v Hull City (h) - 29/12/2024

[MB Rover]

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:04, SpaceBarSlam said:

I worry about this team over the next few matches. Not necessarily just because of the quality of opponent, but imagine we lose the likes of Pickering, Hyam or Sonny to injury due to the sheer load and we're going to be very, very stretched. 

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Probably a typo but Pickering is already injured

[roversfan99]

  On 29/12/2024 at 20:38, chaddyrovers said:

Disappointed result and Rovers nowhere near their best today. First half, tempo too slow, players abit slow of the mark, etc. We have a chance with ACD, but nowhere near our best attacking wise. 

Also we kept messing around at the back instead of aiming long up to Gueye to try to win the flick on's or hold the ball up. But when he does, no-one near him. 

Second half, we upped our tempo and movement, we created 3 great chances and we should score at least 2 of them. Cantwell and Beck both should have scored. Then Hull scored just after Baker went off for Buckley which is not a change I would have made at nil - nil

I wasn't keen on Gueye starting over Ohashi. I also thought Eustace got his Buckley for Baker sub wrong and not something I would have done at 0-0. 

So even we only took a point over the 3 games, Its just show every time how unpredictable and any team can beat anyone at this level. We are capable of beating Leeds and Burnley, and its my heading tbh people writing our team under Eustace off before both game. 

Lets be honest, we are in the playoff places going into New Year, and a league position no-one expected to be in right now. This squad under Eustace leadership has been brilliant this season, yes today and Millwall results are disappointed but that is the championship and results can go this way. They will be plenty of up and downs but this isn't a death spiral at all. 

Lets get behind Eustace's blue and White Army 🔵⚪

 

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Surely you can at least understand why people think that the signs are there of a death spiral, and are pessimistic going into the next 2 games.

We have in each of the last 3 seasons seen results nosedive in the second half of the season. Our squad is underfunded and lacks the depth that others have. The owners also refuse to provide the funds for reinforcements when January comes around. Those 2 variables are very likely to remain. So its natural for people to fear what has happened before to happen again for the same reasons.

Also, we go into the next 2 games against 2 of the top 3 as clear underdogs. (I know we beat Leeds on the last 2 occasions and obviously football isnt as straightforward as that, but equally we should have beat Hull at home and couldnt) Our team isnt as good and our form has dipped in the last 3 games, with the really poor defeat at home to lowly Hull fresh in everyones minds. There are signs of our core group of players looking leggy and we have just suffered 2 big injuries, especially our captain.

People are behind the team, but it doesnt have to equate to thinking that we will win every game when chatting on here or down the pub.

Edited December 29, 2024 by roversfan99

[had.e.nuff]

I think today shows how thin the squad is we need more in the door asap ,Thought ACD at times looks unplayable but still looks a bit light weight some of the time, looked like a little boy chasing back when hull broke fprward just ran alongside without getting a foot in.

[SpaceBarSlam]

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:08, MB Rover said:

Probably a typo but Pickering is already injured

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*Beck

I was thinking left-back position and that we were already down one there. 

[Uddersfelt Blue]

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:14, had.e.nuff said:

I think today shows how thin the squad is we need more in the door asap ,Thought ACD at times looks unplayable but still looks a bit light weight some of the time, looked like a little boy chasing back when hull broke fprward just ran alongside without getting a foot in.

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ACD has a lot of skill but he’s always cutting in on his left foot when he could be taking players on the outside. 

[47er]

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:12, roversfan99 said:

Surely you can at least understand why people think that the signs are there of a death spiral, and are pessimistic going into the next 2 games.

We have in each of the last 3 seasons seen results nosedive in the second half of the season. Our squad is underfunded and lacks the depth that others have. The owners also refuse to provide the funds for reinforcements when January comes around. Those 2 variables are very likely to remain. So its natural for people to fear what has happened before to happen again for the same reasons.

Also, we go into the next 2 games against 2 of the top 3 as clear underdogs.

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If we lose to Burnley and Leeds (hardly unlikely) then we'll have taken one point from 5 games. That is a slump.

Can be arrested by some decent signings in January.

Without them we are going nowhere and we'll be looking back at that run of 6 wins in a row and thinking its put us clear of the relegation zone rather than putting us top 6.

[Upside Down]

  On 29/12/2024 at 23:13, 47er said:

If we lose to Burnley and Leeds (hardly unlikely) then we'll have taken one point from 5 games. That is a slump.

Can be arrested by some decent signings in January.

Without them we are going nowhere and we'll be looking back at that run of 6 wins in a row and thinking its put us clear of the relegation zone rather than putting us top 6.

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As a guy that doesn't bet, I'd put good money on us not bringing in any decent signings in January.

[Exiled_Rover]

Just watched the SKY highlights:

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/36395/13281299/blackburn-0-1-hull-championship-highlights

What the actual fuck? Makes it look like Hull were all over us - that was literally every shot they had. Where are the two sitters we missed?

[Exiled_Rover]

  On 29/12/2024 at 20:44, Upside Down said:

In all fairness it's like he's trying to stab someone with a deflated balloon.

We have absolutely nothing up front, no matter what formation or tactics we try we're still completely impotent when it comes to putting the ball in the net.

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That's a pretty apt description. 

Guys around me screaming for attacking changes on about 50 minutes and I just thought "who?"

Weimann's legs have gone (although he's clearly a very clever player), Hedges is awful, Leonard has been out for 9+ months and has 5 professional goals to his name and Ohashi.

You can see now why JDT used to turn to his bench and just shrug his shoulders. 

[MarkBRFC]

  On 29/12/2024 at 19:04, Forever Blue said:

Was it the start of the death spiral when we had a bad run before our good run? Oh I think I answered my own question. 

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If we take 1 point from 15 that is a slump and well on the way to the annual death spiral, whether you like it or not.

[davulsukur]

  On 29/12/2024 at 19:03, JCRovers said:

Just by looking at stats shows which players have been underperforming in and around the penalty area. Cantwell obviously has his qualities as a playmaker but has been wasteful when trying to be on the end of attacks. As expected, Ohashi can be seen as our best finisher but is struggling acting as a lone striker against physical teams who sit in a low- or mid-block (hence his fairly poor overall rating of 6.47).

Had a quick look at who's performing well in League One and one who immediately stood out was left-winger Louie Barry who's been playing for Stockport but just got recalled by Aston Villa; 50 % of his shots (67) is on target, scoring 15 goals (whereof four from the penalty spot). His overall rating is high (7.42, placing him third in the league and 1st among attacking players) suggesting that he's a consistent performer. Would be madness if we weren't looking to sign him on loan, especially given how well Jesurun Rak-Sakyi is doing at Sheffield Utd. after having spent a season on loan at Charlton. 

 

 

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Honestly, I think the entire championship will be trying to sign him. If Villa have now recalled him, they will already have someone lined up.

100% he won't be coming here.

[Penwortham Blue]

  On 30/12/2024 at 00:41, Exiled_Rover said:

Just watched the SKY highlights:

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/36395/13281299/blackburn-0-1-hull-championship-highlights

What the actual fuck? Makes it look like Hull were all over us - that was literally every shot they had. Where are the two sitters we missed?

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The 15 minutes on Sky is far more representative of the match, strangely didn’t show the Beck chance but everything else captured. No idea how Cantwell missed, he was coming on to the ball and could have put in anywhere, very poor.

[islander200]

  On 30/12/2024 at 00:48, Exiled_Rover said:

That's a pretty apt description. 

Guys around me screaming for attacking changes on about 50 minutes and I just thought "who?"

Weimann's legs have gone (although he's clearly a very clever player), Hedges is awful, Leonard has been out for 9+ months and has 5 professional goals to his name and Ohashi.

You can see now why JDT used to turn to his bench and just shrug his shoulders. 

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In fairness do we not have the most goals from subs in the championship this season?If not the most we are certainly in the top 3

[joey_big_nose]

Like Sunderland what was remarkable was how solid we were at the back until we conceded then completely fell apart. Hull probably should have scored a few.

Continuing the pattern really of recent managers where getting the first goal is so important. Cant believe Cantwell missed that opportunity, hes been brought in to score exactly those sorts of goal... Overall he we probably our worst player, very wasteful. I am a bit worried about him, doesnt seem on it.

Two massive games now. If we can come out with a couple of results Ill be quite confident about the playoffs. Does feel like we could be looking at two losses.

[johnradfordsubbuteo2]

Feeling low after that. We're an average team in an average but competitive league and most depressingly, not for the first time, our 2 best players are one season loans.

Even if our best players weren't on loan we'd sell them and not see reinvestment.

Groundhog...

[chaddyrovers]

  On 30/12/2024 at 00:41, Exiled_Rover said:

Just watched the SKY highlights:

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/36395/13281299/blackburn-0-1-hull-championship-highlights

What the actual fuck? Makes it look like Hull were all over us - that was literally every shot they had. Where are the two sitters we missed?

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I'm just watched the Sky highlights on the Sky Sports Football channel which do show very actual reflection of the game. 

  On 30/12/2024 at 00:48, Exiled_Rover said:

That's a pretty apt description. 

Guys around me screaming for attacking changes on about 50 minutes and I just thought "who?"

Weimann's legs have gone (although he's clearly a very clever player), Hedges is awful, Leonard has been out for 9+ months and has 5 professional goals to his name and Ohashi.

You can see now why JDT used to turn to his bench and just shrug his shoulders. 

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Eustace said we have top of the league in goals off the bench stat, so your comment that who? off the bench isn't actual true. 

 

[chaddyrovers]

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:12, roversfan99 said:

Surely you can at least understand why people think that the signs are there of a death spiral, and are pessimistic going into the next 2 games.

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nope tbh, we lost two games in 3 and a draw against a good team which is above us in the league. The 2 games we have lost have been tight games. 

Also I don't why any of you are pessimistic given we have Leeds and Burnley, after watching both games and them a few times we have NOTHING to fear and just to remind yourself and others we have beat Leeds at Ewood Park and we got a draw against that lot with 10 men. 

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:12, roversfan99 said:

We have in each of the last 3 seasons seen results nosedive in the second half of the season. Our squad is underfunded and lacks the depth that others have. The owners also refuse to provide the funds for reinforcements when January comes around. Those 2 variables are very likely to remain. So its natural for people to fear what has happened before to happen again for the same reasons.

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Our current squad is 5th in the league, that is down to those players and Eustace/and his staff. We have around 23/24 players in the first team squad, we just need to add 3 quality signings in January to help this squad out and kick us on to achieve Playoff place

previous seasons were different issues to this season. First season, Mowbray should have adapted and changed Formation to secure us that playoff place. Second season under JDT(his first season here), we lacked that quality striker and miss out on goal difference. Last season, its starting going wrong around Christmas time and JDT wouldn't changed his style or tactics to get us points plus they were falling outs behind the scenes. and then JDT final press interview. Eustace came in, and did the job he was bought in for which was keep us up which he delivered and now he has kick us on this season

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:12, roversfan99 said:

Also, we go into the next 2 games against 2 of the top 3 as clear underdogs. (I know we beat Leeds on the last 2 occasions and obviously football isnt as straightforward as that, but equally we should have beat Hull at home and couldnt) Our team isnt as good and our form has dipped in the last 3 games, with the really poor defeat at home to lowly Hull fresh in everyones minds. There are signs of our core group of players looking leggy and we have just suffered 2 big injuries, especially our captain.

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Burnley were awful last night and not as great as everyone thinks. Are Leeds that good? We beaten these twice under Eustace. He will knew how he will set up. 

  On 29/12/2024 at 22:12, roversfan99 said:

People are behind the team, but it doesnt have to equate to thinking that we will win every game when chatting on here or down the pub.

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I know the supporters are behind the team, We seen their support all season and will do for the Dingles game. 

[roversfan99]

  On 30/12/2024 at 10:05, chaddyrovers said:

nope tbh, we lost two games in 3 and a draw against a good team which is above us in the league. The 2 games we have lost have been tight games. 

Also I don't why any of you are pessimistic given we have Leeds and Burnley, after watching both games and them a few times we have NOTHING to fear and just to remind yourself and others we have beat Leeds at Ewood Park and we got a draw against that lot with 10 men. 

Our current squad is 5th in the league, that is down to those players and Eustace/and his staff. We have around 23/24 players in the first team squad, we just need to add 3 quality signings in January to help this squad out and kick us on to achieve Playoff place

previous seasons were different issues to this season. First season, Mowbray should have adapted and changed Formation to secure us that playoff place. Second season under JDT(his first season here), we lacked that quality striker and miss out on goal difference. Last season, its starting going wrong around Christmas time and JDT wouldn't changed his style or tactics to get us points plus they were falling outs behind the scenes. and then JDT final press interview. Eustace came in, and did the job he was bought in for which was keep us up which he delivered and now he has kick us on this season

Burnley were awful last night and not as great as everyone thinks. Are Leeds that good? We beaten these twice under Eustace. He will knew how he will set up. 

I know the supporters are behind the team, We seen their support all season and will do for the Dingles game. 

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Clearly you cant and never have been able to even understand anything other than opinions purely focusing on positives.

As I said, in the last 3 seasons our points accumulation has considerably gone downhill post christmas. We have struggled to sustain how we have started seasons. So when we get 1 point from 3, I understand why people might fear another slide.

Its not about fearing the 2 upcoming games, but they are objectively the favourites in both. There is more chance of a loss than a win. Doesnt mean we WILL lose. Leeds have 13 points more than us and Burnley have 10 so both are clearly stronger.

[arbitro]

  On 30/12/2024 at 09:10, Penwortham Blue said:

The 15 minutes on Sky is far more representative of the match, strangely didn’t show the Beck chance but everything else captured. No idea how Cantwell missed, he was coming on to the ball and could have put in anywhere, very poor.

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I haven't seen it back but my impression in real time was that he blasted it rather than concentrating on placement. It kind of summed up his afternoon.

Frankly I expect better from him.

[chaddyrovers]

  On 30/12/2024 at 10:52, roversfan99 said:

Clearly you cant and never have been able to even understand anything other than opinions purely focusing on positives.

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It's nothing about positive RF99 but having different opinions and I don't think we should be writing our chances off against Leeds and Burnley, they aren't quite as good as some on here think so. 

  On 30/12/2024 at 10:52, roversfan99 said:

As I said, in the last 3 seasons our points accumulation has considerably gone downhill post christmas. We have struggled to sustain how we have started seasons. So when we get 1 point from 3, I understand why people might fear another slide.

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Each of those 3 seasons were very different and we went downhill for different seasons. None were the same. 

Like I said both losses were tight game and yesterday game, we take our chances we win, if ACD shot in the first half goes in, we win the game, Cantwell scores, we win. That's the fine margins of football

  On 30/12/2024 at 10:52, roversfan99 said:

Its not about fearing the 2 upcoming games, but they are objectively the favourites in both. There is more chance of a loss than a win. Doesnt mean we WILL lose. Leeds have 13 points more than us and Burnley have 10 so both are clearly stronger.

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Favourites for games on paper don't win. simple as. Eustace can and proven he can set a team up to beat Leeds twice. Only Leeds out of the top 8 won yesterday. This league is unpredictable as ever and why I enjoyed it so much. 

I watched Burnley last night and there is nothing to fear and they aren't that good. Same as Leeds. Just to remind you again, we have taken 4 points of Leeds and Burnley 

[Exiled_Rover]

  On 30/12/2024 at 09:12, islander200 said:

In fairness do we not have the most goals from subs in the championship this season?If not the most we are certainly in the top 3

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16 different goal scorers and 9 goals from subs. 

Eustace is doing an incredible job squeezing everything he can from this group of very limited players.

[DE.]

The Cantwell expectations are interesting. I always expected an inconsistent player who occasionally shows talent but only in fleeting bursts because... well, if he was consistent we wouldn't have been able to sign him for a bargain basement price at an age where he should be at his peak as a player. If it was just an attitude problem someone other than us would have taken a chance on him for the peanuts he was being sold for. 

Not too dissimilar situation to Siggy tbh. A lot of expectation, but the reality is that he wouldn't have come here on a free transfer if he was that good. Granted I would say Siggy just doesn't have the work ethic, whereas Cantwell does, but I also don't think he's a consistently good player either. 

[Forever Blue]

  On 30/12/2024 at 12:16, DE. said:

The Cantwell expectations are interesting. I always expected an inconsistent player who occasionally shows talent but only in fleeting bursts because... well, if he was consistent we wouldn't have been able to sign him for a bargain basement price at an age where he should be at his peak as a player. If it was just an attitude problem someone other than us would have taken a chance on him for the peanuts he was being sold for. 

Not too dissimilar situation to Siggy tbh. A lot of expectation, but the reality is that he wouldn't have come here on a free transfer if he was that good. Granted I would say Siggy just doesn't have the work ethic, whereas Cantwell does, but I also don't think he's a consistently good player either. 

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You could say that for most attacking players in the Championship. The key difference is that he’ll have more quality on his good days than other similar players.

The other difference is that the other attackers around him in the team are L1 standard for most of the season.  Apart from the occasional good game by Dolan and the occasional goal by Ohashi there’s not much else for him to play off. ACD hasn’t really played enough at this point to judge either way. 

[DE.]

  On 30/12/2024 at 12:24, Forever Blue said:

You could say that for most attacking players in the Championship. The key difference is that he’ll have more quality on his good days than other similar players.

The other difference is that the other attackers around him in the team are L1 standard for most of the season.  Apart from the occasional good game by Dolan and the occasional goal by Ohashi there’s not much else for him to play off. ACD hasn’t really played enough at this point to judge either way. 

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Indeed so - but I'd say that's a reasonable expectation, that he's a Championship level midfielder with occasional flashes of PL quality. Based on that I think he's doing alright, no worse than I anticipated when he arrived anyway, and I'd say in terms of work ethic he's better than I was expecting. 

Fact is even when we did have genuine PL quality players in the team - the likes of Josh King, Tom Cairney,  Harvey Elliot - we still didn't get anywhere because other areas of the team (and usually the manager) weren't right. I don't think Cantwell will come close to showing his true potential here because he doesn't have enough support, and his ability isn't so high that he can literally win games for a team regularly, like Amad was doing at Sunderland a couple of seasons back. The club would need significant investment in the attacking areas to really make use of a player like Cantwell, and we all know that ain't coming. 

[RevidgeBlue]

  On 30/12/2024 at 12:16, DE. said:

The Cantwell expectations are interesting. I always expected an inconsistent player who occasionally shows talent but only in fleeting bursts because... well, if he was consistent we wouldn't have been able to sign him for a bargain basement price at an age where he should be at his peak as a player. If it was just an attitude problem someone other than us would have taken a chance on him for the peanuts he was being sold for. 

Not too dissimilar situation to Siggy tbh. A lot of expectation, but the reality is that he wouldn't have come here on a free transfer if he was that good. Granted I would say Siggy just doesn't have the work ethic, whereas Cantwell does, but I also don't think he's a consistently good player either. 

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The rumours are that Cantwell will be on a much higher wage than Sigurdsson and indeed the rest of the squad though so to be honest  I don't think we can afford  to carry him whether or not the fee for him appeared relatively cheap.

He was meant to be our talisman not a passenger.