DE.

The sooner Dack returns the better. Just hope the injury hasn't taken too much out of him.

Fantastic signing. Just need a LB now and our backline is solid for as long as everyone stays fit.

Whilst I understand the pleasing aspects of our play at times being interpreted as a good performance, the reality is we only had two shots on target which won't win most games. You only score if you are hitting shots on target, and one could argue we were lucky yesterday to have a 100% conversion rate (thanks to a howler from their GK for one of those), and we still lost.

Normally on a keeper's debut conceding three goals would be a cause for concern, but he had no chance with any of the goals today and saved us from conceding a couple more with some good saves. His distribution was decent and he seemed vocal with the defence. I really hope for his sake we bring in some better defenders before the window closes, or he's going to be in for a long and tiring season.

If we're 'on top' or 'dominating' in the closing stages and the game is level you can practically guarantee the opposition will end up scoring. It's happened so many times that I'd rather hear we were under the cosh as I'd feel more confident of us nicking a goal in that scenario than if we're dominating.

He's good enough if you want a team who performs at roughly the level they should do, sometimes a little higher or lower in either direction. He is not good enough if you want a manager who can get a team punching above its weight, or a manager who considers defence as a major priority. It's not just Rovers where he has had a poor defence - it's practically every team he's ever managed. He's also not a manager you want to give much money to as he doesn't seem good at judging who to buy for serious money. There are a lot of managers with that problem though - Mark Hughes is another off the top of my head. Much better when the chequebook is limited. Compare the impact of Dack and Arma, bought for modest fees, against Gallagher and Brereton.

Because he knows it's his fault and doesn't want to draw attention to that.

I feel like we need two left backs as I genuinely don't think Bell is good enough to be second choice let alone first. Bennett and Williams are poor there as well - and I believe Williams has specifically said to Mowbray he doesn't want to play LB for Rovers, although I suppose he'd have to if ordered. Either way LB is a black hole for us. We do need a smart CB to play beside Lenihan as well, but again we ideally need two as Lenihan is regularly suspended and injured. We have a similar issue at RB as Nyambe has proven to be injury prone in the past and Bennett is second choice and useless in that position. TL;DR: The manager has let the entire defence devolve into a mess and we need more signings than is realistically possible under the current manager & owners to even return it to a decent level, let alone a good one.

First goal was nothing to do with ability - it was simply a lack of urgency/motivation to close down. That's something that can be coached. We've seen this issue over and over again in the last 9 years, no matter who is in defence we back off and allow teams to shoot. It's like an innate quality that's built into the club at this point.

Same old story, unfortunately. It was a good performance overall, but we can't help but ship 2-3 goals a game which has been our undoing too many times under Mowbray. He's had multiple transfer windows and ample time on the training pitch to fix this issue but either can't or won't do so. We've got enough about us to stay up as there are teams with similarly poor defences and worse attacking units that we will beat, but there's no way we get anywhere close to the top six with the current squad and management/coaching team. Mid-table beckons again, unless we have a stormer of an end to the transfer window.

Hard to tell on the first day of the season, but they definitely aren't anything special. Teams that can defend will be able to beat this Bournemouth team for sure.

When you can't keep goals out it sadly often makes attacking efforts futile. We can only hope this is a wake up call to TM and his team, like last season's defeat at Charlton, and we get the defence sorted before the window shuts. It could torpedo our entire season otherwise. Bournemouth haven't even been that good - better teams will relish taking on our backline.

How does Dolan look this much better than our £7m man?

I'd take a draw, but I hope the team's mentality is to go for the win. I think we're more likely to lose if we try and settle for a point.

Anyone who thinks Bell is an acceptable LB at this level needs to give their head a wobble. He's at least one level above where he should be. He isn't even good enough to be backup. We could put a traffic cone in Bell's place and it would probably be a better obstacle.

Yep. But then what do you expect when you have a manager who has failed to address our defensive issues despite having over three years to do so. The road to nowhere under Tony Mowbray continues on into infinity.

Two shots on target from either side, both goals!

Outfield players to blame there, not the keeper. Lazy defending, as usual. Looks like another season of hoping we can score a lot more than we concede. That goal was nothing to do with the quality of defender, for the record, it was all to do with a poor defensive mentality which comes from the management/coaching team and has been a problem for far too long - even going back before Mowbray.

I go into transfer windows nowadays with zero hope as I have no faith in the system we have in place to produce anything worthwhile. I don't think the manager or his team have a remotely solid grasp on recruitment, and they have no help from the owners - in fact, if anything they are a further hindrance to an already questionable setup. At best we may get a decent loan or two but that's all I expect now. If we splash money it always seems to be on overpriced players like Gallagher or Brereton who don't even fit our system. TL;DR: The recruitment structure is a mess and I have no hopes to be crushed in the first place, so I'm generally quite zen about the transfer window itself.

The January window may as well not exist for us. We signed Arma on loan in Jan '18... can't think of any other decent signings we've made in that window since TM took charge. I find every summer hugely disappointing as far as transfers are concerned, but YMMV depending on your expectations and ambitions for the club I suppose.

You're right, I thought we loaned Armstrong in the summer but it was January. I was probably thinking of Downing. Either way it was arguably the only good window we've had under TM. Good signings made quickly and decisively, ready for the first game of the season. We seem to have regressed massively since then in terms of recruitment, despite claims from the club to the contrary.

You would think with the amount of massively disappointing transfer windows we've had under TM the old "wait until the window has closed" phrase would have been quietly retired. It's practically guaranteed at this point that the window will end in disappointment with few if any of our glaring issues addressed in a future-proof way. Only really decent window we've had under Mowbray, from memory, was summer '17 when we signed Dack, Arma, Smallwood etc.

That period when we were run by Shebby and Shagnew was awful. The general incompetence at the club was astounding and it's amazing that Bowyer managed to keep us relatively stable during that time. We all know Bowyer ultimately underachieved with the squad he had in the 13/14 and 14/15 seasons, but I've always felt on balance he also deserves credit for assembling that squad during those dark days. Unfortunately he was eventually unable keep the wolf from the door after a couple of years of decent effort, and things went downhill a lot faster once he left.

From memory it was around that time the club was relying on emergency loans for day to day operations as well. If only the staff had known they just needed to ask the owners for more money.

That kind of stance would be fine if we had Mick McCarthy in charge - a manager who can not only work but thrive and be successful on a small budget. As we have Tony Mowbray these kind of limitations will doom us to mid-table nothingness at best as for all his good points I don't think Tony is realistically capable of getting a club with a limited budget into the Championship top six.