Rovers away at QPR - Good Friday 19th April 2019

[DE.]

4 hours ago, unsall said:

Hes learnt a lot over last few games, with his defensive duo of Lenihan/Williams, playing Travis in midfield and Rothwell on wing, also learnt today his reserve goalie isn’t up to it....

The problem is most of us were asking for Rothwell & Travis to play regularly months ago, and it's pretty obvious a keeper who we bought from Shrewsbury's reserves wasn't going to be up to much at this level. The only surprise has been Williams' excellent displays at CB, but I hope it doesn't discourage us from bringing in a better partner for Lenihan. It's nice that Williams has looked good at CB in a few dead rubber games, it might even mean he's good enough to act as competition in that area, but we still need to look to improve.

[jim mk2]

Pleasant game in the sunshine today against a poor QPR team

Pluses:

Williams - best game I've seen in a Rovers shirt.  He and Lenihan rarely put a foot wrong

Rothwell and Travis: excellent in midfield. If only we had Reed in there too.

Graham: he's not mobile now but my goodness, he left a big hole in the team when he went off

Armstrong: gave the QPR left back a torrid afternoon and should have scored. He's still not a winger though - and no doubt Mowbray will continue to play him there.

Minuses:

Bennett: most of our defensive problems came down his flank. Why he plays instead of Nyambe only Mowbray knows. Does not make any sense on any level

Leutweiler: if he is the answer I'm not sure what the question is. He has all the physical attributes: tall, looks a superb athlete, but has no physical presence whatsoever. He gave away the goal and in the first half, flapped at a cross that he should have punched 40 yards and almost led to a goal. Raya isn't good enough: a new goalkeeper should be our No 1 signing this summer.

Nuttall: will never be good enough at this level. And he's a lazy so-and-so. 

Rodwell: he's in last chance saloon at Ewood as far as his career goes. Could he please show some interest when he is given an opportunity?

Edited April 19, 2019 by jim mk2

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 hours ago, ossyian said:

Which bloody way do you want it? At 1.55pm today your reply to my post that none of the u23s were involved today was " Shocking if true". Now you're asking "those fans" who wanted their involvement to hold their hands up!

To put their hands up ossyian. You posited the question, ye you already knew the answer yourself.

A second away win in a row is a great platform going into the last 3 games. That vindicates today's team selection  for me 

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Bigdog. I like you, honestly. But why the fuck, when I just told you that I categorically wouldn't have said that, in the very post you quoted, are you telling me that I would? That's frankly more than a little obnoxious.

Know me better than I know myself, do you?

Sorry if you explicitly said that in the post, I must have missed it. Was multi tasking I find it easier to miss stuff in the match thread when posts are coming thick and fast 

[47er]

2 hours ago, Doug said:

Well done TM and the mighty blue boys.

Think we are now at a point where TM is close to his best 11 after all the experiments.

Next season is looking promising.

Onward and upward, COYB

Bloody hell, you think that a manager should take 43 games out of 46 to get "close to his best 11" and that's something to rejoice about?  

That's utterly unbelievable.    

[Fraserkirky]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

Rodwell: he's in last chance saloon at Ewood as far as his career goes. Could he please show some interest when he is given an opportunity?

Harsh, but for a decent block from the QPR lad he would have grabbed a goal today. I would keep him.

[Parsonblue]

An enjoyable trip to London and a fairly routine win in glorious sunshine - a perfect day!

Lenihan and Williams continue to impress as a defensive partnership and Travis had another excellent game in midfield.  The disappointment was Leutwiler who totally failed to impress on the one occasion he was called to do something.  Raya is a young 'keeper with huge potential but he needs better than Leutwiler to challenge him for the number one spot.

I think today also underlined the fact that we need another striker to support Danny Graham because when he goes off we really are lacking in terms of someone who can hold the ball up.  He's still our best out and out front man by a country mile.

We are on course for a comfortable mid-table finish which is surely what most would have settled for at the start of the season.  It's been a season of ups and downs but we've never really been in any serious trouble which underlines, for me, what a good job the manager and players have done this season.

I didn't expect any of the youngsters to play today or on Monday with such a tough game at Goodison Park on Tuesday.  We haven't beaten Everton Under-23's in four meetings thus far this season so I can fully understand why those players were left out today to give them time to prepare for Tuesday's cup-tie which will be a very difficult game - Everton, like ourselves, have a cracking Under-23 team .

[HowieFive0]

3 hours ago, bluebruce said:

He knows the youth players inside out despite many of them having never played a single game of senior football? That's a neat trick.

He didn't need to play a whole rookie team. One or two starters would have been plenty. Hell some off the bench would satisfy most. Nobody who asked for that would have melted down at a defeat.

Also...why the hell do we 'need' maximum points?

Really ? im sure the travelling fans down to QPR today would take a win over playing kids . Why do we need maximum points ? because next season people on here will conveniently forget and say ..but we only got 53 pts last season .. blah blah blah ..

Play to win.

[Paul]

5 hours ago, tonygreenbank said:

Perhaps the reason Mowbray chose not to play them today?

Im sure he has his reasons but he wanted the win to boost the feel good factor going into the end of the season. An away win in this league surely has to be applauded?

You seem to be suggesting today was a meaningless exercise but we are a professional football club with the integrity of the league an important consideration. You can’t just “throw” a couple of kids into the team and hope for the best. TM  demands his team win and to jeopardise that would be foolhardy in the extreme.

He knows the strengths and weaknesses of the U23’s and I’m sure he has plans to aid their development in discussions with Damian Johnson.

I am delighted that we won today and hope we beat Bolton, Norwich and Swansea. 

I can’t believe that any Rovers fan would not wish the same.

 

 

You need to keep in mind the core of BRFCS posters, not necessarily the one you quoted, have nothing positive to say about the club. Team performance, selection, management, ticket prices, club management and every other aspect of Blackburn Rovers is subject to subjective criticism.

I knew before logging in the thread would be full of complaints about a good away win it was just a question of which aspect. We won and I expected nothing less than a team selection which took every opportunity to do so. Any other selection is disrespectful to the fans, especially those who travelled, opposition and league. How often do we hear complaints about PL teams playing second string in cup matches rendering them meaningless?

The only surprise is how many in here have not applied to be club manager or CEO when they clearly feel able to do a better job than the incumbents.

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

Thoroughly enjoyable performance that, QPR were poor but a lot of that was down to how good we were. 

I have to hold my hands up in regards to Williams - he looks like a proper footballer at centre back, his attributes are so much more suited to that position so perhaps I underestimated how much Mowbray playing him at LB was to blame for previous performances. Armstrong also had a great game for me, so much pace it will always cause problems. Dacky looks back to his best, Travis was top drawer again and DG is so important for us.

The negatives for me were Leutwiler - add a goalkeeper to the shopping list for the summer. Bennett - I thought he was going to get pumped all game by the chap that tried to kill him towards the end but he just about held his own. Still a huge weakness for us in that position though if we have any aspirations of play-offs next year, that'll end up being an issue no doubt as TM HAS to fit him in somewhere. Nuttall; I really worry for Brereton if he is behind him in the pecking order, had several chances to get on the end of some decent deliveries and he just wasn't where he should have been - either through laziness, or lack of positional knowledge, either way it's not good enough at this level. It also would have been nice to see some kids on the bench but perhaps the U23 game on Tuesday was a factor.

 

[Stuart]

11 hours ago, tonygreenbank said:

Perhaps the reason Mowbray chose not to play them today?

Im sure he has his reasons but he wanted the win to boost the feel good factor going into the end of the season. An away win in this league surely has to be applauded?

You seem to be suggesting today was a meaningless exercise but we are a professional football club with the integrity of the league an important consideration. You can’t just “throw” a couple of kids into the team and hope for the best. TM  demands his team win and to jeopardise that would be foolhardy in the extreme.

He knows the strengths and weaknesses of the U23’s and I’m sure he has plans to aid their development in discussions with Damian Johnson.

I am delighted that we won today and hope we beat Bolton, Norwich and Swansea. 

I can’t believe that any Rovers fan would not wish the same.

Why do people keep belittling the idea of giving some of out top youngsters some first team experience? If not now that we are safe then when?

It’s some kind of “defend Mowbray’s decision making at all costs”.

Odd.

[Stuart]

10 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Sorry

Good man. Apology accepted.

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

Just now, Stuart said:

Why do people keep belittling the idea of giving some of out top youngsters some first team experience? If not now that we are safe then when?

It’s some kind of “defend Mowbray’s decision making at all costs”.

Odd.

Would the U23 game on Tuesday not be a factor?

[Stuart]

Just now, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

Would the U23 game on Tuesday not be a factor?

Yes, I hear they have a more important dead rubber match.

Why don’t people seem to get this?

If the U23s needed a result to stay up then yes that would be important because it maintains PL2 Div1 status and a higher standard to blood youngsters at ahead of loan moves. But we are already safe.

The development squad is just that, development, and everything is about getting the into the first team.

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

Just now, Stuart said:

Yes, I hear they have a more important dead rubber match.

Why don’t people seem to get this?

If the U23s needed a result to stay up then yes that would be important because it maintains PL2 Div1 status and a higher standard to blood youngsters at ahead of loan moves. But we are already safe.

The development squad is just that, development, and everything is about getting the into the first team.

Sometimes you're hard work. 

[LDRover]

Great win yesterday and one I was ultra confident in us achieving within a couple of minutes such was QPR's lack of quality.

A couple of points - 

The selection of Rothwell has been the catalyst for this upturn of form as it does a variety of things. We can give him the ball to travel with at pace to get us up the pitch, it means Armstrong can push up the pitch meaning there is a diagonal 'out' ball over the full back and the opposition now have to worry about 2 creative players and this gives Dack more space.

Yesterday, on occasion, we used the long diagonal brilliantly to Armstrong to stretch QPR - it also meant the long punt to Graham was thankfully not used.

A shame we have lost Reed as he compliments Travis so well. TM must replace him with a player of similar energy and desire for next season. It's all well and good talking of 'knowing' the position but if you have energy and reasonable nous you can effect the game in both halves - especially working in tandem.

So, we're now looking at a good end to the season but my overriding feeling is of an opportunity missed. TM has more stumbled on this winning formula and we really look to have underachieved in the season based on the last few games and the dross that preceded it.

[ossyian]

11 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

To put their hands up ossyian. You posited the question, ye you already knew the answer yourself.

A second away win in a row is a great platform going into the last 3 games. That vindicates today's team selection  for me 

I agree with you there re starting 11 but be could have had a couple of the u23s on the bench tbf

[SBlue]

11 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Yes, I hear they have a more important dead rubber match.

Cup quarter final isn’t it?

[blueboy3333]

5 hours ago, Paul said:

You need to keep in mind the core of BRFCS posters, not necessarily the one you quoted, have nothing positive to say about the club. Team performance, selection, management, ticket prices, club management and every other aspect of Blackburn Rovers is subject to subjective criticism.

You're right. It's the BRFCS hate-core that oversaw the collapse in form and 1 win in 11, were responsible for conceding the most goals on the road in all four divisions, and have to shoulder the blame for only scoring 2 goals from open play in the 1st half all season. Bloody useless sods. BRFCS OUT!

But what's that, the suggestions that were made by the BRFCS hate-core (get rid of the nonsense '2.5 attackers' mantra, play Rothwell, drop Smallwood and/or Evans, play Travis and drop Mulgrew) have all been done out of desperation by Mowbray because he couldn't buy a win and all of a sudden we are winning. MOWBRAY OUT, BRFCS HATE-CORE IN!

Anyway, ST's on sale yet like at nearly every other club? No, it's the bloody BRFCS Hate-Core at fault again with their shite club administration skills. 

I could go on....

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 minutes ago, ossyian said:

I agree with you there re starting 11 but be could have had a couple of the u23s on the bench tbf

I 100% agree 

[blueboy3333]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

I 100% agree 

….for a couple of hours at least.

[47er]

18 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

You're right. It's the BRFCS hate-core that oversaw the collapse in form and 1 win in 11, were responsible for conceding the most goals on the road in all four divisions, and have to shoulder the blame for only scoring 2 goals from open play in the 1st half all season. Bloody useless sods. BRFCS OUT!

But what's that, the suggestions that were made by the BRFCS hate-core (get rid of the nonsense '2.5 attackers' mantra, play Rothwell, drop Smallwood and/or Evans, play Travis and drop Mulgrew) have all been done out of desperation by Mowbray because he couldn't buy a win and all of a sudden we are winning. MOWBRAY OUT, BRFCS HATE-CORE IN!

Anyway, ST's on sale yet like at nearly every other club? No, it's the bloody BRFCS Hate-Core at fault again with their shite club administration skills. 

I could go on....

Reminds me of an article I read in the Guardian about the gap between many Tory MPs and their  voters.

Suggested solution 'abolish the people'!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

14 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

You're right. It's the BRFCS hate-core that oversaw the collapse in form and 1 win in 11, were responsible for conceding the most goals on the road in all four divisions, and have to shoulder the blame for only scoring 2 goals from open play in the 1st half all season. Bloody useless sods. BRFCS OUT!

But what's that, the suggestions that were made by the BRFCS hate-core (get rid of the nonsense '2.5 attackers' mantra, play Rothwell, drop Smallwood and/or Evans, play Travis and drop Mulgrew) have all been done out of desperation by Mowbray because he couldn't buy a win and all of a sudden we are winning. MOWBRAY OUT, BRFCS HATE-CORE IN!

Anyway, ST's on sale yet like at nearly every other club? No, it's the bloody BRFCS Hate-Core at fault again with their shite club administration skills. 

I could go on....

Yeah I agree. I can't recall many  games I've been to were I couldn't find something to criticise. Do you think Guardiola will just be shrugging his shoulders after the Spurs game. The things we're doing right take care of themselves. It's the things we're doing wrong that need highlighting.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, 47er said:

Reminds me of an article I read in the Guardian about the gap between many Tory MPs and their  voters.

Suggested solution 'abolish the people'!

Bertolt Brecht in his poem " The Solution "

" Wouldn't it be simpler in that case

If the Government dissolved the people

and elected another ? "

[47er]

7 hours ago, Paul said:

You need to keep in mind the core of BRFCS posters, not necessarily the one you quoted, have nothing positive to say about the club. Team performance, selection, management, ticket prices, club management and every other aspect of Blackburn Rovers is subject to subjective criticism.

I knew before logging in the thread would be full of complaints about a good away win it was just a question of which aspect. We won and I expected nothing less than a team selection which took every opportunity to do so. Any other selection is disrespectful to the fans, especially those who travelled, opposition and league. How often do we hear complaints about PL teams playing second string in cup matches rendering them meaningless?

The only surprise is how many in here have not applied to be club manager or CEO when they clearly feel able to do a better job than the incumbents.

In reality, people simply think that Mowbray could have done a lot better with what he has. Clearly that does not equate to thinking we could do a better job!

But for someone with such experience he has made some bewildering decisions. Can you explain them?

Fans on here have pleaded with him to play Travis and Reed in the middle together, warned him against moving Downing on without signing a replacement, continually told him Evans/Smallwood were not a viable pairing, expressed astonishment that Rothwell was continually left out, begged him to stop playing players out of position, and suggested that changing the team every game was not helping us. Fans on here have also specifically pointed to lack of spending on defence and, surprise, we have shipped goals by the bucket-load.

Perhaps the core of BRFC posters aren't as daft as you seem to think.

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by 47er
typo!