Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Williams passing can be poor, but defensively he is more solid I feel. Has a decent cross too. For some reason its the 5 yard passes that are a  problem 

Ah but this seems to be picking up far more than the odd cross and tackle. In terms of positional awareness Williams is one of the worst out there.

Keep an eye out next time he plays. Good players make themselves available for the pass - create an angle for it. Williams doesn't. He leaves people under pressure. Then when he does get the ball he usually brings it back inside and kills momentum. The easy ball they call it.

Then, because of his desire to come inside, he's often found wanting if a break happens and the right wing open for the opposition. The weak link in our back 4 is definitely our left back. 

This is quite useful. Fair play to you. Be interesting to see the stats of Williams in a game. He has this reputation as a steady Eddy somehow but he's nothing of the sort. That said Bell isn't of much use either. A weak area for sure.

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

To be fair virtually every game I've watched since the start of last season we've had a half or 30 minutes where we have made the opposition look ordinary. Yesterday was no real exception. The difference yesterday was that having managed to get that lead we continued to get at them and create good chances, whereas often we will sit back and allow the opposition to play as soon as we have the lead.  The problem is the other 45-60 minutes where we cannot sustain our approach and it is alarming as to the ease with which we are conceding goals. Against Ipswich, Reading and Bristol we have conceded 8 goals and really none of them were the results of periods of pressure or massive dominance from the opposition, many are just long balls forward or lapses in focus at crucial times.

All in all I think we need to be more ruthless with our chances and more dogged in defence.

Actually Brentford at home the other week was different to the norm, as we didn't really have our customary dominant spell where we created lots, rather we adopted a different more defensive approach on that occasion and it worked perfectly.

I also think there is far too much respect being shown to the opposition by some. Bristol City are a mid-table/top half side that might push for the play-offs. They've got to that stage through some shrewd recruitment rather than going out spending fortunes. A club with a plan that has followed it over a number of years. Nothing special as we saw in the first half but in the second we made it way too easy for them and had no answer to it. We're already hearing people gearing up for poor results in our next few games v Villa, Derby and Stoke and yet Stoke have been woeful this season and Villa have just been hammered in their last away game.

It goes back to the need of a top defender. Boro and Leeds should come 1st and 2nd in this league because their defence is by far better than others. Their goals against column indicates that.

It's worth noting though that we haven't conceded more than others around us. We are showing the hallmarks of a good side but still need a few more key players in areas of the pitch to push on. As Parsons has said - this squad is a midtable championship side.

Villa, Derby & Stoke is an incredibly tough run but any game in this league is winnable as has been shown. We will be okay this season that's for sure.

One of Dack's friends put a Snapchat story up of him beating Samuel at FIFA. Absolutely outrageous really. I thought he was injured? If you saw the way he was moving his thumbs you'd have to say his heart is obviously more into his ultimate team than it is Blackburn Rovers.

The way he was sat too. My God. The boy was bending his bleeding knees. Where's the bag of frozen peas? His crutch? He's injured for Christ sake why isn't he sat in silence with a thermometer in his mouth? The bloody youth of today. He even had the nerve to crack a smile when he scored. How he can manage to move his facial muscles when he can't play a game of football is beyond me.

I can only imagine this is shattering news to the likes of Mulgrew and Graham. Quite how we can expect them to piece together the remnants of our team morale I don't know.

If we are to succeed in this league we need to ban FIFA, fun and the entitled youth. Back in the 70s and 80s if a player was injured he'd sleep in the damn dressing room until he was fit to play again!

Ignore the fact that footballers used to drink, gamble and go out clubbing win lose or daw back then.

Where will Rovers finish this season? : 12th

Player of the Year : Bradley Dack

Young Player of the Year: Armstrong

Top Goalscorer: Bradley Dack

Championship Promoted : Leeds, Boro, Villa 

Championship Relegated : QPR, Birmingham City and Rotherham

Dark Horse : Sheffield United

Miscellaneous: Mowbray places Dack under house after 7pm every night to protect team morale and not rub anyones noses in it.

51 minutes ago, philipl said:

I don't know why folks are saying who should have started. We were comfortably the better team in the first half.

It all went upside down in the second half when they played to their capability and we didn't.

Exactly this. In the first half we made Bristol look ordinary. Keep in mind that this is a team that has kept home clean sheets consistently over the space of a year. We could have had 3 had the Palmer and Armstrong chances got put away. We also had some half chances where we broke and just didn't have the quality in the final 3rd to put it in the back of the net. The Elliot Bennett long range effort springs to mind. The huge difference came when Bristol had us on the break and put it away. They had more quality than us and it showed.

This league is tough. We shouldn't be under any illusion that Bristol City away is an easy game. 4-1 in the end flattered them considering the first half performance. Yesterday was a lesson in putting away our chances. At 3-0 the game would have been ours to lose but going in at 1-1 must have been deflating and it showed.

11 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Question for all current/former amateur/semi-pro players out there.

What did you do when  Saturday came round, and you were out of the team with a short-term injury ?

Did you go and watch the team, even go in the dressing room before the game to offer support, because  you were part of a club and were "all in it together" ?

Or did you forget about the team and go and socialise with friends ? 

Dack may have had instruction not to travel. He's been there every home game whilst injured. 

Besides, it's irrelevant. It's an argument beyond stupidity. It had no impact on the result at all.

Whatever Dack wants to do on a friday night is up to him so long as it doesn't impact on the result or his own performance. You are being outraged for no reason.

2 hours ago, Stuart said:

First of all, I’ve not suggested he was drinking. Different story and for me should be a disciplinary if he was.

To answer your question - imho...

1) Just how injured is he - he looks to be squatting down quite well on it?

2) If he is injured he could even go over on it again if it isn’t fully right and extend his lay off. Injuries can be - and are - caused by the most innocuous is circumstances.

3) Is he really doing everything he can to get back fit? E.g. resting and looking after it or is he taking his time and prioritising having a laugh.

4) Why does it need to be posted on social media to rub everyone’s noses in it? Yes, it was his ‘mate’ but he has put himself in that situation and surrounds himself with airheads.

5) His mate posting it has made it a public issue - at which point it brings the spotlight on the club and his team mates. Here is where the immediate problems start.

6) After the event, the team looked completely out of sorts today. Maybe a coincidence but their team spirit was a huge feature of last season and after a reasonable start their tails should still have been up. There wasn’t even the same today fight. Too many players weren’t in the right frame of mind. Could well be a coincidence, maybe fatigue levels are higher than last season but...

7) ...all I’ve said it that it can’t have helped. How do we know that half the players haven’t been laughing and the more experienced players weren’t disappointed in him. Maybe it created an atmosphere in the dressing room. Just pointing out his unprofessionalism on here has caused a bit of excitement and division.

Who knows.

You have to be simply making this shit up in your head in order to justify a terrible argument you made earlier in the heat of the moment. You honestly can't be attributing the lack of morale of a team just beaten convincingly 4-1 to one of their injured team mates having a photo taken the night before at a BBQ? Seriously? We were beaten by a better team. Bristol City aren't a small club any more - they were flying high last season and will do so again this year no doubt. I'm more than positive Mulgrew, Lenihan, Bennett et al all have more about them than letting a dressing room previously described as "the best they've been in" fall apart because Bradley fucking Dack saw a few of his mates last night.

Point number 1 is spoken like somebody who has never played a sport before. He's not going to be wheeled around 24/7 and being fit to play a combative sport like Championship football is a lot different to being fit to return to an office job. He probably even managed to put his own jeans on! Imagine the shock horror!!!

Of course he is doing everything he is doing to get fit. In fact, by simply resting all the time he would be doing his injury far worse. It needs to be a mixture of strengthening work outs, rest and general living. If he simply worked out and then sat with it up high all night he'd be hampering his recovery by 25-50%. Ask any physio worth his salt that.

I didn't feel like I "had my nose rubbed in" by another lad having fun. If your Saturday night was so boring that you felt that picture rubbed your nose in it then that's your problem. I'm sure we'd struggle to find a 2nd person who feels aggrieved at others having a laugh.

2 hours ago, Stuart said:

Why does everyone make it so personal? And then get so uptight when they get one back? Double standards on here are palpable.

The reason for the comment is obvious. The younger posters on here are in the main defending him. “He should be out and about the day before a match that he isn’t involved in. It’s a free country. He’s a grown man.”

The older posters in the main have higher expectations of a professional footballer paid thousands of pounds who should be focussed on getting back fit.

As always though on here, the groundswell is to go round and round with ad hominem posts and make what was an original disappointment into a great bit of sport in gleefully disagreeing with me for the sake of it.

One thing it does show though is the number of twentysomething posters we have on here who can’t tell their arses from their elbows and think social media is the best place to prove it.

You are a hypocrite of the highest order. You are harking on about making it personal and then go on to blanketly chastise all "twentysomething posters" as you do. Just because you don't specifically name those twentysomething posters you are still making it personal.

As an example: I could say that all elderly posters are stuck in their ways morons that need to get with the times. That's a personal attack to all elderly posters regardless of whether I named them or not. I don't genuinely believe that though because I'm not stupid enough to generalise an entire generation on an unfounded argument based on whether a young lad should be allowed to have fun or not.

I am sure he is focusing on getting fit by the way. I'm sure he isn't at them BBQs all day every day.

It's clear to see by this charade that it's you who doesn't know their arse from their elbow and use this board as a way in which to spout your shite. You have no idea what you are talking about when your argument is based around the fact he's bending his damn knee.

As an end note to this utter farce if Dack wasn't performing on the pitch and wasn't clearly as committed to our cause as he is then I'm sure posters of all generations would be annoyed at him if he started to post stories of him drunk. It won't just be the clearly more intelligent, highly in tune with the world, elderly posters that could see through it all.

3 hours ago, Stuart said:

Glad I don’t work with you. You’d happily let me do all the work while you ring in with your best “got flu mate” voice. Because you couldn’t give a shit about anyone but yourself.

The only thing you are convincing me of is the entitled and irresponsible nature of the current youth.

You've made some weird comments on this site before but this certainly tops the lot. As a complete side note to your ridiculous statement about Dack - what does his age have to do with anything?

Back to Dack though. What is unprofessional about what he has done? He's not playing - he's clearly been told that the day before the game. He's given us no reason whatsoever to believe he is faking his injury. There are a team of physios and sports scientists looking after the boy and if they have declared him unfit to play then I'm more inclined to believe them than the twat who chastises him for living.

Do you want the lad to be stuck inside simply because he's unavailable to play the next day? He still has to lead some sort of personal life and him taking a funny photo at a BBQ isn't reason enough to suggest the things you have been doing.

I have been off work with a serious knee injury before. In that time I attended a Christening, BBQs and even got myself down to the local for a sit down and catch up with my pals. I wasn't faking my injury and I certainly gave a shit about others. If I was caught steaming in a nightclub dancing at 3am, or in Dack's case if he was face down in the garden pissed up yesterday, you will have a point to make. As it stands you don't have anything to make and are simply overreacting to a boy continuing to live his life despite a set back in his professional career.

Dack's commitment to this club has never come under question before. He hasn't done anything wrong and hasn't jeopardised his place in the team with this. It's a complete non-story. You are a hawk looking for the next prey to target. Grow up.

4 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

So all non 3pm Saturday games are on Sky then? If that’s the case, so will Leeds and PNE at home, as they are 12pm KO’s. 

Not sure Waggott thought about that when agreeing to the early KOs...

I bet he did because I bet the Sky money for the red button is greater than the approx. 1k extra fans he'd have on without it being on tele.

Give us £40m or feck off. That would be my message. 

4 minutes ago, longsiders1882 said:

Who's lying? I got a trip to Aberdeen which was actually great fun and their fans were awesome, home and away - great banter in the pubs around Burnley when they came down too. And Istanbul was an amazing place to visit.

Aye indeed I did - and (as you'll see above) loved it - proper football team and ground Aberdeen.

It was more the back to the day job part you lied about

But now you mention it your day out in Aberdeen is hardly a European jaunt.

Bet you lot were happy about the trip to Turkey though. The Suicide Squad will be kitted out in fake Lacoste and CP Company polos for generations to come. 

21 minutes ago, longsiders1882 said:

The players and agents at a guess.

I enjoyed our European jaunt - would have been nice to get to the group but cest la vie. Back to the day jobs now.

Stop lying.

Just now, Blue blood said:

Given some of the guys we've thanked for their "services" to Rovers in the past, I don't particularly begrudge Caddis thanks for his. Not that they amounted to much, other than knocking a month or two off Nayambe's development, but he wasn't a frauster/complete waster we've had like many others. He just wasn't any good...

Yeah I agree with this. He always ran his socks off up and down the right wing but simply isn't good enough for this league.

No doubt he will find a league 1 club willing to take him on. Wish him luck in the future.

This pacey winger better get a move on...

I think we need a slow winger 

24 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

We take around a 1,000 minimum pretty much to every weekend game these days, wherever the game is. With plenty more for local games obviously.

We didn’t take that to Man Utd/City/Liverpool by the end of our time in the PL - just shows the difference when we aren’t being charged £40 - as Leeds will show...

Don't the PL now follow the "20 is plenty" rule for away games?

I don't think Dack will be fit and in honesty I wouldn't risk it. We have a few weeks off after this game and it will give us chance to consolidate our injuries and move forward. Armstrong, Dack and Palmer all carry injuries as far as I am aware.

With that in mind I'd look to play to our strengths. Overload the midfield and break up play as often as possible. Snatching an away win is not a shameful tactic to use on occasion.

Raya

Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Bell

Evans Smallwood Bennett

             Rothwell

Graham Brereton/Nuttall

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

I think considering everything, we’ve had a fantastic window. You can never cover every single eventually and several injuries in one position will always expose us but the manager, directors and owners couldn’t have done much more.

Zero player sales ✅

Exciting potential signed and £10m in fees commited  ✅

Key players contracts extended ✅

Add to this a very solid start and I’d say it’s been near on perfect. The fans have just gotta get down there and back Tony and the lads. 

I'd change that "zero player sales" to "zero key player sales" as a positive. Retaining Lenihan, Dack and Mulgrew is of course a huge positive. However, I'd like to see us offload Whittingham, Gladwin and maybe Caddis in the last few days. If we can command even the slightest fee it would be a positive. 

Wouldn't mind Travis going on loan to get a full season under his belt either. 

I thought Stephen Hendrie was a shrewd loan signing the season before last. He came with a good reputation from Scotland and my West Ham mate recommended him.

He isn't my mate now.

Just now, roversfan99 said:

Where do you get the impression that he will be played wide mostly?

Listened to Mowbrays interview last night and he said Brereton considers himself a number 9, albeit he did also mention Armstrong and using strikers wide to counter certain weaknesses, often reluctantly.

Forest fans seem pretty unanimous that one of the primary reasons for his loss of form was due to being played wide. I hope hes being signed primarily as a 9. 

Bolton fans said that about Armstrong too when he was there. Came to Rovers, played primarily out wide and banged 10 goals in. I suppose it's about how you are played as opposed to where you play.

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Didn't someone say on here yesterday that he was gone to Fleetwood? I just checked online now though and it seems not. Did I dream that??

Just now, Lancaster Rover said:

There was something on here about his brother announcing he had gone to Fleetwood on loan. Looks like that was premature

He meant James Husband when he said "big bro". I don't know when English lads started talking like yank jocks but it's the thing to call a mate your bro now. 

Ha ha ha. From Brereton to Sylla. My God.

If Idrissa Sylla signs as part of this "fab 4" Tony promised us then it's beyond a joke. 

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Well that will be subjective. Many on here were naming Maddison as being the marquee signing they wanted and we needed, and look where he has ended up. I am all for discussion and alternative signings being suggested, but I don't like when fans say "oh its too much ,we shouldn't sign him" without suggesting an alternative or even a reason why, apart from the transfer fee. Players are moving for inflated fees across the board, we need to get involved at some point. If paying the premium for potential is one option  , give it to me any day over signing the likes of Murphy , Etuhu or their ilk. 

Where has he ended up? He's still at Peterboro. Still available for £2.5m.

9 hours ago, Tom said:

By the way Mackem, enjoy league one it can be truly bonkers but fun if you are doing well in it. Seen a few Sunderland fans on twitter enjoying it already.

As long as you end up getting out of it you’ll look back with fond memories!

Some of the best away days of my time supporting Rovers were done last season. Walsall away will always stick in the memory.

There was character to them clubs - some of the more sterile away days in the Championship can't compare. I felt this during the Hull game even with our good support!

Back to Rodwell though @MackemInPeace provided a pretty good post but it's wise to remember that Rodwell won't be the first player not to perform at a club when given a similar huge contract. There could also be a case that Sunderland in recent years has had a culture of losing - and I mean no disrespect in that. A lot of players would have struggled to justify 70k a week there in the past 4 years. The toxicity of the club, in particularly last season, was all too close to home for us. We bought big players on long contracts and then suffered the consequences.

Couple the fact that Sunderland had a few rotten apples in the years Rodwell was there. We can't forget Darren Gibson's pissed up rant. The whole place stunk of unprofessionalism and that is ultimately going to impact on the willingness of players to fight tooth and nail for the shirt.

I am in no way trying to excuse some of the behaviour of Jack Rodwell but rather don't believe that that type of behaviour will be allowed in a modern day Rovers dressing room. We have characters in that room like Conway who openly dish out fines for lateness; we have Graham & Mulgrew keeping lads in line and Elliott Bennett making sure each players understands and appreciates the fan base. We honestly have a togetherness now that I haven't seen in years. If anything this dressing room is set up for Rodwell to succeed and, if he doesn't, then he's shown his true colours. He doesn't have anything to hide behind here. Our managers, players and, remarkably, even fans are now all on the same wavelength.

I wish him luck

Rodwell is here now and he'll my support. Not the most inspiring of signings given the talk of his attitude in the past but we can only judge him on what he does for us. I trust Mowbray not to bring a rotten apple into the dressing room and I trust Graham, Mulgrew, Conway and Bennett not to let it ruin the atmosphere.

Just now, Fraserkirky said:

I had visions last night of Tony turning Rodwell into a top flight centre half, making the England squad. 

Stop smoking whatever it is you smoke