v Swansea City (h) - 7/8/21

[Sparks Rover]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

@Sparks Rover Please tell me you can admit Bucko's played a blinder in that 1st half? I know you really don't rate him, but surely he's impressed you today?

FFS Joe, half a feckin game. Still no goals, and no assists.  Let's see at the end of the season rather than picking every time he has a nice touch.  I want to see goals, assists, real contribution from our midfield.  If he does it throughout the season fair enough, I remember our first 10 games last season, world beaters we were. As good as his first half was, his second was very poor.

[rovers11]

I feel like Swansea are going to be like we were last season - style over substance. There's more emphasis on keeping the ball, passing out from the back, and playing nice football rather than actually winning football matches. 

Hopefully we've ditched that idea and focus more on being more compact and hitting teams on the counter. 

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

The one major question is the Dolan central and Gallagher wide right experiment, I still dont agree with it personally but Dolan does press better than anyone else and with him winning the penalty and Gallagher scoring, I suppose you cant argue with it today.

Given that we wanted to pressed high and close down with a pressing forward(Jamie Vardy role) surely Dolan is better in that role? Yes his finishing need working on. Where if we were playing against a team where a target man striker is needed then thats suited Gallagher more. You agree?

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

My main worry is that the team we put out does not have many goals in it, if we had Armstrong today I think that we could have chalked up a 4 or 5 goal tally as we did last year. Dolan's energy is infectious but he is still so raw and his shooting is particularly weak, he wont score many goals and simply cant be our striker going forward. Brereton and Gallagher both had limited involvements really

I understand what you are saying but surely it down to the team to score goals whether its Ayala's header from Corner or Rothwell dribble and shot. I don't think we can replace Armstrong like for like bit hopefully we can sign some players who will help the current squad with goals. We had 21 shots today so we created enough chances to win 2 games of football today

How many would players would you like us to sign the deadline day whether its permanent or loans? I think 4 or 5 to help this current squad?

[tomphil]

Just remember Mowbray was trying to play like this lot last season.

Dominate the ball and possession......and lose.

[den9112]

7 minutes ago, tomphil said:

What is the craic with the Millwall tickets did anyone get to the bottom of it ?

Official site i gave up on a few years ago.

Will there be pay on the day ?

I am going but will be in London that weekend i won't get a ticket from Rovers(just in case things don't work out and i can't make it) but when i went a couple of seasons ago i paid in the away ticket office on the day, it's at the far end were the away coaches park..

[islander200]

9 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

FFS Joe, half a feckin game. Still no goals, and no assists.  Let's see at the end of the season rather than picking every time he has a nice touch.  I want to see goals, assists, real contribution from our midfield.  If he does it throughout the season fair enough, I remember our first 10 games last season, world beaters we were. As good as his first half was, his second was very poor.

Yet you called me out when I critizised Rothwell due to his poor assists and goals record?

[Tom]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

John Buckley played the best 65 minutes of his career today. Ran out of steam a bit towards the end but what a game from him. Needs to do it every week but to win the ball back via tackles/interceptions 12 times in one game in the middle of midfield is mighty impressive.

BBD shot off the post wasn't a bad miss, it was a really really hard angle. Why didn't Rothwell just square it?

He was brilliant first half, far and away the best I’ve seen him. 

Comfortably the worst player on the pitch second half, losing the ball cost us the goal and then continued to give it away before being booked and coming off.

The first half shows what he can do though and proves there really is a player there. 

[Sparks Rover]

3 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Yet you called me out when I critizised Rothwell due to his poor assists and goals record?

We are.talking about Bucko.  He needs to add goals and assists to his game, what's the point otherwise.  Same with Rothwell who I believe is the much better player.  Our whole team needs to do more under this wally.

[Mike E]

4 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

We are.talking about Bucko.  He needs to add goals and assists to his game, what's the point otherwise.  Same with Rothwell who I believe is the much better player.  Our whole team needs to do more under this wally.

He got another assist today tbf

[roversfan99]

2 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Given that we wanted to pressed high and close down with a pressing forward(Jamie Vardy role) surely Dolan is better in that role? Yes his finishing need working on. Where if we were playing against a team where a target man striker is needed then thats suited Gallagher more. You agree?

I understand what you are saying but surely it down to the team to score goals whether its Ayala's header from Corner or Rothwell dribble and shot. I don't think we can replace Armstrong like for like bit hopefully we can sign some players who will help the current squad with goals. We had 21 shots today so we created enough chances to win 2 games of football today

How many would players would you like us to sign the deadline day whether its permanent or loans? I think 4 or 5 to help this current squad?

I think that it worked today but I think that we need an actual striker who can score goals in that central role, I suspect that if Dolan played as a central striker for 46 games, he would struggle to get 10 goals, hence why he is not playing the full Vardy role. He is still very raw and possibly more often than not suited to being an impact sub. I don't think that Gallagher is a target man either really. Swansea were particularly naive in the way that they play, but more often than not teams will not be quite as stupid.

It is ok saying that all of these players should score more but there is no evidence that they will. Rothwell summed up his Rovers career today, fantastic running with the ball yet when it came to the crunch he didnt score. I do agree that we do need more internally, but I don't expect them to suddenly start all scoring more when they havent up until now, so the key is to make sure that not only the striker that we need comes in and can score some goals, but also some of the ones that we bring in also have that ability.

I think we need a centre back to compete with the current 2 with Wharton presumably a good couple of months away from first team involvement, and I would keep Carter around until January to cover that too. I think we need a left back to compete and push for that left back position. I think we need at least 2 players in central midfield, one of whom can sit in front of the defence and one who does have an ability to get goals. I think we need at least one if not two wide men who can really give us some quality and again get us some goals. And we definitely need a striker on a permanent basis, Armstrong will be impossible to replace but we need someone up front too. So 6 or 7 I would say, ideally an experienced keeper to be number 2 aswell. I did look at us today and think that we really need some more experience, they can't all be kids as we will struggle to manage games if that is the case. One player that I would love would be Conor Hourihane, he can control games, he can dictate games, he can score goals, he can take set pieces and he is a really good age and would bring consistency and experience to the current group, his finesse next to Travis would be ideal. Sadly, it seems like we are looking at kids only.

[Sparks Rover]

2 minutes ago, Mike E said:

He got another assist today tbf

Not according to the stats 

[tomphil]

16 minutes ago, den9112 said:

I am going but will be in London that weekend i won't get a ticket from Rovers(just in case things don't work out and i can't make it) but when i went a couple of seasons ago i paid in the away ticket office on the day, it's at the far end were the away coaches park..

Cheers, it's looking like it'll be pay on the day for us so hopefully it's available.

[arbitro]

27 minutes ago, Roverthechimp said:

Fair points but i thought bringing on Davenport was the right choice as Swansea had control of the midfield after their goal. Still wonder if it was planned "like for not quite like" swap with Buckley that was planned but got abandoned and,as you rightly point out, the changes caused a little confusion and loss of momentum.

Thought we got it back with Butterworth and i sort of agree with the decision to bring on an extra defender and with 8 minutes left as we were counter-attacking well.

I thought Travis looking extremely weary aided Swansea in their control of midfield. On several occasions he allowed their midfield runners to go last him unchallenged so much so that Lenihan called him out twice. I would have changed him for Garrett who would have been more suited to stopping Swansea coming forward. Also Nyambe was left exposed when Gallagher went off as neither Buckley or Dolan tracked back to help him primarily because neither are wide players in my view.

[davulsukur]

33 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

I feel like Swansea are going to be like we were last season - style over substance. There's more emphasis on keeping the ball, passing out from the back, and playing nice football rather than actually winning football matches. 

Hopefully we've ditched that idea and focus more on being more compact and hitting teams on the counter. 

Really hope so too.

Having the majority of possession didn't work out too well last season and we seem to fare a lot better when we have less.

[Paul Mellelieu]

20 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I thought Travis looking extremely weary aided Swansea in their control of midfield. On several occasions he allowed their midfield runners to go last him unchallenged so much so that Lenihan called him out twice. I would have changed him for Garrett who would have been more suited to stopping Swansea coming forward. Also Nyambe was left exposed when Gallagher went off as neither Buckley or Dolan tracked back to help him primarily because neither are wide players in my view.

Agree, except Gallagher isn't a wide player either, but does the defensive job.

[only2garners]

23 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Not according to the stats 

Lies, damned lies and statistics. No doubt officially Diaz got the assist but anyone with half a brain surely knows that winning the ball in midfield and sending a wonderful pass straight to Diaz in the penalty area was the real assist.

[bazza]

3 hours ago, Doug said:

Enjoyed that, decent game and a win. Half decent atmosphere, sweet Caroline to finish. Good afternoon at Ewood. Having a few pints in the grey mare with some wanderers fans. 😁🍺👍🏻

Is the Grey Mare in Daisy Hill, Westhoughton?

 

1 hour ago, Miller11 said:

 

 Would’ve been nice if they’d cleaned the ground up properly and done a few repairs. The tannoy at the back of me in the Riverside has finally given up the ghost after years of threatening to do so.

 

Also the TV screens the back of the Riverside are caput. Nice that the club really try to make match day experience the best for the fans. 

[Paul Mellelieu]

TV screens were working I thought.

[Torgeir]

Great game. Should have killed it off though. Full of youthful energy and excitement, and Brereton Diaz has gone from being a scapegoat to a cult hero - hope he can avoid another injury setback.

Our left side defensively with Ayala and Pickering will struggle at times, but hopefully Tony will add a central defender to our ranks soon. Midfield looked good and full of running, if Bucko can stay switched on for 90 minutes we have a player there. Davenport tidy when he came on, and was impressed by Butterworth as well. Mistake by Kaminiski on the goal but excellent apart from that. Rothwell did what he wanted, and deserved the man of the match for me.

[RevidgeBlue]

 

 

2 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Sure I saw RB clapping along to "TM's Blue and White Army."

I can assure you you didn't!

🙂

Had it been "Uncle Jack's Blue and White Army" you would have!

[joey_big_nose]

Another game to chalk up to "the kids rarely let us down". Today we had 4 academy graduates (Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis, Buckley), 2 more effectively academy grads (Brereton and Dolan) as we bought them so young. Only experienced players really Kaminski, Lenihan and Ayala. Gallagher is a weird one, 25 but never really established, Pickering an established player at League One level and still only 22. All the subs were academy grads (Butterworth, Carter) or effective grads (Davenport).

The lack of experience in the team is on one hand worrying, but on another was anyone out there really lower quality than Douglas, Bell, Evans, Bennett, Smallwood even Holtby?

 Not really sure they were... I am struggling to think of many games where young players have let us down, compared to the many where journeymen have.

On the whole I have always thought we just don't play the kids enough. This year we get to find out if that is true.

I think I prefer that to us bringing in a new raft of Smallwood's, Lee Willamsons, Chris Brown's etc. I struggle to think of many of those who have truly worked out.

[Stuart]

What’s interesting about today is that the first XI picked itself and we had very few options from the bench for Mowbray to overthink his substitutions.

We have often done well when that has been the case.

Much now depends on injuries and what kind of loans we can get in. We don’t need more youngsters, we need some experience to balance the squad. We also need another CB, I like Magloire and Wharton but still think we are thin when (not if) Ayala gets injured.

[roversfan99]

I thought that the service on the concourse's was again piss poor. So slow to the point that even though I went down for a beer a few minutes before half time, with the queue curving past the toilets and going down at a snails pace, I gave up. Custom is being lost. Could beers not be pre-prepared and also perhaps the bottle bars be used again?

Could this be something that is raise at the next fans forum please? @only2garners

[Darrenbot]

50 minutes ago, bazza said:

Is the Grey Mare in Daisy Hill, Westhoughton?

 

Also the TV screens the back of the Riverside are caput. Nice that the club really try to make match day experience the best for the fans. 

Its a ploy to get you all to move to another stand so they can close the Riverside,save them money having to open it up for every game.

[Stuart]

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I thought that the service on the concourse's was again piss poor. So slow to the point that even though I went down for a beer a few minutes before half time, with the queue curving past the toilets and going down at a snails pace, I gave up. Custom is being lost. Could beers not be pre-prepared and also perhaps the bottle bars be used again?

Could this be something that is raise at the next fans forum please? @only2garners

They really have no idea about making money from volume at Waggott’s Rovers. It’s all about the unit price and just sell it to whoever will pay and keep costs and innovation to a minimum.