v Sunderland (h) - 26/12/2024

[Ossydave]

They've only won 1 in 5 away from home, their win at Swansea was decent like after being 2 nil down.

Losing Trav is absolutely gutting and to a lesser extent Pickering. We've not done TOO bad with injuries up to now but you just knew it would scupper any faint play off dreams. Just wish it could have waited till after we played that lot 😪 

Needs a big reaction on Boxing Day, something Trav would have helped with as well.

[Upside Down]

6 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

January will be interesting. Surely they’ve learned by now that investing in new players whilst in a position of relative strength might actually bring success. 

LOL

[JHRover]

If you are going to pick up injuries then late December or January is the 'best' time to do it, as you are heading into a transfer window with the ability to quickly replace people and reinforce as opposed to having to wait for several months and make do.

So Rovers know what they need, the manager does, over to the owners and board to strengthen......

They aren't going to be able to use the 'secretary having a meltdown' excuse or 'admin error' again so soon after the last couple of January's and they aren't going to admit the rancid owners won't back the club so the most interesting part of the next 4-5 weeks is going to be what cock and bull nonsense they come up with to explain a lack of backing for Eustace and whether he puts up with it. 

[philipl]

Having just watched some Sunderland highlights they are very mobile up front and unlike us strike on sight. We will have to defend from the front much better than we did at Millwall.

At the other end, their defence is not particularly secure. If we play Baker, I hope both he and Tronstad are encouraged to use their powerful shooting abilities.

[Exiled_Rover]

4 hours ago, islander200 said:

How would 2 points from the next 2 games be outstanding?

We have as good a home record as most In the division, Hull have spent the majority of the season in the bottom half

 

 

New manager bounce and they have a better squad than we do.

[simongarnerisgod]

42 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

New manager bounce and they have a better squad than we do.

dont know how you work that one out,they are in the relegation zone

[Ricky]

8 hours ago, davulsukur said:

Trav is a massive loss over the next few weeks. Not too sure on Baker, he's done OK as a sub and filling in for 1 game but there has to be a reason a struggling Stoke side loaned him out.

Yeah because who would loan out one of their best midfielders to another team in the same league…. Oh yeah, we did. 

[islander200]

52 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

New manager bounce and they have a better squad than we do.

We are 5th in the league at home against a team who have been in the lower half most season,Saturday was a pretty poor performance but its our only defeat in seven and we have only lost twice at home this season. We are 5th on merit 

Even Sunderland like someone else pointed out , they have one win in 5 away from home in the league 

We may get zero points.We may only get 2 but it will be a major disappointment if that is the case. It certainly wouldn't be outstanding 

[joey_big_nose]

I feel like this season (and in stark contrast to recent years) through luck or design we have ended up with 2 decent players for every position on the pitch. So we've been able to ride out what seemed a catastrophic loss in Carter, and I am optimistic that we have the quality to replace Travis and Pickering, despite both being really excellent for us this season. Trav has been player of the season so far for me.

Baker goes straight in, Beck to left back, and I guess Dolan or Hedges go on the left and that's the team pretty much. Still will have an okay bench assuming one of Ohashi or Geuye is on it with Wieman and Sigurdson if he's back from injury? Leonard as well. It's not galaticos but something there to influence a game in the second half.

Where we are really vulnerable imo is if one of the two CBs are taken out. Pickering was our viable cover there really, so we will be forced to used Faz who really does not look mobile enough to me to play football at this level any more. We need a CB in first day of Jan.