His style is that he can't set up a back 4 to consistently keep clean sheets. He should not have left Derby as soon as he did. He may have got them up. I'm sure that Chelsea would have given him a few more loan players. Alas, he jumped to the most volatile high profile job in the Premier League and was found out pretty quickly. Transfer ban or not. The problems that Chelsea are experiencing in his current stint aren't his fault though. There have been many column inches written about the new owners' haphazard signings but they haven't had a strong consistent goalscorer since Diego Costa, and he signed nearly 10 years ago. Morata, Lukaku, Abraham, Werner and others were all signed to be the 20+ goal striker yet none of them succeeded. If this team had Haaland, Kane, or Rashford, they'd be in a Champions League spot.

It was actually working quite well. Kroos and Modric couldn't settle. Cheslea were making Madrid uncomfortable, although Madrid in Europe don't seem to care about that. If either Kante or Cucurella finished their chances in the first half it may have ended differently, probably with an extra time loss instead. I think Lampard actually thought about it and had a plan. Chelsea don't have a forward who can score, and Cucurella has been taking lessons in positioning from Trent Alexander-Arnold. AC Milan beat Napoli so unless Benfica win by 3 in Milan tonight there will be an Italian team in the final.

This is Rovers most important week of the season. Rovers are playing two promotion 6 pointers. 4 points minimum are needed.

I think it's 3 from 6; Leeds, Everton, Forest, Leicester, Southampton, and maybe Bournemouth. West Ham and Wolves should be out of it. I can see Everton staying up. Dyche will grind out a couple of wins. These 3 games will go a long way in figuring out who drops. 25 Apr - Leeds v. Leicester 1 May - Everton v. Leicester 8 May - Forest v. Southampton Bournemouth can make it easy on themselves as their next 3 are against West Ham, Leeds, then Southampton. There is potential for a nail biter on the last day though if their form slides as they play Everton away.

A good summation from the manager. Far too many times, especially late on, players weren't brave enough to shoot. Hull never looked like winning it. Dolan's miss in the first half proved costly.

It's not more than that, unfortunately it's pure incompetence. Incompetence aided by ineptitude from the Premier League. When VAR started the FA decided to adopt an NFL style central system - manned at Stockley Park - with 1 official sat in a room full of TV's in charge of reviewing all VAR decisions. Add in the lack of adhering to the FA's own "clear and obvious error" language (also used in the NFL) and it ends up being where we are today. Howard Webb took over the PGMOL in December. He hooked Mike Dean from VAR duties this week. It will take him time but I think that he'll improve VAR. I don't understand why the 4th official can't do VAR duties. I've aid that having an ex player involved would help too. I also wonder why referees do it. Someone (Tyrone I think) posted a really good article about Prem referees. It said that they only get paid 35 grand a year. I'd triple that for a start.

I shouldn't be replying but I can't help it. You have to be doing this for the attention. Me and others pulled you up time and again for your ridiculous support of Lampard's managerial ability, especially when he was floundering at Everton. He is not good enough to be a Premier League manager. Tuchel took his Chelsea team and won a Champions League less than 6 months after Lampard was fired. Dyche has managed 9 games for Everton. He already has as many wins as Lampard had in 20.

It was an awful game. It should not have been a surprise though. It was the 6th draw they have in a row (excluding penalties), and the 4th straight without a goal (although the League Cup final last year was a cracker of a game). Arguably the 2 draws against Chelsea cost Liverpool the league in 2021-22, especially the 2-2 at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool were 2-0 up before Kovacic scored a beauty to equalise. then they stopped trying to attack. Last night had nothing. Both teams need a reboot. I'm not sure if this will help Chelsea; Sky Sports; Lampard back as caretaker.

I watched the City-Liverpool game. It was embarrassing for Liverpool. They were thoroughly outclassed. Liverpool's midfield has run out of legs which in turn leaves the defence exposed. If you take out their 9-0 and 7-0 wins they'd have a negative goal difference. Fabinho was a class operator. He's now painfully slow. Henderson can only do it in patches. Thiago is wonderful to watch but is injured too much. Elliott doesn't look like he has it either. Firmino, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Keita are off at the end of the season. Milner may be too. They all need replacing. TAA needs to be either moved into midfield or moved out. His defending was never good, but it's got worse, quickly. To Chelsea. I don't think that their biggest problem is Potter. They have too many players, and no striker. They weren't bad yesterday, but they have no cutting edge at all. I have no idea if Potter will finish out the season. Could they cut their losses and go for Nagelsman whilst he's still free?

Sutton would still have signed. Heskey would have been in the youth team. As well as Shearer, Rovers still had Mike Newell and Kevin Gallacher. Dalglish even played Ian Pearce up front now and again. A mate of mine played against Heskey at YTS level, he said that he was an absolute handful.

England has what Spain doesn't, and vice versa. Give Spain Kane or Rashford, and they'll win more games. Give England Gavi or Pedri and England will. Spain, like Portugal, produces fantastic footballers but haven't produced relatively similar numbers in the goal scoring department. Torres, Villa, Raul were top class yet after that I'm struggling to think of any off the top of my head (I'm sure there are, but I'd have to look). Barcelona and Real Madrid usually have a non-Spaniard up front.

Portugal produce some very talented footballers. Whatever they did to their youth programs in the 1980's worked. Since then it's been an endless procession of class players. They tend to produce good creative players, but come short at goalkeeper, central defence, and - Ronaldo aside - central striker. If talent in those positions matched the others they'd have a World Cup trophy on their shelf. As far as who gets in over who, it's subjective. Using England's team from last night Dias would be in for Maguire. Who would shift for Silva and Fernandes? Saka had a bad game but I'd keep him. Maybe one of them for Grealish, but they are different types of players. Besides, England has Foden and Sterling. I'd have Bellingham in every time over the pair of them. Rice does a different job, and is very good at it. Maybe Silva for Phillips, as he works harder than Fernandes. No to Cancelo too. He's not as good as Walker or Shaw (certainly not the England version).

Howe will get his chance. Mourinho would have bene good 10 years ago, but is way past his peak.

Good post. You mention England failing to qualify for Euro 2008 and the strength of the Prem between 2005-09. Each year featured an English team in the final with both Chelsea and Man U contesting it in 2008. 2018-22 is the same, yet the national team is doing well. England were also dominant in Europe in the 70's and did not qualify for 2 world cups. It's an interesting juxtaposition.

England were as good in the first half as they were bad in the second. After a nervy first 10 minutes England played Italy off the park. It should have been at least 3 by halftime. Grealish trying to be fancy rather than side footing it, and Phillips electing to shoot instead of passing to Kane. England lost the middle in the second half. Rice was worried about getting sent off. Bellingham picked up an injury long before he went off. Phillips hasn't played much at all this season and it showed. Saka was off it too. A first win in Italy since 1961 though. A good start to qualification.

Rovers were unlucky today. Worked had yet were undone by a superb strike. Why did the ref book Robinson after he'd blown for the pen? I thought it should either have been nothing or a sending off. He should have been booked for the tackle. Another gripe about Morton; he can't shoot. He had a glorious chance early in the second half and fluffed it. He's done it on a few occasions this season.

The draw for the quarter finals onward is out. Quarters; Real Madrid vs. Chelsea Inter Milan vs. SL Benfica Manchester City vs. Bayern Munich AC Milan vs. Napoli Semi's; Real Madrid/Chelsea vs. Manchester City/ Bayern Munich AC Milan/Napoli vs. Inter Milan/ SL Benfica The top half has the "big" teams. I said the other week that Napoli will go far. I can see them in the final.

Tonight was just like pre-Christmas Rovers. It was woeful. Stoke had he freedom of the park and used it well. The same happened in added time. Probably 2 minutes wasted because of stupid decisions. I said in the prediction thread that Rovers would get 15 more points from the last 11 games. 15 from 10 games sounds about right. Millwall on the last day will be a nail biter.

Spurs and PSG are out. Bayern and AC Milan through. Bayern thoroughly outclassed PSG. It was 3-0 on aggregate but could have been a lot more. PSG fail again. I'm sure they'll have their annual hand wringing about why, but they play in an average league, sign past it stars, and rely on Mbappe to bail them out, they'll always struggle. Spurs pulled a Spurs. Conte went defensive, then Romero got sent off late on for a daft tackle. Conte will be gone from Spurs soon. I doubt that he'll last until the end of the season. I'm sure Liverpool fans will be thinking that another super performance is on the cards after the Man U game. It won't happen. Madrid will pass the ball around for 90 minutes, waste as much time as possible, and be happy with a 0-0 draw.

Rovers have been the most unpredictable team in the Championship this season. Form seems to have stabilised lately but who knows what is around the corner. Those predicting only 1 loss live in hope rather than expectation. I'll go with 15 more points, 73 total.

Don't forget his stint managing Valencia. What a disaster that was.

Very much my thoughts. If Szmodics' effort would have gone in it would have been a nice quiet last 15 (well, 20 with all the added time) yet, it was not so. I was a bit worried when Hedges gave away that daft free kick in the 95th minute but a good defensive header, then a poor corner saw the game out. Rovers are a very resilient team. Something clicked after Rotherham. Before then it was massive swings; good followed by awful. @West Yorks Rover posted in the Championship thread that 2nd is probably a bridge too far. I agree with him. Sheff Utd could be 9 points ahead of us if they win their game in hand. Boro don't look like slowing down either. I am still smarting over the disasters that were Wigan and Cardiff away. Those games should have both been wins,

I think Allison's was worse than Courtois. The latter got a half dodgy ball back and it bounced up at him. The former decided to play a lazy pass out with plenty of time. I watched this as I had no Rovers access. Liverpool started off like the Liverpool of old. They ran roughshod over Madrid and could have been 3 or 4 up. The game was over as soon as Real equalised. The third just after half time caused Liverpool's fragile mental state to collapse. Only a fool would put money on a Barcelona style comeback. Liverpool have lost 6 and drawn 1 in the last 7 against Madrid. Real will pass the ball around all night, fall over at every opportunity, and generally annoy the Liverpool players. Napoli will go far this year.

He was terrible for Rovers so I doubt he'll say much. Another podcast I listen to is on hiatus so I've listened to a few of these lately, and I try to go with those who have Rovers connections. The David Stockdale one was, as you recommended, very good. Stuart Downing was excellent. They don't get many players on who played at the top. Downing seemed like a down to earth lad. The hosts turned into fans rather than ex-players with him. Craig Hignett was well spoken and had some good stories. Another who came across very well. Luke Varney - another Venky's era signing who did not much of anything for Rovers. He seemed like a bit of a plonker.

The knockout stage started this week with little fanfare. Spurs and Chelsea both got beat 1-0 away against AC Milan and Dortmund respectively. I saw neither but the report I read said that Chelsea absolutely battered Dortmund but couldn't score. Bruges 0-2 Benfica. Bayern beat PSG 1-0 in Paris. I watched a portion of that game. Bayern should have left France with the tie sewn up. PSG were woeful but Bayern did not finish their chances. It's been done to death but Neymar is an absolute annoyance to watch. He is a wonderful talent but his diving and acting antics really rile me up. He got graze by a stray forearm to his cheek then decided to fall over like he'd been shot.