36 minutes ago, M_B said:

 

There are always doubts ,the lack of goals scored and chances created is obviously a major one. 

It isn't blind faith, if he went tomorrow it wouldn't bother me one bit, but I'd be prepared to see how he goes on from a level start next season. He's had a good look at the squad and should be in a good position to assess what he feels is needed. 

If it makes you feel better, you can keep quoting this season's record up to Christmas,I'm sure you would, but I'd be happy to park this season. 

If he does stay, what do you feel would be a good finish? 

 

My point is more that I dont really understand how you are able to totally withhold any judgement until next season, its not a point about his ability/inability.

You have just mentioned areas of doubt so you have already yourself started to make judgements about him as the games tick by, which is natural. So even if its subconscious, you will be carrying over an opinion so it wont be a clean slate.

It woudnt make me feel better at all.

There is no if he stays, they wont pay him up even if we went down. What would be a good finish next season? Impossible to say, assuming we stay up we have to see what happens in the summer. If Szmodics goes and the owners continue to slash budgets etc, then I think we will likely go down next season.

Either way, my personal opinion of Eustace so far even allowing for the obvious difficulties is certainly more negative than positive, naturally. I dont have confidence in him as it stands to get us moving in the right direction, however he is small fry compared to the main issue which is always Venkys. I will go into next season with an opinion on Eustace and major doubts but not ones that are impossible to turn around.

2 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Let;s face it, if this guy had come through our academy, he'd have been binned off long before he was offered a pro contract.

He's awful and symptomatic of Broughton.

Symptomatic of the owners.

1 hour ago, M_B said:

That is exactly where I am, the job has always been staying up. If we do, this period should be of benefit to Eustace as to what is and isn't needed going forward. 

I don't really see the point in getting rid of him, only to take another off the conveyor when he has already assessed the situation. 

Out of interest, do you have any doubts or concerns about Eustace and his capability to be our manager?

You always mention about a clean slate. But if you have concerns they might resurface should we start next season poorly in a way say a new manager with an actual clean slate couldnt.

20 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

The EFL and clubs wanted more money from TV rights. If it wasn't Sky Sports it would be Dazn or Premier Sports. Clubs wanted more money cos they thought their TV rights was worth more the current TV deal. 

Any TV Company would more games to TV for more money. Fairly simple and understandable point of view. 

That's why Clubs are/should lower their ST and match day prices starting with this season. I have posted my thoughts what ST and match day prices. What do you think of those ideas? 

 

Even if clubs agree to subsidise season ticket prices, which is a nice idea but will not happen. The number of games that Sky will be showing and allowed to be showed by the EFL is a disgrace. And even with cheaper tickets, season tickets will become less and less appealing when such disregard is shown by Sky and the EFL to match going fans making it impossible for many to attend so many fixtures when in the past, most would be 3pm on Saturday and only a fraction would be moved at the inconvience of the supporter.

Football is nothing without fans? Dont make me laugh.

I think Tomasson became more popular as time went on. I actually thought he got most stick when we was up at the top prior to the World Cup.

It is indeed down to personal perception, I never got the narrative that Mowbray was loved and Tomasson was never taken to myself, but we all talk to different people, sit in different areas and read different things.

On Sky/EFL they are both complicit and responsible in planning to move an even more stupid number of games from 3pm Saturday. That will drive people away I suspect but I doubt those 2 parties care about fans.

Obviously he has no faith beyond the first 11. As with every position, the budget cuts have left us with absolutely no depth. 

Signed lots of quality at Birmingham as reflected by their league position.

Ollie Burke? Dreadful player.

Absolutely no chance of us geting Johansson. Id be amazed if we dont stick with the 2 clowns signed on deals for the forseeable. Even more amazed if we spent a million on a keeper that is actually good.

I dont get why anyone would be such a staunch advocat of Sky. Obviously in conjunction with the EFL, at the cost of the match going fan who is not seen as a priority by either party. Both are only interested in money and have stopped even pretending otherwise.

Living in a dream world if people think that extra revenue will subsidise tickets, and even if it did a bit, it will make it impossible to get to games when so many are being moved regardless of price. Football is nothing without fans? Well actually the EFL and Sky couldnt give a shit about us.

26 minutes ago, Andy said:

I'd struggle to say otherwise for the existing squad, to be fair.

Rotherham will be top half minimum, probably promotion contenders, and theyve got less than half the points we do.

Regardless of league, we need to gut the squad and sign a large number, not promote the youth team. Im no expert on the under 21s but i dont think a few of your names are regulars.

Your plan is cutting standards even below Venkys which is quite impressive!

42 minutes ago, Andy said:

I'd clear the decks and play mainly kids.

We're going to be shit either way, so we might as well give the promising kids a season to learn and develop.

Leo / Michalski

DF from:

O'Riordan
Batty
Barnes
Wharton
Duru
Davies
Acheson

MF:

Gilsenan
Whitehall
Finneran
Buckley
Edmondson
Farkas

ST:

Leonard
Tyjon
Telalovic
Nsangou

I am 100% sure that the above squad ends in League 2. 

I think ideas of him going on a run are beyond fanciful. He has always looked well out of his depth, another symptom of the owners cutting budgets beyond reasonable levels.

14 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

What evidence is there that the manager is unpopular ?

There is no evidence, just the feeling I have got. To be honest, only 2 wins and 0 at home are hardly going to breed popularity. You might have a totally different perception.

The TV deal is a sickener for all clubs. Sky will put absolutely no thought towards the fans, moving more games here there and everywhere. It will affect crowds up and down the country, showing furthermore that when Sky said during Covid that football is nothing without fans, it was a blatant lie from their side.

Throw in the disconnect currently between the fans and the club and the shoddy way its being run with owners as bad as youll find in the EFL, and budget cuts galore. With a poor team under an unpopular manager and a pitiful home record this season, season ticket sales will dive. The only way to keep them respectable is a significant drop in price. I expect at best a freeze.

Ive no idea where this idea that hes a good player just not being utilised in his best position comes from when that supposed best position is one hes never played in.

8 minutes ago, Polky said:

 

Shows all of his errors leading to goals this season.

He’s that bad an account with 675k followers has accused him of match fixing 😂

That video definitely does not show all of his errors!

1 hour ago, AspRover said:

I think a better question might be who do we expect to still be here if we go down - I think in spite of how they've looked this year a fair number of our players would attract interest from championship clubs and let be honest Swag isn't exactly going to be turning down bids is he. Teams will look at last season and missing the playoffs on goal difference as much as this season. 

 

Pears

JRC - Wharton - O'Riordan - Gent

Garret - Buckley

  Hedges - Markanday - Gilsenan

Leonard

 

Bench of Barnes, Batty, Vale, Telalovic and some children? Something like that?

 

That team would struggle in League 1.

JRC is one of the few players that might be of interest to Championship clubs should we go down, unless they would give him a miss due to his injuries.

3 hours ago, Mercer said:

Sadly, Ewood Park has never been renowned as having a hostile atmosphere which is often worth a goal start.

Highbury was once nicknamed The Library' because it was so quiet.

In the main, Rovers fans are a docile lot at Ewood Park, too little passion and too many happy clappers.

Wasn't there a game last season that you missed out of fear?

10 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

What does Gallagher offer that a L2 clogger couldn't?

His anticipation and movement is terrible. His second touch is a tackle. 

He usually gets 8 or 9 goals a season at this level, that obviously isnt the case the season not helped by missing so many games injured, but put him in League 2 and safe to say he would likely stand out.

He is much more effective than the likes of Telalovic, Ennis and Hirst were with us having no money.

Hes bang average and he will never be a natural goalscorer but he has proven over a number of years at this level that he is a bang average striker in the Championship.

Eustace often plays with a back 3 (well 5) and still O'Riordan cant make the bench.

Markanday and especially Telalovic would struggle in league 1.

4 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Must have panicked in the heat of the moment because I don't think the back pass rule would have applied. If a defender unintentionally slices a clearance and the keeper picks it up then its not deemed a foul because it wasn't an intentional pass.

Interesting hypothetical though - if he had conceded a free kick a yard out- would we have been entitled to line up eleven players on the line making it virtually impossible to score or would they get a free hit?

Isnt the rule that it has to be 10 yards from the goal line, so it would be taken from there? 

As you say though, unsure if similar to if a defender does it, an unintentional slice that goes back to the keeper isnt a backpass, but not as straightforward if its the keeper himself that does it. So not sure on that.

3 hours ago, Mercer said:

Damning Gallagher statistics.

Underlines the absolute idiocy in not selling him to Ipswich in January for circa £1.5m as well as getting his relatively, for Rovers, astronomical wages off our books.  No matter who we might have replaced Gallagher with they could hardly have been as ineffective.

Seeing Gallagher in a Rovers' shirt simply makes my blood boil - IMO, he's stealing a very luxurious living from the club.

 

 

 

 

Dismissing any thoughts of reinvesting as fantasy land stuff. We can get worse, simply because of the cuts. Telalovic, Ennis and Hirst have all been worse in the last 2 years. Thats the standard we are working with.

1 hour ago, roverblue said:

Agree with most of this. As soon as Adam Wharton left it took the only creativity out of the team, a player who could make a forward pass to change the game.

All we are left with is plodders who work hard but hate having the ball at their feet. Its like a hot potato and they cant wait to pass it 6 yards to someone else to remove the responsibility for it.

If I was Sam Gallagher and got any grief for my goal record I'd just respond with that fact that he gets zero chances created for him. How is he going to score with balls launched into orbit for him whilst he is just past the halfway line.

The squad is a total shit show full of similar players, no wingers, no strikers, no creativity, no pace, no dribbling and no power.

Whatever summer budget we have must be spent on 4-5 attacking players.

I have always said that Gallagher simply is not very good at anticipating chances. Thats the main reason why his goal tally is never going to be near the top of the league, he doesnt have that instinct and never will be. Offers other things but is simply not a natural goalscorer.

That being said, under Eustace he like every other attacker is hindered more than ever. There is absolutely no sign of an attacking game plan. He often spends much of the game wide and the tactic of centre backs whacking it aimlessly in the channels just has him running after the ball with the defender naturally ahead of him. He wins throw ins and the odd corner which is all he can really do in that situation but its just not going to lead to him doing anything constructive.

3 hours ago, Groundhog said:

I was furious on Sunday. One of the worst days for a long while, I wanted the ground to swallow me up in that 2nd half, and the feeling of deflation across the entire ground was heartbreaking. But it may be an unpopular opinion, but I'm directing all my ire toward the players and the club hierarchy, not the manager. Forget the manager, whoever we have in charge, it won't make a difference.

The one common factor over the time of TM, JDT and now JE is:
1) the board, lack of ambition from the top down, cost cutting in all areas
2) the slow dumbing down of the playing squad, death by 1000 cuts, poor recruitment (1 player from the last 2 transfer windows in the starting XI)

I'm not sure even Warnock or Allardyce would get a tune out of this lot. 

I totally get the frustration of playing 5 at the back at home, just because it worked at Leeds doesn't mean we should have carried it into a must-win home game, totally different scenarios. The Millwall and Plymouth games were tedious dross too. 

But I'd love to hear what people would do to get this lot taking the initiative at Ewood, to put teams who are sitting back to the sword - what could we do differently with this set of players? The only thing I can think of is getting the squad to get back to basics when under pressure, get Gallagher running the channels, spread their back 4 wide, stop trying fancy flicks, keep the ball, play it simple for periods just to regain control - I just don't know what the game plan was.

Against Stoke at home, they were poor, and trying to attack, leaving space, plus we never went behind.

As someone said:

1) we're neither a technical, pacey free flowing side built to play JDT's football, City on the cheap doesn't work - fed up of club's trying to emulate it

2) we're not physical or have the nous to play long ball and have a striker who can hold the ball up - imagine if we had a Kiefer Moore, or prime Danny Graham?

We're stuck in between two schools, with League One players, no subs to change it either. It's an impossible job - the Sheff Wed players harried and closed down, they weren't easy on the eye or technically any better but they were physical - where do you get lads like this? Why is our recruitment limited to players like Clinton Mola? That for me is the real issue. 

It was probably a "sensible" approach (don't shoot me down for saying that) to keep it tight against Wednesday, don't over-commit, remain calm, and pick them off as they get desperate, trying to bring them onto us. We went out all guns blazing against Sunderland and we still lost 3-1 - but both approaches have the same issue: no plan B, and players who can't handle the pressure as it slowly ramps up when we go behind. Is that on the manager or the lack of options from a poor squad?

Whatever is it, I'm sure when JE is falling asleep at night, he's thinking to himself "why is someone who's built like Gallagher no able to become a decent striker at this level" just like we all are, he just can't say it. If JE was at another club, and allowed to spend and build a side, do you think he'd be able to pick a player? So many unknowns.

The blame should always go back to India. 

The players arent very good, surrounded by other players who arent very good, managed by someone who seems out of his depth. That same manager though is hindered by poor players. Broughton's transfer record is poor but he is working with buttons. And Waggott's a failure in many ways but seemingly just working to the owners commands.

All of these issues are just symptoms of the real problem. The same problen that has existed for is it 13 long years?

In the last 2 seasons, we have overperformed with some very good work from Tomasson and Mowbray. But not enough players led to the season imploding. More cuts at a more aggressive rate and this season has been in the post for years.

Carter has done well to get the second highest rating. He was all over the place.