v Hull City (h) 15/4/23 @ 19.45pm

[Gordon Gekko]

I know we don’t like the boy, but Keith Andrews isn’t actually a bad pundit . Who’s the tanned Glaswegian, he’s alway has a good thing to say about Rovers.

Coventry is a must win must must  win….. surely everyone agrees?

[J*B]

6 hours ago, Aqualung said:

I'd take a punt on Gyorkes from Coventry if they would be willing to sell him. 

Bradshaw from Millwall knows where the back of the net is aswell. 

We couldn’t get anywhere near the money needed for either. “Take a punt” on a 20M pound rated striker? Honestly…

[roverblue]

For me this was just another repeat of every other home game this season. Plenty of the ball but no idea what to do with it. Shocking central midfield and terrible up front.

A few games we have managed to scrape a goal and win 1-0. For others we come away 0-0 or conspire a way to lose by making mistakes at the back.

I can’t see any team development this season whatsoever, same mistakes and problems every week. However there have been individuals who have improved like JRC, Carter, Pears and Smodizc which is promising.

The fact we are in the playoffs is laughable given performances, to have a goal difference of -2 says it all.

Maybe it’s our season though as we are still in there!

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by roverblue

[Penwortham Blue]

7 hours ago, DE. said:

Would certainly be something if the team who sold us their top defender because they were in dire financial straits ended up pipping us to the playoffs. No excuses about ffp, parachute payments or anything else can paint that as anything other than a huge failure. I don't even want to consider that Mowbray's Sunderland might finish above us, although I imagine some people would be fine with that.  

I like JDT but we have no excuse for finishing below the likes of Coventry and Sunderland (who have an even worse striker situation than us), so let's sort this out on Wednesday before the season becomes another crushing disappointment. 

Not indeed the footballing behemoths of Luton and Millwall. It might not be 1995 but FFS, we are Blackburn Rovers.

[BigBar]

2 hours ago, Gordon Gekko said:

I know we don’t like the boy, but Keith Andrews isn’t actually a bad pundit . Who’s the tanned Glaswegian, he’s alway has a good thing to say about Rovers.

Coventry is a must win must must  win….. surely everyone agrees?

Not sure that is PC these days 😂 but he is Chris Iwelumo. Seems quite likeable and has common sense.

[Penwortham Blue]

7 hours ago, Aqualung said:

I'd take a punt on Gyorkes from Coventry if they would be willing to sell him. 

Bradshaw from Millwall knows where the back of the net is aswell. 

Not in a million years would we get Gyorkes, he will be playing in the EPL.

[AllRoverAsia]

8 hours ago, arbitro said:

Frustration doesn't even come close to describing the game tonight. Tomasson has to take a big share of the blame for me. After the best performance for years at Huddersfield there was absolutely no reason to change the team and that disappointed me. His set up was even stranger with only Dolan pressing with Gallagher, Szmodics and Brereton some ten or fifteen yards behind him. The Hull defenders had as much time as they wanted to step forwards and pick a pass. Individually there were some poor performances probably to numerous to name as the slow tempo, sideways football made an unwelcome comeback. Carter and Hyam had the most passes but out of a combined 211 passes 175 were in their own half. A shocking statistic. It was screaming out for change at half time with several strong candidates for the book but Tomasson simply left it far too late to replace under achievers on the night. Gallagher and Brereton were abysmal as time and time again they made poor decisions. I can accept that no players gets it right all the time but tonight they just didn't do anything at all, they didn't contribute anything worthwhile. 

In the current poll my vote was that we would get in the playoffs. I want to revise that because after tonight my faith has taken a huge bartering.

"Carter and Hyam had the most passes but out of a combined 211 passes 175 were in their own half"

That started from kick off and continued off and on throughout the game. Cowardly football which set the tone for the rest of the players to follow.

It must be by instructions so why are JDT and whomever it is who sits by him and looks dead so fecking scared at home to Hull?

Pathetic cowards who yesterday did their level best in full open view to sabotage the season.

Gallagher is beyond pants ... But he doesn't pick himself.

Morton is, what's the word ...., but its those 2 on the bench who pick him.

[Penwortham Blue]

2 hours ago, Gordon Gekko said:

I know we don’t like the boy, but Keith Andrews isn’t actually a bad pundit . Who’s the tanned Glaswegian, he’s alway has a good thing to say about Rovers.

Coventry is a must win must must  win….. surely everyone agrees?

Ex Dingle, Chris Iwelumo

[BigBar]

2 minutes ago, Penwortham Blue said:

Not indeed the footballing behemoths of Luton and Millwall. It might not be 1995 but FFS, we are Blackburn Rovers.

Think it was Lee Hendrie or another pundit last night who rightly shut down JDTs post match comments about "no one expected us to be up here, we are not expected to be given our financial situation" or something to that affect. Hendrie pointed out we are no worse off than the likes of Millwall or Luton. It's a drum JDTs has banged this season, it's not a case of taking pressure off, it's sending a message of "we are lucky to be where we are" and lowering expectations and not having a positive affect on the players. "Don't worry lads we shouldn't be near the dizzy heights of 6th, just keep passing it about and stick to my total football plan"

[Ossydave]

Never mind.

Unfortunately I can't see Cov being as toothless as us or Hull.

But this is football, you never know. 

Wharton, Thomas and Leonard should walk in the team for me, doubt they will though.

JDT has a very laid back persona, which is good sometimes, but it's TOO laid back at times, poor lack of urgency for the subs last night.

If we'd got O'brien in and a striker I think we'd go up, all if buts and maybes but we're in good shape for next season if they sort it out.

[lraC]

3 hours ago, Gordon Gekko said:

I know we don’t like the boy, but Keith Andrews isn’t actually a bad pundit . Who’s the tanned Glaswegian, he’s alway has a good thing to say about Rovers.

Coventry is a must win must must  win….. surely everyone agrees?

Crazy as it sounds, we need to make sure they don’t beat us. A win will make life more comfortable, when trying to keep the chasing pack at bay. If Coventry beat us, they go above us and our game in hand is the derby.

The results for Sunderland at home to Huddersfield, West Brom, away at Blackpool, Norwich away to QPR and Preston away at Swansea, will also all be  crucial. Watford are a bit further back and they are home V Cardiff.

Beating Coventry puts us 5 points clear and they will have 3 games left. A bit like the Norwich game, beat them and it almost ends their chances. We all know what happened there though!!!

Edited April 16, 2023 by lraC

[NeilInBristol]

1 minute ago, Ossydave said:

Never mind.

Unfortunately I can't see Cov being as toothless as us or Hull.

But this is football, you never know. 

Wharton, Thomas and Leonard should walk in the team for me, doubt they will though.

JDT has a very laid back persona, which is good sometimes, but it's TOO laid back at times, poor lack of urgency for the subs last night.

If we'd got O'brien in and a striker I think we'd go up, all if buts and maybes but we're in good shape for next season if they sort it out.

Coventry won't sit deep so we won't have the low blocks to blame. They will be looking to win to leap above us. 

[47er]

3 hours ago, Gordon Gekko said:

I know we don’t like the boy, but Keith Andrews isn’t actually a bad pundit . Who’s the tanned Glaswegian, he’s alway has a good thing to say about Rovers.

Coventry is a must win must must  win….. surely everyone agrees?

I've lost count of the number of "must wins" that we don't win!

Edited April 16, 2023 by 47er

[Ossydave]

They have a striker that we're crying out for Neil. I don't feel totally despondent though, yet.

They'll have a good following and as soon as Gallagher is named as a starter our fans will slide into negativity. Enough is enough for me, I know comments off here are passed onto the club so PLEASE pass this one on - start Leonard. 

 

[47er]

7 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

If we'd got O'brien in and a striker I think we'd go up, all if buts and maybes but we're in good shape for next season if they sort it out.

That's what I'm taking away from this season too. We have been in the top 6 for months whereas we only crept in every now and then for a short time under Mowbray. We also had good cup runs for the first time in years.

We have a solid platform for next year provided we have 2 successful transfer windows of course!

I really don't think we'll make the 6 now with that fixture list. The 2 games just played were the easy ones and we've

flopped. No reason to think we'll sort out Coventry, Burnley and Millwall!

 

[arbitro]

One little incident summed up the lack of urgency last night. After a tepid 45 first half minutes the board goes up for one additional minute and we get a corner. Dolan takes the ball to the corner but stands there with it waiting for Morton to literally amble over as presumably he is the only one on the pitch at that time who can take a corner. Morton has to set the ball again and eventually gives it to Dolan and they try and play Szmodics in on the edge of the box. It breaks down but we win another corner and the half time whistle is blown. Morton's corners were shocking last night but surely at that stage of the game we get the ball in or let somebody else take the bloody thing.

Rovers infuriate me at times. 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I think its looking more and more likely that with some proper financial backing from the venksters and some decent centre forwards,next season will be the one for posssibly real celebration.

Like most I wanted it this season but what I have witnessed these last three games has convinced me we just dont have what it takes sadly.We will have to bide our time further...as galling as that may be.

Edited April 16, 2023 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Sparks Rover]

11 minutes ago, arbitro said:

One little incident summed up the lack of urgency last night. After a tepid 45 first half minutes the board goes up for one additional minute and we get a corner. Dolan takes the ball to the corner but stands there with it waiting for Morton to literally amble over as presumably he is the only one on the pitch at that time who can take a corner. Morton has to set the ball again and eventually gives it to Dolan and they try and play Szmodics in on the edge of the box. It breaks down but we win another corner and the half time whistle is blown. Morton's corners were shocking last night but surely at that stage of the game we get the ball in or let somebody else take the bloody thing.

Rovers infuriate me at times. 

Morton still has little boy strength.  He hasn't got the power to take a proper corner. True that.

[Penwortham Blue]

6 minutes ago, arbitro said:

One little incident summed up the lack of urgency last night. After a tepid 45 first half minutes the board goes up for one additional minute and we get a corner. Dolan takes the ball to the corner but stands there with it waiting for Morton to literally amble over as presumably he is the only one on the pitch at that time who can take a corner. Morton has to set the ball again and eventually gives it to Dolan and they try and play Szmodics in on the edge of the box. It breaks down but we win another corner and the half time whistle is blown. Morton's corners were shocking last night but surely at that stage of the game we get the ball in or let somebody else take the bloody thing.

Rovers infuriate me at times. 

Spot on, infuriating. I am trying to stay positive, if we can beat Cov and Knob End we can knock them out and hopefully, Luton and Millwall will already be in the play offs by the time we play them. Burnley, we demand a performance, whatever the next two results. Sadly, deep down we know how it ends, most likely a pitiful capitulation like the one we endured last Easter at Peterborough but until it materialises, we live in hope.

[arbitro]

Just now, Sparks Rover said:

Morton still has little boy strength.  He hasn't got the power to take a proper corner. True that.

I think it's as much about technique as power and he seems to have neither.

[Penwortham Blue]

3 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I think it's as much about technique as power and he seems to have neither.

How do you play almost an entire season and not notch a single goal from a central midfield berth 🤷‍♂️

[RoverInverness]

7 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

You'd definitely take most of Sunderland's forward line over ours. Mowbray didn't sign any of them - sadly he signed most of ours.

Add to the problem above two other factors:

1. Our academy has done a wonderful job of producing defenders and midfielders, but for some reason seems to struggle to produce forwards of the same potential.

2. GB has failed in two consecutive windows to sign a striker. 
 

This creates yesterday’s painful 0-0 home draw against a well organised Hull. They were defending well, but hardly doing much else.

I don’t think the set up or instructions from the management are the issue. We just don’t have literally any players at all who offer a serious goal scoring threat. Hedges, Dolan, Szmodics, Gallagher will score a few goals every season, but are nowhere near capable of being relied upon to produce goals regularly and consistently. Similarly the defence and midfield will chip in with the odd goal. More often than not this will be enough, but also sometimes it is very painful and frustrating to watch us trying to score when we actually have no natural goal scorers on the pitch.

The only players in the entire club who have the natural instinct of scoring regular goals are BBD and Dack. One is injured - a lot - and the other goes through dry patches (sometimes lasting for over an entire season) when his striking instinct seems to totally desert him and he becomes about as potent in front of goal as Sam bloody Gallagher. He is lucky to get his big move, like others have said, as soon as Villarreal fans see the non-scoring version of his game, he could be in for a very rough time out there.

I presume the manager is struggling to trust that Leonard can do enough of the hard graft and physical stuff to warrant a starting spot. Although he persisted with giving Hirst and Vale so many chances, you have to wonder just why he is so reluctant to give Leonard the same opportunities.

When is Dack back? Can he play as an emergency centre forward? When is Ayala back? We may as well stick him in the centre forward position, at least he would be unpredictable up front. 

 

 

[martonrover]

57 minutes ago, BigBar said:

Think it was Lee Hendrie or another pundit last night who rightly shut down JDTs post match comments about "no one expected us to be up here, we are not expected to be given our financial situation" or something to that affect. Hendrie pointed out we are no worse off than the likes of Millwall or Luton. It's a drum JDTs has banged this season, it's not a case of taking pressure off, it's sending a message of "we are lucky to be where we are" and lowering expectations and not having a positive affect on the players. "Don't worry lads we shouldn't be near the dizzy heights of 6th, just keep passing it about and stick to my total football plan"

And, once again, that message is continuity from the likes of Bowyer and Mowbray.

Negative mentality.

[Mattyblue]

The mentality of modern day BRFC…

’(Don’t) think big’

[Sweaty Gussets]

8 hours ago, DE. said:

like JDT but we have no excuse for finishing below the likes of Coventry and Sunderland (who have an even worse striker situation than us), so let's sort this out on Wednesday before the season becomes another crushing disappointment. 

We have no divine right to finish above anybody, and both those clubs you mention have forwards who are scoring goals. 

If the forwards that the manager inherits aren't very good then there's not much he can do until replacements are brought in. We create opportunities, the final ball/finishing is just poor.