Pre season 23/24

[Exiled_Rover]

4 minutes ago, ItsRoverZ said:

Rovers in 0 goals at half time shocker 

We don't even have a striker on the pitch so I wasn't expecting goals - I just wanted to see what Barnes / Batty et al looked like. 

[BankEnd Rover]

Sounds like we are trying to walk it in the net - have a shot FGS!

[AllRoverAsia]

Stockport play Preston tomorrow at home in another pre season game so I'm not sure what sort of team they've put out tonight.

[Cherry Blue]

[Sweaty Gussets]

[Cherry Blue]

Batty involved again. 

[ItsRoverZ]

Before our penalty Stockport should have scored twice, it's what normally happens to us, good to see Batty getting involved 

[davulsukur]

Seems like Gilsenan is having a decent enough preseason, along with Batty. Not sure if either are ready for the first team but encouraging that we have more academy players coming through that might make that step up in the future.

[WacoRover]

are the youth looking good, for anybody there? 
 

[ItsRoverZ]

Zak Gilsenan seems to be involved alot in the games he's played so far

[Dan]

Reading his Wiki page, it seems like he’s been highly rated, a captain for the Barca youth teams, relocated to England and was with Liverpool for a while, but suffered with injuries. Obviously been highly rated before we picked him up, he’s 20 now, so not exactly a kid. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_Gilsenan 

Edited July 28, 2023 by Dan

[Ricky]

1 minute ago, Dan said:

Reading his Wiki page, it seems like he’s been highly rated, a captain for the Barca youth teams, relocated to England and was with Liverpool for a while, but suffered with injuries. Obviously been highly rated before we picked him up. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_Gilsenan 

I mentioned him on the transfer thread. Wondered if he was one who may kick on this season. Can’t fault his pedigree, captain of Barca youth so must have something about him.

[Dan]

4 minutes ago, Ricky said:

I mentioned him on the transfer thread. Wondered if he was one who may kick on this season. Can’t fault his pedigree, captain of Barca youth so must have something about him.

Maybe we’ll end up winning the league with a load of kids like Man Yoo did that time. Jim can tell us we won’t win anything with kids so it’ll be pretty much a carbon copy 😂

[Exiled_Rover]

12 minutes ago, Ricky said:

I mentioned him on the transfer thread. Wondered if he was one who may kick on this season. Can’t fault his pedigree, captain of Barca youth so must have something about him.

There's a video clip of him training in Ireland on YouTube earlier this year - he said he expects to be in and around the first team this season. I don't know if that's bravado or they've told him as much. 

[MarkBRFC]

23 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

There's a video clip of him training in Ireland on YouTube earlier this year - he said he expects to be in and around the first team this season. I don't know if that's bravado or they've told him as much. 

Probably told him that, because we certainly aren't signing anyone.

[arbitro]

We were decidedly second best to Stockport tonight as a combination of Pears and bad finishing gave us the win. Good to see Adam get seventy minutes in his legs. It will probably take a couple more games to get him up to speed. I was disappointed in Callum Brittain more than anything else tonight. He isn't capable of pushing into midfield like Tomasson wants him to and at times looked lost. Scott Wharton was steady and our two young strikers (Bloxham and Edmundson) battled manfully but made little headway. I was impressed with Gilsenan in the second half but overall we were disappointing.

[roversfan99]

Talk of Travis "not suiting" how we want to play and how Buckley is at the start of the summer. Buckley clearly not thought of nearly as highly by Tomasson.

[arbitro]

5 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Talk of Travis "not suiting" how we want to play and how Buckley is at the start of the summer. Buckley clearly not thought of nearly as highly by Tomasson.

Buckley was poor tonight and could have been sent off for a high challenge on a Stockport player. He continually gave the ball away and made wrong decisions. He looked like a proper big time Charlie to me tonight.

[roversfan99]

3 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Buckley was poor tonight and could have been sent off for a high challenge on a Stockport player. He continually gave the ball away and made wrong decisions. He looked like a proper big time Charlie to me tonight.

Doesnt suit that deeper role. Lacks the intelligence to thrive in an area where you get such little time on the ball.

Since that good spell under Mowbray in a free role, he has really stagnated. 

[Mattyblue]

He gives off that impression fairly regularly, a Big Time Charlie on the back of achieving what exactly?

[arbitro]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

He gives off that impression fairly regularly, a Big Time Charlie on the back of achieving what exactly?

I've always believed it's a fine line between confidence and arrogance and he was on that line but tonight he definitely crossed over into the latter. Tomasson went to give him a pat on the back when he was substituted and he just blanked him.

[neophox]

What's wrong with Bucko?

[neophox]

Looks like we will start like this tomorrow:

Kaminski

JRC, Carter, Hyam, Pickering

Tronstad, Travis, Szmodics

Markanday, Gally/Hedges, Dolan

 

JDT said it's only Arnor missing and that Ennis will get 20 mins.

I do wonder if Gally is going?

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by neophox

[Atko's Engine]

I was there, watched it from behind the dugouts with some home fans. JDT seemed very engaged with what was going on, which I take as the main positive from the evening.

Overall it was an underwhelming performance. A Wharton set the tempo of the first half and everything attacking went through him, but we clearly had no one with a strikers instinct so every move broke down on the edge of their box, although there was some good one touch football in the build ups. Best chance we had 1st half was a Batty run and shot down the left, which was well made & well saved. Meanwhile at the back we were a bit 6s & 7s, S Wharton & Buckley (who didn't stand out at all) especially guilty of giving the ball away in dangerous places, with Pears to thanks for a couple of smart saves, though he did flap at a corner that caused a bit if chaos.

Second half was all stockport for first 20 mins or so. But for Pears & a miss-of-the-preseason for their top goalscorer we could've been a couple down. We then got the pen (which seemed right, although my view was obscured by a pillar), which gilsenan put away comfortably, after which we never really looked like conceding an equaliser, though there were a couple of moments of dilly dallying in our backline that might've been problematic on another day.

Upshots being, toothless up front  decent movement in midfield, lack of confidence at the back. Best players were A Wharton, Gilsenan, Batty (who's not afraid to get stuck in) and Pears. Brittain did ok, but I think would look better in a stronger team. Stockport had 2 trialists playing & they play Preston tomorrow, so they at least had a few first teamers out.

I would guess only AW (who JDT had a good chat with & an arm around his shoulder when brought off) is likely to start v W Brom next weekend, this was very much a 2nd 11 selection.

[BlackburnEnd75]

Who played where across the midfield was a flat 3 or the usual 4-2-3-1?