Rovers…Are We Any Good ?

[Herbie6590]

Have a read & add your comments in the thread…👍🏻

https://www.brfcs.com/magazine/articles/rovers...are-we-any-good/308

 

[M_B]

It's a good question, I keep saying I'm waiting for us to click and play well, even over a full 90 minutes. 

Eventually either the results will suffer, you can't keep hanging on in games and winning,or the results will bring with them more quality to the performance. 

At the moment, what we are good at is getting the 3 points when we go in front. Long may it continue, it's a lot easier for Tomasson to do whatever it is he wants to do nearer the top than the bottom.

Being booed off at half time against Millwall, yet finishing the day in the top 6 is evidence enough. 

[arbitro]

I sit somewhere in between both opinions. Before the recent winning streak we were the epitome of inconsistent. When winning I thought we deservedly did so but that applied to losing too. It was almost like watching two different teams and for me was a real worry. It left me (still does to a degree) that Tomasson is learning about the Championship on the job and needs to have a different way of two of playing depending on who we are playing. That said his decision to play our wing backs on opposite sides against Sunderland and the rationale behind it was quite ingenious. But I do have a feeling deep down that Tomasson might be one of them 'lucky'managers who seem to get the rub of the green. Yesterday for example Birmingham should have got something out of the game, maybe even won. A combination of good goalkeeping and bad finishing saw us through. That has happened before too. And so far, with one notable exception we haven't had any big refereeing decisions go against us.

[Upside Down]

It's hard to say. Sometimes yes and other times its a massive no.

We have the ability to beat any team in the division and if we make the right moves in January we can definitely be in the mix for promotion. 

Some performances have been absolutely awful and not having a single shot on target against Wigan is not acceptable. But we seem to be able to win games where we haven't played that well and one or two games we've absolutely dominated. Everything is still settling in and we've still got a thin squad even though we've got a lot of top notch academy players. 

We have a real chance of promotion this year as every team is quite poor.

[rigger]

our league position would suggest, yes.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

21 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

It's hard to say. Sometimes yes and other times its a massive no.

We have the ability to beat any team in the division and if we make the right moves in January we can definitely be in the mix for promotion. 

Some performances have been absolutely awful and not having a single shot on target against Wigan is not acceptable. But we seem to be able to win games where we haven't played that well and one or two games we've absolutely dominated. Everything is still settling in and we've still got a thin squad even though we've got a lot of top notch academy players. 

We have a real chance of promotion this year as every team is quite poor.

I wouldn’t say teams are quite poor. Big club weren’t poor yesterday for instance. Lots of teams are in the same mould - hard working, durable, pretty fit, organised etc. Not many are pure footballing teams.

[Waggy76]

It's been a strange season so far  lost 6 before November , won the rest joint top...

Only seen Rovers promoted to the Premier League twice , is this team as good as those two , not in the same league....Is that due to the decline of football outside the top league or just a one off season , with a multitude of mediocrity in it ?

 

[AllRoverAsia]

We are doing much better than I expected. Basically I am interested in winning games and league position so underlying performance or style comes after that.

However our sitting back when in the lead and the slow passing around in the back line scares me. We haven't been nailed for it yet by a combination of Kaminski and some rank poor finishing by the opponent's. I feel it coming if our tactic persists and it could get messy.

I don't think that the Championship is so much poor as quite level this year. Yesterday's Blackpool v PNE and SU v Norwich games were great entertainment and I expect others were to.

In a nutshell we are currently doing better than I expected and by association we are a better team than I expected and I will enjoy it whilst I can, hope our points accumulation continues and decide next May.

Edited October 23, 2022 by AllRoverAsia

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, AllRoverAsia said:

We are doing much better than I expected. Basically I am interested in winning games and league position so underlying performance or style comes after that.

However our sitting back when in the lead and the slow passing around in the back line scares me. We haven't been nailed for it yet by a combination of Kaminski and some rank poor finishing by the opponent's. I feel it coming if our tactic persists and it could get messy.

I don't think that the Championship is so much poor as quite level this year. Yesterday's Blackpool v PNE and SU v Norwich games were great entertainment and I expect others were to.

In a nutshell we are currently doing better than I expected and by association we are better team than expected and I will enjoy it whilst I can, hope our points accumulation continues and decide next May.

Yeah, we only need another 20 points now.

[roverandout]

16 minutes ago, Waggy76 said:

It's been a strange season so far  lost 6 before November , won the rest joint top...

Only seen Rovers promoted to the Premier League twice , is this team as good as those two , not in the same league....Is that due to the decline of football outside the top league or just a one off season , with a multitude of mediocrity in it ?

 

Actually 7

[Mashed Potatoes]

The division is wide open and there will be a lot of clubs thinking that this could be their year. We are certainly entitled to believe that we have a decent shout at being in the top 2. Ultimately I suspect that having a reasonable degree of luck with injuries will determine what happens. I would say that the Big Four for us who would be difficult to replace are Kaminski, Hyam, Morton and Brereton Diaz, so let's hope they stay fit.

If there is a club who will pull away from the others at the top I think it could be Burnley who have good squad depth.

[J*B]

We’re not as good as our league position reflects. A few Rovers fans haven’t learnt their lessons from last year, we don’t have a squad big enough to maintain a credible promotion challenge although we will be lucky this year with the WC break. 

[Adam C]

It’s a good question, and a good article that raises a lot of discussion points. I had doubts about JDT regarding his relative lack of experience at this level, and whether changing manager would make a difference with our dysfunctional owners at the helm. The table doesn’t lie though and even though we’re inconsistent we’ve had some great results (Watford especially when we made them look very bad indeed). New signings have worked out beautifully, the youth team graduates have been impressive, and some players have really kicked on - Hedges especially has been like a new signing, but Pickering also, and Dolan has been a bit more productive as well. Some players have gone backwards - Travis and Buckley no longer seem to be the bright future of our club and most would prefer Morton and Wharton over them now but they are young and still developing. It’s a concern that JDT doesn’t seem to value Dack but we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes - JDT spends all week with him and has a far better understanding of what he’s capable of and how well he fits the system. After two years out did anyone really expect Dack to come back to his best? The inconsistency may settle down as JDT gets to know this league, the opposition, and our strengths and weaknesses, and young players mature and develop their game.

I genuinely didn’t expect much from this season. We’re implementing a new management system, the squad was heavily depleted with 3 first teamers leaving for free, and every year we’re out of the top table we lose ground on our competitors. So far we’ve exceeded my expectations although the inconsistency makes it seem like we’re doing worse (if that makes sense?).

I think that our squad and resources dictate that we’re an average championship level club at this stage, so for me we are a decent side and doing better than could be expected. I don’t think we’re good enough for the prem, and if we were up there now we would be humiliated. Every season we tell ourselves “this league is bang average”, yet every season 3 teams are better than us and get promoted. That’s the nature of the championship, and we are stuck in the middle of an average league with nothing to say that we have the right to outperform other teams or consider ourselves above the competition.

We are a club with potential - great facilities, genuinely great youth prospects, and a proud history and passionate fan base. We’ve got imo the best player in the league in BBD and early signs are that something could be building with our young players and a coach who has shown potential and will learn in the job as we progress. I don’t think we’ll be sat in 2nd come the end of the season though so if that is the metric used to judge whether we’re good or not the answer from me is no. If we judge our team on potential, professionalism, passion, then yes I think we’re in a good place. And that’s not bad considering that we’d have failed on those measures for a long time from Venkys taking over until TM came in. 

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

8 minutes ago, J*B said:

We’re not as good as our league position reflects. A few Rovers fans haven’t learnt their lessons from last year, we don’t have a squad big enough to maintain a credible promotion challenge although we will be lucky this year with the WC break. 

And also a few Rovers fans haven't noted the fact we don't have Mowbray in charge this year

[Mattyblue]

What I would say is we have manoeuvred ourselves into a very handy position. 

Remember we hadn’t even had our 7-0 hammering from Fulham yet this time last season which left us plodding away in mid table. The charge only getting going with the Sheff Utd win in early November.

So there’s every chance of a play off berth… especially if there is some backing in January (which surely there must be as it was TM himself that decided not to spend according to a few on here with the owners poised with the cheque book).
 

[roverandout]

30 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

The division is wide open and there will be a lot of clubs thinking that this could be their year. We are certainly entitled to believe that we have a decent shout at being in the top 2. Ultimately I suspect that having a reasonable degree of luck with injuries will determine what happens. I would say that the Big Four for us who would be difficult to replace are Kaminski, Hyam, Morton and Brereton Diaz, so let's hope they stay fit.

If there is a club who will pull away from the others at the top I think it could be Burnley who have good squad depth.

Brittain surely has to be in there 

[47er]

We are so heavily dependent on Kaminski not missing a game. That's rather scary.

We are doing much better than I thought we would. In particular great work to sort out that defence, which I really worried about before the season.

 

[Mr. E]

Everything is just extremely fine margins. Yes I do believe JDT has brought a new vision in terms of how we play and most of the squad is working hard to adapt to it, and it is bringing some benefits. On the other hand...we are also relying heavily on magnificent goals from a striker that will possibly leave in January and we will be unable to replace his output, and on great saves by our GK. All of which is to say we could have very easily lost or drawn a number of the games we've won, so there has been some good fortune recently - fortune that inevitably runs out.  

[Colt Seavers]

I think we are a work in progress.  Good enough to be competitive.

The important thing for me is to create as much space between us and 7th place as a crack at the play offs would be our biggest success for about 20 years. 

[Nuttall is lost]

Too early to tell

[dingles staying down 4ever]

The division is still too close for us to tell if we are in a false position at present plus we've played a game more than most. Improvements have been made since the start of the season but lets see where we after Christmas and see if Tony has taken his death spiral with him.

[Leonard Venkhater]

I think the current points total flatters us.

Call me old fashioned, but the repeated pattern of passing sideways and backwards around our own area frustrates me-especially when we can't pass our way as far as the half way line. 

Watching our young team doing this is like watching children playing with matches-with the gas on!

Thank God we finally have a group of solid defenders and a super keeper- the best, since Brad.

The World Cup break will be crucial for JDT to work on the training field, as well as the transfer window!

[Ossydave]

Its still relatively early, there's been many good things but also some really bad and concerning ones. Wigan was horrific, Cardiff not much better - annoyingly against 2 terrible teams as well.

I think we look much fitter as a team, training is no longer a Mowbray kick about and it's showing. Led to believe he's not quite the smiley laughing cheeky chappy we see in interviews all the time though and can be pretty strict.

Defence looks better, 6 clean sheets it's second highest in the league, our shit shows against Reading and Sheff Utd have left a dent in the goal difference though! Huge credit for the improvement sits with Hyam. Admittedly was a little dubious about the signing, he's more than proven me wrong though.

We've got a few more dress rehearsals to go now until THE big one. The result of that will go a long way to influencing folks opinion. On paper it's looking like a real battle and certainly not for the faint hearted.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, J*B said:

We’re not as good as our league position reflects. A few Rovers fans haven’t learnt their lessons from last year, we don’t have a squad big enough to maintain a credible promotion challenge although we will be lucky this year with the WC break. 

Where would the squad be without the un-expected bonus of the young players that have come through recently ?

[roverandout]

I think if we make the playoffs this season it will be a miracle.  Not saying we can't do it just it will be an immense achievement.  We have a young squad wanting to play for a very likeable manager.  I was sceptical about hyam and brittain in the summer but they've both Been magnificent.  Bringing through the likes of Adam Wharton and other youth has to be given great credit to jdt. I finally believe we are on the right track.  If we can keep plucking these young players from our academy then we will have an excellent side in a couple of years. January is huge though.  I really believe jdt will want to strengthen unlike Mowbray who just wanted status quo. We still need another forward and a decent backup keeper