I agree with Neil that the football has been dross, I’m not sure how JE is planning to bring winning football to the team but at the moment I suppose I’m just glad we’ve stopped conceding goals at the rate we were so we at least have a chance to win without needing to score 5.

How's Weston doing? Always thought he looked a really tidy and composed player.

14 hours ago, NeilInBristol said:

Thing is, you can make stats turn shit to gold. 

2 points out of 3 games

Also considering the opposition on form and league table position alone we should have beaten Cardiff and Birmingham.

We should be getting 6points out of 9 and we got 2 out 9 

 

Forget comparisons of jdt last 4 games because they were different players, jdt didn't have gally or hedges or Dolan or jrc. If he had he could have got us 6 points out of those winnable games. But he isn't here so can't compare that. 

I agree with what you're saying but I disagree a little as whilst JDT didn't have Hedges, Dolan and Gally, JE doesn't have Wharton, Pickering, Carter or Travis and he's only had JRC for 1/4 game if we use the 3 game yard stick. 

As said, I am certainly not in the JE is the saviour camp (if that even exists) or the JDT out camp but I think we can recognise that he has managed to stem the tide at least initially, which at the time JDT seemed incapable of doing, whether that was due to stubbornness, ability or the broken relationship with the SLT we'll never know. 

Form table since JE has taken over puts us 15th with a +1 GD. 4 (league) games prior to that we were rock bottom with 10 conceded and 3 scored. Including tuppings from Huddersfield and WBA. 
 

As I’ve said many times I was a huge fan of the way JDT wanted to play, but less of a fan of his lack of pragmatism and ability to identify and/or enact a plan B.
 

That said if you take JE’s first 4 games and compare them to JDT’s last 4 league games he is performing better both in points gained and goal difference. Looking at the opposition they’ve been fairly similar too with WBA and PNE being the only teams either has faced that are threatening the upper reaches of the league. Even if you look at from an injury/availability point of view you’d have an argument to say SG coming in is cancelled out by AW leaving and the rest are fairly neutral in terms of quality or whether JDT was even selecting them.

All in all I am very much undecided on JE however I think it would be unfair to say he’s not stopped the rot short term and at least stemmed the tide for a period. It’s not pretty at the moment but it’s grinding out points, getting whalloped away for 0 points at Huddersfield playing suicide football was even less attractive. 

1 minute ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Auto correct ? “ Reins “ ? 

Sorry, yes, one of the lesser autocorrect messes my phone has made recently 

There definitely feels a likeness to the beginning of the Hughes era in our first 4 games under JE. Hopefully once the mild threat of being sucked into the bottom 3 subsides we will start to see a similar shift as we did with MH and the reigns being loosened a little. 

He’s not being helped with the Tuesday - Saturday rotation of games at the moment. Meaning he’s getting very little time to work on patterns, etc. 

Coming off the back of the worst transfer window in memory, general calamity at every level of the club and a threadbare squad that looks bereft of confidence I think 5 points is a decent return regardless of who the opposition is. 

Grinding out points after the December and January disaster will hopefully start to instil a bit of confidence in the players. I’m a fan of JDT but it’s seeming more and more apparent it wasn’t a happy camp with some payers appearing devoid of any confidence. It’s going to take time and I’m not saying JE is the answer but grinding out points and stopping the rot/losing should go some way to helping us turn a corner. 

All important clean sheet, gives us a bit of something to build on and gets the monkey off our back to some extent. 

I’m not sure Dolan has been good lately either, he played well against Stoke was starved of service but ineffective against Brum and bloody terrible on Saturday. So fairly true to form in that he’s consistently inconsistent 

3 minutes ago, B16Rover said:

Not a dig at Dolan as he has played well lately, more at modern wide players.  Can any lurking Blackburn data analysts get a graph of dribbles completed and chances created when the ball is received and the player 

 

Continues forward outside 

Continues forward inside 

Cuts back outside 

Cuts back inside 

 

The default receive the ball and run into the pitch and back on your own goal can't be a benefit surely 

Dolan comes inside because he doesn’t have the pace to go by someone on the outside rather than tactical imo 

Not one to say I told you so but at 5’6 and 10 1/2 stone you’ve got to be a hell of player to cut it in the champ, Ayari is not a hell of a player 

1 hour ago, Penwortham Blue said:

I watched him in the warm up before the Knob End match and he was very tidy with the ball, only one who put the ball in the net every time. Surely an upgrade on Garrett, that lad is nowhere near ready for this level, yet.

I think he’s 10x the player Garrett is with the ball, that said Garrett does put himself about and is a physical presence. At 5’6 and not much over 10 1/2 stone I don’t think Ayari has the same defensive abilities. Happy to be proved wrong mind

I think the academy and first team identity stuff is nonsense anyway. We’ve had academy teams that play expansive football for a number of years, well before JDT and will do way beyond as that is what the modern game looks for. The aim of the academy is to produce pro footballers for rovers or elsewhere, they will follow the model that delivers saleable assets which is currently technical players comfortable moving the ball at speed with both feet. In 5 years time it might revert to big direct players, and our recruitment and coaching model will change as that’s what we’re set up to do. We’re an academy that is reactive to what the industry wants, we’re unfortunately not in a position to be proactive in shaping what the industry wants like City, etc 

3 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

Given his build etc Ayari looks like a player and the areas of the pitch he goes into - who can either play number 10 or as a third CM. 

He seems to like carrying the ball, so I am sort of hopeful in a three he could be a bit like Rothwell was... running at players through the middle and opening things up. But in reality not seen enough of him yet to be sure. 

Whatever the case though we need an extra body in the middle desperately.

I get what you mean, he does look tidy on the ball and against QPR he looked to get on it a lot in the last 15 when others were doing their best to give it away at any opportunity.

I think the thing that may hold him back is physicality, Rothwell is 6ft and roughly 12 stone and a strong, direct runner, Ayari (according to Transfermarkt) is 5'6 and 10 st 8 which is light and doesn't seem to be as direct or as quick as Joe was/is.

I think Ayari is one of those loose forward midfielders who floats about in advanced midfield positions, not quite a (modern) 10 and definitely not an 8 for me, in old money what you'd term as a luxury player. Out of all of the signings I find his the most odd as that (luxury) forward area is where we're arguably the best served in personnel with Buckley returning, Moran, Sigurdsson, Sammie can play there, as can Hedges, Dolan and JRC if called on. 

How bad was the pitch by the way, absolutely criminal a championship club is presenting that as a surface worthy of elite level football. 

Away pub before the game, still the Catholic Club on Blackpool Road?

I don't think we'll get relegated as whilst we're poor there are some rank rotten teams below us. 

Last night had all the hallmarks of an 'after the Lord Mayors show' performance, Saturday was the big bounce, last night was the lull. JE will have learned a great deal from last night, more than Saturday I'd wager, let's see what he does to change things.

My two penneth, things I learned or had confirmed last night - 

Garret is tenacious but we need someone better with the ball in there should JRC not play, that said JRC looked miles off it until he went off injured. Sloppy in possession and struggled to close gaps defensively. 

Sammie is in danger of running around a lot and offering little to cover for the amount of times he's giving the ball away. It looked to me like we were setting up to allow them to play in their half and press at the half way line. Numerous times Sammie went and did some show pressing, chasing the ball like a Labrador for them to pop it off round him and our shape to then go to shit. You can never question his workrate but decision making I'd question at times. He also gave the ball away a hell of a lot last night.

I think the front 3 struggled generally last night, SG didn't get hold of the ball once so Dolan and Sammie were unable to rat around him and get on flick on's/loose balls. 

Wing backs were both poor last night, I'm a big fan of Brittain but thought he had a very disappointing game last night after playing so well Saturday. Hedges looked like the adrenaline that got him through on Saturday had deserted him and looked every inch a man whose not played for 2 months

Half term as well so people will have other things going on, juggling childcare, etc plus we're away again on Saturday. 

Only worry with bringing Scott W back in would be that Hyam, McFadz and Wharton would be the slowest centre back trio on record. They'd have to run 100 metres in instalments.

20 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Source?

First I've heard of professional players having a midweek day off. 

 

Totally standard practise, Wednesday is the most common day off in League 1 and 2. Championship and prem will be different due to spread of games. 

27 minutes ago, KentExile said:

I did say it might be too much of a luxury, lol

And just for clarity, my post was more to try and pigeonhole Siggys best role rather than to say how Rovers should use him

I didn’t think I’d see Siggy and Muller mentioned in the same sentence today, well not unless it was a yogurt/corner based pun

Agreed, I think we’ve ended up with 3 products of the nice but unrealistic world of u23 football. All nice footballers and I’m sure look great in the pattern heavy world of u23 football, none of them have the guile to cut at at this level yet, and dare I say ever. Ayeri got on the ball a lot on Saturday because QPR let him, he didn’t at any point look like he’d hurt them. 
 

As for Siggy, I just don’t know what he is. He’s not a winger (at this level anyway), I’m not sure he’s a 10, he’s defo not a central striker. He’s a really odd player as he’s not quick, not skilful and doesn’t seem to be particularly good at seeing passes others don’t either. If he was an u23 on loan we’d send him back