Miller11

Personally I’d rather fill the gaps with our young players than those of premier league teams. Morton is playing week in and week out for us and he’s a month younger than Harlock and 6 months older than Garrett. I don’t think he’s anywhere near special enough to be pushing these lads down the pecking order. The ideal scenario at left back would be to sign someone with a bit of experience to upgrade on Pickering, or at least provide genuine competition. If we are looking purely at an understudy I’d use the kids.

Travis doesn’t seem to have a tackle in him these days. We looked far more up for a battle yesterday without him in the side. He looks like he’s spent the last couple of years trying to become a pound shop Robbie Savage. Savage was thunderous in the tackle and a better player than he ever got credit for. Travis seems to be utterly obsessed with “shithousery”, moaning at the ref, rolling around, niggly fouls and acts of petulance.

It’s proven to be dangerous playing attacking players as full backs instead of players who specialise in that position. Batty and Cirino would be my choices to replace Pickering when he’s not fit. I actually don’t mind Edun, but he looks like he’s on his way out.

Agreed. I think he’s struggled at times this season, and I think he was overhyped last season. That said, playing actual fullbacks on their actual sides is simple common sense and shouldn’t be an area for experimentation or tactical changes. We need another right back with Brittain struggling with different injuries, because while the stop gaps work for the odd game here and there it’s been proven many times we don’t have another reliable option there. Jake Batty should be deputising for Pickering when he’s unavailable.

Bigger than the EFL.

Don’t blame him.

Much better that. And much needed after our last 2 pathetic showings. I’m not getting too carried away just now, but cutting out some of the suicidal shite at the back was a start. Dolan was brilliant for me. His effort and endeavour counts for a lot and seems encourage some of the others to graft harder. Dack did well and Buckley should be forcing Travis into the wilderness now. Ayala has to start when fit. JRC has been dealt a really bad hand by Mowbray, he’ll never be a natural fullback (unlike Pickering who was solid - good to see him back after his iffy spell), but there’s a decent player in there. I think he looked quite good today and hopefully will be kept around and given a chance in a position he’s better suited to. I don’t think Morton should be blocking the path of Wharton, Garrett and Harlock. Maybe also JRC.

I’m not on about how they look. The quality of their materials and manufacturing process is poor and cheap. They also appear to be using Asian sizing for our kits judging by the comments from fans who have had to size up or ended up with a shirt that’s way too small. Despite this they seem to have sold well, and people who want one are missing out. They definitely needed to order more, or at least had the option to reorder in smaller numbers than what’s stipulated in the deal.

Even if you shrug your shoulders and blame everything on supply chain issues, you can’t absolve the club. They should’ve picked a better manufacturer - Macron are notoriously crap, and not agreed to such ridiculous terms that basically prevent them from restocking. I managed to get hold of a 7-8 year olds GK shirt a couple of weeks ago. I ordered online and opted for same day click and collect… it was more than 72 hours until they actually had it ready for me to pick up. I guess that’s my own fault though somehow, can’t possibly be down to incompetence at Rovers!

I’m really tempted to try and pay for Christmas by lumping on a Pukki hat-trick at 28/1. We are guaranteed to gift him one or two to get him started.

Could not agree more with this. I’m clinging on to a bit of hope that we might see more of him in an attacking sense as the season goes on, but while it looks like he can put a good cross in there is rarely anyone to cross to.

None of us can match that gaffer, but did you achieve all that as part of teams that played the way you are trying to instil in us? No.

I’d go… Kaminski Carter Hyam Ayala Pickering Dolan Buckley A. Wharton Hedges Dack (c) Brereton Pears, S. Wharton, Edun, Harlock, Gallagher, JRC, Markanday Kaminski off for Pears the first time he fails to kick a ball over the half way line. However, I expect a back 3 with chasms throughout and random players as “wing backs” who will often be our most advanced players, our centre backs to have several thousand touches between them, and Pukki to score a hat trick with assists from our defenders.

Let’s not forget this is pretty much the same group of players that managed to completely collapse from February onwards last season. In fact we have now downgraded our on pitch leadership. Mowbray stuck with a failing plan, JDT looks to be even more stubborn. If we don’t have wholesale changes to the squad (we won’t), or we ditch the system and get back to basics (we won’t) I think we will plummet down the table at an even more rapid rate than we did last year. We are literally giving teams goals. We are approaching double figures of absolutely ridiculous, unforgivable, embarrassing goals to concede. The sort of goals that would’ve made a Danny Baker video special or been ripped apart by Baddiel and Skinner in years gone by. There is nothing to suggest we are working on addressing this. Tomasson didn’t seem to think that was a problem yesterday, it was all about the attacking players movement. Thank god we are currently third. The points we’ve amassed so far will come in very handy. We won’t get near another 36 points out of our remaining games.

Definitely no coincidence. It’s been deliberately contrived for years. Since the mania of “Tika-taka” everyone has become obsessed with it being “the right way to play”. Every UEFA coaching licence is based around it. I worked with a number of coaches doing their A and B qualifications a few years ago where they needed to put on sessions. Every single one of them was a variation on the same thing and started with the keeper passing it 6 yards. It’s the reason Sean Dyche is currently unemployed. It’s the reason certain players are massively over/under valued in terms of transfer fees. The rules of the game are being changed to accommodate this style of play. Tomasson and loads of other managers are passing on very little of what they did during their playing careers. Anyone who played the game at any level from Sunday league to Champions league would’ve been hauled over the coals for making one pass across their back line and putting their team mates under pressure, up until about 2005 - but now they are instructed to do it. It’s book learning. All it will lead to is the teams with the best (most suited to this style) players winning leagues and qualifying for European competitions. Rovers should be bucking the trend rather than embracing it, cos clearly we are incapable of doing it competently. I reckon that Tony Pulis Stoke side of 10-15 years ago that were the antithesis of this new obsession would easily get a top 4 finish in the premier league this season.

Jared Harlock should be integrated into the first team too. Can pick a pass, has some bottle about him, captains the U23s. He’s 20 now so more than old enough. I’d have him in over Travis any day.

Personally I don’t see anything good about it. I think everyone playing that way is killing the game and making it incredibly boring. Purely from a Rovers point of view it is costing us more goals than it creates. I don’t think he will ever ditch the idea of wanting to play this way and will persist with it to the teams detriment. Luckily we got more points on the board than I expected before he has truly put his stamp on the team.

I think it’s gone beyond stubbornness and into arrogance at this point. I think it’ll get a lot worse before it gets any better too.

Don’t disagree, but Hyam’s honeymoon period is over now. Started like a house on fire but perhaps there is a reason we got him quite cheaply and he’s never managed a Scotland cap. Shite today.

The more Tomasson puts his stamp on this team, the worse it gets. He is arrogantly sticking to this stupid “philosophy” that anyone who isn’t just trying to play the superfan or football expert can see is completely detrimental to us. PNE looked as though they’d spent the last couple of weeks getting fit and ready. We were miles off. A fortnight in the sun presumably practicing unopposed passing drills.

Snowing quite heavily at the moment. Should be on but I’m getting Millwall deja vu.

Sapped of any real enthusiasm thanks to the World Cup break and (more importantly) the Dingle debacle. I wouldn’t be very surprised if it gets called off as nobody had bothered turning the undersoil heating on.

We are terrible at it. Most of the time when we try to play it out from the back we don’t actually get “out”. If we are lucky Kaminski alleviates the panic by kicking it out for a throw in, when we aren’t lucky we concede possession to the opposition in a dangerous position and sometimes they score.

9-10

Goal music… Jesus. People moaning about it on a messageboard seems the entirely appropriate response. Messaging the CEO to ask him why they are suddenly playing it (there is obviously no real good reason by the way) is ridiculous. If someone feels that strongly about it the fans forum is 100% the place to raise it.