DE.

I'm sure we can do better than losing 4-1 to Preston at home and losing 5 from the last 6. We are realistically a mid-table team at best right now, but it's obvious the current style of football suits very few of our players. We aren't going to get a host of new players coming through the door in January, and likely not in the summer either, so JDT needs to get a grip on this and adapt before things start to really spiral downwards. The warning signs are glaring at the moment and we need the manager to take heed and find a way to get us back on track. We can't radically change the playing personnel, so it needs to come from the management and coaching staff.

Sorry but if that's the barometer for playing well the expectation must be 15th or so. We weren't as bad as previous performances but that's not saying much. First half we were okay, but by and large it was the same as always, lots of passing, a couple of opportunities and then the usual implosion and an inability to turn things around when it started going against us. Watching us it's not difficult to see why we have the worst xG in the division. Of course JDT shouldn't be sacked, but let's be honest, this lot play terribly under him and despite our current league position (soon to be a distant memory) have done for 80% of the season. Yes this is a project and he needs time, but he should still be able to make better use of the squad he has available now. He should have more strings to his bow than this style of play we're seeing the players repeatedly fail at attempting. I need to see more from him in terms of ingenuinity and creative thought. I gave Mowbray stick for the same flaws, so it'd be hypocritcal of me to stay silent and not criticise JDT for what I see as the same basic issue in a different, no more entertaining form.

Something to do with a Dutch Disease I think.

It is a bit worrying that we don't seem to have a Plan B. Typically when you go down to ten you get compact, make it tough for the opposition, play a bit more direct. Not us though. Same irredeemable style of football and zero-impact subs. Concerning.

By Sunday evening Tony Mowbray's Sunderland could be ahead of us in the table. By Monday evening we could actually be as far down as 8th. I mean, on the plus side we won't have to hear the head-buried-in-the-sand "WE'RE 3RD" rebuttal to any and all criticism, but still... we're likely to be looking down rather than up pretty soon now which is quite sad.

Bucko's lack of professionalism obviously doesn't reflect well, regardless of the ridiculousness of sending him off. Had just been given a chance to get himself established in the team again. A shame for the lad. I don't think JDT will want to, or indeed can afford to (new five year deal) be too harsh on him. A private word, don't do something like that again, move on. Fact is we have much deeper problems than Buckley. My concern based on our recent performances is that it seems almost the entire squad needs an overhaul to perform effectively for JDT, and I just don't see where the funding is coming from for such a seismic undertaking.

Problem is you can't rely on one player for the entire season, as we found out last season when BBD got injured and we bombed out of the playoffs in spectacular fashion. Our other forwards need to step up, but by and large they aren't very good. Gallagher's four goals and one assist are being touted as a revelation season for him, which kind of says it all.

For what it's worth I think we would have lost anyway, because our terrible performances are finally being reflected in our results, but unless something unsighted occurred that was never a red for Buckley. It'll surely be rescinded, but it's of scant consolation assuming we now go on to lose.

Scoring first at least gives us some hope for this evening.

Tomasson isn't stupid or blind, he knows as well as the rest of us that the current set of players can't deliver his style of football this season and our performances will catch up to us in the end. I think it's going to be a painful second half of the season (again) and JDT is preparing the fanbase and Pune for the inevitable and steep decline that in truth may already be underway considering our insipid performance against Burnley, embarrassing display against Preston and allowing a Sunderland team managed by Tony Mowbray to actually come from behind to win. Of course I agree that the root problem is Venky's. I've been on that train since Kean was appointed permanently 12 years ago. However, their "model", as much of a foolhardy money-pit as it is, has largely kept us steady in the Championship since we were relegated, bar the season they made the incredibly idiotic decision to appoint Coyle. In the last two seasons we've been in the top three at the half way stage. In a fair few seasons we've been in and around the playoff places. Coyle season aside we've never really been in a relegation fight. Our inability to break the top six has not necessarily been the general running of the club, as the Championship is clearly a poor enough league for that to be mitigated (we'd have been repeatedly relegated otherwise), but the decision-making when it comes to employing the manager of the club and to some degree the staff surrounding him. Venky's or not, I believe a Neil Warnock type in charge around the 2013-14 period would have had us in the top six at the very least. The same last season. If owners like Vincent Tan and the Oystons can get their clubs promoted from this league then I am sure with the right managerial appointment even Venky's could achieve the same. If Tony Mowbray can get the club to 2nd after half a season and JDT with his ridiculously poor brand of football have us in 3rd over the halfway point then top six, at the very least, is not an impossible dream. With all of that said, we're still only one stupid decision away from implosion as far as our owners are concerned. They've always been the primary cause of our issues because ultimately they choose the manager, they set the structure at the club and they dictate the general tone of how the club operates. Whilst I don't think it's impossible for us to be promoted under Venky's, I do think they'd have to be extremely lucky with a managerial appointment, because they simply don't have the passion, knowledge or desire to make a decision borne from intelligence and forward planning - regardless of this "journey" nonsense that has been regurgitated for the past 6 years or so.

If the funds aren't there to shape the squad as JDT wishes then surely he needs to show that he can adapt to what we have, and what we can realistically bring in. I know we're 3rd at the moment, but surely we can all see where this is heading if there aren't some significant concessions made by the manager on his style of football. Of course the fans need to support the manager and the team, and I'm sure the regular matchgoers will, as they did even with Mowbray when he repeatedly tanked us with death spirals, but in my view at least the manager also needs to show the supporters that he has the ingenuinity to make the most out of what he's got. Again, I can appreciate the argument that he has done so far, hence the position we're in, but recent results especially are pointing to the honeymoon period having come to a brutal end. I want it to work out for JDT, I think every Rovers fan does, but I believe he needs to prove that he can handle the task he's been given and not lose himself in attempting to fulfil a project that may not have the backing required to bring about the idealised version of what the manager wants to achieve.

As we finished the last 5 games of last season without a draw, I believe we're now at 29 consecutive league games without drawing. I wonder what the longest run without a draw in the football league is? A quick google search suggests Spurs hold the PL record with 30 games, but not sure about the football league as a whole. It's definitely a club record.

Pretty much, and you know at least 4 or 5 clubs will have a better second half of the season, if not more, so you have to expect we'll eventually finish a fair way off the playoff spots unless we see a radical improvement in performances between now and the end of the season. It's not impossible but despite our current position it's difficult to be optimistic.

The crowd had completely turned against him and he'd started having a pop at the supporters, as I said after the Norwich match that rarely ends well at a normal club.

You are.

Weren't we statistically inferior to Sunderland by every meaningful metric? Assuming that to be so, by what logic did we deserve to share the points?

As an aside, imagine how utterly abysmal your team would have to be to occupy a relegation spot in this league.

I was there, both teams were poor, Norwich were just far worse. Anyone holding that performance up as the gold standard needs to rewatch the match without the JDT tinted specs on.

Whole team has been shit and that includes the manager. Six months and barely a single performance you could even count as somewhat entertaining. We're playing worse football than when Mowbray was here. Forget where we are in the league now, we'll finish about 15th and the squad isn't poor enough to justify that. This is all on the manager and a style of football which doesn't suit our team or the division. People can crow about us being in the top six for now, but enjoy it whilst you can because it's blindingly obvious we're in a hugely false position.

You just don't see the master plan. In seven or eight transfer windows all will become clear.

Hope your horses there chief, the project is still about two years from being ready. Until then we aren't allowed to judge anything.

In the 10 years we've been relegated from the Prem we haven't even managed a top six finish in this league once. That tells you all you need to know about the "vision" of those running the club.

That's a lot of words to basically say nothing of substance.

In terms of pure stats he's on a better potential trajectory than last season. One less goal and one more assist from twelve less appearances so far. Jury's out for me at this point but if he ends the season being more productive than last season in terms of goals and assists then that's personal progress for him. How it's impacting the team overall is another question.

A fair point on Hedges and Dolan. Despite buying Hedges Mowbray, for whatever reason, never really used him properly or effectively. Dolan has definitely been more productive this season but you would hope for that as he gets older and gains experience. Gallagher I feel is fairly similar to last season in that sometimes he looks useful and other times not so much, his stats so far this season suggest he's trending towards a similar impact to last season (17 games, 4 goals, 1 assist this season, 37 games, 9 goals and 3 assists last season) so we'll see how things look at the end of the season for him. It'd be nice for him to at least get into double figures with a goal return. Kaminski has had some excellent games this season and some poor ones, which does remind me of last season, and I still think his distribution needs work. A solid keeper at this level though for sure. Ultimately it's only a few months into JDT's reign so I'm not going to judge any of the players too harshly at this point - I think we'll have a clearer picture at the end of the season as to who is going to thrive long-term and who is likely to be departing or reduced to a lesser role going forward.