v Coventry City (h) - 21/01/25, k/o 19:45

[M_B]

Absolutely have to score first in the traditional opening salvo.

Expecting yet another typical midweek Championship trudge, another like Portsmouth in the "just win it" category.

A win for Rovers and an oh so predictable Boro/West Brom draw could make it a good Tuesday evening.

[Ossydave]

Struggling to see us win a game till Travis is back now, although even then he’ll take a while to get back up to speed. You can’t really perform in the championship without a half decent midfield and I don’t think we have that with Forshaw in it.

1 nil defeat

 

[roversfan99]

With the side we are likely to/likely to be able to select its hard to go in with any confidence.

Maybe a typical Thomas Asante winner now he has been linked here and has managed to get back in the Coventry side in the meantime and presumably make that impossible.

[roverblue]

Squad looking really thin now and can’t see anyone coming in before this one. Will go for a 1-1 and a turgid Tuesday night game where I wished I had stayed home.

[philipl]

Coventry gave a stronger Rovers than we can field this week and absolute battering in our away fixture.

I'd be tempted to stick Sanderson in alongside Buckley in midfield. At least he will get the crowd going and will disrupt any plans Coventry may have had. 

[lraC]

I think we are about to see, how important Tronstad has been to our mean defence. I predict that we are about to start conceding a few more, starting with this one and given your goal scoring struggles, fear the worst. 

[ruggles1995]

my prediction rovers 0 - 2 Cov. 
With Tronstad and Travis both out, think we will struggle to collect points until one is back. Based on the 60 minutes I saw of Forshaw think were going to be easily played through, and that strong back 4 we think we have might not look so strong with lack of protection.  (I feel Eustace will pick him over JRC)

HOPE IM WRONG!
Still no need to panic what so ever, injuries are part of the league campaign, just need to whether the storm until we get trav or tronstad back. Look at QPR! their 6 points from playoffs out of nowhere, and we have already proven we can put a run together if everyone's available. Also as bad as we were 2nd half Saturday against a side flying btw! we dont exactly pull too many trees up when we do "perform", its just how we are set up, without that deflection, and if tronstad stays on the pitch I think we grind that 0-0 out. 

Edited Monday at 09:06 by ruggles1995

[davulsukur]

Injuries and lack of squad depth are crippling us, plus Coventry have the Indian sign over us.

-------------------Pears

Brittain---Batth----Hyam----Beck

-------Sanderson----Buckley

Dolan--------Cantwell-------Hedges

-------------------Gueye

You could replace any of Hedges, Dolan or Gueye with ACD or Weimann, it makes very little difference in the grand scheme of things.

Stick Sanderson in a holding midfield role and give Buckely the licence to push forward.

[joey_big_nose]

Coventry are such a bogey side for us. One of the worst we could play with the side in disarray from injuries. 

Feels like we may change things up and go 352 given massive midfield challenges and Sanderson looking a decent player. 

                               Pears

          Sanderson    Baath     Hyam   

Brittain          Buckley       JRC          Beck

            Dolan       Gueye      Hedges

 

Feeling like the workload is really putting Baath, Hyam, Brittain and Beck at risk. Cantwell needs dropping, he's had a few good spells in games like the second half against Portsmouth but overall he's probably been our worst player over the last six games or so.

[Mattyblue]

It’s away games where Cantwell really struggles, often the case with that type of player.

Edited Monday at 10:01 by Mattyblue

[joey_big_nose]

41 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Injuries and lack of squad depth are crippling us, plus Coventry have the Indian sign over us.

-------------------Pears

Brittain---Batth----Hyam----Beck

-------Sanderson----Buckley

Dolan--------Cantwell-------Hedges

-------------------Gueye

You could replace any of Hedges, Dolan or Gueye with ACD or Weimann, it makes very little difference in the grand scheme of things.

Stick Sanderson in a holding midfield role and give Buckely the licence to push forward.

According to whoscored Sanderson has never played centre midfield in his life... would be a massive call to put him in there and given how hugely centre back (positionally rigid, ball always in front of you, only need to play simple passes, usually not too much pressure etc) is different from centre mid (receive ball and turn, immediate pressure, find clever passes, positionally fluid) it does not seem like it will happen. 

https://www.whoscored.com/players/384128/show/dion-sanderson

Still remember with joy when Ferdinand (best ball playing English centre back of his generation) got completely owned in midfield at Ewood. A truly great day!

 

[TheRevAshton]

With Travis and Tronstad both out, Cov' will run the show in the middle.

They have pacey full-backs, so our wingers will be completely ineffective.

Can't see anything but a Coventry win and clean sheet here, i'll go with a 0-2 loss... and in classic Rovers fashion, it'll obviously be Brandon Thomas-Asante who scores both.

Edited Monday at 10:03 by TheRevAshton

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

14 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Coventry are such a bogey side for us. One of the worst we could play with the side in disarray from injuries. 

Feels like we may change things up and go 352 given massive midfield challenges and Sanderson looking a decent player. 

                               Pears

          Sanderson    Baath     Hyam   

Brittain          Buckley       JRC          Beck

            Dolan       Gueye      Hedges

 

Feeling like the workload is really putting Baath, Hyam, Brittain and Beck at risk. Cantwell needs dropping, he's had a few good spells in games like the second half against Portsmouth but overall he's probably been our worst player over the last six games or so.

My heart drops when I see the front three but it’s all we have. Weimann is good for 20 to 30 minutes as is ACD. Leonard ditto.

[davulsukur]

24 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

According to whoscored Sanderson has never played centre midfield in his life... would be a massive call to put him in there and given how hugely centre back (positionally rigid, ball always in front of you, only need to play simple passes, usually not too much pressure etc) is different from centre mid (receive ball and turn, immediate pressure, find clever passes, positionally fluid) it does not seem like it will happen. 

https://www.whoscored.com/players/384128/show/dion-sanderson

Still remember with joy when Ferdinand (best ball playing English centre back of his generation) got completely owned in midfield at Ewood. A truly great day!

 

I agree it's a risk and it probably wont happen but we already know that playing Forshaw won't work.

Ferdinand failed but John Stones has succeeded, as did Phil Jones for us. Some players can do it, some can't. 

[ben_the_beast]

To be honest, I'd take 0-0 draws in any of our upcoming matches. Feels as though we just need to hobble on until a few players return from injury. 

[BlackburnEnd75]

3 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

To be honest, I'd take 0-0 draws in any of our upcoming matches. Feels as though we just need to hobble on until a few players return from injury. 

As someone else has said above. We're about to find out how important tronstad is to our defensive record. 

I'd also take a clean sheet and hope for the best.

[BlackburnEnd75]

Which sub par attacking players will eustace put out?

Which combination of misfits will he use to fill the hole left by Travis and tronstad? 

How can we get some energy back into the side with a tight turn around, a knackered squad and no reinforcements?

Feels like questions with no answers for JE. But as always I predict he'll suprise me with what we can produce. 

Not looking forward to this one nonetheless.

[onlyonejackwalker]

This season depending on what result we have just had and who is posting;

Pears isn't good enough. Brittain isn't good enough. Hyam isn't good enough. Tronstad isn't good enough. Hedges isn't good enough. Dolan isn't good enough. JRC isn't good enough. ACD isn't good enough. Cantwell isn't good enough. Gueye isn't good enough. Leonard isn't good enough. Ohasho isn't good enough. Forshaw isn't good enough. Sigurdsson isn't good enough.

Batth, Beck, Travis, Toth and Sanderson are currently good enough. 

Miraculously we are 5th with 14 players who aren't good enough. Eustace gets all the credit, but has still not played any minutes.

Looks like im in the minority but I fully expect us to bounce straight back after the 1-0 loss to Oxford.

Rovers 2 Coventry 1. 

 

 

[Mattyblue]

Apart from Rev who’s being silly, who doesn’t think Tronstadt is good enough? Or Brittain? Or Hyam?

But generally, yes, we obviously over analyse our own players as they are the ones we care about and see every week. But outside the parachute clubs the whole league is full of average, journeymen footballers, it’s why they play at this level. Ours can’t be uniquely crap or we wouldn’t be 5th on the 20th January, regardless of Eustace.

[RoversTilliDie]

1 hour ago, onlyonejackwalker said:

This season depending on what result we have just had and who is posting;

Pears isn't good enough. Brittain isn't good enough. Hyam isn't good enough. Tronstad isn't good enough. Hedges isn't good enough. Dolan isn't good enough. JRC isn't good enough. ACD isn't good enough. Cantwell isn't good enough. Gueye isn't good enough. Leonard isn't good enough. Ohasho isn't good enough. Forshaw isn't good enough. Sigurdsson isn't good enough.

Batth, Beck, Travis, Toth and Sanderson are currently good enough. 

Miraculously we are 5th with 14 players who aren't good enough. Eustace gets all the credit, but has still not played any minutes.

Looks like im in the minority but I fully expect us to bounce straight back after the 1-0 loss to Oxford.

Rovers 2 Coventry 1. 

 

 

Have you been drinking at the weekend, you've more confidence than me, after watching rovers the last 4 or 5 games, Coventry will be up for this one after there win at weekend. I hope your right and we bounce back, but we'll have to step up a gear or two to get past Coventry

 

[martonrover]

Bypass the midfield and hoof it up to Gueye to head on.

That’s probably our best hope.

[...]

https://youtu.be/-OYVto3HqWA?feature=shared

[Hasta]

Getting difficult now. I think we will go
 

                      Pears

 Brittain   Hyam.  Batth.   Beck

              Toth    Hilton

ACD.          Cantwell.        Hedges

                     Gueye

[JamieUK]

I think I'd go 3 at the back too but I can't see it.

Expecting the same back 7 after Tronstad went off. All combinations for the front 4 have tried and failed but would like to see JRC start on the RW, Cantwell stays - involved in all the goals last home game, Gueye has to start given the midfield is so shite he at least provides a target to bypass them. Left side - not Wiemann (too many games in row) or ACD (not shown enough) so expect it'll be Dolan/Hedges. I'd be starting the lad who got his debut against Middlesborough though. Never seen anything of him but he can't be much worse. I would also be bringing Dunn Jr off the bench for 20+ minutes too. It hammers the point to the board that our current fit 3rd choice midfielder is a 16 year old yet to play for the first team. My thoughts are Garrett stays until the end of the season too - doesn't need to be registered because of his age so keeps options open for other transfers and frankly, he's needed here. He'd be in my side tomorrow instead of Forshaw.

 

Prediction: 0-2 and home before 10pm.

[Rover down South]

                             Pears

           Hyam     Sanderson     Batth

Brittain                Buckley                   Beck

                     JRC         Cantwell

                   Wiemann   Gueye

 

Not a formation we have played, but I’d play two up top and hope that Wiemann can feed off Gueye. 
 

Not confident of a results, but Forshaw not a starter for me, Hedges I don’t rate and Dolan was poor against Cov last time. Portsmouth game aside, we don’t score many so would change a bit here.

Edited yesterday at 08:22 by Rover down South