Because I don’t like seeing my fellow fans taken the piss out of.

It’s no surprise any more. Of course the club will blame the EFL but there is no reason for Waggott not to take the £10 out of the money received from each ST pass holder and pay iFollow directly. Just another way to add money to the coffers. I didn’t buy a season pass purely and simply because I don’t trust any “offer” that Waggott makes. It’s always about getting something later. The worst thing about all this is that if the club was working with fans - existing and potential - then we would be making more money than by simply fleecing the hardcore - which is exactly what this is.

I actually feel quite sorry for Gallagher in a way (money aside ofc). Between the age of 23-25, having developed as a striker, he is now being asked to play a different role just to get into the first XI (even as a sub). He can’t be particularly happy with it but because he ‘gets on with it’ that makes him the ‘right kind of player’ making his situation self-fulfilling. Had he kicked off (as I suspect other players have in the past) he’d be in the stiffs for rehabilitation or out the door. It needs a player revolt of a good half dozen players to make any meaningful difference. Until the we just carry on with new players coming in and assimilating into ‘the group’. Oh for a normal set up! Whet gets me throughout all of this is that the only change on the back room staff has been to move Johnson from a role he was excelling (and embarrassingly playing a better and more successful brand of football to the first team - at the time) - to being the IT guy for the first team. Why haven’t any of them been let go and replaced with better. All too comfortable. Easier just to blame the ref or time-wasting or talk up the opposition manager traits and accept that we have peaked but keep going anyway (for the live of the game?). Quite why owners put up with this is the bizarre thing. I guess nobody is advising them any different. Bringing in Waggott was an absolute masterstroke - for both men. Neither will be able to believe their luck. At any other club both would have been toast by now.

Hmm. Sarcasm. Doesn’t really add a lot to this particular debate and ignores the system issues I mentioned. Interesting to see Rev’s post about the early goal circumstances. I hadn’t researched it that deeply but it backs up what I have seen with my own eyes - for most of the last 3.5 years. I thought we had turned a corner this season but it seems our early free-scoring form was against the divisions dummies but that didn’t continue yesterday. Maybe another coincidence that we played some poor teams at just the right time. We will be a WDL (61 point) team ad infinitum under TM, well, for as long as Venkys continue to bankroll ‘project midtable pension pots’. That ‘D’ is a big problem two points dropped every three games. From where we are today to where we need to be, we need to turn half of those D’s into W’s. Those 12 or 14 points (6 or 7 of the 12 or 13 draws) would turn 61 into 73-75 and really make us top six contenders.

Don’t think I saw it Chris. Do you mean like this?

I’ve ignored players unfit. JRC would be at left back ahead of Douglas at this juncture for example. Holtby would make way for Travis. This is why I think our recruitment has been unbalanced and Mowbray is compensating for this by rotating as he doesn’t like unhappy players. If he had a meritocracy instead of an equity system we could have some serious competition. Instead we seem to have players who ‘do a job’ knowing that they will be rotated out soon instead of perform like their place depends on it. Despite all of the changes in personnel it just seems like the same old issues.

A mixture of both Chaddy. Not sure Arma and Dack are a front two but I could swap Armstrong and Brereton.

Agree with much of this. My concern is that Armstrong will go out wide again but has stopped looking to be provider and will instead cut inside for a shot-lottery (a shottery?) and make Dack redundant. My other concern is that Mowbray’s tactics will result in Armstrong’s value plummeting, which is why I would hope we cash in this January. (Players come and go). Alternatively, hopefully, Arma and Dack will gel and both fire us into the play-offs in the second half of the season. (A must). The problem is fitting everyone else in. With Dolan (not Mowbray’s recruit) the obvious one to miss out, despite being the one we were most crying out for in the last 10 mins on Saturday, Gallagher simply has to make way to accommodate Dack. However, we have quite a soft centre if we play our best attacking players, with no Johnson or Trybull, but I just can’t leave Rothwell out. Have we ever had so many attacking options while having to few in defence? Our best side from Mowbray’s squad... (?)

Slightly conflating different things there. Mowbray isn’t responsible for when goals are scored. Goals happen for a variety of reasons, often mistakes by the opposition. What Mowbray does do is select eleven players and assigns them a position. You can get a feel for the game plan by looking at the personnel selected and those on the bench. With very few exceptions (the ones that generate excitement from fans and often result in winning games) Mowbray sets up to keep things tight and to play football later on the game. This happens time and again. If it’s 0-0 then that later attacking approach sees us “going for a win” until the last few minutes when we tend to stick but too often we are chasing a point. Yesterday was notable that once we got the equaliser we didn’t go all out for a winner. Tapping the ball about until the clock eventually ran out with us having the ball in the middle of the park. This was the Pulis effect. (Big Sam would have been furious yesterday). Where Mowbray compounds matters is his awful approach to substitutions. Every once in a while he gets it right but it seems that these are flukes given how often his subs are too little and too late. The EFL have allowed five subs - due to fixture congestion and injuries, yet Mowbray doesn’t maximise them and yet we still have regular injuries. Giving Mowbray more options is exactly the wrong thing for Rovers. He has always been at his best when he has had to galvanise his ‘few good men’, forced into a level of consistency that a fully fit squad doesn’t. Too many changes, too much overthinking what an opposition manager will do. Playing the opposition on paper and on reputation instead of on the grass and on the day.

It’s a fallacy. First, unless he scores he doesn’t contribute - in fact he takes something away. Rhodes was far more clinical and was slated on a weekly basis. Second, yes, we need another player who scored goals regularly. Whether a terrible strike rate or not. At the minute one player is hogging the chances. Gallagher and Brereton aren’t the answer and we could have brought in an experienced Championship goalscorer to partner him, and had change! Third, it isn’t just about the player, it’s the system. Armstrong wasn’t nearly as prolific when Dack was in the team. Similarly, if Armstrong left, another player would take his place and be the leading scorer. We do however need a system which regularly brings other players into goalscoring positions. I thought we had someone in Dolan but it seems Mowbray doesn’t trust him. At the moment of teams stop Arma they stop Rovers. But for a moment of unscripted brilliance we would have lost 1-0. I honestly couldn’t see where a goal was coming from.

Yep

Some musings in response: - Very much hope that Elliott isn’t the latest player to have the excitement coached out of him - Mowbray is more likely to stick with Douglas than send him back - if not belligerence then just ignorancd - Holtby another player who is looking less happy the longer he plays for Mowbray - Mowbray has a Plan A and nothing else. It’s a template of “hardworking”, “honest” players who do as they are told. - Players going forward as a threat are at a premium. If your first and last name begins with ‘A’ then you get some freedom. If not the you stick in your round hole - even if you are a square peg. - Armstrong has become a one trick pony. Head down with the ball and shoot, regardless of whether you are accurate, whether there is a real opportunity or whether there is a team mate in a better position. His shot-to-goal ratio is masked by his goals scored. - Downing on the left is the wrong answer to the ongoing problem. He can no longer beat a man and fire a cross in. Which means if he can’t quickly see a pass he has to turn and cut inside but is then playing a backward pass. Not a lot has changed in all the time we have been in this division under Mowbray. He has had a longer run in this division than any other manager (Wycombe and Rotherham managers both promoted from league one last season) and he will be here until he walks. BCD football will not even bring any (unlikely) pressure from fans so we will be having this same debate week after week, March after match. Is it any wonder people are losing interest? Where is the imperative due to the size of our debt? The pressure that comes from managers having to get results? The personal pride of a noble manager who walked away from Coventry?

We are nowhere near. We have 8/11ths maybe 9/11ths or a very very good team. We have a manager who can’t get the best out of them. We waited too long with Bowyer and we will do the same again.

This system really doesn’t look like it’s designed to get a goal. Seems as though Mowbray is playing against Pulis rather then setting up Rovers to take on Wednesday.

Lol

You laying?

One of these days Arma will actually think about passing. Really need to cash in on his goal spree this January.

Why has Neil started calling him Breer-ton all of a sudden?

Won’t have been part of the game plan.

He ran at the Wednesday defence (and midfield) literally like they weren’t there! Astonishing piece of individual brilliance. ”If Messi had done that”

Oh my word!

Pathetic defending. Great finish though.

Mowbray. No question. You don’t need to be good at football as long as you work hard and train hard.

My guess is he’s working a system that can allow him to bring Dack back in. In my view both Arma and Gallagher should not be out wide.

Brezza?