v Leicester City (h) - 01/10/23

[Atko's Engine]

I'm writing this not having read any of what's been said before, or seen any replays.

The scoreline flatters Leicester, no doubt, but we have to be better in both boxes. 

Leicester's 1st goal was poor from our perspective. I don't think Pears needed to tip it over, but better safe than sorry I suppose. Having done so though he has to claim the cross or a defender has to challenge.  For Faes to be on his own, without challenge from a nothing cross, is criminal.

Our goal was even more criminal from their perspective, what they were thinking I don't know,and we took full advantage.

It was then a really nip & tuck game, but we missed a killer touch again to put finishing touches to some good approach play.

Their 2nd goal is class from them to be fair. The run, cross, control & shot were top notch. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up.

2nd half we started much the stronger, and had Travis (great save) or Szmodics (great defending) scored then the last 25 mins would've been very different. As it was, Wharton lost the ball meekly, they broke forward then got the pen (soft but can't grumble), clinically scored, then we were wide open & had lost shape for their breakaway 4th, which was poor from Wahlsted. 

I came away v downbeat but overall on reflection, we'll not meet many sides of Leicester's quality & overall if we play like that we'll win more than we lose. But we need to find more steel and ruthlessness in both boxes, or this season will quickly get away from us.

We need to be confident & bounce back well. We can beat Cov & QPR but need to be more ruthless.

A couple of other things. Their #18 (or was it 19?) committed 3 bookable offences inside the first 20 mins. Also, why Faes wasn't booked when he fouled Sigurdsson 1st half is beyond me.

Why did we announce Brittain being MoM? The Leicester fans proper to the mick, it was quite embarrassing. 

Pears - poor, Wahlsted no better on the day, but way too early to judge him.

Brittain, Pickering solid.

Hyam not so good, Carter was better but still needs to be led.

Travis good but played too far forward to me, created gaps in front of the back four.

Wharton - plays above his age but still rash & loose in possession. Plenty of talent but must improve game understanding. 

Sigurdsson - looked tidy, seems creative but we were too narrow most of the time. Faded badly, understandably.

Moran - looked really good, but again faded.

Szmodicz - as above, ended up looking lost, is not a forward & lost his major strengths due to subs & formation.

Markanday - best I've seen him, but needs to improve his end product. Hard without a striker to play with though.

Subs were made too late IMO. Dolan looked lively, Telalovic had some good touches, JRC caught out for the 4th.

Overall a better match than the scoreline suggests, but we really need 4 out of the next 6 points. 

 

 

[Waggy76]

1 hour ago, ossyian said:

What a pile of shite. The highlights were teamwork, players showing emotion, players caring about individual and team results, playing under immense pressure to the best of their ability. The best team event in world sport bar none. Football has much to learn but never does. Oh and Rovers were crap again making the same silly mistakes time and time again. L1 beckons again. Oh for Howard Kendall “boring”us with magnificent 1-0 wins week after relentless week until the opposition gave up. Don’t think JDT has that in his locker

Howard Kendall what a player and a manager .. Happy days well remembered...

[Waggy76]

59 minutes ago, bazza said:

Oh come on John. That's a silly question. How much did I pay for the Beano when I was a kid. 3d.  How much is it now?  £3

Lol ..Sir Roger was far superior to Pears and the rest we have had since Brad ...

[Mercer]

1 hour ago, JohnD said:

Even a £600k one?

How much did we pay for Sir Roger?

£30k from Bournemouth

[bazza]

1 minute ago, Mercer said:

£30k from Bournemouth

Which was quite a lot of money in those days.

[roversfan99]

30 minutes ago, M_B said:

I was being slightly sarcastic, the person I replied to exonerated Wahlstedt of any blame for the 2 goals he let in against Cardiff because they both "hit the side netting". 

At the match I thought it was a good ball in, and poor defending leaving a free header. Having seen it on TV, especially from the Riverside camera, it looks like a good ball in, and poor defending leaving a fee header. I haven't seen the original ball in which he palmed behind, if he should have left it then that's fair enough, but every keeper is safety first. 

Some of the scrutiny of Pears over the past few weeks has been ridiculous verging on ludicrous. All keepers make mistakes, Wahlstedt in the short time he was on almost gifted them a chance with a poor pass out, and then did gift them the 4th.

It looks like Wahlstedt may have a good run in the team,time to put away the microscopes and give the lad a chance. 

2nd goal for Hull - standing far too far to one side, leaving a huge gap for an easy finish.

2nd goal for Plymouth - spilt the ball into the path of a striker 

3rd goal for Plymouth - ran out of his net and headed the ball directly in the air to a Plymouth player to have a free shot in an open goal

2nd goal v Ipswich - poor kick leading to them scoring with him not set

4th goal v Ipswich - punched a ball he should have caught down to their player to score

That is not "scrutiny of Pears over the past few weeks has been ridiculous verging on ludicrous." Its not as if people were mentioning sliced clearances into touch or minor imperfections. People wanted him dropped because of a high quantity of major errors of goals directly leading not to set pieces, not to half chance, but to goals conceded.

The stuff about backing players is a deflection tactic. Discussing bad mistakes online does not equal not wanting players to do well in the ground.

[booth]

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

Hes just had 3 teams on the bounce in the league bringing 3k+ fans so he'll be looking good in Pune with his takings figures.

And half of the fans are blaming some other c***. He's a real life Swiss Tony.

[AllRoverAsia]

17 minutes ago, booth said:

And half of the fans are blaming some other c***. He's a real life Swiss Tony.

Swiss Swag is:

“As slippery as a greased eel.”

Swiss Swag says:

“You know what they say, ‘if at first you don’t succeed, change the rules.'”

“Like a Swiss bank account, some things are best kept hidden.”

Edited October 1, 2023 by AllRoverAsia

[booth]

3 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Swiss Swag is:

“As slippery as a greased eel.”

Swiss Swag says:

“You know what they say, ‘if at first you don’t succeed, change the rules.'”

“Like a Swiss bank account, some things are best kept hidden.”

Swiss Swag says: “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. But a comfortable car coach helps.”

[USABlue]

7 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

He seems to only know one way of playing. You set up to make it hard for your opponents, try to negate their strengths. We should have been set much more conservatively today. Packed the midfield and made it hard for them to play through us.

Funny Tyrone IIRC we had the last few years moaning about the manager worrying about our opponents "let them worry about us" seemed to be the call then.

[tomphil]

4 minutes ago, USABlue said:

Funny Tyrone IIRC we had the last few years moaning about the manager worrying about our opponents "let them worry about us" seemed to be the call then.

That was Mowbray playing Peterborough or Rotherham at home and most clubs in league 1.

Remember a home game when he doubled up on Rochdales, i think it was, left back because he was quick ?

[Southside Rover]

I think its worth noting the praise the club is getting from rival managers. They see the threat but of course are ruthlessly exposing the weaknesses.

It's been a disjointed start with injuries, lacking depth, late arrivals. We have to back this team of players and JDT following the card that's been dealt.

This defence and midfield achieved plenty last season and I didn't hear many preferring Morton over Wharton.

I genuinely believe it will come together as we find a balance and blood the newbies, it's just how far behind we will be.

It's frustrating to lose and to keep shipping goals but our summer business was never going to make us challengers.

JDT will know where the weaknesses are but with his budget his hands are tied. Several interviews have shown he's been let down not just this summer but in January.

Could have easily been a different game and result today and Leicester have an unbelievable squad for this division with them on a high, unlike the death spiral when we met them in the cup last year.

Leicester, Southampton and Leeds should absolutely walk this division.

[R0verb0y]

8 hours ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Agreed on the score line flattering them.

We create lots of opportunities, but like you say, our decision making in the final third often lets us down. 

Siggy will get better and I thought Moran looked class. 

Gally, HL and Ennis being injured obviously isn't helping. 

I think we'll get better as the season goes on. 

Not having  a go, @Sweaty Gussets; but we'll have to get better, or we'll be back on board the League 1 Express before any of us is much older.

What does it take for the penny to drop with our owners? The damage their stewardship is inflicting on our club must surely be affecting their general reputation.

[roversfan99]

What other managers are saying is exactly what we dont want. Hollow words all from managers who have all managed to exploit our blatant vulnerabilities. Its not a source of pride being patronised.

[joey_big_nose]

The way we play at the moment we are expecting the GK, Hyam, Carter and Wharton to be very good with minimal mistakes every week as those four are being asked to do defensively against counters what six players would do in a more conservative team. The amount of times Hyam or Carter are left one on one each game is ridiculous.

On one hand I can see the argument that we will get better as the season wears on.... but then so will the opponents in terms of figuring out how to play against our system. For me Wharton, Hyam and Carter have proved they are decent players, but you can't play game after game with no support for them.

It feels like things further deteriorating is as likely as us turning the corner. 

Coventry and QPR are really huge games now. Two poor results and will be in crisis mode.

[M_B]

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

2nd goal for Hull - standing far too far to one side, leaving a huge gap for an easy finish.

2nd goal for Plymouth - spilt the ball into the path of a striker 

3rd goal for Plymouth - ran out of his net and headed the ball directly in the air to a Plymouth player to have a free shot in an open goal

2nd goal v Ipswich - poor kick leading to them scoring with him not set

4th goal v Ipswich - punched a ball he should have caught down to their player to score

That is not "scrutiny of Pears over the past few weeks has been ridiculous verging on ludicrous." Its not as if people were mentioning sliced clearances into touch or minor imperfections. People wanted him dropped because of a high quantity of major errors of goals directly leading not to set pieces, not to half chance, but to goals conceded.

The stuff about backing players is a deflection tactic. Discussing bad mistakes online does not equal not wanting players to do well in the ground.

You yourself blamed him for the ball to Markanday earlier in the season which Markanday lost,against West Brom was it? 

It's all been too over the top. 

[USABlue]

7 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

JDT's comments 

https://x.com/BBCLancsSport/status/1708504358751510625?s=20

 

Would class Vardy's goal as soft.  Perhaps defending leading up to it but it was a terrific finish.

[R0verb0y]

8 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

I can't bring myself to comment on the game or the situation the club is in, as it simply angers me a great deal. The way I feel about the owners, their lapdogs and their tosser agent friends, can't be put into words.

I felt from day one that this project would lead us to L1. We've had that toad Waggott come out and say "the aim is to avoid relegation". I fear he's going to get exactly the opposite of that. He and his bosses deserve nothing less. This club has felt cursed ever since they walked through the doors in 2010.

I just want to say how proud I am of Chris Sutton for dropping those truth bombs live on Sky. That's a proper Rovers player right there, he knows about standards at Rovers and he knows bullshit when he hears it.

He was absolutely spot on with what he said. In a nutshell:

JDT hasn't been backed, despite repeated requests for strikers. We've got a CEO talking about avoiding relegation. The ambition at the club is not good enough. We're looking at a development team and asking a development team to win promotion. It simply isn't good enough.

Hearing Sutton speak like that hit me. That's one of 'our own', back from when the club was healthy, saying it how it is. This has got nothing to do with entitlement before some smart arse tries to come out with that crap.

It's quite simply a disgrace what these bastards have been allowed to do to the football club. I don't give a shit about their £20m yearly bill. That does not mean we should silently put up with all of this. Something needs to happen, to get these owners out.

I, too, can't comment on the game because I'm still too incapacitated to get down to Ewood; still haven't got round to getting Sky; and was a bit hacked off by the commentary on talkSPORT 2.

Because I haven't yet got Sky, I'm largely dependent on Radio 5 for comments on the Rovers. I'll be interested to see if the other panellists - especially Mark Chapman, if he's back from the Ryder Cup on Radio 5 - pick Chris Sutton up on his remarks over the weekend on tonight's Monday Night Club. I'm always impressed by him and by how much he obviously loved his time with us.

I honestly don't know what we can do about the owners. They obviously satisfied the conditions of the "Owners' Test" before the Walker Trust washed their hands of us and I guess it must be one of those tests that, once you've passed it, it stays on your record forever.

More's the pity for us.

[USABlue]

5 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

greg to the rescue,he`ll get us a top manager with his worldwide connections😀

I understood he already had a like for like in mind.

[R0verb0y]

9 hours ago, harryhealless1928 said:

The answer to the question" should JDT be replaced if results dont improve ?" is fairly irrelevant Id say. Simply because he wont be. 

Look how the Venkys let Mowbrays contract run out.

Sacking managers costs money and the purse strings have been tightened.

... and JDT would doubtless point out that he was hired for his part in a particular, ongoing "project", which isn’t yet complete.

[USABlue]

I am probably almost guaranteeing relegation now with this statement.  I think JDT will turn it around.  He needs some support he is not getting it from Waggot.  I hope he does fix it cos I enjoy watching us, bar the powder puff self destructive defending.  Not helped by poor goalkeeping.  That needs fixed now it is messing with defenders now.  They cant trust him.

[R0verb0y]

9 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i feel jdt will walk rather than be sacked,he`s not the sort to hang around picking up his wages,the guy is ambitious. V.   . 

Now I'd be highly surprised if that were to happen.

I suspect he's a pragmatist, who can justify his salary by pointing out that he's trying to keep his side of the bargain he made with our owners about 15 months ago.

At the end of the day, his reputation in the game is higher than Venky's could hope theirs would ever be. Doubtless things haven't gone as well  for him - or us! - as he would have hoped when he signed on the dotted line last summer, but he can always argue the owners knew what they were getting when he joined the club.

 

[R0verb0y]

9 hours ago, Ghost7 said:

One positive thing to come out of this summer is that all of the fans are now united in their opinion that the club will NEVER go anywhere while owned by Venky's. Surely.

Everyone is clear we will forever be held back by the current owners while they are here. 

The same goes for any football club with detached and uninterested owners. They are parasites to the beautiful game.

A sensible, ambitious and CONNECTED owner is the key to success and sustainability.

Dead right, @Ghost7; but, after the word "connected" I'd add the following "... who is prepared to invest in the football club ...".

[roversfan99]

7 hours ago, M_B said:

You yourself blamed him for the ball to Markanday earlier in the season which Markanday lost,against West Brom was it? 

It's all been too over the top. 

It was a poor pass I think to Carter initially but the main blame for that went to Markanday, not Pears. 

As I said, 5 major goal costing errors. Anything around that is small change. 

[smiller14]

Sick of being patronised by opposing bosses who pat us on the head and say how good we were. We never got such praise under Sparky, because we were a nasty, difficult team to play against. Leicester would love to play a team that are such a soft touch every week.

It felt like in the second half our strategy was to sit off them and wait for a mistake, much like at Swansea last year, but with their quality it wasn't coming. Our success came when we pressed them aggressively, leading to the goal, but we just stopped doing it and showed them too much respect.

Has JDT been sold a dud? Almost certainly, he hasn't been backed. Aside from a couple of strikers bought every other year, Mowbray would probably say the same though, and I can guarantee he would be getting absolute pelters in the same situation (including from me). It might all click at one point, but this kamikaze football feels like it will lose us more points than it will win. 

For all the talk of not being backed etc, which is true, we've lost the following from last year:

• Diaz - lots of goals (which aren't much of an issue atm), offered nothing past January anyway
• Dack - wasn't favoured by the manager anyway
• Ayala - experience but perennially injured
• Kaminski - manager favoured Pears anwyay
• Phillips - wasn't really picked

If we have weakened slightly (which I'm not sure on as I think Sigurdsson and Moran improve us going forwards), it doesn't justify us suddenly having the worst defence in the league and looking nervously over our shoulders.

I like to think JDT is too good a manager and too intelligent not to turn things around. 

Edited October 2, 2023 by smiller14