roversfan99

Armstrong was crap but Nyambe has constantly had a problem in terms of being fronted up by a defender. His crossing ability is almost non existent and he is a bit of a one trick pony in terms of unless he can touch it round his defender and sprint he struggles to beat a man.

Awful performance, again stumbling against a poor team at home and the Dack injury as our only source of goals is surely the end of any play off hope. Walton possibly our best player, made 3 saves none of which were overly difficult but he was safe in net. Williams is not good enough, made one decent block but dreadful on the ball, Lenihan looked a different player without Adarabioyo. Nyambe frustrated the life out of me, he gets so far and has no subtelty or creativity to do the final part and turns back. Downing had one of his poorest games for us if not the poorest, his crossing was awful. Evans and Travis lost the midfield battle. Rothwell again was totally anonymous, not taking his chances. Armstrong again very poor and Dack quiet but we certainly need to sign an attacker now. Our only source of goals in a side that is misconceived to be good in attack and bad in defence has now been taken from us. Graham quiet but good movement and so unlucky with his header. Holtby was bright when he came on and needs a run as a number 10 although he had to score. Gallagher was stupidly played wide and did nothing and Johnson was incredibly clumsy.

I dont mean it as a dig, apologies if it comes across like that in any way. The campaign doesnt hit a nerve, I have been a season ticket holder since I was about 10 so I have no reason to feel personally offended. I just think its indicative of an unconstructive mindset that Waggott seems to have. The thing is a lot of people go along with it, football is a tribal sport and because they (like I do to be fair) see attending as an obligation and a priority, they cannot empathise with those who dont and thus cannot appreciate the very definition of a floating fan. The club can do one thing, be continiously asking how it can get people back/potential new fans to start attending, who may not see it as a priority, who may have limited funds, other things to do on Saturdays at the moment, whatever, and constantly try to improve. As it is, theres a strange "weve done all we can" mentality when there are so many areas of their pricing and marketing strategies that can be critiqued. Theres also a desperation to put the onus and blame onto the fans. A covering their back exercise, but ultimately you arent going to get people back into the ground who dont see attending as a priority by guilt tripping them. I dont think Rovers ticket prices are any longer much lower than the average or representative of the catchment area. Something you touch on with your statistic about Lancashire being a poor area which I also saw. I have only been to 2 away games this season so far, I THINK (anyone correct me if ive misremembered) West Brom away was 20 quid and Preston 24 quid, the latter obviously being somewhat of a local derby, in comparison Birmingham tickets (far from a stand out game) start at £25. The stadium is a platform for potential future success (even if the Blackburn End upper was closed for the immediate future and with no Rovers fans in the Darwen End) you have 20k of potential Rovers fans, say we went up and got the pricing bang on, thats not an unreasonable number to sometimes reach. The ground is IMO compared to many of our rivals a much nicer one, it has history attached and for me it would be impractical and unaffordable to move away or even restructure. Agree with the surcharge, a random example is people who play amateur themselves, games called off on the day and its a higher price which is a further deterrent that doesnt need to be there. Dont disagree with offering deals for both games at all, they did the 3 game deal recently but it wasnt a success, it was only value compared to the scandalously high price they set Sheffield Wednesday tickets.

Even if we dont sign a striker Brereton is dispensable.

It just feels like you are echoing the "what more can the club do, people are just moaning for the sake of it" mentality that Waggott seems keen to get across. Im not sure if with respect that is because the problems dont affect you as you dont attend games, therefore criticisms may seem to just come across as moaning but many of the points raised are valid and not undermined by the clubs passive aggressive marketing campaign which questions the fans "committment" rather than evaluating what it can do constructively to attract further fans. By reducing the size of the stadium, what exactly do you mean? The Blackburn End upper is closed and the Darwen End now solely for home fans. Do you suggest closing more off or physically reduce the size of the ground? That would be a drastic and needless expense that wouldnt make a difference and would also reduce our capacity for when we might sometimes need it if we went up? In terms of home fans, making their favoured seat/stand unavailable should be a last resort, for example I was moved from the Darwen End which was unexplained prior and frustrating, I just moved stand but I have read people say that they stopped attending after that. Just needlessly upsetting your supporter base. With away fans you have more license as their happiness isnt a priority, sticking them out the way had some logic to it but has only taken away from the atmosphere IMO and should be abandoned. There are some well intentioned things that the club has done, perhaps at times somewhat clumsily and illogically at times, for example 2 nights before Christmas for a game on Sky would not personally have been my choice to offer tenner tickets, I think Birmingham on Boxing Day had more potential for a bumper crowd but prices are high for that game. Its difficult to master the individual matchday pricing but I suspect there certainly is more elasticity in terms of being able to make up a further reduced price by the subsuquent increase in attendances. Our prices are fairly high for single games at the moment. You add an unnecessary surcharge and it is not financially attractive for someone who cannot commit to attending until last minute, for whatever reason, work, family, perhaps their own game has been called off. The club also is reliant on season ticket holders yet blew a huge chance to feed off the momentum of promotion and increased supporter interaction by releasing season tickets not instantly and also at a more expensive price. Most of this wasnt specifically aimed at you by the way, just some general points.

The main issue is the atmosphere, it gives it a low priority cup game feel to it, rather than how it looks for people on TV IMO.

But I dont think hes offering anything to the team anyway, we didnt miss him when he was injured. It would be better all round to loan him out. Ideally we could sign a better striker to challenge Graham but even failing that, the equally poor Samuel can be 3rd or 4th choice striker until his contract expires to let Brereton try and prove some sort of worth.

If he continues to get cameos from time to time with the occasional start and fail to impact on games he wont develop. Get him in League 1 and see if he can score regularly, we wont miss him.

Personally dont care too much about appearance on TV as I am already there but it helps to further stunt any chance of an atmosphere sticking away fans in with the gods.

Even if you take the price tag out of it, any player wearing the shirt will be judged dependant on performances and Brereton (albeit in primarily cameos) has looked well off the standard required and I have not seen this supposed talent as of yet. But hes not only being judged because he cost loads of money. Young or old. I judge Buckley who looks well off it when he comes on, he was an academy product. Nuttall was judged when he often came on for his often laboured appearances, he was free and young. Older players, Bennett, Mulgrew when he was here, everyone pulling on a shirt is subject to being judged. Conversely, Dack, Lenihan, Adarabioyo, Travis, Downing, all of various ages are also judged, positively based on performances. The 20 goal a season argument is a little nonsensical, no one is suggesting or implying that at all. His price tag is always going to be a factor because it was so big (and surely makes the prospect of making profit on him incredibly difficult) but ultimately it is a blessing for him as well because I think he makes the squad every time when fit partially because hes our 7m signing and not on merit. I think our best bet is to loan him out, he doesnt warrant or merit an extended run in the side and rarely playing will not help his development. Loan him to League 1 and re-evaluate upon his return after hopefully scoring a few goals. "Give him time" is a meaningless platitude really IMO. All players will always be subject to judgement with each passing game, so far Brereton has not looked up to it. Lets hope that changes but if he or anyone else performs poorly in the mean time, people will comment, likewise if he plays tonight, scores and goes on a run.

Think hes injured plus primarily a number 10.

Mavidivi was apparently dismal at Preston in a brief spell there.

We do, most of which are better than Bennett.

This is what I mean, the general quality is quite poor in this league, this game has been as laborious as the Cardiff PNE game, and when you consider that all 4 are top half teams hoping for a play off place, it just shows that the top 6 is there for us if we go for it. As an aside, a player I would love for us to enquire for is Niclas Eliasson at Bristol City if it was possible. A natural wide man, full of pace, gets chalk on his boots and a stream of assists. Often a sub due to the formation they play. Good to see Rhodes starting games again and enjoying his football. Impossible not to think positively about him after the goals he scored for us.

He made that massive mistake when he had a mix up with Walton at West Brom and they equalised on the back of it, otherwise he was quite clearly a big improvement on the quality of our defence. That being said, he only played 7 games (was injured at the start of his 8th) so its impossible to justify a high mark. But his ability as a Championship left back is clearly there.

Out of curiosity, what is your job, presumably within football?

No way should Evans, Bennett, Travis and Johnson all start together in midfield against a bottom 3 side at home. Has to be 2 from Travis, Johnson and Evans in the middle of the park. Also I dont think we should play Bennett, goes without saying in the back 4 but even wide as you suggest, he did a solid job at Bristol City but for this game we need to take the game to Wigan, so it should be 2 from Armstrong, Holtby and Rothwell alongside Dack, for me the former two. Graham every day over Gallagher for me too. One thing is for sure, he has some real selection dilemmas.

It doesnt really matter and thus I have very little interest in who Mowbray perhaps bid for, who he was interested in, who he was linked with or how realistic or unrealistic these ultimately unattainable targets are. We can only judge a manager on the signings he actually made. I am not sure on kicking and footwork, it was strange with Raya in regards that he could sometimes use his kicking as an attacking weapon, we scored v Wigan last season from a Raya kick and he could volley passes out that set up dangerous counter attacks, something Walton cannot do. Equally, when Raya didnt get his kick right he often sliced kicks out of play, something Walton does far less. Waltons kicking is not particularly accurate, if you watch his kicks often are quite aimless and often towards the smallest of our attackers, but there are far less frustrating mis hits so I think maybe he gets away with that. Walton has also made a few errors in regards to handling and claiming crosses, notably v Preston but also v Stoke and Sheffield Wednesday, as well as basic handling and/or shot stopping errors v Huddersfield and Barnsley. They dont always lead to goals either, I recall for example one v Boro when Walton totally misjudged a cross but they hit the post with an open net gaping. His overall judgement of crosses is quite poor but aside from the Stoke away error they seem more errors of judgement rather than what I found to be Raya often being physically found wanting ie v Rotherham last year. I think Walton has made a considerable amount of errors and overall taking into account that hes only on loan we have gone backwards in net. I do however think we seem to be better as a team in terms of protecting our keeper but I would love us to sign a new number 1 in January, not "depth" ie someone not even as good as Walton.

Dont think theres any doubt that Raya isnt at times error prone and eccentric. That being said, hes certainly more talented than Walton and trading a permanent keeper for a loan keeper only compounds the situation. I think the quality of the Championship this season is low in general and thats certainly the case with the goalkeepers, theres some really error prone ones even at the top of the League.

But they didnt need a reality check when they wanted McCarthy out for "only" having them in mid table in the Championship?!

Suspect that its pretty standard nowadays to be fair.

Them players werent particularly big losses though so its hardly dealing with difficult circumstances. I found it a strange appointment based solely on sentiment, a novice who is local and a former player, and nothing that has happened since has changed my mind on the subject.

The budget certainly hasnt been cut enough to justify dropping 11 places, they lost Downing who couldnt start games any more due to a contractual clause, they sold Flint who was shocking and they lost Mikel who wasnt there very long

Whatever his reasons and excuses are, you cant give a 5m striker 6 or more out of 10 if hes only scored 2 goals in 20 games. Giving his all is a minimum requirement. We have been through the fact that some of the onus regarding chance creation revolves around the attacker and his movement and anticipation, hence why Dack can score regularly in the same set up. 12 teams have conceded more goals than us, so only half the league. But I think our defence has been better this season, but our defensive record would be even better had Walton not made major errors v Preston, Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley and Stoke off the top of my head. Hes done a few good things too but 5/10 is fair IMO. Again, yes that may be part of the reason but that doesnt change the fact that he has not met expectations so far.

Wage considerations are a big part of it, I am sure you would have agreed had it been a Murphy or an Etuhu stuck on huge wages, that said Chapman was signed in January. I dont know how you could give Gallagher at least a 6. Hes our big money signing and has 2 goals in 20 games. More often than not he has been ineffective. Cunningham would get a 5 from me, his quality would have made him far higher than that had he not been injured shortly into his 8th game, including one major error at West Brom, this one is very unfortunate. Walton has made numerous major errors, and Johnson has arguably been the biggest disappointment considering his track record. Holtby is our highest calibre signing but still no closer to finding his place in our team for all of his quality. All 5's for me. As you imply, cant argue with the analysis on Adarabioyo and Downing.