joey_big_nose

Could just be cramp

No way Morishita can do that job, no where near physical enough. De Neve and Hedges both been good enough for me.

Wharton off is bad news, breaks up the back three who have been brilliant. Really surprised we haven't seen Montgomery or De Neve

Surprised we brought Forshaw on instead of Montgomery?

Classic Championship. Such a mess, especially with all the relegated clubs being poor. Should be very entertaining!

I guess we'll bring on De Neve at some point, with Henricksson and Montgomery. Massive energy infusion around 60-70 minutes.

I think they've both done okay in recent games. In combination with Alebiouso Morishita has been brilliant today.

Who is the co commentator? Feels like he is ex Bristol?

Well I take it back, Morishita showed great pace and a bit of strength there. Really great performance this half. This system is brilliant for us.

We really should be at least one up with the opportunities weve had.

We look really well balanced, hard working, defensively sound, creating decent opportunities. Final pass not great though from both teams. Morishita is a good technical player with good movement, but one on one he gets so out matched physically. The man marking him will get a bit of a shock when Henricksson turns up on the hour.

Probably great news for us generating a transfer fee too. But he's our best player, and a really difficult role to replace as it's so demanding physically and technically, so would be a massive miss for us.

Yeah I agree. I guess what we are probably looking at is if Alebiousu is unavailable then Miller will play there. But he's not going to offer the same quality. But I can't see us spending a lot on an attacking wing back who won't be first XI. Definitely can see the situation of us going on a bit of a roll over the next few weeks with the 352, then Aleb gets injured, and the whole system falls apart. Very Rovers!

I quite like McLoughlin. He's done well. No way I would be bringing in Riberio. For me our needs are : - Defence : Extra experienced CB, could be a bit of a veteran, and recall O'Riordan so Miller can cover RWB if needed. - Midfield : Extra experienced Championship CM in his peak years (26-29). Not another inexperienced youth player, or old player who hasn't got the legs. - Striker : At least one CF in their peak years with a championship or equivalent scoring record. I imagine we could find players who fit the bill in defence and midfield. Up front is a real problem as I can't see how we will have the money to sign anyone worthwhile. Lets not do the pointless Dennis / Woodrow thing again.

Out of interest what does the same database say Travis' wage was at Rovers and now at Derby?

Wow, yeah not worth that. Half is about right. Bizarre that Birmingham agreed to pay him that sort of money then immediately cut him out of their plans.

Its hard to see based on his career to date why he would be on big wages? Id definitely buy him if we can make it work financially. Not the finished article but decent.

We will have to play him quite a bit in the next few months just due to the volume of games. We need to figure out how to fit him into this system. With the two up front and a number 10 in behind I reckon we could get some use out of him.

Brittain also had an incredible first touch at this level. Better than a lot of Premier League players. But he couldnt beat players on the outside through sheer pace and power like Alebiouso and (to a lesser extent) De Neve and that is the most powerful thing as a wing back as it turns their entire defence. Also means they can recover to help out the defence in a way Brittain didnt have the pace for. I would definitely choose Alebiouso over Brittain now. I still have seen a full back who can manage him, whereas a decent amount of teams could shut Brittain down.

Its probably a bit early to judge. Everyone banging on about how bad De Neve is but he's turned out to look pretty handy. Henricksson like everyone deserves a bit of time

The thing about Rovers is we are very streaky... Lose a few on the bounce, win a few on the bounce. So sort of hopeful, which is of course asking for trouble.

Interesting to see us really commit to two proper forwards up top. Not suggesting its in anyway connected to them both being back at Ewood in various capacities, but I think last time we played with two centre forwards was Gestede and Rhodes? Its refreshing after years of one striker and a number 10 playing off them.

Well I guess I would say Rovers played similarly well against Coventry and Southampton. The difference was Coventry took their chances, while Southampton did not. if Armstrong had managed to finish one of his second half chances it would have been a different story. So as big a factor as our performance levels maintaining is Leicester not having their shooting boots on as we will give quite a few decent chances away no matter how well we play.

Would be interesting to compare this to the same point last season, and the first season under JDT. I suppose even more dramatically it doesn't include the Ipswich game in hand I assume. So if we won that it would put us fourth which is mental. That said there are lots of dynamics which undermine the value of this data. For example if you have a team that's good at scoring early (i.e. you actually have some decent strikers) and then you then switch focus to defending you will therefore concede more "expected goals" than you create. But you don't sweat it as you back yourself to keep the other side out. So teams that can finish well and defend deep well will look poor on this table, but are in reality just a good football team playing to their strengths and taking their opportunities.

Who scored thought he was brilliant... Looking at the stats breakdown it seems to be because of his goals, key passes and "Aeriels Won". Which is weird as I wasn't that impressed with him in the air. Stats eh..