Saturday, Jan 30th- Luton at Ewood

[47er]

17 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

I'm suggesting he won't be signing for a L2 tem any time soon. And yes, he'd have no trouble  finding a championship club IMO. 

It won't be for £5M though!

[Wood26]

11 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

He looked fit and quick. Obviously hope he stays fit and thrives. One of those rare players who is a joy to watch. I hope he comes back. I just don't think he was a Mowbray type player/personality. 

What makes you think he’s not a Mowbray player/personality?

Mowbray got him in on loan, he got injured and left. Mowbray chased him down again and signed him.

We don’t know what happens behind the scenes. What we do know is Mowbray signed him twice.

The problem clearly lies with Chapman. And since he come back not seen anything that makes me think he’s better then what we have.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

3 minutes ago, Wood26 said:

What makes you think he’s not a Mowbray player/personality?

Mowbray got him in on loan, he got injured and left. Mowbray chased him down again and signed him.

We don’t know what happens behind the scenes. What we do know is Mowbray signed him twice.

The problem clearly lies with Chapman. And since he come back not seen anything that makes me think he’s better then what we have.

Mowbray called him moody. He also referred to his work rate as not being good enough yet I've seen Elliott and BB not tracking back with their full back on many an occasion. Mowbray also refused to sign players with ripped jeans. I think the problem may be Mowbray in this instance. 

[JHRover]

Really pleased and relieved with the win today. It's the fine margins that count. A scrappy, hard fought 1-0 against an awkward horrible side who we've failed to beat previously and I go to bed happy and wake up Sunday and Monday with more of a spring in my step. A drab 0-0 or defeat would have been horrendous.

Credit that we kept going and ground out the win - a lot of sides have struggled to break Luton down this season and it is easy to see why, that's before you get on to their other antics to grind their way through games.

But it wasn't a good display and we didn't create enough to cause them any serious problems. It seems through December and January there has been a shift in our performances because at home especially we have been consistently quite dull and low scoring in the last few months. The results speak for themselves - and they are impressive - but they are tough watching and we've relied on slender margins to scrape past the likes of Millwall, Rotherham, Barnsley and Luton. 

In the end I find these scrappy 1-0s just as if not more enjoyable in some ways than the hammerings against 10 men earlier in the season.

Time will tell if anything has changed but I still fully expect us to now be hitting the glass ceiling again before another 4-5 game poor spell takes us back into mid-table. I desperately hope I am wrong on that because I look around and think we should be first in line ahead of Boro, Stoke, Bristol etc. to take a slot if it opens up.

But it comes down to consistency and avoiding the bi-monthly death spirals that we usually have when hitting 7th and 8th and being within a win of the top 6.

Saw on the BBC website they described it as 'controversial' that Luton didn't get an equaliser. Strange as I've not seen any serious suggestions that it wasn't a perfectly correct decision by the linesman. The poor TV footage isn't clear but it looks offside. I'm still concerned nonetheless that they had such an opportunity at that late stage and even more concerned by them having 3 players reacting and charging in on goal after the cross without much happening on our end. Fragile and poor - need to be more switched on than that.

 

[darrenrover]

5 hours ago, Roverinbelfast said:

 

I didn't set the bar low either, that was forced on me/us by lunatic owners. But that was the reality of the situation. 

I think it's about time we all cut the owners some slack. (I didn't say forget before anyone starts down that route)

Our revenue as a club has been 2/3 of bugger all for 18 months, yet we've not had to sell anyone. In fact quite the contrary, we've added to our squad.

Where does everybody think the money has come from to do that and provide the club with adequate working capital to sustain itself at this level?

Next will come, yeh but we're now a £trillion in debt. Forget that it's meaningless, it's an accounting function only and nothing at all to worry about. If Venky's did sell for a profit at some point in the future, the debt would be offset against the potential capital gain, negating the need to pay capital gains tax. That is a fact!

So yeh, they've been duped as have we all, by the shysters whose names we won't mention but they haven't cut and run, like many would, have they? Conversely they continue to pour money into our beloved Rovers.

So, you can't influence the past, no matter how much you bitch and moan but you can influence the present and the future. Think about it....

WE ARE The Rovers!!!

Edited January 31, 2021 by darrenrover

[Wood26]

38 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

Mowbray called him moody. He also referred to his work rate as not being good enough yet I've seen Elliott and BB not tracking back with their full back on many an occasion. Mowbray also refused to sign players with ripped jeans. I think the problem may be Mowbray in this instance. 

But he signed him twice?

I can’t see a place for Chapman in our match day squad personally.

If he was good, and had a good attitude, he would be in the team. To think any different isn’t crazy. Mowbray wants to win games and will pick the best players to do it, Chapman just doesn’t cut it and clearly doesn’t have the attitude for it.

And when I say attitude, take in to account every mile they run etc is tracked as stats, and they look at those stats for training and games, and maybe his numbers aren’t there.

But whatever, who cares, we don’t need him.

[Vilesinner]

5 hours ago, J*B said:

Congratulations to TM on a fruitful January, really got some results when we needed them both. I’m not bothered about performances, we won 1-0 and if we could replicate the performance and result every week I would be ecstatic. 
 

Now we’re in touching distance let’s hope we can break the glass ceiling. Bournemouth will come good, they’ve got some great players, so we need to match or better Readings results every week to break into the top 6. 

Spot on sir..Reading are the team I think may be most vulnerable. I don't see why we can't make the top 6. 

[Vilesinner]

48 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

Mowbray called him moody. He also referred to his work rate as not being good enough yet I've seen Elliott and BB not tracking back with their full back on many an occasion. Mowbray also refused to sign players with ripped jeans. I think the problem may be Mowbray in this instance. 

BB works like a Trojan; so too Gallagher who gets much abuse. Elliot has been disappointing for quite some time imo after a brilliant start. I would start Dolan ahead of him next game.

[USABlue]

8 hours ago, superniko said:

 

Kaminski was brilliant again

Douglas was solid - got skinned at the end and almost gave a penalty away, otherwise he was decent. 

2 points saved with that block at the end.  Why was it disallowed offside or player coming back into play?.

Edited January 31, 2021 by USABlue

[roversfan99]

Im not sure if Reading are that vulnerable, I understand that they werent top 6 favourites before the start of the season but an imaginative and inspired managerial appointment has made them the real deal. They are 8 points ahead of us which is a lot, they looked brilliant again last night and they have real quality in attacking areas with Joao, Olise, Meite, Swift and Ejaria.

Brentford have also gone on a brilliant run and seem to be right in the mix for the top 2, backing up a good season last season. Bournemouth seem the most vulnerable but their squad is packed full of quality and are perhaps underachieving under a rookie manager, they have just added Pearson and Wilshire to a squad already containing quality throughout, Begovic, Mepham, Cook, Smith, Kelly, Stacey, Rico, Lerma, Lewis Cook, Billing, King, Danjuma, Stanislas, Brooks and Solanke.

[Vilesinner]

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Im not sure if Reading are that vulnerable, I understand that they werent top 6 favourites before the start of the season but an imaginative and inspired managerial appointment has made them the real deal. They are 8 points ahead of us which is a lot, they looked brilliant again last night and they have real quality in attacking areas with Joao, Olise, Meite, Swift and Ejaria.

Brentford have also gone on a brilliant run and seem to be right in the mix for the top 2, backing up a good season last season. Bournemouth seem the most vulnerable but their squad is packed full of quality and are perhaps underachieving under a rookie manager, they have just added Pearson and Wilshire to a squad already containing quality throughout, Begovic, Mepham, Cook, Smith, Kelly, Stacey, Rico, Lerma, Lewis Cook, Billing, King, Danjuma, Stanislas, Brooks and Solanke.

I think if Joao gets injured they might not be the same. I imagine they have been pretty lucky with injuries. Don't think many team have a better 22 than us. 

They have been a lot more than 8 points ahead of us. 

[darrenrover]

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Im not sure if Reading are that vulnerable, I understand that they werent top 6 favourites before the start of the season but an imaginative and inspired managerial appointment has made them the real deal. They are 8 points ahead of us which is a lot, they looked brilliant again last night and they have real quality in attacking areas with Joao, Olise, Meite, Swift and Ejaria.

Brentford have also gone on a brilliant run and seem to be right in the mix for the top 2, backing up a good season last season. Bournemouth seem the most vulnerable but their squad is packed full of quality and are perhaps underachieving under a rookie manager, they have just added Pearson and Wilshire to a squad already containing quality throughout, Begovic, Mepham, Cook, Smith, Kelly, Stacey, Rico, Lerma, Lewis Cook, Billing, King, Danjuma, Stanislas, Brooks and Solanke.

You're right of course but,

We're 11 points behind Swansea and 15 behind Norwich: They should be our targets IMO.

"Reach for the stars and you may just reach the moon" being the applied principle.

Unlikely but you just never know. After all, who would have ever thought we would have lost six on the bounce in the '92 run in?

[USABlue]

8 hours ago, rovers11 said:

What a win! Didnt see a goal coming but we did it. Holtby was the gamechanger.

Lenihan MOTM closely followed by Douglas and Kaminski. 

If so he was closely followed by Dolan what a livewire that kid is.  Nob End must be absolutely kicking themselves.  Luton looked genuinely worried about him and may have forced the sub.  Tie him down he's gonna be great if he keeps his head screwed on.

[USABlue]

8 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

No coincidence that Branthwaite has come in and defensive performances have improved.

He's a class above this level, even at 18. 

Nah he was shit before he even kicked a ball, least that's what I read on here.  Very mature player for his age.  He'll drop a clanger.sooner ornlater but looks solid enough.  May even have.made.Darragh.up his game.too

Edited January 31, 2021 by USABlue

[roversfan99]

14 minutes ago, Vilesinner said:

I think if Joao gets injured they might not be the same. I imagine they have been pretty lucky with injuries. Don't think many team have a better 22 than us. 

They have been a lot more than 8 points ahead of us. 

You could say the same about us if Armstrong got injured with our second top scorer on 4. They also have Meite who has been injured who returned to the squad last night.

8 points is a lot to make up, 3 more wins whilst keeping up with them for the rest of the time. Bournemouth look the most vulnerable, their squad is definitely better and more rounded than us and indeed I would suggest everyone bar maybe Norwich but they are not performing to their maximum under Tindall. 

[TheRoversReturn]

4 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

‘Some of you want us to lose’

’wonder if some of you are actually fans’

Can this divisive, lazy shite please not be rolled out every time we win a game.

FYI - nobody spends hours a day on an internet message board deep diving into the intricacies of the squad, manager, owners, pitch and on it goes of Blackburn Rovers if they ‘want us to lose’ so please stop.

Well said, excellent post.

All on here are Rovers fans. 

[TheRoversReturn]

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Whats bizarre is that people seem to think that the goals cover up the flaws in his game, losing track of the primary function of a striker.

Also, when we dont score, we criticise the player who has 18 goals before the rest, none of whom have got past 4 goals. Summed things up when he drifted wide, put in a brilliant cross and no one was in the box. Elliott, Rothwell and Brereton all were equally quiet, the latter 2 have flattered to deceive consistently throughout, so I find it strange that 95% of the criticism goes again to Armstrong. Hes a victim of his own success.

No one has ever implied that he is perfect or the finished article, no Championship player ever could be. But he is not fully appreciated, something Rhodes shared with goalscoring not deemed as important as it actually is.

There's no doubt he needs to stop taking pot shots with no chance of scoring although, to be fair, he's not been quite so bad as he was at Bristol City away. That was an extreme, however, and if he played like that again he would be the problem.

However, yesterday he was not only the most likely scorer but also our best chance creator. His balls into the box were played into positions that attackers should be exploiting. They're only exploited by Armstrong. A prime example was a ball across the box when Brereton was hanging back instead of attacking the space in a position that would have required Armstrong to be a contortionist to pull it back by that angle and Elliot was in a similar place. Simply not good enough positionally. Armstrong needs to keep doing what he is doing and these players:

Rothwell

Brereton

Gallagher

Holtby

Need to be contributing more to the scoring. Dack starting regularly might be the spark needed, more likely it'll take a few months to really get back into his stride, but those others need to be producing more consistently.   

Think we're attacking a symptom (AA taking on too much) at times rather than the cause which is others needing to step up to the plate and contribute. 

 

 

[Vilesinner]

33 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

You could say the same about us if Armstrong got injured with our second top scorer on 4. They also have Meite who has been injured who returned to the squad last night.

8 points is a lot to make up, 3 more wins whilst keeping up with them for the rest of the time. Bournemouth look the most vulnerable, their squad is definitely better and more rounded than us and indeed I would suggest everyone bar maybe Norwich but they are not performing to their maximum under Tindall. 

Armstrong would not be as big a loss for us. He is not as clinical. 

[roversfan99]

1 minute ago, Vilesinner said:

Armstrong would not be as big a loss for us. He is not as clinical. 

He has scored 2 more goals for us, he would be.

[TheRoversReturn]

4 hours ago, Roverinbelfast said:

I can 100% confirm people have posted they would accept a heavy defeat to get rid of TM

I've never said I wanted Rovers to lose (nor will I) but I have tried to make sense of it as a what if? It's a hypothetical scenario so no, it doesn't equate to fans wanting their team to lose in the long run. Teams lose many games each season, but it's where we finish at the end of the season that counts. Those fans are just expressing that they would just be willing to accept short term pain for the long term good of the club. To flip the hypothetical, would you accept a one game victory if it meant ultimately missing out on the playoffs as it kept a poor manager in charge? Would you have wanted Owen Coyle to win his last game in charge if it meant that he was able to stagger on to the end of the season, perhaps just relegating us but being given a chance at taking us back up from League One? Perhaps we'd still be there now or down with the Bolton, Oldham and Salford. See, all hypotheticals really, isn't it?

Whatever, it's a message board for Rovers fans. People aren't coming on here because they aren't "real fans" or aren't desperately wanting us to succeed. People say stuff, on a message board when they're frustrated. Big deal. It's an emotional game. End of the day, if TM doesn't take us into the playoffs then he needs to leave. Nothing about wanting us to win or lose any one particular game, all about where we want to be after 46 games. Also,   

Come on you Blues. Ten points from twelve; credit where it's due to the manager, Mowbray has turned around the season. We're still in touch with the top six. 

[TheRoversReturn]

1 hour ago, USABlue said:

2 points saved with that block at the end.  Why was it disallowed offside or player coming back into play?.

No, it was their player who knocked it back across the goal who was flagged offside. You're spot on that Douglas had a good game today, some lovely little touches. He's had a good January.

I'd start with the XI that ended the game today. Every one of our substitutes looked hungry and contributed well; time to reward that with a start for Dack, Gallagher (up front) and Holtby.

I'm not sure Mowbray will start Dolan, but you can tell that defenders hate being up against him. They haven't a clue what he's going to do. I'm not sure that he does much of the time! It's so refreshing and spontaneous, much better than lifelessly knocking it sideways and backwards, or spurning an opportunity to cross then before you know it an attack has somehow ended up being passed back to Kaminski.

Next game, if possible, I'd start something along the lines of -

Kaminski

Nyambe Lenihan Branthwhaite Douglas

Travis

Holtby

Dolan Dack 

Gallagher Armstrong

[Wood26]

27 minutes ago, Vilesinner said:

Armstrong would not be as big a loss for us. He is not as clinical. 

I disagree, Armstrong is vital for us. His pace makes teams think about how they set up. Without that threat of pace in behind, we would be so easy to defend against.

[Fraserkirky]

I thought Elliott had his worse game for us today, although he picked up a knock and was noticeably laboring after that. 
Rothwell is not enjoying the pitch at all, and he can’t judge his dribbling. He played 3/4 sublime long balls in the first half though.

Brereton headed back to the bench, that wasn’t good enough, and it’s time to give Dolan or Gallagher a run in the side.

I thought Lenihan again for me was MoM, he has really stepped it up the last couple of games, and needs to continue it.

Scrappy, ugly win. Luton were much better than us for periods of time, like the last 25mins of the first half. 

[darrenrover]

2 hours ago, TheRoversReturn said:

I've never said I wanted Rovers to lose (nor will I) but I have tried to make sense of it as a what if? It's a hypothetical scenario so no, it doesn't equate to fans wanting their team to lose in the long run. Teams lose many games each season, but it's where we finish at the end of the season that counts. Those fans are just expressing that they would just be willing to accept short term pain for the long term good of the club. To flip the hypothetical, would you accept a one game victory if it meant ultimately missing out on the playoffs as it kept a poor manager in charge? Would you have wanted Owen Coyle to win his last game in charge if it meant that he was able to stagger on to the end of the season, perhaps just relegating us but being given a chance at taking us back up from League One? Perhaps we'd still be there now or down with the Bolton, Oldham and Salford. See, all hypotheticals really, isn't it?

Whatever, it's a message board for Rovers fans. People aren't coming on here because they aren't "real fans" or aren't desperately wanting us to succeed. People say stuff, on a message board when they're frustrated. Big deal. It's an emotional game. End of the day, if TM doesn't take us into the playoffs then he needs to leave. Nothing about wanting us to win or lose any one particular game, all about where we want to be after 46 games. Also,   

Come on you Blues. Ten points from twelve; credit where it's due to the manager, Mowbray has turned around the season. We're still in touch with the top six. 

Keep this run of form going in February and the top 2 will be in sight!

COYB!!!!

[Mattyblue]

6 hours ago, darrenrover said:

I think it's about time we all cut the owners some slack. (I didn't say forget before anyone starts down that route)

Our revenue as a club has been 2/3 of bugger all for 18 months, yet we've not had to sell anyone. In fact quite the contrary, we've added to our squad.

Where does everybody think the money has come from to do that and provide the club with adequate working capital to sustain itself at this level?

Next will come, yeh but we're now a £trillion in debt. Forget that it's meaningless, it's an accounting function only and nothing at all to worry about. If Venky's did sell for a profit at some point in the future, the debt would be offset against the potential capital gain, negating the need to pay capital gains tax. That is a fact!

So yeh, they've been duped as have we all, by the shysters whose names we won't mention but they haven't cut and run, like many would, have they? Conversely they continue to pour money into our beloved Rovers.

So, you can't influence the past, no matter how much you bitch and moan but you can influence the present and the future. Think about it....

WE ARE The Rovers!!!

‘Duped’, ‘badly advised’, didn’t expect those old tropes from you Darren.

They were arrogant and thought they knew better than experienced operatives like JW et al. 

The club is a shell, stripped to the bone on the non playing side and with the money now in the top flight, the rise of our neighbours across east Lancs and the rapidly changing demographics of the town I doubt we’ll ever get back to where we were a decade ago - it was the worst possible time for the club to head into the wilderness, now with Covid on top.

Does any of that mean we are not totally reliant on their cash injections? Of course we are, and I’m glad of it in these frankly scary times for professional sport, indeed TM is a lucky man to be given 4 years and not needing to ever sell a player, unheard of in this league, but their hundreds of millions have got us no further than where we are right now, largely due to dysfunctional governance and mediocre appointees. The owners themselves should have been demanding much better, yet they seem to have little ambition or plan for the club either apart from meeting their commitments, why?
 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Mattyblue