ben_the_beast

I might be jumping the gun, creating a thread for him after a single 30 minute appearance, but I was impressed. Playing as a striker is the hardest position on the pitch. I thought he put himself around, held it up well, showed some good close control and was unlucky not to score with his snapshot. The biggest thing he showed though was confidence and bravery, looking like he belonged. Given our only other options are Gally or Dolan as a false 9, I'd be very happy to see him given a start in the next game. He was very promising.

I'm not sure that BBD has his head elsewhere. I think he can only play in a counter attacking system. I think he's playing at his level now. And he's not technical enough to play in a better league.

My take on the performance. Loads of positives. It's the most dominant I've seen us in years. We created chances at will. Even though the stats are so weighted in our favour they still don't tell the whole story. The amount of blocks Huddersfield made was phenomenal coupled with some shocking first touches by Diaz and Szmodics when through 1v1. The 3 in midfield was a revelation. We were fluid, creative and dominant. Wharton is the best natural footballer at the club, though is evident he is no cross country runner. Still, he's a phenomenal player. I'd be playing 3 in the middle for the remainder of the season, and one of those would be JRC. That was a god like second half performance from him and not a minute of it was played from right back. It's evidence enough that he'd be good playing CM in a 3. Wharton - Travis - JRC. Another positive was Leonard. I thought he looked natural. Held it up well at times, didn't look shy, unlucky not to score with his snap shot. I was all for throwing him in, but my expectations weren't particularly high. It's a big step up, especially when playing as a striker. Its the hardest position on the pitch. Very promising. The negatives. I'm patting myself on the back a bit here, but I've felt the shakyness from Pears since Sheffield United. That was abysmal. He cost us more than any other player on the pitch. Kaminski back next game please. Morton was better second half, including a great cross for the second goal. But a little more awareness from him and both Huddersfield goals are prevented. The first he’s flat footed. The second had me screaming. Hyam missed his header from the long ball. Morton is trotting back and ends up in the area Hyam would occupy. Except he stops in no man's land and doesn't cover the space. A lack of very basic footballing intelligence. I thought Diaz was also very poor. We all talk about his hypothetical value. If we can recruit smartly in the summer I don't think we'll miss him much Hopefully we can use this comeback and new formation to propel us forward. Even though we didn't win I don't think we were bottle jobs. Pears was, but on the whole we were brave, stood up to be counted and should won at a canter. Also the ref was a joke. 7 fouls given against us vs 5 for them. How's that work when we had 81% possession. And it should have been 10+ mins of added time. No control over the game. He's pretty poor at his profession.

Ref is a tanked up twat. Complete homer. How does he give them more free kicks than us when we had 80% possession. 4th official.... ah yes. Another twat. How on earth did he come up with only 5 added minutes. The only thing that kept Huddersfield in that game was obscene amounts of time wasting. It should have been 10. We were actually very good. All game. Pears needs to be dropped. I think he's the biggest reason we've not come away with 3 points.

Ref needs to get a grip of this diving and time wasting.

Unbelievable. We've played some brilliant football. It's not been possession for possessions sake. We've had golden chances. JRC, Szmodics x3, Diaz. Szmodics and Diaz especially have both been played clean through and had horrendous first touches. I felt Pears needed to be dropped for this game. What in the fuck was he doing for their first goal. It's Wigan-esk. Second goal, Carter gets done by good movement. I'm on Morton watch though. Why once Hyam has missed his header is Morton just jogging back rather than covering the near post area. A tiny bit of awareness and he could have easily covered. He leaves Carter very exposed. We should be about 2-0 up, let alone 2-0 down. We are very open however. Wharton has been brilliant on the ball, but he's offered nothing off it. Morton being the deep lying midfielder is laughable as he's just shite. Trav being pushed further to the right has left us so exposed. Second half, Brittain for JRC, Wharton for Carter, Garrett for Morton. I'm very annoyed.

Huge game for us today. The wheels feel like they have fallen off. I'm fully expecting a loss. I'm hoping Rovers will go out there and prove me wrong with a battling performance and get our playoff push back on track. Kaminski Brittain - Carter - Hyam - Pickering Travis - Wharton Hedges - Szmodics - Diaz Dolan / Leonard Not wholesale changes but 4 players in to bring energy, with a point to prove. Hedges provides little width and always drifts inside, as does JRC. Brittain can offer a bit of wing play. Wharton is so much more talented than Morton and hopefully he wants to stick it to JDT. Dolan, as small as he is, the ball sticks to him if it's played into his feet. If JDT wants a fluid front line then Gally just isn't it. Then Kaminski to come in with the chance to win the gloves back and hopefully pull off some big saves.

I'd posted in the A.Wharton thread that I felt he needed to pull his weight to get back in the side. I like JDT's man management and I still stand by this, but I thought he was very in his 20 minute cameo against Norwich and has to start for me. Maybe he also needs this game time to get the bit between his teeth. Looking at our recent form, it's fallen off a cliff since Buckley injured his knee and Morton replaced him. It's not all down to him, but it's a situation which can't continue. He's not good enough, especially in a 2 man midfield. Either replace him or switch tactics to a midfield 3. Or both.

That's what I mean. He's very good at it. Gally is the hide and seek champion of the championship, 4 years running. If there was an award for it, I'm not sure we'd ever find him for the presentation.

I'd be ringing in a few changes. Just get some players in who will be chomping at the bit. Kaminski for Pears, Brittain for JRC, Wharton for Morton, Leonard for Gallagher. Not all those players necessarily deserve to be dropped, but mixing it up when results aren't going in your favour is no bad thing.

In a weird way, it's actually quite impressive how he's literally always in the wrong place. I'm not sure how he manages it.

Watched the highlights of the Spurs vs Brighton game. Quite stunned at the level of incompetence from both the officials and VAR. Incompetence so bad that you almost start questioning whether it's more than that. Tough for Brighton to take in a game that would have seen them knocking on the door for the Champions League had they won. Spurs really are very easy to dislike.

He was good when he came on. He offered a lot more than Morton.

Qpr looking dead and buried right now. Completely rudderless. As poor as they've been they do have a few talented players. Wouldn't mind us going shopping there in the summer if they drop down. Chair and Willock (though injury prone) would both be great additions.

Interestingly no Wharton or Leonard. Currently 1-0 Rovers. 40 minutes gone.

My manager is a real likeable bloke and his been with the company for years. He's bloody atrocious at his job. I invest half my time attempting to manage my manager. He's only in the position because he's likeable and has stuck around long enough. Odd analogy I know. But being a fan favourite and knowing the club means diddly squat.

There's clearly two sides to the argument here. I'm firmly on the side that Wharton needs to prove himself in training to get into the team. I think the people on the otherside, who are advocating for him to be thrown back because he's so much better than Morton are missing something. I'd love for him to be starting more than anything. Because I do think he is the more talented player. I just think he has to prove that day in, day out for it to happen.

I don't think he is being punished. Show what is needed and he'll be in the team. I'm sure he's had it outlined what he needs to do. I think JDT would be a great manager in any walk of life. A clear communicator who knows his craft and gives you a road map of what is required from you in order to achieve success.

We could certainly do with him making an impact on the first team. Sometimes as fans we have a habit of jumping on the bandwagon and criticising players, but I've been very unimpressed by Morton for months. JDT has been utterly consistent in his messages to all players though. You earn it in training and you'll get minutes. It should be no different for Wharton. Whether it's a case of him not commiting himself or his body is just getting used to the intensity of men's football, (even if its just in training) I have full faith that JDT is being objective in his assessment. It's just a shame he's not in the picture right now, as we're crying out for a player of his qualities.

Probably that the crap results continued. 6 weeks ago Bohely was giving him time. The time ran out.

I agree with others. I'm all for bringing in loans if they are a clear improvement on what we've got. Archer, Tella, Smallbone, McAtee are just a few off the top of my head. Most sides performing well in this league have a good few loans propping them up. Morton just isn't it. He may go on to have an ok career, but he's a million miles away from being a Premier League player. The comparison may sound silly, but if you look at Gavi at Barcelona, he shows what a pint sized player can do with the right attitude. Obviously he's an unbelievable footballer but what I mean by this is that he's a scrapper. Would kick his Nan to win a game. There was a game recently where he literally headed the ball off of an opponents foot. Whereas Morton does what he did at Sheffield United and far less glaringly obvious examples week in week out.

I watched the last 30 minutes of the Watford game. I too was amazed at just how poor they looked.

Surprised to see Sorba drop to the bench. Good options to bring on to impact the game though. Luton beating Watford isn't bad for us either. I've begun to accept Luton are going to make the playoffs so to see one of the pack chasing us lose is positive.

Great news. He's surprised me since January. The shirt is his to lose at the moment. He's definitely progressed to be a solid championship centre back. Hopefully he can continue to develop from here. Playing regularly next to such a good defender in Hyam is only going to help his game.

Personally I'm of the opinion that in normal circumstances we should have sold him in the summer. But it wasn't a normal summer. The entire structure at the club changed and we weren't in a position to make choices backed up by data and a strong business case. Any replacement is a gamble, but any replacement we chose, without the time to due our due dilligence would have seen the risk increase. Hindsight is a wondrous thing though. Part of my thinking was that I didn't expect Rovers to be challenging for promotion. The more time that passes, the better the decision to keep him is looking. If we do manage to win promotion, it will have been an inspired choice.