v Watford (a) - 11/02/2023

[roversfan99]

4 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Would BBD offer anything more up front than Dolan? 

Dolan can press the front like the front 4 did first half and can run in behind and in between defenders

Carter and Hyam for me. 

He can score goals so yes.

[bluebruce]

27 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto Mk2 said:

Disappointing in that we had 4 or 5 opportunities to stop that goal: Brereton’s failure to stop the run, Gally could’ve held back a bit and not given the ref the chance, Gally’s header was awful, no-one stayed with the scorer who held back from the charge in, and Carter could’ve done a Hendry and got his knackers down low in anticipation of the shot. But then they missed two absolute sitters so overall a fair result. 

Highlight didn't show how the freekick happened, so I can't comment on that. I'm not sure what you expected from Gally's header. There wasn't really a 'good' place to direct it, other than arguably to flick it behind him to give away a corner. He was also pushed in the back a bit as he went for it. Travis wasn't originally marking the scorer, he had eyes on the guy standing off from the line. The scorer pulled off as you say, and for me that's the point, when Trav turns around and can see him, that he should have got closer to him. I think he's possibly not sure whether to commit to it as the lad he originally had is unmarked behind him, but it looks more to me like ball watching.

Somebody doesn't peel off with the scorer when he holds back, I think Wharton, but that's understandable as the ball was heading into a more urgently dangerous area where an extra body could be needed. By the time it lands back with Hoedt, it's too late. I don't see how Carter could reasonably be expected to stop it. Put yourself low and the shot could easily go high, plus it did take a bounce off the turf. Only Travis to blame for me, maybe I'd say Brereton too if I could see how the freekick was won. You can maybe say Gally could have flicked it behind him for a corner (which they could have scored from) or tried to direct it a bit wider (where there was another Watford player lurking in a danger area) if he wasn't being pushed, but I don't think any of his options were good, so it's splitting hairs a bit. The man shouldn't have been umarked.

Edited February 11, 2023 by bluebruce

[blondie]

13 minutes ago, Gav said:

The lad from Forest was coming in on anything between £35-£65k a week according to the leak at the training ground.

Was or is?

[Exiled_Rover]

4 minutes ago, Gav said:

I thought you point was around the wage structure in general, my mistake. 

To me you can spend the budget how you like, as long as you get results.

I imagine they were eating into the transfer budget to pay O'Brien's wages. The difference is that Mowbray had (almost) twice the money in wages to play with - in addition to all the transfer fees paid - and he spent it very poorly.

I'll be brutally honest - I hope the transfer doesn't go through because it seems a waste of resources.

[Exiled_Rover]

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

Highlight didn't show how the freekick happened, so I can't comment on that. I'm not sure what you expected from Gally's header. There wasn't really a 'good' place to direct it, other than arguably to flick it behind him to give away a corner. He was also pushed in the back a bit as he went for it. Travis wasn't originally marking the scorer, he had eyes on the guy standing off from the line. The scorer pulled off as you say, and for me that's the point, when Trav turns around and can see him, that he should have got closer to him. I think he's possibly not sure whether to commit to it as the lad he originally had is unmarked behind him, but it looks more to me like ball watching.

Somebody doesn't peel off with the scorer when he holds back, I think Wharton, but that's understandable as the ball was heading into a more urgently dangerous area where an extra body could be needed. By the time it lands back with Hoedt, it's too late. I don't see how Carter could reasonably be expected to stop it. Put yourself low and the shot could easily go high, plus it did take a bounce off the turf. Only Travis to blame for me, maybe I'd say Brereton too if I could see how the freekick was won.

Porteous threw himself to the floor.

[Mercer]

2 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Isn't he on more like 30k a week?

We never got an acceptable bid from anymore in the summer. The offers were poor to be very honest. 

If we had sold him in the summer we don't know where our season or league position would be. Just think about first

I think there is an understanding the best offer was around the £8/9million mark and that is not 'very poor' given the circumstances we were in.  We should have accepted and brought in 3 or 4 good quality players - all round, we would have been much stronger.  Instead, no one at Ewood had the balls to call it.

[chaddyrovers]

5 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

He can score goals so yes.

Not currently. Looks well of his game and out of form. 

Would you start him at WBA on Wednesday? 

[RevidgeBlue]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

Not currently. Looks well of his game and out of form. 

Would you start him at WBA on Wednesday? 

What's the alternative?

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, Mercer said:

I think there is an understanding the best offer was around the £8/9million mark and that is not 'very poor' given the circumstances we were in.  We should have accepted and brought in 3 or 4 good quality players - all round, we would have been much stronger.  Instead, no one at Ewood had the balls to call it.

We had 2 offers of 8.4 million from Nice and Sevilla and Fulham offer of 6 mil plus 4 mil in add on's. That is what has been reported

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

What's the alternative?

Play Hedges from the left. 

[Exiled_Rover]

4 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

What's the alternative?

Hedges.

[Mashed Potatoes]

5 minutes ago, Mercer said:

I think there is an understanding the best offer was around the £8/9million mark and that is not 'very poor' given the circumstances we were in.  We should have accepted and brought in 3 or 4 good quality players - all round, we would have been much stronger.  Instead, no one at Ewood had the balls to call it.

The problem with your post is that this sort of decision is taken by the "experts" in India, not Ewood Park.

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, Mercer said:

I think there is an understanding the best offer was around the £8/9million mark and that is not 'very poor' given the circumstances we were in.  We should have accepted and brought in 3 or 4 good quality players - all round, we would have been much stronger.  Instead, no one at Ewood had the balls to call it.

Easy with the benefit of hindsight. No-one knew at that stage we were going to amass a decent number of points by November then completely fizzle out making the second half of the season a dead rubber. (again)

No one knew how the season was going to pan out. We might have needed his goals to keep us up or we might have looked to be in a better chance of the play offs than we do right now. Imo it would have been a big mistake to let him go for £8m at that point. £15m obviously would have been a different matter I suppose.

[bluebruce]

5 minutes ago, Mercer said:

I think there is an understanding the best offer was around the £8/9million mark and that is not 'very poor' given the circumstances we were in.  We should have accepted and brought in 3 or 4 good quality players - all round, we would have been much stronger.

Nah it's pretty poor. We got £15 million for Armstrong a season earlier in the same situation, who wasn't an international or carried marketing value, and players with less goals have gone for a lot more money. We shouldn't have accepted it, and clubs rarely give their best offer first time around. The problem was it sounds like we pretty much went 'no, he will cost £20 million' and that put clubs off even negotiating. I think if we had said 'no, he costs £15 million', we would have had bids up to around £12 million, which still would have stuck in the throat a bit, but would have been best to accept and reinvest since it was clear he wouldn't renew with us.

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Hedges.

Christ. He's useless.

[Mashed Potatoes]

Just now, bluebruce said:

Nah it's pretty poor. We got £15 million for Armstrong a season earlier in the same situation, who wasn't an international or carried marketing value, and players with less goals have gone for a lot more money. We shouldn't have accepted it, and clubs rarely give their best offer first time around. The problem was it sounds like we pretty much went 'no, he will cost £20 million' and that put clubs off even negotiating. I think if we had said 'no, he costs £15 million', we would have had bids up to around £12 million, which still would have stuck in the throat a bit, but would have been best to accept and reinvest since it was clear he wouldn't renew with us.

We didn't get £15m for Armstrong because £5m of that went to Newcastle.

[rigger]

1 minute ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Christ. He's useless.

I thought Christ did a reasonable job. Water into wine, can't be all bad.

[RevidgeBlue]

3 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

The problem with your post is that this sort of decision is taken by the "experts" in India, not Ewood Park.

If the "experts" at Ewood Park had tied him (and other) down to a new deal the problem would never have arisen in the first place.

[Mashed Potatoes]

1 minute ago, RevidgeBlue said:

If the "experts" at Ewood Park had tied him (and other) down to a new deal the problem would never have arisen in the first place.

You can't force a player to sign a contract !

[Andy]

56 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

I keep seeing this and it's a bit harsh. Yes to post Christmas loss of form (a little earlier this year), but people are acting like he was useless in the first part of the season. He wasn't ripping the league apart like last season's first half, but he still had a good goal return until it dried up. Still our top scorer. We would probably be mid-table or worse right now without his goals in the first third or so of the season.

Completely agree - he started the season well and if we've learned absolutely nothing else about BBD over the last few years, it's that's he's a confidence player.

And right now, he's running on empty.

That aside, really good result today and the lads put in a real shift. We need to follow it up with a similar performance at WBA next and it'll keep us in the play off discussion, as we have been all season.

[Silas]

5 minutes ago, rigger said:

I thought Christ did a reasonable job. Water into wine, can't be all bad.

Precisely what's needed to transform his dry weekend. 

[chaddyrovers]

 

 

[roversfan99]

18 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Not currently. Looks well of his game and out of form. 

Would you start him at WBA on Wednesday? 

He is out of form but isn't helped by his manager playing him so far away from goal. His tactics are leaving him milew away from goal.

[Gav]

13 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

We didn't get £15m for Armstrong because £5m of that went to Newcastle.

Armstrong deal was closer to £20m with addons, the Hampshire press reported. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Gav

[bluebruce]

10 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

We didn't get £15m for Armstrong because £5m of that went to Newcastle.

It's irrelevant what we came away with, the point was what clubs were willing to pay.