roversfan99

My point was that if loanees are better than what we have and as long as we dont have too many, then they shouldny br dismissed purely because they dont belong to us. Obviously things change at the end of a season in which any competiveness has long gone. Harwood Bellis and Elliott have been good signings though.

"Too inconsistent." Second top scorer in the league and with more open play goals even than Toney, I think thats a little inaccurate. You dont get that many goals if you arent consistent and are "feast or famine."

Mowbray specifically mentioned that Evans and Downing are leaving. If Johnson, Bell and Bennett arent, its a disgrace.

Comfortable win but the game wasnt competitive or indeed an indication of unfulfilled potential necessarily. Birminghams line up was beyond weak, full of unknown kids which I thought was a little odd as no way will Bowyer learn anything from that. Armstrong again a class above, the amount of criticism he gets is bizarre. He has had a superb personal season and things look bleak without him and of course with Mowbray. Thought Buckley and Davenport wasted their chance really, both really poor and Downing and Evans (not saying either should say) were far superior although their appearances were a little pointless.

Do you think that if we had Carter/Magloire and Dolan playing instead of Harwood Bellis, that our finishing position would remain unchanged in mid table? Naive. This idea of "developing our own youngsters" is nice in theory but the 2 loanees are clearly far superior and the problems lie elsewhere.

Its obviously a totally subjective discussion topic once you remove managers but I would disagree that our squad is better than those you mention, in particular Reading. They have a number of good players, they have Joao, Swift, Olise, Ejaria, Meite and Puscas in attacking positions, I would put Armstrong just about above all of those, but overall they have better attackers than us, and are pretty solid all round, Cabral in net is probably of a similar level to Kaminski, their 2 central midfielders are very consistent, their centre backs very experienced and Richards at left back has agreed a deal with Bayern Munich. Cardiff and Boro both have obvious examples of quality managers, the former has a goalscorer like us, but I would probably say there isnt too much between the 3 clubs. The likes of Travis, Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell, I suspect they could give or take.

4th, behind Courtious, Mignolet and Casteels of Wolfsburg.

Sorry, was a mistype. I meant his main strength. Amended.

A good manager would be able to overachieve naturally, but I dont think the squad is "massively" underachieving. Looking at the teams above us, not many if any do I look at and think that our squad is definitely better. Sometimes I think people confuse that as a defence of the manager, it very much isnt, Mowbray has had decent resources and more time than anyone else to build a squad that I dont think is close to being a genuine threat to the top 6. I think that even a top Championship manager would have to jig things around in the transfer market to get it close. I would also agree that obviously Mowbray as a manager at this moment in time is more of a hindrance than a help. Some of the tactical choices he makes, Gallagher wide a notable one, definitely hinder us. I am a big fan of consistency in team selections, I do wonder if he would rotate less but in a number of positions, he often rotates between a number of underwhelming options that he has signed (or given new deals to) none of whom perform when given a chance. I dont doubt these flaws, and I totally agree that Mowbray is a hindrance even beyond recruitment. But I also think it is naive to be totally unwilling to judge the players as if Mowbray is quite that destructive, especially when few if any of these players have careers pre Mowbray that suggest that they are performing well below their normal level.

Kaminski has had a very good debut season, his main strength is his reliability. I dont think hes kept us in too many games single handily, but the main thing you want is someone you can trust and he is that. I personally would think that Armstrong deserves it however. You cant argue with his goal record, phenomenal in such an otherwise poor team.

I dont have a problem with Ayala being above kids in that Ayala will be closer to the first 11 (if he could ever stay fit) than the kids will and is contracted for another 2 years, so it makes sense looking forward to next year. In regards to tomorrow though, the illogical aspect of it would be that giving him half an hour is neither here nor there, and of course I would ask if there is a risk of a recurrence. My issue lies more with some of the other players that have played in the last few weeks, Holtby and Evans have both had game time recently despite being about to leave, Trybull, Johnson, Downing and Bennett have all played too. I dont agree with dishing out appearances as rewards necessarily, but moreso to see if the one or two best under 23s can play within an otherwise strong side and not look out of place. The most obvious example in recent weeks of when that should have been used is when Nyambe was injured at Sheffield Wednesday, Pike should have started over Bennett. Another would be Davenport surely warranting a few games over Trybull, Evans and Johnson to see if he can compete for that role into next season. In Mowbrays tenure, he has brought through Travis, Rankin Costello and Buckley, I dont think youth development overall has been one of his major and obvious weaknesses, but in the last few weeks, there has been a glaring lack of forward planning as I touched on in my previous paragraph. There are occasions (Harwood Bellis and LB) in which its unavoidable to avoid playing a player who wont be here next season, but in the main, players contracted into next season should have been prioritised and havent been.

Yeah plus sounds like we are mixing things up too.

I found the fanfare and sadness underneath the Holtby video to be a little strange, I think thats just the modern day culture on social media but you would have thought that Shearer was leaving!

Birmingham lost 4 nil last week playing a total scratch team full of reserves and kids. Unsure if they ae likely to do similar this weekend.

For his age for sure but De Bruyne the best.

Hes definitely a brilliant player to watch, I just hope he starts. I put him ahead of the other 2 personally.

Stones is playing well but a lot of it is down to Dias who is an absolutely superb defender, I do fear that it will be a different story next to Maguire. Foden is an excellent talent although could and should have had 3 or 4 over both legs.

Definitely he is to blame and should be replaced, well should have a while ago.

I dont doubt that some players are hindered by his management, especially ones who he plays out of position, even more subtle ones like when Evans is played slightly advanced which makes no sense. Issues around motivation are purely speculative. I do think that a lot of our players do not have much if any evidence either here at Rovers or prior to joining to suggest that they are massively underperforming personally. Travis has only had Mowbray as a senior manager but I dont have any real grievance towards the manager for any perceived underachievement specifically to him. The rotation I think is not conducive to consistency, but there are a lot of average to poor players that Mowbray has signed that dont establish themselves and thus Mowbray cant decide between. Put it this way, Mowbray has had time and money to build a squad, perhaps it could finish a couple of places higher, but I dont think that a new manager would look at it and rub his hands together.

How do people part with £50-75 for training wear?!

I must say that my worry is with everything I've heard about Pickering is how good he is going forward, I hope he can defend too.

Yeah I would agree that Reed is a perfect example of mismanagement by Mowbray, totally wasted based on laughable logic in an unfamiliar position during his time here. I certainly want Mowbray out but I think we may be in a situation whereby because he needs to be removed, that he can be blamed for things that are maybe unfair. With Travis, he has been a first team regular ever since he broke in at Sheffield United, and hes always been played in central midfield. I do think his form has dipped this season but that seems to be down to his injury. He is what he is, hes far from perfect, hes technically average I would say, I dont think hes ever looked like a player who will score regularly, but hes a battler, full of energy and whilst hes not a top 6 midfielder, hes the stand out one for us in the middle and is still young. Maybe a new manager could get more from him, I do wonder if he is better sitting (and if he has the discipline to do that) or better slightly in front with the freedom to get forward, but I dont think he was once this box to box midfielder and now because of Mowbray he has become subdued.

I would definitely disagree, when Bell plays, wingers have had a free pass at getting in behind him and getting crosses in down his side throughout his Rovers career. The one thing I suspect we will agree on, if either is at the club next season, then it is a travesty.

I think thats a misconception simply based on his natural style. Some players just naturally appear more languid than others but I dont doubt that Bell tries his best, its not as if there have been a few games whereby his style has noticeably changed to suggest more effort. Douglas has been a massive dissapointment, I think especially with a couple of injury ravaged seasons recently and his age have caught up with him, plus when he was at Wolves he didnt play as a full back. But hes still better than Bell. Technically he is much tighter as Bell needs more time and touches to get the ball under control, Douglas has better delivery and he is better defensively. He made a couple of glaring mistakes (one v Reading when it unfortunately bounced off his heel and Pears had gone walkabouts) but Bells continious defensive incompetence is perhaps more subtle. When he plays, the chances tend to mainly stem from his side, Huddersfields first goal and at the weekend when they got in and Nyambe prevented them getting a tap in were perhaps not mistakes that would stand out but just 2 recent examples of how passive and weak he is at stopping crosses.

People are happy to accept incompetence I tend to find under the line that "hes fine as a squad player." Even if hes cheap, its no good if he cant do a job when needed, and over numerous years, we know that Bell isnt close to being up to it. On top of this, we dont even know if Pickering will come in and be a competent performer himself.