riverholmes

Gallagher would play best in a two, as in the old days when two forwards complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses. If Markanday is to play the no.10, or someone else, that would lift the demands on Gallagher. Whilst a sale makes sense, I am very nervous about the club’s ability to recruit well, especially, with Szmodics leaving. Vale, to me, makes the most sense to cash in on but looming is Gallagher walking away on a free. Fretful times. We could easily be looking back at Gallagher wistfully in a year or two, given the decline we are in.

Especially worrying how many serious injuries the youth players have gone through. A number left in the summer having barely played for over 12 months, eg. Sam Barnes. I’ve not heard anything of Isaac Whitehall this pre-season.

Vale was doing ok for Motherwell as a second forward on loan last season - not scoring much but doing enough in build up play to stay in their team. Really, now would be a good time to try and sell, as I do believe he will struggle at Rovers. But, we’re so short of players and there doesn’t seem to be much in place by the way of a transfers strategy, we will probably end up relying on him.

Selling Gallagher when his contract is down to a year and his abilities have seemingly peaked would make perfect sense for a club run properly. Especially as other clubs are still, seemingly, rating him highly - above, I think, what he’s capable of. However, there can be little confidence that the appropriate replacements will be brought in.

1-1 Vale scores in draw. Sounds like JRC played well, making the assist. And Jalil Saadi seems to have been kept on at the club as the utility player - at least until new players come in. With no striker on the limited bench, he comes on for Vale at the end. What a turnaround, from being well off the radar for the first team for years. A few notable absences - Szmodics, Gallagher, Gent, Scott Wharton

Team news versus Wigan today: Pears, Pickering, Carter, Hyam, Brittain, Tronstad, Travis (c), Rankin-Costello, Bloxham, Vale, Dolan Subs: Hilton, Saadi, Doherty, Montgomery, Atcheson, Biniek Wigan Tickle, Ramsey, Kerr (c), Aimson, McHugh, Payne, Adeeko, Sze, Rankine, Aasgaard, Stones Subs Lonergan, Chapman, Igiehon, Reilly, Graham, Sibbick, Carragher, M. Smith, S. Smith, Thomas, Hugill On paper looks a rather weak side and a short list of subs as the management look to give 90 mins to first team players. There was a game v Morecambe last night and an U21 game v Wolves going on now. (Typically, no news from Rovers on that one). Glimmers of hope lie in JRC, who is probably the star man, possibility of youngsters like Vale and Dolan making dramatic improvements - and that the youth in Bloxham, Doherty (presumably the new signing and not the defender) and Biniek stepping up, though it’s asking a lot of them to take the mantle. I think we pretty much know what the likes of Travis (returning prodigal son), Pickering and Brittain offer.

We truly are in a different reality for the club after competing in the upper echelons. Last night, against Morecambe, Rovers couldn’t even fill the subs bench, even with two reserve keepers there. There are matches going on today, but we seem to be in the bare bones. I expect some loans to come in to paper over the cracks but it’s our academy that is keeping us alive, for now, it seems.

Eustace has praised Tyjon after the game. He will surely be involved come the season. Doherty is 18 years old, and if he can make an impact it would be welcome, as it looks like we’re going to be struggling for numbers - there were two keepers on the bench. No sign of Gilsenan, so I suppose he is out with injury.

It might’ve already been discussed but Junior Nsangou, the Polish U19 striker and, seemingly, Rovers best recent academy forward graduate prospect after Tyjon, has left the club. He reportedly turned down a contract and is on trial with Spanish club, Albacete. That’s the club Enzo Boyomo, the young French-Cameroonian defender, left for after turning down a deal at Rovers. There’s news on a young U19 French forward coming in from Nantes. I’m sceptical about bringing in overseas players for the reserves/academy at Rovers. It has so rarely worked for the club with the only success story in decades I can think of is David Raya. Perhaps, there’s one or two more but can’t think (excluding Irish players). For whatever reason, they’ve struggled to adapt - perhaps, the new style, or culture - or just not good enough. I would hope this forward is good enough to be involved with the first team, if he signs. I get the feeling that overseas youngsters tend to find it hard to adapt and if they don’t get a big break, they’re eager to go back to more familiar surroundings. These are the sort of factors that, I guess, the data-driven approach to recruitment don’t pick up on so much.

Finneran? Not heard anything lately but he's not appeared in any pre-season games and, sadly, looks to be all but gone at the moment.

Very convincing stats - and comparing the two does remind me that Wharton need not have been considered a Rice back-up but could've been played in a slightly more attacking role. On the most important statistics from last year, it was fairly close - Mainoo had 3 goals and 1 assist and Wharton had 0 goals and 3 assists, which reflects their slightly different midfield roles. To Mainoo's big credit, he did 'only' have a MOM performance in the FA Cup final against the eventual league champions. Whilst Wharton would probably have made an impact for England, ultimately, I don't think it was personnel that was England's downfall. Most probably, his incisive passes would only have been recycled back to him as the likes of Kane, Saka and Bellingham played at walking pace. Moreover, Mainoo was impressive, especially, when briefly given a platform to play and run with the ball, in the first half against Netherlands. He also made a good impact when he came on for Gallagher at half-time in one of the god-awful performances that are already blurring into one. If anything, Wharton could've played alongside Mainoo and Rice.

Maybe this can be the pre-season friendlies thread, mods? Not sure if significant or not, but the captaincy in the Nurnberg friendlies were listed as Hayden Carter, in the first game, and O'Riordan, in the second. Seems a bit surprising, especially, Carter in the first eleven, but we'll have to see if it signifies anything. Edit: Actually, looking at the Tranmere friendlies, Brittain and Garrett were the captains, so maybe, it's just being shared around.

Looks a pretty bad result, albeit, only pre-season - and a great one for the semi-pro team. Six out of Nantwich's nine subs were trailists, apparently.

Report on Rovers U21s 1-3 win over Fleetwood U21s, goals from Bloxham, Boggan and Biniek: https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/july/18/report--fleetwood-town-under-21s-1-3-rovers-under-21s/ Solomon Honor’s turn between the sticks. If I can work this out, he might be seventh choice goalie out of eight - though the rotational use of them and intermittent disappearances of Eastham makes it unclear: Pears, Hilton, Barrett, Michalski, Eastham, Goddard (loan), Honor, Khan. Edit: It’s a bit concerning that Rovers only transfer signing, winger, Doherty, is a sub for NI U19s. NI have, apparently, some promising players coming through (Linfield’s star academy players have moved to Everton and Arsenal this summer) but it seems the player may be well off from making a first team impact. He’s a young player who’ll deserve time, of course. However, unless the first team squad is improved, these players will possibly be relied upon at times.

I think a way to go about it might be to focus as much on the junior internationals and U21s as much as the seniors. If England are successful at the lower levels, that success will sooner or later translate higher. Clearly, the Premier League isn't providing the conveyor belt of English coaches/managers, so the FA might need to do it themselves. Though, keeping hold of them will be a challenge, if they're successful. It is rather short-sighted, I feel, to expect the seniors to be all conquering, if England aren't successful at the lower levels that many of the seniors will come through. Though, it's true, the best often by-pass youth level. I haven't followed it much but I believe the England youth internationals, including U21s, have been more successful in recent years, which hopefully is a sign. I remember yesteryear when no matter the big names England U21s had, they couldn't win tournaments. There was U21's Euro 2002 when David Dunn was given the captaincy and David Platt, the manager, suggested that Dunn might be the best player/midfielder in Europe. Inevitably, England disappointed and didn't make it out of a tough group, losing to Portugal and Italy. Portugal's Hugo Viana, made a mockery of any suggestion that Dunn was amongst Europe's elite. Though, ironically, Viana couldn't adapt to the Premier League's style when he made his big money move to Newcastle. Looking it up, that England U21 squad was incredibly strong on paper. Peter Crouch, Bobby Zamora and Scott Parker were on the bench at times, with Alan Smith, Gareth Barry and Jermaine Defoe starting. It's long been a stylistic and tactical problem for England to make a team out of talented, albeit, stylistically long ball oriented players - albeit, the stylistic gap is far closer these days, compared to the Premier League's era when every game was 100 miles an hour. Then, the team would step out to and be hit by the culture shock at international level where teams comfortably passed the ball around.

It seems to me you can rarely predict what's going on with the back-up goalkeepers at Rovers. In the Tranmere friendly, Rovers had Adam Khan as the understudy on the bench, with Hilton and Pears playing a game each. However, the fact Michalski is going to Austria (and has been on the bench before) suggests he is ahead in the pecking order. With Barrett being looked at, it would suggest that Eastham isn't in the picture, even though he has a year left to go on his contract, as far as I know. Hopefully, he'll get the transfer or the decent loan move he needs.

I think one of the warning signs was when Southgate selected Wharton. It suggested that the intense public scrutiny was getting to him, I think, because it was out of character for a defensive-minded, cautious manager. So, it turned out that Wharton would not play. Even if Rice had been injured, either Trent or Gallagher would've come in. Personally, I don't think this tournament was about individuals in the England team. It was a lack of an attacking strategy and set-up. The players who were fielded were good enough to put on a show, but they never did. Even an England 2XI, albeit, very inexperienced, would probably have done pretty ok in the tournament, if set-up correctly: Ramsdale, Trent, Konsa, Dunk, Eze, Gordon, Gallagher, Wharton, Bowen, Palmer, Watkins

Yes, really strong squad with excellent individuals but no effective system or mentality to bring them together. When they started doing something in the first half against Netherlands, it looked promising, but that 3-5-2 system wasn't taken up. The defence, however, was impressive and Guehi deserves all the credit, with Stones, for his tournament. I think it's fair to say that there is a dearth in quality in European football (players and, maybe, managers), compared to the past, and that's one of the reasons England's disjointed team made it to the final. The other reasons, I feel, were an excellent defence and, also, individual moments. There are one or two glaring weak points in the England squad, namely central midfield and left back. However, the overall quality should have been enough to put on some good performances. There were none - just fits and starts, between really negative and confused play.

Trialist, Jack Barrett - a 22 year-old goalkeeper released by Everton who went on loan to Canadian club last season? Could mean that Hilton is now the regular No.2, with Eastham and a newcomer serving as a back-up. Would be interesting to know if Rovers have made a decision on NI striker Jack Hastings who has been on trial. He seems to be promoted in the media and reportedly has interested several clubs. Edit: 2-0 defeat to Macclesfield, who had former player, Tre Pemberton playing. Two second half goals. Trialist goalie conceded a pen. Not a great start to pre-season for the U23s.

Listening to some commentators, I've found the argument quite compelling that England should be, in theory, seen as being as strong as Spain, if not, possibly, more so. The fact they are seen as underdogs is a reflection of poor management. If you consider the players England have and the depth in many areas, they really do have an abundant of riches. Yamal, after all is a 16 year old, and Nico Williams is a good winger but decent full backs are meant to be able to deal with wingers. If England had Foden, Rice, Bellingham and Kane emulating club form, or even 80% of club form, it would be a different team. Remember how people were all worried about the defence, pre-tournament, and confident about the forwards. It's as if the desperate under-performance of the attack has been normalised. As I was hearing from some pundits, other teams would dream of having options like Watkins, Toney, Eze, Palmer, Gordon on the bench. Spain have the technical edge but, with possible better management and performances, England would have an attack to fear.

Looking it up, Southgate was in the FA development role for 18 months. He had several years at U21s level, though and, I believe, had a great qualifying record, and won a Toulon tournament but crashed out of group stage in the 2015 U21 Euros Championship. I think Southgate has made a real contribution but I really think he has been very fortunate to come in in this era when the possession skills gap between England and other top nations has been all but closed. I reckon England fans should appreciate this high point, for a couple of tournaments, too because I think that the Premier Leagues return to hyper spending throttles England’s talent pool. I recall when Chelsea were under spending constraints, under Lampard, they were forced to play English talents and you saw, I think, Mount, James, Chalobah and others come through.

Maybe, to an extent, at U21 level but really the transformation, as far as I can tell, it is much more fundamental. There's long been a desire to make the English game more possession based and technical, so I'm sure credit goes to others too. But, at the surface level, it looks like Guardiola's City has had the most influence simply by dominating with a completely new style and approach. Maybe, there's an element of several factors coming together. It seems many have forgotten, but the England teams of Ferdinand, Beckham, Gerrard and Owen could not play even the dullard and negative possession football this England team have played most of the Euros. They had the technical ability to pass sideways and backwards endlessly but it simply was not in their cultural DNA. The game has transformed so much that the "genius" Jude Bellingham can be considered to have had a fair game, the other day, when literally all he did was stand and pass the ball back or sideways, and mis-control every difficult ball. He was a non-entity on the ball except in basic, ball retention but that is a net positive in this type of football. (To be fair, he also did the running and has a charisma which seems to help the team).

I don’t know who’s the best but you can’t judge Southgate without acknowledging the dramatic transformation in English club football inspired, particularly, by Spanish influence. The biggest difficulty for Gerrard, Lampard and Co. was not, I feel, cliques or substandard management (though, real) but that English football was long ball based. For whatever reason, international football is possession based and England couldn’t compete. Maybe, an analogy would be a grass court tennis player specialist trying to compete on clay or vice versa? Club styles have changed and English players have basically caught up (near enough) with rivals. It was very rare that England youth teams would ever win anything. They were so behind the technical level of teams. Now England, as far as I know, are more successful at youth level. Southgate has benefited greatly from this skill and mentality evolution from club level.

The squad is so talented but plays in fits and starts, with slow backwards passing and reactive play. The possession is negative and aimless. You saw England go back to it in the second half. I believe Shaw was told to restrict his game due to fitness and they switched to a 4-4-2, of sorts and the old problems of not being able pierce the midfield arose again. Some will celebrate wins regardless and I understand that. But when a superior side scrapes wins with negative play, I can’t really commend it much. If England played progressively and with intent, they would be winning by clear goals, I feel.

Looks like a negative switch to 4-4-2 by Southgate? With no left midfielder again.