On 26/11/2018 at 18:11, Biz said:

This kind of opinion I find hilarious. Imagine if football was this simple.

Why do you think Preston constantly played cut backs against us on saturday? Is it because Alex Neil said “go for it” and only did attacking drills for a week!? They looked at our past games and found ways to test us, we crumbled. Equally they sat Dack out the game for large spells and isolated the FBs. It’s not an accident.

I expect and want a pragmatic thoughtful approach personally. Taking that into account, Wigan have a big solid team that are going to trouble us at set pieces. Equally, DG ain’t troubling those two huge centre backs the same way Armstrong running in behind will.

I expect a mixture of the 4231 with changes, perhaps AA up top, Dack, Palmer, Bennett in behind. See Hull away early season for a blueprint.

If I was looking at changing style in future, a subtle move to a 4312 might work with Brererton and AA in front of Dack, Reed and Bennett as wider CMs, Smallwood or Evans as the sitting CM.

Or perhaps it’s time to go to a fresh 532, Dack and Graham upfront - stick Rodwell as a link to midfield, and an organiser, between Mulgrew and Lenihan, for a back three with great passing to push right up and press teams. 

As for result - defending is key, regardless of the “fan denial esq” reactions to the choice of forwards. I’d take a 0-0 right now!

Top stuff, very knowledgeable 

One things for sure- playoffs your having a laugh, we are still more likely to be involved in a relegation scrap than a promotion push. I think we have rode our luck a good few times this season and results are starting to show. Squad might be a work in progress but still a long way to go in my opinion 

Hate but understand when our better players start getting links away, they remain until the inevitable. See Bentley, Santa Cruz, Shearer, Bellamy, Rhodes. It does start to give you a feeling like they do owe us and how dare they think of wanting away, but dack has said he is happy here and not showed anything to suggest he wants away so let’s not get the carving knifes out for him 

I’d like Bauer through the door

dont think a rb is a necessary expense at the moment.

possibly a left back, bell can slot into sub, would be a good outlet later in games with his pace, tell Williams that he is now centre back cover- I believe he is better there anyway. 

Whoever mentioned eduard from Celtic- yea he is pretty good but no way could we afford him, 10m plus.

one player I would target although would probably be difficult as he has just signed there would be Ronan Curtis at pompy. Fits with the winger/striker option mowbray likes.

I find this season a bit strange to be honest, results have been great in general but like last season I don’t think we have been playing great. It’s an odd one as we always say results are all that matter and in a way they are but I can’t help but feel a little uneasy with where we currently are as a club. We are industrious without being glamorous, when we dig deep it makes you proud but at the same time a little annoyed that we are never comfortable. I can watch full game such as qpr and Bolton and we win but we played terrible, it’s hard to get overly enthusiastic. A winning run is looking as likely as a losing run with the rub of the green going either way at the moment. I’d just like us to be a bit more dominating and exciting but I can’t have it all I guess. I think we are mid table come the end 

Without wanting to bang on about it, I see Marriott is now banging them in, said at the time he and Edwards should’ve been brought in. Would’ve made a lot more sense than this deal. Marriott would’ve been a great dg 2

Just now, DE. said:

Agreed. I think it would probably have been 1-1 under Bowyer as well.

It wouldn’t, we would try and defend a 1-0 defeat 

With defence down to absolute bare bones, was wondering if we would be able to get Steven caulker - free agent- in for some cover 

Bowyer was sh I te

If lenihan is out Saturday I’d bring Williams in centre half and play Rodwell, Evans and Reid in middle to make us compact. 3 up top to hit on the counter, dack, Armstrong and graham. 

Think last night was a reality check for a few who maybe got carried away after Leeds, I reckon we are a hard working mid table team, which at the start of the season is all we could’ve hoped/asked for. We don’t control games enough, create enough open play chances or defend leads well enough to be considered a promotion contender. There is always times in games we are heavily under the cosh and makes for uncomfortable viewing, especially as we are rarely involved in games where we have 2-3 goal leads. 

Very much a work in progress, bit more quality needed to squad, centre halves, skilful wingers/mids and a replacement/co striker needed for graham. Somebody we can be confident in for hitting double figures for goals- it ain’t Brereton at this stage. Iv rarely seen him have a shot or come close to scoring. Desperate for him to come good but it’s just not happening for him at the moment, everything is just a bit off. Fitness, ball control, passing, impact 

We lost it when swans changed their mids and Fulton and fer dominated out two, pretty simple really. Think it’s fairly obvious mowbray was wrong with subs, we needed more physical in there which is why I’d have brought Palmer on but I think it’s obvious the reason he hasn’t been playing has been because of his defensive side and work rate to get back. Wouldn’t be surprised if he left January due to lack of game time. 

We were too open for them, contrary to how we usually set up on a lead, which is actually what was needed for once away from home and hit them on a fast break. For that reason I’d have changed the graham sub to Palmer, put dack out wide on the left and Armstrong up top to utilise his pace.

dacks a victim of his own success but he hasn’t been at it for a good few games now.

dont get the Bennett hate, thought he was alright other than being caught out of position trying to get the equaliser and conceding the third. Few of our players made rash challenges, another day and we would see red, Mulgrew for one. 

Brereton needs a run from the start up top, he can’t play wide and isn’t an impact sub. I also don’t know if he can play up on his own, but if he can’t he shouldn’t be signed as that’s what we play. 

Seen bell also criticised, thought he had a good game and won the pen. 

I really just wish mowbray would make signings and play folk in their normal position, but sick of this striker out wide experiment . 

I’d have taken 3 points from the double header of Leeds, swans. Not expecting anything from sat either, anything is a bonus but needs picking up again after that 

I’m not too disheartened losing to Swansea other than we were leading and looking comfortable. Some points iv picked up on tonight, dack and Armstrong seem to get a hell of a lot of shots blocked, need to get it away quicker or create more of an opening as it just loses the ball. Brereton needs to sharpen up passing, on sat he would’ve put dack through with a better ball and there he lost ball by passing it into trouble. Smallwood for me is still the weak link in the midfield

Damnit, looked avoidable 

I’d really like to see rothwell with a run in the middle, get Smallwood to feck

Painful this 

Armstrong deserves a goal today 

Bennet has been fantastic too

Don’t get the bell hate, I prefer him to Williams. Reed is a quality little player, would love if we could make this perm. Evans Rudy. Smallwood the odd man out for me, looks every bit the lg 1 player I thought he was. Armstrong improving game on game

Decent start, one thing tho, why does raya lump it towards Armstrong? Never going to win an aerial battle 

8 hours ago, blueboy3333 said:

 Did you watch us against Sheff Utd? We are more than capable of being shit. 

Bolton are 3 points behind us. 

Didn’t say we couldn’t be shit but Bolton’s squad is horrible. Our squad is full of potential 

Bolton are the worst team iv seen in this league, full of has beens, never has beens and never will beens. 

I just wish we had changed to that defensive approach when we were 2 up instead of trying to hold the one goal lead. I wasn’t impressed at all with our performance, think we are a lot better than that and sadly didn’t show it on the sky cameras 

Think the stat is more to with the fact we were never leading at ht 

We as rovers fans are very fickle, when we got relegated I totally feared the worst for my club, but now feel entitled to criticise when we beat Bolton in the championship to go joint 6th. 

However am going to criticise anyway haha. 

The centre back situation should’ve been addressed in the summer, I’d have taken a 3.5 solid centre back and a 3.5 striker as opposed to Brereton who I haven’t been impressed with whatsoever so far. Asking graham to play 90 mins all season is a recipe for disaster. 

Armstrong doesn’t look like he is going to be physical enough to be a decent champ player sadly, he has never shown it. I can see him being a league 1 legend but not champ success. 

Lenihan cam look solid for 85 mins then a completed bombscare and over physical for the other 5, I fear a pen more from him than Hanley which is saying something. 

Palmer looks like he has a bit of skill about him but so lazy and slack at times, mowbray pulls his hair out with him so it’s surprising he signed him. 

Dont want to be completely negative so dack is my favourite rover in many a year although he needs to learn how to be effective when closely marked. 

I’m quite happy with Rodwell and see a player in there, looks like he want to knuckle down here to me.

reed is excellent and if we have any money left over he would be my first signing, love his energy

rothwell is a player, he glides over the park and can ping a pass. If he can develop a killer ball, a shot and a bit more physical attributes he will be a prem player. Joy to watch at times. Glad we took him over Payne. 

1 hour ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I agree with the sentiment but I don't think brereton would have made an impact today. 

That’s my point, surely the team could’ve been strengthened with first team regulars rather than one potential good player that doesn’t get on from the bench. It’s a very weird signing 

Lowe pinged a few balls straight out of play too, he really is an awful awful footballer