joey_big_nose

Yeah agreed. Feels to me though we are a step up from the last euros. Really like what Anderson has brought into central midfield, made a massive difference. Also Tuchel getting the wide players ahead of Kane. It is all working a lot better. But like you say hard to say for sure until you play against someone at your desired level.

I know its only Latvia but we do look really really good. I want to see us play a genuinely top team - not done that since the euros final, and with the next nationals league not until September 2026 we are only going to get a competitive game against a top nation at the world cup. Annoying.

Hes a great lad, but he has been standing still or going backwards for years so a move was the right thing. That said I think we got 1 million for him, and paid 2 million for Tavares. And as far as I can see Tavares is a very similar player to Buckley, but with the same flaws (loose in possession, not physically competitive, doesn't cover enough ground) to a greater degree

Yeah, the ultra possession "pep ball" period is coming to an end. Going back to a much more direct style. I think the watchability of the game should improve as a result. Long periods of suffocating possession by one side is not much fun.

Just lost to Kosovo at home tonight too.... Probably going to get sacked shortly I would imagine.

I think having a player like Gordon out wide left is pretty crucial as Kane will drop deep and he will succeed only as much as other players get beyond him. Saka is brilliant but he is someone who is not going to get through the centre in the space Kane vacates. So the left needs a direct runner. That said surely Rashford will do that job better than Gordon if he continues in the same vein at Barca? Plus obviously much stronger goal scoring record.

Yeah sorry - bit of a maths failure from me. 16 and 32 would be better. Or change the overall tournament to 40 teams in 8 groups of 5 teams with top 2 going through to round of 16.

JDT is - from what I saw at Rovers in his first season - a very good fair weather manager who can build a team and get more than you would expect out of it's constituent parts. But as he is from the Ange Postecoglou school of "lets throw everything into the attack and let the defenders figure it out" he's not great when things start going against you and you need to batten down the hatches, as we saw in season 2.

I am not so bothered by this personally. The tournaments are only every 4 years each so having quite a big tournament where there is a fun group stage for a couple of weeks and then it gets serious in the knockouts is fine my me. Agree max that should get out of a group of four is two though. The 24 euros was fine. There were still a lot of fun games in the euros group. I think it should be similar at the 48 team world cup. In an ideal world as others have said there should just be a nations league over two year seasons that also covers the qualification for the major tournaments. No separate qualifiers, very few friendlies. You'd end up with the same amount of games, but many more played against higher quality opposition, and with something at stake.

Morgan will be hard to shift too. Big call to bring Bellingham or Foden back in for him. Feel like with Rashford doing well at Barca he should come in for left wing. I think across the 25 players England might be looking at their best ever tournament squad. Certainly since 1990 when I started watching. I dont think England have ever been in a position before where they have players on the bench who are key players for major Champions League clubs like Real, Barca, Man City.

I am not that sure that the team will be that different. Obviously Pickford, Stones, Guehi, Rice, Saka, Kane will all start. But does feel like Belligham, Foden etc could not be in the XI. The only player who didn't start last night who will defintiely be in the first XI is Kane imo.

Nations league is quality - best innovation in international football in decades. What shouldn't exist is friendlies.

Yeah, but still think its good for him to call it out. Maybe the FA will think about scheduling games in a way for better atmosphere. Maybe the fans will respond and turn up the volume.

Quite like Tuchel criticizing the fans. I think hes shaping up to be real entertainment. Very attacking, drops big names, slags off the fans. Nice to have something a bit different after decades of managers who are terrified of making a mistake or upsetting anyone.

JDT was way put in front in terms of attacking football. Ismael looks quite similar to me to Eustace, Mowbray etc. Pretty cautious, but sometimes offensive. Probaby he has been a bit more throwing the kitchen sink at it when we go behind. In the Championship where losing the first goal is such a big issue to overcome the vast majority of teams are cautious. JDT was a real outlier. There is something in being more attacking though.... A win is worth three draws so despite losing as many as we won under JDT the lack of draws kept us in the top six all season.

Personally I think he is a long way behind Buckley at the moment. I am struggling to see how even if he gets up to pace of English football he will be much better than Buckley.

I quite like that he has bluntly said Taveres was dropped from the entire squad as he wasn't performing well enough in training and in games.. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/25517874.blackburn-rovers-boss-reveals-reason-tavares-absence/

It's got to be arguably the craziest manager move in Premier League history. Can anyone think of one as bizarre? Sure they are out there, I just can't think of them. Well actually maybe replacing Kenny Dlaglish with Ray Harford.... I jest. Ange had done as much as you could do to show that he was not suited to the premier league, managed to nearly get a squad that cost hundreds of millions relegated (average to get relegated in premier league over last 10 years is 35 points. Spurs finished with 38).

Probably should get easily beaten but this is the Championship where any result is possible at any time. I was really heartened to see how hard the team fought second half against Stoke. Made me a bit more positive.

Yeah he responded in absolutely the right way. Kargbo does have something about him. Fast, can strike a ball well, beat players, played a nice through ball yesterday too. Obviously he has also shown himself to run down blind allies, lose control of the ball cheaply, not track back. But as he gets more used to the rhythm he should improve. We need these gambles to pay off.

I felt Duff didn't stick around long enough really leaving at 24, but going back and looking through the stats despite injuries managed 180 odd appearances which is more than Shearer. Quality wise he is obviously good enough to be up there. So yes - I could get behind that.

Id say in the post Venkys era no one good enough has actually managed to stay at the club long enough to attain legendary status. I wouldn't be putting a picture or statue of any player up since Tugay. Players in my time following rovers (since 1992) who I would accept in granite form - Shearer, Freidel, Tugay. Think that's it? Maybe the whole 1995 team as champions as a fresco maybe, but beyond Shearer hard to pick an individual out for chiseling into stone. You have to reserve it for the best of the best.

I've been impressed with how Cantwell has got more engaged and comitted as the situation at Rovers got more difficult. The opposite to what I expected. But maybe he is a player who is inspired by trying to dig the team out of a hole. He doesn't look like a player who is looking to get out. Part of that he probably knows he's crashed out of several clubs now so needs to redeem himself to some extent to get his career to move forward. Some of his close control and passing today was really top drawer. I could take or leave him last year, but this year he looks very very good. On why Gueye hasn't been given a chance - my guess is Gueye is not a good at sticking to a managers tactical instructions (particularly pressing), in terrible form and is demotivated and difficult to work with. Understandably this really doesn't work for Ismael who therefore won't play him and would rather swap him out of the club for someone who does what he wants, and they tried in the summer. That didn't come to fruition so Gueye is hanging around. What is obvious if we are going to get anything out of Gueye we are going to have to adapt the system to him a bit. I don't think Ismael is the sort of guy who has that flexibility unfortunately imo. He's more "my way or the high way".... So expect him to get a few minutes here or there and then leave in January. Shame as I reckon the right sort of manager would get a lot out of him. Big Sam for one. Would get him motivated, find the right way to use his physical dominance etc.

Well those are sadly the options we have until Baradji is fit. I dont think Montgomery has had enough mins in centre midfield to form much of an opinion yet. But i would only bring him in if TGH or Tronstad are unavailable (which will happen soon given the number of games we have coming up).

I agree hes worse than Travis but Sid is another big step down from TGH. If we have to try someone else out at CM I would go for Montgomery. Or put Cantwell in the midfield two. Centre midfield is a time bomb waiting to go off as soon as Tronstad gets injured or suspended.