roversfan99

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/nottingham-forest-transfers-morgan-rogers-5789339 Morgan Rodgers was at Forest yesterday ahead of a potential loan. He impressed me when I saw Lincoln last season and contributed both goals and assists. I would much prefer him who has shown at least at some level that he is capable of scoring and assisting over a stab in the dark like Khadra. Would it not make more sense to loan Sandler in for a season, and loan Carter out in January? We do need Carter around mainly for cover before then, at which point I think regular football in League 1 (ideally at a Promotion chasing side) would allow him to get more regular game time rather than having a whole season as 4th choice. That would also leave him in a better position ahead of next season in which him and Wharton could become even more important, especially if Lenihan leaves.

I still think that at the moment that his reputation has been massively blown out of proportion by the fairytale Copa America story and its sheer bizarreness. Had that not happened, there wouldn't be half as much optimism regarding him, and to be honest I am unsure what his performance level and his goals tally will look like at the end of the season. I don't think that his general performance level has been particularly high in the first 3 games, he was really poor v Morecambe, he was really poor yesterday for 70 minutes and even on the opening day, he wasn't great. But the crucial thing regarding an attacking player is always the number of goals that he gets, and it is even more critical in the absence of Armstrong that he kicks on with his new found confidence and hopefully can get above double figures. It was good to see him score his penalty v Swansea and I thought that his header yesterday was excellent and not something I recall seeing from him before.

Again, I can't comment directly on Sandler as I have never seen him, at least he has senior experience of some sort, although his injury record is a worry. We are in a sticky situation though with our central defence, baring in mind that we (bar up front) seem to be solely reliant on the loan market and you can only have up to 5 in a squad. If we got one, say Sandler, he himself probably wouldn't play from the off until an injury to one of the current 2 (most likely) which itself may cause problems with City if he isnt playing, to loan 2 would likely double that problem. Reverting constantly to a back 3 just to play loanees would be annoying. Wharton is seemingly well off fitness to the point that anything pre January may be a bonus, especially as with centre backs you cant really give them 15/20 minute cameos at first like you can with attacking players. Carter as third choice behind an injury prone Ayala is not something I am convinced that he is capable of, ideally he could with a loan higher up in League 1. That being said, with loan spaces at a premium, I think the best bet would be to loan one in, perhaps Sandler I dont know, have Lenihan, Ayala and keep Carter until January, assuming Wharton is back by then, then loan him out. We need to ensure we have 4 centre backs. We do definitely need the loan places elsewhere unless we can have the flexibility to sign permanent players. We definitely need another left back, not only is Pickering struggling to adapt but more importantly, if he got a knock this week say, I have literally no idea who else we could play there. We definitely need a deeper central midfielder, and I think that we need at least a couple of wide men as well as a goalscoring midfielder, so there will already have to compromise there. So unless this bizarrely rigid transfer compromise of 1 permanent striker and 5 loans can become a little more flexible, I think the priorities would have to be a left back, a centre back, a central midfielder, a winger, and then either another winger/attacking midfielder who can score goals. In which case, Carter will need to stay until January, although Magloire, Garrett and Butterworth could all perhaps be loaned out.

I also watched the full game and he was essentially invisible, he won one free kick with a nice run but otherwise, totally anonymous, something which is far from a first. I am not comfortable with the idea of regularly changing things because individuals cannot play their game against numerous opponents, it is not conducive to consistency to keep having to take him back out anytime we come up against a more pragmatic opponent. Savile, Keiftenfeld and Evans are all experienced Championship midfielders but all are fairly limited, there is no reason why Buckley should be anonymous against such players. Until he can regularly impact games then he cannot become a player that we can trust to be relied upon with regularity. I take issue to that last sentence though. I have never given Buckley anything other than full support on a match day, but when he performs poorly, I state my opinion as such on an internet messageboard thread discussing the game in question. Can you please explain how that is treating our young players bafflingly? Carter is a player who I praised for his performance after coming on, so it is not some sort of scourge on young players.

Not sure if mentioned but Obafemi wasnt on the Southampton 9 man bench today.

Gallagher has never and will never be a wide man, but you can understand why he didnt play centrally when we had Armstrong who was far better and more prolific. Now, there is no reason. He should only be considered as a central striker.

I wonder what positions the 5 loanees would be. If we got Khadra and Clarkson as well as "one, maybe 2 centre backs" as Mowbray said in the LT earlier, we still would look short in a few areas. We have no competition for Pickering who is finding his feet, we have no goal threat from midfield and even with Khedra and a striker added, i still would suggest that we would be lacking goals along the front line.

I dont really think that we do have quality attacking players any more, and Mowbray does deserve some credit for some of the things done in the first 2 games. Not that he should be manager, that I expect a particularly good season or that 2 games at the start of a season changes anything.

I think Elliott is probably a benchmark that we will struggle to match with any loan signing, Elliott seemingly was already seen as a special talent who was prominent in cup games and in matchday squads even at such a young age. No, my Buckley conclusion is very much based on the entirety of his Rovers career, I recall off the top of my head a loss v Forest at home and also the game away at Boro in which he was subbed on then subbed back off again last season in which he looked like a little boy lost, it was not just a one off today. Being inconsistent to a certain degree is understandable but I don't even think that it is necessarily just a lack of physical strength, he just looks a little scared to be quite honest or at best, unable to stamp his own authority on a game and use his intelligence to make the game about what he is good at. He needs to find a way even against experienced and physical Championship midfielders to be able to influence games otherwise he will never fully establish himself as it will be impossible to trust him every week. The issue is not over paying in wages but it seems that we have only one allocated signing in a striker. Why the manager cant make 2 or 3 reasonably priced permanent signings within the supposed Obafemi budget rather than having to splash out on one sole striker is beyond me.

I suppose that if Bennett had avoided injury, he would likely not be a free agent. He would be ideal with his experience as a top Championship left back, and it would allow Pickering more time to bed in. I couldn't recommend Healey as I have never seen him play, I suggested him when Mowbray said that we have other irons in the fire on the back of being linked with Healey in the LT earlier in the summer. Clarkson would not be one that I would get overly enthusiastic about, again a stab in the dark off the back of minimal senior experience. We do need a couple of midfielders in, Travis has his limitations but is by far our best option in there, Rothwell is so inconsistent and picked up an injury near the end today, Johnson is injured, Davenport never convinces in his cameos and Buckley showed why he is not ready to be a regular at this level, when the going gets tough he is nowhere to be seen. We need someone capable of scoring goals and someone capable of dictating the tempo in there, someone experienced like Hourihane would have been ideal, but despite receiving loads of money this week, it seems that such a deal is beyond us sadly.

We desperately need bodies in especially ones who can give us a goal threat but Mowbray's quotes are very worrying in that we dont seem set to be getting what we need: "Some of them are really young so here I am talking about looking to bring some experience in but the ones you can get from the clubs we’re loaning from we can’t get anywhere near." I am guessing that the imminent one is Khadra. @chaddyrovers you mention Bennett, he has a serious injury which is a shame in that he would be a great addition with plenty of experience for Pickering to learn from.

A very difficult game today in which we picked up a perhaps undeserved in many ways but a welcome point with a battling display that throws up as many questions as answer Ayala was absolutely superb, if only he could stay fit. Lenihan and when he came on Carter were also very impressive, all 3 very much in the same mould. Pickering is a huge worry based on his opening displays for me, defensively he looks really weak and sluggish, and he hasn't shown signs of the attacking qualities that he made his name for, I feel that we need proper competition there. Nyambe was also rather shaky especially in the first half although he grew into the game a tad. Travis looked like he really enjoyed the game and Rothwell grew into it. Buckley looked absolutely terrified however, a level of technical competence is meaningless if there are regular games in which he is totally unable to make the game about his strengths, hence why he is going to struggle to establish himself as a regular Championship player. It is not just about physical strength, it is about bravery and having the composure and intelligence to trust what you are good at, you can't not be considered for selective games because you cant hack the physicality. I also felt that Dolan seemed massively overawed and deserved to be hooked at half time. Brereton had a strange game, for 70 minutes he was the Brereton we all know especially from his first 2 seasons, he was horrendous, couldnt stay on his feet, touch all over the place etc. That being said, the main thing we need from our forwards is goals and what a header that was, and he seemed to gain confidence from that. Gallagher was in the main ineffective, Butterworth was bright off the bench and Chapman was really poor in a strange role.

I wouldn't hold your breath to be honest. We are devoid of any urgency.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/19509339.tony-mowbray-issues-update-blackburn-rovers-striker-search/ Apparently we have 5 or 6 options. Hopefully there is at least one with a senior record of scoring goals.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-bournemouth-set-sights-on-signing-southampton-star-obafemi-after-move-collapses/ Move on to one of the others from the list. The likelihood of playing the next 4 games with the current threadbare squad is a huge concern.

The only transfer that seems to have been anywhere close to being done is for an injured winger with 10 minutes of senior experience, that will now be delayed.

There is absolutely no way that we can get away without signing a striker, the goalscoring threat yesterday is minimal.

I am certainly not convinced that Buckley has the capability to guarantee himself a place in the team due to his consistency and performance levels, but I am against the idea of repeatedly changing players and indeed the formation through over thinking over the opposition. We are facing 2 decent Championship midfielders, nothing special, nothing that warrants tinkering too much. Sadly, Mowbray is always keen to overthink things like this rather than striving for consistency and focusing on the form and performance levels of our own team. Buckley warrants his place on Saturday through his performance last week, we should be keen to go to Millwall and for Buckley to go and stamp his own authority on the game and utilise what he is good at. If we based it too much on last night, I suppose that no one would play who played last night but Buckley perhaps was less responsible having been hooked at half time. Mowbray said that Johnson wont be back until I think after the international break so I suppose it is hypothetical anyway the only alternative really is Davenport. I would out of a lack of alternatives go for the same side from Saturday, aside from putting Gallagher down the middle. I am not sure how many times Dolan has been effective from the bench (3 of his 4 Rovers goals have been as a starter) and whilst he is so raw at the moment, it seems illogical to drop him for a player who has never kicked a senior ball.

I was in the Blackburn End and it looked like a blatant dive to me, a very desperate attempt to throw himself to the floor. Might be wrong having not seen it back.

Not entirely surprising, but a rather depressing indictment of where we are as a club that Obafemi's rejection was inevitable. Reach seemingly rejected us to sit on West Brom's bench, Mpanzu saw Luton as a more attractive proposition and Obafemi seemingly would prefer to wait with little security at Southampton and with a number of strikers ahead of him. This has been an absolutely shambolic transfer window and the state of our squad is an urgent worry. I was never totally convinced that Obafemi was who we needed simply because not only is he injury prone but mainly because he hasnt got a record of scoring goals at senior level, but he is definitely a talented player, I liked what I saw of him and he has really good attributes. The thing is that we can almost be sure that the money wont go on another striker, this is another excuse, we as a club dont seem to have the organisation to have another permanent target waiting to press the button on. There is this narrative about being patient but by the time the end of the window comes around, we will be 5 games down, 6 including the cup. It is not acceptable to not have signed a single player at this time.

The criticism was more about the way the club is run and the lack of clarity regarding finances available coming from our negligent owners.

I thought that Davenport was really poor when he came on, I think he may be one of those players that gets better in general when he doesnt play. He is not technically particularly good and he is so rash and ill-disciplined, I can understand the seemingly lack of trust in him, the yellow card was totally avoidable and its not the first time that he has needlessly thrown himself into a challenge, we had them penned in if I recall too.

Johnson is injured, but I am surprised to see that you have left out Buckley after the praise you gave him for an impressive half at the weekend in which he impressed. Would that be down to his lack of physicality against a stereotypical game away at Millwall? If so, he is going to struggle to make it as a Championship player if we are picking and choosing his games based on what he can physically withstand, games like Saturday just gone will be few and far between. Millwall have average experienced Championship midfielders like Kieftenfeld and Saville, but Buckley needs to learn how to make the game more about the skillset that he has and trying to influence the game in his own way. I am also surprised to see Dolan dropped too.

I thought Brereton had a dreadful game, he lacks composure and even with little 5 yard passes he either passes it behind the player or too short, neither into their stride. More often than not he has very little positive influence on a game for all of the hype he has got for his Chile appearances, does anyone really see him scoring plenty of goals this season? Pickering was poor, doesnt look comfortable defending and for someone hyped up for his crossing, they tend to be loopy and aimless in the main and straight at the keeper. Obviously for the goal his cross took a noticeable deflection. Lets hope he massively improves soon. Also a word for Davenport who was all over the place when he came on, as he often is and maybe showed why there doesnt seem to be much trust in him. Needlessly aggressive and lacking in discipline. Magloire again looked out of place and Butterworth didnt get involved once he came on. Rothwell didnt really get involved again and Travis is really limited on the ball.

I do have a huge worry that he has no record of scoring goals, of course due to his age. Looking at the squad, there is so few goals. People have got carried away with Brereton mania but he will never be prolific, nor will Gallagher, and beyond those 2 there is barely anything. This new loanee doesnt have senior experience either so its just risk upon risk. I do get that Obafemi is a talented player with obvious attributes and I liked the look of him when I saw him. Yates I think would be unobtainable so it is hypothetical but at least he scored plenty of goals last season, and is actually a player I really like in general, brilliant with his back to goal. It may be a case where taking a risk on Obafemi coming in and scoring goals at a decent rate is our best bet with the money and time we have. The scouting issue you bring up is a fair one, you, I or indeed anyone on here will have a limited knowledge of players especially abroad but in reality we should be able to find one with some record of scoring as a club. That Healey at Toulouse seemed an interesting one with a good goal record although I couldnt recommend him personally, but we are presumably fishing in a self inflicted limited pool. The owners should have been clear, if he is in the dark then that is on them. The shite I paid to watch tonight with the squad he has put together, different matter.