Damning blast for Tony’s vision
BLUE-EYED BOY’S BLACKBURN VIEW
FOR all the indignities heaped upon Rovers fans over seven years of failure, the anger of the long-suffering supporters – and we’re unquestionably down to a few thousand of the most fiercely loyal and tolerant now – I’ve never witnessed such a damning sound as I heard at around a quarter to five on Saturday.
For every Venkys Out chant, every attack on managers (Kean and Coyle both vehemently targeted on occasion) and every groan and boo of dissatisfaction individual players have come in for (Andrews, Best, Murphy, Orr etc) I have never previously heard a decent home turn-out (including, importantly, many nonseason ticket holders who were willing to give the new team a trial run) turn so unanimously and vociferously in vocal condemnation of what they saw before them.
At the precise moment fans chanted “You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” – not just a few, practically everybody – there were four of Tony Mowbray’s summer signings on the field as well as men like Elliott Bennett, Charlie Mulgrew and Danny Graham, who along with the withdrawn Peter Whittingham were, we were told, players the like of which humble third tier outfits would not be able to cope with being on the same pitch as.
It was simply staggering – although surprisingly not remarked upon by Rovers’ closest press commentators who deign to suggest “Five talking points” after each game. If that wasn’t second or third on the agenda in any pub full of fans following the game, they must have had a hell of a stripper on.
I called the 100-point talk delusional nonsense all summer but nothing had prepared anyone but the most avowed pessimist for the meek, simpering manner in which Mowbray’s side has failed to even compete adequately for the first six points of this campaign.
I certainly didn’t subscribe to the “walk this league” nonsense but nor did I or do I believe that the personnel available to Mowbray are incapable of giving a better account of themselves. But, boy, do they need to start showing signs thereof soon.
I dismissed as tommyrot the notion that Mowbray should be judged on the first ten games. But I’ll revise that – three more displays like the first two and questions will have to be asked.
Whether the likes of Dack, Whittingham, Samuel and Smallwood and co will sparkle in this league remains to be seen.
One thing which isn’t in doubt however is that if the manager’s selection and tactics aren’t quickly tinkered with after an appalling set of Mowbray errors for the openers, nobody is going to be able to show their best in a system ill-designed for the parts available.
Whatever formation you imagine we are playing, three at the back with two wing backs only offers a foundation if your three at the back are solid and able to concentrate and your wide fellas are capable of contributing going forward along with their defensive chores.
And if your midfield is packed with holding-type players and has little inclination and even less options to move forward or get the ball to attacking players then the system looks what it did on Saturday, calculated to offer ponderous sideways and backwards movement with a centre forward not in the first flush of youth or indeed inclined much to industry when so isolated, rendered virtually a passenger.
Smallwood showed flashes of a quicker, crisper ability to demand the ball and shift it but the one time Rovers worked an opening, Graham, who thought he’d bought himself a gap with a neat shimmy, found a second defender showing enough commitment and awareness to block what momentarily seemed a golden chance.
A rather casual attempt from a strangely disinterested-looking Mulgrew wasn’t the best but it ought to have presented no problem for Ward, heavily lambasted for preseason aberrations, and Marquis (a striker Roves might have coveted before he extended his Keepmoat contract) would have been considered ungrateful to have missed out on such a gift.
Around that point Mowbray chucked his three subs on. The possibilities of injury aside, I thought there was an argument for doing that after half an hour, or at least half time, when the initiative was still there to be seized by any configuration which could carry a threat to Doncaster as Gladwin, and toa lesser extent the thus-far underwhelming Dack, did.
These were players, we were told, who had “bought into Tony’s vision.”
At the moment “Tony’s vision” looks as singularly odd as but less convincing even than the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult’s who persuaded his followers that a spaceship following the Hale Bopp comet was about to pick them up if they shed their earthly existence.
I dunno about that but a move to Sheffield United or Wednesday by any available form of transport must look increasingly appealing with an unsteady hand at the helm already plain to the players.
It would be devastating not to pick up at least a point at Valley Parade on Saturday.It’s a long time, although in some ways it doesn’t seem it, since we went there.
Then on Wednesday it’s the game you either most dreaded or most desired when the Carabao Cup draw was made.
I’m in the latter camp and can’t wait. If many Rovers have lost a little faith this fortnight, they can certainly be won back by this time next week.