roversfan99

But Bell cant defend, which totally reverses any benefit that his pace might provide. Douglas had a good game and has a far better calibre than Bell, I cant fathom why you would play an inferior player, intelligence trumps pace every time. You cant start changing your full backs anytime they come across a pacy winger, its the same as last year when we went to Stoke and you suggested making changes to counter Lee Gregory, or when you suggested dropping Downing v Wigan who had Jamal Lowe, really average players who do not warrant us making specific changes to counter act. If you get into the habit of playing inferior players in fear of players of the standard of Tom Barkhuizen then you know that you are miles off.

I get that, the reason that it didnt sit right with me is because everyone at the club publically accepted relegation before it happened and I refuse to accept that such an attitude was necessary as much as I understand prudence and not taking risks with finances. Even if a team insists on spending absolutely nothing upon promotion, you can still attack the Premier League with a bit more ambition without writing the season off before it starts.

They might well go back up, but it still wouldnt justify their own chairman and manager saying publically that they had less than 5% chance of survival and throwing in the towel before a ball was kicked, sapping any hope from a season of Premier League football. They could have given the Premier League a proper go, whether that was by not spending as they did but just having a better attitude or indeed spending shrewdly and prudently on players that wouldnt break the wage structure, in an ideal world they could have stayed up and been 10x better off, but also safe in the knowledge that relegation was something that wouldnt pose any risks. The problem with endorsing such defeatism is that it assumes that the only other option is to take a massive risk and buy a series of over priced and aging players for massive sums, when there is a happy medium. The money that they have spent this summer on players like Hugill and Dowell hasnt particularly improved them either.

Yeah I certainly wouldnt be watching that back.

Refereeing performances in the Championship regularly provoke criticism and blame.

A very good summary of Rovers in 2020, giving away a needless soft goal, flattering to deceive, fairly disjointed and ultimately found shifting the attention away from our own failings by blaming officials. The decisions at the end were undoubtedly questionable, the Brereton one to be honest he was looking for as he often does but the Armstrong one seemed a definite foul, but lets not fuel a narrative that it cost us the game. We should have had a free kick, I cant remember us scoring a free kick in the League since the Mulgrew days so the chances of getting a winner would have been a small, and a red card at that point would have been fairly immaterial. We drew because we didnt play very well, because we conceded a stupid goal, because we didnt play particularly well and we didnt create many clear cut chances. Many players again would struggle to get beyond maybe a 5 or 6 out of 10. That is now us 7 points away from the play offs, we cant accumulate points at a top 6 rate without having over 2 wins worth of points to make up just to catch up. We are loitering in the bottom half yet there is this illogical assumption that we are not far off going on a sudden and uncharacteristic run of wins. Performance wise, Kaminski again was very comfortable in goal. Douglas I thought looked a huge upgrade on Bell, Rankin Costello on the other hand was poor in both directions and although his injury is unwelcome, Nyambe is the better right back without doubt. Lenihan was fine I though, Wharton can defend although he is really poor on the ball and there were once or twice that it played us into danger. The midfield balance was all wrong, Trybull is so ponderous on the ball and didnt impress in a position he doesnt suit. Johnson wasnt particularly influential and his booking was totally needless and costly. Rothwell tried to take the game by the scruff of the neck but mainly it came to nothing, same with Brereton. Elliott was really poor I thought and Armstrong totally anonymous. Gallagher did well to sneak in to get a goal from a clever Douglas knock down. I just find it frustrating, we dont seem to be going anywhere, I cant shake this feeling of stagnation, I question both the manager and the players and for me blaming the referee is just a smokescreen and an easy place to shift blame to cover our own failings.

This has been absolutely terrible. The front 3 totally anonymous, Rothwell the only player with any urgency but often with minimal end product, Trybull no better than Evans in that role and Whartons lack of quality on the ball nearly costing us once or twice. Production values have been particularly bad too, showing needless replays and missing attacks and just some dreadful camera work. I dont think overall its been too bad this season but today its been beyond amateur. Commentators talking their usual nonsense too.

Another goalless and drab draw in the Championship tonight, we are the exceptions in the league this season with our goalscoring and our flimsy defence.

Where is it from?

Yep groundhog day is certainly an apt phrase. Indeed it has a "Hoilett will sign in 24 hours" vibe and the fact that deep into November that he is still pleading with the owners to do the contracts shows how disorganised they are. I have never seen from Armstrong or Dacks persespective as to why it is in their best interests to commit at this time rather than hold off, and Nyambe at particular we should be at a stage where we are very close or have already signed or even been rejected.

If you think about it though, there will be families etc using the same passes when in normal circumstances they would obviously have seperate tickets, that will bring the numbers down. Many will be on furlough or worse so will be down financially. That might lead to people not buying or even seeking free alternatives with less disposable income. It is almost impossible to feel at least an element of detachment as if its going through the motions and the experience will be much worse. More season passes may have been sold had Waggott and co had any modicum of common sense. We are again loitering in mid table. So many factors. The one thing I dont understand is why the delay is such an integral factor but it seems that even more trivial issues such as that and production values are a deterrant and at the end of the day especially in these circumstances it is totally understandable why people are not willing to part with their money for an unavoidably inferior product. I have got a season pass and buy the away games but it isnt the same so it is understandable.

Obviously it is nothing like being in the stadium, but if that is the case, you wouldnt watch away games in normal times on TV, you wouldnt watch full re runs or even highlights or via the red button if its as cut as dry as that.

I think Travis would be more likely to replace Rothwell rather than Johnson, Johnson albeit inconsistent has performed far more than Rothwell and I dont think Travis has the tactical discipline to have Holtby and Rothwell running off around him, I think it would be restrictive.

Must win game this weekend, we need to go on a run having already considerably lagged behind the top 6. The injury situation is unfortunate although its the same across the board sadly. Teams arent at full strength across the board and a few (Evans, Ayala, Williams, even Nyambe) are just injury prone players and we cant hide behind these too much. Assuming that Nyambe and Holtby (why is he doing the media if he is unavailable?) miss out and Kaminski is fine to play, would go with: Kaminski Rankin Costello Lenihan Wharton Douglas Rothwell Johnson Downing Elliott Armstrong Brereton Subs: Pears, Grayson, Bell, Trybull, Buckley, Davenport, Gallagher, Dolan, Chapman

I dont really get the comments about "abysmal" quality, just seems like a normal stream to me. The commentators are irritating but that is minor. The delay is unavoidable and I am used to delay from having sports through Now TV, thats not ideal but especially with Rovers its just easy to avoid twitter etc for an hour and a half. If my friend watching it seperately messages about the football then his stream tends to be in sync with mine when it isnt with Sky. I do also think that it is a very difficult time for Rovers and all clubs but it doesnt sit right when people imply that we have an obligation to help out, the responsibility shouldnt be on the shoulders of the customers/supporters. And as ever Waggott has failed in my opinion with his policies since the pandemic took hold as much as he had done so prior. The issue with refunds was terribly dealt with and the delays releasing season passes this season was totally avoidable and has led to lower than hoped for sales.

Plus you could argue that playing a third poor centre back and asking them to play out from the back as Dier tried and again failed to do yesterday is very much taking risks! And ones with minimal reward.

Saw that this morning but it seems that all information and interviews through the international break where gathered prior and just staggered out to fill articles. I hope that as you say he has had no setbacks and he can play a game this week.

If Kane isnt international class then there are maybe only one or two strikers in World football that are.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8816531/amp/Gareth-Southgate-insists-England-stick-3-4-3-formation.html Southgate said previously that we are sticking with the formation and has planned to for a while. Not sure the pandemic can be blamed!

I wouldnt doubt that it is difficult to get the right man for the job to be fair. I have no examples off the top of my head I will concede. I also dont see that as much of a reason to keep Southgate in necessarily otherwise you are essentially accepting that your manager is perhaps not taking you in a forward direction (in my opinion anyway) but are just keeping him out of fear. For me especially with no relegation fear (and thus at times terminal financial reprecussions) theres no point sticking IMO.

It is massively flawed as I suspect you are aware to imply that solely on the basis that he got us to a World Cup Semi Final, that his job is guaranteed as a result. Should Mourinho not have been sacked when Chelsea were 15th the season after winning the title with the squad in disarray, who else would beat winning the title? Not as simple as that. Firstly, things change in football and England do not seem to be displaying promising signs of developing and getting the best from what is a crop of players, many of whom (Kane, Grealish, Sterling, Sancho, Walker, Arnold, James, Henderson, until injury Gomez etc) are performing very well at club level week in and week out. 3 at the back and trying to pass it out only adds to the numbers of centre backs on the pitch and highlights their weaknesses. His loyalty to a poor goalkeeper adds unnecessary jeopardy. His midfield choices lead to us being very rigid and his reliance on less talented players like Rice and Mount is counter productive. One (heavily deflected) goal from 5 Nations League games is piss poor. We really struggle v the better teams. It may also be tempting to refer back to previous failed generations as a comparison as im sure you have done with the likes of Kean and Coyle here but the benchmark should be higher than that, the likes of Capello and Hodgson underperformed too. Southgate undoubtedly deserved massive credit for how we did at the last World Cup but with international tournaments they sometimes perhaps a bit more flexibility in regards to judgement is required because it is not as simple as a club season in which every team plays every other team twice. We only beat some very limited countries and a very favourable draw meant that although the games still warranted overcoming and as a result Southgate would leave with positive thoughts overall, there are plenty of valid doubts over whether he is the man to take us forward.

Harry Winks for Jordan Henderson is the most unnecessarily conservative and pointless sub that could have been made too. Martin Tyler is a nauseating propaganda machine for the Nations League too, a competition that may have a bit of merit as a slight upgrade on friendlies but ultimately one that no one will overly give a shit about, and one that should have been scrapped as collateral damage amidst the excessive strain that the pandemic has put on the fixture schedule.

I hope this jinxes a comeback but England appear at a real crossroads at the moment. Changing from 3 at the back to 4-3-3 and then for no apparent reason back to 3 again recently, the constant changing not only of the 11 but the squad shows that Southgate doesnt really know what he is doing and is just hoping that something falls into place. The team tonight has no balance, absolutely no pace to penetrate in behind aging Belgian centre backs when Kane comes to feet, the love affair with 2 average players in Mount and Rice when we have far better players is very strange, and he is playing more inadequate centre backs than he needs too with Dier a particular liability. Trippier should also not be in the squad, never mind be starting every game. Southgate was very lucky with the draw in the World Cup but I suppose even by only betting Tunisia, Panama, Colombia on penalties and Sweden deserved the credit of how far he had gone but he stumbled into the job to begin with and I think we could do with someone with a bit more nous.

Rovers have been silent on Dacks first week back in full training apart from a 5 second video of him kicking a ball into an empty net on Monday. Wonder if everything has gone to plan?

Pulis was the manager who kick started Adama Traore's career at Boro and also his Stoke side heavily featured Ricardo Fuller. He does play direct but he is certainly not totally against the use of flair players and mavericks.