Rover down South

Not sure. Maybe we could have used him in a rotation. Refering back to my post though, I merely stated he would be a better option off the bench than Gueye. I think we let the wrong striker leave.

There’s a striker in League One. Scored the winning goal midweek and bagged another two today. His name is Harry Leonard. Got championship experience. Could be a good option on the bench to change things up. Better option than Gueye! Why the heck did we let him go!!!

Think a lot of it was down to Gestede, but unlike JDT & JE he has stood by without questioning. Lets see how he values his managerial career in the second half of the season, its getting to around that time of year our managers become outspoken and Ismael seems the type to let his feelings be known.

This. Ismael rarely doesn't use all of his subs but tonight used just three. Two of which were at half time. This demonstrates surely the lack of depth. He doesn't rate Pickering clearly. Gueye is shite. Henriksson isn't starting in front of Miroshita or Cantwell. The other three are youth players. Not a fan of Ismael, but certainly wouldn't want his job at the moment.

Missing Toth & Tronstad in the side and dare I say it, Hedges who has been solid this season. Could well be forced to start with Tavares and a half fit Baradji on Saturday who looked good tonight, but 90 mins a big ask. Up front we lack consistency. Ohashi runs his socks off and Andri is either good or absolute shite. Gueye must be on his way in January to not feature at all tonight. Miller has been poor since the last international break. I would like to see Harry Pickering get at least half an hour soon, just so we can see what VI is seeing. He must have had a huge dip in form to not be considered in front of De Neve and Ribiero.

In other news, nice to see Harry Leonard get another goal and McFadz scoring a late equaliser.

Great three points regardless of how it looked. Huge kudos to George Pratt coming in for an away derby match and doing a job. Finally, this version of Ryan Hedges is looking good. Playing for a new contract or a decent next move!

Incredible save by Pears

Bristol City poor but a fantastic three points. Miller was superb tonight as was Ohashi. Forshaw did his job when he came on. Nine points from three games we didn’t expect to win. Amazing!

Can’t see Gudjohnsen & Gueye ever working together. I think Ohashi or Tyjon need to play just off AG. He needed that first goal at the weekend and you can see what it meant to him. I think there’s many more to come from him and that number 9 role is his now. Gueye has the passion I wish other players would display, but he is nowhere near Championship level. As for Saturday, I’m going 2-2 with (TGH & Gudjohnsen for us)

Well…….

Got a feeling we sneak a narrow win today and Gudjohnsen gets his first goal giving him and VI a little respite. I’m usually wrong so expect an absolute drubbing 🤣

Completely agree. Don’t always agree with his player selection but his decision to go with two strikers I have seen as a positive. But last night for example, at 1-1 he takes off a striker. At 1-2, he takes off another? His substitutions are a cluster bomb and defy logic. I felt last night his substitutions were bizarre. All six goals conceded this month have been scored in the second half. Opposition managers adapt to win the game. VI doesn’t have that ability, hence why he’s never succeeded at this level.

It's him or Gueye. Personally, I'd have kept Harry Leonard over both of them.

My prediction is they'll get a few in on loan in January and say we backed him. He'll get the boot at the end of the season, and we'll get another uninspiring manager in League One. There'll be some sort of relegation clause in his contract I'm sure where they don't have to pay him up! We all stated when he first arrived how he stood on the sidelines motionless & clueless. He just doesn't know what he's doing and gets flustered making shocking substitutions. For what its worth, I'd just stick with Gudjohnsen up top now. Keep him on the pitch. I do think he just needs that first goal.

I think Gudjohnsen may of had his best game for us tonight, but that doesn't mean he had a good game!! Signed as a striker, he doesn't really look like scoring. Few good touches and nice cross which led to the goal. As for De Neve, his crosses were hurried and woeful.

He just doesn't have the rapport with the players that JDT & Eustace had. The mass exodus in the summer wasn't just on Pasha & Gestede (and trust me I'm not defending them!) cashing in, the players wanted out. They were playing for the badge for Eustace. Pasha & Gestede were at the club, but the players were still overachieving. Along comes Ismael and that desire to play for the club evaporates. The players that can get out are gone in the blink of an eye. Tronstad isn't the player he was twelve months ago. Far from it. Ohashi has looked lacklustre, yet he was knackered last season after a full season in Japan??! He's had to make Cantwell captain to get him interested. He's failed wherever he's managed in the Championship. No coincidence for me.

No way Ismael gets sacked now. Pasha and Gestede need their scapegoat later in the season. We are going down without question and it'll be long before the season is over. The squad is shockingly bad. No fault of the players that came in, they saw a chance to play in England in the second tier and took it, who wouldn't. VI is way out of his depth. Tactically clueless. A proven failure of a manager and living up to it. But he's exactly what Pasha & Gestede needed. A 'yes' man who was on the Championship scrap heap with nothing to lose. Although he did lose.....he lost the core of his squad, and unlike JDT & Eustace who had the bollocks to stand up and say "fuck this", he just stood by and went along with it all. He deserves for his managerial career to be in tatters when his time at Rovers comes to an end. When a ship gets a hole in it, there's a bloody good chance it's going down. We are like a fucking colander. Apologies for the language. Don't usually swear on here, but I'm so so angry.

I don’t usually put the boot in on our players, but I’ve slated Kargbo and De Neve this week. Fair play to both. Nice finish from Kargbo today. Another solid performance from Cantwell. Kind of reminds me of when Sven made Beckham captain. No one expected it or really agreed with it, but bought the best out of him. Can see that in TC. Fighting hard for the team. Good to see after he had his critics last season.

Crikey. De Neve on too. Ismael really going for it 🤦🏼‍♂️

Same team, same system and will be same outcome. Worries me VI has no plan b. Hope I’m wrong.

You’ve just predicted us to beat Stoke 2-1 on Saturday?? We need to score two goals for your prediction! He has no quality whatsoever. Downgrade on Markandy and that says it all. The only asset Kargbo has is pace, yet he jogged back watching last night. If he had used his one asset he could have gone some way to preventing that goal. He can’t cross, shoot, tackle. Pointless signing.

Not a chance of us winning with that team. Where are the two goals coming from? It’s rinse & repeat from VI. He’ll just throw Kargbo & De Neve on after 60 for Miroshita & Hedges and Andri on for Ohashi. We need to go with Gudjohnsen despite his lacklustre start and hope he gets that first goal soon. Ohashi is not consistent in front of goal.

Put this on the Swansea thread. We just don’t have the quality to play the system he’s playing. Alebiosu is doing all the work down the right hand side. Miroshita had little impact and I’ve seen absolutely nothing from Kargbo to suggest he ever wears a Rovers shirt again. Similar down the left with Ribeiro. I would bring Wharton back in and play Ohashi off Gudjohnsen which I’ve always felt would be his better role. Be a good opportunity after an hour to introduce Tyjon into games. Main issue is the lack of centre backs. With Carter out, our back up would be Pickering & Atcheson, but we have to utilise what we have. No combination of two centre backs we have are anywhere near Batth & Hyam. Not saying we will storm up the league, but it might help stop us shipping goals and I’ve seen nothing from any of our three recognised strikers playing as a lone striker to suggest it’s working. Until January where I’m hoping the penny will have dropped that we need Championship experience and not cheap European gambles, it’s about damage limitation. I would consider…… Keep playing the same system and the same team, we’ll be rooted to the bottom of the league by Christmas.

Alebiosu spent the best part of ten years at Arsenal youth, so no coincidence he is standing out amongst the summer signings. In recent years, recruitment from European leagues has led us to just two decent signings in Kaminski & Tronstad. On the flip side, there were the likes of Wahlstedt & Telalovic. We now it appears have a squad full of players like this that we are relying on keeping us up! Last season we had a wealth of championship experience in Trav, Hyam, Dolan, Batth & Weimann. All replaced with European league gambles. I’ve not seen Baradji kick a ball yet, but I can pretty much assume he’ll be poor. What we saw in Kargbo I’m not sure. Downgrade on Markandy in my opinion. Recruitment has been absolutely dire.