Plenty of Championship clubs out already to lower league clubs. In fact the only ones who have made it through so far have done so by knocking out other second-tier sides. 

This will be a big banana skin with all the changes that we'll be making. Hopefully the incoming Dack, Markanday, Dolan and Vale will be hungry to take their chance and that will see us through.

0-2 Rovers. 

15 minutes ago, BRFC4EVA said:

TM used to frustrate the hell out of me in these legue cup games as he would somehow contrive to get the worst of both worlds. He wouldn't play many youngsters, yet would manage to get us knocked out QST round every year. 

Whilst it is not a priority, I'd like us to go 3 or 4 rounds as it is an opportunity for the youngsters to play men's football and give fringe players an opportunity to show what they can do.

Agree with most of the XIs that give Edun, Phillips, JRC, dack, Morton, Garret, A Wharton, Dolan, DM and Vale some minutes. Would also like to see Butterworth too.

FA cup too. Wigan away last year was most of the same team that beat Bournemouth a couple of weeks earlier.

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Pears should never play for us again.

I had to listen to the SKY commentator introduce a Wigan substitute as "You may remember the great goal he scored against Blackburn last season in the FA Cup" the other day.

After throwing two into the back of his own net, Pears was so out of position for that strike that I could have scored it. 

Up there with the worst keeper's performance I've ever seen from a Rovers player. Woeful.

If we're not willing to play him in a game like this though, we might as well not have him at all though. It doesn't look like we're after another one, so I think he'll probably play. At least it can't be as bad as last time!

Butterworth's been extremely unlucky with the timing and severity of his injures. Even so, he's turning 23 in September and is yet to do anything beyond a couple of promising cameos (and an equal number of pretty poor ones).

If he's behind Vale now, I think his time is up. As with Davenport, I hope he has far more luck at his next club, because there is some talent there that can be nurtured. 

4 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

Now the FA Cup is a different story, last time we made it past the third round was 2016-17, and the last time we won a game in that competition was December 2017 in the second round against Crewe.

Pretty abysmal that - especially because we had so many good moments in the cup under Bowyer. 

Just now, rigger said:

Last chance saloon for JRC, maybe.

I'd like to see him get a few chances as an attacking midfielder. That's meant to be his proper position, and it doesn't seem as though his body will ever let him play as a wingback/attacking fullback which is more physically demanding. 

Well down the pecking order at present, obviously, but with a few injuries and with five subs being brought it, he'll get his chance at some stage. 

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I would have thought he’ll play from the start against Hartlepools. Maybe JDT will use the game as a way of finding a way of playing that incorporates Dack. Maybe JDT will really take cup games seriously. We’ll find out soon enough.

I'm not usually one for advocating massive changes in cup games, but I'd be more than happy with us freshening things up as much as we can with our squad, if only to give a few players the chance to show what they can do. Ideally starts for Dack, Vale, Markanday, Morton and Edun at the very least. Good cases for a few others too.

It's far too early in the season to be thinking about having more in the tank than the opposition, but West Brom play against Sheffield United on the Thursday, as well as tonight in the league. They'll probably make a few changes in the cup, but there will also be a few who will play twice before we face them this Sunday. Three games in six days for some of them vs a whole week to prepare for the lads that we rest against Hartlepool. Might give us a slight additional edge, even at this time of year. 

Just now, Trinidad Rover said:

All quite exciting isn’t it.

JDT is now on record saying we will bring more players in and the key point, we will be ‘stronger’. None of us seem to have a clue which players that will be. Enjoy the ride!

I can’t see BBD leaving now. Venkys are stubborn and money seems to be no object so him leaving for free seems the most likely outcome.

A big question mark for me is what JDT does with Dack. Concern if he isn’t in his plans he is a big character in the dressing room and could start a rot. He seems a bit stuck in the L1 days where he was a big fish in a Danny Graham and Charlie Mulgrew sized pond. There is no doubting his ability and would love him to take on thsu challenge and step up - over to you Brad.

We'll see. You could be right, but I can see a scenario where someone gets desperate close to the deadline. I'd like to think that we'll have enough about us with Broughton to anticipate this and be ready to bring in his replacement quickly if such a situation arises. 

13 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

I would think that Armstrong is perhaps one of the least popular players in a Rovers shirt in recent years considering his personal performances on the pitch.

Unsure if maybe the fact that much of his goalscoring came when it was behind closed doors, and also if because we tend to (by luck or by judgement) tend to regularly have goalscorers, even Rhodes, Graham, Dack and now Brereton that the crazy goal tally that he scored is somewhat underappreciated.

Not overly surprised that like Rhodes he was unable to make the step up, it is a huge step that most Championship players suffer with.

Think you've hit the nail on the head there - he was pretty popular player before the lockdown and the start of his really prolific form, so I think he would've got plenty of adulation from fans had they actually been there to show it. 

Pleased to hear that Edun had a decent cameo. Didn't really impress much at all last year, especially after his injury, so hopefully it was just a case of acclimatising to a new league. 

23 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Correct decision making at speed under pressure is what separates the average players from the top class ones. Khadra’s decision making wasn’t that of a top player. He got more wrong than he got right.

I remember watching New Zealand v Australia at Rugby League. Australia were losing by about 2 points with 10 seconds of the game to go. They mounted an attack were  about 6 players all handled the ball. Each player had to decide when and where to pass, which player to pass to. Pass inside or pass outside etc. This was all done at amazing speed and every player in the move got the critical decisions right. If any one of those players had made a mistake the move would have broken down. Result - a match winning try in the corner.

Completely agree. Wigan scored in in the last second to beat St Helens in a classic Good Friday game a while back in similar fashion. Separates the best from the also rans.

Back to football - there are however decent careers to be made from power and pace, even if they're missing the key bit between the ears. Josh King looked even worse for a spell when he was here, but getting slightly more clinical alongside being a physical freak took him a long way. Khadra's so quick that he might do the same. 

41 minutes ago, BigBar said:

Sound familiar? 😉

Ha! I did think that whilst typing to be fair.

Although I think the number of games where Buckley had a positive effect was bigger than Khadra's, and his errors/anonymous games didn't tend to be as bad.

An interesting question might be how would we feel if Buckley was a prem youngster we got on loan, like Khadra was. How would we rate his contribution? I think the consensus would be that he needs to get greater consistency, but was probably on his way to an impressive top-flight career at some stage. Khadra, the jury is still out. Some fantastic elements to his game, but as @Tyrone Shoelaces has said, his flaws are harder to iron out than Buckley's. 

Just now, BigBar said:

Gally gets panned on here and I'm on the fence, Buckley had a similar season to him. Add Khadra, Pickering, Dolan into that and a few other also rans.

Think this will just come down to a difference of opinion. Gally had a better season by his standards, but for me was below Buckley. The others you mention even more so - Khadra had a small number of great games, but overall had long spells not contributing or making silly decisions in the final third. 

I don't want to sound like he's the finished product - I think that's what makes him so exciting - and he did fade with the rest of the team after Christmas. But last year was a massive step forward for him, and I think he is one of maybe three or four players that we have that literally every team in the league would take if we offered them.

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Leonard looked quality in his brief cameo during the pre-season. Better than Vale.

Don't we have a LB that's highly rated too?

 

That'll be Jake Batty I expect. Picked for England at his age group.

7 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Clubs circling around to take Keinan Davis on a loan. He would add unreal value to us if we could do it. Probably end up at Boro

Absolutely bullied us at Ewood. As good as Van Hecke was, he did have a small number of games where he looked like fish out of water and one of those was when he came up against Davis. 

8 minutes ago, BigBar said:

Buckley not even in the top 5 performers last year yet some on here are being force fed the narrative we can't see what others with superior football intelligence can. Can you tell me who else I should rate that isn't putting in consistent performances so we can all catch up?

I think you could easily argue that he was to be fair. Certainly as far as the attack and midfield go, there was only Brereton who I'd have in front of him. I'd have him in the top five alongside Brereton and the back three. 

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

They used to excuse Scholes when he committed a bad foul. “ He doesn’t know how to tackle “. Bollocks - he knew exactly what he was doing. 

Nasty player because he had to be. Despite being the best of the lot, he didn't even get in that Man United youth team XI because players used to just run over him. You can see their coaches telling him endlessly that he needs to find a way to not be bullied, because that would be the only thing that would stop him being a player.

It's a different game now, but I wonder if Buckley's poor discipline can be attributed to a similar thing. I suppose a lot of Buckley's cards have come more through petulance rather than bad fouls, but there have been a few of those too.

3 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

I'd love to be arsed to go back 10 months on here to see what everyone was saying about JR.....From what I remember he was the dogs bollocks and now he a load of shit....🙈

Yeah - whereas in reality neither is really true. 

He definitely flattered to deceive. If Buckley drifts in and out of games, Rothwell was on a different level. For a player who got himself into so many good attacking positions, you'd expect him to score and create more than he did. 

BUT the way that he could travel with the ball from deep did play a huge part in our good early season form. Similarly to Buckley too, just because he isn't involved in the final ball doesn't mean that he hasn't played a vital role earlier in creating the chance. 

I think he's a good level Championship player, no point pretending that he's no good just because he binned us off. 

Just now, 47er said:

Scholes in a different class defensively. Buckley's strength is the ability to pick out "that pass".

 

Seeing Buckley's pointless yellow card last weekend screamed Paul Scholes to me!

I think you're right that Scholes got stuck in more, but on the ball and how they play, there are some real crossovers I think.

(Which isn't to say that Buckley's in his class - obviously. Although at the same time the world class version of Scholes which everyone remembers only really developed in his mid-20s).

39 minutes ago, BigBar said:

My eyes and ability to not just tell myself something I want to be true. Not enough assists, not enough goals, went missing so often, missed multiple one on ones, dilly dallied in possession countless times. You disagree?

I'm a huge Buckley fan, but I think saying he should score/assist more is a fair criticism. He was playing further up the pitch last year than Rothwell, so he should be contributing decent numbers.

That said, I think the dilly dallying on the ball is something that he doesn't really do anymore. He keeps possession excellently and hardly ever gives it away unless it's when he's playing a through ball.

I see Buckley as a bit of a poundshop Paul Scholes. His goals/assists actually aren't that fantastic, but will play a crucial role earlier on in the move and is vital at making the team tick.

31 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Great post. If a young player as an individual is deemed to be good enough then he will break through either way, every summer with this one particularly bad, we have this thing where people say we don't need to replace x number of senior departees because our young players will all simultaneously step up.

That R number is a load of nonsense. If you start measuring targets like that, there becomes a very real chance of that objective conflicting with that of winning football matches.

Probably, but not necessarily at Rovers!

James Beattie had an amazing career, for all the good it did us. 

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

The thing is, the benchmark is always to revert to being "as good" as last season. 

I personally don't think that we were strong enough in central midfield last season, and got lucky with injuries/suspensions. Surely the aim is to be better than last season?

Fair comment - although Buckley being seen as a deeper midfielder and not a false 9/attacker arguably strengthens it, depending on how you rate Rothwell. 

11 minutes ago, SuperBrfc said:

As soon as I see somebody hesitate to bring in quality because they 'don't want to block the pathways', that's when I know we are on to a loser. That is what Broughton displayed a few days ago, in my view.

An extreme example, as he was a top class manager, but remember when Wenger refused to properly replace Vieira, Henry and Co because he "didn't want to block the pathway of the youngsters"? They persisted with those youngsters and went to shit (relative to their ambitions) and have been floundering for 18 years without a league title.

In our case, we've been floundering for 12 years and look set to add a few more to that as Broughton feeds us some guff about a youth project and "measures of success".

I'm not convinced that any of this lot (aside from JDT, maybe) are serious about promotion. It looks like it is all about developing kids, getting them minutes and hoping to sell them on for big fees further down the line.

You only have to read/listen to Broughton's spiel to understand what he sees as success.

One of the first things he said when he arrived was that Rovers would have to overachieve to make it to the Premier League. Inspirational stuff and exactly what you want to hear.

Next, he talked about how almost 40 percent of the minutes played by the Rovers squad last season were from Academy players, and how that needed to be maintained this season. Why? Is the aim to win football matches and try and go up or to give minutes to youngsters and crow about how many first teamers are from the Academy?

On a podcast about his time at Bodo, he talks about how one of the ways of measuring success was by looking at the 'R number' of the Football Club. That is done at any stage, over a five year average, by looking at how many young players from the Academy are in the first team. The more, the better, for the 'R number'. What a load of bollocks! I thought football was about trying to be the best, though? I've obviously had it wrong for all of these years.

Just like the 40 percent quote about the Rovers first team, he proudly mentioned how Bodo had 35 percent of their first team made up of North Norwegians from their Academy. This guy will do stuff all, IMO, and won't help us to get promoted. As long as the youngsters are getting game time, it's all good.

Bear in mind, he turned up at Luton when they had just finished outside the play offs in the Championship. They went on to suffer three successive relegations whilst he was there. Not saying it was all on him, clearly. However, in his own words, he had the autonomy to implement the vision of the Academy. Three relegations. Yet he takes the fact that youngsters got first team football and brought increased financial value to the club as plusses. Three relegations, but the above are positives. That should serve as a warning sign, in my opinion.

We missed out on Anel, Davies, many of us are after Van Hecke and another quality defender. Will he want to 'block the pathway' for Carter and Phillips by bringing in a couple of quality defenders? I highly doubt it. I'm expecting another cheap loan back there.

Our DoF would do well to remember what Alan Hansen said, and it still applies today 27 years on:

"You can't win anything with kids".

Respect your opinion, but I think it's too black and white. 

Bringing through youth players isn't an inherently good or bad thing - it depends on how good the kids are! I don't think anybody would advocate playing Garrett, Wharton or Carter unless there was a reasonable expectation that they will soon be worth their place in the side.  

Obviously it doesn't always work, but we've had our fingers burned by not giving young players enough chances. Josh King and Jack O'Connell to take two examples both turned into good premier league players pretty soon after they left Rovers, and we let them slip through our fingers by not playing them enough. As well as costing us very good players who could get us out of the league, those decisions also cost us potentially tens of millions of pounds that could've been crucial in funding a serious promotion bid. 

Given the financial advantage that relegated clubs will always have over us, we can't afford to be wasting assets that we already have on our books in my view. 

1 hour ago, Mellor Rover said:

My team for the Swans:

Kaminski

Brittain Ayala Wharton Pickering

Travis Buckley

Dolan Szmodics Brereton

Gallagher

Subs: Pears, Phillips, Edun, Morton, Dack, Hedges, Vale

That probably makes the most sense to me, but I'm sorry to see Markanday drop out altogether. If I were JDT I'd be saying to him that he'll be starting (hopefully with Dack) against Hartlepool and that's his chance to show what he can do. 

10 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

The continually repeated notion that whether we sell or don't sell BBD for £15 million won't affect our budget at all is a delusion.

Would be interesting to know how our budget for this season was arrived at - but I'd guess that had we not sold Armstrong & we let him go for nowt this summer, then I suspect the budget would be smaller.

We might be saying something similar next year with Ben, depending on what happens this summer.