speaking to my mate from the liberty this afternoon he said that there is a strong possibility that Steven Dobbie is set to join Bristol city when the window opens in january. I hope he does as he deserves first team football but i will also be sad to see him go...cotts and butler are also on the move to dann H....
Heard the same thing myself today i was down the shop buying prezzies and the same thing was being said by vaious people
he deserves first team football rhys, unfortunately it is very limited with us which is a shame. i hope he does well for them...
Very sorry to hear about this if it's true. Dobbs has been good for us and to be honest I don't think he's had a fair deal from Rodgers. We made a mistake the last time we let him go then he came back and showed us what we had missed. I'm getting a little brassed off with Uncle Buck at the moment and I'm finding that I'm at odds with him over a number of things. Dobbie has been doing well for us in the reserves and scoring a few; which brings me nicely to the subject of goals from midfield - or rather the almost non-existent goals from midfield. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Dobbie score more goals than Gower, Allen and Britton combined last season? And you can throw Dyer in there as well. As a linkman he's far superior to Allen in finding a cute ball to play in to the striker and we all know he knows how to strike a ball and score a few. He desperately needs games to get up to pace but he is being systematically starved of them. I just wish that Buck would give him as much of a chance as he's given Gower - he might be pleasantly surprised. Yeah, our passing statistics will drop a little but goals scored might well improve. Certainly the attempts at goal will dramatically improve. Getting the message, Buck? We need players who offer either a goal threat or can create them. Dobbie offers a bit of both, UNLIKE THE OTHER THREE WHO DON'T OFFER ANY OF THOSE THINGS BETWEEN THEM. I'll bet Dobbie is as brassed off as Graham is frustrated. I can see no point in letting him go but I'm wondering if Maynard might be lurking about in the equation somewhere, in which case there might be some sense in the move. Would still like to keep Dobbie though. As for the other issues, they have been mentioned on other posts. Gower has to be benched; our midfield ordered to do their jobs fully; the entire team to be more direct. Does this equate to hoof ball? No. I watched Norwich v Wolves the other evening and for the first 30 minutes the Canaries were absolutely awesome. They were twice the team we were at our best. They moved the ball quickly, along the ground with power and precision. Their players were eager, full of hard running and SUPPORTED each other. More to the point they continually got 3, 4, 5 players in the box and I counted 6 on a number of occasions. They played proper football at pace yet, by and large, I believe we have the more skilful and better players. Strange, eh? By the way, I use Norwich as a yard stick because the hand-wringers keep saying that, as we are new to the PL we should not be comparing ourselves to established PL teams. Well, Norwich are hardly that, they were in the NCP with us - finishing in a higher position. The season before that they were in League One, below us. It is my belief that Buck fell on his feet when he got our job. With our style of play we were as good for him as he was for us. He didn't have to tinker too much because we were already well versed in the passing and footballing ethic. What worries me is that he has patently failed to add penetration, pace and urgency to our game. We play slow. methodical football, almost like painting by numbers and teams have started to work us out. I'm surprised that it has taken so long. I, and many others, knew what would cause us problems before a ball had been kicked this season. We had the same issues in the Championship and, had the PL managers found time to watch our games, they would have seen it too. It will be interesting to see how Buck addresses the present situation. The way the team has played recently has seen the defence gain a touch more credibility - I mean our actual back four. But, in the meantime, players such as Sinclair, Dyer, Allen, Britton and Gower have all gone off the boil and lost confidence. In the last two games they have found it almost impossible to retain the ball for any length of time. In conclusion, I would like to underline what I and others have said before. I just wish that Buck would stop telling the world that we were excellent when we were crap! Does he think that we are blind as well as stupid? We might have patience, as he keeps telling everyone, but that patience will have a short shelf life if he persists in saying how good we were when we could all see that we stunk the place out. Oh, and that "decent start" phrase he trots out at every opportunity. Well, the start period is now over and every team is eyeing the finish. When we get there, if we can still say it's decent, then that'll be a result and 17th will do me very nicely. We can start by beating QPR, not drawing the game, because if we don't, we will have it all to do.
yep heard similar too - unless we've all heard the same rumour... suppose he can't wait around for ever.... just hope it doesnt come to bite us on the ass!
maynard has refused to sign a new contract with bristol city and wants to move to the premiership so that might have something to do with it.....
Good Championship player. This season we are playing two in the middle of the park with one in front of the back for instead of like last season one behind the striker, therefore chances are going to be limited and out of those limited chances that have been given to him and Moore in that position Moore has been the better player. Hope he would only go on loan because as i said he is a good championship player. If we have to sell him, see if we can use him as a player plus cash for Maynard.
Well said Ivor! If Dobbie goes I hope it's on loan and we have the power o recall him as needed, but woud prefer him to stay and find a way to make it work as a starter.
Top post Ivor. Everything I think, but put more astutely than I could do. As I said on another thread Lambert needs to send Rodgers a boxset DVD of Norwich`s games this season, how to score and play for the team. Until we start scoring more regularly we are going to struggle, and we aint going to score many the way we are playing. Sort it out Buck.
well said ivor and DPJ, i think BR has lost the plot in a few ways, if i was Mr Dobbie I would be leaving ASAP
I'm gonna stick my neck out and disagree with everyone here. I didn't think he was good enough for the premiership last year, and I don't see anything different this year. Granted, he hasn't had game time, but I just think it is obvious he isn't 'good enough at this level'. Mark Gower offers a very different option, and one that Dobbie could never play as he doesn't have the first touch, passing range, or positional awareness when defending. I know that Gower isn't good enough either, but his positioning alone has kept us in games for long periods, and some of his passing has been brilliant (Lita's goal against Blackburn (probably the best goal I have seen scored this year)). The role Dobbie played for us last season was unforgettable, but I wouldn't be too gutted to see him go and play regular championship football for someone else.
Missing only one start in the last 13 games , Gower will be rested , not benched . The guy has 5 times as many assists as anyone on the team & the only 5 games he hasn't stared , we've scored 1 goal . A lot more is made out of his " Bad passes " up field where little damage was done as a result , than the superb passes he makes that help win us games . Gower has been a godsend for the last 4 seasons for little money & needing little fanfare . As far as I'm concerned , he broke the curse of the #11 with his fine , versatile play , it's to bad he was made to feel he had to change his number IMO .
No. Sorry. Gower is poor. Not because he doesn't do anything good, far from it. He's unpredictable and inconsistent. Agustien is the opposite and given the opportunity will create as many chances as Gower, and score more too. Can't understand how Dobbie's 'range of passing' and 'touch' were exemplary in the Championship but apparently not in the Prem. You either have them or you don't. I started a while back to question Rodgers' judgement on a few issues. His total faith in Gower and lack of faith in Dobbie (despite the latter running riot in the reserves) just being a few. As Ivor said: " ......didn't Dobbie score more goals than Gower, Allen and Britton combined last season? And you can throw Dyer in there as well." Spot on. None of the above are chipping in this season to any degree either are they? The one thing I agree with is that Dobbie isn't defence minded at all and I think Rodgers believes rightly of wrongly we'll get mullered if we go all out. Shame for Dobbie because he's twice the player Gower will ever be but he's not been given a fair go for reasons that may be valid or not.
Gower or Augustien playing is a straight swap as far as the formation is concerned, and Augustien may well turn out to be the better option, but Dobbie means a change in shape, and I don't think he's good enough to take on that responsibility in the premiership. I didn't think his first touch and passing were that good last year, I just think we could afford to be more attacking against the teams we were playing. We could make mistakes and still win games. At this level, I think you need to have more than Dobbie can offer to play in that position. I agree that Gower is frustrating at times, but because he plays from a deeper position than Dobbie, when he makes mistakes we are less likely to be left exposed. I think neither are really up to premiership standard, but Dobbie is the riskier of the two because when he makes a mistake we lose the ball further up the pitch with more men committed to the attack. He would create more chances, but he would leave us exposed more and I don't think we have the players to deal with being exposed too many times in a game.
Hope there is no truth in this rumour, as Rodgers will be making the same mistake as Sousa, but I don't know what the hell Dobbie has to do, to get a game! Second half of the season will show what Rodgers is made of, and I fully agree with your post Ivor, well said!............. please log in to view this image
Going on form he picked Moore today...but given the old Luke Moore returned today and with all the other centre mids bar Agustien being off form i think this is a great chance for Dobbie to get a game in the next one or two!!
