joey_big_nose

Is this on iFollow? Match Centre suggests it is (can see the "watch live" button) but I'm not sure?

Yeah, have to agree. Not sure we would have ever had a shorter and lighter front four? Or actually entire side? Things I will be looking out for.... 1) Is Annesley bad as everyone says, 2) can Dack show he can press his way into the first team, 3) how do Morton and Wharton do - probably we need to get one of them into the first team to shore up midfield, so that's an interesting battle. 4) Szmodics, Vale and Dolan have struggled in the first team - can Markanday show he's the guy who can do the "short, tenacious, quick" role with much needed added quality and goal threat. Can't believe we have no centrebacks, and no back up for Travis, yet we have Sammie, Dack, Dolan, Markanday and Vale all vying for the number 10 shirt (and none of them being that convincing in it). Totally mad.

Yes - just to support JDT as much as anything else. It's not fair leaving him hanging out to dry. To be fair to Gregg I wouldn't be suprised if he's finding players and then they don't get signed off by Venkys... But he needs to give an update.

Really agree with this... we have so many number 10s. Why did we sign someone who may be a decent prospect, or someone we can develop, but we have already at least three other players in the same bracket (Buckley, Dolan, Markanday) as well as an experienced proven player (Dack).

Ah forgot he played! Shame on me

Yeah as soon as he started playing first team games we were really in the driving seat on keeping him. No one with a brain (as he obviously has) leaves first team football to play reserve football, especially when the level of reserve football Spurs play is the same as Rovers (PL2 Div1). Even if we sign 2 CBs he is going to get a fair amount of game time over the season.

Oof. If we manage to win with that team we will be doing very well! There's a lot of "that's the worst defence I've seen in 60 years of watching Rovers" hyperbole that crops up on here. But...... surely that actually is the worst? Keeper who was utterly humilated last time he played for us, JRC who has always struggled at RB, Pratt's never played at CB, Pickering makeshift CB, Batty with one start.... I'd probably not play Vale and put Dack up top. And at least one of Gallagher or BBD needs to play so we have some physicality. And I think we need to commit more players in midfield. Something like : Kaminski JRC Pratt Pickering Edun Morton Garrett Wharton Gallagher Dack Dolan Really feels like this will be a loss. Put Wharton and Ayala in and we'd probably win, but we can't risk them, and there is nothing else.

In all the time I've followed Rovers I don't think weve ever managed to sign more than two or three players in a week.

Yeah we did but Buckley frequently dropped in to help Edun and Travis so really it was more of a three.

If you think back to last season we had Travis, Rothwell and Buckley working as a trio, all working hard in central areas. Buckley would drop back from false 9 and Travis and Rothwell covering a lot of ground centrally. We've lost Rothwell and we have dropped Buckley alongside Travis and given the other role to Sammie or Hedges who play a lot further up than Buckley did. What's happening is Buckley and Travis are spread very thin while we are overloaded up top and we really struggle to get hold of the ball. When we changed at half time against Sheff Utd to have Buckley, Trav and Edun in the middle three it was a big improvement, but I do think Rothwells ability to cover ground is sorely missed. My diagnosis is we need to get additional help in the middle who can cover the ground like Rothwell did Morton, Garrett, Wharton, Edun whoever. I do think that group though may just not be physical enough. But if we give Buckley the right support we will see him back to his best.

I don't disagree I'm just saying I want to see a reaction. We've switched from having Mowbray as the head honcho to having JDT and Broughton and to a lesser extent Remi as a package. They as a collective need to show they've got the nous. Looking at the fixture list over the next 15 games till Burnley they've got to show they can win ugly against physical experienced teams. Part of that is players, but also under resourced teams need to be well setup to grind our results with what they have. They collectively need to show that.

While today and Reading were absolutely terrible I'm at the stage that JDT is still figuring things out. His managing experience is at the most resourced team (Malmo) in the league he worked in. He's not really got the experience of handling better resourced teams. On top of that he had an incredible set of results first three games so carrying on in the same- maybe naive - vein is forgivable. That said we've had our wakeup call now, so I'm hoping to see from him, Greg and Remy a bit of a plan on how to make us competitive in games where we can't play the way that suits us. We can't just give it a go like today.

Yes to be brutal should have been a few more. Same at Reading..... Some of thats the players we have out but tactically I'm a bit worried.

While I don't think realistically we are at threat of relegation (assuming we sign a couple of players and keep/replace BBD) we are looking very mid table. A big miss I think is Rothwell, and not just for his running from deep. He also covered a lot of ground and became quite effective defensively last season. Our midfielders struggle to cover enough ground. Also I hate writing players off but I just don't see what Sammie gives us that Dolan didn't already.

Yeah, I think it will be 343 but wouldn't be that shocked if it's 4231 with Edun alongside Travis and Buckley playing 10, or 433 with Edun on the left of a three in mid.

Could be 343, 4231 or 433. Hard to say atm...

Depends on the system with him imo. Brilliant deep defender, but he can't handle playing a high line at all due to no pace l

I agree with you, but in the last few months we've signed Sammie, Hedges and Markanday on top of BBD, Dack, Dolan and Gally already here. So if we're signing a forward at least one is going imo.

Yeah would be a quality lineup Kaminski SVDB JPVH S Wharton Brittain Buckley Travis Morton Styles Hedges Brereton Subs : Pears, Ayala, Pickering, A Wharton, Dack, Gallagher, Sammie Squad : Phillips, Markanday, Edun, Dolan, Vale, Garett, Carter, Would be a good team & bench with promising squad players.... Robust enough to play 4231, 433, 343, 352. If we could land SVDB, JPVH and Styles I think that would be an excellent window. Find the idea that we are lining up a loan forward a bit weird considering we have too many attackers already, unless it is getting ready for BBD to go.

Whoah that's some real inside info - 100% solid? £7m seems a bit steep. Drop downs from Prem U23 to Championship usually somewhere around £2-4 M (e.g. Tosin, Reed). I can't see anyone paying anywhere near £7m. Don't think there is anyone interested except us also?

We do need a LB/LWB though....

Still personally don't think Pickering is that bad, the way things are is there is one player whose picked out and everyone piles on for a while and he's that guy at the moment. For a while last season Travis was getting a lot of stick... it moves around. Two of the goals yesterday from Reading actually all came down our right, and only one from the left. Would I like a better left back? Yes. But he's not like Douglas who was a total liability.

Sheffield Utd have played three at the back all this season, and like under Mowbray I can see playing teams in 343 or 352 is going to be a big issue for us. We tend to be very top heavy with a lot of attackers, and what Reading did so well was strangling us in midfield and across the back line. The players up front were isolated, and not physical enough to retain the ball the few times they got it. It will be more of the same by Sheffield Utd I think.... We really need to match them up in my opinion. We can just about do it with the players in the squad but it means 1) leaving quite a few attacking players on the bench or out of the squad, 2) hoping no defenders get injured as there is literally no one to come on... Kaminski Phillips Ayala Pickering Britain Buckley Travis Morton Edun Hedges Brereton Subs : Pears, U23 defender?!, JRC, A Wharton, Gallagher, Dack, Sammie/Dolan Already lack of flexibility in the squad very clear

Will be very interesting wgat we do against Sheff Utd. Mowbray would probably stick with the same system despite the one loss... I wonder if JDT and Remy will go for an instant switch? I think they will want to. I'm sure Utd will mimic Readings tactics, they've got all the players to do so.... Only got two days to prepare though. And no defenders for a 352/343. Tricky

Yeah - I think that's probably what will come out in the post mortem... Probably Morton should have come on to have an extra body in the middle to compete. Issue with 532 though is we've got so many forwards (8*) to just play two leaves a lot on the bench. The temptation is to play 4231 to get 4 forwards on at a time. And as you say we would be sacrificing one of those established forwards to play Pickering at LCB... Tough sell. *BBD, Gallagher, Hedges, Sammie, Dolan, Vale, Dack, Markanday