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.

Burnley v. Watford and Sheff Utd v. Boro play today and tomorrow. Threadbare Rovers are still in the playoff hunt (it may be a different story in April) so I'd go for the home teams to win both games. Burnley aren't getting caught, and I doubt Sheff Utd are either. Carrick has Boro playing like a promotion team though.

They have gone so far away from "clear and obvious". I've said this before but if it takes minutes to adjudicate it's neither clear or obvious.

A good prediction Gav. The Chiefs won it 38-35. They played really well in the second half but were helped by 2 Eagles turnovers that resulted in touchdowns, and a very questionable refereeing decision giving the Chiefs a first down which allowed them to run the clock down and kick the winning field goal. I had plenty of chicken wings too.

The VAR team had a bad weekend; ESPN - VAR mistakes The only one I saw live was West-Ham v. Chelsea. How Soucek wasn't called for handball is beyond me. We've had lots of discussion on here on how to improve the VAR system. I'd have more than one person in the room, and rather than a central clearing house why don't they have a VAR official at each game?

Post Hillsborough stadium improvements started teams thinking paying real attention to their pitches. Rovers reserves played on Ewood, as did almost all other teams second side. This started fading out around 1995, and now it's rare that a reserve side plays at the ground (I'm sure there are exceptions as you go down the leagues). Technology and education also improved. Hybrid grasses, sand and soil compositions, and better qualified ground staff all contributed to making pitches what they are today. I read an article in the Guardian during the Euro's (I think I posted it on here too) about how Britain is at the forefront of football turf development. Mower blade sharpness, wheel weight, pitch bounce calculations are all now commonplace. Plenty of British companies travel the globe working on and fixing up pitches. Myerscough college has become world renowned for teaching it all too. To tangent; how in the world was that a penalty for City? If anything Quinn fouled Flowers. I was at the game and I walked off at the end thinking that City were the better side, in spite of that gift.

The article surmises that they need him for tight Champs League games as he can grab a goal when other avenues are blocked. Whether it works only time will tell. City had one of the best around for getting a goal in Aguero but I'm sure Guardiola played him in midfield - or at least not in his favoured position - in a big European game a few years back. Aguero looked bewildered.

This is my take too. I said that Brereton's early miss was a big one, and it proved to be. Set pieces were awful too. I can't see many goals coming from those either. Rovers never looked like they were going to lose the game. As a side Wigan brought in 6 players during the January window.

Brereton's miss was a bad one. The others, as you said, could have passed to others in better positions to score. Wigan have had more of the ball but haven't looked like scoring. Vale has been quiet, without much service. Thomas has been OK in parts. I thought he was a dead ball specialist? I've not seen anything of that yet. He had one corner that ended up going straight out near the other corner flag.