I certainly wouldn't call them savvy changes it was just a shit or bust roll of the dice and to be fair it worked by knocking WBA out of their stride and we pinched the goal.

Bold move yes tactical masterstroke no.

He played well in that role v Hull first game of the season. Been done to death though it's clear it only works once in a while.

Surely he's ready for a backup role by now.

1 hour ago, darrenrover said:

He's been playing 442 for the past few games, it just so happens that the '2' are played as wingers/wide forwards.

His eggs must be like rubber every morning. Never seen a gaffer overcook things so often.

On another note Covid has robbed the club of another 18k gate today as they'd surely have brought a large following of 5k plus.

Dependent on what silly Steve did with the ticket prices of course.

Just now, OnePhilT said:

Only thing is, phil, we don't seem to play with wingers under any circumstance. Maybe it's out of date for a reason that we minions don't know about. I can't say I notice too many teams that play that way, these days, e.g. with a Wilcox or Rippers crossing all day long. Unfortunately, I think Gally is not going to be playing in a front-two too many times under Mogga, and I don't think he's mastered the lone-striker role, either. Assuming that we have to focus funds on defence for next season, I think we are stuck with our current crop of strikers for a promotion push - although that's not to say that they won't improve.

No i can't see it either teams or at least a lot of them set out to negate and cancel out each other and try and open up a little space elsewhere. The championship tactics wise resembles the early 90's Serie A although there isn't the quality to stand out.

Our pool of strikers will continue to be rotated and continue to flatter to deceive the only hope is be in a similar position this time next season and a couple of the hit their little purple patches.  Very much seems a law of averages system Mowbray employs and just goes in hope all the dice drop in his favour at some point if he keeps rolling them.

4 minutes ago, OnePhilT said:

Was nice to see us grow into the game as time went on, rather than fade away and look tired. I thought we were solid in the first half, and defended well, save for an offside goal from West Brom. The good teams know when to contain and when to look for a goal, and I thought we did that well today. I think we've been better at that this season, instead of tiring ourselves out early on and drifting out of the game to late goals. West Brom are clearly one of the quality teams in the league, and there's no shame in a point against them, even if we are down to 12th.

Gallagher in a front-two looks so much more potent than out wide. He was our game-changer today; an assist for our equaliser, and a would-be assist for what should have been the winner. Can't be too harsh on Davenport for his finish, though, given his lack of game time. I thought he filled in well for Downing when he came on.

We still have an outside-chance at the play-offs, so at least our season is still alive. It's difficult to accept how we struggle against the likes of Barnsley, and then put in good performances against teams in the top-half, but I can see fair progression compared to last season. Imagine what a difference one or two decent and fit full-backs would have done to our season... 

Said all along that Gallagher is an old school forward or at least has some attributes for it. 442 with a decent striker and let him do the graft like Newell did for Speedie then Shearer.  Ideal for that you don't have to be the best technician in the world just graft.

Pray 442 comes back in fashion soon although god knows what TMs interpretation of it would be.

3 things that will end up defining this season

In no particular order......

1)  The poor efforts in losing 3 in a row after lockdown and the good start.  Having got yourselves in a good position with not many left and nothing to fear in 2 of them you simply have to go for it.  We didn't, end of.

2)  The loss of Dack - Whilst i don't adhere to the assumption we'd be loads of points better off as it's never that simplistic i'm pretty confident we'd have at least 3 more.

3)  The 5 million wasted following on from the silly punt the summer before.  Wrong player, wrong position...again.

Decent effort in the end. Could have been 5-5 today but too little too late.

A last ditch attempt to disrupt WEst Broms rythmn more than anything and it worked.

Jobs for the boys.

Put your money upfront and hope they bang a few in then you can double it in a quick turnaround. Both Dack and Armstrong should bring in far more than was paid for them. 

Rudy, well unbelievable profit in a short time.

Rhodes 8 mill in, about 12 million out so about 1 mill per year profit in his time here ?

Not hard to see what the 'investors' are up to really. They've hit the buffers with their latest round of advice though.

3 minutes ago, West Yorks Rover said:

Samuel ain't good enough for this league, surely Mowbray can see that.

For an expert he's completely blind to this.

7 hours ago, K-Hod said:

Pathetic to give Bell another year. 
He’s shown time and again, he isn’t good enough. Must be a nice human....

Just like he persists with the wrong players in wrong positions and uncomfortable formations he also persists with these he's signed. Signed for lge 1 and belong there.

It's a great human quality giving lads he likes chance after chance after chance but it's not something associated with big progress.  It wouldn't be so bad if they were strictly back up but his rotation policy means they very much aren't.

16 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

And certainly no strong personalities as gaffer, like Souness or Hughes.

When was the last time we had anyone who bore their teeth ?

Either in the dugout or not n the pitch.

1 hour ago, Ozz said:

THINK BIG

Think cavernous echo chamber, sadly.

Be like Hillsborough used to be.

12 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

Bilić shows what can happen when you get a top-drawer manager. Whenever Rovers make a change, imitate our own history. When Rovers had success, no pussyfooting around, it was because of strong managers (Dalglish, Souness, Hughes). 

The Venky diet is no top managers and no experienced keepers or defenders.

On we trundle.

We'll win this furthering the agony of where these team selections and tactics were when they were really needed.

Rovers. 2.  Baggies. 1

It was originally likely more to do with not wanting two young lads in the center of defence together. Lenihen is obviously the better of the 2 and was further down the line so i think it's sensible they've had him out learning his stuff. A wage or some of it off the bill and the chance someone might make a good offer for him with add ons that they feel they can't turn down.

I'd like to see him given an opportunity but it's probably better they get another good CH from somewhere for next season. 

2 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Doesn’t impact FFP as it’s infrastructure, and as they never refuse a cheque, I’d expect spades in the ground anytime now... 

Would have been a good time to do it not like it's going to be needed this year.  Create a few jobs as well.

I wouldn't be renovating it i'm not sure what they could do with it differently as it is so it's wasted money. A new stand similar to that they have at Weepdale with some decent facilities and capacity down to about 3.5k and a bit closer to the pitch it would improve atmosphere no end.

If PNE could find the money to do i'm sure we could although never at the expense of the team.  It would need outside investment i'm sure Vs have plenty of access to that sort of thing.  Mind you the 12 million spent might as well have gone into the stand......

Just now, Amo said:

But why can't the manager see that? It's clearly not getting the best out of the player, so why would the manager persist with something that even the average fan can see isn't effective?

Well he's a 5 million pound signing who he was after a while apparently so he'll keep fogging it whilst it works once in a while.  Also he has 2 others very similar so that system accommodates them as well.

I keep thinking there must be a reason he's splashed big money on two right sided strikers but if that's it what we see then it's not a good sign. We need a right sided version of Armstrong if he's going to persist that way. Then a replacement for Graham and eventually Dack, if he's preloaded that with Gally and Brereton he might have hamstrung us for a few years.

If it was truly a front 3 like a 3 pronged attack then i think that would suit him better, probably would Brereton or Samuel as well.  As it is however he sets up it always seems to end up with whoever is in that berth being wide like a winger.

It's worked a couple of times and is obviously better when we attack and press but most of the time to be honest it's just codswallop. It's like a waste of a player/position we've done well to get the points we have doing that.  So disjointed it looks at times.

1 hour ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Makes sense as the few who show up at the Meccano Stadium as ManUre fans who can't afford OT prices.

Drinking in Golden Balls makes them feel at home.

It gave them somewhere to go after the Man Utd Superstore in Preston centre shut ?

When you have chance to move consistent under achievers on you move them on.

Desperately clinging on just hoping something clicks isn't trying to move the club forwards. It's weak management just trying to maintain the status quo for the sake of it.