After Rovers fell to their third away defeat on the bounce, after a Josh Laurent strike gave Reading a narrow 1-0 home victory, Blues gaffer Tony Mowbray offered his thoughts on his side’s struggles.
“We paid the price today for not taking our chances. Reading had some chances in the first-half and Thomas Kaminski did pretty well in goal, today and made some decent saves for us. I thought, from us totally dominating for the opening 20-25 minutes, the game swung a little bit the closer we got to half-time, because they brought John Swift on for their lad (Andy Rinomhota) who got injured, and Swift made a huge difference. He started the threaten in-behind our midfield and create chances. I don’t think they were at the stage where they had missed a tap-in, like there was for us, but they troubled us once Swift arrived and forced Thomas into a few saves. I thought we started much better in the second-half and I thought the goal would come, but it didn’t, and we stand here disappointed again.
“The clearance out of our box leading up to their goal, was pretty poor. It seems extraordinary that a team hasn’t scored in seven consecutive away games, yet the back-three we’ve played with won us eight games on the bounce, earlier on in the season. People would potentially look deep into it, but is the issue one of personnel? Is it because Ben Brereton Díaz has been absent? I think that opinion is a slight on the other forwards we have. Their job is to put the ball in the back of the net, yet they haven’t been able to do that over recent weeks as consistently as we’d like. It’s been quite amazing that we were still 4th before kick-off, today, and with everything to play for, yet despite defeat today, we still have a lot to play for. We have to find a way to win games, whether that’s down to a total formation change or a total personnel change, I’m not sure at the moment. Let’s wait and see. I think they need this upcoming break, even though half-a-dozen of them are probably going off to play games for their countries. We now turn our attentions to Coventry City away, after the break and we’re now on a real countdown, because every game is a cup final.”
Upon being asked whether he believed that the upcoming international break might help Rovers rest and recuperate, Mowbray gave a typically neutral response.
“I don’t know, because you have to play every game at some stage. Will the break help because they’re finding it mentally tough? Well, we find it tough when we lose 1-0, but it seems like quite a common occurrence really. The Bristol City game, the Sheffield United game, the Swansea City game and today were all 1-0 defeats. They’re all really tough to take and it’s been happening too often. I look at myself as well. Is it something that we’re doing wrong? I wonder whether we are creating chances, yet the data and statistics of every game suggest that we’re consistently averaging the same as we’ve done all season. It’s not as if we’re not creating chances and not shooting at the opposition’s goal, because I think we’re just about the same as we’ve been all season. We’re averaging 3.5-4 shots on target every game, and earlier on they were going in, but they’re not now. Is that because Ben isn’t on the end of them? Maybe that’s the case, but what we do know at this moment is that we aren’t taking the chances that are coming our way, particularly away from home and we’re losing matches as a result.
“We have to start taking our chances, because you’re never going to win a football match without scoring goals. So, whilst we’re hugely disappointed not to get any points, I’m more disappointed that we haven’t scored a goal. I’ve just said to them that, maybe it’d be more acceptable if we get beat, say, 4-2. It’s not, of course, because you still get no points. Yet, the team have to start believing that we can score goals. Every team has to believe that if you go 1-0 down, you can always come back and either level or go in-front. At this moment, that is not the case for us. I’m not sure the team believe that we’re going to score, yet we did everything at the death to try and equalise. We played man-for-man at the back and pushed the full-backs forward, but it didn’t happen again today for us. I need to analyse everything and assess what the next step is for us.
“If we don’t score a goal in a game, I’m always assessing why. I don’t say it flippantly, yet the chances are still being created, but we’re not putting them away. As the manager, if we’re not threatening the opponent’s goal at all, then you’re doing something wrong, maybe you’re playing your strikers too wide in that case or there’s not enough of them? Maybe you’re not hitting the correct areas in the box, or getting the ball in-behind the opposition enough? We talk and work on all of those areas, yet we come away to Reading and still don’t score.
“We have to speak to the German FA, because Reda (Khadra) needs a scan. He was supposed to fly out tomorrow morning, but he’s done his calf. That’s really frustrating for the lad and for us. I played him out wide today, like a right-wing-back, who held very little defensive responsibility. We tried an off-balance shape to try and get an extra attacking body on the pitch but done so to try and keep the same shape. It was almost an attempt to give us the confidence and the knowledge knowing that we can be strong and keep clean-sheets. We had extra bodies on the pitch to give us some forward momentum, and he looked pretty sharp driving in from the right before he got injured. Sadly, we have to wait and see what the scans show.”
