roversfan99

Is that Elrio Van Heerden?

Both Brittain and Beck played together v Burnley.

Very thoughtful of Sky to have such a stupid kick off time.

They played 90 minutes, not 120. There are 4 and a half days between games. And it was a massively changed Preston line up, the 2 players who went off wouldnt have started anyway.

They almost certainly wouldnt have played anyway as they arent regular starters by any means.

With Hedges, he has a year plus a further option. He is at best a handy squad player but has recently suffered the same serious injury twice and doesnt score or assist enough. He doesnt offer pace either, I dont see why we would rush to give him a new deal at this stage. With Weimann being as old as he is, he certainly wont have loads of teams fighting for his signature 6 months in advance. I would wait until probably next summer and re-assess. Hyam would be the most sensible out of the 3, but even then its not desperate.

Yeah, quite slow I would say. Certainly speed is not one of his strong points, Gueye does have a turn of pace and is certainly quicker although not rapid himself.

Shame about the stupid kick off time.

He signed a week before the season having been on trial but my point is that going into his mid 30s, you never know when the real signs of physical decline start to show. I dont get why we would rush to extend now.

The thing with Weimann though at his age is hes already on the decline and that can suddenly accelerate. There wasnt much demand for him this summer so I think the risk of him being nabbed outweighs that of being stuck with him if hes too old to really contribute. Hedges can be a solid squad player but he has suffered back to back hamstring tears and he doesnt contribute many goals or assists. I think he might have an option so we should hold off for now. Sigurdsson I suspect will be a high earner having done little to prove it.

Certainly agree with your first and most important sentence, you cant after Saturday. I think Gueye is quicker though, Ohashi is quite slow although clearly very good in front of goal.

The transfer window exceeded the expectations of most but admist talk from the manager of building a team, considering the fact that we have brought in so much money it wasnt good enough long term to only bring in 4 players on deals for longer than a year. You look down that list and discard the 3 loans, and Dolan is obviously the stand out one where it shouldnt be that difficult to tie down long term, and even then we all know his limitations are ones that havent really improved that much. Hyam has an option in his deal and would probably be next in line for an extension. Hedges and especially Sigurdsson IMO need to do more to warrant a longer deal, and 3 of those players are aging, maybe Batth and Weimann can earn another deal but thats a decision for next summer.

Im sure it wont be over but now it feels like he is making the numbers up here and yesterdays late appearance felt like a token gesture. He had a good run of form under Mowbray in a very advanced role and has never got close to those levels since he left. He was able to nick the ball back and he is good at playing passes high up where he could slip in Brereton and Khadra on the counter attack but he offered next to no goal threat himself. It was assumed that playing deeper would suit him but when he moved back, it required an ability to have good awareness in a more hectic area of the pitch and the ability to try and control games and it turned out that he couldnt really do either.

Mercer is the biggest wind up merchant ever and this is a good example but the idea that Rovers doing well would "kill" him deep down is a load of rubbish.

I felt like a lot of the times Tomasson mentioned a project, he was doing so almost sarcastically especially when he was not backed. I certainly never got the impression that he was happy just existing to be a development club. Regarding Eustace, I know the arguments about coming in to do a job and not having his own squad/a squad deep enough to trust etc, but that didnt excuse repeatedly failing to win even one of a group of very winnable home games. Until that was rectified, you are never going to achieve anything, and it was a fundamental reason why we ended up closer to the relegation zone at the end of the season in a last day scrap compared to when Eustace came in. This seasons fixture list presented him with 3 very winnable home games. They have to be your bread and butter, and 2 promoted sides and a (to be generous) very average Bristol City gave him the perfect opportunity to change that narrative. To win all 3 very much does that and fair play to him for doing so.

Even if Brittain and Pickering are back, we should stick with the defensive set up who played yesterday. That includes Pears as much as I dont rate him. The attack is the area that needs tinkering to find a balance. Made my opinion on the Baker experiment clear, not one to be repeated. I think starting Cozier Duberry is a no brainer, we are dying for some pace especially away on the counter attack, and Cantwell doesnt look fit enough yet. Dolan justifies another start, and although Ohashi's all round game has weaknesses, you cant drop him after 2 brilliant goals so its just who starts in that 4th place. Pears Carter Batth Hyam Beck Travis Tronstad Cozier Duberry Dolan Weimann Ohashi Subs: Toth, JRC, McFadzean, Pickering, Baker, Buckley, Cantwell, Hedges, Gueye The bench is an area where people will have to miss out. Ive chosen Brittain as I would prefer JRC as RB cover and Sigurdsson with others better placed. So 2 changes but I dont think he will make any.

I know you like to parrot the cliches about the team being first, obviously that is the case. I dont see how it beneficial to the team to have a player in a role where he is ill suited and struggled to have an impact in, you will have to enlighten me on that. I know regarding all of those players and why they werent considered to start. My point is going forward, hopefully their availability to start games will mean that we wont repeat the Baker on the left idea. Its not just 3 poor performances in that position. I just dont think it suits JRC as a player to do that role, nor the team. My hope is that Cozier Duberry ends up being a regular there, a player who naturally plays from the right and who is the only player in our squad with any pace.

Sometimes ideas in practice dont work as well as they do in theory. Many thought £10m man Buckley would thrive playing deeper in midfield and thats where we would get the best out of him. Many also assumed that playing Trent Alexander Arnold in midfield would suit him more than right back. Again, not so. Even allowing for the fact that neither Baker nor JRC were expected to play as actual wingers. Both players struggle taking the ball in higher areas, neither are in any way dynamic and both are used and more suited to having more space in front of them.

Well yes, it is incredibly patronising to repeatedly (again here) tell someone that they simply dont understand. Especially when they have told you that they do understand and have acknowledged what the idea of the role is. To understand, it doesnt mean that you have to agree with it. My point is that I dont feel like either of these specific roles, especially the Baker one, suits the players in question. I know that Baker wasn't expected to play like Ryan Giggs in his pomp, beating his full back one on one on the outside. Me saying he didnt play well isnt based on a warped view that he wasnt doing things that perhaps a more traditional wide man would. I dont think specifically within the remit that he would have been given, that he had any real effect on the game. I dont think he is suited to playing initially (again, I know he wont be getting chalk on his boots) from the left, I dont think it suits him or the team. And I hope that it was a decision made purely because of availability issues, with Cozier Duberry deemed not ready to start, Weimann deemed not ready to start, Cantwell not ready to start (Dolan could play left) and Sigurdsson ill. I think we still need another left winger but even then, I would even prefer to see any of Dolan, Hedges, Weimann or even Sigurdsson start from that role, and most of them would come inside so that isnt my issue. I also know that Rankin Costello playing wide right isnt a choice made with an expectation of seeing a flying winger, I fully understand the plan to ask him to move inside and have say Brittain keeping the width. I understand, I have repeatedly outlined that plan and yet still apparently dont understand. But I dont AGREE with that plan even though I UNDERSTAND.

Again, you are also being patronising by suggesting that I am simply too thick to understand what the expected role in this case of JRC is. I am aware that when he has played wide right, he is not expected to run on the outside. The idea is for him to drift in and not hold the width. But even allowing for the specific remit of the role he is given, I think he has played poorly there doing that role and I dont think it suits him. I think he plays better with space in front of him which he has at right back, where he linked with the players in front of him. An example would be his goal at Millwall away last season where he ran forward, played a one two with Brittain and shot. Some players struggle when taking the ball in more advanced areas but thrive with space to move into, I know he isnt as athletic as Emerton was but he was the same. No, he hasnt played as a right back under Eustace. But he is at risk of being down the pecking order in all positions as he seems to be now, and its a shame to see a talented player in that position. Baker had a poor game and looked like someone who didnt look comfortable. Hopefully due to the availability issues we had out wide that you touch on, it will be an experiment that goes in the bin.

I havent misunderstood anything, it is quite patronising to assume that I simply dont understand what he is being asked to do. I appreciate that he isnt expected to be an out and out wide player, to be honest the majority of our wingers come inside to varying degrees. But Baker at least started wide left, obviously he isnt going to stay out wide taking the full back on, thats not what I am expecting. But either way, I thought he was poor and ineffective in the role he was asked to play. He struggled to get involved and I dont think the role he was asked to play suited him. I would hope that with other players we have, that it wont be an experiment that will be repeated. To be honest, he struggled beyond issues through his position, set pieces is usually a strength of his but they were poor yesterday.

I think its unfair to make out as many have that JRC was only so good at right back doing that very specific role, and that he couldnt play any other variation as he is so one dimensional. He is a better one on one defender than Brittain who is really poor at stopping crosses etc. He also can get forward down the wing, he didnt only do good work in central areas. Hes not a similar player necessarily but he seems to be stronger like Emerton was with room to run into rather than getting the ball high up. Ive never been convinced by him in a more central midfield role either. I remember him mentioning when he first played the role that he would need to adjust off the ball and I never felt that he did. Its not "slagging" Baker off to suggest that he isnt suited out wide and I thought he was poor yesterday. He looked like what he was, a player playing in an unfamiliar position and even the basics outside of that (set pieces, passing) were not good. Hopefully it was not something that will be repeated as we have a number of more suitable wide players either who missed out or were not considered for starts.

No but he wasnt in the position that he has proven himself to be a top Championship performer.

Im not sure, he had missed a bit of training before the Derby game but that was 5 weeks ago. He started the following 2 league games and the cup game v Blackpool and hasnt played a minute for 2 and a half weeks since. I dont see in which position he will play in. Out wide, after struggling there, he has since seen others move ahead in the pecking order. Cozier Duberry has come in, Weimann seems ahead of him (wasnt fully fit to start today but still came on), Sigurdsson scored v Oxford so may be ahead of him, Hedges has moved back to the right and even Baker for some reason is considered out wide before him. He only played in central midfield once this season, in the cup when we rested Travis/Tronstad who are automatic picks and we also have Buckley and Baker there. And he isnt being considered it seems at right back which has been by far his most effective position at senior level.

It seems that the performances of Baker and Carter have caused the biggest split. Baker was by far our poorest performer and I really hope that Eustace doesnt see him as a wide man going forward. You could tell he wasnt comfortable there and he also played there v Burnley in totally different circumstances, but he doesnt have the attributes to play there. That being said, even his set pieces and general use of the ball was poor which cant be put down to his position. Carter I thought was very good however, even going forward and Batth slotted in very nicely too. With Cantwell doing that failed rabona, I am wary of the fact that the game is becoming more sanitised and a lot of individuality is being taken away, especially in this data driven modern game which is to the detriment of entertainment in a lot of ways. But I did feel like it was totally unnecessary and he wasted a good opportunity. It would be interesting to know how Rankin Costello is feeling at the moment. After lots of talk about him V Duru recently for RB cover, it was a surprise to see neither start. He hasnt suited or played well out wide but it feels like he has really dropped down the pecking order when even though Cozier Duberry wasnt considered to start, Weimann wasnt deemed fit enough to start and Sigurdsson was ill, Eustace opted for Baker there and he didnt get on. I cant help but feel like he is a talented player that we may not utilise with him becoming a utility man to his own detriment.