Pre season 23/24

[yankfan]

Amari Bell on the score sheet for Jamaica in the gold cup quarter final. 

Edited July 9, 2023 by yankfan

[R0verb0y]

On 08/07/2023 at 18:14, BankEnd Rover said:

There’s still 8 weeks of the transfer window?

Shouldn't that read, "There's still 8 weeks of the transfer window? 😱", @BankEnd Rover ?😉

[JBiz]

9 hours ago, booth said:

"This is dross." A match day remark seen on many a match thread when TM was in charge.

I wish it was as easy to forget for me. Especially this record breaking result.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59059048
 

Yea, I vividly remember walking away from that game with KHod around the 60th minute rather embarrassed!

We went on quite a good run after I recall.

[Wheelton Blue]

9 hours ago, RoversTilliDie said:

It was nice to see Hedges and Dolan on the score sheet yesterday.

Yes it was.

Although, it's one thing doing it in a pre-season kickabout against trialists vying for a gig at League 1 Accrington.

It's another thing completely doing it at Championship level.

We saw what they're made of in the run in last season. Let's see if they can improve this season.

[LeftWinger]

1 hour ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Although, it's one thing doing it in a pre-season kickabout against trialists vying for a gig at League 1 Accrington.

 

League 2

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

10 hours ago, Upside Down said:

Ultimately that is what cost us last season. Maggot and co sabotaging the January transfer window and the handball from the Coventry keeper played their part too, but we pissed away so many games by trying these bullshit tactics that will only lead to failure unless you are 2009 era Barcelona or Brasil when they were at their peak

Yeah, the Hull at home game springs to mind. We played that like it was a pre-season friendly..

[smiller14]

10 hours ago, Upside Down said:

Ultimately that is what cost us last season. Maggot and co sabotaging the January transfer window and the handball from the Coventry keeper played their part too, but we pissed away so many games by trying these bullshit tactics that will only lead to failure unless you are 2009 era Barcelona or Brasil when they were at their peak

I disagree. At the end of the season I felt we played a much improved style of play - less of the aimless, hospital passes in our own third. To me, it felt like as the season progressed we improved considerably, perhaps as the players acclimatised to what they were being asked. I don't think playing passing football is 'bullshit', as much as I thought some of the passing in the first half of the season was terrible. From February (ish) onwards, we seemed to be a lot more pragmatic. 

We pissed away games at the end of the season due to a combination of luck and individual errors. Coventry - so unlucky. Preston - Hedges and Hyam both cocked up. 

I was as critical as anyone at times last season, but I saw reasons to be optimistic and hope we continue trying to play passing football - but less predictably and slowly than in the first half of the season. 

[frosty]

Yeah we were pretty slick towards the end of the season. I can still remember the "forward!" brigade as we made a few passes in our defensive third at home to Coventry. All it then took was one incisive forward pass to Brereton in the middle in tons of space, and 10 seconds later the ball was in the net. 

Adam Wharton made a huge difference as well, as somebody who was comfortable receiving it off the back four all day long, even in tight spaces and under pressure.

[Sweaty Gussets]

Can't remember who said it (a manager of a team we played towards the end of the season - maybe Robins or Rowett) but we were described as the best counter attacking/pressing team in the league. I think that shows the progress we made under JDT last season.

What we struggled with was breaking teams down. We were dire in the first half of the season, performance-wise some of the dullest football I've ever seen at Ewood. Results were good though for the most part.

Players like Wharton and Buckley will be key this season, especially at Ewood. Because we are so good on the break, teams will be wary of leaving us space to exploit. Hopefully Siggy is a lot more creative than BBD. A RW who can create and a striker who can score and I'll be very optimistic about the coming season. 

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

43 minutes ago, frosty said:

Yeah we were pretty slick towards the end of the season. I can still remember the "forward!" brigade as we made a few passes in our defensive third at home to Coventry. All it then took was one incisive forward pass to Brereton in the middle in tons of space, and 10 seconds later the ball was in the net. 

Adam Wharton made a huge difference as well, as somebody who was comfortable receiving it off the back four all day long, even in tight spaces and under pressure.

I agree with you regarding Wharton, he could make a massive difference to our ability to play a more passing based game. He’s always ready to relcieve the ball and he knows we’re it’s going next before he gets it.

[Ossydave]

16 hours ago, 1864roverite said:

Based on me watching the 2 games in full - he ran up and down the pitch all game and gave it all compared to some of the players !

Twaddles was the shite you were told and which you the posted as gospel 😅

So just your view to back up the crap you keep spouting then......

I have literally no reason to "talk shite" on the internet to nobodies like you, you either believe it or you don't, I have zero shits to give on it 🤣

[LeftWinger]

Thought I'd give my views from Saturday. I had to leave after the first half of the second game, so potentially missed our best spell.

There was definitely an element of at least one of the full-backs tucking inside when we had the ball. Pickering picked the ball up centrally a lot in the first game and JRC a lot in the first half of the second game. 

Kaminski/Pears. Kaminski made a couple of sharp stops. There was one in the first half where I wasn't sure if he blocked it or the defender did - but the referee gave a goal kick. It was either an excellent save or an excellent block. I'm pretty sure the chance came from us giving the ball away on the edge of our own box - we did that a few times. Pears looked decent in the warm up and his distribution was very accurate (in the warm up). Then he showed what he is capable of when he fumbled one in at his near post.

Defensively - no real issues other than giving the ball away in dangerous positions. Phillips looked the best defender on the pitch. Very calm on the ball and a unit for his age. Batty gave the ball away a few times - probably trying a bit hard to impress. 

We didn't seem to want to shoot for much of the game. Even all the corners were taken short. The amount of times we'd carve a half decent opening on the edge of the box only to try one pass to many - I lost count. It was like we were trying to pass the ball into the net (although this appeared to work later in the 2nd game after I'd left).

Tronstad was fine but nothing flashy. I suspect he's a bit short of fitness, coming off as the first sub. He's smaller than I thought he was going to be (don't know why I thought he'd be bigger).

Gallagher - Didn't do a lot, but didn't get much service at all. He won't score many at all this season if we play like that.

Markandy - I don't think he'll ever make it here. Tried hard and a few nice touches, but looks a bit lightweight and he's not particularly quick over longer distances. I've been wrong about players before though.

Szmodics - Looked lively without doing much. It was noticeable he gave Hyam a bit of a telling off in the first half. You'd think Szmodics would be captain material.

All in all, hard to read too much into the game, and obviously we were missing Wharton, Sigurdsson and Ennis, but you'd definitely think we need a bit more quality. We started with 8 academy graduates in the 2nd game - but from the bit I watched, you'd have struggled to tell which team was two divisions above the other. I don't mind the passing around at the back if you make use of it. Surely the point is to draw the opposition players out of position and then exploit the space - but we seem to pass it around for passing sake. The style definitely needs a bit of fine tuning.

I thought Rosaire Longelo looked decent for Stanley before he went off injured. He played on the right hand side and kept cutting in on his left foot, but he caused us a few problems.

 

[Mattyblue]

The one ‘weakness’ of Phillips last season was he looked a bit slight/lightweight playing as a Championship centre half (obviously no surprise as he was so young he couldn’t even have a vape related sponsor on his shirt!)

Looking at him on Saturday he’s even sorted that out! Going to be some player.

[arbitro]

32 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The one ‘weakness’ of Phillips last season was he looked a bit slight/lightweight playing as a Championship centre half (obviously no surprise as he was so young he couldn’t even have a vape related sponsor on his shirt!)

Looking at him on Saturday he’s even sorted that out! Going to be some player.

I thought similar she I saw him. He seems to have a growth spurt since last season which is normal for a kid that age but he has certainly bulked up. His quads have increased in size massively.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

46 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The one ‘weakness’ of Phillips last season was he looked a bit slight/lightweight playing as a Championship centre half (obviously no surprise as he was so young he couldn’t even have a vape related sponsor on his shirt!)

Looking at him on Saturday he’s even sorted that out! Going to be some player.

He’s a big lad alright. I thought he coped well with what was a pretty physical Accy side. They looked like they were playing for the town hall clock at the start of the second game. One of two tackles went in early on that didn’t belong in a friendly.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, LeftWinger said:

Thought I'd give my views from Saturday. I had to leave after the first half of the second game, so potentially missed our best spell.

There was definitely an element of at least one of the full-backs tucking inside when we had the ball. Pickering picked the ball up centrally a lot in the first game and JRC a lot in the first half of the second game. 

Kaminski/Pears. Kaminski made a couple of sharp stops. There was one in the first half where I wasn't sure if he blocked it or the defender did - but the referee gave a goal kick. It was either an excellent save or an excellent block. I'm pretty sure the chance came from us giving the ball away on the edge of our own box - we did that a few times. Pears looked decent in the warm up and his distribution was very accurate (in the warm up). Then he showed what he is capable of when he fumbled one in at his near post.

Defensively - no real issues other than giving the ball away in dangerous positions. Phillips looked the best defender on the pitch. Very calm on the ball and a unit for his age. Batty gave the ball away a few times - probably trying a bit hard to impress. 

We didn't seem to want to shoot for much of the game. Even all the corners were taken short. The amount of times we'd carve a half decent opening on the edge of the box only to try one pass to many - I lost count. It was like we were trying to pass the ball into the net (although this appeared to work later in the 2nd game after I'd left).

Tronstad was fine but nothing flashy. I suspect he's a bit short of fitness, coming off as the first sub. He's smaller than I thought he was going to be (don't know why I thought he'd be bigger).

Gallagher - Didn't do a lot, but didn't get much service at all. He won't score many at all this season if we play like that.

Markandy - I don't think he'll ever make it here. Tried hard and a few nice touches, but looks a bit lightweight and he's not particularly quick over longer distances. I've been wrong about players before though.

Szmodics - Looked lively without doing much. It was noticeable he gave Hyam a bit of a telling off in the first half. You'd think Szmodics would be captain material.

All in all, hard to read too much into the game, and obviously we were missing Wharton, Sigurdsson and Ennis, but you'd definitely think we need a bit more quality. We started with 8 academy graduates in the 2nd game - but from the bit I watched, you'd have struggled to tell which team was two divisions above the other. I don't mind the passing around at the back if you make use of it. Surely the point is to draw the opposition players out of position and then exploit the space - but we seem to pass it around for passing sake. The style definitely needs a bit of fine tuning.

I thought Rosaire Longelo looked decent for Stanley before he went off injured. He played on the right hand side and kept cutting in on his left foot, but he caused us a few problems.

 

I agree with that 100%. That was the first time I’ve seen Markanday I think, he can’t be any more than 5ft 6ins tall. In fact take the back four and Gally out of the equation and we have a lot of small players.

[Exiled_Rover]

2 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

Szmodics - Looked lively without doing much. It was noticeable he gave Hyam a bit of a telling off in the first half. You'd think Szmodics would be captain material.

 

I think Szmodics is too much of a 'cheeky chappy' to be captain material. I think Hyam is too quiet to be captain too.

[Exiled_Rover]

23 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I agree with that 100%. That was the first time I’ve seen Markanday I think, he can’t be any more than 5ft 6ins tall. In fact take the back four and Gally out of the equation and we have a lot of small players.

The previous manager loved small attackers. Still does by the looks of it. 

[LeftWinger]

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I think Szmodics is too much of a 'cheeky chappy' to be captain material. I think Hyam is too quiet to be captain too.

Hyam does strike me as a bit quiet. Szmodics told Hyam to 'F Off' in the first half of the first game on Saturday when they had a bit of a disagreement when Accy won a corner. Hyam didn't give anything back.

[yankfan]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

The one ‘weakness’ of Phillips last season was he looked a bit slight/lightweight playing as a Championship centre half (obviously no surprise as he was so young he couldn’t even have a vape related sponsor on his shirt!)

Looking at him on Saturday he’s even sorted that out! Going to be some player.

I thought he was poor in possession last year. Always and predictably playing backwards and sideways. His touch also seemed to get stuck under himself at times. Looked like a young kid that was trying too hard not to make a mistake. 

[rigger]

10 minutes ago, yankfan said:

I thought he was poor in possession last year. Always and predictably playing backwards and sideways. His touch also seemed to get stuck under himself at times. Looked like a young kid that was trying too hard not to make a mistake. 

Those, are things that will be ironed out with experience. The main thing is that Phillips has the needed ability.

[Mattyblue]

Tough crowd is yankfan 😄

[chaddyrovers]

Hyam would be very good captain and he would be my captain. 

[Mattyblue]

O captain! My captain! 

[SuperBrfc]

43 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Hyam does strike me as a bit quiet. Szmodics told Hyam to 'F Off' in the first half of the first game on Saturday when they had a bit of a disagreement when Accy won a corner. Hyam didn't give anything back.

Hyam has been a good signing overall, but he isn't a captain, in my view. He was visibly affected by the pressure of the run in towards the business end of last season. Carter looked more steady than him for a few games during that time.

There was also a game where he was trying to calm the Blackburn End down, as it seemed like the crowd was adding to the pressure already being felt.

I'm not sure who I'd want to have the captain's armband right now. Nobody really stands out, for me.