January Transfer Window.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

3 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Whoever gets on the end of his excellent delivery. 

In all honesty our centre backs are far more likely to score at set pieces than Gally/Breo.  For 2 big lads they are weak in the air.

 

[Exiled_Rover]

8 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Sounds like we should have bid less and put it towards the wage package.

How do you know what we bid?

[Sweaty Gussets]

5 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

In all honesty our centre backs are far more likely to score at set pieces than Gally/Breo.  For 2 big lads they are weak in the air.

 

And yet under Coyle Gally scored some great headers. It's just that since Mogga arrived we've had nobody capable of crossing a ball. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by Sweaty Gussets

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

5 minutes ago, den said:

I would have more confidence if he wasn’t seen as not good enough to contribute towards keeping Huddersfield in the championship.

On paper he looks a good addition.  We've needed an out and out  quick winger for a while.  The issue is with our system. He won't be able to get to the byline and whip one in as there is at best only ever 1 rovers player in the box.

He's going to end up playing as wingback I reckon.

On the down side, he doesn't sound like he's one for a battle and we really need some grit and fire out there when we go behind.  

[Mattyblue]

Well if they’ve bothered to resurrect the sticker book there *must* be more to come, right? 😐

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

In all honesty our centre backs are far more likely to score at set pieces than Gally/Breo.  For 2 big lads they are weak in the air.

 

Neither of them is very good at jumping for contested headers. If they get a header in space they’re ok but so is everybody else.

[47er]

9 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Whoever gets on the end of his excellent delivery. 

That'll be new. Snatching at straws I think.

Dack has excellent delivery anyway.

[Exiled_Rover]

48 minutes ago, 47er said:

We've taken him on because e he's good at set-pieces?!! C'mn!

We need a more grown-up discussion than that. 

Is he fitting into our existing set-up or is he the first in a series of signings where  we change our approach? That's critical.

Hedges was a winger at Aberdeen, his strength was his crossing and he had a good shot on him when he cut inside.

We don't see that side of him much because he was shoe-horned into an existing structure. Khadra was an exciting and talented young player who could look a champion , but in our set-up he too often  ran in to blind allies. As does Dolan for that matter.

Unless a winger has the right players in the middle to take advantage of his pace/skills we won't get the best out of them.That particularly affects set-pieces.

We play sterile football, we score few goals because we create few chances.

So, until I see the totality of this transfer window I worry about the prospects for this sort of player.There are other  players we need more. I hope there is a plan but, with a week to go, I fear that's its the same old.

I hope that's a better post than "Give the lad a chance FFS".

Khadra doesn't play for us and has never been coached by JDT, so he's irrelevant to this discussion.

Hedges has been a victim of his own success / his teammate's failings. He's been shoehorned into the side in a few positions (including RWB) because he's one of the few players on the books that can receive a ball in tight spaces, retain possession and then either pick a pass or beat a man. He's put in plenty of crosses cutting inside from the right - Brereton-Diaz's head is just in Spain so he's missed most of them and Gallagher wouldn't know where the goal is if you gave him a map.

Dolan has played mostly as a Pressing Forward (a #9) this season and has really cut down on his pointless dribbling.

 

So, no, I don't think Thomas indicates a change in our style of play. He's an extra option for that front 4 - one that brings a different dimension to what we currently have. Set pieces are also very important, just ask our lord and savior Sam Allardyce.

[47er]

5 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

And yet under Coyle Gally scored some great headers. It's just that since Mogga arrived we've had nobody capable of crossing a ball. 

Ever the contrarian. No-one could cross a ball in the last 5 plus years? That's bull-shit. Hedges can, Dack can, Brereton can for that matter---he just can't be on the end of one as well!

Getting childish this. Get tangled up with someone like you and forget why I'm on here.

 

 

[47er]

Just now, Exiled_Rover said:

So, no, I don't think Thomas indicates a change in our style of play.

Pity then.

[goozburger]

10 hours ago, 47er said:

Rather than take the piss ( that's the easy bit) tell me who he'll be crossing to?

Hopefully we'll find out in the next few days. It sounds like we are prioritising a striker, now.

The lone striker role at Rovers must be one of the most lonely and thankless tasks going at the moment. I rarely watch a Rovers game and see the lone striker get a reasonable level of service. Is it fair to judge our current strikers under those circumstances? I don't think it is. Even so, it's definitely a position we need extra serious competition for given that Gallagher is injury-prone.

All in all, Thomas sounds like a good start. A Huddersfield fan described him as "nothing special, just an assist merchant". That'll do for me.

Edited January 26, 2023 by goozburger

[47er]

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

just ask our lord and savior Sam Allardyce.

Yeah and put Samba up front!

[Jimmy612]

8 minutes ago, 47er said:

That'll be new. Snatching at straws I think.

Dack has excellent delivery anyway.

You'd opt to have our most instinctive goalscorer delivering set pieces/ crosses rather than getting on the end of them? 

Roy Hodgson tried that with Harry Kane at the Euros. We all know how that ended up. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by Jimmy612

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Just now, Sweaty Gussets said:

And yet under Coyle Gally scored some great headers. It's just that since Mogga we've had nobody capable of crossing a ball. 

Granted he looked a useful player that season.   I'd say there's a case that back then he was playing a proper cf role and had been at Southampton/u21.  He's not developed in any way, shape or form since that season.  It's been coached out of him with this wide forward rubbish that started during his loan at Brum and under every manager since. 

 

Given his size, at 27 he should be an absolute nightmare to play against but he's often bullied out of it by the opposition centre back.  

Maybe an additional 3 years playing up against 2 cb would have made him more competitive - who knows. 

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

21 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

How do you know what we bid?

Does it matter? You won't trust the source if he tells you🤷🏻‍♂️ 

[Sweaty Gussets]

21 minutes ago, 47er said:

Ever the contrarian. No-one could cross a ball in the last 5 plus years? That's bull-shit. Hedges can, Dack can, Brereton can for that matter---he just can't be on the end of one as well!

Getting childish this. Get tangled up with someone like you and forget why I'm on here.

 

 

Yeah, Dack's always out wide putting crosses in! And BBD. I can see him now getting to the touchline and whipping the ball in🙃

And we were talking about set-pieces, which Morton invariably takes, and not very well. 

'Best set-piece taker in the Championship' was how Thomas was described by a Hudds fan. A quick look at his many assists and you can see why. 

And you being wrong, isn't me being a contrarian. 

'Tangled up' Grow up, if you don't like having your opinions challenged don't put them on a public forum. And you weren't bothered about being 'tangled up' the other week when you out of the blue you accused me of defending the club at every opportunity. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by Sweaty Gussets

[Sweaty Gussets]

7 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

He's not developed in any way, shape or form since that season.  It's been coached out of him with this wide forward rubbish that started during his loan at Brum and under every manager since. 

Completely agree. 

[ben_the_beast]

Seems to me that Thomas just doesn't want to be at Huddersfield. There has been a lot of upheaval there, another poster said he's been singled out by fans as a bit of a scapegoat. Doesn't scream good attitude, but some players just have a shorter fuse than others and can actually be great to have around the place when the going is good.

On Huddersfields part, a loan makes sense. If he's disillusioned with the club and manager then it's not worth him being there, however they obviously know he's a good player. Loan him out and if the situation changes again at Huddersfield it may be a fresh start for him at the end of the season. If it doesn't then his stock may have risen and they can sell for more. 

Its not as plain and simple as he can't get in a struggling side. For us, he looks like he'll be an asset and offers qualities we simply don't have in our squad. It's frustrating there is no option to buy in the deal. I expect he's a player we would want to make permanent. 

 

[Danny O.Brien]

Jdt knows more than any of us and let's not forget, whatever we think of him so far as manager he was a class striker. He'd know more than anyone if gally is capable. I'd like to think so and maybe he will get played more central, if the focus becomes on getting crosses in the box. He's shown glimpses of really being up for games and getting about. His size he should be an absolute nightmare in this league. Who knows maybe he will end up playing more up top. Or even if not he's an option to have.

On the set piece situation, I think especially last season when we had three tall centre backs. That should've one hundred percent been our focus. Less so this season but we already know hyam and Wharton love a header. We should definitely score from more set pieces hopefully this is the start of that.

[JHRover]

It's a strange on alright. I hope he provides much needed pace and delivery, two things we are sorely missing, but as others have pointed out, and as I've argued with various players in our squad at times, the issue is less to do with individual qualities/abilities and more to do with our system and tactics in my opinion. So unless that changes and quickly I struggle to see how this will go.

I also think it is very strange that Huddersfield, in their precarious position, would be happy to send him here on loan. The only logical conclusion is either that they are in dire straits financially and need to save on his wages/he's had a falling out of sorts there and they don't want him around the place if he isn't going to feature.

I can't really comment on the player as I can't remember seeing him play but he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

More generally though this is once again at odds with our proclaimed policy of a 'project' and 'journey'. No problem personally with making 'impact' signings in the hope it makes a difference and gets us over the line. But it is the age old problem - a short term fix which come the summer (assuming we don't go up) we are going to need to address, in addition to dealing with the BBD void. This suggests there is little money or plan.

[joey_big_nose]

27 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Neither of them is very good at jumping for contested headers. If they get a header in space they’re ok but so is everybody else.

Yes - this exactly.... for Gally, BBD and Vale a combination of not being able to win a contested ball and being poor at finding space in the box (or even getting in the box at all) leads to no opportunity for crosses whatsoever.

It seems a very straight forward solution for our ills to find someone whose reason for living is to get in the penalty box and beat a centreback to a cross or a through ball. Why are we not looking for that player? In fact we could really do with two.

[Jimmy612]

34 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

And yet under Coyle Gally scored some great headers. It's just that since Mogga arrived we've had nobody capable of crossing a ball. 

Is this actually true?   He scored 12 goals in 47 games that season, an absolute glut by his standards, but I don't remember many of them.  One lovely half volley in to the Darwen End sticks out in my mind... be interesting to know how many of those goals were actually headers.  I was working away at the time but I remember Gally starting in that 1-0 win to Wigan when Emnes scored the fantastic goal - he was absolutely hopeless in every way he still is now, particularly back to goal.  Graham came on after 65mins and showed him exactly how to play that role - he was fantastic.  Why Gally ever started ahead of him I don't know.

With Gallagher, I honestly can't remember Rovers having a striker that has such poor anticipation - he just doesn't appear to have any ability to see a picture unfold at all.  Strikers should always be a step ahead of their defenders.... he just looks like he plays the game as it's happening.

It's alright having someone who can deliver crosses, but I'm not convinced Gally has the nous or wherewithal to take advantage of it.  He must be a piece of piss to mark.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Jimmy612

[ItsRoverZ]

Begging for a striker today, if I have to watch Vale lead the line in the fa cup il cry

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

5 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Yes - this exactly.... for Gally, BBD and Vale a combination of not being able to win a contested ball and being poor at finding space in the box (or even getting in the box at all) leads to no opportunity for crosses whatsoever.

It seems a very straight forward solution for our ills to find someone whose reason for living is to get in the penalty box and beat a centreback to a cross or a through ball. Why are we not looking for that player? In fact we could really do with two.

Add into that equation our “ wingers “ coming inside all the time.

[Sweaty Gussets]

5 minutes ago, Jimmy612 said:

Is this actually true?   He scored 12 goals in 47 games that season, an absolute glut by his standards, but I don't remember many of them.  One lovely half volley in to the Darwen End sticks out in my mind... be interesting to know how many of those goals were actually headers. 

Sam Gallagher's Championship goals - Bing video  

Sam Gallagher scoring some very, very good headers.