After Rovers crashed out of the Carabao Cup in the Second Round, following their 1-0 defeat at St. James’ Park, against Newcastle United, Blues boss Tony Mowbray offered his thoughts on the game, which Rovers dominated. Furthermore, the gaffer spoke about latest recruit, central defender, Daniel Ayala.
“Tonight’s game falls into the same category as Saturday’s defeat. There was a lot of good play tonight, but ultimately, football’s about scoring goals. There’s an old saying in football, that says ‘you’re only as good as your strikers’, but I like our strikers. I didn’t play (Adam) Armstrong tonight, because I didn’t feel we could risk, potentially losing him for such a crucial game at home to Wycombe Wanderers at the weekend. (Sam) Gallagher is obviously injured at the moment, so I thought it was worth giving (Tyrhys) Dolan a shot, who has been exceptional throughout pre-season. I thought they all worked hard, and we dominated the ball for long spells and managed to get into their final third, but we just lacked that finishing touch. I think, Gallagher would have made a huge difference, if he was arriving at the back-post to connect with some of our crosses, rather than Dolan, Armstrong or (Ben) Brereton. We have to wait for the strikers to click together at the end of a lot of good build-up play, but we have to keep going and pushing. I understand that football is a results business, and it’s really frustrating, off the back of two pretty good performances where we’ve gone to, and competed against one relegated side and one side still in the Premier League, that we’ve come away with nothing both times.
“I wasn’t particularly happy with some of the creative and technical forward players during the first-half and I spoke to them during the break. It wasn’t about shouting and screaming at them at half-time, it was a case of realigning our expectations with their talent, and I thought they did better in the second-half and produced more. I thought we looked more of a potent goal threat after the break, but I think we were unfortunate not to have scored. We had some pretty good chances in the second-half, even though our best chance of the game, was probably (Lewis) Holtby’s effort in the first-half. The ball kept flying across the face of their goal and we forced them into some last-gasp defending more than once, which proves we’re on the right lines. It was a frustrating night for us, because we deserved better, but we didn’t get it. I do, however, have to congratulate Newcastle United for advancing into the next round.
“I hope we can reach the potential we’ve talked about, but it’s a ‘work in progress’. We’ve been working very hard on the training ground and I’ve been saying, over the past few months that we’re changing the dynamics of the team. We’re no longer hitting 50-yard balls up to Danny Graham, who nods it down to Bradley Dack, we’re playing a more possession-based style, where we aim to control the game and create a lot of chances in the process, and we have to be more clinical in the future, but I’m sure it’ll all click. I’m not sure what the ‘expected goals’ was for us tonight, but there was a lot flashing in-front of their goal and yet, on another day, we could have scored two or three goals, but we didn’t. What I do know is that if you dominate the ball and keep creating as many opportunities as we have been doing, you’ll win a lot of games in the Championship.
“I feel we dominated the ball more tonight, than we did against Bournemouth, because with total respect to Newcastle, they didn’t look like they were interested in dominating the ball, because they were happy to sit in and play on the break, which they scored their goal from. Credit has to be given to Newcastle and Steve (Bruce) because their plan worked, despite their wholesale changes. Yet, if you look at their team, there was still a lot of talented Premier League footballers on the pitch. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves, although we’re disappointed not to win. We’ll take the positives into the weekend’s game and we’ll keep working in the final third, so hopefully we can improve in that aspect.”
The boss then took a couple of minutes to reflect on new signing, Daniel Ayala, who was announced as Rovers’ latest addition, just before kick-off.
“We’ve had to be patient with Daniel, because I think he had a couple of personal or family issues he had to sort out. Talks have been going on for a week or two, but we’re delighted he’s made a decision and he’s come in to help us stop the goals going in at one end. He’s a proven player at this level, who’s been promoted from this league and knows how to do it. He’s been a very important player at the back for Middlesbrough down the years. He was someone who I had a lot of conversations with whilst I was the manager of Middlesbrough, and then he signed the day after I left the club. But that’s in the past, he’s here now and hopefully he’ll help us. I do think he’s a guy who’s got a personality, who doesn’t like the ball going into his net. I think he’ll help us and bring a mentality to the team, that will only help the existing players. Of course, there will now be more competition for places within the team, but every good team has competition for places and hopefully that will stay strong.
“Daniel brings experience, knowhow and quality to the team. We have a lot of young players in our team and I think a bit of experience sprinkled around the youth, will be good for this team in the long run. I’m sure Daniel will bring the experience we need. He’s a wonderful guy to talk to and to discuss football with and I hope he brings all of those personal and technical qualities to Blackburn Rovers and hopefully we’ll all be able to see it on the pitch. Of course, we’re all looking forward to the day the supporters can come back to Ewood Park, so they can see the team evolving and see how we’re trying to develop this team.”
