v Rotherham United (a) - 14/1/23 k/o 12:30pm

[J*B]

Just now, Exiled_Rover said:

Or just someone that puts one of our four golden chances today in the back of the net. 

And I think that’s the big decision that needs to be made. Does he try to replace one of Morton, Travis, Garrett, Wharton and Buckley with a real demon of a central midfielder or does he give them time to develop and sign a striker.

[BigBar]

8 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Agree to disagree - he's an ambitious manager, he'll be off. 

He ain't going higher than this division in England. Maybe tail between his leg and a face saving exercise back to Scandinavia but I'd be shocked to see him get a better gig than rovers.

[Mattyblue]

Doesn’t work out here and he’ll just be a gun for hire around Europe, they’re ten a penny.

[Exiled_Rover]

22 minutes ago, Gav said:

Our academy is ok, but it’s no Southampton, Brentford or Norwich.

3yrs down the line we’ll be in exactly the same position, if we are lucky.

Brentford don't have an academy - they literally applied for a license to open one in June this year. 

Broughton was part of that 'famed' Norwich Academy set up, fyi. 

[BigBar]

10 minutes ago, R0verb0y said:

I think that, too. And for evidence, I'd offer Bradley Dack, who, despite being regularly omitted from the first eleven names on teamsheets (despite many of us on here wondering why) before the World Cup break, has been much more in favour since the resumption of League football.

Perhaps JDT feels that Dack's - at last? - "got the message"??

Exactly...Dack was fit and could have been utilised earlier, it wasn't a masterstroke of management to nurse him back from injury like he would have you believe. More if a case of not sure how to use him I'd say.

[booth]

1 minute ago, imy9 said:

The plan is there, I see it.

however if the manager does not succeed, plan needs to adapt and you get another manager who fits into your model, aka leeds (Marshe isn’t working but they will get someone else who does).

Today was a joke, we need a couple of proper ‘men’- central midfield being one and centre half being the other, this team has no backbone. Plenty of talent but you can slice through us. 
 

Not JDT out yet- but a firm waiting for a drastic improvement by Easter and then I make a decision.

I just don't see how you can adapt with those players. Stop faffing about on the back fine, would be happy to see that but do we go more direct? If we do who scores the goals (sorry for repeating myself)? Which of our fullbacks consistently protect the box from crosses coming in?

I strongly believe we've got a squad were we have a core of 7 or 8 players we can rely on, there's a smaller group of inconsistent players like Buckley, Hedges and Dolan, and the rest are there to rotate or step in for an injury.

Kaminski
Hyam
Ayala
Brittain
Wharton
Brereton
Dack

Who else would you keep for your promotion winning eleven? It's quite damning that I wouldn't rely on any of the others.
 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Well I’ve held back until now to calm down but here goes. Abysmal, shocking, dreadful, pathetic, gutless - roll out the adjectives. The first half was pretty poor but the second half was totally unacceptable, abject. It was a performance so bad that plenty of managers have been sacked for similar performances. In my time following Rovers ( since 1961 ) and given the quality of the opposition, I honestly can’t recall a worse second half.

Rotherham completely put us to sleep. Since the Venkies rolled up If I had a pound for every game were we’ve been out enthused I’d be rich. And we were completely out enthused from the first whistle to the last today. Out enthused by a lad from Rochdale ! He’s not on bloody Dortmunds wish list ! Only one team had some skin in that game and it wasn’t the wasters representing my club.

In rugby league if you drop a bollock you get subbed off right away. I’d have subbed Pickering off after 45 seconds. How else is he going to learn ? What the fuck was that “ pass “ all about ? Brain dead.

I sometimes gives scores for players. This week it’s easy - everybody gets a 3 apart from Dack for his first half performance and Markanday for his second half efforts. They get a 5.

Hyam - if you can’t get a really good contact on the ball - leave it . I learnt that when I was 15 at school.

Kaminski - get nearer to your near post if it’s an in swinger and don’t have a dwarf on the post.

Gallager - learn to trap the bloody ball. That was a backpass.

Clubs must love playing against us. We just play in front of teams all the time - easy peasy. If we’re going to carry on playing walking football, give Dougie a ring he can still walk and shock horror - he could actually beat a man at walking pace. I lost count today of our midfield players dropping back to pick up the ball facing our goals and having their pockets picked. Every pass is to feet and not into space.

[BigBar]

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Brentford don't have an academy - they literally applied for a license to open one in June this year. 

Broughton was part of that 'famed' Norwich Academy set up, fyi. 

Well known so unsure why they got a mention. They poach others talent without the cost of having their own academy, it was very controversial at the time.

[tomphil]

9 minutes ago, booth said:

For a team with any aspirations of being promoted, Gallagher shouldn't be anywhere near the first team.

He did have a decent chance today and fluffed it so I don't know how playing him as a number 9 would help things. He'd still miss more than he hits. He'd just miss more often.

Sounds ludicrous but with better forwards we win that in the first half today. Same as Boro.

Iv'e been a defender of Gallagher at times but days like today make it nigh on impossible. He should be leading the line but he was the first to put his head down and go hiding imo.

He's not alone though in most of the away games this season often in front of good away followings they are not fighting for the shirt/club/fans and certainly not the head coach. He spends half his time hiding himself anyway the body language is pathetic i just knew looking at him today when we went two nil down it would go from bad to worse and he'd offer nothing from the sidelines.

 

[imy9]

7 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Or just someone that puts one of our four golden chances today in the back of the net. 

Ultimately that’s for the manager to find. I like what he says but we regardless of us missing those chances we conceded bloody 4!!

[Exiled_Rover]

3 minutes ago, BigBar said:

He ain't going higher than this division in England. Maybe tail between his leg and a face saving exercise back to Scandinavia but I'd be shocked to see him get a better gig than rovers.

I think you overestimate how good a gig Rovers is. As a club we're a shambles (with the worst owners in football) - which Broughton at least appears to be addressing. 

He's come here because there's the potential to sneak into the PL, with all it's riches, and to then use that exposure to move on to better things.

[BigBar]

1 minute ago, booth said:

I just don't see how you can adapt with those players. Stop faffing about on the back fine, would be happy to see that but do we go more direct? If we do who scores the goals (sorry for repeating myself)? Which of our fullbacks consistently protect the box from crosses coming in?

I strongly believe we've got a squad were we have a core of 7 or 8 players we can rely on, there's a smaller group of inconsistent players like Buckley, Hedges and Dolan, and the rest are there to rotate or step in for an injury.

Kaminski
Hyam
Ayala
Brittain
Wharton
Brereton
Dack

Who else would you keep for your promotion winning eleven? It's quite damning that I wouldn't rely on any of the others.
 

Harsh on Hedges. He's been far better and more consistent than Buckley. Dolan been decent enough too. I'd happily have them in the team or coming on every game.

[Gav]

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Brentford don't have an academy - they literally applied for a license to open one in June this year. 

Broughton was part of that 'famed' Norwich Academy set up, fyi. 

I thought I’d keep it simple…

You are correct of course in the traditional sense, we could call  Brentford’s approach a recruitment policy or moneyball, either way the turnover of players and success eclipses anything we can dream of under our inept owners.

[Crozzy]

I have to disagree with the ‘I would have settled for 10th before the season started’ 

In sport you have to constantly assess as you go and adapt, you can’t be as one dimensional  as we are. You’ve got to learn to fight and adapt, learn to win ugly when you don’t have your best stuff 

Lets relate it to golf for example, you think if someone is top 3 in a tournament after making a bunch of birdies front 9 then make the turn, they make a couple bogeys and go ‘ah well I would have settled for tenth before I teed off’ and just accept you’ll keep making bogeys? Do they buggery! They fight, they assess the position they’re in and they give everything! 
 

Rovers got off to a good start first half of the year, we have to asses where we were and try kick on, if we have the mindset we would have taken tenth so it doesn’t matter then we will never get anywhere in sport because that mentality isn’t good enough. 
 

Mentality was piss poor last year second half of the season, all this ‘15 cup finals’ bullshit is exactly why we fell apart! We changed our mindset from what got us there and started playing like it meant everything, absolutely the worst thing you can do in elite sport, makes you tighten up, become tentative, you lose the instinct and overthink things and we all saw that for ourselves 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Crozzy

[Exiled_Rover]

6 minutes ago, J*B said:

And I think that’s the big decision that needs to be made. Does he try to replace one of Morton, Travis, Garrett, Wharton and Buckley with a real demon of a central midfielder or does he give them time to develop and sign a striker.

I genuinely think our midfield is fine - admittedly I'm projecting because I think Buckley is a good player and Garrett and Wharton will develop into excellent players (with Travis and Morton filling in) - but goals change games. We desperately need a #9 to put the ball in the back of the net and lead the line. 

We win that Boro game and this game with a competent #9, I won't be convinced otherwise. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, tomphil said:

Iv'e been a defender of Gallagher at times but days like today make it nigh on impossible. He should be leading the line but he was the first to put his head down and go hiding imo.

He's not alone though in most of the away games this season often in front of good away followings they are not fighting for the shirt/club/fans and certainly not the head coach. He spends half his time hiding himself anyway the body language is pathetic i just knew looking at him today when we went two nil down it would go from bad to worse and he'd offer nothing from the sidelines.

 

The white flag was well and truly run up to the top of the mast when the second goal went in. There isn’t a real leader at the club, never mind in the team.

[tomphil]

7 minutes ago, Gav said:

We need to start by selling Brereton and giving the cash to the manager.

If only Carlsberg did football owners….

Personally i'd have agents out and about trying to get a couple of million for Gallagher.

If replacing him is hard then football truly has gone to the dogs but if someone was looking to be smart he'd be the first one i was looking to trade.

[BigBar]

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I think you overestimate how good a gig Rovers is. As a club we're a shambles (with the worst owners in football) - which Broughton at least appears to be addressing. 

He's come here because there's the potential to sneak into the PL, with all it's riches, and to then use that exposure to move on to better things.

It looks the part on paper, we are just privvy to the shit show that goes on behind the scenes. He's the manager of a championship team in England, the best country in the world for football. He's on a sweet gig. Gimme that over Malmö anyday. He won't be on the radar of any top league teams across Europe. Championship will be his ceiling.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I genuinely think our midfield is fine - admittedly I'm projecting because I think Buckley is a good player and Garrett and Wharton will develop into excellent players (with Travis and Morton filling in) - but goals change games. We desperately need a #9 to put the ball in the back of the net and lead the line. 

We win that Boro game and this game with a competent #9, I won't be convinced otherwise. 

Midfield was where it was won and lost today, as it is in most games.

[Exiled_Rover]

3 minutes ago, Gav said:

I thought I’d keep it simple…

You are correct of course in the traditional sense, we could call  Brentford’s approach a recruitment policy or moneyball, either way the turnover of players and success eclipses anything we can dream of under our inept owners.

I don't think the Brentford model works anymore, post Brexit. You're going to struggle to find those gems in the French second division that can get a work permit. 

[booth]

1 minute ago, tomphil said:

Iv'e been a defender of Gallagher at times but days like today make it nigh on impossible. He should be leading the line but he was the first to put his head down and go hiding imo.

He's not alone though in most of the away games this season often in front of good away followings they are not fighting for the shirt/club/fans and certainly not the head coach. He spends half his time hiding himself anyway the body language is pathetic i just knew looking at him today when we went two nil down it would go from bad to worse and he'd offer nothing from the sidelines.

 

We're still bearing the brunt of years of a lack of investment in goalscorers I'm afraid.

It's all so predictable too and not just an issue with Mowbray, Broughton and Tomasson. I'm all for clubs supporting their managers but Waggott should have been demanding we have a number 9 when Mowbray was trying to buy up every cheap 5ft 6 winger he could.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Personally i'd have agents out and about trying to get a couple of million for Gallagher.

If replacing him is hard then football truly has gone to the dogs but if someone was looking to be smart he'd be the first one i was looking to trade.

Who, watching that today, would give you more than a handful of magic beans for Gallagher ?

[Exiled_Rover]

5 minutes ago, BigBar said:

Harsh on Hedges. He's been far better and more consistent than Buckley. Dolan been decent enough too. I'd happily have them in the team or coming on every game.

We're sadly at the point where Dolan and Hedges have to start every game they're fit - they're not great players, but at least they offer something. They wouldn't start for Burnley / Watford / Sheffield United et al... which is part of the problem. 

I was very impressed with Markanday today - he has to be an impact sub going forward, he ghosted past several Rotherham players today and provides something different. 

 

[Exiled_Rover]

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Midfield was where it was won and lost today, as it is in most games.

We created 4 better chances than them and lost. 🤷‍♂️

[Exiled_Rover]

2 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Who, watching that today, would give you more than a handful of magic beans for Gallagher ?

Nobody, which is why when Mowbray extended his contract (I have to think out of spite) when his own was being run down infuriated me. Should never have been allowed to happen - he'll be on a fortune.