Sorry, I'm a bit late here but Bennett and Rothwell weren't responsible for those two goals. Bennett lost the ball true enough but he was closer to the corner flag than the halfway line, and although it's true he didn't play well I think it is harsh to blame him for that, Downing was behind him covering, Downing ran back all the way to our 18 yard box with Perrington then after he passed it off Downing let him carry on into the box on his own to score. If you watch back the minute or two prior to the second goal again both Mulgrew and Bell defend terribly, CM being bullied and easily turned and Bell being all over the shop and then not paying attention to C Gallagher which led to him almost scoring and winning the corner from which they eventually scored. Rothwell's poor clearance didn't help that's true but then we failed to defend the ball into the box so I think putting all the blame on him is ridiculous. Walton wasn't terrible but wasn't great and one decent save is not evidence that he is good, especially considering the number of great saves Raya made. I'm still angry with TM for the same reasons as everyone else. Mulgrew was not very good at Bury missing a couple of headers but that was preseason, unfortunately, he was even worse on Saturday and I'm surprised he didn't give more free-kicks away with his hand in Taylor's face on several occasions when challenging for headers. It's sad but I'd rather see Magloire or Grayson given a chance ahead of him now as at least they might improve. I thought Mulgrew's all-round performance was really poor and I doubt he'll get any better. Bell was really poor as well, I know @Paul Mani seems to think there's a player in there and some others think he has potential but he's 25 and just doesn't look like he has any defensive nous at all, I find it hard to believe he got into the league one team of the year. Even at this late stage, I'd happily let those two go for nothing. Bennett has looked ok sometimes at right-back but too many times has looked rubbish as he did versus Charlton but he's not a full-back and I think it is unfair for TM to keep playing him there and harsh to criticize him too much. I've not seen it mentioned much but when Rothwell and Graham came on we changed formation to this hybrid 4-3-3 that Sharp had mentioned and it didn't work. Has Dack at false 9 ever worked? I do understand it might take a little time for new systems to work but I'm not optimistic about this one and I'm worried that TM will keep trying it and we will suffer from that. I don't think it suits Dack, Graham or Gallagher. I know some have said we didn't take the chances we created or create enough good quality chances and that's as much the reason we lost but I think it's a lot more understandable that it might take a little time for it to gel in attack than defense so I'm willing to cut them a little more slack for that. I thought Johnson was excellent, won lots of headers, played some very nice passes and held on to the ball well in some difficult positions.

Been mostly good today, been impressed by Johnson. Two seemingly easy chances and on top all game. downing was very poor for the goal, I was just thinking he was covering their number three really well then he stops at the 18 yard line and their 3 carries on and gets on to the cross and scores, can’t understand what he was thinking, from up here in the jw it seems obvious that they would try to get the ball to him as Downing left him in loads of space. hope to see Rothwell at some point, be gutting to lose to a poor Charlton team, even to draw as they are weak

reckonVery disappointed that there’s no Rothwell but Downing didn’t sign to be on the bench all season... still expect a good win. I’m hoping that Johnson will be a key player for midfield, helping defense and attack and being a big upgrade. I’m not Gallagher biggest fan but I’m expecting that he’s come in a bit from last time he was here and will be keeping DG on the bench for most of the season 4-1/2 I

It's true that in this league there are no easy games and it is unpredictable in a great way generally but we have a much better squad than Charlton and there have to be some teams we expect to beat. I would have said that at the beginning of the window my no. 1 priority was the best centre back possible and we haven't done that but TM and co must think Ada is going to be pretty darn good as it seems likely that he will be starting with Lenihan most of the season. What would we do with another CB and how are we going to keep him happy? We will have Lenihan, Ada, Williams (I think he's a poor left back but decent CB) and Mulgrew that's enough in numbers. I would have liked to see Mulgrew moved on but he's still here, is he gonna be happy to be 5th choice? I think you always want top quality players so I'd be very happy if we signed Cooper or Tuanzebe but Ada hasn't come here to sit on the bench. If we sign another CB and he's not good enough to start who is going to be happy with that. I don't really want any more midfielders or attackers unless they are amazing as we have some good ones and some excellent prospects. So other than a backup goalie (I really don't think Leutwiler is good enough, really poor on low shots) I don't want any more squad players. Excellent full backs would be lovely though.

I normally connect mine to the tv and use firefox as my browser but I'm in England so going to Ewood today.

So it doesn't work every time... But still it is fine sometimes and not others, probably dependent on the player and the opposition. Not crazy though. It will be interesting to see how Lyle Taylor does as he has a pretty decent goalscoring record at League one but first time at this level at 29 years old.

Well, I think it is clear now that it is not crazy or insane for a new player to go straight into the team especially with 2 or 3 days training. In his interview, Ada certainly sounds like he hopes to play on Saturday and expects to start most games, it will be interesting to see how TM manages this but makes me think it is unlikely we will get anyone like Cooper or Hanley. Although Nuttall doesn't have much to his all-round game yet he does seem to have the knack of scoring and I wouldn't mind seeing him have a season on loan before selling him as I think if he gets the games he could well get 20+ goals in league one.

He's got a point but who is getting punished at the end of the day? The fans, not the ones who cheat or spend money they don't have. I'm no lawyer but seems to me that the league must take some responsibility for letting their clubs be taken over by these people.

See this is where I think you are possibly wrong. It doesn’t need to be black or white with nothing in between. Of course TM isn’t going to guarantee starts but he is going to give players an idea of how much they will play and how he sees them. Stewart Downing has surely been led to believe he’s gonna feature a fair bit. Bauer will also have been given an idea where he would have been in the pecking order.

I don't really get the confusion. If you are a player and you meet a manager to discuss joining his club you are going to get an impression of how much the manager rates you and what his plans are for you, this doesn't mean he promises to start you 37 times in the league or that you will only play ten times. One of the problems I see this summer is to do with how much TM rates Mulgrew, his captain and a big presence in the dressing room. Did he tell Bauer he must battle with the captain to get into the team? Did that put him off? Personally, I would have been trying to move Charlie on, make someone else captain and allocate more of the budget on a replacement than any other position but if TM thinks Mulgrew can still do it then this may be part of the problem.

That's true enough, I think TM and co deserve criticism sometimes personally I don't like preemptive general criticisms of the message board, but I'm just adding to the moans. The defence may be weaker at the moment but I still think the team is stronger. I do think that we will sign at least one defender and just because it's late in the window doesn't mean he won't be good.

This kind of thing is just as bad as when bigdogsteel gets in pre moans about how the message board is gonna react negatively to everything.

I don't think TM Waggot and Venus have come off very well in this window and hearing all the things we do it's easy to come to the conclusion that it's a shambles or whatever, missing out on player after player but are we really that bad or different from other clubs? As others have pointed out it's been a slow window and not many teams anywhere have done much business, what other clubs do may be irrelevant to some but we share the same market and will be competing against the other teams so to me it shows that most other recruitment teams are finding it hard for one reason and another. Also in 2019 we are hearing more and more information (sometimes correct and often not) and it sometimes is contradictory but one thing is for sure we hear a lot more than before. I think it was a couple of years back there was a transfer deadline video on the BBC with the brilliant Chris Wilder at Sheff Utd which showed how chaotic it was, I think this is the case all window for a lot of clubs. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2730888-a-day-in-the-life-of-sheffield-united-boss-chris-wilder-on-transfer-deadline-day Of course, we need defenders hopefully we get one or two good ones over the line. Didn't I read that Sharpe mentioned Hanley might be a possibility again? He'd still be my first choice as good as the German and Croatian may be I've never seen them and don't have any idea of how good they actually are.

That Sharpe formation is pretty much how we played in the first half against Bury, Hart was playing much higher up and Rothwell was tucked more centrally leaving the left channel for Hart. However, I'd say we changed it as the second half went on with Graham wider left than Brereton had been and Dack more of a false 9. It was kind of a hybrid 4231/433 at times. When TM has been experimental in the past it has not been that effective but hopefully, as we've been working on new ways to play all preseason we will make it work. I'm pretty sure it will be flexible and we won't try this 90 minutes every match but it looks like it will be the main formation.

You might think Evans is decent backup but does he? Evans has been decent overall but never consistently good and for a passing team looking for the top 6 he's not good enough IMO, will he want to happy spending most of the season on the bench?

I think the Foden comparison is the most accurate, he holds on to the ball well and moves well with it. I think he might be Dack's back up this season, he looks like he can play there well and it gives him a little less responsibility. I think he'll do well there when he gets his chance, he doesn't need to play every week just yet. We all know that it takes a while before TM trusts someone in the middle of the park and with Travis, Johnson and the rest I think he won't play there much, at least first half of the season.

JRC looked good going forward and Hart played pretty high up on the left hand side first half against Bury but although they didn't have a lot to do defensively JRC still got done a couple of times, I'm not sure he's ready to start there, in fact I'd say whilst he's very promising he's got a lot to learn in that position.

I thought they linked up well together in particular. Bury offered so little threat first half but Grayson looked quite good and also comfortable on the ball, nice to have a left footer too.

Nice win, the first half was good, the second half was certainly much harder to watch. The first half team was young and mobile and Bury barely had the ball in our half, although we weren't amazing. Johnson played well and controlled the game well with Buckley. The formations were not super obvious but I thought it was more of a 4-2-3-1 (Johnson and Smallwood in the middle Buckley ahead of them, Brereton central mostly Gally right) first half and more of a 4-3-3 (Graham more left than Brereton had been and Dack deeper centrally) second half though I think these are flexible. JRC was good going forward, less so at the back. All three goals were good, Rothwell a cracker from the edge of the D, a lovely move with a lovely cross from JRC for Brereton to head in and great through ball from Dack for Armstrong to finish for the third.

On my way, interesting to see the formation, is it 442 with Buckley wide or 433 and brereton or tally wide... happy Rothwell is playing

Mate you’re as negative about the board and posters as roverandout is about Mowbray. Moran was top class at his best, if we sign Skrtel say i think a lot would be happy (I’ve not seen him in Turkey but he looks to have played regularly so presume he’s still good enough for the championship) but it would hardly be unreasonable for one or two to have concerns

Is that a guess or inside info because it seems to me like those two would be difficult to shift

Neal Yardley has been doing Rovers commentary for years and years, didn't his dad start working with the radio station when it started or something like that. Warren joined the media team not too long ago from down south somewhere, he's much better than the previous guy Ed. They are fairly critical sometimes which is good as I think prior to Warren joining it was a bit too ra ra Rovers in my opinion, though obviously, they are still a bit biased but so am I.

It has worked most of the time for me over the past two seasons. I quite like Neal and Warren though they're not without faults. It's super annoying when it doesn't work properly which is occasionally but way better than the alternative. Having been living away for quite a while it still feels great to be able to watch the games and I will definitely be renewing. I live in Shanghai most of the year and the internet can be weird, it's quite fast normally but ifollow doesn't seem to like China (I do wonder if there is something to do with some connected blocked sites e.g. can't access facebook youtube and many more) so I do sometimes use a VPN after I have logged in and then it is much faster. I need my VPN for everyday use (getting around the great firewall) so I pay for Astrill but even then still have occasional issues. Overall 80-90% of the time it works well enough and it sounds like it will be improved in the coming season with more cameras and replays so looking forward to that.

Getting rid of players is difficult. I'd have liked to see Mulgrew, Williams, Evans, and Smallwood all leave this summer but it sounds like only Smallwood might go. That's a problem, what do we do with our captain? He's still bigged up in Rovers media, in fact, he and Evans have been announced as charity ambassadors for the season https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/july/chosen-charities-meet-their-player-ambassadors/ so I'd guess there's no chance of them leaving. Mulgrew and Evans (and Williams when fit) will expect to play most games and I imagine their wages will mean we would be wasting a lot of money (hard to justify to bosses) if we don't. I do wonder if this is making it harder to bring in top quality Central defenders.