v Blackpool (a) - 31/8/22

[USABlue]

After Wharton's class act last night I just had a gut feeling Buckley is off to Sunderland tomorrow, Thursday K 

[garnersfags]

Possibly the most interesting thing about tonight was JDTs comment post-match that he thought we maybe ran with the ball too much (when we could have passed it more quickly). 

I think he wants us to pass the ball quickly through midfield, creating progressive triangles around the opposition midfielders, which will give us the chance to release our forwards to run into space and shoot/score. 

I liked that he chose to say this in a post-match interview. Very insightful. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by garnersfags

[tonyoz]

Whoscored have Dougall as MoM, rated at 7.4! Wharton, Diaz and Carter are all rated 7.2!

More detail:

 

Sofascore has it Dougall 8.1 v Wharton 7.6. Go figure.

Its all about opinions I know but…….Lancs Live have Dougall rated 4 ( caught in possession too often and passive when out of possession - highlighting the need for more quality in midfield!) and Wharton gets a 9!

I prefer the “wisdom of crowds” as displayed on our very own BRFCS poll!

Edited September 1, 2022 by tonyoz

[speeeeeeedie]

I spent the latter half of the 2021-2022 season watching Rovers on ESPN+ lose every week so it was nice to see a win.

I echo everybody else regarding Wharton Jr. He played extremely well. 

Pickering is getting lots of praise for his performance but I see why he gets a lot of grief. 

Brereton and Dack are key to any success.

As a fan Brereton needs to stay, score a hatful this season, and evaluate his options next summer. If he goes to a Prem team as a deadline day signing he'll get his pieces of silver but won't play or score much. 

For me a fit Dack is second on the team sheet after Kaminski. He can score and create. 

I hope Rovers are on TV again soon.

[WacoRover]

3 minutes ago, speeeeeeedie said:

I spent the latter half of the 2021-2022 season watching Rovers on ESPN+ lose every week so it was nice to see a win.

I echo everybody else regarding Wharton Jr. He played extremely well. 

Pickering is getting lots of praise for his performance but I see why he gets a lot of grief. 

Brereton and Dack are key to any success.

As a fan Brereton needs to stay, score a hatful this season, and evaluate his options next summer. If he goes to a Prem team as a deadline day signing he'll get his pieces of silver but won't play or score much. 

For me a fit Dack is second on the team sheet after Kaminski. He can score and create. 

I hope Rovers are on TV again soon.

Re: ESPN+, You & me both.

I got it after Christmas, kinda a gift to myself. I think we got 7 Rovers games from January on, we lost all but one of them. 

[Fraserkirky]

Well once again we start the match acting like we have no idea who anyone is, took 15mins to wake up then after that we were outstanding for the rest of the game, best performance of the season to date. Brereton could have had a hatrick, that one that bent past the far post was an incredible strike, 

Special mention to Trav, I thought he looked great tonight at RB, and was nice to have some toughness there. If Britain is out for a while, no issues with Trav there, no one is taking the piss out of him, thats for sure.

Carter, best game in a Rovers shirt. Won his headers and is no slouch, incident at the end didnt look great but that will make up for the Vale one that was clear pen.

Hyam, Robbery, plain and simple. He looks like a solid player, great in the air, and rarely troubled tonight. Impressive debut. 

If Carter and Hyam play to that level, we might be okay as is for CB.

Pickering was better tonight, but he got gubbed by Poveda even with two Rovers helping. Still a concern area for me with Edun running around aimlessly when he came on.

Morton, good game, he is a bit of a grafter and got stuck in well tonight. 

Wharton, good grief, been done to death already, just a ridiculous debut from him. He was winning it all over the park, and under control rarely rushed and calm, ever pass was dead on. His rising strike was going right in the top corner before it came of the defender. Worth the admission price.

Hedges and Dack both did well enough, Dacks ball was just sheer quality. Not everything came off for Hedges tonight but he is a quality footballer.

Brereton gave it all for Rovers tonight, great finish and should have had a few more. One of his best performances in a Rovers shirt and if he goes he does with my best. 

Dolan, struggled a bit tonight. Great energy player off the bench for me. 

[bluebruce]

2 hours ago, tonyoz said:

Whoscored have Dougall as MoM, rated at 7.4! Wharton, Diaz and Carter are all rated 7.2!

More detail:

 

Sofascore has it Dougall 8.1 v Wharton 7.6. Go figure.

Its all about opinions I know but…….Lancs Live have Dougall rated 4 ( caught in possession too often and passive when out of possession - highlighting the need for more quality in midfield!) and Wharton gets a 9!

I prefer the “wisdom of crowds” as displayed on our very own BRFCS poll!

He didn't even win the Blackpool sponsors' man of the match that came up on the screen. Fairly sure that went to Dominic Thompson. Thought their goalie was their best player tonight tbh.

[JacknOry]

We are still not clinical enough apart from BBD - that needs addressing. Game should have been out of sight really. Dont like nervy endings as we often get undone. Also noticable that we only used two subs again? We looked out on our feet for the last 10. Need a bit more depth.

I suggested Travis as backup RB throughout TM's reign and it never happened. The lad started out as a RB in the academy. Yet TM used basically everyone but him there. Elliott Bennett, Carter, Buckley, Sam Gallagher (lol) and im sure there's others. He looks our best bet as backup there although admittedly you lose his bite in midfield.

Wharton's rise lessons the need for a CM now but I would still bring in Styles as long as he knows he will primarily play as LB but also offer backup for midfield. 

[AllRoverAsia]

2 hours ago, speeeeeeedie said:

I spent the latter half of the 2021-2022 season watching Rovers on ESPN+ lose every week so it was nice to see a win.

I echo everybody else regarding Wharton Jr. He played extremely well. 

Pickering is getting lots of praise for his performance but I see why he gets a lot of grief. 

Brereton and Dack are key to any success.

As a fan Brereton needs to stay, score a hatful this season, and evaluate his options next summer. If he goes to a Prem team as a deadline day signing he'll get his pieces of silver but won't play or score much. 

For me a fit Dack is second on the team sheet after Kaminski. He can score and create. 

I hope Rovers are on TV again soon.

Pickering had the best performance in a Rovers shirt that I've seen from him and I saw nothing last night to endorse previous criticism. He was well tested against a lot of traffic and did very well.

He was not skinned like Travis was late on. We need the Travis bite in midfield but overall he also did fine.

Kaminski is a good shot stopper although, like Paul Robinson, suspect on low shots from distance. He deals with crosses better than before. His ball distribution is often appalling and now his main weakness.

Dack is on his way back, Wharton sublime, Hyam excellent, Carter better than decent. BBD had a good game too. Morton a good footballer.

Hedges is becoming effective, very quick feet and decent ball control.

Dolan is an enigma. Great energy levels, excellent pressing, poor shooting/passing decisions. He has a run which 'looks' fast but his speed drops a lot when in possession and he now rarely gets past defenders and runs into trouble. Something I think his brain never quite catches up with what his feet are doing.

I enjoyed the game via ESPN+ and then Sky after unusual US buffering.

[cesus]

Superb win for the boys, so many things to be happy with. I think the performance was very good after 20 minutes but the thing that gave me the most pride was the amount of academy lads in the squad and putting in very good performances.

Wharton was outstanding.

Carter looks like the Pompey loan did him the world of good.

Dack will always have the ability to play a ball nobody else will see or can do.

Hyam looked solid.

Diaz was unplayable for their defence.

Fair play to their keeper he made a few worldie saves!

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

A good performance, but to balance things a little

1. A better team than Blackpool would have taken advantage of our occasional sloppiness at the back

2. For a match we dominated for large parts we could have easily drawn the match at the end.

3. Diaz was easily our stand out attacker - wonder how we will cope if he leaves.

On the positive - a big improvement on the previous three league matches - scoring the first goal was key.

[Mashed Potatoes]

8 hours ago, Feed the Yak said:

What a joy to watch from the goal onwards. 

Adam Wharton, if that was a new signing that cost us £10m and was 26 I'd be raving. He's 18! What a debut and what a player. I can't wait to see how far he can go. 

JDT is a real breath of fresh air. I've not felt this happy, proud and optimistic for Rovers for a while! 

Crikey ! We were in crisis this time yesterday.

[Mashed Potatoes]

8 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Decent performance after we scored. I think JDT has done as well as could be reasonably expected with this squad given the dire state Mowbray left it in and Waggott and Broughton's seeming misapprehension that the season starts on September the 3rd against Bristol City.

If Phillips is a £40m - £50m player in the making then Wharton is an £80m  - £90m one. Over to you Messrs Waggott and Broughton on the contract front.

We are the top team in the Championship of the 19 clubs that do not have parachute payments so I am baffled as to how you think Mowbray, Waggott and Broughton can seriously be thought to have given JDT a hospital pass.

[Rochdale_rover]

7 hours ago, rigger said:

Personally I think Phillips is better than Adam Wharton, but both are excellent players.

Foundations for a good spine of the team for years to come 

[Iceman]

12 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

ok line up,just don`t understand diaz out wide and dolan in the middle,given that ben is pretty good with his head and dolan has never headed a football in his life,pretty pointless pinging crosses in,everything will have to come through the middle or behind them

There was one ball played over to Dolan by Morton I think. I simple lob over to him, and he couldn't reach it 😅 

[joey_big_nose]

To build on something I mentioned in my initial thoughts... If you look at our first seven games we've won three where the other teams setup in a way  that suits our pressing counter attacking style (QPR, Swansea, Blackpool) but have been absolutely hammered by the two teams who looked to physically and tactically dominate  us (Reading and Sheff Utd). WBA and Stoke were more.marginal games that could have gone either way.

Putting Wigan to one side, we have a couple of games now which will really show where we are. Next up Bristol City and Watford. 

Neither of those teams are going to let us play the way we want. Both like sitting deep and countering, playing three CBs and three centre mids, and Watford at least will be confident they can physically batter us.

Hopefully addition of Hyam and Carter, and Scott Wharton coming in, will make us a lot more robust than we were at Reading and  Sheff Utd. But they will all just be getting to know each other really.

This is where we struggled with Mowbray, being able to beat the big teams and the teams who play an aggressive physical 343. By my guess probably around a third to half our games will be against teams who play that way. Time for JDT to show he's got the right answers, and if we can really see ourselves as genuine top six material.

[only2garners]

8 hours ago, USABlue said:

Josh who?  I think Bowler's price tag has just been cut 50% by that no good Pickering.  

If that's 4 mil you are kidding he did nothing all game really. 

I had a quick look at a Blackpool Forum last night. Someone made the comment that Bowler provides no cover to his full back and that was right. Diaz had acres of space to play in and just a full back to beat time and again. I don't remember seeing Bowler anywhere near him in their half.

[arbitro]

Just now, only2garners said:

I had a quick look at a Blackpool Forum last night. Someone made the comment that Bowler provides no cover to his full back and that was right. Diaz had acres of space to play in and just a full back to beat time and again. I don't remember seeing Bowler anywhere near him in their half.

I thought that too. I think his lack of real work ethic wouldn't be acceptable for what Tomasson demands from his players.

[Jimmy612]

56 minutes ago, Iceman said:

There was one ball played over to Dolan by Morton I think. I simple lob over to him, and he couldn't reach it 😅 

I remember watching last night just thinking how ineffective Dolan had been, particularly in the first hour or so - don't know what minute he went off, but he had a couple of flashes in the second half. 

We can't consider him a starting player - he's good to have buzzing about for 15mins at the end, but he is so lacking physically - not just strength, but pace, balance, ability to get himself between man and ball.  I really hope that Hirst can bring some power and pace up there. 

[joey_big_nose]

6 minutes ago, Jimmy612 said:

I remember watching last night just thinking how ineffective Dolan had been, particularly in the first hour or so - don't know what minute he went off, but he had a couple of flashes in the second half. 

We can't consider him a starting player - he's good to have buzzing about for 15mins at the end, but he is so lacking physically - not just strength, but pace, balance, ability to get himself between man and ball.  I really hope that Hirst can bring some power and pace up there. 

There's definitely something up with him, he's regressed quite significantly. I think probably - quite understandably - the coaches have been working with him to improve his decision making as it's an obvious weakness that even the Sky commentator was well aware of and pointed out.

But an ironic by-product of being told you systemically make he wrong decisions over and over again is that you lose confidence in yourself which consequently can actually make the decisions you make even worse. You get conservative, check back, play the safe ball, don't try and beat the man. Dolan doesn't even try to beat his man now, but a year ago he would always try even when it was daft. But... sometimes it would work and he really scared defenders. Now he is no challenge.

I am not a big one for loaning out, but if Dolan stepped down to League One where he should be able to consistently beat his man, it could make a big difference to his confidence and we get a better player back.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

There's definitely something up with him, he's regressed quite significantly. I think probably - quite understandably - the coaches have been working with him to improve his decision making as it's an obvious weakness that even the Sky commentator was well aware of and pointed out.

But an ironic by-product of being told you systemically make he wrong decisions over and over again is that you lose confidence in yourself which consequently can actually make the decisions you make even worse. You get conservative, check back, play the safe ball, don't try and beat the man. Dolan doesn't even try to beat his man now, but a year ago he would always try even when it was daft. But... sometimes it would work and he really scared defenders. Now he is no challenge.

I am not a big one for loaning out, but if Dolan stepped down to League One where he should be able to consistently beat his man, it could make a big difference to his confidence and we get a better player back.

There was one point in the first half when we were breaking away and he backheeled it to Hedges but very nearly under-hit it and it slowed the momentum down. You should've seen JDT go at him, very animated. 

And second half, he was slipped in by Brereton, did the hard part, shifted it onto his right about 14 yards out and missed the target by miles. Get the simple things right first, and you earn the right to be clever afterwards.

[BlackburnEnd75]

4 hours ago, JacknOry said:

We are still not clinical enough apart from BBD - that needs addressing. Game should have been out of sight really. Dont like nervy endings as we often get undone. Also noticable that we only used two subs again? We looked out on our feet for the last 10. Need a bit more depth.

I suggested Travis as backup RB throughout TM's reign and it never happened. The lad started out as a RB in the academy. Yet TM used basically everyone but him there. Elliott Bennett, Carter, Buckley, Sam Gallagher (lol) and im sure there's others. He looks our best bet as backup there although admittedly you lose his bite in midfield.

Wharton's rise lessons the need for a CM now but I would still bring in Styles as long as he knows he will primarily play as LB but also offer backup for midfield. 

I'm not sure Styles has ever really played left back. Not sure why people keep suggesting that would be the primary position for him.

[Gav]

53 minutes ago, only2garners said:

I had a quick look at a Blackpool Forum last night. Someone made the comment that Bowler provides no cover to his full back and that was right. Diaz had acres of space to play in and just a full back to beat time and again. I don't remember seeing Bowler anywhere near him in their half.

That track back from Diaz in injury time last night was why he's a special player, defending from the front. Gallagher does the same week in week out, but he doesn't have the goals to back it up. 

Tremendous work ethic from the both of them.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Gav

[J*B]

7 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

@Gav, are you still open the Relegation thread like you said for some unknown reason before last night win?

 

Baiting - carry on and it’ll come with a warning. Gav, please don’t send this thread off topic. 

[chaddyrovers]

4 minutes ago, J*B said:

Baiting - carry on and it’ll come with a warning. Gav, please don’t send this thread off topic. 

I have deleted the post JB. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by chaddyrovers