DE.

We were a one man team most of last season too in fairness. Without Dack we would have been much closer to Shrewsbury than Wigan imo. There's a lot of effort in this team and a good amount of spirit, but there is a worrying lack of creativity which means we rely on set pieces to nick goals when Dack isn't around. That in of itself isn't the end of the world - under Allardyce we thrived under that type of system. The difference there was that we could defend under Allardyce and had the likes of Samba, Nelsen and Salgado marshaling the back line. Nyambe, Lenihan, Mulgrew and Bell/Williams is far less convincing. This is my concern as well - but for McShane's generosity at Ewood we would have been comfortably beaten by Reading. Today's result had been coming. Defensively we're very shaky, but we looked shaky in League 1 with this defence so it's no surprise we look even more fragile a division higher. We got away with it often last season due to the poor quality of the opposition, but we've already seen this season that we'll be punished at a much higher rate. Again this is why the transfer window disappointed me so much. I felt we needed some significant improvements both at the back and going forward. I don't feel like we've had much if any improvements brought in. Brereton is a kid with potential who we've apparently splurged our entire budget on. Rodwell has been an utter failure for six years now. Armstrong was £1.75m for a reason and we already had him in the team last season so at best that's standing still. Palmer came in with a lot of hype but not a whole lot of substance yet. The division has some very poor teams in it and I don't think we're that bad, so we should be able to survive, but if Dack goes in January it's going to make things very difficult. Even if money is made available I'm no longer sure I trust whoever makes the signings at Ewood to do the right thing with it. Imo they massively screwed up this window and January is much harder to operate in.

We desperately need him on the pitch. Scoring from open play is very difficult for this team without Dack around. Last season even when players like Armstrong were missing chances Dack would pop up to score. He's both a creator and a finisher which is huge for us, as most of our attackers are one or the other. A few appear to be neither.

Couldn't agree more. Lack of competition for places across the majority of our backline is a horrible recipe for complacency. Raya, Nyambe, Mulgrew and Lenihan know they're only off the team sheet if they're injured. Bell at the very least has Williams to push him for a place.

I wouldn't mind if we had a stronger squad but that money should really have been spent on better defenders, at least then we may stop conceding silly goals to the likes of Ipswich and Reading whilst getting embarrassed by teams like Bristol City. To spend £7m on potential when there are still glaring weaknesses in our first team squad is madness to me. All I can say is that Mowbray must be very confident that we'll stay up without too much to worry about.

I agree, I'm pretty confused by the whole thing. We aren't a PL club who can afford to drop £7m on a 'maybe'. For that money he has to be good enough to start now, with the potential to get even better.

I agree that his price tag shouldn't guarantee starts, those are earned. That said, if we're spending £7m on a player then it has to be with the intention of him being a first teamer asap. If Brereton had come in to sit on the bench as Graham's understudy then I despair. For a club like ours that type of transfer fee should be spent for an instant impact, not an impact at some undefined point in the future.

If he's costing £7m he should be coming in to replace Graham, shouldn't he? At our level you don't spend £7m on potential or a backup option. If we have then it's lunacy.

Tbf we conceded two against Ipswich and Reading so it's obvious our defence isn't really up to scratch. Mowbray has chosen to prioritise the attacking side of the team instead and he'd better hope the likes of Armstrong, Palmer, Brereton and Rothwell start to deliver with goals because I don't fancy our chances scraping one goal wins this season.

It feels like our inability to score from open play is going to have big implications this season.

That said he did just score, so... ?

Insipid game between Ipswich and Norwich so far. They both look really poor. For all the wailing about us not signing Edwards I'm not sure he has the intelligence to be effective at this level. He's got talent but always runs with his head down, usually into blind alleys.

The transfer window was okay in the end but we're still weak for cover in some positions. We'll have to trust Mowbray to manage that. Don't really get the obsession with Chapman. He had a few good games for us in League 1 but his legs are made of glass and he's never played regularly at this level. Mowbray obviously isn't that keen either or a deal would have been done. It would have been an interesting signing but I'm not heartbroken over missing out on him either. Doesn't seem like anybody else was in for him which maybe says something too. The squad we've got should tide us over until January at least. What we lack in quality we make up for in spirit and hard work which should keep things going nicely.

Good luck to Brereton. I hadn't heard of him before our interest became public so I can't really say I'm excited, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops here. The fact Forest were willing to sell him suggests there are some things about him they aren't keen on, but if Mowbray can get a tune out of him then he could turn out to be a great signing. Regardless, it's the first time Venky's and/or the BOI have splashed out this kind of cash on Rovers in many years so they must really trust Mowbray to deliver. Even Bowyer didn't get that kind of backing.

I didn't think Nyambe would progress as far as he has. Thus far he's definitely exceeded my expectations.

Is this Venkys second most expensive signing behind Rhodes?

Ipswich lose again. Mick back in by Xmas?

Excellent result with a severely weakened team.

Tbf Brentford were no better than us in the first half.

It's quite sad watching it to be honest. Mowbray shouldn't be putting him in this position as it's going to do his confidence no good.

We look tidy enough and are working hard, but there's just no quality whatsoever on the attack. We need Graham on asap, Nuttall is playing at least one if not two levels above his current ability. Bell is fast and direct but his thinking is unfortunately too slow for it to matter.

Raya's decision making is still suspect, but ultimately he's a young keeper learning on the job. That's the risk you take playing younger players in general. I'm more annoyed by our consistent 45-minute no-shows than Raya's individual performances. Mowbray really needs to get a grip on this because we aren't going to get away with it as often in this league as we did in the one below.

Awful signing. Total desperation after we fucked the transfer window up.

Rodwell would be an atrocious signing and proof of how badly we screwed up the transfer window. I'd genuinely rather we'd have brought back Jason Lowe than Jack Rodwell. Hopefully there's nothing in it.

To be fair whilst we had a very good opening 10-15 mins, once Reading scored their first we completely collapsed and their second became inevitable. Whatever Mowbray said at the break obviously worked and we looked back up for it again in the second half, but we still would never have scored from open play which is a concern. Without Dack we didn't look like we knew what to do in the final third. Luckily McShane gave us the answers but we can't expect every team to have a player that generous.

Smallwood was okay at League 1 level, sometimes very good, but it's pretty obvious he's not Championship quality. Evans looked much better last night when Smallwood was taken off the pitch, as did many others who were having to try and cover his mistakes. Time for a rethink from Mowbray. I appreciate his loyalty to players but when that comes at the expense of results and the performance of other team mates something has to be done.