27 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Think you're going to find yourself surprised we didn't win lots of games this season if we keep playing like this. I won't be though. Our penetrative play is poor. Whenever we dominate possession we lose, was like that all last season. We can't consistently find our way past a packed defence and are a much more effective threat on the counter.

I think we leave ourselves too exposed at the back as well. Our best 1v1 central defender was Tosin who is gone now, so hopefully Ayala can fill in better than Williams can.

We will definitely win a lot of matches if we keep this performance level and intensity up. 

Wow, how did we not win that? You'd think we were the PL side of the two teams looking at that match. 

A little bit too much through the middle at times, but we kept trying and deserved much more. But when facing PL quality in the final third, we need to take better care of our chances.

Just now, Wood26 said:

Rothwell just can’t perform when he starts. JRC best position is full back from look of it.

Ball hugger

Leaving ourselves too exposed at the back, we're only 1-0 down. Not enough forward passes, but a lot of positives to take from the first half as well. COYR!

Gahhh.... thought this would be on iFollow for overseas fans.

Just now, Jlee1984 said:

Ayala will be a brilliant signing for 3 years if it happens, Personally I would say we would have him for his best years, with a deal close before medical would of been done, so just the case of signing and quarantine if he needs to, praying the fax machine works before another offer comes in 

He's a bit too injury prone to warrant a 3 year contract at this stage but beggars can't be choosers. 2+1 would have been ideal.

Need a left back and a centre mid, and we're set.

58 minutes ago, Ricky said:

So Raya being linked with a £10m move to the prem by skysports. 

Shambles.

Thoroughly deserved the win tonight. Seemed to ebb off at the start of the second half, and I can't say I agreed with the Graham/Samuel substitution. Fortunately Lenihan managed to grab the opener and it was floodgates after that.

For me Johnson slows our game down too much at time, think he's a bit on and off and a bit frustrating to watch at times. Bell falls asleep too and costs us in the build-up, while Bennett is limited but is a good player for his workrate. Travis and Downing are real quality, Travis has benefited tremendously from playing alongside Downing it feels like.

What a screamer from Armstrong. Only thing missing was a goal from Brereton, other than that it was a good night of football. Two tough away games awaits but we're there lurking at the play-offs.

Clear pen...

Get in!!!

6 minutes ago, Tom said:

Mowbray discussing Danny Graham and the attacking options in the telegraph 

https://t.co/Qp3tyY6qVL?amp=1

Not a single mention of the £7m man, not sure why he’s not questioned on it.

Seems he’s not even seriously considered

Ben knows what he has to do to get himself in contention for a start. So far he's not up for it, and unfortunately there's little evidence suggesting he'll ever be.

Good stuff! Game of two halves eh?

56 minutes ago, Mercer said:

and it will only get worse this summer when we have to replace loan players, ageing players, players out of contract and players who simply aren't good enough.  If Mowbray is still here, and God forbid, I think it will just give him another ready made excuse for 'stability' - 'you can't have so many new players in the building and expect them to gel'.

I think it underlines our player recruitment strategy has been simply shambolic under Mowbray.

We have a good crop of youth players knocking on the door, so I don't see any big crisis coming. With that said I do think our promotion aspirations will dwindle for each season that passes by, and we're actually in a very good position to be pushing for a play-off place this season. Mowbray should recognise the same, and needs to make a couple of big calls this window.

Really looking forward to tonight's game.

2 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Ah come on now,for all Mowbrays faults and reasons to be criticized,  it's a peculiar angle to have a conspiracy theory as to why Buckely started a few. Before he was starting a lot on here were,incorrectly , slaying mowbray for not giving youth a chance. He gives him a chance,which hasn't worked out, and now you are trying to make out someone is making him play Buckley. Nonsense. I wouldnt say any of the Indians know who Buckley is. 

It was a big gamble to take at this stage of the season, and when we were finally gaining momentum. It didn't pay off. I'm trying to find reasons as to why he made the team selections he did based on the evidence of how well it went - but maybe I jumped to conclusions. 

Is Buckley good enough for a promotion pushing team? No. So it has to be down to politics that he's given so much playing time at this stage - Mowbray is under pressure from India to produce players from our academy and make profits from our investments on Gallagher and Brereton (failing).

Does anyone have the video of Gallagher from his previous spell when they are practicing finishing? Shocking stuff.

We need a high energy type like Harrison Reed, as well as a new LB. A RB cover would be nice too, and let Bennett play the odd game in the middle of the park, he's not a right back for me.

I Walton going back to B&H Albion now or is it a season long loan?

9 minutes ago, Miker said:

I couldn’t watch it on iFollow at all due to region restrictions. Had to watch on Kayo Sports instead.

I think it’s a bit crap that not all games are being shown on iFollow - you pay for the season but there’s probably like 10% of games that you have to watch elsewhere.

£110 for 90% of 46 games = 41+ games. Pretty good.

56 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

In January we should be doing a deal to take Milner at the end of the season before anyone else can get in.

If we have any ambition that is.

Let's be realistic.

6 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

I’m so hyped that we won. 

Bit annoyed at myself for leaving when we were 1-0 down, but you win some, you lose some.

Thank Christ we won!!

Poor form

Gutted. We're back to square one in terms when it comes to keeping calm when in the lead and seeing games out. I thought we had solved the puzzle for a while there, but guess not. We really needed the confidence boost this win would have given us, but it was a good honest performance and we came out blazing. Unfortunately, they adapted well and we just couldn't move the ball around (again), even though we fielded almost our entire 11 in their desired positions. Gallagher and Armstrong were good, and with a bit more luck we would have killed the game off in the first 45 minutes, and on another day with another ref it could have been a different story as well.

Very concerned how we couldn't deal with the physicality of Stockley, but that was top in-game management by Neil. 

How did Nyambe and Cunningham do tonight? 

Not convinced by Christian Walton so far, and if we can replace our fullbacks for the next game I think we'll be alright. Peach of a goal by Cairney but he should have collected the ball before Mitrovic got to it. Gallagher could learn a thing or two about movement inside the box from the big Serb tbh.

Just now, RovingRover said:

Easily one of the most humiliating days I have ever experienced as a Blackburn Rovers fan trying to get information out with regards to the clubs deals.

To say it was a shambles would be an understatement.

This club is in big big trouble.

The attempt to sign Harrison Reed for instance has really shook me in terms of how low we have fallen.
Fancy trying to sign a player on loan at 30% supplemented wages and offering to sign him at the end of the loan for under £3 million. Soton laughed it off and got the full 100% wages plus an agreement to sign for £5 million come the end of the season with add-ons from Fulham.

The Cunningham deal which has been apparently worked on for 48 hours couldn't even be completed with an agreement to sign him at the end of the season should he do well for us.

3 CB's were bid for along with a goalkeeper. Haven't a clue who they are. But they were all laughed off as being too low cash offers.

We are now categorically left with a weaker defence than the League One defence we had, let alone what we had last season.

Mowbray know's it. Everyone in the building knows it. Whilst I don't rate Mulgrew, not replacing him with an experience 1st team CB is absolute suicide.

I expect Mowbray will pay for this abject failure with his job before the end of the season.

Notice Cunningham has very clearly been listed as a "left-back" on the club website.

As I clearly outlined the other week when we signed Tosin. The condition was that he would a) be played in the 1st team and b) be played at CB.

We are left with Derrick Williams, Tosin Adarabioyo, Darragh Lenihan, Lewis Travis, Joe Grayson and at a push Ryan Nyambe for CB.
 

I expect Bennett to be handed the captains armband by the way.

We can't compete with PL parachute money.

Who's negotiating the deals? Must be Waggott, surely?

Just now, Paul Mani said:

Mowbrays stance against Mulgrew for me is a sign that he knows he’s under pressure. Mulgrew and Bennett are piss poor defenders. If he’s cslled them out then so what. More importantly he’s seems to have fired Mulgrew off to Wigan for his insolence. The squad may be feeling a little unnerved. Good, I say. There’s a few in there like Dack, Mulgrew, Bennett who’ve been coasting for months. 

Maybe it’s a shot across the bows of the players who’ll be thinking “Jeez, you don’t wanna piss the gaffer off. If he can shift the club captain out in half a day he can get rid of any of us!”

Good assessment, but I to be fair to Bennett I just think he lacks ability in the Championship. He's an upgrade on Smallwood, but both of them are very limited footballers. Dack was AWOL against Charlton, let's hope he's back to his best soon.

Just now, Mike E said:

Personally think that if Cunningham's signing shifts Bell to the bench and Williams to CB in Mulgrew's stead, then we've improved two positions imo.

However, I was expecting at least one other CB. Could still be, I guess, with potential deals still being done, or with freebies to consider.

I think Tosin will start alongside Lenihan more games than not, with Williams being third choice. Whenever Nyambe starts will be when Bennett serves a suspension or is pushed further up the field for his workrate or team balance.

We have a good starting eleven now, with good impact players on the bench.  It's really up to Mowbray to improve his team selections and tactical adjustments on the fly. He's 0 for 1 so far.

Just now, toogs said:

We also have to find 10/12 goals per season from somewhere else to compensate.  

 

Not if we stop conceding soft goals.