Match Thread: Bury, game 33, Monday 19th Feb

[khmerblue]

Well first game I've seen since Brentford last season,we looked disjointed. A clean sheet will help,looked more solid when we went 4 at the back.
Pluses Mulgrew,Lenihan,Dack,Armstrong,Payne and Raya.
When we go up Pune better have some rupees because big cash will be needed to keep us in the Chumpionship.

 

[OnlyOneTugay]

This Rovers team puzzles me . What is it , one defeat in 22 games ? Yet I’m not convinced they are a good team, a solid unit

It’s great to see them top of the league and tonight they avoided a banana skin and dispatched a team who have been on a good 5 match run .

Agree with kb , the players he mentions had decent games with Dack deservedly man of the match , but they do look disjointed . Sometimes we look better with 4 at the back , sometimes with 5 .

Onto Walsall and hopefully another 3 points . All they can do is keep beating what’s in front of them .

Up the Rovers

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

3 points is what matters but what a dreadful game of football. Lenihan was woeful with his distribution, Smallwood had yet another stinker, Evans was appalling and Mowbray got it wrong with 3 at the back.

Even the crowd were muted. Hardly any noise whatsoever.

Embarrassing all round in front of Sky TV.

Oh and Bennett was also crap.

 

[ABBEY]

Awful 1st half ..supurb 2nd half . Should of like mad at their left back . He could arguebly be the worst player ever to play at ewood.
Get to Ewood they say , the lads need you they say, protesters cause negativity they say , make some noise they say ...and then they boo .

 

[Vinjay]

Being strictly objective I think you could only put Duff in Saha's class. Good as they were, none of those others tempted a big 4 club.

Clubs were interested in Jansen (he was injured and never really same player incase you forgot) and Friedel was over 30. Tugay didn't leave either probably for that reason. As for Dunn its possible if he could have stayed out the pub and stopped getting injured. Sick of the club site referring to him as "Dunny" he's supposed to be in a professional role for the youth. Terrible role model. I could see Duff's potential in 99-2000 when he was player of the season though he was pretty good in 97-98 as well. 98-99 he struggled a bit like some young players do and the other stuff going on didn't help.

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

Awful 1st half ..supurb 2nd half . Should of like mad at their left back . He could arguebly be the worst player ever to play at ewood.
Get to Ewood they say , the lads need you they say, protesters cause negativity they say , make some noise they say ...and then they boo .

.....apart from the disgusting booing you could hear in the JW the crisp packets blowing around behind the Riverside.

 

[ABBEY]

It was non stop singing where we are

 

[Old Darwen Blue]

It was non stop singing where we are

I could hear you from the Darren End pal

 

[Drog]

Finally hit top spot so well done to all, but what an awful disjointed display in front of the Sky cameras, although I'd imagine the vast majority of households outside of our two small towns would have tuned in to Wigan v Man City on the Beeb.
Too much fiddly short passing and over elaboration alternated with long balls going nowhere near their intended target! Give it to a colleague in space / play the simple ball / play the way you are facing then be available for the return pass/ etc etc. All these golden rules ignored. Spaces appearing all over the park for Bury despite our midfield 6! Zero threat to Bury for the first half! I could go on. At the end of the day it's 3 points and a table topping position but as far as I can see that's despite Mowbrays input tonight and not because of it! Don't get me wrong I like Mowbray as a manager. He's brought fitness, respect and discipline to Ewood and got the Rovers show back on the rails but as a tactician he leaves a lot to be desired!
Lots of questions tonight...

1. Why break up the strong midfield duo of Smallwood and Bennett who have worked so well together since he moved Bennett into a central midfield role?

2. Why go 3 at the back when 4 has served us pretty well? Was it to keep Williams in the team when new signing Bell looks a cut above at right back?

3. Why move Armstrong inside when he has looked sharp on the left wing? This imo simply restricted Dack's freedom to roam wherever he wanted, and tbh Armstrong's game was limited as playing up top meant that he too was denied space by being tightly marked.

4. Why when 2-0 up with 20 mins still to play introduce your 3rd and last sub??? Everything to lose should a player get injured and nothing really to gain!

5. Why drop the MoM in the last home game Jack Payne? When he did come on he brought flair and invention to a stuttering and stalling midfield?

6. Why start with Evans at all? He's dreadfully poor and imo with a bad attitude to work and the team ethic and needs pushing toward the exit door.

7. The one man with the clinical finishing ability to lead the line and convert chances was substituted as soon as he had opened the scoring! Why TF would anybody do that? Scoring gives every striker a temporary boost.

8 Replace Bell with Nyambe see the bold bit in '7'!

So many faults tonight which contributed to a stuttering and stalling disjointed team performance which would have been surely punished by better opposition. Whatever was Mowbrays thinking tonight simply didn't work. He needs to take a long hard look at his own performance tonight! We have the players to walk this league if only we'd stick to the 4-4-1-1 that has served us pretty well. The fact that we now have an embarrassment of riches in attacking midfield must not mean that we have to play them all at the same time.

Raya... 6 Did everything required of him. Even caught a corner kick too although little pressure was being applied by the Bury players.
Lenihan...5 Looked very rusty in the 3 man back line and over hit too many long passes.
Mulgrew... 7 My personal MoM as he thwarted the Bury attacks time and again. Took a number of free kicks and flighted them into the danger area only for chances to be spurned. One criticism .... why take inswinging corners from the right for a diminutive attack to compete against a huge keeper? (Stu Ripley's lad btw).
Williams .. 5 A below par performance typified with a spurned chance from a free header in front of goal when it looked easier to score presented by a 'Mulgrew special' free kick.
Bennett... 5 looked poor on the wing against a speedy Bury RB and much better and happier when Mulgrew's tinkering allowed him back into his obviously favourite central midfield role.
Smallwood..5 Appeared neither to fit in nor relish partnering Evans in midfield.
Evans.... 3 Dreadful midfield display with a seeming reluctance to compete physically and also to track back and cover when needed. Bin this bugger off asap!
Bell...6 Still early days but the quality which I have seen from this lad emanated from him playing in a traditional left back in a back 4 role and not as a more advanced wing back where he looks half the player. Mowbray must pick between Williams and Bell imo.
Armstrong.. 6 His now obligatory goal but 1st half was anonymous and he only 'came too' in the second half as the subs came into play.
Dack... 7 "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" typifies Bradley Dack. Peter Jackson MoM. So difficult to dispossess even by massive defenders when he is in control of the ball and so full of invention as displayed in the way that he set Graham up for the opener. Did tend to hang on to the ball and over elaborate tonight when there were plenty of options in space and available.
Graham... 6 Well marshalled generally by a Bury defence helped massively by poor hoof balls directed vaguely in his direction. As usual one chance equals one goal.

Subs
Payne ... 7 Full of invention and quality when he was introduced to replace the hapless or more accurately 'hopeless' Corey Evans.
Antonnson... 5 Came on for Graham on 60 mins and for no good reason imo. Contributed little.
Nyambe ... 4 Strange and imo amateurish decision to bring him on with 20 mins still to play as we were 2-0 up and he was our last sub. This was an unnecessary roll of the dice which has seen us in trouble before (Southend away when with all subs used Lenihan was forced to limb around up top with what turned out to be a broken metatarsal. Also Wigan away when we went down to 9 men after Bennett's dismissal and Chapmans hamstring injury).

Mowbray.... 3 Bloody awful display of tactical nous all evening. Back to the drawing board Tony and if you want to take some advice.... Don't over complicate, keep it simple and for goodness sakes don't try to fit all your wealth of attacking midfielders at your disposal into the same starting X1. Remember the old saying of too many cooks!

Ref John Busby. 6 Decent display but largely anonymous and with no big decisions to make.

 

[AllRoverAsia]

Awful disjointed display in front of the Sky cameras, although I'd imagine the vast majority of households outside of our two small towns would have tuned in to Wigan v Man City on the Beeb.
Too much fiddly short passing and over elaboration alternated with long balls going nowhere near their intended target! Give it to a colleague in space / play the simple ball / play the way you are facing then be available for the return pass/ etc etc. All these golden rules ignored. Spaces appearing all over the park for Bury despite our midfield 6! Zero threat to Bury for the first half! I could go on. At the end of the day it's 3 points and a table topping position but as far as I can see that's despite Mowbrays input tonight and not because of it! Don't get me wrong I like Mowbray as a manager. He's brought fitness, respect and discipline to Ewood and got the Rovers show back on the rails but as a tactician he leaves a lot to be desired!
Lots of questions tonight...

1. Why break up the strong midfield duo of Smallwood and Bennett who have worked so well together since he moved Bennett into a central midfield role?

2. Why go 3 at the back when 4 has served us pretty well? Was it to keep Williams in the team when new signing Bell looks a cut above at right back?

3. Why move Armstrong inside when he has looked sharp on the left wing? This imo simply restricted Dack.

4. Why when 2-0 up with 20 mins still to play introduce your 3rd and last sub??? Everything to lose should a player get injured and nothing really to gain!

5. Why drop the MoM in the last home game Jack Payne? When he did come on he brought flair and invention to a stuttering and stalling midfield?

6. Why start with Evans at all? He's dreadfully poor and imo with a bad attitude to work and the team ethic and needs pushing toward the exit door.

7. The one man with the clinical finishing ability to lead the line and convert chances was substituted as soon as he had opened the scoring! Why TF would anybody do that?

8 Replace Bell with Nyambe see '7'!

So many faults tonight which contributed to a stuttering and stalling disjointed team performance which would have been surely punished by better opposition. Whatever was Mowbrays thinking tonight simply didn't work. He needs to take a long hard look at his own performance tonight! We have the players to walk this league if only we'd stick to the 4-4-1-1 that has served us pretty well. The fact that we now have an embarrassment of riches in attacking midfield must not mean that we have to play them all at the same time.

Raya... 6 Did everything required of him. Even caught a corner kick too although little pressure was being applied by the Bury players.
Lenihan...5 Looked very rusty in the 3 man back line and over hit too many long passes.
Mulgrew... 7 My personal MoM as he thwarted the Bury attacks time and again. Took a number of free kicks and flighted them into the danger area only for chances to be spurned. One criticism .... why take inswinging corners from the right for a diminutive attack to compete against a huge keeper? (Stu Ripley's lad btw).
Williams .. 5 A below par performance typified with a spurned chance from a free header in front of goal when it looked easier to score presented by a 'Mulgrew special' free kick.
Bennett... 5 looked poor on the wing against a speedy Bury RB and much better and happier when Mulgrew's tinkering allowed him back into his obviously favourite central midfield role.
Smallwood..5 Appeared neither to fit in nor relish partnering Evans in midfield.
Evans.... 3 Dreadful midfield display with a seeming reluctance to compete physically and also to track back and cover when needed. Bin this bugger off asap!
Bell...6 Still early days but the quality which I have seen from this lad emanated from him playing in a traditional left back in a back 4 role. Mowbray must pick between Williams and Bell imo.
Armstrong.. 6 His now obligatory goal but 1st half was anonymous and he only 'came too' in the second half as he subs came into play.
Dack... 7 "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" typifies Bradley Dack. Peter Jackson MoM. So difficult to dispossess even by massive defenders when he is in control of the ball and so full of invention as displayed in the way that he set Graham up for the opener. Did tend to hang on to the ball and over elaborate tonight.
Graham... 6 Well marshalled generally by the Bury defence helped massively by poor hoof balls directed vaguely in his direction. As usual one chance equals one goal.

Subs
Payne ... 7 Full of invention and quality when he was introduced to replace the hapless or more accurately 'hopeless' Corey Evans.
Antonnson... 5 Came on for Graham on 60 mins and for no good reason imo. Contributed little.
Nyambe ... 4 Strange and imo amateurish decision to bring him on with 20 mins still to play as we were 2-0 up and he was our last sub.

Mowbray.... 3 Bloody awful display of tactical nous all evening. Back to the drawing board Tony and if you want to take some advice.... Don't over complicate, keep it simple and for goodness sakes don't try to fit all your wealth of attacking midfielders at your disposal into the same starting X1. Remember the old saying of too many cooks!

Ref John Busby. 6 Decent display but largely anonymous and with no big decisions to make.

Great review and very accurate from what I saw. Agree with all the issues you raise.

 

[ABBEY]

just read the review ...id genuinely forgot evans was playing.

 

[Drog]

So had Evans imo.

 

[Alan]

Nothing to add to Drog's excellent review but then most people interested were either at the match or saw it on Sky. 3points but we won't win any friends with that display. The Dingles must be laughing.

 

[Drog]

Don't want to open old wounds Al but after last night's example would you still not swap Evans for Lowe? If Mowbray is intending going a little gung ho up top with a 4-5-1 based on that trio of quality attacking mids we need a solid defensive minded pairing in deep mid. Smallwood and Lowe would be perfect imo. Certainly Smallwood and Evan's didn't work at all well did it? I take nothing away from Bennett here but an injury / suspension to either (or both) of those would imo see us a lot less secure in midfield.

 

[Drog]

. The Dingles must be laughing.

Not all that loudly 'too be fayah'. Is it now 10 or eleven games without a win and which sees them bottom of the form guide .... here
https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/premier-league/form-guide

 

[Alan]

Don't want to open old wounds Al but after last night's example would you still not swap Evans for Lowe? If Mowbray is intending going a little gung ho up top with a 4-5-1 based on that trio of quality attacking mids we need a solid defensive minded pairing in deep mid. Smallwood and Lowe would be perfect imo. Certainly Smallwood and Evan's didn't work at all well did it? I take nothing away from Bennett here but an injury / suspension to either (or both) of those would imo see us a lot less secure in midfield.

I wouldn't swap the cat for Lowe. I don't rate him and I don't want him. He just takes up a shirt with zero input.

 

[khmerblue]

Day after the night before,I'm not too dissapointed,bit off a shock to the system 1st half.2nd half miles better and we should have scored more.Great to get a clean sheet,and I'm sure when Darren,s ring rust has gone we will have more this season.

 

[Drog]

Win when you are playing badly is obviously a positive I suppose. Stick to a system with 4 at the back and which the players are 'easy' with and our quality must surely win out. Tinkerman stuff for no good reason doesn't impress me.

 

[Wilpshire Blue]

Bit disappointed in added time when we seemed content to pass the ball around without bothering to try to get a third goal.

Bury had given up at that point and with the tight situation at the top of L1, one or two extra goals could be the difference at the end of the season.