Gary Rowett

[worthosoriginals]

1 minute ago, TeamRocket said:

Do we not have any young under 21 or 16 strikers. Honestly give them a go and send the has been to under 21s or summit till they are gone from the club. Surely a young  up and coming striker will be more hungry and better at find the net then 2 players who are scared to score.

 not scared to score, simply incapable

[CPepFox]

9 hours ago, South Shire Fox said:

then a few decent Championship level CBs in Souttar,

Souttar??? This Souttar who has not even been on the bench in 3 years now??? Hell, I don't even remember what he looks like

[South Shire Fox]

1 hour ago, CPepFox said:

Souttar??? This Souttar who has not even been on the bench in 3 years now??? Hell, I don't even remember what he looks like

Yeah the Souttar that was pissing the league with Sheffield United until he got injured, then their season fell off a cliff without him

[deep blue]

14 minutes ago, TeamRocket said:

Do we not have any young under 21 or 16 strikers. Honestly give them a go and send the has been to under 21s or summit till they are gone from the club. Surely a young  up and coming striker will be more hungry and better at find the net then 2 players who are scared to score.

We've surely reached the point where we have to take the risk and play a few more of the youngsters.  It's expecting a lot of them but at least they have some experience of playing  together and know each other's game.

 

One thing that's undeniable is they'll bring more energy and fight into the team, and that is sorely needed now.

[TeamRocket]

9 hours ago, deep blue said:

We've surely reached the point where we have to take the risk and play a few more of the youngsters.  It's expecting a lot of them but at least they have some experience of playing  together and know each other's game.

 

One thing that's undeniable is they'll bring more energy and fight into the team, and that is sorely needed now.

100% agree. 

[jayfox26]

Aside from the fact we haven't had a decent striker in our squad all season, it's absolutely pathetic that we also haven't got a decent full back on either side other than an untested Aluko. 

 

Ricardo is completely finished, Thomas is nowhere near championship standard and Kristiansen is made of paper. I feel that having poor full backs this season has massively impacted our play at both ends of the field, as none of our full backs can defend and none of them are particularly good at getting forward to support the wingers, which i personally feel has contributed to Fatawu and Mavididi's poor form for large parts of the season. 

 

Fatawu and Mavididi have been slated for not working hard enough and tracking back, which is fair to an extent, but then you could argue they wouldn't need to do as much defensively if we had competent full backs. 

 

Teams target us by launching crosses into the box as they know its a weakness we have, but how often do you see our wingers putting crosses into the box, and more important how often do we actually have players running into the box to try and get on the end of a cross if we actually did put one in? 

 

The championship is so poor and i cant think of a single team that has beaten us this season where I've gone, wow they are a good side and played us off the park. Other than Sheff Wed, we must be the easiest team to play against as every goal we concede is just utter shite and completely preventable with a bit more effort and will to stop the opposition scoring.

[jim5000]

Our last three managers have all failed to get anything from this squad. I don’t know why we think Rowett is the man that will.

 

The system has been coached for so long that it’s crazy to think Rowett will step in and change enough about the system and mentality that we see a significant uptick in form this season.

[jim5000]

On 02/03/2026 at 00:47, deep blue said:

We've surely reached the point where we have to take the risk and play a few more of the youngsters.  It's expecting a lot of them but at least they have some experience of playing  together and know each other's game.

 

One thing that's undeniable is they'll bring more energy and fight into the team, and that is sorely needed now.

They won’t tho will they. The Championship is an incredibly physical league.Maybe not quite as athletic as the Prem, but a lot more physically tough and demanding.

 

Throwing a load of 16-17 year olds up against seasoned Championship teams, in desperation, is not going to result in a positive outcome.

[ClaphamFox]

35 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

Our last three managers have all failed to get anything from this squad. I don’t know why we think Rowett is the man that will.

 

The system has been coached for so long that it’s crazy to think Rowett will step in and change enough about the system and mentality that we see a significant uptick in form this season.

It's not entirely unreasonable. Rowett has gone into crisis clubs several times before and delivered instant results by focusing on the basics and improving the mentality. And to be fair, there were signs in the Stoke and Middlesbrough games that he might repeat the trick with us.

The Norwich game has punctured everybody's confidence, for understandable reasons. All the progress made in the previous two games seemed to completely evaporate. Was it simply because Norwich were a much better side than Stoke or Middlesbrough, or because our team becomes paralysed by fear when playing at home? Let's hope it's the former because after the Ipswich game, six of our remaining 10 games will be at home. Usually that would be considered an advantage, but if our team hates playing at the KP it might work against us.

The home game against Bristol a week today will tell us a lot about our survival prospects.

[murphy]

56 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

They won’t tho will they. The Championship is an incredibly physical league.Maybe not quite as athletic as the Prem, but a lot more physically tough and demanding.

 

Throwing a load of 16-17 year olds up against seasoned Championship teams, in desperation, is not going to result in a positive outcome.

In hindsight, we probably should have played Evans or Hutchinson up front.  Our senior options are so comically poor that we wouldnt have lost anything by taking the gamble and those kids would be further along in their development and closer to being ready themselves. 

[Bablemikey]

It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction we see against Ipswich from the team. I'm sure that Rowett will have made it absolutely clear that the last performance was not acceptable.

If they don't come out at it after that, then I fear all is lost and they've given up.

[Chelmofox]

On 01/03/2026 at 12:44, Chelmofox said:

So here is my beef. Whats the point of getting someone new in, just to play Marti ball still?

 

I had some quiet optimism after the last 2 draws. However, my concerns were; we were largely playing the same system with some tweaks, and in both games our poor defending led to us conceding.  

 

Whats the ******g point of bringing someone like Rowett in just to carry on playing Marti ball? Yesterday was like watching us all season, with the same players doing the same stuff. It felt like nothing had changed at all. 

 

Rowett has a full week now with the team. Yet somehow all i think is we will end up with Riccy and Fatawu stinking the right hand side, an XG of 0.3, Ayew falling over for 25 minutes, Stephy looking depressed, CB's unable to defend or play out of the back, Skipp running around but without really being able to play football, and Winks looking pretty but with very little coming from it.

 

Did Rowett really come into this thinking this formation and the reliance on the same principles was going to save our season?

Yup. Regardless of the result today, it’s clear the managers we hire have very little to do with formation / setup. 

[beepee1984]

8 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Yup. Regardless of the result today, it’s clear the managers we hire have very little to do with formation / setup. 

Yep

Publically criticises the team for effort then rewards them with another start - is he even picking the team?

[Sunbury Fox]

I'm already losing faith in him after last Saturday and given today's team selection. He's not going to save us from oblivion. Tbh, not sure if anyone could manage that. 

[Claudio Fannieri]

Really not sure what we gained from sacking Marti,  back to square one with same old mob starting, thoroughly underwhelming. 

Edited 7 March by Claudio Fannieri

[Blanchflower78]

First 2 games had promise given who and where we were playing.

Norwich was largely terrible.

Will have to see how today goes but that looks like a side there to solely defend.

 

Tbh Rowett has probably got the job in League 1 regardless 

[The Year Of The Fox]

31 minutes ago, beepee1984 said:

Yep

Publically criticises the team for effort then rewards them with another start - is he even picking the team?

No

[Foxin_Mad]

39 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Really not sure what we gained from sacking Marti,  back to square one with same old mob starting, thoroughly underwhelming. 

Marti was an utterly useless ****. We gained a lot by sacking him, at least some of the players run now. 

[GrobyLCFC31]

First game under Rowett that we’re leading in at HT, it’ll be interesting to see our second half approach! 

[Collymore]

2 minutes ago, GrobyLCFC31 said:

First game under Rowett that we’re leading in at HT, it’ll be interesting to see our second half approach! 

Exactly this. Got to attack attack attack and draw 4-4  than defend and lose 1-4. 

[Collymore]

Defense looks like a colander still. 

[inckley fox]

Just now, Collymore said:

Defense looks like a colander still. 

Shape's good. Personnel less so.

[worthosoriginals]

23 minutes ago, GrobyLCFC31 said:

First game under Rowett that we’re leading in at HT, it’ll be interesting to see our second half approach! 

Half time. He said to them, don't worry yourselves about knackering it all up lads, its expected

[shen]

Fatawu and Ricardo are never going to hold that flank.

[Sly]

I’m not convinced he’s the long term answer.