Huddersfield(away)predictions

[champs95]

Putting Chapman on a football pitch should be a sackable offence.

Same with Bennett. Imagine if we made him club captain or something idiotic like that!!!!!
Johnson is ****e aswell. Sick of seeing him tbh. And Rothwell will never ever be the answer. And just will never make it. I'm disappointed we are stuck with crap like him with no end product. Why do ****s like him or Bennett never get injured!!!

[robinrover]

Thing is our squad isn't that great.
We have some talented players on their day but in large we are where we are for a reason.
We are no better than about 15 teams in this league and when some fans get used to that then we can move forward as a whole.
Too much negative views aimed at players who are very average but it's all we can afford with a average attendance.
The top 2 teams have the attendance and squads to match,the rest of the league will be battling it out to make the top 6.
If fulham had a good manager then the 3rd place would be sown up like the top 2
The rest including us are much the same.

[champs95]

Thing is our squad isn't that great.
We have some talented players on their day but in large we are where we are for a reason.
We are no better than about 15 teams in this league and when some fans get used to that then we can move forward as a whole.
Too much negative views aimed at players who are very average but it's all we can afford with a average attendance.
The top 2 teams have the attendance and squads to match,the rest of the league will be battling it out to make the top 6.
If fulham had a good manager then the 3rd place would be sown up like the top 2
The rest including us are much the same.

We have the richest owners in the entire league. And probably the vast majority of the Prem. We have wasted millions upon millions on rubbish. Even when we sign Brereton and Gallagher for money we haven't got. Our manager decides not to even give one a chance. Hes destroyed the lad.
I feel sorry for Gally. One week hevpllays out wide, then hes dropped, then hes up front then hes on the wing, then hes dropped. The young lad looks confused. Hrs been messed about by a manager who is tactically not good enough. Time and time again he cant react to better younger coaches who change things mid match. He was baffled at Preston away. He was baffled yesterday.
He makes Elliott Bennett club captain. Which is a disaster. And costs us nearly everytime hes on the pitch.
We are a joke club. A soft touch. Old past it players come here with no intention of getting into the Prem. We are a perfect club for old has beens to come to yo their pension. We made a monumental error years ago getting Danny Murphy. All these years later we are still signing ****e. Downing, Johnson, Bennett. These guys are any good. Downing had a good career. Boro are shiye, but sussed out they didn't want him. So guess who took him? The club with no money who pay massive wages to ****e like Downing and Johnson. Who's making these decisions to bring these old men in? Who handed Dsnny Graham a new contract?
Who went to India to tell them to give Mark Venus a much improved contract? Who moved Damien Johnson into the 1st team? What's he doing? As we aren't being coached well. Who is Lowe? What's he doing? Whats he adding? Why are we so poor tactically?
Why do we have 3 medical staff? On big money? Why are we getting so many injuries? What's this foreign department set up at great expense to get foreign signings? All we got was Holbty. Who added nothing, is always injured. He got handed a 2 year contract?? Why is he not bothered? Because like the rest, hes well paid, and care free.

This club is being rinsed dry. And I'm not sure I believe any of the rubbish coming out. We battle and demand we sign Chapman. And the guy who bent over to sign him, never plays him. Why was he allowed to sign this kid? Waste of money after waste of money.

The club is being run by players. Like the dark days under Hodgson when the likes of Sherwood etc just didn't want him there.

Not one footballer wanted to be on that pitch yesterday. Other than that good month, we have been bloody awful this season. And we wont go down. But we are going nowhere. Time for a change. We will still be crap, and going nowhere. But its worry a change. Not now, summer. Not sure TM will last that long tbh. We will pick up a few results here & there, but it will soon be followed by that crap yesterday. And the majority of this season.
Mowbray is ok, decent guy. Clueless tactically.

[seventwo]

Thing is our squad isn't that great.
We have some talented players on their day but in large we are where we are for a reason.
We are no better than about 15 teams in this league and when some fans get used to that then we can move forward as a whole.
Too much negative views aimed at players who are very average but it's all we can afford with a average attendance.
The top 2 teams have the attendance and squads to match,the rest of the league will be battling it out to make the top 6.
If fulham had a good manager then the 3rd place would be sown up like the top 2
The rest including us are much the same.

Agreed Robin.
BUT
Why does he change the team needlessly and constantly play people out if their position.
He's also spent a fortune on strikers that aren't picked and can't score

[robinrover]

I must admit if we wish to go up he isn't the man to do it.
I like mowbray for what he has achieved and still would like to give him the season but if we fail to crack the top 10 I would be inclined to make the change.
Lacking a tactically able manager and a leader on the pitch.
As I said give mowbray the season then see where we stand and who is available.

[AucklandRover]

Is this the same club and manager that were being talked about after the Brentford and Bristol City games?
Weird - I must have slipped into an alternative universe.

[champs95]

Is this the same club and manager that were being talked about after the Brentford and Bristol City games?
Weird - I must have slipped into an alternative universe.

No, its the same one. Who is in charge when we win, draw and lose. Its the players who go out and perform. And you have to have alot of luck. Especially with injuries, suspensions, decisions going your way etc.
And we are doing fine as we are, midtable. But this is as high and as good as it will ever get. And if we changed manager it would unlikely change over a long period. These guys do have a shelf life though Aucks. Players just get very comfortable and its all very nice. You must get a feeling after seeing alot of these performances this season, Birmigham away, yesterday ....some really dire performances. Players bot giving it their all. Happy to be going nowhere. Old gas beens just happy being here and making no effort to push on. Why would they? It's not players like Johnsons fault. Or Danny Murphy all that time ago. Old past it players happy to be getting very well paid to contribute nothing. Loads of wasted millions on young lads not even being given a chance. Poor tactics, repeated time and time again. Using players like Buckley away from home in a game like that!!!

[AucklandRover]

I cannot even recognise the picture you paint there, Champs.
I have seen no evidence at all of players going through the motions or not trying.
As far as I am concerned, we have been hugely inconsistent all season. If we follow the logic of your argument, that must mean that in the games where we have played well, the "time-servers" put in a 100% effort, but in the ones where we played badly, they were not trying.
Really? Seriously?
Do you genuinely want to put your name to that line of reasoning?
I have just made the point on another thread that trying to reduce football to a single factor - the manager's input - is nonsensical.
I actually find it offensive when you say of some of our players that they are "...old has beens just happy being here and making no effort to push on".
I assume that includes Downing. I have no idea why you took against him so strongly, but he has actually been one of our steadier, more consistent players. The stats sites are still showing that he has one of the best success-rates in the Division for chance-creating passes.
If we move away from a focus on Rovers only, we see that fans at about 15 clubs are coming up with the same moans at the same time.
My cousin who supports Bristol City emailed me last week to say he thought Lee Johnson wasn't going anywhere with the team. Then they win 3-0 and, presumably, he's the bees' knees again!
What goes on in a particular football match owes as much to chaos-theory as it does to planning. That is part of the fun. Trying to reduce it all to the following is totally ludicrous:
1) We won, so the manager got it right.
2) We lost, so the manager got it wrong.

If Mowbray goes, he goes. I will support whoever replaces him, but with no more expectations that the new man will have all the answers than I have ever had.

Is Ainsworth still the solution now that Wycombe have lost three on the trot?
Are West Ham right to believe that Moyes is about to become a "good manager" again?
How do we class Ranieri, Pellegrini and Hodgson?
I wonder what Alex Neil and Bilic got so badly wrong on Sunday.
Has Barnsley's manager suddenly become a genius?
Jonathan Woodgate was being booed a few weeks ago up at Boro. Now?

Half the time, the whole manager-swap business has to do with boredom and fashion:
"Oh, we haven't got promotion with the current bloke, so let's try Nigel Smartyoungthing. He's won promotion two years in a row with
Oxbow-In-The Marsh United."

[champs95]

I cannot even recognise the picture you paint there, Champs.
I have seen no evidence at all of players going through the motions or not trying.
As far as I am concerned, we have been hugely inconsistent all season. If we follow the logic of your argument, that must mean that in the games where we have played well, the "time-servers" put in a 100% effort, but in the ones where we played badly, they were not trying.
Really? Seriously?
Do you genuinely want to put your name to that line of reasoning?
I have just made the point on another thread that trying to reduce football to a single factor - the manager's input - is nonsensical.
I actually find it offensive when you say of some of our players that they are "...old has beens just happy being here and making no effort to push on".
I assume that includes Downing. I have no idea why you took against him so strongly, but he has actually been one of our steadier, more consistent players. The stats sites are still showing that he has one of the best success-rates in the Division for chance-creating passes.
If we move away from a focus on Rovers only, we see that fans at about 15 clubs are coming up with the same moans at the same time.
My cousin who supports Bristol City emailed me last week to say he thought Lee Johnson wasn't going anywhere with the team. Then they win 3-0 and, presumably, he's the bees' knees again!
What goes on in a particular football match owes as much to chaos-theory as it does to planning. That is part of the fun. Trying to reduce it all to the following is totally ludicrous:
1) We won, so the manager got it right.
2) We lost, so the manager got it wrong.

If Mowbray goes, he goes. I will support whoever replaces him, but with no more expectations that the new man will have all the answers than I have ever had.

Is Ainsworth still the solution now that Wycombe have lost three on the trot?
Are West Ham right to believe that Moyes is about to become a "good manager" again?
How do we class Ranieri, Pellegrini and Hodgson?
I wonder what Alex Neil and Bilic got so badly wrong on Sunday.
Has Barnsley's manager suddenly become a genius?
Jonathan Woodgate was being booed a few weeks ago up at Boro. Now?

Half the time, the whole manager-swap business has to do with boredom and fashion:
"Oh, we haven't got promotion with the current bloke, so let's try Nigel Smartyoungthing. He's won promotion two years in a row with
Oxbow-In-The Marsh United."

Its **** if you are spending alot of time travelling to see all of this, and spending quite alot of money. Even when we where winning the last month, games like Stoke and Barnsley. We where crap, and got pretty lucky in those games. So I wasn't getting too carried away. We won 4 in a row, and played well once vrs Brentford. Who I felt had an off night. As I've seen them before and after and they are a decent side. We have been pretty poor all season. And could easily be in a relegation fight. Had it not been for that run of results, we'd be down there. So we are ok, we wont go down. I'm sure Venkys have realised we aren't going to go up anytime soon. And are ok with that. Hence Mowbray will just carry on.
I'm even starting to question why Venkys are pumping in £8m a year into an academy.
We aren't getting a good enough return. We aren't creating good enough players across the board, and crucially, they aren't going to make us the invested money back. None of the current set we have are Premier League quality. And never will be. I did think Travis was showing signs, but I'm wrong. He' a championship player, like Nyambe and Lenihan. And not enough of these lads are coming through. Our manager would rather make Johnson the highest paid player at the club. He doesn't trust lads like Rankin Costello. He makes Elliott Bennett club captain and gives him a nice long contract. His performances have been abysmal. As have Jonhsons, Downing will never push us forward. Neither will guys like Rothwell. You can point towards any stat you like about Downing. While he's here, we are going absolutely nowhere. Meanwhile he will continue to completely misuse Buckley. Yet again for the 3rd time this season, he was thrown in stupidly in a tough away game in a very very underperforming side with old pro's strolling about doing **** all. Time and time again he will be badly used.
Brentford and numerous other clubs decided to have a B team instead of the huge expense of an academy. They have invested in a good scouting network, who produce players ready to play championship football. We haven't got good enough coaches currently at our club. Our younger players aren't improving. They aren't getting better. And have no real sell on clause. So its £8m a year that's going down and drain. And I'm unconvinced that Mowbray has any idea how to improve them, and use them correctly, at the right times. So maybe it's time to scrap that.
Keep Mowbray. Tbh whatever will be will be.
Bit by bit, guys like me are just falling away. Thats why the fan base is killing the club, season on season. It's boring, its expensive. Its not really enjoyable. It's going nowhere.
You may be happy with that. But you aren't directly involved. It's not your time your wasting. Or money. It's just something you observe from a very long way away. You are knowledgeable and know your stuff. You are as much a Rover as me. But me, and lots like me just are losing interest. Why do you think Moony and all those lads don't post anymore? They don't go anymore.

[AucklandRover]

But that makes it sound as if we are sinking like a stone! We're not.
We're doing OK in a Division that is logically our correct level.
We have picked up two points out of the last nine, and we are still only three points outside the play-offs. Daft but true.
And it's because virtually everyone else's results are up-and-down as well. You seem to think Brentford are far superior to us, but they are four points ahead!
The quality of our football is another matter, but it's actually really hard to play fluently if the opposition sets up like Birmingham did, for example. I do accept, though, that we've only played attractive football in about five or six games.
Having said that, I actually think Mowbray puts too many "flair" players in sometimes. If you have Dack, Armstrong and Rothwell on the pitch at the same time, you're bound to miss out in terms of "defending from the front".
But I keep going back to inconsistency. Rothwell was superb against Brentford, while Bell and Johnson looked top-notch at Bristol City.
Where did those performances pop up from?
As for someone like Buckley, he can't improve if he doesn't play. You say Rankin-Costello should be included, but why doesn't your Buckley reasoning apply to him?
I can tell you, I followed Rovers around the country when things were a lot worse than this! Obviously, ticket-prices have increased enormously, but that aside, I wasn't turning up to watch Rovers at some of the smallest clubs in the country because the football was scintillating!
The last three games have been frustrating, but I'm not drawing conclusions about the rest of the season based on that run. How can anyone? There is no pattern!
Why was one of our best performances (Bristol City) followed by one of our worst (Wigan)?
I don't have a clue, and I suspect no-one does.
And what happens if we beat Forest? What will that mean in terms of drawing generalised conclusions?