Tyrone Shoelaces

Yeah I thought he may be thinking of both Gallagher and Armstrong playing up front in tandem. With Dack behind and the three of Travis , Evans and Downing in midfield. Maybe he's saving that for when we go behind.

I'd say that's how we'll play unless we swap Armstrong for Gallagher.

Twenty regular fans who go every week could post their idea of what the team should be and all twenty would have it wrong every week !

Yep, Hart and Gladwin are also still on the books. I can see Bell going if we could get our money back.

That's a well over populated squad. It's a long while since we had that many players on a photo. Probably when we were last in the Prem. What it's all costing I shudder to think. There's at least half a dozen there that should have been either moved on or loaned out in the window.

Neither are world beaters on a regular basis but I think Joao would get us more goals. However Joao or Brererton is a no brainer.

I agree, the dingles got out of this league easily on two occasions under Dyche playing the same 4-4-2 formation every week and more or less the same 11 players every week. Now and again they modified it for tough away games into a 4-4-1-1. We're playing the likes of Reading and Luton not City or Liverpool. Football is a simple game but people like to over complicate it, why I don't.

Well the central midfielders should realise they are playing for their places.

Yes, a cracking squad but have we got a cracking team ? We'll soon see. On another tack we need half a dozen off the wage bill ASAP. The guys who aren't likely to figure in the immediate future.

As we've seen before the 3 at the back soon turns into 5 at back with Rovers. When you have two holding midfielders who play quite deep it then puts a lot of weight onto the shoulders of Dack and Holtby. It;s also a narrow way of playing, I don't know about Cunningham yet but Bennett isn't known for his crossing ability is he ? We'ii soon see what the plan is but I worry where the goals are going to come from. What I will say is football at this level has become a game like Rugby League were the strength of your bench is vital and your subs can win you the game. We should have a very strong bench at least. Our earlier marquee signing Downing doesn't even feature in that starting line up, neither does Armstrong or Brereton when he's fit. !

At the risk of be called negative again I'd be more thrilled about this signing if I could figure out an emerging pattern of play for the team. We seem to be collecting central midfield players. Inevitably we only have room for 3 at the most in the centre unless we start playing them out of position.Unless the manager is planning to come up with a yet undiscovered way of playing IE a 3-6-1 formation I'm puzzled as to our recruitment policy If this guy was an experienced striker I'd be over the moon, but he's not. When Kenny Dalglish first came in and started signing players it was like watching someone completing a jigsaw. Every hole in the team was gradually filled in and each signing fitted into a system and way of playing.

I enjoyed that. Keep up the good work.

That's what concerns me when you read we may be signing the likes of Holtby. How many midfield players can we afford to have on the wage bill ?

I was on the Millwall last night just browsing after I read their views of our game. It's another world on there, they make Tommy Robinson sound like a dangerous left wing radical !

I said it before but it's harder to get the fans who've walked away to come back than it is to get new fans involved. People soon find other things to do with their Saturday afternoons that may be more interesting and more rewarding from a family point of view. Once that happens it's a massive task to get them back on a regular basis. How many turned up for the Oxford promotion party game that have never been back since ? The entertainment on show at the moment isn't really going to get the town buzzing I'm afraid. That's part of the problem. I think the club will aiways underachieve as long as the Chicken Chokers " run " the show. They are the " Elephant in the room " as far as attendances are concerned.

A draw would do me at the moment. There was a time not that long ago when you could pick at least 9 out of the 11 that would be playing on Saturday. You could also be pretty sure of our way of playing irrespective of the players. When I saw last weeks starting line up I was really scratching my head as to who would be playing where and in what formation. We can all put our preferred teams out there but I'll bet not 1 in 10 get it right. In that case I won't be bothering with my selection.

That's my main beef with Mowbray. The team changes every week, sometimes the formation and way of playing changes also. It's been going on almost since he came in. What's the betting there'll be changes from the 11 that started last week against Millwall for this weekends game ? Meanwhile the dingles have played 4-4-2 almost every game since Dyche came in and if at all possible they pick the same 11. A team of average Joes who've played together regularly and know exactly what is required of them will beat a team of stars that haven't played together 9 games out of 10.

The last ten years have sickened lots of die hard Rovers fans. That's obvious. It's a massively up hill task to get these fans back, that's also obvious. In my estimation - of the 12,000 that have bailed out 6,000 will never come back no matter what we do. 3,000 may come if we do well in this league and the other 3,000 may come back if we do well in the Prem. Maybe we could have a half game offer, you can come on at half time for the second half - that way you may see some exciting football and the odd goal !

Knee length shorts. We're playing football not lolling around on the beach.

This is a really poor division this season. Anybody with anything like a decent team and a proven pattern of play will be knocking at the door. I'd fancy us if we had a fully functioning strike force.

He sees them in training everyday. Trying out various players in different positions should be par for the course in full scale practice matches. How else do they get an understanding of the pluses and minuses of playing in those positions ?

Only the Manager can explain why that is.

Yeah just what we need, another midfielder.

I agree with lots of this, especially how full backs are allowed to creep up the line from the corner flag when taking a throw in. The ball goes out about two yards from the corner flag. The player picks up the ball and begins to " take the throw " about 5 yards further up than where the ball went out. He then shuffles up the touchline pretending to take the throw for about another 10 yards before actually releasing the ball. When I played full back you had to take the throw in from where the ball actually went out. If the throw in was near the corner flag and your opponents marked up effectively the chances of you retaining possession in a real danger area was about 50/50.

I agree Mercer, for a big guy who was built like a light heavyweight boxer Mike didn't relish getting a kick. Fergie could fight fire with fire, sometimes to his own detriment. I've told the story before that I watched a behind closed doors pre season practice match in around 1963 or 1964. John Bray was marking Mike and he wasn't holding back. Jack Marshall was reffing and Mike was constantly in his ear about being fouled !