Bored with it all.

We will always be a soft touch with no ability to grind results out with Mowbray in charge.

What a waste.

Very impressed with Buckley’s range of passing and ability to find space when on the ball tonight 

19 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Blackburn Rovers U23's vs Leicester U23's, 7pm kick off - Live stream will be available here from 18:45pm https://www.lcfc.com/tv/live

Wonder if Ayala will get a run out 

Just now, 47er said:

In front of the ref, incredibly obvious, there was another defender available, 3-0 up? We will miss Lenihan when he's suspended.

 

In Lenihans head he’s not taking any risks of giving them a chance on the verge of half time.

Conceding just before halftime would’ve been a bit of a mental blow, and obviously would’ve left us only 2 up. Perfectly happy for our players to do things like this to keep momentum going. We know Rovers, think PNE last season, you can really feel the swing after conceding at times.

Think we’ve moaned that the side isn’t nasty enough for a while. We’re very streetwise at this level now and it’s going to help us win more points.

Plus the likes of Travis and Lenihan are always going to be suspended once or twice a season. That’s their game. They’d be less effective players if they were told to take the edge off.

18 minutes ago, 47er said:

Does anyone else think Lenihan was a complete prat to pick up that yellow card?

Absolutely not.

In previous seasons we would’ve let the attacker ghost through, to square it and score. Professional by Lenihan. That’s how you see out games.

25 minutes ago, RovingRover said:

This transfer window is getting silly.

So what I have been told is that Mowbray hasn't been given a budget as such. He has told the owners what he is looking for and they have told him to go to them and get sign off for each offer made. This means added waiting time as the owners agents investigate each potential transfer deal, the costs and legal implications.

Something's got to give.

Standard procedure akin to everything else Blackburn Rovers 2010-present 

Price rise.

Big mistake. As naive a model as the season following promotion.

Waggot, you are giving people a big, reasonable excuse not to go. 

A little bump up to you is a big deal to many. Financially for some, morally for others, perception wise to most. Either way, just like a daft tug on a shirt in the penalty area, you’re giving the ref a decision to make.

Might make sense short term but this will be another harmful move long term.

Reconsider ASAP.

6 minutes ago, Amo said:

I know they don't grow on trees but didn't Mowbray want a ball-playing centre half to complement Lenihan?

From the sounds of it, Lindsay is more of a blood-and-thunder type like Lenihan. Not afraid to get stuck in but prone to lapses in concentration. 

Sarr would make sense with this in mind. From the Charlton manager a couple of weeks ago:

“I’m sad to see Naby go,” said Bowyer. “He is a lovely fella and very good in possession – he got us playing.”

“I’d have liked to have kept him but under this embargo we’ve go no chance. He’s had to move on.”

Bell is utterly inept. Makes Williams look like Roberto Carlos. Disgustingly bad.

Don't f*ck this one up Rovers............

Very cautious on authenticity. But don't underestimate how good of a signing Kipre would be. He's proven to be a very good centre back at this level at the age of 23. He ticks all of the boxes in terms of attributes, I don't think there is much better out there available. And clearly if he was anywhere but Wigan he would be way, way out of reach. 

Venky's history says spending circa £1m on a defender doesn't happen so i'm expecting disappointment. But on top of needs meeting value, the relatively safe development and future sell on potential might just get this attention, particuarly with the sweetener of the majority of Williams/Mulgrew's wages off the books.

Not a bad run out for the first pre season game.

Glad to see the 4-3-3 was built with actual wing play rather than inside target men types.

One thought. If Travis and Buckley are to be two of the first choice midfield three, I think we need to bring in another all-round midfielder type. Somebody box to box who can also contribute to the odd goal. Not sure Evans or Johnson have enough mobility or creativity in them to make the side balanced enough. Aware we’ve priorities elsewhere, though.

Impressed with a few of the youngsters, Dolan especially.

22 minutes ago, arbitro said:

One thing that really hit home to me yesterday was the lack of positional awareness of our strikers. Early on I thought Bell put in some good crosses from the left side which were dealt with comfortably by the Derby defenders. Our forwards just didn't make good enough runs for one of them to at least challenge the opposition players. And after the first fifteen minutes they got lazy and didn't press high enough and allowed Derby to play from the back through midfield where invariably we were outnumbered. I don't know if they are lazy, unfit, poorly coached or just useless. I do know though that so far there has been little indication that two of them are anywhere near Championship standard.

It's become painful to watch, yesterday was a prime representation of SG & BB's Rovers careers so far.

Consistently play like headless chickens. I understand they've found themselves on the wing a lot but regardless, they've both had ample opportunity playing as and around a number 9 role.

They cause very few issues to defenders on balls in to the box despite being something like 6'3 and 6'5. Rarely get head or foot to the ball and it's a breeze for the defender. 

When balls do fall to them in the box, they tend to panic and finishing is wild/poor. How often do they trouble the goalkeeper?

Around the box, when needing to square the ball or link somebody in, again it's usually near post straight to the keeper or ballooned beyond everybody for a goal kick or throw in.

It's surely a basic expectation to think your big money strikers at this level can at least cause a few problems and put themselves about each week?

Playing those two to save face will potentially cost our season. If Danny Graham (15 goals last season) had kept his place, or at least been the man to step in post Dack's injury, i'm convinced we'd have more points on the board. He gives the defenders something to really deal with, scores an acceptable amount of goals against the chances that fall to him and knits the attack together by using his strength and first touch.

I want them to succeed as we all do, and I keep hearing they've got potential, but after over a year of watching them both I'm really struggling to get on board with them.

Whether the players are simply crap, the coaches are misuing them, they don't fit the system or whatever, something needs to change and click soon.

On reflection, despite the opportunity we had, yesterday was the worst i've seen us in a while.

Poor at both ends of the pitch with gaping holes in the middle.

Lenihan is invaluable. Without his leadership, and with Bennett in Nyambe's spot, we're fragile as expected.

The biggest frustration for me was the decision making particularly in the final third, the attackers played like puppies with zero footballing know-how. We got the ball up the pitch in to some decent positions relatively regurlarly but never threatened. They knew Armstrong was the only danger man, they stuck two men on him at all times, and that was that.

We're still in with a shout, but not if we continue to play anything like we did yesterday.

3 minutes ago, Cherry Blue said:

Are tickets still available at the ground?

Yes, I’m going and paying on the door. 

5 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Walton

Nyambe    Lenihan    Tosin    Bell

Travis    Johnson

Rothwell                        Downing

Samuel   Armstrong

 

For me I'd sooner Armstrong and Samuel play as a top two, like they did against Charlton for most of the game.

This would probably be my team too.

Having two strikers buzzing around, with both a pace and crossing threat from the wings seems like the way to go against a team that might defend deep at Ewood. That's where the 4-2-3-1 has come unstuck over the past couple of seasons in games against Millwall, Wigan, Brum etc in which we dominated but couldn't create enough clear cut chances.

7 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Can we agree beforehand that, with us only taking 4 points from the last 3 games, only 14 games remaining and with the top  2 still to come to Ewood, a point on Saturday is not a good result

Agreed.

Cliché, but it's a '14 cup finals' mentality needed if we're going to push ourselves up in to the playoffs.

At the moment Walton is probably no better than an average Championship keeper. Regularly makes decent saves and has some sort of a presence. Seems to have a slightly higher than usual mistake rate in him and his decision making can be slow and costly at times.

For that reason I'd be looking to sign better. As others have said, I'm sure we could do better for the same or a smaller price tag, with a keeper from the European leagues. Maybe even an older keeper knocking about over here.

At 24 he's young for a keeper but we can't realistically afford the luxury of waiting (and hoping) for him to develop and cut out the negative side to his game through experience. That for me was the whole point of the Raya sale which made the Walton loan signing baffling.

Really starting to feel the lack of January signings now. Tombola team selection time.  

I'd like to see a 4-4-2 in the absence of a central play maker. Solid base, simple and hard-working in the middle, get the ball out wide and get it in to the box. Something like:

                        Walton

       Nyambe Lenihan Tosin Bell

  Armstrong Travis Davenport Downing

               Graham Gallagher

Same back line. Shame to put Arma back out wide but needs be. Johnson was very poor last game, Davenport is next in line. Toss a coin on whether to play Brereton, Gallagher or Samuel next to DG.

2 minutes ago, Uddersfelt Blue said:

I thought Rothwell had a decent game at Sheff Wed. A lot more effective with the ball 

No arguments there, he had a good game as did everybody on the pitch. He'd gone a chunk of games without being a consistent threat beforehand though, hopefully he can start to sustain it because he's one of our biggest threats on his day.

Wouldn't change the last starting 11, assuming current fitness and no surprise signings. Off the back of a very good performance leading to a 5-0 win, don't see a major need to change anything.

I think JRC is one more decent impact sub appearance away from winning a start ahead of Rothwell, who has been quiet lately.

Loaning Brereton to Holland is a lifeline, we need to snap their hand off whilst an offer is there.

Possibly the only chance we’ll get of recouping any money in the future. and/or getting any sort of player with confidence and developed ability.

Serious questions for Mowbray to answer though, 7m unproven striker out on loan due to not being able to cut it, at a time where 7m should’ve been improving our starting 11 considerably.

54 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Walton

Lenihan   Tosin   Williams

Nyambe      Travis   Johnson      Downing

Armstrong    Graham    Rothwell

 

Like this. 

Would also be interested to see how flexing it to have Armstrong/Graham as a front two with Rothwell (or preferably Holtby) playing in the hole behind as a 3-4-1-2 would do.

We need to learn how to score more goals without Dack. An Armstrong/Graham partnership might work best with our squad, varying attributes to complement each other, not to mention Armstrong is our current (fit) top scorer, and Graham our only (fit) proven goalscorer at this level.

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Hence why we should have a more compact stadium. 

Probably, but leaves us with less of a problem and increased revenue potential during times of success. Will always be something for Town clubs to grapple with.

12 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

I have showed them home goals and they always comment on the empty seats. It looks crap

Rovers with 13k on within an immediate catchment area of around 150k people.

Liverpool with 50k on within an immediate catchment area of around 2.5m people.

Get them to do the maths!