v Stoke (h) - Saturday 27th August 3pm

[Exiled_Rover]

6 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

I guess young players like Buckley will have periods where their form dips, for whatever reason.  We do have replacements, but a worry is that we don't have a hard bastard to call on.

Buckley cannot play as a #10 in this league - he was awful today. 

[booth]

By the way, the referee was a massive f****** dick.

Twice he blew up to give a free kick when we were in possession in the box. Stokes timewasting and dirty play off the ball went unchallenged.

Where do they get them from?

[Sparks Rover]

23 minutes ago, neophox said:

Who do you want as manager?

Id have taken Carvahal

[Paul Mani]

38 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Must have had his head turned with the £10m bids.🤘

Yawn…surprised you managed to see all the way from Deepdale nestled between Whitemans thighs 👀👍🏼🤣

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

23 minutes ago, Tabula Rasa said:

Opinions are free.

Captain says do something, you should do it. 

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

1 hour ago, rovers11 said:

Although I think JDT has been let down by our failure in the transfer market, tactically we have been inept so far. That is down to the manager. 

It's s terrible sign when a manager constantly has to change shape during a game and has to hook players at half time. It suggests the manager is getting wrong time and time again.

And yet after 3 matches people were saying how tactically he got it spot on - or are you saying he got it wrong in those matches ? If we had won today - people would be saying how good he was at adjusting his tactics.

Mourinho has history of massive tactical and personnel changes even before half time.

Let's give him a while before judging him. 

[G Somerset Rover]

35 minutes ago, Proudtobeblue&white said:

Bumped into dad at the match today, says Wednesday too early for Scott but should be back for next weekend, Adam was excellent in the second half.

You’re the third Wharton brother?

[TruRover]

1 minute ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

And yet after 3 matches people were saying how tactically he got it spot on - or are you saying he got it wrong in those matches ? If we had won today - people would be saying how good he was at adjusting his tactics.

Mourinho has history of massive tactical and personnel changes even before half time.

Let's give him a while before judging him. 

100%. I’ve seen enough of JDT too suggest we’ve got a goodun. People are expecting too much too quickly.

[Gav]

16 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Id have taken Carvahal

Far to ambitious for our owners, wanted a back room team he relies upon and a modest budget to make us competitive.

Sorry Carlos we have an academy to run, the football club isn’t important to us.

[M_B]

48 minutes ago, booth said:

Players like Buckley aren't blameless as well. That's the worst performance I've seen from the guy. Wharton showed what a proper midfielder should do.

I don't know how you can possibly blame JDT for the shambles of yesteryear. We're reaping what TM and co have sown, as well as terrible leadership in the boardroom.

Some positives are that Adam Wharton looks a fantastic player, he didn't put a foot wrong. If he'd only been on from the beginning.

Hedges looks as if he's continuing his form from the first few games.

The penny seemed to have finally dropped with JDT that Rankin Costelloe, Buckley and Pickering either aren't pulling their weight or aren't cut out for the team. All three rightly subbed. Also that Dack is better playing behind the front man.

I hope the penny has also dropped now that Wharton is an excellent player. He was everywhere. Supporting the wide players, defending, challenging in midfield and putting some nice balls through for the attackers. More of this please.

 

Sell Brereton asap, spend the money on a good centre forward to replace Armstrong, a good winger to replace BBD, a defender and a fullback. We don't need any more central midfielders.

In the second half I thought Rovers were brilliant. We were just missing a goalscorer in front of Dack.

We need Scott Wharton back. Phillips did well but Ayala was was immense today and at times was covering for both fullbacks.

You can't on one hand blame the poor performance first half on Mowbray, then say that we were brilliant 2nd half due to the performances of Hedges and Wharton, 2 players here under Mowbray,it just doesn't add up. 

The transfer market and loan system are there to be used,there are no excuses needed,  nor would Tomasson want them. 

That first half was down to the players and the manager, no excuses. 

With a few back from injury and a few new faces, we'll be looking stronger on Friday morning, hopefully. 

[Hasta]

That was awful.  However, it’s also probably the game where  it has dawned on me that Adam Wharton could be the real deal.  

[JHRover]

38 minutes ago, booth said:

By the way, the referee was a massive f****** dick.

Twice he blew up to give a free kick when we were in possession in the box. Stokes timewasting and dirty play off the ball went unchallenged.

Where do they get them from?

End of the game he added minimum 5 minutes injury time. I didn't agree with that, applying the same approach as the WBA referee it should have been 7 or 8.

Then during the injury time he awarded a yellow card to a Stoke player (30 seconds to add on) and there was a stoppage of 1 minute down by the corner.

He blew his whistle on 95 minutes 30 seconds. I time it every week. So we only played about 4 minutes of the minimum 5 and he gave us no extra for the stoppages or booking.

They wonder why respect is in short supply.

[Hasta]

Oh, and we seriously missed Rothwell. 
 

Because JR on an average day was better than what our midfield has shown over the last 3 games. 

[den]

41 minutes ago, Andy said:

Whether anyone likes Big Sam or not, I don't think anybody can deny his ability to keep a club of our size and resources in the middle of the Premier League.

I absolutely loved us grinding out those 1-0 wins, big Samba causing havoc in the opposition areas.

Couldn't give the slightest shit for one-touch fancy football that gets us nowhere. Football is a competitive sport first, entertainment second.

Absolutely. It’s about winning.
 

Winning football is about scoring more than the opposition. Why that isn’t enjoyable beats me. 
 

These people who wanted him sacked are the ones who thought it would be easy to find a manager who could get us out-footballing Arsenal and Man Utd.

12 years ago. Who did we find?

[chaddyrovers]

My thoughts on the game. 

First half we were very poor and awful. I thought JDT got his starting line up and formation wrong today. Having Szmodics on the right wing, with Buckley and Dack both as number 10 didn't work. We played with no tempo, not closing down and getting the ball away far too much. I felt the ref miss a clear foul on Szmodics that left him with concussion and him leaving the pitch shortly after. 

Second half, JDT made 2 subs and what a difference they made aswell as playing Dolan as the pressing forward. Very difference performance, movement, work rate up, closing down much more, playing some good football and created more chances. For me, Hedges was our best player second half and he shown how important he is to this team. Adam Wharton was very good and show why we don't know another centre midfielder after that performance. Also having a player playing the 9 role made a huge difference. 

We deserved something from that game but we didn't. Some positives to take from that game and some negative. 

I thought Ayala was a rock at the back with Phillips had a good game at centre back whilst Pickering had a good game and look much improved. Morton show a good range of long passes. 

Anyway on to Blackpool game where I want a win and 3 points. JDT's Blue and White Army 🔵⚪ 

[Hasta]

3 minutes ago, JHRover said:

End of the game he added minimum 5 minutes injury time. Then during the injury time he awarded a yellow card to a Stoke player (30 seconds to add on) and there was a stoppage of 1 minute down by the corner.

He blew his whistle on 95 minutes 30 seconds. I time it every week. So we only played about 4 minutes of the minimum 5 and he gave us no extra for the stoppages or booking.

 

He added 5 minutes and on my watch he blew on 95:45 so he added 45 seconds on top of what they indicated. It’s not enough and usually  drives me mad. But at least today he added extra on for time wasted in injury time. Often they don’t. 

[Exiled_Rover]

4 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Oh, and we seriously missed Rothwell. 
 

Because JR on an average day was better than what our midfield has shown over the last 3 games. 

With all due respect, Rothwell has never played a better pass than Wharton did multiple times today.

[Exiled_Rover]

2 minutes ago, den said:

Absolutely. It’s about winning.
 

Winning football is about scoring more than the opposition. Why that isn’t enjoyable beats me. 
 

These people who wanted him sacked are the ones who thought it would be easy to find a manager who could get us out-footballing Arsenal and Man Utd.

12 years ago. Who did we find?

I wanted him sacked - I was about to give up my season ticket as going to Ewood had become a turgid chore. 

I didn't want him replaced by an unqualified cretin. The two things aren't linked. 

[Hasta]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

We deserved something from that game but we didn't.

We deserved naff all. First half we should have been 2 or 3 behind. Second half they stopped pressing so high and we still created next to nothing. 
 

As far as away performances go, Stoke nailed that and fully deserved 3 points.

[BankEnd Rover]

I think we will see if JDT is the man on next weeks team selection. If Buckley starts then for me it’s Alarm bells. 
 

Hopefully “age doesn’t matter” comes into the equation and Wharton starts against Blackpool - him & hedges were a massive improvement.

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

 

[BankEnd Rover]

3 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

My thoughts on the game. 

First half we were very poor and awful. I thought JDT got his starting line up and formation wrong today. Having Szmodics on the right wing, with Buckley and Dack both as number 10 didn't work. We played with no tempo, not closing down and getting the ball away far too much. I felt the ref miss a clear foul on Szmodics that left him with concussion and him leaving the pitch shortly after. 

Second half, JDT made 2 subs and what a difference they made aswell as playing Dolan as the pressing forward. Very difference performance, movement, work rate up, closing down much more, playing some good football and created more chances. For me, Hedges was our best player second half and he shown how important he is to this team. Adam Wharton was very good and show why we don't know another centre midfielder after that performance. Also having a player playing the 9 role made a huge difference. 

We deserved something from that game but we didn't. Some positives to take from that game and some negative. 

I thought Ayala was a rock at the back with Phillips had a good game at centre back whilst Pickering had a good game and look much improved. Morton show a good range of long passes. 

Anyway on to Blackpool game where I want a win and 3 points. JDT's Blue and White Army 🔵⚪ 

Gu lad  chaddy… Maybe we’d be in a lot better place if everywhere shared your optimism. 
 

[rovers11]

48 minutes ago, Andy said:

Whether anyone likes Big Sam or not, I don't think anybody can deny his ability to keep a club of our size and resources in the middle of the Premier League.

I absolutely loved us grinding out those 1-0 wins, big Samba causing havoc in the opposition areas.

Couldn't give the slightest shit for one-touch fancy football that gets us nowhere. Football is a competitive sport first, entertainment second.

100%

I feel like our best teams over the years have been built on making us hard to beat and physically strong. The Hughes and Allardyce eras were exactly that. 

For me, a good manager comes in and instantly makes a team organised and hard to beat. Both Hughes and Allardyce did that, and so did Mowbray to a certain extent. You lay the foundations before adding more technically gifted players. My fear with JDT is that he's more concerned about building a side with footballers who play pretty football. That's exactly what Henning Berg tried to do and we all know what happened there. 

[Sparks Rover]

43 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Yawn…surprised you managed to see all the way from Deepdale nestled between Whitemans thighs 👀👍🏼🤣

A proper championship midfielder who turns up every single week🤘

[booth]

22 minutes ago, M_B said:

You can't on one hand blame the poor performance first half on Mowbray, then say that we were brilliant 2nd half due to the performances of Hedges and Wharton, 2 players here under Mowbray,it just doesn't add up. 

The transfer market and loan system are there to be used,there are no excuses needed,  nor would Tomasson want them. 

That first half was down to the players and the manager, no excuses. 

With a few back from injury and a few new faces, we'll be looking stronger on Friday morning, hopefully. 

I didn't entirely lay the blame at TM's door.

Also, isn't Wharton is from the academy?

I can blame him (and Waggott) for his business in the January transfer window and the lack of a plan in place for the mass exodus of players.

After 8 games, a lack of bodies through the door and pretty much an injury crisis I can't blame JDT for that first half. I will blame him if he chooses to use Costelloe at fullback again, and Dack as centre forward.

He got it right in the second half which at least shows he's learning what this team can and can't do.

I hope by next season the likes of Pickering and JRC are plying their trade elsewhere.

Edited August 27, 2022 by booth