v Birmingham City (a) - 13/02/2024 19:45 KO

[aletheia]

7 league games in December (we won one)
No Gallagher, no Dolan, no Hedges, no JRC for all of them.
Hyam played in three I think.
Relying on Walhstedt, Leonard, Moran, Telalovic, Siggy, Garrett, Markandy

January 3 league games (Drew 2, lost 1)
Gally played in 2, Pears returned for 1
Still no Dolan, Hedges, JRC came on for 1
Still relying on Walhstedt, Leonard, Moran, Telalovic, Garrett, Markandy

Add to the mix the risible management of the hierarchy, a manager who had been lied to and had clearly felt badly short-changed and you have a recipe for what happened.

The team looked poor yesterday with all injured players returned and a new centre back.

 

[M_B]

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for last night. I don't blame Eustace for fielding an unchanged team, but with Mcfadzean, Dolan, Hedges, Gallagher and Costello all having returned to action recently, maybe it caught up a bit. They closed down well early on last night, but it soon faded. 

Thinking back to Saturday, we were hanging on a bit second half, thankfully Pears saved the pen. Maybe they were running out of steam even in the second half against Stoke. I'll cut them a bit of slack and hope it was more about fitness,although it was pretty dire. 

[Ghost7]

Birmingham players didn't seem tired? This is an ability issue due to desperate signings across two windows.

Wahlstedt, Chrisene, Koumetio, Moran, Ennis, Telalovic, Fleck (with two leg breaks and no minutes)... we have been taking whatever we can get.

Birmingham's two subs would be in our starting 11. Venky's are very, very close to taking us down again.

[M_B]

It was the same 11 which hammered Stoke first half but fell away 2nd half. No lack of ability at 3-0.

As I say, I'll give them the benefit. 

[roverblue]

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

We were a point outside the play offs going into December after winning 6 games in 8.

The slump started in December.

We lost 5 out of 6 league games starting in September. Is this a slump?

[NeilInBristol]

1 hour ago, aletheia said:

7 league games in December (we won one)
No Gallagher, no Dolan, no Hedges, no JRC for all of them.
Hyam played in three I think.
Relying on Walhstedt, Leonard, Moran, Telalovic, Siggy, Garrett, Markandy

January 3 league games (Drew 2, lost 1)
Gally played in 2, Pears returned for 1
Still no Dolan, Hedges, JRC came on for 1
Still relying on Walhstedt, Leonard, Moran, Telalovic, Garrett, Markandy

Add to the mix the risible management of the hierarchy, a manager who had been lied to and had clearly felt badly short-changed and you have a recipe for what happened.

The team looked poor yesterday with all injured players returned and a new centre back.

 

Yep. The squad has been so weak anyway then shattered with injuries to players like hedges and pears who aren't great but better than Walhstedt

[Mattyblue]

35 minutes ago, roverblue said:

We lost 5 out of 6 league games starting in September. Is this a slump?

It was a poor run that was turned around as a spot just outside the playoffs going into December shows.

 

 

[Bohinen1983]

Still gutted about JDT leaving and after yesterday feel like we've lost our identity..   Always positive, always playing the right way..  Hampered massively by injuries, inheriting a depleted squad from Mogga before having the remaining jewels sold off from under him.. I can't get behind this shit,  it's grim, club feels like a hollowed out shell.   Eustace has only been here a few days and we've reverted to I don't know what..   Dark days!

[arbitro]

I have just seen their goal from an angle behind the goal and can't believe how badly we defended it. We look like a kids team who all get attracted to the ball leaving Dozzell unmarked and able to pick his spot. I expect better from professional footballers.

 

[M_B]

29 minutes ago, Bohinen1983 said:

Still gutted about JDT leaving and after yesterday feel like we've lost our identity..   Always positive, always playing the right way..  Hampered massively by injuries, inheriting a depleted squad from Mogga before having the remaining jewels sold off from under him.. I can't get behind this shit,  it's grim, club feels like a hollowed out shell.   Eustace has only been here a few days and we've reverted to I don't know what..   Dark days!

He inherited a squad which finished 7th, it's the subsequent transfer dealings (or lack of) which has let us down. 

[Herbie6590]

 

[DE.]

I don't think many people thought JDT's entire footballing philosophy needed to be thrown out, just that it needed some tweaking and a Plan B in the event Plan A wasn't working. We obviously needed to be more compact defensively. 

The whole "shackles are off" nonsense is a big red flag to me. Just feels like the players now have an excuse not to work or think as much anymore and can resort to hoofing and doing as they please. They aren't good enough to be allowed that kind of freedom. Stoke were expecting something different in the first half and are as bad as we are, so our attacking talent was enough to win that match. If they score that penalty I have no doubt our weak minded team folds and we get a draw at best. Against more organised teams we'll come unstuck repeatedly as we did last night.

As I said in another thread, Eustace can't trust these players. He's got a job on his hands. He might get away with drilling some absolute basics into them over the next few weeks which may get us over the line, but looking at our fixture list it's going to be tough if we need to wait a few weeks to get going. 

Edited February 14 by DE.

[roverblue]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

It was a poor run that was turned around as a spot just outside the playoffs going into December shows.

 

 

Or it’s been a poor season with a short period of positive results in November. 

[Mattyblue]

Doesn’t matter how many times you repeat it, it hadn’t been a poor season as we entered December as the points tally and league position at that time makes clear. 

Edited February 14 by Mattyblue

[Silas]

51 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

 

Three players with a rating beginning with a 3.

Six players with one beginning 4.

Got to be close to a record low in ratings. 

[roverblue]

13 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Doesn’t matter how many times you repeat it, it hadn’t been a poor season as we entered December as the points tally and league position at that time makes clear. 

On the 1st December the difference between 7th place and 19th was 9 points. It’s the championship.

Performances have been poor all season in my opinion even when we won (bar the odd game like Norwich away). I am not surprised where we have ended up and just hope it’s not too late for Eustace to turn it around.

[Mattyblue]

We’d won half our games! We were a point from the play offs. I know you don’t do away games so you were annoyed with the home defeats, who wasn’t, but facts are facts.

(Though I see you’ve tried to move the goalposts to poor performances now, which is obviously subjective).

Edited February 14 by Mattyblue

[Andy]

If you're within 2 points of the top 6 in December, that is objectively good performance for Rovers.
Whether you liked the performances or not is irrelevant.

It's the horrific run that came after that point that's left us where we are.

[Upside Down]

10 hours ago, M_B said:

He inherited a squad which finished 7th, it's the subsequent transfer dealings (or lack of) which has let us down. 

JDT inherited a squad that finished 8th.

That squad then had some key players leave, particularly in midfield. 

He then had a major transfer sabotaged mid season. 

He managed to get us to 7th only missing out on goal difference. 

That weakened squad was then weakened even further before the start of the new season.

January came and our captain was loaned out and our best player sold and yet another big transfer was sabotaged. 

And John Eustace has now inherited whatever remains from that.

[Herbie6590]

10 hours ago, Silas said:

Three players with a rating beginning with a 3.

Six players with one beginning 4.

Got to be close to a record low in ratings. 

Huddersfield, Boxing Day 😳

[NeilInBristol]

15 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

Huddersfield, Boxing Day 😳

What was the Rotherham game ratings?

[arbitro]

12 hours ago, roverblue said:

Or it’s been a poor season with a short period of positive results in November. 

To try and justify your dislike of Tomasson you are obtusely ignoring facts.

[Wheelton Blue]

We currently sit in 16th position, 7 points off a relegation spot and looking over our shoulders.

Talk of good or bad runs is moot and can be used to prove or disprove any argument. After 31 or so games, you are where you deserve to be in the league. We are where we are, simply because we're a poor side.

[Mattyblue]

Of course, we’ve collapsed since December, and the last fella obviously takes a good share of the blame.

[roverblue]

50 minutes ago, arbitro said:

To try and justify your dislike of Tomasson you are obtusely ignoring facts.

Just to clarify I don't dislike Tomasson, I didn't enjoy the performances under him and think he has left in us in a mess. But he did bring a lot of positive things to the club and shone a light on the shambles behind the scene.

My perspective on it is that some fans are obtusely ignoring facts due to their fondness for Tomasson. Using the "7th place on the 1st December" to make out like all was rosy prior to this point when we were in reality a few losses from the bottom end. It wasn't all rosy and have pointed out facts like losing 5 of 6 league games from September, 7 home defeats by Xmas (a record even Owen Coyle didn't match) to show that we have been poor all season.

Either way he's gone now, some will look back on him as hard done by and others as someone who was out of his depth in this league.