Eustace Home record:-

Played 7

Won 0 , Drawn 5, Lost 2

We’ve scored 4 goals in these 7 games, conceding 7.

That’s dire, and that’s what they have to sell season tickets on the back of.

Yet It looks like almost 16,000 home fans yesterday against Coventry despite the run we are on. At £15 a ticket. As we’ve often said, do it for decent Saturday games and not unappealing Wednesday night games and the evidence is there cheaper tickets work.

15 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

any chance of an answer to this question which you seem to want to avoid answering for some reason @roversfan99? 

I would have put Telalovic on with 10/15 mins to go and got the ball into the box more with front 2 and Szmodics just behind in 3-4-1-2 formation. 

You ask @roversfan99 this like it’s a difficult question when it is obvious.

They had two up front only because we kept 5 at the back. If we had put an extra midfielder or attacker on they would have had to have withdrawn one of their attackers because they would have been overrun in midfield. Ayari, Moran or Markanday should have been on within 5 minutes of the red card.

8 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

have zero reasons to be giddy for, yet again struggled to accept different point of views on here. If you don't accept my point of view, just moved on down the page. 

The problem is Chaddy your ‘viewpoints’ constantly are things like “the manager is good”, “the recruitment has been good”, “the tactics are good”, “I think we will finish close to top 6.”

And yet here we are going into the last day hoping to stave off relegation. 
 

9 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

If a 10 man team has 2 up front, they by default have less behind than they normally would do. They couldn't do that if we pushed someone up the field.

Exactly.

@chaddyroversis just being a bit giddy cos we didn’t get beaten. However there are little statistics to be positive about regarding Eustace.

We could have started without Gallagher and with Ayari in midfield and JRC wider. We could have switched from 3 centre halves when they went down to 10 men.

I applaud the effort today. They looked like they knew it was an important game , unlike the week before against Wednesday. It’s just with Sammy slightly misfiring, there is no goals at all in that side.

Just the 1 (enforced) change from last Sunday.

Brave from Eustace, because if this lot turn in the same shite performance again he is going to get absolute pelters.

30 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I may have missed this among the talk of using the Adam Wharton cash to repair the broken lifts at Ewood but can anyone explain why Rudy Gestede was in attendance at the meeting on behalf of the Club?

I can't find any mention of this in the minutes and cannot find any mention of him being employed at the club or what role he performs. 

Waggot attempting to employ shiny object syndrome on the forum.

By 5pm we could be in the bottom 3 and Burnley could be out of it.

7 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

JDT authorised all 6 signings and one of my gripe was if he was so much in talks with Swedish FA about leaving us for them then we did we allow him to sign players and he left. 

Because the people running the club are thick and incompetent 

26 minutes ago, Gav said:

Mowbray has gone, his time had come, but it just goes to show what power players can have, even crap players, if they see weakness in management!

If any of the players revolted under Mowbray there was a chance they might be dropped and eventually replaced with someone brought in like a £5million Sam Gallagher, a £7million Ben Brereton, a Stuart Downing or a Harvey Elliot.

Under JDT they are thinking “are you really gonna drop me for a 17yo kid or that bloke  from the German third tier”. They knew it was highly unlikely they would be be replaced before the manager went

That’s why the players were able to take the piss with JDT at the end, probably also knowing he wanted out as well so he was going to be gone soon enough.

9 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Only make 4 January signings, including 1 free transfer, 2 loan signings and buying a striker who scored 1 goal..

He massive improved the current squad and their best players playing well

We signed 6 players. McFadzean has played well, 2 centre backs signings who haven't played. Chrisene and Ayari who looks decent enough and Fleck who got injured on debut

Exactly. So they signed 4 players who improved the team.

We brought in 6 players. One who has been useful but 5 who havent played despite us being in relegation form since Janaury. That clearly wasnt trying to "back the manager and improve."

Travis / Wharton out and Fleck in is one of the biggest bits of WTF transfer activity we will ever see.

If we stop up I’d give him the first half of next season despite having reservations. If we go down then , considering where we were when he took over, I have little confidence he could lead us back up and I would prefer to be shut of him. 
 

Would I renew my season ticket at existing prices? I honestly don’t know. It’s easy to be knee-jerk and say no, but with the prospect of either loads of unfriendly kick off times in the championship or the likes of Lincoln, Stevenage and Northampton to look forward to its not appealing.

8 minutes ago, M_B said:

If he does stay, what do you feel would be a good finish? 

That’s a good question, albeit we don’t know how the summer will pan out. If we are in the Championship then with what little I expect us to spend , he will have done a good job if we end up about 13th. 

We have 24 points at home this season. The same as QPR and (surprisingly) Watford. Only Rotherham (20 pts) are worse in our league.

Worst in the football league is Carlisle with 15 points (just 3 wins).

8 minutes ago, arbitro said:

The intensity has gone out of our game under Eustace so I don't think that the amount of games Coventry have played will be any advantage to us. We aren't a pacy team by any stretch of the imagination but under Tomasson the intensity made up for some of this. We really look like plodders and as such easy to play against.

That what was so noticeable on Sunday. The Wednesday front four and midfield closed and harassed from the first whistle. By the time they were tiring, they were 3-1 up so could then sit back and rotate some of the players. We haven’t hunted in packs like that for a long while.

3 hours ago, Tricky said:

10/1 still on us to go down, anyone on?

I think it’s waaay too big. We could be in the bottom 3 by teatime on Saturday.

Having said that, if we draw and Huddersfield win then we are safe.

Its a funny old game.

58 minutes ago, AspRover said:

 

Pears

JRC - Wharton - O'Riordan - Gent

Garret - Buckley

  Hedges - Markanday - Gilsenan

Leonard

Thing with that side is we have no idea if that back 4 is any worse than what we are currently fielding. It’s probably got more bottle.

Hedges, Leonard and Gilsenan may well be better than recent pairings of Dolan, Gallagher and Moran / Ayari.

I look at that team and the only real misses are Szmodics and Tronstadt.
 

22 minutes ago, J*B said:

and our Manager said 'a big away following has an impact but we won't use it as an excuse' (whatever that means)

Did he? FFs. He likes to point out excuses and then say “we won’t use it as an excuse”. If it’s not an excuse then don’t flippin mention it in the first place. 
 

1 hour ago, Groundhog said:

Tronstadt 

Trojstadt, JRC, Carter, Wharton, Hedges and Pickering would be ok as a mainstay of a league one side. It’s how many of them would stop? 
 

We would still be woeful short up front even at that level. 

Just noticed this is £15 a ticket. If Coventry beat Hull and still have a chance of playoffs they will pack that full Darwen End and hospitality out.

Waggot be like…

Hyam. He will be like the League One Beckenbauer. As long as we don’t boo him.

I’ve finally watched the highlights.

Hyam could have played it a bit slower and a bit more in front of Pears. However I think Pears is trying to get it upfield. As it’s coming at a bad angle to him, he’d be better launching it into the Riverside and bollocking Hyam. Pears really needs to deal with it better.

And I don’t want to dig him out too much, but when he heads it to Hyam for the first goal he stands there and admires it for a second or two. What is he waiting for? A one-two? The minute he heads it he should be retreating back to his goal at full speed.

I said it before but Hedges is a big loss. He shouldn’t really be, but it’s because he offers something different. A bit of presence.
 

The squad is littered with lightweight ‘ball playing’ midfielders who can’t compete physically and seem to shrink when the going gets tough - Ayari, Markanday, Moran, Dolan,  Buckley. You start trying to pick a bit of a different formation and wonder who to put out wide and you are just swapping one non-entity for another. 

JRC would be the only other  option out wide who may have more presence, but you’d really want Travis to then go alongside Tronstadt (enough said there). Otherwise you have to choose from one of the above-mentioned lightweights in midfield, or toss Garrett back in who, after showing glimmers of promise, was poor last time we saw him.

In fact, I’d go with Garrett in the middle and JRC wider. At a quick glance, our record with him on the pitch looks better than most of the others and he doesn’t seem to have started many of the pastings except of West Brom. Otherwise it’s just rinse and repeat.

26 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

They might win 1, but I don't see them winning both.

I never said they would. 🤔🤔

People are saying we are probably safe on 49, but we really aren't. Birmingham need to win 1 of two very winnable to go above us.

Wednesday need to win one of 2 tougher games to go above us, but after yesterday it's difficult to say that won't happen.

A point against Coventry (or Leicester) might save us but I really think if we lose both games we go down.

4 minutes ago, ElTwis said:

You're right of course but that's deliberately an attempt to scrape together the necessary points

I mean personally I'd rather we went for 3 necessary points  against one of the worst teams in the division rather than cling on to one.. But we should have learnt what the approach would have been after we did the same against Millwall.

It's proof Eustace didn't take the Stoke game. We actually attacked them from the first whistle that day.

43 minutes ago, ElTwis said:

I know how this will be received but I feel like someone needs to defend Eustace to an extent.

 

The tactics yesterday were straightforward - don't lose.

Exactly. Negative.