1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

Why would you take a point? We have won 3 out of 3, Reading have lost 2, have a poor side, are expected to struggle and have the leagues worst keeper and the leagues worst manager. Surely any dropped points would be frustrating if of course not catastrophic.

Yeah, we've got to be going for three points against a team that got spanked 4-0 by Rotherham. Sometimes you'll get away games where you respect the value of a point a little more, but this isn't one of them. 

2 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Is Phil Jones a Rovers fan? I know he went to school in Leyland but wasn't sure who he supported? 

Yes - but never really seemed as invested as other Rovers fans who played for the club if I'm being truthful. He talked quite a lot about going to the Worthington Cup final in fairness. 

It's blatantly not going to happen, but equally Jones is going to be taking a pretty massive pay cut irrespective of where his next destination is. 

1 minute ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

I'd hope AP does sign up and spend 2 or 3 years with us developing as a footballer. 

The stability issue is a good point. London may be a bit of a head scrambler for a 17 year old who wasn't brought up there. He also might not develop to the same standard if he's playing Spurs U23 games for the next couple of seasons. He would be training with Kane and Son of course but they are no BBD and Dack!

Hopefully he just concentrates on his football here and Rovers reward him with a contract that befits his new status. I'm presuming the pro deal that was agreed in principle 12 months ago might be looking a bit on the light side now he's made his debut in the league!

I'm hoping that any delay in signing a new deal is down to that - that the pro-deal which might've been something like £2-3k per week (?) now needs doubling or trebling. Not an unreasonable negotiation given how everyone's bigging him up for twelve months, and now that he's actually started a league game. 

Hoping is the operative word though.

38 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Spurs could offer him £30k a week, and him and his mum a big posh house in London. They could probably do that off the proceeds from the micro-brewery they have at their new ground!

If it's 1st team football he wants he'll just get Spurs to send him on loan.

The only reason he's stay here is if his family like it Oop north and he loves the mighty Rovers. 

Lot of sense in this post, sadly. The only other counter argument could be that the stability of staying with a single club for a couple of years could be better for his development than a series of loans until his early-mid 20s. 

If I were JDT, I'd be on at him constantly about the path that Jude Bellingham took at Birmingham. Could've gone into a CL club's academy before he takes his GCSEs, but instead does another two years playing every week in the Championship, has his pick of clubs to join after and goes into Dortmund's team being able to command a starting position. 

12 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I wouldn’t call Sheffield utd a free hit. There's nothing to fear over them.  We have a better manager.  Their players are nothing special.  We are in better form.  I would go there with real expectation 

Expectation would be too far for me. I wouldn't call it a free hit either, but they have some very good players at this level, and a deeper squad than us after for what will be our third game in six days. 

If we won vs Reading and got a draw from Brammall Lane I'll be doing cartwheels. 

10 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

He reads the game quite well anyway but as soon as he plays someone with an aeriel threat, he would likely struggle. Moving him from left back also creates a weakness there.

3 changes?

I definitely would not take Pickering out, Edun was horrendous yesterday whereas Pickering was one of our best players.

Dack is the one potential change that I would perhaps go with out of that.

Agree that Dack is the obvious one to bring in. He didn't look particularly off the pace yesterday, albeit as a sub. He should get some opportunities to show what he can do against a lesser side. I'd definitely keep the defence the same, fitness permitting, and cross everything that Ayala can get through unscathed. Other changes would depend on how well we can recover between now & Wednesday, but I definitely wouldn't be averse to putting Dolan in. He's done well off the bench so far.

Win on Wednesday and that'll already be 9 points from games that we didn't get any from last season. Not the most reliable measure of progress, but nice all the same. 

Really annoying that this game comes so soon after such a big physical effort yesterday. Had we had a full week to recover, I'd be very confident that we'd get the three points. They'll be determined to put in a better showing than their embarrassment against Rotherham too. 

On the flip side, they're not very good at the best of times and they have an absolutely horrific set of injuries at present. Missing Joao, Meite, Ejaria, Dann, Hutchinson, Moore and others. All key players when fit, and there are doubts over Tom Ince and Hendrick. Really bare bones stuff, so if we can get anywhere near our level, this is a team we should be beating.

Going for another clean sheet and a 0-2 Rovers win. 

I think we have to be realistic in that any offer we make him needs to give him parity of esteem with other first team players. I really hate giving young players big contracts too early, but we need to signal to Phillips that we recognise his value and we can't do that by offering him a contract which doesn't put him alongside other established players.

BUT I don't think throwing all the money we can at him is i) a good idea and ii) likely to work anyway. The biggest thing we can offer him by far is the stage to showcase his talent, so that when he does get his likely move to a top Prem club, he'll be in a much stronger position to go as a player who will compete for games rather than get farmed out on loan. That may not be enough, but if he's smart then an extra £10k a week will be the secondary concern to game time.

6 hours ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Fun fact . Steve Bruce has written three crime novels. I suggest if anyone likes a laugh to find them and give them a read. Unintended comedy gold 😂

Not sure if you ever listen to Quickly Kevin, but there's some doubt that he actually wrote them. Some whispers that the just put his name to them to get more publicity. I choose to believe the legend though. 

On a similar vein, was there any talk at the time that Matt Jansen laid down a couple of tracks on an album in 2002, alongside Ron Atkinson, Ally McCoist and Frank Sinclair, amongst others. Strange days. 

51 minutes ago, benhben said:

Can see a similar tactic to the Swansea game. Can't see us having much of the ball. Need BBD and Co to be clinical when they get a chance. Big game for Ayala. Hopefully the heat slows the game down which might help us keep our shape.

I'd take a draw. 1-1.

I thought similar - but to be fair they've not dominated possession in either of the games they've had so far (admittedly against good teams). I think we'll have more of the ball than we did against Swansea, especially being at home. 

12 hours ago, arbitro said:

The Dutch Disease - brilliant quote.

That stood out to me too, could call it the Welsh disease after last weekend!

Interesting to see that he was still studying maths at 18 too - can't imagine that would be true of many footballers.

2 minutes ago, Finlay McKenna said:

John Buckley

Buckley is class - and has the potential to be a good premier league player - but he's some way behind the level Dack was pre-injury.

It's a good thing that we can actually include others in the conversation though. Dack was so much better than anyone else that we had on our books a couple of years ago, it's easy to forget. 

3 minutes ago, Finlay McKenna said:

Would imagine a back 3 would look something like this 

It's working out which forwards play (& where) which is the difficult bit. I like the look of the defence & midfield though. 

17 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Very intrigued to see where this Liverpool lad is going to play. Of course, in the new year he’ll be a shoe in, once Ayala heads off on vacation. But until then? Never hurts having more quality players, mind.

I like the idea of three at the back, especially now we have a proper right wing back and Edun might be improving. No idea if we'll actually go down this route or not but something like:

                                    TK

            Sepp           Ayala/New           Wharton

Brittain                                                          Pickering/Edun

                         Travis         Buckley

                                 Hedges 

               Gallagher                   Brereton

Although then you're struggling to accommodate our more attacking players - Szmodics, Markanday, Dack, Dolan and Vale all on the bench or not in the squad - so maybe not. 

2 minutes ago, yeti-dog said:

 

8 goals in 88 club appearances. He is not, it's fair to say, a goal machine.

5 in 18 last season, which is better without being brilliant. He was Forest's best player at Ewood though - absolutely dominated Van Hecke, which didn't happen so often. 

I remember seeing an interview of Pochettino when he was still in England. He was talking about being manged by Bielsa as a young boy at Newell's Old Boys, and how he used to get the youngsters to do scouting reports for their next opponents and deliver them to the first team.

He remembers the whole thing being unbelievably nerve wracking as a teenager, but that it was great for squad integration, and obviously helped no end with players' confidence, tactical awareness, diligence and the like. He even put it down to him eventually becoming a manager.

Great to hear that we seem to be doing the same. 

6 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

To put it in layman's terms....he isn't comfortable on the  ball enough to play in a 3 man defence.  Just an opinion mate...

I'm looking forward to seeing whether this is right or not. In his first few appearances for Rovers he looked a bit clumsy and accident prone, but not a bad passer per se. This was when he was playing in a two but also when Mowbray wanted us to play like Barcelona, so far from ideal circumstances for a young centre back.

I admit that since then I'm going off what others have said rather than actually having seen him play, but Pompey fans don't seem to think that he's particularly limited on the ball. Time will tell I suppose. 

Looks like Callum Robinson will be their only recognised forward for Sunday, and even he is more of a wide player. 

Starting to get a bit more confident about this one. 

19 minutes ago, longsiders1882 said:

Not desperately bothered. It seemed a little odd and listening to Kompany recently it was clear there were concerns bringing him in would block options for others. In the end I think it’s the right decision for both parties. Based on reports as I’ve not seen him play you’ve got a good player there.

Yeah Tella is who we’ve got. Again reading around some mixed reports, rapid and skilful but possibly limited end product. Also some suggestion he’s injury prone. Not sure how I feel about this one.

Seems like you've already got your fill of young-but-talented centre backs. Think you could do with someone a bit more established to fill that last slot ideally, but then again that might be tricky if you want to find someone who can pass it well enough in your system.

Is there any sign that Kompany would like to play three at the back? Otherwise, another centre half would but the new lad from City (not THB) as fourth choice? Interesting career move for a lad his age who is meant to be highly rated. 

14 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Rugby League damages the pitch less than Football.

Also the problem at Coventry was multiple, multiple matches on the pitch, not just two in a weekend.

Wigan have had some nightmarish pitches at the new ground - typically blamed on the rugby when Sky pundits would talk about it - but I believe the issue there was the drainage that they had from the pitch, and that in wetter spells there was basically nowhere for the water to go. Don't think it's an issue anymore, but I could be wrong. 

32 minutes ago, M_B said:

The facts are there, I know they're a pain. 

He took over a team of overaged, overpaid players in a relegation fight. 

He left the second youngest squad in the Championship, with the record number of academy players, assembled under a strict salary cap, in 8th place. If you want to call it a journey, it's up to you, it is what it is. 

His time was up, Tomasson looks like the perfect fit, everything is good, but let's not rewrite history. 

I suspect that the earlier post (that Mowbray will be judged more favourably after a few years) is right. Hopefully the success of JDT will tell a story of why we needed to move on from Mowbray, but also that he left us some decent materials to work with too. 

9 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

I doubt that anyone will ever look upon last season’s collapse as anything other than a disaster tbf.

Unless it was the collapse that ushered in the new era! 

It was a completely unacceptable run of form, and his tendency to go on these spells every year was easily the most important reason why he had to go. The thing that gets me though is that he was here for so long - responsible for some massive calls both good and bad - and yet things like his demeanour in interviews or on the touch line regularly get brought up as a reason why fans are happy that he's gone. 

Each to their own I suppose, but I can't think of anything less important. 

4 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

If we've got Barnes, Phillips and Carter I don't think we need a permanent signing at CB unless it's a worldie.

A loanee to supplement what we've got while we see whether Carter and Phillips especially can cut it at this level seems very sensible to me.

 

I basically agree, although Barnes is an extremely unknown quantity even for next season after his injury. 

The one caveat is that we will need another option if JDT wants to play 3 at the back for any length of time. We can assume that Ayala's going to be missing at one point or another, which means that we can only play that way with either Carter or Phillips coming in. That's fine, but it also means that we have the other unproven youngster as the only back up for three positions. 

If the idea is that we stick to a back four though, I agree that VDB along with what we have is enough for this season. 

Just now, JacknOry said:

Just hope he is coming in as understudy for Ayala and not to displace Wharton. Ayala will have his Xmas holidays booked soon enough. 

Wharton's the only left footed one, so that counts in his favour. 

Also, to be honest, he's developing into a class footballer. I can't see him dropping out of the team under any circumstances now bar injury or a unforeseen drop in form. 

Just now, Tugayisgod said:

Nicko saying Rovers now head of queue for Van den Berg

Covers right back too, so would be a top signing.