v Sunderland (h) - 20/9/23 - 19:45

[ruggles1995]

Really good football first 44 minutes. Everything JDT wanted in the summer was what shot us in the foot last night. A goalscorer and experience. To go 2-1 down right before half time was so naive. To get back into the game and it being practically half time just slow it down and keep the ball abit. Experience and a goalscorer see us through the first half and probably onto win it. 
 

we annoyingly have this frustration to want to play through the middle all the time in tight areas. If you look at most the times Sunderland got possession was catching us out playing through the middle. We go so narrow at times and offer zero width it is so frustrating we almost come a little predictable. We desperately need some experience. I thought Wharton was poor and Travis. Although Wharton kept being given the ball in sometime poor areas of the pitch. The 3rd goal summed it up, trying to play through the middle. TM got it right 2nd half. They didn’t really have to do anything special, get tight and compact nick the ball in the middle of the pitch when they try to play through, they also sat off a bit not allowing much space in behind in the 2nd half. 
 

some good football at times, but so naive. Also a little baffled when we played with no striker for 20 minutes when Leonard came off. 

[Sparks Rover]

44 minutes ago, sharpysharps86 said:

 I think Leonard staying on would've been more effective than Dolan up front.

Me grandma would do better than Dolan up front.....been saying it for ages, people catching on now that he's feckin rubbish.  Get shut

[TheRovers1994]

As mentioned above why not try for lewis grabben or whatever his name is ? We just need somebody to finish off the good work the team is doing. 
 

gally needs to be shot off at the end of the season, work horse yes but hasn’t at all justified the 5m paid and is too injury prone, a unit like him should give defenders nightmares on the eve of games but simply does not and for every goal he scores he misses 5 sitters 

 

ennis will come good soon as his injuries are behind him, pne fan at work was expressing concern that Ryan lowe seems hesitant to take off his favoured plsyers when struggling with injury, reffering mainly to the new lad millar so only a matter of time before he breaks down and even others which triggered why ennis has problems cause Ryan lowes mate at Plymouth has obviously learnt the bad player welfare habits from lowe himself by giving ennis injections to get him through the season which is why he suffers now which sums them up that’s it’s short term results over player welfare.
 

dint blame jdt at all he’s working with nothing more than potential raw talent, don’t blame gregg either he’s working with little even waggot can’t be blamed, he can only distribute budgets assigned, this is all down to venkys, the club and fans being made to suffer from their cock ups now the Indian government policies, they just need to accept defeat and sell up, my dream right now isn’t even multi billionaires exactly…. I would be delighted with a few local businessmen with the heart and soul of the club firmly at heart, small budget means nothing if you are doing it right (see Luton) 

 

our attack is out biggest lee down that’s for sure, I said at the start if we go into the season with hedges and Dolan is first choice wingers we are fucked in terms of challenging for the 6, Moran is good but not experienced enough and being raw lacks composure.. he’s no Harvey Elliot, attack is piss weak to say the least, in my opinion Moran semir and what has to be hedges is what should be our front 3 until Sigurdsson is fit and ready, either way we need attacking reinforcements in jan even if only loans to at least have us finish the season respectfully 

[TheRovers1994]

4 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Me grandma would do better than Dolan up front.....been saying it for ages, people catching on now that he's feckin rubbish.  Get shut

He was great two seasons ago but has declined, he’s lost his hunger and is too interested in being a model 

[Tugayisgod]

With stats like that , surely it can't be long before the chances start being converted.

Be a lot more worrying if we weren't creating anything. That first 35-40 mins was the best I have seen us play in many a year.

 

 

[roversfan99]

I dont get this narrative that luck isnt on our side and especially the one that surely we will start taking our chances soon.

We dont have a goalscorer, our attacking players lack the ability to score many goals. They will need well above an average amount of chances to score goals. Why would that suddenly change?

[NeilInBristol]

25 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Me grandma would do better than Dolan up front.....been saying it for ages, people catching on now that he's feckin rubbish.  Get shut

Yeh agreed. What else can jdt do? Play with 10men? We have very few options 

[norwichblue]

Didn’t watch the game last night as I was down at Carrow Road shouting obscenities at Ashley Barnes.

Sounds like we were mugged as per. Soul destroying sport.

[tomphil]

To have to try and create 50 chances every game just to get one or two goals is going to bite us on the arse more times than it will be productive when we are so frail at the back in this style.

It's as simple as that really.

[roversfan99]

2 minutes ago, norwichblue said:

Didn’t watch the game last night as I was down at Carrow Road shouting obscenities at Ashley Barnes.

Sounds like we were mugged as per. Soul destroying sport.

We werent mugged. We just cant score goals.

[roversfan99]

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23803406.mowbray-praises-blackburn-rovers-despite-sunderland-victory/

Mowbray with some nice words.

Ultimately not the first manager to say stuff like this. When other managers are regularly saying how well you played after beating you by 2 or 3 clear goals, it becomes less of a source of pride and more a worry. Soft touch.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

57 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

It's games like that where I start to waver over Tomasson's tactics and his folly 'I'd rather win 5-2' comment or whatever he said..

Yes, we should have 2 up after 20 minutes, but when it's not going in, you need a Plan B to find a way of grinding out results. He doesn't seem to see this.

Tomasson can only play the players he has his disposal though, and when you see the name of Hedges in the starting 11, and Dolan/Makanday on the bench, you know the cards are stacked against. The squad last night showed up the disastrous transfer window.

On the subject of Dolan and Hedges, I'm sick of seeing these two in particular on the pitch.

Dolan, as described by another poster, is a 'busted flush'. His one redeeming quality - of being able to effectively press and harry - is long gone. We're left with a player who has no ability to do anything constructive.

As for Hedges, I can't recall a more non-descript player. He takes absolutely no responsibility. Whereever he is on the pitch, his immediate thought is to make a simple pass and make the ball someone else's problem. As a supposed senior player, if we're ever in a position where it's a backs-to-the-wall job, then God help us when we have the likes of him. 

Hedges- another one of Tony’s inexplicable signings. He must have signed about 30-40 players for us and you can count the success stories on the fingers of one hand.

[joey_big_nose]

I dont think we should significantly change how we start matches. First half of recent performances have been excellent. But we need to do two obvious things imo.

1) Until Ennis is fit give Leonard the 9 shirt. He did well last night - scored, and got into the right places. I don't think we've had a player get into central scoring positions so much for a long time. Hopefully as his confidence grows he will bag more. Chopping and changing between him and Semir wont help I think. Let Semir have the last 30 each game.

2) Figure out a good defensive shape. I know because we went behind and we were chasing we got more and more open. But.... I am not sure what our defensive shape is. Imo the back four is very good but in front of the defence are very porous. How do we solve that? And what do we do if Wharton has a poor game or gets injured.

[AllRoverAsia]

55 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

It's games like that where I start to waver over Tomasson's tactics and his folly 'I'd rather win 5-2' comment or whatever he said..

Yes, we should have 2 up after 20 minutes, but when it's not going in, you need a Plan B to find a way of grinding out results. He doesn't seem to see this.

Tomasson can only play the players he has his disposal though, and when you see the name of Hedges in the starting 11, and Dolan/Makanday on the bench, you know the cards are stacked against. The squad last night showed up the disastrous transfer window.

On the subject of Dolan and Hedges, I'm sick of seeing these two in particular on the pitch.

Dolan, as described by another poster, is a 'busted flush'. His one redeeming quality - of being able to effectively press and harry - is long gone. We're left with a player who has no ability to do anything constructive.

As for Hedges, I can't recall a more non-descript player. He takes absolutely no responsibility. Whereever he is on the pitch, his immediate thought is to make a simple pass and make the ball someone else's problem. As a supposed senior player, if we're ever in a position where it's a backs-to-the-wall job, then God help us when we have the likes of him. 

Agree with all of your post.

Hedges suffers from a directional dysfunction in his passing and shooting. Passes infield are often misdirected flicks with the outside of his left foot behind or away from the player, passes through usually hit a defender first. His shooting skills are woeful, he can't tackle and I'm struggling to recall him heading the ball.

Like Dolan he's a show pony in need of a trick that works.

Dolan has massively regressed, his pressing was his main attribute, that's gone and left an empty shell that he thinks he can salvage by a step over circus act. Get some sort of fee and get shut in January.

[BigUts]

Last night was a terrible result and it really highlighted all of our core issues. We should have been 3 up at half time on the balance of play.

First game I've been able to attend this season (watched all the others on TV) and I was thoroughly impressed with some of our approach play. We can get from a goal kick to creating a goalscoring opportunity so quickly its almost insane it's clear JDTs plan is almost there...we just don't have anyone with that killer instinct.

The 5 - 10 minutes Telalovic was on the pitch was much brighter than any of the other subs that came on and I felt encouraged by his physicality and want to try and run in behind. I would 100% start him in our next game.

 

[Hasta]

6 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I didn't get JDT's subs when he brought on Dolan and Markanday on tbh especially Dolan playing him up front before Telalovic. Made no sense to me. 

Last night clearly tells me JDT has looked at Telalovic over the 2 weeks he's been here and has him 5th on the striking pecking order. 

When people say "No signing is made without JDT's approval" I'm starting to doubt if that is fully the case. I suspect it was a case of "you either take this guy or nothing" approaching deadline week.

Edited September 21, 2023 by Hasta

[all you need is duff]

7 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Hedges- another one of Tony’s inexplicable signings. He must have signed about 30-40 players for us and you can count the success stories on the fingers of one hand.

So many poor signings under successive managers. Our academy has really saved us in that aspect 

[chaddyrovers]

4 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Last night clearly tells me JDT has looked at Telalovic over the 2 weeks he's been here and has him 5th on the striking pecking order. 

When people say "No signing is made without JDT's approval" I'm starting to doubt if that is fully the case. I suspect it was a case of "you either take this guy or nothing" approaching deadline week.

Your viewpoint would contradiction his comments about Telalovic after he signed his post match comments on Saturday 

[LeftWinger]

Genuine question - is our style of play burning us out by half time?

In the last 4 games we've had more expected goals in the 2nd half once - compared to the opposition having more expected goals in the second half in all 4 games. 

[roversfan99]

15 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Hedges- another one of Tony’s inexplicable signings. He must have signed about 30-40 players for us and you can count the success stories on the fingers of one hand.

Hardly inexplicable. 200k paid for a decent squad player. Problem now is such has been the recent budget cuts, he has to be a key player.

Armstrong, Brereton, Rothwell, Dack, Kaminski, Pickering, the loans of Adarabioyo, Elliott, Harwood Bellis, Reed, the likes of Smallwood, Downing etc in League 1, his overall transfer record was no worse that what we have seen since. Although everyone has had their work cut out by the budget cuts and regular summers of the taps being turned off.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

14 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Last night clearly tells me JDT has looked at Telalovic over the 2 weeks he's been here and has him 5th on the striking pecking order. 

When people say "No signing is made without JDT's approval" I'm starting to doubt if that is fully the case. I suspect it was a case of "you either take this guy or nothing" approaching deadline week.

I think that’s pretty obvious. Once the rug was pulled from under our feet it was “ take it or leave it “.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

Hardly inexplicable. 200k paid for a decent squad player. Problem now is such has been the recent budget cuts, he has to be a key player.

Armstrong, Brereton, Rothwell, Dack, Kaminski, Pickering, the loans of Adarabioyo, Elliott, Harwood Bellis, Reed, the likes of Smallwood, Downing etc in League 1, his overall transfer record was no worse that what we have seen since. Although everyone has had their work cut out by the budget cuts and regular summers of the taps being turned off.

I wouldn’t put Pickering in “ success story “ group. So that leaves us with 5 permanent signing out of how many ?  Any decent manager would get 50% of the signings right, a good manager would get about 75% right. Tony got about 10% right. 

[booth]

3 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Genuine question - is our style of play burning us out by half time?

In the last 4 games we've had more expected goals in the 2nd half once - compared to the opposition having more expected goals in the second half in all 4 games. 

After 25-30 mins I'd say, but it's also that we're having so many chances and not scoring. It must be demoralising to know that all the effort is for naught.

[joey_big_nose]

16 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Last night clearly tells me JDT has looked at Telalovic over the 2 weeks he's been here and has him 5th on the striking pecking order. 

When people say "No signing is made without JDT's approval" I'm starting to doubt if that is fully the case. I suspect it was a case of "you either take this guy or nothing" approaching deadline week.

I think things both JDT and Broughton have said openly in the media (how Buckley left, the Spanish La Liga striker not coming in, his lack of endorsement of Semir) clearly show JDT might help draw up the lists of players but he does not select the players who come in from that list.

What's interesting is that he doesn't really seem to mind that arrangement. A normal British manager would be going absolutely crazy, but JDT seems to go with the flow. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

When you’re busting a gut in defence and you see the forwards missing easy chances  it doesn’t do anything for team spirit.