4 minutes ago, riverholmes said:

I see what you mean by that comparison. He has a tenacious and technical style on the ball. If JRC was more athletic and less injury prone he would probably be at a higher level.

A significant issue with this team is a lack of athleticism. None of the Prem loanees are favoured who probably are more mobile. It seems Eustace might be a managerial throwback to his era of playing (at least at moment, as we battle relegation).

Classic curse of the comment though... JRC probably had three good opportunities to find the right pass and (like the rest of the team) missed them.

Southampton keep giving us the ball around the half way line and half the pitch to run into but we just cant make a couple of simple passes work.

As a spectacle this has been utterly horrendous but in terms of us getting a result quite good.

Weve been great off the ball and terrible on it.

Maybe just the sun out but feels like it will be a decent crowd from the numbers in the fan zone.

No idea about the result. As ever most important thing is not conceding early and getting the first goal. If Sunderland had made their early pressure count in the first 20 mins it would have been a totally different story.

Reflecting on Sunderland I was at the home game and its no exaggeration that football wise I think it was one of the best footballing performances Ive ever seen from Rovers in 30 years of watching - amazing passing, movement, overloads, combinations - but we somehow ended up losing 3-1. We played a more measured way last weekend, weathered the early pressure but then crafted great goals without leaving ourselves exposed through over committing.

Eustace may not have the same attacking commitment but if JDT was here today I would be worried wed play well but contrive to get smashed three or four one. I think we should be more competitive today. And while we dont maybe get a result i do think we will be in the game all the way through. Will he interesting.

Key man for me is JRC. He has a sort of Championship Gerrard about him. Puts the tackle in, picks the right forward passes, always looking to get forward on and off the ball, and a real goal threat. If he keeps his fitness could be one of the best midfielders at this level I think.

Good to know that we can go into this one with an unchanged team except Chrisene starting in place of Pickering.

Would be a fantastic sign that we have turned the corner if we could get a win here. Southampton's season on hold now till the playoffs so we should be looking to out compete them.

29 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Gallagher was excellent yesterday and we are much better with him in the team currently then not. Still need another striker signing but Gallagher has proved his worth under Eustace 

Maybe I am being unfair but apart from the run that led to the Hedges goal - where Gallagher miscontrolled and was quite fortunate with a rebound - I am struggling to think what he did in the game? Everything seemed to go through Dolan, Hedges, JRC with Szmodics fishing nicely a couple of times?

Edit - I quite like Gallagher in some areas. He's very good defensively, and sometimes can suit a direct way of playing. But yesterday was the sort of game where the team were purposefully avoiding giving him the ball as his touch and link up is so poor.

If you were going to take one of the front four out yesterday Gallagher was the one who seemed to contribute very little. We were focussing on quick passing, running with the ball, one two linkup. Gallagher just offers very little in that style of play. But we won 5-1 so maybe what he was doing off the ball had a big impact to enable others to score?

1 minute ago, Penwortham Blue said:

Club comes first and at 1 5, that isn’t in the best interests of Bkackburn Rovers.

Yeah agreed but after 2 years at the club under two different managers he has never been subbed to save his legs / protect him. Even when looks absolutely shattered, carrying a knock etc.

There must be something where he has made it clear he wants to always be on. Fair play as well as he never stops running. Got to respect that attitude.

Just now, bluebruce said:

Anyone got a good explanation for why we have kept Szmodics on the pitch?

I think he must have said to the management he never wants to ve substituted unless absolutely necessary. Same under JDT, never comes off.

Just now, Exiled_Rover said:

We were good on Saturday too - it's just all clicked today in front of goal. 

Yeah despite how it sounds on here id say weve largely been playing pretty well with the exception of Plymouth over the last 4-5 games.  I think the international break seems to have helped too. We look tactically very organised against Ipswich and here.

1 minute ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He's 28 - he's not going to get any better. He's a handy squad player at this level. 

What age is Szmodics 🤔🤔🤔

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

Think we'll be staying up now. And going down next year.

Depends who we sell, but if we have roughly the same/equivalent squad no way we should be going down.

Hedges has been brilliant. Hes the player I think could make the big step up next season like Szmodics and BBD have done in recent seasons. 

JRC also utterly fantastic.

Quite a few players have been criticised roundly at Rovers and gone on to have decent careers after rovers beyond expectations - Bell, Josh King, Jason Steele, Duffy etc.

Just a reminder that we don't always get it right 

We played well against Ipswich without Gallagher - id stick with that and bring him on for the last 30 mins. He has physical qualities but takes so much away in terms of link up Id save him till when we need fresh legs.

11 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I didn’t see tonight’s game. What worries me is we’re try to play a Big Sam type game with JDT type players. The problem is we have no alternative at the moment.

We didnt really play like Big Sam at all (and just as well with Dolan and Szmodics upfront). To be honest it was quite similar to JDTs style but committing fewer players forward. Lots of one two touch combinations and overloads out wide. A lot of unforced errors but also some really good flowing passing moves which were reminiscent of earlier in the season.

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

Whilst I was hugely disappointed to lose I actually thought we were good tonight and on another day would have had three points. But the stark reality is that we did lose and that is the most important thing. Our situation is becoming precarious and this drawing and losing sequence will see us relegated. In truth Ipswich got lucky tonight in my view. In the second half of was pretty much one-way stuff although we didn't create as much as we would have liked. I haven't seen the goal back but Pears looked horribly at fault. We were chatting and reckoned poor goalkeeping has cost us at least twelve points this season. Relying on just one man to score isn't too good either. We simply have to start winning games but really were are these going to come from. As good and important as Szmodicsas been this season I wish he would do more to try and stay onside.

My real ire tonight is aimed at the referee who gave by far the worst performance I have seen in a Rovers game for some time. He really tried to give the impression that the game was beneath him as he strutted about with an aura of arrogance. . I saw the disallowed goal back pretty much straight away and to penalise Scott Wharton for a foul on the keeper is shockingly bad. What made it worse was that he waited until we put the ball in the net before blowing. The decision lacked conviction and summed him up. Luongo and Morsy got away with persistent infringement as they broke play up and committed general shithousery to stem the flow of the game whenever we were gaining momentum.

Agreed that we were good. We've played a lot teams under Eustace and generally we have looked solid and competed well - Plymouth and Swansea notable exceptions. Ipswich are top of the table but very lucky to come away with the win today.

All that said its no use if we can't win games. We really really really need a win at Sunderland.

*tin hat on*

Id actually say we've been quite good. 

Generally Ive been quite impressed with Dolan, hes probably been our best player. Tronstad having a really poor one though. JRC, Hedges, Brittain all doing okay. Szmodics anonymous. Worry that Pickering is due an absolute roasting by their right winger. Id actually be tempted to swap Chrisene and Pickering over as Pickering is on a yellow.

Feels like we could get a point if things continue as they have been last 20 mins of the first half.

I was really confused by that disallowed goal. 

Were making a lot of unforced errors but overall on the balance of play weve been good value. Think theyve only had one decent effort which they scored from. Weve opened them up a couple of times. Unlucky to be behind.

But... Doesn't feel like Ipswich have really got out of second gear. 

11 minutes ago, Gav said:

Shearer was better than Kane in his pomp.

Hard to pick between them as theyre very different players but similarly ridiculous stats. Would compliment each other very well in a two though.

In terms of this current England team a definite issue is the way Kane drops deep. We have loads of great attacking mids, its not like we need Kane there. So if you could swap him for the all out striker Shearer was in say 1995 I would. 

5 hours ago, RoverDom said:

Exactly. How many of the current pool would get in a combined 11 with either the Euro 2004 or Euro 96 squad? And that's just in my life time.

None of the GK or defence now is better than Euro 2004 - there's maybe an argument for Walker.

Midfield - Rice maybe but, is he any better than the likes of Carrick, Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard? 

Attack - Bellingham absolutely, Foden probably. Kane is obviously absolutely fantastic but England have always had great strikers to choose from - linekar, shearer, Owen, Rooney etc

Compared to the 2014 squad then we are unrecognisably better and we have some really exciting talent but is it really the best crop players we've ever had to choose from? 

Id say we have a more rounded and balanced set of midfielders than we have ever had. Bellingham, Rice, Saka, Foden compliment and link up each other much better than previous golden generations... (Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard and even Joe Cole while individually brilliant all were ultimately too similar to really work together well). Add Kane in there as the main striker it's a really good midfield and attack.

But... I don't think any of our other strikers are on Kanes level. And as others have said our central defence and keeper are poor by historical standards.

That said Southgate has tended to overachieve, and this is his best squad yet. So feel like we will continue to do well. 

18 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I read in my paper today that the current government plan to do something about useless owners like the Chicken Chokers.

” For too long some clubs have been abused by unscrupulous owners who get away with financial mismanagement, which at the worst can lead to financial collapse “

Venkies, they’re talking about you.

They need to bring in legislation that will make absentee owners of clubs be compelled to divest themselves of clubs. Given who is bringing in the legislation I won’t be holding my breath though.

 

 

This is it - what will determine Rovers future more than anything else is intervention by a UK regulator. They can ignore us, but they cant ignore the law.

We need to make sure as soon as the regulator  is stood up in the next few months Rovers is top of the inbox. Im wondering if a case can be put together once the regulators terms of reference are published and a team including the likes of Tim Farron, David Speedie etc could be put together to interface with the regulator?

On 17/03/2024 at 14:14, simongarnerisgod said:

i hope eustace sees  we can`t play a high defensive line against a renown counter attacking team.whatever the result.im`e sure we will be  "outstanding"😁

I think playing a high line is okay if we dont have McFadz in there. And helps of we have Carters pace too.

If Carter is fit he will have a decision to make between Carter, Hyam and Wharton. I cant see us going back to a back 3 after the back 4 looked good against Boro.

They've lost away at Cardiff and Preston recently so its hardly impossible. But they're the favourites obviously.

I thought we looked a pretty good proposition against Boro. So feeling okay about this one. Think another draw likely.

11 minutes ago, NeilInBristol said:

Haha. We were very fortunate.

They missed an open goal a couple of times and hit the cross bar.

We had zero clear cut chances

Yeah I have to agree. While dtaw was just about a fair result but if you had to pick a winner it would be Boro. The opportunities we got were not in as good positions. Still thought we were broadly quite good both defensively and offensively though.