DE.

The ref probably got a good telling off for putting world cup revenue in jeopardy for something as silly as the rules.

Ipswich are definitely building momentum now - it'll be interesting to see if they add in January. They could do with a proper goalscorer, but they may feel like they have enough already. They're still scoring enough in most matches, they just have the odd game here or there that they should win but instead end up drawing or occasionally losing. Boro have taken a pretty big risk hiring a relative unknown to replace Edwards. Much like with Vitor Matos at Swansea, it could either be an inspired appointment or one that tanks their promotion chances. They've only won one of their last six games now, so Hellberg is going to have to get a grip on things quickly if they want to remain in the promotion hunt. Southampton are going well under Eckert - not sure if he wants the gig full-time, but he's certainly making a strong case for it if so. With their squad they should be targeting playoffs as a minimum, so as long as they don't hire another dud you'd expect them to be up there. It's hard to know what to make of the rest. A lot of fluctuations in form for all of them at various points so far. Stoke's strong start has kept them up there, but they've already lost five matches, which is more than anyone else in the top six at the moment. Some strong, experienced managers at a lot of the clubs in and around the playoff positions - you'd have to think January is going to be vital for those who ultimately make it. I wouldn't rule out Leicester giving Cifuentes the boot in the near future and getting themselves back into contention either. With that squad it shouldn't require a world class manager to get them moving in the right direction.

"BBC Sport understands that the fact it was his first red card in 226 international appearances was taken into account." Ah right, so past good behaviour allows the rules to become flexible. Who knew. I'm sure they'd do the same for a player who was less financially lucrative.

When it comes to FIFA and commercialisation, nothing surprises me. Next they'll announce top seeds have an automatic bye to the knockouts regardless of where they finish in the group. Maybe they can create a new rule where top ranked players can be transferred to other countries if their team exits the tournament early. Keep the superstars around as long as possible.

Only six points now with Sheffield United winning today (albeit with us having a game in hand). With that said, I'm not too concerned at the moment. Portsmouth and Oxford are going to struggle this season. Portsmouth will probably be okay in the end, but Oxford will do well to stay up again. I don't think their squad as a whole is Championship standard, so Rowett is going to have to pull everything out of his bag of tricks to keep them safe. Swansea are looking poor again - a lot riding on the hiring of Vitor Matos, who has only ever managed one club in his short career in the Portuguese second tier. Could be an inspired appointment, could be an absolute disaster. Massive risk. Sheffield United had a good win today, but it was Sheffield Wednesday so I'm not reading anything into that. Their overall form, even since Wilder arrived, is still pretty dire. I expect Wilder will keep them in the division, but it hasn't been the swift ascent to safety that many were predicting when he arrived. January will be crucial for them. I'm not convinced Philippe Clement of all people is the answer to Norwich's problems. He's been failing in management since 2022 and doesn't have any track record of reviving struggling clubs. He's almost exclusively been hired at clubs which already have a sizeable reputation and aren't in serious danger of being relegated. Maybe it'll work, but his previous work doesn't really align with what Norwich need, so it's a shot in the dark. I don't expect many others will get dragged in, but WBA are falling fast with a rookie manager (Ryan Mason) in charge. I don't think realistically they're going to get sucked into a relegation battle, but if we won our game in hand we'd be above them, and the table doesn't lie. Rovers should have enough to stay up this year, assuming our injury situation doesn't get too serious and Venky's don't do their usual and sabotage us in January. Neither of those scenarios are guaranteed by any means, so I remain concerned, but at this moment in time we look reasonably OK.

I think Ekitike is a decent signing, but they absolutely didn't need Isak. They should have cut off that pursuit the moment he downed tools and went on strike. It's not like £125m was a cut-price deal. Salah hasn't been great but he's still their top scorer and joint-top assists so far this season (granted that's only 2, but still), so 🤷‍♂️ he's a 33 year old right winger - if they're still relying on him to drive everything then they only have themselves to blame after the amount of money they've spent. I actually thought Salah was one of the only Liverpool players to come out of the Forest game with any credit. There are a lot of players ahead of him in terms of needing to be criticised. he's obviously declining as any player begins to at that age, but I don't think he's even close to being their main issue.

They haven't had much to celebrate this season tbf. Every game in the Championship this weekend had a player scoring their first of the season, with the exception of Ipswich vs Wrexham in which nobody scored. That can't have happened too often.

Can't fault the team for the effort they're putting in most weeks, they look like they're getting comfortable with each other and the recent system that's been adopted. Staying up or even finishing mid-table won't be an achievement based on where we have been in the recent past, but considering the amount of Championship experience that's been let go and replaced with cheap alternatives it would be an achievement for the manager and players. The league is wide open this season, I think more than it has been in a really long time, so it's a shame we chose now to cut everything back - even more so than previously. We definitely could have been up there with a genuine shot of a playoff position if we had owners with even the slightest inclination towards being ambitious.

Battling performance from the boys, lovely to see us finally stand up and be counted in a derby game. I don't usually comment on the ref, but he had a shocker and Preston should have seen at least one red tonight. Impressed with Morishita, and it's always good to have your main striker finding the back of the net - doesn't matter if they are 30 yard screamers or close-range finishes, they all count and will only increase AG's confidence. Great start to the weekend.

What a strange hill to die on. United fans rate Scholes as a top class player. He was. What else needs to be said? If Wharton has a career half as good as Scholes he'll have done bloody well for himself.

The other issue with VAR is that it makes complaints a lot more magnified - especially if the decision appears to be wrong. Pre-VAR there was always plausible deniability for the officials. It's easy to miss something if your view was obstructed, there was a crowd of players, you didn't have the best view of the incident, and so on. You'd still get comments of "how could a ref, linesman and fourth official miss THAT?" but there is some latitude for explaining decisions which appeared to be or were incorrect. When you've got multiple angles in slow motion and minutes to analyse them then what excuse is there? Mistakes simply cannot happen in that situation, because it's either incompetence from multiple officials or a genuine intent from multiple officials to fail to uphold the laws of the game. There aren't really any other feasible explanations that can be given. It starts to break down into "interpretation" and at that point we aren't really much further from where we started. You loop back to the "it should only be used for clear and obvious errors" argument, and everyone will have their own view of what that constitutes. Most memories I have of people being genuinely incensed by decisions come from two main problems - goals that should have stood but didn't (Lampard's goal against Germany, for example) and clear offsides. Hawkeye has already solved problem one, and I can't believe technology doesn't exist that could effectively eliminate problem two without the need for VAR. I sometimes think VAR is the proverbial sledgehammer being used to crack open a nut. There are some other situations I can think of outside of the above two - Henry's handball goal for France against the Irish, Maradona's "hand of God", some reckless tackles/assaults that should have seen red but were missed - but how often do such egregious situations actually occur? Do they happen enough to justify VAR as a comprehensive solution? Football clubs would probably say so, to be fair. At the highest levels especially the key factor is money and if VAR means that an unjust decision doesn't cost you points and potential relegation then that would probably be considered worth the sacrifice from a financial point of view, spectacle of the game be damned. For fans though, I'm not so sure. Feels like I'm starting to argue against myself now so I'll stop before I develop a split personality, but it's certainly an interesting topic with all sorts of valid arguments for and against.

It's difficult to define clear and obvious errors, as everyone will have their own opinion on what is clear and obvious. I think VAR is an all or nothing kind of thing - either it is used to implement the laws of the game down to the most minute detail, or it just isn't used at all. Some kind of vague middle ground is just asking for trouble and discontent. On balance I'd probably be rid of it as I think judging everything on the smallest of details goes against the spirit of the game. Football shouldn't be broken down with mathematical precision, as imo that ruins the spectacle and what makes it such a compelling sport to follow. Some of the greatest moments of lore in the game come from refereeing mistakes, good and bad. It's part of what fuels discussions and debates. Hawkeye is enough for me. If they could implement something else for blatant offsides as well, then I'd be fine with just having those as technological assistance.

A shame someone like Allardyce, who presumably has plenty in his bank account by this point, won't take on these people in court (if we assume legal threats were issued in this case). You'd imagine there would be some interesting things discussed. I suppose it was probably the podcast company who have backed down though, rather than Allardyce himself.

Swansea sack Sheehan. They're a point ahead of us, albeit with us having a game in hand.

Huh, you're right, I had no idea he was on the books in the early 00s. With that said, he apparently only played in one league cup game, so... technically his only notable contribution to our history is still being part of the relegation side of 16/17.

Rover the Dog would have been a better shout than Greer. The bloke only ever played in 4 matches that we actually won. Legendarily shit. Indeed, although back then we had a lot more recent legends to call upon. Who has been a real 'legend' at the club in the last 15 years? Nelsen, Samba and Dunn would probably be the only ones who'd come close to making that list for me. I don't consider any player from the Venky era a legend, although I appreciate we've had a few cult hero types like Rhodes and Dack.

I knew he played for us, but was stunned to see it was for three seasons. I thought he'd just been here for one, two at most. Including a player in Greer whose only contribution to our history is being a part of the team that got relegated to League 1 is frankly taking the piss. Shameful to even ask him to line up in a "legends" team. I can only assume they had to really scrape the barrel to fill the slots. Honestly I'm shocked Rudy didn't include himself in the team.

Is that a positive or a negative?

The criteria for "legend" appears to be "played for us at least a handful of times in any capacity, irrespective of talent or success".

This does assume competency and common sense though, which may not be in especially high supply at Ewood these days.

Hmm, might have been more prudent to call it a Classic Rovers XI or something. Not as marketable but closer to the truth. I mean, granted, who could forget Gordon Greer helping to steer us into League 1 in his only season at the club? Fond memories of a true club legend there. Kilgallon's average of 20 games a season as we slowly got worse in each of his three seasons here, definitely the stuff of legend. Tommy Spurr's classic 6 or 7/10 steady performances every match, unforgettable. I appreciate it would be impossible to get a "legend" in every position, but that's arguably not even 50% overall that would come close to the basic definition.

There were warning signs last season with Salah, but he still scored 29 goals and had 18 assists (PL only, a few more in other comps) so you can understand the logic in giving him an extension. Players in their early 30s can decline pretty fast, though, so always a bit of a risk.

Footballers, the very definition of loyalty.

They weren't a fluke, they were just played in fortunate circumstances. Generally such things probably even themselves out over the course of a season though (the Ipswich game, for example, turned out to be an unfortunate circumstance for us where we probably would have won), so the only thing anyone should be focused on is where we are in the table right now and how likely it is that our form will improve versus the teams around us in the coming months.

Boro fans are seemingly up for Mowbray returning. There was one bloke who claimed Mowbray wasn't in good health and so wouldn't be possible, but not sure how reliable that info was. Massive egg on the face of Knapper and Norwich's hierarchy. They were all in on Manning, but there's only so many defeats before the position becomes untenable.