bluebruce

Harsh. He was nicking it off someone's foot. He had to take it at pace and couldn't afford to be trying to touch it gingerly.

What is even happening here?!?! Always seems to be these games we expect fuck all from where we get it together astoundingly.

I've seen the goal. If that gets taken away from Gallagher that's the absolute harshest OG I've ever seen.

Haha nah mate, Gallagher goal.

WOW! I think it's fair to say nobody expected that!!

Yeh he's been poor for a while now after a promising start to life here. But Travis...I see Mowbray continues his policy that if a young player has one bad game they're dropped. Captain Fantastic can do whatever the fuck he likes though as long as he works hard. TBH, I don't particularly mind seeing him in CM with other current options. It's probably his best position. But it should have been Travis alongside him. Gallagher again? He was awful in the last game and has been all-round awful in too many games lately, and hasn't offered a real goal threat all season. You might think you need to play him Tony, to justify that you're not utter horseshit in the transfer market with strikers, but it isn't helping. TM better get a result today or he's going to be in trouble with the fans (not just the ones on here).

So you'd take Smallwood in goal?

And still absolutely nowhere near good enough.

If Mowbray had any sense of self preservation he would completely shut up about the top six until things are drastically different.

Yep, that's what my eyes have seen too, and most of us I think. The stats merely back it up. Pretty strongly at that.

Aye that should qualify him to coach our full backs then. If he'd been a striker he could coach our right wingers.

There's no reason to think we need all three of those things just to survive. Just a good manager will do. We aren't in the relegation zone right now, with the crap one we've got.

Yeh! Roversfan99 Out! Wait...

Sound like decent enough shouts. League Player of the Season as a goalie takes some doing, even if it is the Norwegian league. I feel TM is more likely to target another midfielder or striker.

In fairness, the only time I've heard him say that (I think) was just after the Brum game, so maybe the penny has finally dropped? He has also repeatedly gone on about keeping the ball and 'recycling possession', so he obviously does (or did) focus on possession. Regarding the LT, fairly sure I saw the live match thread, or a tweet from them or something, which said they weren't looking forward to interviewing TM after the match. Which is essentially an admission they're running scared of him. That kind of attitude doesn't belong to someone willing to ask the hard questions.

I posted this in the Birmingham post-mortem match thread, but I think it warrants pointing out here too. One of our most serious problems at the moment (and we have a few), is with our new style we seem to think that keeping possession is more important than anything else, but have no idea what to do with it. It isn't working at all. This season, we have had more possession than the opposition in 12 games out of 15. We have had 60 percent possession or more in 6 games. These were Charlton (L), Oldham (W, cup), Cardiff (D 0-0), Luton (L), Forest (D), Hudds (D). The only win when we 'control' the game so much being when we had 73% possession against League Two Oldham and only scraped victory from defeat in injury time. We let them have 12 shots with only 27% possession, only managing 3 more than that ourselves. We had 67% possession against crappy Luton and yet hit the target twice to their five. Charlton was similar - 62% possession but we hit the target twice and they hit it five times. Cardiff, we had 61% possession but had 9 shots, 2 on target. They had 14, 4 on target. Hudds nearly matched our shooting too (12 off, 2 on, to our 13, 3) despite our 64% possession. The only 60% plus game where we properly outmatched the opposition for shooting was Forest. In 4 out of these 6 possession-thrashing games, we had less shots on target. We also had less possession, yet won, against Boro and Reading. That's half our league wins, even though there are only 3 games where we had less possession. We are actually statistically much, much better when not controlling possession, that's how awful we are at being effective with it. The personnel and/or the formation are clearly much better adapted to playing counterattacking football and/or defending when we let the opposition have more of the ball.This matches with what I've seen, personally. Counter attacks carve us to pieces frequently, yet we do have the pace to transition quickly ourselves. The stats are utterly damning of our possession-based game. Slowing down our play in this way is anathema to our best assets. Took the stats from the google match reports btw, may be some discrepancies with other sources as there usually are with possession in particular. I wonder if these stats form part of our new-look statistical analysis! Can't imagine so.

It absolutely isn't helping. This is one of our most serious problems at the moment (and we have a few), we seem to think that keeping possession is more important than anything else, but have no idea what to do with it. This season, we have had more possession than the opposition in 12 games out of 15. We have had 60 percent possession or more in 6 games. These were Charlton (L), Oldham (W, cup), Cardiff (D 0-0), Luton (L), Forest (D), Hudds (D). The only win when we 'control' the game so much being when we had 73% possession against League Two Oldham and only scraped victory from defeat in injury time. We let them have 12 shots with only 27% possession, only managing 3 more than that ourselves. We had 67% possession against crappy Luton and yet hit the target twice to their five. Charlton was similar - 62% possession but we hit the target twice and they hit it five times. Cardiff, we had 61% possession but had 9 shots, 2 on target. They had 14, 4 on target. Hudds nearly matched our shooting too (12 off, 2 on, to our 13, 3) despite our 64% possession. The only 60% plus game where we properly outmatched the opposition for shooting was Forest. In 4 out of these 6 possession-thrashing games, we had less shots on target. We also had less possession, yet won, against Boro and Reading. That's half our league wins, even though there are only 3 games where we had less possession. We are actually statistically much, much better when not controlling possession, that's how awful we are at being effective with it. The personnel and/or the formation are clearly much better adapted to playing counterattacking football and/or defending when we let the opposition have more of the ball.This matches with what I've seen, personally. Counter attacks carve us to pieces frequently, and we do have the pace to transition quickly. The stats are utterly damning of our possession-based game. Took the stats from the google match reports btw, may be some discrepancies with other sources as there usually are with possession in particular. I wonder if these stats form part of our new-look statistical analysis! Can't imagine so.

Agree if we are going to use the same system. But personally I'm sick of us using two defensive mids like we have for years now. It hasn't stopped our defence sucking. I'd rather see someone like Holtby or Rothwell there, playing just slightly ahead of Travis and providing some creativity and drive forward. Obviously though, this isn't going to happen.

Might be the worst I've seen him play, tonight, Travis. He looked clumsy...although next to Johnson he looked like a goddamn gazelle doing somersaults. I don't know what's happened to that guy, he started the season so well.

It's worth noting actually, with our next 3 games being so difficult, that we are probably about to be cut adrift from the top half, let alone the playoffs. Until now, it has generally been 'oh we are till only 3, 4, 6 points off the playoffs'...well now we are 3 points away from moving up ONE spot, from 14th to 13th!! The league is starting to take shape. Three straight defeats could leave us very, very far from the top half already.

Yep, we are playing 5th (away), 3rd (home) and 2nd (away). On paper you can only anticipate three straight defeats the way we are playing, and even the Loons surely can't accept that. That said, games aren't played on paper and we have a tendency to lose the games we expect to win, and win the games we expect to lose.

So that's 1.21 points per game last season (after Preston away), 1.15 per game so far this season, and 1.19 per game in total since that match. Which would give 55 points over a 46-game season. Derby got 6th last season with 74, or 1.6 per game.

OK, to try to avoid talking Mowbray briefly...I think our problem in attack is that we are still setting up with the same formation we used when Dack and Graham were linking up to good effect, but attempting to play a different style which doesn't suit it. We also have Graham's legs going, whilst the replacements simply aren't that kind of player. We've assumed that Gally is because of his height, but it's clear he can't hold up like DG and doesn't have his intelligence. We are now essentially playing one up front, without any players capable of fulfilling the role (DG still can on a good day, but that's it). I believe we need to go two up top.

Christ. I've actually stuck up for Armstrong and feel he is a lot better than most are crediting him for (if infuriatingly inconsistent). But he was utter bollocks tonight. And not the dog's either. Dog shite though.

And I won enough money to buy a double cheeseburger after betting against us at 1-0 down. I don't like to do it, but I feel like I need an upside to our inevitable fuckups now. I'm also ludicrously, ludicrously unlucky, so my bets usually fail...but even my bad luck being used on a bet against us couldn't change how shite we were.