52 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Dont really agree. Going to three at the back has helped a bit but we are still committing 7-8 players to every attack and on the break other teams just walk through us. JDT seems absolutely unconcerned by it.

Maybe we will shift to playing more conservatively but theres no indication of it so far 

I think that the two older lads should help with that and I’m hoping playing with his mate McFadzean should help Hyam get more confident.  With Fleck’s age and injuries I don’t think he can or will be expected to be box to box either so is likely to add a bit more solidity.  I think JDT approached lowly QPR still fairly attacking but now with the acknowledgement of alarm bells will look to be a bit more defensive 

I think if he stays and McFadzean and Fleck are fit then JDT is capable of grinding out results in the same we may we did last season in which there were several 1-0 wins.  I think he was flexible with 3 at the back against Huddersfield but Hyam, in particular needs to start playing a lot better quickly ( I chose to single out him because he’s been especially far from his best recently and he is the captain )

I was flying in from Shanghai for the game today, really excited and looking forward to it a great deal, especially after being there for the first fan takeover versus Girona, but unfortunately last night my plane got stuck on the runway for three hours and I missed my connecting flight to Manchester in Dubai.  I have the ticket PDF and I would think anyone could use it so if you want it PM me 

Gutted 

18 hours ago, rigger said:

Did you ever play in a league with no relegation or promotion ?

Personally I play in a league in Shanghai without promotion or relegation and it is for the most part very competitive.  I and my teammates play every game to win and do our best.  I certainly would be absolutely gutted to finish bottom but we usually finish mid table, still aiming to win the league though.

I think it will be a tough game this weekend, despite their troubles WBA have a good squad with some very good  players, Corberan, who did an excellent job at Huddersfield, has had a preseason with them now (ignoring poor friendly results) and so it may be that they actually go on to have a really good season.  It’s a big test for him and will really show how good a manager he really is.  Still always hope for the beginning of the season so fingers crossed for a Rovers win 

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

Doesnt suit that deeper role. Lacks the intelligence to thrive in an area where you get such little time on the ball.

Since that good spell under Mowbray in a free role, he has really stagnated. 

24 minutes ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

Who played where across the midfield was a flat 3 or the usual 4-2-3-1?

AW played deeper while Buckley and Garrett were more advanced but also came out to the sides on occasion 

Very preseason friendly feel about the game, movement wasn’t great and when we did play it in behind it was too late half the time

No one really impressed that much, Batty had a few good involvements going forward but didn’t look great going backwards 

Gilsenan did ok with a few decent touches, Bloxham ran around and Edmondson fluffed a couple of good opportunities looking like he wanted them on his left but they fell to his right

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

The right hand side of the stand with the gantry (South Stand).

Thanks mate, I just went on the site to have a look and get a ticket and the Stockport game is no longer there...

Where are Rovers fans sitting?  The website just takes you to Stockport's ticket site...

Well I'm coming and bringing my Chinese wife, she chose this game over coming with me to the WBA game.  First game since COVID closed China.

I'd love a BRFCS top but I'm leaving after the Hull game

I think we need to remember it is still a couple of weeks before he even turns 18, there's no rush and in fact rushing him (40+ games in league one say) might be detrimental.

He played 14 games here last season and the same amount or a few more might be best.

Personally I'd expect him to stay and see how he gets on, how much game time and improvement he makes and reassess in January.  If he isn't getting any game time and the sports science people think it is the right move then loan him out in January when he can get games like Carter did.

5 hours ago, Andy said:

Agree with all of this. Transfers are only a portion of what GB oversees.

And the Sam Smodz attitude I've seen a few times is odd; one minute we complain that we're spending no money / we're skint / Venky's are withholding funds.

Then when we spend money on getting a player we want, we've overspent. You can't win with some.

Besides, the players brought in under GB so far have been far superior to the majority of shite we've seen in the last 10 years. Think of the Akpans, Taylors, DJ Campbells.

Smodz alone is twenty times the player that kind of player will ever be, never mind Hyam, Brittain, Thomas.

Personally, I wouldn't say it is odd at all.  We know that we have limited resources and are most significant outlay has been on a player that isn't going to be in most people's best 11, so a squad player.  Is that good allocation of resources?  I don't think so, especially when we have needed a good striker all season.

It seems like GB or JDT didn't think Dack would get back to anything like what he has done so they brought Smodz in however Buckley could have played there just as well.  IMO Smodz has not been very good but not terrible but considering the percentage of our budget used on him and the lack of need for him then it's a poor signing.

I think Butterworth has the skill to challenge for the first team it's more of a question of whether he has the brain and the heart to do it

12 hours ago, Upside Down said:

Yes by all accounts Mola had a good game against west ham. Would be good to see him get a good run in the first team. 

I thought, surprisingly, he was excellent at centre back on Wednesday, not sure how he’d do in midfield.

A really good striker would be key for me, although Gallagher has been better than in previous seasons I don’t really think he’s that good and therefore good enough to help fire us to promotion

19 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

Glad to see we’ve kept the same lineup. If I’m being really picky I’d have liked to see Mola keep his place on the bench.

 

I think I read he has picked up a little knock

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

If he doesnt get sold then he can still enjoy his football here without needing to commit long term.

RV  Blue posted a perfectly feasible scenario in which Brereton signs a contract on the previous page.  I think he'll be off if a good enough bid comes in but if one doesn't he may well sign that kind of contract, especially after what happened to his good mate Dack.

Speaking of Dack, I don't think you have to be especially mobile to press effectively, sure it helps but on MOTD they highlighted Mitrovic doing it intelligently and he's no more mobile than our Bradley.

I don't think JPvH will be going anywhere until Brighton sign at least one more centre back, they have been linked with some even after signing Colwill from Chelsea.  JPvH was on the (9 man!) sub bench yesterday which would indicate any club wanting him will have to wait.

If Nixon is right that we wanted Van Den Berg we may not be willing to wait.

It would be great to get Van Hecke but hard to see who sits on the bench if we play four at the back and Ayala and Wharton are fit, nice problem to have though.

That second goal was a thing of beauty, fantastic ball from Hedges, great touch and strength from BBD and then a delightful finish, if if if we could keep him... it'd be brilliant news

Some great defending today from Ayala, Wharton and even Edun was really key to winning the game

Great to be ahead but could still go either way this one, they have some good players and Manning has out a couple of cracking balls in, if they’d been better they’d have finished one

Has Russell Martin ever managed a side to anything other than mid table in his brief career? They looked poor in both matches against us last season but they also managed to get some good results,

On paper you would think their play out if defense pass to death football would be ideal for JDT’s high press and we should be able to punish them but it’s early days for our tactics so it could easily go wrong.  I fancy Big Ben to score at least one though, he had some good efforts last weekend.  

I don’t think Styles will come, he played last season and the first game of this in midfield and importantly doesn’t he play there for Hungary? So I doubt he’d want to come here and play left back or even left wing back unless he has no other options at all

18 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Kaminski

Brittain Ayala Wharton Pickering

Travis Buckley

Hedges Dack Brereton

Dolan

The keeper, central midfield and back 4 pick itself, I am in a minority it seems in thinking that Pickering was fine on Saturday and equal to Brittain on the other side. Maybe a bit of confirmation bias?

The front 4 didn't work very well so the potential for various changes. Dack to start for me, plus Dolan who was bright at the weekend, him and Brereton could swap positions too if necessary. Vale was anonymous, Gallagher poor too and Hedges isn't suited as a number 10.

Hopefully we will have some new faces for the bench at least too.

Yeah, I think you are definitely guilty of it here. Brittain, while not amazing, was quite good and Pickering wasn’t very good going forwards or back. I think QPR’s right side had a lot more joy than their left and Pickering made quite a few mistakes.  I don’t think Vale was half as bad as you make out either.

It will be interesting to see if Smodzics gets a start though I expect Morton will be on the bench.

6 hours ago, Torgeir said:

Who's offended? 

I'd take Knutsen over Deila as well. Deila is a good man manager, but tactically not the best so would have need some good coaches around him in order to be an improvement on Mowbray.

If he's not tactically good then, like with Ferguson, I'd hope we look elsewhere.

The only way we will have a chance at challenging is with a manger who can out think the opposition as we are going to just outspend the others like we did in league one or Scott Parker did in the season just gone

What I'd like most is a tactically astute manager who is able to get the best out of the players we have.

This was Mowbray's biggest failing for me, going back to the league one season where we seemed to get through it by simply having better players.

This would seem to rule out Ferguson given Myers comments.

I'm not against the likes of Manning, Ainsworth and Warne just because their success comes from league one but the bigger names if they had been appointed would have indicated bigger budgets which could have been very useful.

If I were making the appointment I would want to know a lot more than I do about each candidate so I don't really have a favourite.  Even people like Farke and Carvalhal have things against them however impressive they may or may not seem.

Manning though does look, from afar, to be a pretty impressive up and coming manager and isn't necessarily just a cheap option.  He did, seemingly, well in Belgium and then at MK Dons he took over from Russell Martin (a possession obsessed coach) and pushed them on from 13th to to just missing out on automatic promotion.

He also came across well in a couple of interviews I have read.

I'm not saying he should get the job just I think he might actually be quite good.

2 minutes ago, perthblue02 said:

Only in EFL dark countries ,as its being shown overseas.

Quick dash to Tokyo for me

Where are neal and warren?