9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

It seems like he wont even be fit by then.

Was it taking that shot he got injured? It looked so inconspicuous,but I suppose that happens. 

It's a huge blow ,no doubt, but I'm not surprised ,I had a bad feeling when he went off to the last international games that it was a heavy workload. 

Maybe he should have been rested again against WBA ,but that's easy for me to say now. 

39 minutes ago, Geoff66 said:

If I was Mowbray I would go with an attacking formation, Diaz out for a month or more. We need somebody to fit BBDs shirt and start putting the ball in the net.I bet one ore two of the Blackburn end wouldn't mind wearing it.

Don't encourage him 🤣

9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Mowbray mentioned today that it "looks like he could miss his game against Brazil in the Maracana" which is in the next international break, at least 7 games away, 8 if Millwall is rearranged before then. So it could be well beyond that. He also said "let’s hope he can impact the end of our season" so it doesnt look promising.

I would hope he isn't anywhere near South America if he hasn't played for us before that 

Poveda back at the club next month. I wasn't a fan from what I saw,but my mate supports Leeds and he he said he's talented. I said why isnt he with ye then 😂

 So that will mean we have for 2 positions the below players.  14 games left. This is what I think they can score in those games ,taking that Brereton will be back for 7.  So that adds up to 14 and it's pretty conservative looking at our fixtures. Then you have Dack and the other midfielders, defenders chipping in. We have a solid defence. I think we would miss Wharton as much as Brereton, if not more, he has been immense this season. 

Brereton -4

Gallagher - 4

Dolan- 2

Khadra- 2

Hedges -1

Markanday-0

Poveda -1

Vale-0 

Have faith! Believe! 

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Is it any wonder we have so many soft tissue injuries if our backroom medical staff can't put a timescale on his return?

Amateur hour. 

I suppose people do heal at different rates to be fair. Depending on age, physiology, diet ,rest etc etc 

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Brereton's injury could be terminal to our promotion hopes, I don't see where the goals will come from.

Also affects our summer too. With essentially a year left, other teams perhaps will be reluctant to pay as much due to his injury, but if he doesn't want to sign a new deal, we are stuck in limbo and might have to accept less.

I doubt such a minor injury will impact on clubs who had planned to sign him. He will score less goals though, which may impact his fee. 

1 hour ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

I think this has been the big difference - score first or equalise quickly makes a big difference to those matches. We haven't got the quality to unpick parked defences - but are adept at hitting on the break.

I saw a stat the other day, can't remember where but it was something along the lines of we havent lost in the last 21 games we scored first in and won 17 of them 

32 minutes ago, tomphil said:

They aren't strikers or have any previous between them for notching.  One is a punt on another youngster for the future the other is just another squad player.

Maybe playing a forward in his forward position would help !!!

So i stand by my point we have no other strikers in the entire club with any sort of scoring ability and that's poor. I don't know why you cherry pick Mitrovic as your example he's a luxury player only a club with loads of cash can sign. Meanwhile lots of other clubs around the country manage to find back up strikers for their squads.

We should have been looking for final pieces of the jigsaw to get us over the line whilst being in such a good position. It's always a gamble whoever you sign and i'm certain the loan market could have thrown something up. It might cost wages short term but they've been happy enough to do that in the recent past when the manager has presented Downing, Holtby and the like.

Even if a short term loan costing 20 grand a week only scores 2 goals he might be labelled a flop. Not if those 2 goals win 2 games or similar and yield 4-6 points, absolutely vital to where we are. 

Mowbrays preference is always multi positional squad players, the recruitment depts preference is always youth. Sometimes you need to think a bit more square pegs for square holes. Wouldn't matter if we were say were we usually are in mid season but we aren't.

 

I picked Mitrovoic because he's the only player ahead of Brereton with goals scored. My point being anyway that you take a teams top scorer out and they will need to find a replacement. 

You mention a loan scoring 2 goals, but what's to say the forwards we have don't score those goals? 

We have 6-7 players for the front 2 positions. I can understand why ,within our budget, we didn't sign someone who could move ahead of them in the pecking order. 

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

I would disagree that either player is anything but a superior goal threat at Championship level, but equally you could point to numerous players near the top of the goalscoring charts that cost far less, Piroe at Swansea, Riis Jakobsen at Preston, Adebayo at Luton, Gyokeres at Coventry, these players are out there if a detailed recruitment team looks.

But either way, focusing on the players we have left, expecting most of these to start scoring with any regularity seems more out of hope than expectation, that's always been my concern. We are hoping for things to happen that haven't happened before which need too imminently to keep us in the fight for promotion, which is why I and many are worried. Dolan has 3 goals in each of his 2 senior seasons, Khadra has 3 in his 1 senior season, hopefully they can score more, but I could not predict that with confidence. Gallagher has never been prolific and he does not fall into the category of a young player who is about to become consistent, he has always been a fairly infrequent scorer, yet we now rely on him more than anyone. Hedges as a winger has not got a prolific goal record. Rothwell's goals are occasional if spectacular, and Buckley in front of goal is not a good mix. Dack is the exception but he won't be starting anytime soon and it seems won't be involved for the next 2 or 3. I am not saying that these players wont score goals, maybe one or two will go on a streak of scoring, but its hard to be incredibly confident that they will based on history.

Always a gamble letting Carter go, and one to which the success of will be determined by what injures and suspensions we suffer between now and the end of May.

You mention playing Johnson at centre back, if that ever needs to happen, even considering the raw elements of Carter's game as a player who certainly has yet to fully establish himself as Championship quality, that would be a noticeable downgrade and could cost us crucial points. Bradley Johnson is not a competent Championship centre back.

Maybe Nyambe's performance v West Brom will help to establish him above Johnson as a third centre back but then again, he still is by far the best choice at wing back with Zeefuik yet to convince in his few starts and Rankin Costello looking an million miles off. Lets hope that Ayala returns soon and of course the main 3 avoid injury and suspension going forward.

Indeed but we could have spent 5 and 7 million on Moore and Dikes respectively and have the same issue. I think Dolan and Khadra can step up and get on runs. 

1 hour ago, Hasta said:

Because our "2nd striker" isn't suited at all to playing out wide.

He doesn't play out wide necessarily. His main issue is hes not instinctive enough in the box when he should be

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Two lads who have just gone out on loan from Villa seem to be doing ok - Davies and Archer.

Ya, great shouts. Archer would have been good and you would imagine doable 

1 hour ago, MarkBRFC said:

 

Maja.

The same folk on here suggesting its not a disaster that we didn't bring in a striker after Markandey was injured are the same folk who will be saying what a great season we have had when we finish 8th.

So Maja has started ok, but has played very little and if Brereton was fit you could argue he would rarely if ever play. We were interested before , but I could see why he himslef would go to Stoke instead of here, firstly gametime and secondly they could probably pay him more. Having said all that, it would be nice to have him now alright. 

I don't think any folk will be saying anything other than top 6 is acceptable from here 

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We’re not making enough chances to win games. One or two shots on goal won’t do it. 

Ya, this is a point alright, but the likes of the chance Buckley missed against Forrest and some Lenihan missed against Swansea simply must be hitting the net. 

3 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Other teams have worked us out. They just defend deep and don’t give us room to play in. They let our centre halves have the ball and just mark up all over the pitch. We  just play in front of teams now.

I dunno. If its that simple nobody will score against us, ya know they will have to try and attack us sometimes. I think our issue is just not taking chances the last few games. Whereas we were very clinical earlier in the season. 

1 minute ago, Mellor Rover said:

Agreed with this though. It is time for others to step up. If Dack's not on the bench for QPR then Mowbray really has lost the plot. Talking down Dack's involvement in a team that's scored 2 goals in 8 games is it? Give us a break Tony.

I think he will be.....

Imagine he scores the winner-scenes!

Just now, Mellor Rover said:

But they didn't need a striker, they've got 3/4 already. Charlie Austin, Andre Gray and Lyndon Dykes. They needed a CM, and got Hendrick in on loan, a good bit of business.

There are loan deals out there, we just weren't clever enough to pull them off and tried bids for players like Dembele (which was pure bullshit as far as I'm concerned, a bid to say 'at least we tried' if ever I've seen it) and had a manager who tried to sell Rothwell (!!!). 

Make no mistake about it, if we don't grab playoffs from here, it falls well and truly on the shoulders of those at Ewood. Our fixtures turn after the next 3, think we don't play anyone in the current top 10 and have very winnable home games. Just hope we've not damaged the winning mentality too much by then.

Their fans thought they needed a striker. Austin and Grey have bad injury records and Dyke is fairly inconsistent. Hendrick is shite. 

Name one striker we could have signed on loan as an example

I agree it would be a disaster to miss out on the play offs from here 

51 minutes ago, USABlue said:

It is for us.

Thats loser talk 

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

It’s pretty obvious given our signings  that Mowbray thought we could get away with playing the withdrawn No 9 and wide strikers playing on the break for the whole season. No thought seems to have been given to other ways of playing.

Why would we change something that works so well? 

We have forwards, they just need to step up now. Same with Buckley, Rothwell and Dack. 

1 hour ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Nobody is saying spend £10m on a striker. But bringing in someone on loan who is a natural striker, giving us a plan B, was surely sensible. Hedges is a winger, up until a few months ago Markanday hadn't played up front either. And he got injured with 11 days to spare of the window left, so we had ample time.

It's about quality though and we have discussed the type of fees you pay for average here, along with the type of loans clubs sign from PL clubs.

It's not easy find a goal scorer. Boro signed Connolly off Brighton, I would prefer Khadra or Dolan all day. QPR didn't sign a striker even. No point bringing someone for the sake of it. 

I'm all for giving managers time and even though we all wanted a change last season on that horrific run, keeping him as paid dividends. Big summer for the club coming up and unless he decides to leave, I can't imagine we will have a new manager next season. Pros and cons to that of course. 

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Let’s see what quality of players we have next August.

Still better than before Mowbray came I bet! 

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

We didn’t really need another centre half, we just needed to keep Carter.

Not sure he is good enough TBH 

I think it was the Huddersfield game where he got bullied 

18 minutes ago, tomphil said:

So when there is opportunity we don't sign another forward to help out the only regular goalscorer. Now he himself is out for weeks maybe more, not like any experienced fan couldn't see a situation like this arising.

These are the things that a club like us just has to get right if we are to stay in the mix. Instead we sign a few multi positionals again who to date haven't contributed much at all to help stop the slide away.

 

We signed 2 forwards, Markanday and Hedges. A guaranteed (if there is such a thing) goalscorer at this level could cost £10 million. Not straightforward. If Mitrovic got injured, who would Fulham replace him with? I don't think they signed a replacement in January   

Anyway, it sounds like he is definitely getting a new deal and if we make the play offs, he deserves one. 

18 minutes ago, 47er said:

Not better enough though. Nobody knows if his is a one-off season and if we might  therefore be disappointed once again next season.

Barnsley comes to mind.

Not better enough? The season isn't over yet

As for Barnsley, completely different situations