1 hour ago, glen9mullan said:

Fantastic performance, and if we can play like that Saturday and get a result regardless of the QPR game Friday we take this to the last game of the season.

If I block out the previous 44 games, i'd have taken that in August.

We can talk about the if's, buts, Could of, Should of but that result last night especially clawing back on the goal difference has certainly given the the last two games a pulse.

I've posted a lot of frustration, annoyance, and if anything a lot of somewhat negative thoughts the last few weeks.

However, i'm going to park all that for now, its all very valid, but now is not the time for the inquest.

Waking up with a bounce in my step, excited for the weekend and dreaming the near impossible is a feeling I want to savour, even if its just for a few days or couple of weeks.

Sam Gallagher was a warrior last night, he has taken his fair share of grief from me, but will he ever score a more important goal for us?

Three academy lads on the scoresheet, 

Local rivals absolutely tonked in their own back yard.

Rothwell, sublime, he maybe off, he may have gone off the boil, but last night he was majestic.

Proud of them all after that

 

I'm glad you mentioned Gallagher. He showed when Brereton was out that he can't be relied upon to be the main man up front if/when Ben goes, but his work on and off the ball yesterday was top class and deserved his goal.

Agree too about parking the inquest until the end of the season, although it's really hard to watch the performance yesterday and think what if.

Putting aside the poor performances, the number of games when we were either unlucky or shot ourselves in the foot from either a winning position or when we had gilt edged chances to win is extraordinary. Coventry x2, Luton (h), Sheff U (a), Swansea (a), Bristol City (h), Peterborough (a). Three points taken from twenty-one, when even just a handful more would've comfortably seen us still in the top 6. 

Still, after yesterday I'm happy at least that the fat lady isn't singing just yet. If QPR get anything this Friday then I might start believing again. 

6 minutes ago, Dan said:

I’m not so sure there aren't comparisons to be made. Mowbray and his mates are using Rovers for their own personal(financial) gain. Mowbray is a horrible man, with an evil vindictive personality. He doesn’t have the clubs best interest at heart and has contempt for the supporters. Seems we still have agents running the club that have ties back to Anderson and Kean, Mowbray is part of the same agency.
 

I believe Kean was worse, but many times in the last few years I’ve started to dislike Mowbray as much, I’ve seen straight through the nice guy act.   

We need to replace Mowbray as a priority because of repeated spells of poor form on the pitch, but there isn't anything like enough evidence to be making statements like that. Kean's agenda was as clear as day well before he eventually left, with plenty of evidence to back it up. You simply can't say the same about Mowbray, even though he's been here for more than five years. 

1 hour ago, TruRover said:

This summer is a rebuild no doubt about it - however I think the strength of our academy puts us in decent shape for it. Basing us off a classic 4231 position as with what we have next season I feel it would work best.

Kaminski 

NEW - Carter - Wharton - Pickering 

Travis - Buckley 

Markandy - Dack - Diaz 

Gally 

First and foremost I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that Diaz stays. We probably value him at the 20million mark, though his lack of playing time and goals in the 2nd half of the season may put teams off. It wouldn’t surprise me if no team gets close to our valuation. The ideal scenario for me would be getting van Hecke and Khadra in a swap deal for him. 

There is no doubt that we need a new RB to replace Nyambe - and personally Zeefuik hasn’t proven himself to fork out a couple of million on him. I wouldn’t be opposed to another loan for him but I would personally go for Drameh from leeds (currently on loan at Cardiff). 
 

If van Hecke doesn’t return then and Lenihan leaves we will need at least 2 CBs. One who is first team quality and one who can provide decent back up. Kipre or Ajayi from westbrom (who have been out of favour this season) could be decent shouts.

Left back we are covered. 

2 CMs are needed - one to provide back up to Travis, and one to push Buckley for that position next to him.

The 3 positions behind the strikes looks alright to me - Diaz (?)Hedges, Dack, Markandy, Dolan and potentially Khadra, who I feel we will be able to get back either on loan or perm. If Diaz goes we will need to bring someone in tho even then I like the look of Markandy, Dack, Khadra behind a striker. 
 

The striker position will be key. I really feel Gally upfront can make a name for himself next season. Don’t judge him on his performances under this manager. Back up is needed tho and I again would look at leeds and see if we could bring in Tyler Roberts - could also grow into our first choice. 
 

So in short we need at least 6

 

GK: Kaminski, Pears, Sterg.

RB: New, JRC.

CB: Ayala, Wharton, Carter, New, New, Phillips. 

LB: Pickering, Edun.

CDM/CM: Travis, Buckley, Edun New, New, Garret.

Attackers: Markandy, Dolan, Dack, Hedges, Diaz (?), Khadra (?) New (?)

Striker: Gally, New
 

Personally I think it's at least 90% certain that Brereton is gone. It may be for a lot less than we would like, as you say, but like Armstrong, if he won't sign a new deal we may just have to just make the best of the interest that we have.

Getting near to replacing his goals will have to be the main concern. Gally, who has some good points to his game, won't be able to get nearly enough without bringing in at least two out and out wingers who would suit him if we played him as a number 9. Hopefully whatever money we get for Brereton can fund a move for a reliable goalscorer, but I say that in more hope than expectation.

Pretty much agree with your assessments elsewhere. We'll obviously need a new right back, although after Nyambe's performance against Stoke I'm more convinced than ever that he is replaceable (albeit I'd be very happy if he signed a new contract). If we play four at the back then maybe just one new CB is needed alongside Wharton, with Carter/Ayala/Phillips as the back ups. I'm hoping that another season's improvement in Buckley and Dack with a full pre-season will soften the blow of losing Rothwell, but we'll still need more creativity from the midfield too. 

I'm not sure how many new faces we'll need in the end, but I'd say that at least three or four will need to be starting XI players from the start, so that in itself makes it a big summer for us. 

19 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Ryan Nyambe has a PL club lined up apparently. Lenihan more and more likely to stay with offers coming from elsewhere not much more appealing than staying at Ewood. There's not a transfers thread that I can find so thought best to stick in here.

They fancy sending Garrett to League One for a season to see how he does. Phillips has plenty of LG1 suitors too but for now the plan is that he'll stick around. They don't feel a need to rush him. 

I find that really surprising. His pace and power, and arguably his 1-on-1 defending are prem level. Other aspects of his game?

I know the 'how important is it for fullbacks to be able to attack' debate has been done to death on here, but any prem team looking at his performance vs Stoke can't be thinking that he has what it takes to contribute going forward. Time and time again the ball went to our right and the attack died with him. Dreadful team performance to consider, but he looked a mile away from a top-half Championship defender, never mind a top-flight one. 

8 minutes ago, Mike E said:

On the Dyche rumours (which I don't believe), money is irrelevant tbh. He has 3.5yrs of pay coming his way, up to £15m. We could pay him £1m/year and promise him PL bonuses and he'd effectively be topped up by Dingle pay for 3 years.

It's almost worth hiring him for that alone 🤣

All the more incredible considering they've made the call in a panic about potentially lost future revenue. Is that pretty much equal to their record transfer fee?

Just now, Theaxe15 said:

I don’t think Mowbray even deserves much credit for the League One success. We started terribly (with 5 at the back if memory serves me correctly) so he was forced into changing the system which just happened to suit Dack, amongst others, perfectly. He even tried messing with the formation when we were on winning steaks (an awful first half at home to Bury springs to mind).

His issue is constantly getting sussed out. Play his teams once, you know how to play them next time. It soon catches on. Some managers have the tactical nous to change it, some managers have the man management skills to inspire players out of a bad patch. Mowbray has neither. He’s a thin-skinned dinosaur with thickly lined pockets and that’s fine by him.

 

To be fair, another way of phrasing that exact same point is that his change of system brought about a positive change in form which led to promotion. We finished up getting close to 100 points after that terrible start, and we've seen countless examples of big clubs struggling in that league recently, so I don't think there's any harm in giving him the credit for that one.

Doesn't stop him from needing to go after this season's capitulation though. 

8 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I find it very difficult to place all of my thoughts on Mowbray's reign into a concise summation. 

He does deserve a tremendous amount of credit for stabilising the ship after relegation to League 1. Yes, some managers might have been able to avoid the drop in the first place and relegated sides are always promotion favourites, but many sides have struggled to go back up and it was essential that we do it at the first time of asking.

Since promotion, he has managed to reestablish this club as a solid Championship team, but after that the positives stop. His inconsistent tactics and inability to get the best out of most of his players has been tremendously frustrating. His signings have been mostly questionable and he seems to be a poor judge of talent. 

Yes, he gets some credit for our form in the first half of the season, but he was unable to regain momentum once the luck ran out and things started to slip. He feels very much like a manager who struggles in the face of adversity and who is unable to adapt. Each season has been plagued by major drops in form (particularly towards the backend of Championship seasons) and the fault has to be placed firmly at the doorstep of management in that regard. 

But my biggest criticism of him has to be in his demeanour. I cannot imagine having a boss who carried himself as he does. Who'd body language and messages were so negative. It's impossible to think that this has had no impact on the team.

He won't go down as our worst manager, but it is his time to go (and has been for some time) and we can hope for someone to come in with more energy and more creativity.

I know many will agree with you, so I'm not saying you're wrong to bring it up, but personally I don't get why his body language/interviews etc. riles people so much. He's had a pretty miserable demeanour since day one here as far as I see it, and plenty of that coincided with the team doing well. I don't agree that his signings were mostly bad either. I think there are enough success stories to say that he can spot a player.

I agree though that it's hard to concisely summarise all the different aspects of his time in charge. If I was to try, the thing that it really boils down to is your point about the major drops in form. I think if these were just a little less predictable/less severe, you could even now make a perfectly good case for him being worth a new contract (not least because we'd still be in the play off mix). But sadly they're not, and it almost makes all other aspects of his performance irrelevant because it means that we'll always have that ceiling of what we can achieve under him. 

1 hour ago, rog of the rovers said:

Mowbray's time at the Rovers will forever be linked with this season.

''To not even reach the playoffs, with where we were at the end of January 2022.''

These words will be synonymous with his reign, whether he goes in three hours, three days, three weeks, three months, three years.

Can't argue with that. Speaking for myself, I would have been happy with us parting ways last season, but knowing how straightforward finishing in the top 6 should've been from our position in January, I was happy to eat my share of humble pie at the time. I expected there to be a sticky patch, possibly even a very bad one, but I never in a month of sundays thought it would cost us a play off spot from where we were.

The really perplexing thing is how to explain where these death spirals come from. It doesn't seem at all as though Mowbray flogs his players into the ground, or that the injury situation at his various clubs tends to be that bad after Christmas. I use various types of data in my work, and one thing you always need to be careful of is wrongfully claiming that that one thing actually causes a certain outcome, when in reality it might just be a chance association, coincidence or a number of other things. Having said all that, the way that Mowbray has these spells so frequently, over multiple seasons across multiple clubs and playing squads, strongly suggests that he is at the root of it all, even if it's not obvious from the outside what it is about his management which results in these spells.

It's such a shame, because even now I would like to remember his spell in charge fondly because I genuinely think there are plenty of aspects to him as a manager which are/were positive. The L1 season is obvious, but generally his recruitment record is better than most, with a couple of diamonds in there, admittedly along with one or two howlers too. Unlike almost all of our post-Sam managers, he has had the imagination to actually implement a coherent style of play which wasn't just throwing out XI players on the pitch, as was the case under Coyle, Bowyer and others. We might easily end up with somebody worse than Mowbray if we replace him in the summer, but we simply can't carry on with a manager who almost every year oversees a dramatic and sustained loss of form in the second half of the season.

2 hours ago, Boz said:

Hearing a number of Dyche linked rumours from reliable folk, who have connections.

MIght just be soundings out, as to whether either parties might be inclined to just talk.

I don't know where manager's salary fits in within FFP, heard Dyche was on £5m pa at Bumley, which is way too much for us if a manager's wages forms part of FFP.

Plus it's not been Venky's modus operandi to date in going looking to pay big money for management, been more keen to look at cheaper options, with then links with agents? 

So to me the chances sound remote.

Like you I can't see this happening at all, for a number of reasons. That said, the wedge that he was on at Turf Moor is neither here nor there now, as none of the clubs that he's likely to get in the near future will be paying him anywhere near that. 

Because most top-flight teams will have their lazy preconceptions of him, he'll probably have to make do with a Championship club in England. Ridiculous really, but I can't see any Prem club going for him until (ironically) somebody gets desperate in a relegation scrap next year, and even then he's unlikely to get his chance that way. His next move will probably be to a club which isn't a million miles away from where we are in the pyramid as things stand, but one who can offer him a better chance of growing something than what is currently on offer at Ewood. 

38 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

There’s an interesting article about Dyche and Burnley in todays “ Guardian “. What caught my eye was that fact that although they  “ put it about a bit “ as we used to say, they’ve only had two red cards in five years. We’ve had 5 this season already apparently. You don’t win many games playing with 10 men, we certainly don’t.

Struck me during the first half yesterday that there are lots of different ways that players can show character. Being brave on the ball when things are tough is obviously one, fronting up to physically imposing teams being another.

One that doesn't get talked about as much is not trying to show how much you care by picking up stupid cards when the team is getting outplayed, which we have definitely been guilty of this season, including the first half yesterday. That stat there for the Burnley is another little bit of evidence which shows that their success has been built on a lot more than just a throw-back manager trying to bully teams. Like Sam was here, he's a manager who takes care of the minute details and demands total discipline from his players. Whoever gets him next year will have an excellent manager on their hands, especially if it's in the Championship. 

19 hours ago, Mellor Rover said:

Up until this week, I thought Sheff United would. But there last couple of results have put them out of reach of us with their game in hand never mind Bournemouth!

I don't see anyone catching them now myself. Think if we or anyone around us were to catch them, they'd need to win 7 of the next 8 which isn't happening.

I still think there's huge uncertainty to be honest. If Bournemouth get their act together and actually beat a decent number of the sides they have left to play, then I agree it would take one of the pack to win almost all of their remaining games. 

With Bournemouth's form and run in though, they could easily end up limping their way to 10-12 points, which would make them realistically catchable for me. 

1 hour ago, garnersfags said:

I understand that Gally's confidence has been impacted by being played out of position, but I think most of us that have been critical of him have been referring to the last 5 years, when he HAS been played as a number 9, and he HAS had good service. 

His TOTAL inability to trap a ball, is not just about confidence. 

I've said for 5 years that he's not a footballer, he's an athlete.

I've said for 5 years that he always scores when he's about to be dropped, then does little for 8 games, then scores again, to avoid being dropped.

It really isn't as simple as just play him as a 9, tho we haven't much choice at the mo, with our totally shot-shy(or certainly goal-shy 🙄) midfield/forward line. 

Prayers started for Elm Park. Come on, boys!!!!

I wouldn't go quite that far, if you were to put together a compilation of Gally's best bits in a Rovers shirt we'd be surprised about the moments of genuine quality there. 

You're right though that it's not just a case of us not playing to his strengths. He would score more goals if he played 30 games as a number 9, but his first touch is poor too often and like others have said, he doesn't have the knack to anticipate chances. 

All that said, he has his moments when he makes the difference like he did midweek - a few more between now and June and he might yet be worth that £5 million we paid for him!

15 hours ago, booth said:

Bournemouth have arguably the toughest games.

 

Huddersfield

Bristol City

WBA

Sheffield Utd

Middlesbrough

Coventry City

Fulham

Swansea City

  Rovers

Forest

Millwall

It'll be interesting to see how many points end up being enough to get second this season. Usually you're talking low 80s as a minimum, but I honestly can't see Bournemouth getting the 2 points a game or so they need from those games. 

Someone can still catch them. Very likely not Rovers, but a team from the pack putting a run together could. 

14 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Sounds like they got knocked about a bit like we did. Speaking of Luton what’s the latest on Edun ? There hasn’t been much about him since he got kicked out of the game down there.

Back in training apparently, could mean anything in terms of being available for selection though. 

3 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

I don't see why we couldn't stick with 4231 when BBD is back. He'd just play on the left I think.

We could I suppose - I don't expect that we will though. Three at the back continues to make us very hard to score against, and Brereton was scoring plenty in this system before his injury. 

51 minutes ago, BigUts said:

IMHO to achieve a top 6 finish with this squad would be an excellent achievement. The consensus amongst the fanbase at the start of the season seemed to be that a relegation dog-fight is what we were in for this, when in reality (and now somewhat disappointingly) we probably should have been pushing Bournemouth all the way. Does that show how far we have come or a real falling part?!

I think Tony rolled the dice a bit in January on the hope that BBD would stay fit for the remainder of the season and keep up his goal scoring form. It was perhaps a lazy decision to make but it appears we had basically zero cash to spend. The signing of Hedges for any fee seems to be a bit of a panic to me due to Markanday's injury taking place.

Tony deserves a hell of a lot of credit. From where he picked us up 5 years ago to now is chalk and cheese. It has at times been excruciatingly slow and painful but in the cold light of day I think it's an achievement. 

If we are able to hit the play-offs this season then I would give him a 12 month rolling contract with perhaps a break clause at the end of each season and see how next season transpires. If we do miss out, its definitely time for a change and some new ideas. Who we would be able to bring in though is a completely different story and would probably require a huge overhaul of lots of staff. 

Assuming we finish in the top 6 (irrespective of whether we go up via the play offs), I think that would be a really sensible option. Clearly he wouldn't deserve to get potted on this season's showing, whatever we would've thought last year. A rolling deal means that everyone has some stability and if sacking is an option further down the line, we won't be paying off a 2-3 year deal. 

Hugely important game. Seven points from the Millwall game onwards is less than we would've liked, but wouldn't be disastrous. Four points on the other hand...

I'd carry on with 3 at the back from the start. We'll be playing that way when Brereton returns anyway, although I would bring in Giles. 

                 Kaminski

      Lenihan  VH    Wharton

JRC    Travis   Rothwell      Giles

                 Dolan

          Gally         Khadra

Hopefully Gallagher can bring the same energy from the start that he managed from the bench against Derby. 2-0 Rovers.

18 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

He deserves criticism for his first half tactics, 100%, I agree and join in with that. When I saw Johnson as a false 9 against a veteran Curtis Davies and against a Derby side who naively play the ball out from the back, I winced, it couldn't have been a more illogical tactic.

He also deserves praise for the proactive timing and the actual changes made to rectify those mistakes and ultimately we won the game.

Its more the side issues that I don't think warrant such focus. Touchline demeanour, interviews, questioning his passion or whether the players are playing for him, I just don't get it.

Agree completely with the highlighted bit. A really noticeable development in the last few years that interviews have almost become an extra way of judging a manager's performance. Almost as though they were politicians. 

Completely barmy in my view. Mowbray could come out and say that the sky is green & I wouldn't care if we were winning games. 

42 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Khadra’s not doing himself any favours at the moment. He’s really lacking in football intelligence. I remember when Matty was here at first, he was another one who held onto the ball too long at times. 6 months with Souey and the penny had dropped and he was on the way to becoming the brilliant all around striker he later turned into.

Ton Finney told a story about when he was a young player. He was always trying to beat the extra man and losing the ball. One of the trainers got another player to stand 30 yards away and said to Tom “ You reckon you can beat me in getting the ball over to Jimmy over there, shall we have a small wager  ? “ Tom said “ Yes I’m on , I’m pretty sure I can “ . So the trainer said “ On the count of three, one -two-three- go “. Before Tom had gone 4 yards dribbling the ball the trainer had just passed the ball to the other player and said “ I win “.

Thinking all the way back to the Sheffield United game at Ewood, I remember thinking at the time that Poveda was much more deserving of the praise that came his way than Khadra. I know he scored, but he gave the ball away so often and just seemed to really lack any respect for possession with some of his runs. 

I think he's got a bit better at that, and his flashes of quality along with his pace make him a useful player, but needing to be our main attacking threat has really exposed him in our recent spell. As a defender, having to deal with Brereton but also having to think about someone with Khadra's pace must be a nightmare. But when you're relying on Khadra to make the difference, you can't trust his decision making. 

10 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

im`e not to concerned about pickering,granted he`s not brilliant but he holds his own,we`ve got bigger problems at right back,jrc needs to be taken out of the firing line,i think this league is a bit above his ability tbh,if we do play a back four at reading,lenihan is ok there as a temporary measure,you certainly ar`nt going past him easily

Honestly, I'm just happy that JRC has got through several back-to-back starts without injury (admittedly whilst not always playing the 90). His performances look miles off - but I'd persevere with him against Reading, and with any luck Nyambe will be back after the international break. 

2 minutes ago, garnersfags said:

I think it's pointless diving straight into the Mowbray in/out debate at every opportunity. He's not going anywhere. 

I do feel that he will only change things when he has absolutely no choice, so after a 7 nil, and after the most abject 45 min of the season(when the crowd were about to revolt).

I really worry about going to a back 4, but I agree something hadn't change. 

I assume he'll play Buckley instead of Dack for 45 at Reading,  and then switch to the team that started the 2nd half tonight. Or vice versa. 

I really think he has missed a trick not replacing Pickering with Giles, which would retain the defensive solidity whilst still providing the assists Giles is known for. 

The passion and unswerving commitment is what really won it for us, tho, and you can't teach that from a touchline ring-binder....

Wouldn't shock me if we see the same system against Reading, but with Giles on instead of Pickering. 

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That’s great header and about time some of the defenders chipped in.

100% 

Nobody expects your centre backs to be expert finishers at this level, but the amount of first contacts that Lenihan and Wharton get, both of them should be on at least 3/4 by now in my view. Maybe a bit churlish of me seeing as they've done their job in spades at the back, but when you think of the fine lines in games since Christmas - it could've made all the difference in keeping us in the race for the top 2. 

18 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

To be fair it's football 101 though. Playing defensive midfielders up front when they really can't play that position is absoluteley beyond amateur. If we can all see that's not going to work why can't he?

Who'd have thought though that playing a winger on the wing and a striker up front would lead to goals being created 🤔

Tactical. Fucking. Genius. 

Literally nobody is calling him that though, and I agree that the Johnson positioning was bizarre.

I'm just saying that if we're in the position of not giving the manager any credit for a positive result which came off the back of his changes, then that is strange to me. Especially seeing as we're all happy to stick the boot in for the bad results which come off the back of some pretty decent performances, as has happened over our recent run.

1 minute ago, Miller11 said:

If we are to credit Mowbray for making the changes that got us out of this rut, can we criticise him for doing it 10 and a half games too late?

Yes. 

I think it comes with a couple of caveats that his tactics also came alongside missed pens & plenty of other chances we should've taken. But yes, he takes the blame for when we underperform. 

2 minutes ago, arbitro said:

His body language here is shocking. I would really like him to admit he got it badly wrong in the first half, I would have more respect for him if he did.

To be fair, doesn't he say that he got selection wrong & should've changed 5 or 6 from Bristol City? I know it's not the same as saying that he shouldn't have played Johnson where he did, but he did admit to getting the selection wrong.