Tyrone Shoelaces

“ A lot of players play better in their position “ Really , colour me shocked. I should have taken my coaching badges then. Going back when you had to clear the dinosaur shit off the pitch before you could kick off the plan was always to find out the players strengths and weaknesses pre-season and design your system around them. Too many managers come into a club with pre-conceived ideas of how to play with predictable outcomes. It looks like Ismael got lucky, but for Cantwell’s injury it sounds like we would have been flogging away at his old system and going nowhere. Anyway I don’t see a problem, just play Cantwell in Henrikson’s place, simple.

It wasn’t Chaddy was it ?

I believe they’re still looking for the ball from the one he put yards over the bar. He was pointing to where he wanted the pass to go, it was a perfect pass, and leathered it out of sight.

He was fast asleep there but he wasn’t on his own at that moment. Luckily we have a good goalkeeper who came to the rescue.

Listening to the voices in his head.

I look at it like this - is he better than the player he’s replacing ? Is he better than Travis ? - no, in my opinion. Is he better than Tronstad, even allowing for the fact Tronstad isn’t at his best ? - no, in my opinion. How you get up this league is replacing existing players with better players, not players that are worse. It can be done, even at Rovers. It’s looking like we’ve replaced Brittain with a better all round player

I agree with most of what you’ve posted but 4 for Wharton ? I’d reserve that for a really disastrous performance in a hammering. Hyam at Bristol City springs to mind. We won 2-0 on Saturday with a decent performance from the team.

I’d be hoping for player that is better myself. If we have any ambition at all . If we intend to hang around the bottom third of the table for ever he’d do. That’s his level.

Or Pickering. He looked comfortable there when he played as an emergency centre half. His passing out of defence was good and he’s tall enough to cope with headed challenges.

I’m just glad we got to play them whilst he was still there.

Speaking of set pieces what about that one yesterday when we had everybody back in our box and Leicester had two players just waiting for a squared ball for a shot a goal. Even the dogs in the street could see what was going to happen but none of our players could.

At least he spelt “ Piece “ right. That’s a tricky one.

If things stay as they are one of Pickering and Ribeiro may have to be loaned out.

To say we have our share of big lads we don’t defend them very well at times. We got lucky with that lad interfering with a header that looked like going in. That goes in and yesterday’s result could have been different. The same centre half got on to the next one as well.

Ismael has had to think quickly when most of last seasons team more or less vanished. He’s had a good look at who can do what in which position with the new guys and he’s come up with the current 3-4-1-2. It suits the skill levels of the players we have. We need 3 centre halves because none of them are good enough to play well consistently in a 2. If frees up our two full backs to do what they do best which is to play as wing backs and attack. Also having two players up front helps because none of our existing strikers thrive playing up there on their own. I think playing Ohashi and Gudjohnsen is the best way of scoring goals. We just need Cantwell back as the one behind the strikers and I think we have a good shape and a really coherent way of playing. If we still had Trav and Tron in centre midfield we would look better still.

He’ll definitely be a downgrade. Not as big, not as strong, not as fast.

There’s quite a few players out there who obviously don’t much care for the job. They’re only in it for the big money. Just like there’ll be posters on here who aren’t thrilled at the thought of turning in at 8-00am tomorrow. I’ve knocked around with pro rugby league players, some still playing, some retired. You’d be surprised at how many never set foot in a rugby league ground after they’ve retired. It was a really hard job, and that was all it was.

Mm, interesting. Maybe Newcastle are getting cold feet ?

He nearly scored what would have been a great goal yesterday. If the pass from Gudjohnsen had have been anything like half decent he would have been in a one on one. Gudjohnsen is like lots of strikers, they only lend you the ball.

We used to play all the State teams twice I think plus one or two made up teams back in the day. Just reading back as best as I can to the first series I remember in Australia - 1958-59. According to the records as well as the 5 Tests we played 15 other First Class matches.

For me the last two performances have put to bed any thoughts thst - “ the players aren’t playing for him. “

I agree about O’Riordan, I suspect he’ll be recalled to be the “ bench “ centre half. I’ve only seen Duru once but my immediate impression was - he’s not ready.

Don’t forget that excellent bit of fullback play when he put a great block on a goal bound shot very early on. He didn’t dive in to the tackle but he stood off his opponent slightly to give himself some reaction time. The lad’s a game changer.

There’s possibly nobody harder on the team than me when we play badly but when we play well I’m equally happy to bask in our successes. I really enjoyed yesterday’s game. For me that was more of what Blackburn Rovers should be about. Everybody was playing to the best of their ability and giving 100%. That’s all I ever ask of the 11 on the pitch in Rovers colours.

He commits stupid fouls though. In the opponents half with the opponent going nowhere. He needs to learn where and when you need to commit fouls on the pitch. He got away without a booking after the first bad foul. However he carried on like that had never happened. You’ve got save the fouls that lead to bookings for game influencing moments, you can’t just toss them away like he does. It’s like he’s playing 30 or 40 years ago when tackles like that were perfectly ok. I like players who’ll put a foot in but it has to be tempered with football intelligence.