Hasta

Birmingham strolling against Wrexham here in one of those games you somehow want both to lose.

As above, it’s not sold out yet. We’re in to the final 800 but still available.

🤣👏

JDT wanted players to play a certain style of football. He was insistent on it to the point it was overly-stubborn. His footballing philosophy did work though. He had an immediate impact which saw us climb to the highest points we'd been in the Championship under Venkys. The problem is he was doing it with players who were not fully suited to that style. Players who were out of their comfort zone playing that way and who felt it wasn't playing to their strengths. Once they are out of the team, of course they will become unhappy. Had JDT been at a club who could have brought in players better suited to that style and moved the other players on, it would have been a more harmonious camp and I feel he would have ultimately have been a success. Unfortunately we were unable to bring in any players who would suit his style of football better, so he was stuck trying to force players to play a way they weren't happy about, and due to his lack of man management skill the whole thing turned on it's head. Whilst that sounds like Im praising him, it's actually a major negative. The 'stubborn' word was banded around even before the Burnley game in his first season. He will fail at Sweden for the same reason. The pool of players is limited and he will try to force them to play a way that doesn't suit them, and they won't like it. However there's a good manager there for a club that can afford to be as ruthless as he wants to be. Drop him into somewhere like Middlesboro for example, and let Gibson spend so that over a couple of transfer windows he can bring in players he wants, and I feel he would do a very good job. But when you need to "wee with the willy you have" and grind out results more pragmatically, Eustace clearly is a better fit here. And that's not meaning to do disservice to his coaching and tactical ability, which we are now starting to see more of.

Rovers on form. Sold out away end. High expectations. Local derby. I feel I've seen this one before. 🙄 Hopefully Eustace can solve the terrible lack of wins we have in local derbys.

And yet 2 walk-ons will pay for itself. As above, yes if there’s a danger of quite a lot coming on the day, but I imagine that there is enough stewards to cope with Bristol City bringing an extra 100 or so.

Certainly a shift in policy from previous years. Normally it seemed to be no tickets on the day if the away team were in danger of bringing enough walk ons to require opening up another section of the ground (other half of bottom tier or open all top tier). I understand that as you may not have the stewards or catering staff planned. That’s what I thought happened with Derby on the opening day. But when there’s 800 coming in a section of the stand that can hold over 2000 it’s daft.

As this has become the official thread to moan in, how can you buy tickets (Preston away) early on a Thursday morning but 28 hours later they still are not available to collect after Friday lunch. If it takes 48 hours to get them ready why doesn’t the confirmation email or website tell you this? Im on holiday this afternoon so was able to get to Ewood, but with work its not that easy for me as just saying “come back to collect them next week”. It’s just another example of things being less fan-friendly than 10 years ago. Get them available quicker, or warn people to leave it 48 hours.

To be fair the likes of Leonard and Gallagher couldnt beat a player. I don't think Yuki is necessarily the kind of player who is going to go up to the last defender and waltz past him. However so far I think he has shown better movement and finishing ability than both of those I've mentioned. As you say, it's early days though. For 10 games on loan, Vratislav Gresko was the best full back I'd ever seen at Ewood.

If he’s carrying an injury, it was pretty stupid to start him against Blackpool then.

There was therefore also an ‘agenda’ against Eustace but he’s turning it round. The thing is the people who thought Pears wasn’t good enough have simply been proven right. Personally I think he’s sub par generally, with the odd stinker (Wigan, Sheff Wed). I do think he is better than Wahlstedt who was generally poor most games (feel free to downvote @Exiled_Rover 🙂 ) But regardless of people’s initial thoughts, he has proven that they were right that he shouldn’t be first choice for even a middling Championship Club.

Firstly, you’re now resorting to stats that don’t sum up always what actually happened during the game. We witnessed it a lot under JDT. Last time you beat us at Turf Moor you scored all 3 goals in the second half. In that same half Rovers had 53% possession and completed about 15% more passes. So what? One area we did dominate was proper chances created. Watch the sky highlights and the only time it shows you attack is the goal. Not to say you didn’t move the ball to the edge of the danger area better, but like at Leeds and Leicester last season, we are prepared to do that in tough away games - defend the box and hit on the break. In the second half we had 4 shots / chances which were all clearer opportunities than anything you carved out against 10 men. You started brilliantly, but from the equaliser until the sending off I was pretty happy with the way the game was going. With what I saw, given the choice I would love to roll the dice and play the rest 11 v 11 of the game rather than take the 1-1.

I watched the second half through earlier. On the ground you tend not to notice Hyam much, but he was first to head away a lot of balls played into the box in that half. Yes they were at him and were poor deliveries, but being in right position when they come in is half the battle.

When we kept winning 1-0 at Newcastle with handball goals in the noughties. Half of the penalties Simon Garner won. Martin Olson hating Burnley. And, possibly, Shearer’s VE Day goal.

No it was definitely at the ref, and then he turned around and did it again at either the linesman, bench or fourth official.

I’d make it £15 a ticket and split the Darwen End.

Agreed. On all previous visits they’ve been loud and clearly well up for it, but the atmosphere in the home ends was abysmal yesterday. Even after the goal it just muted down quickly.

More than good. Outstanding. MOTM. It looked another Clarkson loan at first on paper, but if that’s his level of performance then he could be a great player both for us and in the future.

When Big Mak made the booking gesture I winced and thought "youll be lucky to get away with that". He may have done, but then he stupidly turns around and does it to the linesman as well (or the 4th official). I think if he hadnt done it twice, including to officials off the pitch, he might have got away with it. Ultimately it was so blatantly obvious and clear I think it gave the ref no option. He was still right though and the guy should clearly had been booked (which he wasnt)

A couple of points. Good call to choose to kick to our own fans first half. I felt far more comfortable us defending the goal directly infront of us with the 10 men than I would have done had they been attacking the Jimmy Mcilroy stand. Secondly,and we say it every time, how shit is that away end. Forgetting the cramped concourse and toilets, you can't even see the goalline with the way the goalline is so close to the stand. Once people are stood up, the view of the goal is almost blocked if you are out wide. I saw Weimanns shot go over Trafford and had no visibility of it going in. Just the crowd going mad.

I remember under Kompany they were loud. Today, even when a goal up, you hardly heard a peep.

It's part of the coach escort 😄 (Seriously)

That video is to announce Fleck.

Compared to where I thought we would be. I expected a Telalovic signing, an aging keeper and a few Morton / Chrisene style loans. The budget is a joke, but if Cantwell does come in then we spend so much time criticising people at Ewood I think it's only fair to say the recruitment team "on paper" look to have done a good job with a hugely limited budget.

No-one is saying gamble. Just for Venky's to put the money in that they used to provide to run the club, and then use the money brought in from transfers to actually buy players in for fees. But they don't. Because they never refuse to sign a cheque, unless it has a matched personal bond associated with it. Wankers Fair play to this recruitment team. Obviously the proof will be in the pudding later in the season, but if Cantwell comes off this is far better than was expected.