in the league suddenly lose 7 in 20.

See Sympathetic Claret had picked up some of Longers’ “we are ever so ‘umble” routine…

[longsiders1882]

8 hours ago, J*B said:

You’ve bought the league

Bit salty last night J*B? 🧂 

8 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

They’ve lost 2 in 26, some stretch to see a side that is obviously the best in the league suddenly lose 7 in 20.

See Sympathetic Claret had picked up some of Longers’ “we are ever so ‘umble” routine…

Lol, it isn’t a routine. It’s a mix of self preservation as it is always the hope that kills you and being respectful that this is a Rovers not a Clarets forum. If I saw you in the street and you pushed me I’d say it would take a catastrophic turn in fortunes for us not to finish top 2 and our race now should really be for the title. The caveat always the same, what are the January player and managerial movements.

[Dreams of 1995]

It is abundantly clear that the parachute money from the Premier League allows teams to be very competitive after relegation

You have to use it right, but nowadays it isn't difficult because the last TV pay deal meant the disparity in wealth between the Championship and the Premier League is huge

I am all for benefitting financially so it isn't salty, it just is what it is. Burnley don't shut up about us "buying" the league in 95 after all...the top league that is.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Dreams of 1995

[Silas]

2 hours ago, longsiders1882 said:

If I saw you in the street and you pushed me I’d say it would take a catastrophic turn......

Read this as a physical threat first time round.

Thought you'd maybe been on the New Year buckfast. 🤣