v Norwich City (a) - 17/12/22

[had.e.nuff]

great result I thought Norwich's game plan went out the window when we didn't muck about with it at the back and they had no plan B for a team closing them down like we did.Only 11  points of safety.

[arbitro]

The significance of not playing Travis yesterday was apparent to me. I like Travis. He seems a decent person, loves the club, relates well with the fans and lots of other things but his limitations really stifle us. Our midfielders yesterday could both take the ball on the half turn, press higher up the pitch and pass the ball quicker whilst under pressure. Travis struggles in all of them aspects, aspects I believe make us better and stronger as a team. If Tomasson wants to play him regularly then he has to have a different way of playing.

I'm not scapegoating Travis by the way, I'm simply pointing out the evidence of my own eyes.

[Miller11]

2 hours ago, M_B said:

Welcome back Harry Pickering, we attack and defend with much more balance when he plays. I don't think last night's massively improved performance with him back in the side was a coincidence. 

Let's hope he stays fit. 

Agreed. I think he’s struggled at times this season, and I think he was overhyped last season. That said, playing actual fullbacks on their actual sides is simple common sense and shouldn’t be an area for experimentation or tactical changes. We need another right back with Brittain struggling with different injuries, because while the stop gaps work for the odd game here and there it’s been proven many times we don’t have another reliable option there. Jake Batty should be deputising for Pickering when he’s unavailable.

[DE.]

Travis has definitely been struggling the past couple of months. Might be worth him having a spell out of the first team and knuckling down in training, trying to improve on the areas of JDT's style he's struggling with. I don't want to write him off as I think he can and has in the past brought a lot to the team, he's just not fitting in with the way we're trying to play at the moment.

[R0verb0y]

A couple of other points on yesterday:

1) An old acquaintance who lives in Hull texted me last night and made the point that there are only 8 points between QPR in 6th and Hull in 21st. Admittedly, we're 5 points ahead of QPR but we can't rest on our laurels.

2) Look who, and where, we're playing in the 3rd Round in the F.A. Cup?! My bet is that we'll have a more positive attitude to this competition than in the Mowbray era.

[Sparks Rover]

56 minutes ago, arbitro said:

The significance of not playing Travis yesterday was apparent to me. I like Travis. He seems a decent person, loves the club, relates well with the fans and lots of other things but his limitations really stifle us. Our midfielders yesterday could both take the ball on the half turn, press higher up the pitch and pass the ball quicker whilst under pressure. Travis struggles in all of them aspects, aspects I believe make us better and stronger as a team. If Tomasson wants to play him regularly then he has to have a different way of playing.

I'm not scapegoating Travis by the way, I'm simply pointing out the evidence of my own eyes.

I think we will all agree Norwich were awful, their midfield wasn't very aggressive or quick.  The lads in there took advantage of this.  I expect their manager to be gone soon.  

Only last week we were bullied by a "bang average" midfield, so I'll not go with these sunny midfield uplands, we need significant additions to get out of this division.

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

If you go on the Sunderland site quite a few of them have already got him sussed. The latest foible to emerge is for him to be singling out certain players for apparently unwarranted criticism. They already detest his press conferences.

They'l turn quicker than a carousel up there.

I still think he'll do ok for them if he has a decent window but i don't want him taking any of our squad to be honest.

Best thing everyone at Rovers can do now is cock a deaf 'un in his direction he's already had the odd dig whilst up there. Lets see how his huge tanker, huge club with ambition suits me better talk ends up.

[rigger]

30 minutes ago, tomphil said:

They'l turn quicker than a carousel up there.

I still think he'll do ok for them if he has a decent window but i don't want him taking any of our squad to be honest.

Best thing everyone at Rovers can do now is cock a deaf 'un in his direction he's already had the odd dig whilst up there. Lets see how his huge tanker, huge club with ambition suits me better talk ends up.

for me Mowbray is welcome to Pears.

[DE.]

According to Mowbray he doesn't really have a say in transfers for Sunderland, so I don't think it'll be his call either way. He did say he had "all the spreadsheets" here, which I take to mean he had far more involvement in recruitment. I suppose that's the difference between being manager here (which historically under Venky's means you basically are in charge of everything related to the playing squads) and just being the head coach at Sunderland. 

[dingles staying down 4ever]

13 minutes ago, DE. said:

According to Mowbray he doesn't really have a say in transfers for Sunderland, so I don't think it'll be his call either way. He did say he had "all the spreadsheets" here, which I take to mean he had far more involvement in recruitment. I suppose that's the difference between being manager here (which historically under Venky's means you basically are in charge of everything related to the playing squads) and just being the head coach at Sunderland. 

He said the same at Rovers saying Venus dealt with transfers.

[tomphil]

24 minutes ago, rigger said:

for me Mowbray is welcome to Pears.

I thought he might be a candidate being from up there but will TM find nepotism as easy up there ?

 

[tomphil]

4 minutes ago, dingles staying down 4ever said:

He said the same at Rovers saying Venus dealt with transfers.

There's a proper DoF up there though.

[chaddyrovers]

4 minutes ago, tomphil said:

There's a proper DoF up there though.

There is here now. 

23 minutes ago, DE. said:

According to Mowbray he doesn't really have a say in transfers for Sunderland, so I don't think it'll be his call either way. He did say he had "all the spreadsheets" here, which I take to mean he had far more involvement in recruitment. I suppose that's the difference between being manager here (which historically under Venky's means you basically are in charge of everything related to the playing squads) and just being the head coach at Sunderland. 

He was saying that he was enjoying just being head coach and more time training and getting to know the players more than being involvement in recruitment meetings

31 minutes ago, rigger said:

for me Mowbray is welcome to Pears.

I wonder if Joe Hilton will become the number 2 if Pears does leave on loan?

[booth]

2 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

There is here now.

We'll see.

[Mike E]

3 hours ago, booth said:

My main criticism is usually that I don’t know what he is. Attacking midfielder? Wide player? Striker? Which is mostly not his fault. Yesterday he actually looked like a decent striker in the Dickov mould. His decision making could be improved, he passes to Brereton and it’s 3-0.

Which brings me onto the other issue, which is he’s still greedy, but he’s also still young. Anyone remember when Matt Jansen wouldn’t pass?

Been banging this drum for about a year now. If he could just sort out when to pass and when to shoot, he could be reasonably lethal.

If he could get Dickov's nasty streak (I was thrilled to see him get in Hanley's face) he could be a proper striker of PL quality.

[LDRover]

Well done to all concerned on yesterday's result. I honestly thought it'd be a shoo in JDT would drop Dack as per usual but, fair play to him, he made the big decision to drop Travis and it was 100% the correct one.

Maybe, we're too fixated on having a supposed 'tackler' in midfield based on comments on here pre game. The thing is, these days, it's more a game of anticipation and interceptions in regards to 'transition'. That is one of Buckley's strengths and he was excellent in that regard yesterday. That, coupled with the way we moved the ball into their half quicker was the catalyst to a great result.

So, half way in and in a far better position than most of us forecast. All to play for.

[booth]

30 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Been banging this drum for about a year now. If he could just sort out when to pass and when to shoot, he could be reasonably lethal.

If he could get Dickov's nasty streak (I was thrilled to see him get in Hanley's face) he could be a proper striker of PL quality.

He looked a decent option yesterday and he's got bags of passion and enthusiasm. Say what you will about Norwich's fortunes but they didn't make it easy for our front players yesterday, yet he scored one and if he'd just passed to Brereton he'd have made one.

Hopefully JDT has learned a lot about him from yesterday.

Having Dack playing helps the likes of Dolan and Gallagher out too.

[bluebruce]

6 hours ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

- the first goal is so important at this level.

At this club.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

What I would have given to see a performance and result like yesterday against our last two local rivals it has to be said...

[1874]

8 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I saw some stats on TV yesterday showing that Rovers have the most transitions against in the Championship.

It was, I think, 245 pre yesterdays game andั่ the next was under 200.

I don't know who produces those stats or website that shows them.

I was watching Sky Football channel.

If our transitions into attack improve that's progress.

 

That stat is pretty horrendous for us. It is the amount of times we lose possession when playing out from the back. We are the worst in the league by some distance

[tomphil]

4 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

There is here now. 

He was saying that he was enjoying just being head coach and more time training and getting to know the players more than being involvement in recruitment meetings

I wonder if Joe Hilton will become the number 2 if Pears does leave on loan?

We weren't talking about here.

[roversfan99]

6 hours ago, Miller11 said:

Agreed. I think he’s struggled at times this season, and I think he was overhyped last season. That said, playing actual fullbacks on their actual sides is simple common sense and shouldn’t be an area for experimentation or tactical changes. We need another right back with Brittain struggling with different injuries, because while the stop gaps work for the odd game here and there it’s been proven many times we don’t have another reliable option there. Jake Batty should be deputising for Pickering when he’s unavailable.

Batty has a bad injury but even if he didnt, it can be dangerous to be too expectant on the academy by filling numerous spaces with untested kids.

[DE.]

In terms of losing possession, it's because our passes are too obvious. Not enough movement, so they're easy to anticipate. It happened a few times yesterday too. 

Edited December 18, 2022 by DE.

[Miller11]

41 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Batty has a bad injury but even if he didnt, it can be dangerous to be too expectant on the academy by filling numerous spaces with untested kids.

It’s proven to be dangerous playing attacking players as full backs instead of players who specialise in that position. Batty and Cirino would be my choices to replace Pickering when he’s not fit. I actually don’t mind Edun, but he looks like he’s on his way out.

[roversfan99]

1 minute ago, Miller11 said:

It’s proven to be dangerous playing attacking players as full backs instead of players who specialise in that position. Batty and Cirino would be my choices to replace Pickering when he’s not fit. I actually don’t mind Edun, but he looks like he’s on his way out.

I wouldnt play an attacking player there but I dont necessarily think that the answer for the here and now is in the academy.

Edun is hopeless and as poor a defensive full back as I can remember. Not convinced that Mola is much better either.