roversfan99

Williams is never a centre back, @chaddyrovers says he has played there before and I know he did in a 3 at Bristol City but when played in a central 2 last season he really struggled I felt, when we had a bit of a wobble around the time of the Plymouth defeat. That said, I dont think that Downing is going to be good enough at this level either, so I appreciate that its a tough choice, in an area where we really needed to strengthen in the summer. Understand what you are saying in terms of hypocrisy but Conway isnt a competent Championship winger. Hes been chosen to protect his full back but Rothwell has shown his ability to graft and also unlike Conway, who should never be starting games at this level anymore, he can also add something going forward. I think Palmer and Dack are superior set piece takers too. Based on my personal expectations, I wouldnt say that the team is performing ABOVE expectations. Based on the results and the fixtures so far, we are about on par.

Worrying side. Mulgrew a huge blow and playing Williams out of position seems a strange choice, as does Conway over Rothwell. That said, im not convinced that the Derby line up is as bas as it could have been.

Agree totally. Think they are underrated as silly as that sounds. I also think Mulgrews defensive capabilities are somewhat underappreciated due to his style. I think with Graham, his brilliant partnership with Dack is something that we lack when one is not in the team. They show how intelligent they are at times when they play together. The younger Armstrong and Brereton should watch and learn. That said, Armstrong himself linked very well with them last season coming from wide positions and exploiting space.

Wouldnt say fickle. Dont think they have ever been totally enamoured with the owner. David Healy is still their record signing and after 3 seasons in the top half with a well built talented squad I can understand why after selling 2 key players and spending a pittance in return, that their fans are frustrated at a time when they could have pushed on towards the Prem.

It says "I have to assume its Mowbrays call" quite the opposite of saying its someone elses call. 100% agree. Graham should have the shirt for the time being. He doesnt fit the mantra of a vibrant attacking team, nor does Mulgrew, but the pair not only bring experience but unparalled quality in their positions. Grahams hold up and knock downs are the perfect platform for Dack in particular to thrive off. For me, our 2 most underrated players are our 2 most experienced.

Oh god. Replacement bus it is!

Travel arrangements?

Bennett surely wont play as a 10 again though with Dack back. Im sure player unavailability was part of the thinking v Brentford. We need to allow Dack and co to try and prey on mistakes from Derby overplaying at the back.

Its important for us to go there looking to press and attack. They like to play it out at times naively from the back and with players like Keogh they can often be caught in dangerous areas.

Hopefully there are times where we dont need Evans, Smallwood and Bennett in the same team and Reeds natural instinct to get box to box will be encouraged rather than reigned in. The aforementioned quote is surely referring to when he played a big part in the goal, after recycling a set play then bringing it forward before laying it to Mulgrew.

Whilst Im sure that the tactical change was reactive following Villas change, I think @Stuart is more critical of HOW we went about countering that move.

Im sure they are but my point is more that it bugs me, as understandable as it is, when supporters criticise referees by suggesting or implying that they are biased whilst turning a blind eye to incorrect decisions that go in our favour. I think maybe interviewing them afterwards has been done on occasion before and I take on board your communication point but if we got abad decision against us for example, I dont think that the referee coming out after and admitting his mistake would be of any consolation.

Agreed. Two things I remember reading as a common theme when looking through the opinions of Forest fans is that he throws himself to the ground a little too much, and that he is totally ineffective from a wide position. Both of which I felt were prevalent in his cameo yesterday. It screamed of bringing him on because of who he is, rather than bringing on someone best suited to play the role that Brereton was brought on to do. If we needed someone to play a wide role, in the absence of a winger, surely Palmer and Rothwell were much better suited.

The key is to get people back. Would have made sense to have a freeze, on prices that have gone up since the aforementioned John Williams pricing strategies anyway, with the sole focus on getting people back. If a price increase is necessary at some point, surely next year would be better. Its rare that optimism is so high as it was in the summer following a promotion.

Lets cut out the conspiracy nonsense, the ref was against us and for the opponent rubbish. Grealish used his body well and Reed barged into him clumsily. The ref didnt have a soft spot for Grealish. As for the other 2 main decisions, both us and Villa got a decision in the penalty non-award and the 'offisde' goal that went for/against us. He didnt have an impact bar a slight flick at the start of the melee following superb work my Mulgrew, leading to the goal. Im sure he will in time but not yesterday and not playing in that position. Youve basically agreed on Dack, he did try and make things happen, he always does, but it usually wasnt coming off for him, attempts at nutmegs and dribbles not quite coming off. He was still influential but not to the same success as usual, apart from the crucial goal. He was never man of the match.

Whilst I partially agree that essentially the key factor in improving the atmosphere is in the number of fans to begin with. I think you need to direct at least some if not all of your ire towards Waggott and his decision to significantly increase season ticket prices at a time when supporter happiness and interaction is at a high under the current ownership.

The thing is, you're posting in the Aston Villa individual match thread. I have not seen anyone say it is a terrible result, a bad performance or anything like that. I have seen people comment both positively and negatively on aspects of the team performance, on individual performance, on refereeing decisions, on team selection and on substitutions, which is exactly what I would expect. It isnt the "how have Rovers done in the last 12 months" thread otherwise I have no doubt that there would be universal positivity. So many people seem insistent on creating an atmosphere on here whereby because the club is clearly on an upward trajectory, that every bit of criticism, no matter if it is warranted or not, should be met with hostility. Expressing disappointment in a last minute equaliser doesnt have to then be manipulated into unhappiness at the overall current situation of the club, or towards the managers future, or anything like that. Posts like this just take peoples opinions over individual, isolated incidents and take them out of context to make people seem unreasonable. Go onto a Man City messageboard, a Barcelona one, whatever, when they drop points or when certain players under perform, they will also criticise that. Again, doesnt mean they think the clubs gone to wrack and ruin. Please can you quote the "absolute load of tripe" that you have seen that is the reason that many members have been driven away from the messageboard.

Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Bell Reed Evans Bennett Dack Palmer Graham Subs: Leutwiler, Smallwood, Williams, Brereton, Rothwell, Armstrong, Downing Think Palmer deserves to come in over Armstrong, and I don't think Graham deserves to surrender his shirt yet. Central midfield is a judgement call to partner Evans, I have chosen Reed for his energy but I suspect Smallwood to play and he did improve yesterday. Very tough game and we will need to be on it for 90 minutes.

Just seen the free kick award again, was really clever by Grealish and naive by Reed but a certain foul.

Millwall at home, a bottom half team at the moment who are reliant on their home form, is on paper one of the games that you would consider one of the more likely to pick up 3 points. 6 points is not the worst tally from 4 home games but another win from one of the 3 draws weve had would have made it a much brighter start.

I know but my point was, contrary to some opinions, the officials poor performance affected both teams, rather than just us. Please stop speaking in such a patronising manner, Brereton was right in front of me and I didnt see him take his man on at any point really, he didnt look sharp, (perhaps aprtially due to lack of game time) he threw himself over too many times and he failed to impact the game but I do take into account that he was out of position and it was only 35 minutes. I hope playing him wide isnt something that Mowbray will do going forward as he has with other forwards. Graham held the ball up expertly on the rare occasions that we got him involved but I thought that his main problem was the support to him; Dack was involved as ever but he got tackled quite a lot and his final ball wasnt up to his usual high standards, and Armstrong was barely involved and never ran at Hutton.

I dont think you can blame luck to be fair. We will get what we deserve over the season. Brentford I missed but from all accounts, sounds like we ground out the result, something that really impressed me. The Reading game was a shocking first half and a spirited second half, I dont think we could justifiably say we could have had more points there. Bristol City is the only game that we were totally outclassed in, and also learnt what you need to do when dominant with a ruthless display. We can file that under "one of those days." On the flip side, Hull away we were similarly dominant and although we didnt put them to the sword like Bristol City did to us, we got an away win which was a good result. Milwall, Ipswich and Aston Villa are the 3 games that rankle a bit. Milwall we didnt deserve to win but we had the chances to do so in the second half. The latter 2, we need to make sure that we keep concentration until the end of games or it will cost us, we invited pressure v a very poor Ipswich and made poor subs in that game, and yesterday I think Rayas positioning and preparation of his wall was to blame. That said, our points tally is ok but I am a bit frustrated as it could be better based on how the games have gone, and the quality of opposition we have faced so far. I have no doubts that we can be competitive as we have shown, but we need to turn more draws into wins and ensure that the 2 late goals are not a regular theme. And @chaddyrovers even though we are hard to beat at home we need to turn more draws into wins going forward. You fail to mention the 2 favourable home games we have failed to win.

We can compete but my point is that we have some tougher games coming up away from home. I have a slight worry that we will rue the points we have thrown away in what has been a quite favourable fixture list in these first 7 days. We need to be far more ruthless in seeing games out, that said, we have shown we can be competitive.

We are in a situation at the moment hovering in mid table with some much more challenging looking games coming up. It will be an acid test for the quality in our team. If the games go as no doubt expected by neutrals, we will soon be in a battle and ruing the points weve surrendered with plenty of regret. If we get an impressive number of points then we will also really show that we can compete at this level.

Even with the wall as it was, Raya should have been one step over to his right, he shouldnt have been beaten at that near post, Hourihane was always going to go for that side. Raya had a good day in terms of claiming the ball and did one brilliant throw to set up a counter attack, but again got very lucky when he ran out by slicing the ball back into play when he should have put it in the stands. He does this almost every game and I'm amazed that it hasnt been nipped in the bud by both him and the goalkeeping coach. Officials had a very poor day but again it wasnt a conspiracy against Rovers. As unlucky as we were to see a goal wrongly ruled out, we should have conceded a blatant penalty. Brereton should never play wide, he looked like a fish out of water in a position that Forest fans suggested he was ineffective in there. They also said he throws himself to the floor a lot and he certainly did a few times. Hopefully its more fitness based than desire but the intensity in chasing people down just wasnt there and he seemed a lot slower than I expected and more ponderous. We all know that our squad lacks wingers but Palmer should have been brought on over him to play that role. I do wonder who will start on Tuesday. Reed was very impressive albeit naive to give away the critical free kick. That said, I cant see him breaking up Evans and Smallwood. Further forward, Dack is a given. (Although I thought he wasnt at his best yesterday, was trying things but they often didnt come off) Palmer was unlucky not to start and deserves to come back in over Armstrong. So if its a straight fight between Graham, Brereton and Armstrong to be number 9. The latter 2 may fancy bringing mobility but Armstrong has been poor so far this season and Brereton hasnt done anything in his cameos to put him above Graham so id probably stick with him. Very surprised to be the first to vote Mulgrew as man of the match, thought he stood out.