superniko

8 minutes ago, Hasta said:

To be fair, even though they haven't started the best, Elliot has never looked out of his depth when I've seen Liverpool play this season. He's doing well and, even though there'll never be a connection to Rovers for him again, it's good to see. Good he's probably come back to see some mates last night as well.

 

We had Elliott and the 2nd top scorer in the league (as well as the 2nd top scorer the season after) all in the same team but still failed to make the playoffs! Almost feels more of a missed opportunity than how we threw away last season. We looked unreal at times in the Elliott season but just couldn't defend. If only we had Hyam, Wharton and a fit Ayala!

The league is just so open this year it appears to be inflating our expectations...16 games and 27 points sits us top of the table (albeit others with games in hand)

20/21: 16 games and 23 points (12th place) - Bournemouth 37 and Fulham 35 points

19/20: 16 games and 25 points (9th place) - Norwich 31 points and Bournemouth 30 points

After 16 games last season Coventry had the same points we have now and finished 12th overall, likewise QPR finished 11th. Sheffield United back in 16th reached the playoffs. 

Our run up to the World Cup is huge, 4 very low rated teams in a row probably should see us in the top two as we head into our local derby followed by a few weeks off! Rovers & England double pays 200/1 - Merry Christmas

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

That Patrick Roberts looked absolutely class for Sunderland, as a few other posters have mentioned. Even though they were all over us towards the end though, I don’t feel like they had that many clear cut chances in reality.

Strange one Roberts - was loaned out everywhere and when he did finally leave City it was only a 6 month contract to Sunderland in League 1. 

They'll push top 6 with himself and Clarke for sure.

3 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

MofM, Garrett! 

Peter Jackson being a tad generous there but the lad will enjoy his watch more than Diaz and co 😁

Morton and Brittain have been absolutely brilliant tonight. 

Thought the wall played him onside but would need to look again

DEFENDERS ARE HERE! 
We look a lot more solid with Wharton, Hyam, Ayala and Carter from what we’ve seen but we’re a threat from set pieces again - the first 3 in particular sticking their head on plenty up top (see Gallagher assist at the weekend too)

2 minutes ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

if were still serious play-off/promotion contenders in jan he'd be very wise to just see the season out with us (and in a dream scenario be part of a promotion winning team with us and sign a new contract as a prem player for us)

Let’s hope so - I guess it’s only abroad he can go in January for free so if we’re up there I’d imagine he’ll stay. 
He has so much motivation now which is great for us this season...Screamers like that on Sky are worth another £10k a week on a Prem contract. 

I’m still not convinced about us but GET THE FECK IN JDT AND THE LADS 

HUMBLE PIE - came from Brittain cutting inside!

Pure quality from Diaz though. I will miss him in February 

Old Tone would have been slaughtered if he’d started Nyambe on the left and Pickering on the right. (Rightly so)
But we’re led to believe JDT has a style / vision / plan

We’ve not reached Striker at RB or Defensive Mid as false 9 thank god!

I do like Brittain. Looks a solid player 

4 minutes ago, WacoRover said:

Away end nearly outnumbers all our fans

Waggott will be happy then, with the extra £5 he squeezed out of them all 

7 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Yeah I'm thinking that maybe Szmodics will play in midfield rather than up top. He's got the engine and technical ability for it. We shall see.

Pardon?

23 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

How so?

Again sticking to a formation that has worked - the only real question mark being Hedges ahead of Mola / Edun at LWB, but I guess he thinks we'll be on the front foot tonight so wants a ball player there.

What do you mean “How so?” It’s self-explanatory isn’t it. I said he changes the team week to week more than the last manager (in the wording Tombola). He’s made 4 changes here. I hope you’re right and he hasn’t reverted to 343 again though. 

Bigger Tombola than the last fella!
I just don’t get it (I’ll wait for the pelters when we go top 2 tonight)

Edit: Surely our midfield isn’t going to be overrun by Corry bloody Evans 

—————— Kaminski ——————

— Carter——— Hyam ——— Wharton —

Brittain ———————————— Pickering

——— Morton - Dack - Wharton ———

——— Gallagher —— Brereton ———

Dack in for suspended Travis but as a midfielder and just control the game with that middle 3 as we should at home. 
Remember we had Morton and Wharton in the middle together for (what I believe) was our best performance this season away to Blackpool (Travis was RB)

Could argue we don’t need 3 at the back given Sunderland’s lack of striker but we seem most solid with 3 at the back and 3 in midfield so I’d stick with that.

I think JDT will fiddle with formation and style again unfortunately and squeeze Hedges and Szmodics back in. 

HUGE opportunity in the build up to dingles away:

Sunderland (H), Birmingham (H), Hull (A), Coventry (A), Huddersfield (H).

Arguably 5 bottom half teams come season end, certainly no top 6 challengers in there really. 

5 minutes ago, BigBar said:

Pickering getting a pasting second half 

The lad Jones is absolute class at this level. No idea why he didn’t start. 

Sky Sports saying Lenihan OG!!

Happy to see the 3 in the middle. Should stop that space just being a huge void now. Also good to see a proper RB/RWB playing. 
The correct players dropped from Wigan - just hope we see more than 5 mins of Dack this time 

Lenihan header from a Giles cross 1-0 Boro anyone?

54 minutes ago, BigBar said:

If Trav was a new signing he would be slated. He's been awful these days.

Completely agree. Wouldn’t be anywhere near my starting 11. Captaincy means he’ll be an ever present unfortunately. 

57 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

The players will know what JDT wants. 

If that’s the case then JDT doesn’t have a clue. 

3 hours ago, Atko's Engine said:

I've not read beyond this post yet so maybe this point has been made, but I don't think that's truly representative & is very misleading.

90 days ago was shortly after JDT arrived so interest was piqued, plus it was the transfer window. I presume the peaks are days of signings & deadline day, and how many days in between were filled with speculation, "where's Greg"isms & all sorts of waffle & bickering unrelated to the current squad & just fluffed out the threads??

Once the season starts, posts are limited to matches, & esp as we've played pretty much every 3 or 4 days, interest quickly moves onto the next match, there's not much time for much else!

One thing I have noticed is the lack of content on here following victories compared to defeats. Today for example we're only on page 16, at 9.30pm on a Saturday night; half of that was prior to the lineups being announced & most of it not too complimentary following on from the Cardiff loss. On Tuesday, by about midnight there were 30+ pages, mostly derogatory about the performance & comments that JDT isn't up to the task. I think that speaks volumes for the general tone on here being hyper critical, in that when we win folk find it hard to compliment (hence lack of posts) & say it just papers over cracks, yet when we lose they go overboard in their criticism & claim (for example) the selection was wrong, style is wrong, players are L1 standard at best, we'll still end up in a relegation scrap, bought cheap, waste of money, etc.

It just seems unnecessary to me how folk go so overboard on defeats, but pass off wins as well so what, that's what their paid to do right??

Maybe that isn't just a BRFCS thing, maybe it's forums per se; I don't know enough of other forums to compare. But I do think it's a valid point to raise in this context.

Anyway, I keep coming back, posting & enjoying banter, so maybe I'm a glutton for punishment!!

Good win today, glad for Szmodics to get an assist & a goal, it can only be good for the club that he succeeds here.

Cardiff was on Sky away from home midweek, so lots of posts from the sofa during the match. Rotherham was a Saturday with most inside the ground not posting…but I do agree with the general sentiment of the post. 

1 hour ago, J*B said:

I’ve always said Rovers should ask BRFCS for access to our data. I’ve attached the last 90 days worth of activity… people are losing interest, fast. 

Really interesting - it does feel like a lot of the recent match threads have been far quieter. 
However a lot of that data is the transfer window which naturally is a lot busier here for rumours and discussion (though I do agree with the general point).

On the match itself. Hedges RWB and Szmodics central forward - shambles 

3 minutes ago, J*B said:

I believe he was first choice at Pompy? Not sure on that though. He’s obviously a decent penalty taker to be ahead of others on the pitch. 

Proof is in the pudding.
Weak, not accurate and poor height. All well and good if the keeper goes early the wrong way. 

EDIT: not calling him out for missing the penalty, more that he just isn’t a good footballer, he’s hardly the number 9 who is going to guide us to the prem is he? So why have we loaned him. He didn’t score in the league for Rotherham and Pompey were L1 m. We should be picking up players to get us promoted and he is not that  

Do we beat Burnley if we continue on the WLWLWLW run?