If Szmodics doesn't score we don't have anyone else contributing, and he isn't even a striker.

Well, at least QPR and Watford are losing as well.

Typical. This is on Venky's - their budget slashing has left us with a squad that is simply too thin on the ground to capatalise on the chances we create. Having to start Markanday and an out of form Dolan, Szmodics having to play up front because we could only afford a chronically injured striker and a guy who has only played regularly in the fourth division of German football.

Probably a lack of game time over the past few months that has eroded Siggy's decision making a little. I can remember when JRC came back from his long injury layoff his decision making was dreadful for a while before he finally got going again.

I think the ones that do occasionally come down from the Prem for a game are often worse. Probably difficult now for them to remove themselves from the VAR safety net that essentially absolves them of any blame in terms of making big decisions.

Seems to be a problem across all levels in this country tbh. I mean, you've got multiple refs/assistants in the PL with instant replays and motion technology available to them and they still somehow manage to get some glaringly obvious decisions wrong.

Cowardly from the officials there. Got it right initially and then caved to pressure.

Happy that we've got to the break with a clean sheet. Just need to nick a goal from somewhere.

Yeah I know, it's just a shame that our fabled striker search in the summer yielded nothing of use, really. Maybe Ennis at some point in the future. Sammy is our best player and threat, but it's a bit like when Dack was played up top - I always felt like it limited his impact because that wasn't where he was best suited. It is what it is though.

A bit disappointing that Telelovic is rated below an AMC in the striker position. Oh well. Let's see what this team can do. I've seen ridiculous starting lineups many a time from old Tone and been surprised by the outcome. Hopefully tonight the same happens.

This is the only one we know of. Agree that Webb has a very difficult job on his hands though.

Bizarre that it needed an incident like this for the people in charge of this to realise that clear and concise communication is important, honestly. Just shows how utterly unprepared and mismanaged the implementation of VAR has been up to this point. It's not like there aren't other established examples in other sports to follow for guidance. VAR itself has been in the PL for, what, 3+ seasons now? It's embarrassing that basic communication protocols aren't mandated.

Incredible what decent ownership and the right managerial appointment can do. From being mired in the middle of League 1 for multiple seasons to this. Granted it's still early days, but as it's been for the past few seasons now, there's nothing to fear in this division. A bit of common sense along with the right person at the helm and you're going to be up there, excepting the likes of Plymouth who are nonetheless really performing admirably so far considering how low their wage bill is relative to the rest of the division.

Really strange that there isn't a protocol where the VAR has to explicitly state "we have concluded onside/offside", rather than just saying "check complete". VAR is supposed to remove ambiguity, but that conversation is pretty bloody ambiguous, let alone when it's happening in such a short space of time. "Good process" ... I have to disagree. This is just a very poor standard of communication between officials. The obvious question is whether it's a lack of a proper process in place, a lack of training, or if the VAR/AVAR in this instance were just being grossly incompetent in terms of not following established procedures. The fact the ref didn't request for specifics in terms of being told onside or offside suggests it's more likely to be one of the first two possibilities, though. Honestly, it's no wonder VAR is such a mess if this is how they're communicating with each other.

VAR: “Thank you mate.” Referee: “Well done boys, good process.” Replay operator: “Wait, wait, wait, wait. The on-field decision was offside. Are you happy with this?” Lol, the replay operator like... wtf are you doing lads? You can tell by the transcript that he's totally baffled by what they're deciding. Transcript makes it seem like total chaos tbh.

If we do batter someone I think it'll be at Ewood, like Cardiff in the cup, not an away game. I know we beat Harrogate 8-0 away, but it was Harrogate. All I want from this game is proof that we're working to address our defensive problems. I'd very happily take a 0-0 as a sign of progress in that area. A scrappy 1-0 win, even better.

Lol yeah, didn't see literally come out and say that he stopped the owners from putting money in to build momentum for a further push? He'd rather "build slowly" which, as it turned out, meant hang around for 5 years making us incrementally better but never quite good enough.

Don't think VAR is required for goal line as Hawkeye can tell precisely if a ball crosses the line or not. It's really just needed for blatant refereeing errors that are obviously and egregiously wrong. I think the vast majority of fans would accept the on pitch ref and linesmen getting the occasional marginal call wrong if it meant the game flowed better and you could celebrate goals without fear of VAR ruling it out for a hair follicle being offside four minutes later.

For all of the stick AEW gets, and I have given them a fair bit in the past year too, it's great to have another big wrestling company around for moments like Adam Copeland's debut last night: Kind of crazy that they were able to literally copy his WWE entrance and even the "Rated R Superstar" nickname, which WWE apparently abandoned the trademark for in 2020. A different name but otherwise literally everything else the same. A really cool get for AEW, and it's great that Edge gets a final full-time run. Judging by the post-event scrum it's something he really wanted, but WWE were only willing to let him do a part-time schedule. Considering Edge has been a WWE lifer up until this point it's really weird to see him in the ring for a different promotion, but I'm looking forward to what he can do there.

Apparently Liverpool are taking things further, will be interesting to see what avenues are open to them. Something needs to change. Clubs can't just keep accepting "oops, our bad, one match suspension for the officials involved".

Can't imagine Warnock touching us after we messed him about six years ago. Besides of which, hiring him seems like far too sensible of a decision for Venky's to make. I think our only real hope is that JDT finds a way to make this work, by tweaking his system to give us more defensive stability but still enough attacking prowess to score a goal or two. If Tomasson goes I dread to think what comes next.

That's the thing, for me there's always a massive asterisk applied to any criticism of JDT because he is not the root cause of our problems. He's one of the few good decisions made by Venky's in the past decade plus. I don't hold him primarily responsible for what is happening because he has been sold down the river, alongside the recruitment team and the fans. If he's staying out of loyalty and an unwillingness to give up, even with so much against him, then I admire that - but he still needs to have a real think about what he's doing now and whether he needs to pivot to something a little bit different. There are things about his current style that work. We do play some fantastic football at times. We can score goals, even with very limited options in terms of talent. That's good. However, these positives are undone by the fact we cannot defend and concede far too many goals. He needs to try and find a balance between continuing to allow us to score goals, but prioritising being solid from the back. The vast majority of great teams were and are built from a solid defensive foundation. Those who aren't either have huge budgets and can regularly outscore the opposition (Norwich in recent seasons when they've gone up, and Mowbray's WBA way back when), or end up as nearly rans, such as Newcastle in the mid-90s, or fondly remembered losers, like Blackpool during their PL relegation season. I don't envy JDT's job, but for now at least it is his job.

I tend to agree, if JDT resigned leaving us in the relegation zone that wouldn't be a good look, regardless of how many managers claim we're the best they've seen. He may come to regret not leaving in the summer when it was obvious the 'project' had changed and he had been lied to. I don't think any Rovers fan who really understands how shambolic the running of this club is would have begrudged him leaving. It would have hurt, but been completely understandable. From his perspective he'd have a solid first season at Rovers on his record and perfectly legitimate reasons for departing. There's always the "well would you walk away from your job without compensation?" argument, but I'm not wealthy and a world famous name, so it's not really a fair comparison. I'm sure JDT wouldn't have struggled to find work. Walking away in the summer would have been making a point. Walking away now is less clear cut because he started this season accepting the new project, even if he didn't like it, and would be leaving with the club struggling. That's also why I don't think he should be exempt from criticism. The budget changing in the summer and piss poor recruitment is not his fault, but by starting the season with us and continuing to take his wage for being manager of the club with the circumstances known, he also has to take some responsibility for how the current situation is being handled on the pitch. Would another manager come in and do better? I don't know, but we still shouldn't be shipping this amount of goals. And that's not me saying I want JDT to leave. I am in the camp of wanting him to stay, as I like his personality and believe he has some very solid ideas when it comes to playing football. I just want to see more from him in terms of adapting and adjusting to our current position. He's doing so with severe limitations, but a manager earns their money by being able to improve bad situations. That's not to say he can get us into playoff contention this season, and I don't expect that, but at minimum I expect us to concede less than two goals a game on average. I want us to stop letting the opposition have 15+ shots on our goal each game. I want to see us improve defensively, even if it means we scrape some 1-0 wins or even some 0-0's. That's all I'm asking at this point, as I don't foresee us finishing any better than mid-table based on the way the owners have hamstrung us in terms of recruitment.

Glad the focus was on our goals conceded, not sure I agree with him saying it's not because we're open, though... we are. That's inevitable because of the way we play, but still, the amount of shots we typically allow against us suggests we are open. We did better at that today with only 11 shots against, we just conceded all four that were on target. I'm not sure our first eleven necessarily has a problem with experience. Pears has a number of games under his belt now, and Wahlstedt has a Swedish cap - although he's obviously inexperienced at this level. Brittain is 25 and experienced in this league. Hyam is 27 and similarly very experienced. Hayden Carter is 23, so whilst young, is not a youth prospect being brought in to play defence. Pickering 24 and plenty of games played. Travis a seasoned pro by this point. Wharton definitely still learning, but if we hadn't let Buckley go out on loan we'd have some experience there to rotate. Siggy is 24 with experience at levels comparable and higher to the Championship. Moran still learning his trade, as is Markanday. Typically we'd play Hedges there, though, who does have plenty of experience. Szmodics is 28 and a seasoned campaigner by this point. Squad depth and potential options available is where we have a major problem, and you only have to look at our bench to see evidence of that. With injuries piling up we're very limited in terms of bringing on any type of experience to positively change a game. It's not a developmental first eleven, but it's fair to say with the amount of injuries we have right now it's a bare bones squad with mostly development players remaining in reserve. A lot of question marks over how good many of our more experienced players are as well, although many of them have been part of a team that, under Mowbray, was regularly in the upper reaches of the Championship, so... they can't be that bad. Mowbray often trotted out the young, inexperienced team line when it wasn't really true, and I don't think it's really true for our first eleven either. There's enough experience there, there's just not enough in reserve to genuinely challenge for starting places or come on to impact games when needed.

We already have injuries - Gallagher, Ennis, Leonard, Pears, Hedges...