Watched Harry Souttar play for Fleetwood, had half an eye on him as I remembered the name being mentioned a while ago, I wasn't too impressed, in fact I'd say he was poor and even given his age didn't show much promise.

Would be much happier with Kipre as I remember him playing quite well against us and when I've seen a few limited highlights, so although I don't believe we have been linked with him I hope we at least inquire.

Of course Dack’s injury affected is, so did Evans’ (surprising or not), Lenihan’s did last season and so on and so on.  I believe the short term signings of Downing, Adarabiyo, Johnson, Holtby plus the longer term one of Gallagher, all one relatively big wages were done with the plan that they’d get us into the play offs, not to get us 3 extra points and a few more goals and this means that this season and last summer’s recruitment were failures.  Losing Ada plus Downing (possibly and if he does re sign there’s a good chance of him being less useful) and Johnson being another year older counts against any progress.  We need to do a lot better this summer.

5 minutes ago, OnePhilT said:

When I click "Watch Live Now" on iFollow, I just get this:

Anyone else the same?

I'm in with no problems from 15 minutes ago, currently adverts playing very smoothly, hope the match will be the same

overseas ifollower

finally in, ten minutes in to game

It's a good article but great audio, almost 40 minutes and Sd talks about Rovers a lot, very high praise of Mowbray and DJ.  I think it gives a really good insight into behind the scenes.

3 hours ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

I wasn't trying to invalidate your opinion per se but it's more a case of trying to establish the yardstick by which Walton is judged - I get the impression that people are expecting a Premier League class keeper. How many were there in the Championship last season ? Henderson at Sheffield United - on loan from Manchester United - and Krul.

Regarding the question and the answer at the end it's interesting to note you picked the top two teams.  It's no coincidence that the teams with the best keepers got automatic promotion.

It's a no to Walton from me.  I'd prefer us to get the very best keeper we can as I think it's a crucial position.  I hope we allocate a large chunk of the summer budget to get someone much better.

8 hours ago, 47er said:

Have a look at  the sides at the bottom of that faux league table? Who did we beat?

Couldn't that be viewed as a positive?  We are still mot far off despite that and it would be easier to fix than the opposite problem.

24 minutes ago, bob fleming said:

It’s the future I tell you! Just needs the likes of Klopp and Pep to get on board the bandwagon!

Seriously though, it’s the Championship, not the top flight. There are numerous examples of teams going up by being organised, well drilled, working hard, sticking with a plan and with the same players in order to do so. We’ve tried every permutation under the sun, with Dack now out I’d give 442 a go. I seem to remember it being moderately entertaining to boot.

Didn't City go 442 on Sunday with Aguero and Jesus upfront? Won 6-1 away and all.

Should be ahead and Gallagher on the wing apart we've played quite well.

PNE have been awful, goal part, 57% passing accuracy!  

We need to keep on them, don't let them into the game second half.

I do worry that in trying to make him more positionally responsible Mowbray has taken something out of his game.  I remember TM saying Travis wants to get up and down like a traditional box to box but he wants to hold a lot more, make him more of a defensive midfielder.  I'm paraphrasing and perhaps being unfair to TM but his first few games last season I thought he was great and he has rarely hit those heights since, though overall I think he's been decent and occasionally very good.

The thing is Preston aren't very good, we saw that in the first half at Deepdale.

Also we aren't very good, we saw that in the second half at Deepdale.

Both teams are in poor form and we have as much if not more chance of winning than they do, it depends on which Rovers turn up.

For me Dack has been our player of the season for the first half of the year, he can't be brilliant every game but he's been responsible more than anyone else for our good games and generally I think his effort has been good.

Downing has been quite good but I think a little overated as I don't think he's been great.  I think it's more that he's exceeded expectations and those around have not been very good.

Evans and Tosin were both great during our good run but Tosin came back jittery after a few games out just as he was starting to look Premier league class.

If Evans could play like that consistently for the rest of the season he'd probably be in there as I thought he was crucial during the team's purple patch but he's been here years and has only ever managed to play well for a few games at a time.

5 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

It's not like for like. I'm not saying get rid of Evans, in fact yesterday I said for the fee we would get it wouldn't be worth selling him. If we offloaded Smallwood I would take Whelan 

McNair is like Maddision, someone who was mentioned here before and now fans hold him up well above his ability. 

Smallwood doesn't need replacing, he was already replaced and hasn't played, he should have gone in the summer it's just been delayed.

There's definitely something in this game for us now, Forest looked really nervy after conceding, how are they 5th?

Rothwell was awful until a brilliant pass for Armstrong to set up Downing for the goal and then an excellent effort that 100% hit the defender's arm (though it was close to his body it was on target).

Stats give us almost 60% possession and better passing accuracy.  Walton and Bell were poor for both goals.

There's hope as there is potential in this formation just hope it isn't false.

For  anyone in China (is there anybody else?) it's not on follow but it is on ssport.com though you may need help navigating through the Chinese unless you can read it.

I believe it's free with local commentary and about 65p if you want English (6rmb) http://ssports.iqiyi.com/live/876579392.html?defRoom=en_room_2

I made it to the game thanks to a kind fellow Rover. 
Hoping Brum try to play a bit and Gallagher and co can force some mistakes.  It’ll be really interesting to see how Buckley does if he’s playing as a ten, big responsibility but a big chance to show us what all the staff see in him, could potentially be the start of something really good.  That said I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a bit deeper in a central three with Johnson and Bennett.  
praying we can pass a bit better than on Monday otherwise it’ll be a long ninety minutes.

Personally a bit disappointed not to see Rothwell but I’d have been telling him to stay a lot wider at least half the time, too frequently he’s in poor positions without much space in the middle.

Hi all, I'm on a flying visit over Christmas week back from Shanghai to take in a couple of games and see my parents/family.

I'll be going to the Wigan game and have a ticket for the Birmingham game on Boxing Day.  I have a problem though, I'm staying with my ageing parents near Eccles and Boxing Day transport means there is no way to get back after the game.  I was wondering if any of the good folk here would be travelling back in that direction on that day and might be able to help me out (I'll be on my own).  Anywhere in the vicinity of Manchester central or north, Salford, Eccles, Swinton, Worsley would be great, even Bolton would be a lot better than trying to get back from Blackburn.  Or if anyone knows of any coaches or whatever that would also be great.

Thanks

I haven't seen anything that impressive in Buckley myself but it seems like the coaching staff and at least some of the players are expecting big things from him.  Cunningham, on commentary duties the other day, was saying how much he rated him.  

I do get JoeH's point though, some regular football would do him good so from the outside I would send him on loan for half a season.  He's at best fourth choice for centre mid and maybe Davenport can cover him there.  I had high hopes for Davenport coming from City and apparently being impressive in the Championship for an albeit relegated Burton.  He's had injuries but has been fit for a while and should be ready.  On the right JRC sounds like a better fit and his versatility would seem ideal for the bench, from the little I have seen of him he has a nice cross on him.

Brereton is another who needs game time and to get his confidence and although I didn't think he was that bad against Bristol City I can't see him getting a lot of minutes ahead of Graham Gally and Armstrong up top and I don't want to seem on the right so I'd loan him out if there are any takers. 

I just hope Brereton isn't on the right, I think he's been poor there every time and it hasn't helped his confidence at all.  Don't want Gallagher on the right either.

Can understand the consternation on here regarding the amount of changes but if these two do play together up front at least it will be interesting to see how they do together.

7 hours ago, OnePhilT said:

Agree 100%.

The biggest concern has to be our full-back positions, though. Nyambe and Downing both played superbly against Brentford, but the pair of them were really poor against Stoke - both getting done with ease down the flanks. If opposition teams try to exploit those two areas, then they're going to have success. Thankfully, Lenihan and Adarabioyo were good at keeping it solid in the middle.

That being said, I don't think we have any better alternatives in either position. Bennett (who I think is over-criticised on here) and Bell (who I think is under-criticised on here!) are not the answers. At this moment in time, i.e. before we can do anything about it in January, I think we have to persist with Nyambe and Downing. If Bennett comes in for Nyambe, I'd be less concerned about that than if Bell came in for Downing.

I'm wondering when Sam Hart is going to be back from injury. He did well in pre-season, has the haircut of a player who might make it, and maybe deserves his chance at left-back!

I do feel you're overdoing this, neither were great but they were not that bad either.  I think you're being a little unfair, particularly to Nyambe as McLean is a good player at Championship level.  I think Nyambe's positioning problems, which I do think is his biggest weakness, aren't helped by TM telling him to play higher up a lot of the time to provide with and also Armstrong often being in front of him.

10 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Do you feel he should make the bench ahead of Buckley? I get the impression that TM only sees room for one youth project at a time that he hasn't spent 7 million on.

Especially in midfield, where he has stockpiled too many senior players to keep happy. And right back, where if anyone is dislodging Nyambe it'll be Captain Fantastic.

Despite having only seen brief glimpses of JRC I'd really like to see him given a spot on the bench and to come off it a couple of times before January.  It what little I've seen I was impressed with his crossing in particular, less so his defending and if we are going to sub Armstrong off I'd prefer him over Buckley or Samuel/Brereton on the right.  He does look like he has ability but at this stage unless he does get a couple of 20 minutes chances and impresses a lot the n he should probably be off on loan after we add another couple of years to his contract.

On 03/12/2019 at 17:51, tomphil said:

Bring back Bobby Mimms.

I was always under the impression he was very good, he come from Wolves who had at least a couple of very good young keepers at the time and seemed to do well and we seemed to do a lot worse when he left.  It's difficult to tell about coaching from the outside, especially keeper coaches, and we might be doing a real disservice to poor Ben Benson but I'd love to see Bobby back.

I’m just getting connection error, anyone else having problems?

Like others have said, Gallagher has been completely ineffectual out wide, though it would surprise me to see TM making the obvious change with Rothwell coming on. Fairly even game despite us dominating possession.  Sow has been good for Forest, Travis not been great, needs to pick up his game second half.

Armstrong looks lively tonight, not a great deal has happened