55 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

as I said yesterday in the match thread, I felt Eustace was too slow with making his changes and his triple subs far too late. 

When we went behind at 2-1 I said to the person I go with I would have made a triple sub changed which would have been Chrisene, Buckley and Moran for Pickering, Tronstad and Wharton. and go 4-2-3-1 

going OTT yet again in typical Abbey style as per usual after a defeat. No one near rank all time worst. 

Gilsenan is injured so he won't be playing 

Fair enough! 

1 hour ago, MarkBRFC said:

Two goals, against QPR & Preston back in Feb. when he came back from injury.

Now 13 games without a goal.

Gallagher is the king of hiding behind the defender. Even under JDT chances rarely fell to him and throughout various managers he doesn't miss *that* many chances (obviously had a few horror shows ie Reading away). It's either a lack of anticipation, fear of missing or both, but for a big lad he is very rarely in the right place at the right time. When in the first team Leonard missed a few but he made the runs and presented himself in attacking positions - Gally doesn't do that.

29 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

We had 3 shots on target yesterday. 

Which defender would you drop for another forward or midfielder? 

Its you winding yourself your self up Abbey, not me. 

Yesterday wasn't one of our worst showing of club history, Stop going OTT after a defeat. 

Who would you drop for extra midfielder or attacking player? 

I'd drop Dom Hyam 100%. Or do you think we simply have to play 5 defenders? We didn't at Boro and played well. Id be comfortable playing 4 at the back vs Wednesday, especially if it adds a bit more steel in midfield - we completely lost the battle in there. 

And ah, 3 shots on target! Ignore me, I forgot what a barnstorming display it was - Wednesday were clearly lucky not to ship a hatful! 
 

Quick question Chaddy - at 3-1 down, would you have sacrificed a defender for a more attacking player or were you happy with our attacking play and continued with 5 in defence? And if so, would you have waited until an injury in the 75th minute to make said change? 

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

He obviously has mentioned to want to become harder to beat, and fine, although conceding 3 v Wednesday and 5 v Bristol City hardly is a ringing endorsement. But you have to have some sort of strategy in how you attack.

Games against the weaker sides at home have to be your bread and butter and you need to win them more often than not. The onus should be on you to attack more than the opponent.

Also, he seems to put everything down to individual errors. Most goals have defensive mistakes in them, but you cant absolve yourself of responsibility as if its one of those things. Im just as worried that we created 2 chances all game.

The thing with individual errors is that better managers see less of them. It isn't 'luck' of misfortune. Allardyce came in after Ince and the stupid errors reduced considerably. And yes, I fully agree. Creating the square root of fuck all against a team as defensively poor as Wednesday really isn't a good sign. Yesterday felt a bit like that Forest game in 99. 

21 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

I think we'll be nervy but I don't see us losing this one, but I don't have any confidence in us winning either.

Going for a 1-1 draw.

Brum to draw with Hudds, Plymouth to lose to Milwall & Sheff Wed to lose to WBA

That would leave us safe going into the last day barring a ridiculous goal swing.

A miserable end to the season seeing us staying up after being 7th in December thanks to the sides below us being even worse than us.

Being pessimistic, WBA could be all but assured of a play off spot by then and Millwall also have nothing to play for. Hopefully West Brom really want 5th! Birmingham playing a Norwich team last who could be sure of their play off spot is also a concern, especially given their manager's track record. 

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

To go into a game where a win at home to second bottom seals your place in the league next season with the sole focus of not losing is not constructive. A back 5 (not a back 3, as very much a 5) kept until 15 minutes from the end, not good enough. And even if your primary focus is to avoid defeat, you have to outline some sort of plan as to how to attack. We again didnt have one, Gallagher and Dolan were ineffective but its not helped when the only sort of way of getting it forward that I could see was for our centre backs to aimlessly lob it into the channels. All they spent their day doing is chasing them down where at best you win a throw in.

He said after the game that we controlled the first half. Laughable.

To compound it, he stuck with 5 at the back until Wharton was injured. There was no indication he planned on a change of shape beforehand and was happy for us to stick with 5 at the back at 3-1 down. Conscious of goal difference perhaps? Piss poor either way. We were 3-1 down at home to a team in 23rd! 
 

I know the bench is crap, but he then waited until the 85th minute to make a treble sub. He had watched Wednesday control the game for 40 minutes that half with us barely laying a glove on them and did nothing. 
 

We may and should see a different approach next year, but right now he isn't filling me with confidence. We don't even know what league we will be playing in! The odd solid performance but 2 stinkers in 3 games when the pressure's on isn't a glowing endorsement of his managerial ability, although our soft bunch of players are no doubt huge contributory factors as well. 
 

I was extremely complimentary after Leeds and other games, but Bristol City/Wednesday are both borderline unforgivable. Even he-who-shall-not-be-named got a win at Old Trafford and I dearly hope this isn't his equivalent. 
 

One thing I will say - we seem to play better against better teams. That is the only thing giving me hope that there is some element of tactical nous or acumen there. And given we will probably be the worst team in the league next year (if we stay up) then it might bode well.... 

I think I'll be switching off his interviews now though, even by football manager's standards  his last one was absolutely infuriating. Those grins will come back to haunt him if we go down. 

2 minutes ago, ABBEY said:

NEXT SEASON?????? NEXT SEASON??? WORDS FAIL ME WHAT ABOUT ERM THIS SEASON... WHY DO YOU GET OFF ON WINDING FANS UP AFTER ONE THE WORST SHOWINGS OF OUR HISTORY

Yep, no idea why next season is being discussed when we don't even know what league we're in yet! You'd expect our tactical approach to be different if we are playing Sheffield United compared to bloody Shrewsbury for starters. I know half the players are on the beach already but I don't even want to think about next year, we have 2 games to save our skin. I can't wait for this season to be over.

10 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

David Moyes on MotD apologised to West Ham fans after their 5-2 defeat at Crystal Palace

Has Eustace apologised for the debacle today? 

He looked proud as punch in his interview.

I know it's just an interview, but it really concerns me about how he interacts with players - it can't be all back pats and smiles, there needs to be some harsh truths.

My biggest concern though is he (and many players) don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation they find themselves in. Very little acknowledgement we could go down. Positivity is one thing but there seems to be no urgency and it'll probably only dawn on them when we are sat in 22nd with 5 minutes left at Leicester.

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Playing a back 3 at home isn't negative is it

Gallagher doesn't play on the wing but part of front 3 and they interchange positions. 

It felt negative given we had 1, maybe 2 shots on target. 5 at the back is much more suited to when we expect to surrender possession, but yesterday played perfectly into their hands. 

Draw at best. I really can't see us winning - let's not forget we've won 2 in 15, 1 of which was a hugely impressive smash and grab but with plenty of good fortune to help us out. We are yet to win at home under the current gaffer, but the only sprinkling of hope is that our better home performances have come against teams in the top half - Southampton, Ipswich and Norwich. 
 

I also have no idea what formation he will play. 5 at the back suits games like Leeds away, but is it good enough at home when we need to be on the front foot? Perhaps Coventry are a better side and being more cautious will help us. What a depressing thought! 
 

I must admit I am flittering between caring and not caring. The club has beaten any hope out of me, and staying up this season may just delay the inevitable. No doubt we'd get relegated at Turf Moor just to cap off the shit show that is our club at the moment. 
 

I expect a defeat and Eustace to be smiling in his presser talking about togetherness.

8 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

I'm sure Abbey isn't earning £10k per week and being a huge part of a team that 1000's of people have an emotional investment in.

Comparing a professional, championship level footballer to a normal job is ridiculous.

Didn't realise you basically posted the same! Apologies.

11 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

what part of the Blackburn End? 

what is it going to achieve? 

Would you like it if I came to your workplace and booed you or shouting at you? 

I'm guessing his answer is 'no', but I'd also wager he doesn't have thousands of people cheering him on at his workplace every week. Unless he's a lucky man I'd also wager he doesn't get paid tens of thousands per week for the privilege only to put in substandard effort.

How many tickets have we sold?

We did lose a lot of players in summer, but is it as bad as people make out?

Kaminski - preferred Pears

Diaz - fair enough, big miss for us

Dack - didn't really fancy him

Morton - a godsend as it meant we picked Wharton 

Ayala - permanently injured

The complete lack of striker has been a real pain point, but the regression has been absolutely alarming. And whilst JDT hasn't been backed, didn't we spend nigh on £4m for Szmodics and Hyam combined? Absolutely great buys for the money but a decent fighting fund compared to anything since 2019 (which is a comment in itself). So whilst he didn't get to blow £6m on Gally, it was actually the most we had spent in a summer for 3 years. 
 

It possibly underlines how good a job he did last year after losing Nyambe, Rothwell and Lenihan as well, but I think some of the talk about losing players has ignored the fact it's been par for the course with these idiot owners for years now. I am Mowbray's fiercest critic but he didn't have it that easy himself either - he was just less good at communicating it and keeping fans updated. 

1 minute ago, sharpysharps86 said:

The inability to earn points from losing positions always stuck out like a sore thumb to me. There's no doubt that JDT has potential to be a top head coach somewhere, but you could pretty much guarantee that we'd lose a game if we conceded first under him.

Weirdly enough, the 'lion's den' of Millwall (and against cup minnows) was the exception! 

12 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Blimey, there's some dewy-eyed romantic view of the Tomasson era on here when the reality is he's left the club in the middle of a relegation fight after a calamitous sequence of results. Ambition and optimism and a good personality are fine qualities but a coach also has to know to organise a defence properly and set up a team not to give away soft goals. Tomasson was a busted flush IMO, canny Championship managers had him and Rovers worked out in the second half of last season

 

 

100% this. I don't dislike him, but ever since that cup quarter final at Sheffield United we've been well and truly found out. For all the pretty football, we were one dimensional and even inexperienced managers were out-manouvering him (some with worse squads - see Huddersfield, Sheff Wed and then QPR).

I think his brave and appreciated calling out of the hierarchy has pulled the wool over some people's eyes over how bad this season truly has been - and yes, we lost 4 players (3 of which were either perennially injured or not in the manager's plans). 
 
Edit - that being said, last year was good overall league position wise and we played some fantastic stuff. The way we threw it all away still hurts, and I'm still not over the Turf Moor surrender. He will probably do well somewhere but his heart hasn't been in it for some time imo. 

I respect him calling out the idiots upstairs, but results and performances have been truly dire. He's been dealt a crap hand, but it hasn't been working for a long time. Played some of the best football in years in his tenure. Also played some of the worst, particularly away from home last season. 
 

Credit goes for last year's 7th placed finish, our cup runs and some inspired football. As well as calling out those tossers at the club. Negatives have to be recent results, the debacle at Turf Moor, some horror shows vs Preston and the inability to ever crack winning points from losing positions. 
 

He's been undermined at every turn, but there's not much defending our form this season and the refusal to adapt to repetitive patterns and adopt some sort of plan B. He may well go on to do well somewhere - he has potential to excel but not sure he's the man when the going gets tough. 
 

Seems an alright bloke, mind. Some of his interviews have come across as incredibly smug/arrogant, but he also speaks well on behalf of the fans.

Hope he doesn't sign the NDA

All those staying it has been twice in 2 January windows are also forgetting we did the same to Brierley. Even more pathetically, it meant he couldn't play for his club - relegation stricken Rochdale. We then, despite promises of a pre-contract, pulled out of that deal too. Bad faith. No chance we sign McGuire if this paltry 'appeal' doesn't succeed. 

JDT is proving to be an awful, awful manager for us this season. The owners might be worse, but the results aren't even approaching good enough and even this squad is better than results would suggest. Hope he walks and shines a light on the owners, but if he doesn't he should be receiving his p45 asap.

JDT, Waggott and Venkys out

2 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

"

12:09pm

 

With McGuire, it could come down to timing of funds too. They will obviously need money up front to pay for him. Without being privy to exactly how these things work, if the Wharton money doesn't arrive in time, they wouldn't be able to proceed even if a deal could be rectified."

Does Jackson really believe his own bullshit?

Is he even aware that Mcguire is currently sat in a Sheffield hotel reception? 

It's alright though, the money earmarked for McGuire will be spent in summer.... (tongue firmly in cheek) 

Why would a potential snag (which has proven not to be material) in the Wharton deal lead to us panicking and cancelling MID-FLIGHT? Meaning it is now totally unsalvagable? It's like worrying your bus might be late so cancelling the event you were planning to attend, only for the bus to turn up and find you have nowhere to go. A lazy metaphor but it's just gross incompetence. There surely has to be more at play than that?