DE.

I've moved a significant amount of posts in here to the pessimism thread, as that is where they belong. This was supposed to be kept as an optimism-only zone, but I haven't really been checking it, so my bad. Instead of hiding a significant amount of posts I've moved most of them to the more relevent thread.

J*B already did on the first page I believe. I've already hidden a couple from the current page, but will go back through the thread and hide any others not adhering to the guidelines.

An interesting day overall in the Championship. Rovers conceded first against Ipswich and duly lost again. This time upping the goals conceded to four. It would have been an entertaining match for a neutral, with Rovers coming from 3-1 behind to 3-3 before Ipswich sealed the win. They'll perhaps be a little concerned they let us score three goals though. Nonetheless, three points is three points, and it moves Ipswich up to 2nd, edging ahead of Preston in the early standings. Ipswich's four goals scored today makes them joint-top scorers alongside East Anglian rivals Norwich. Rovers meanwhile have now shipped 16 goals in 8 matches, averaging two goals against per game. Nobody needs to be told that this is a bad sign. Rovers continue to drop, now sitting in 14th. Leeds comfortably dispatched Watford 3-0 at Elland Road. The result moves Leeds up to 5th and means they've now taken 11 points from their last 15, suggesting some momentum is building there. It was another disappointing result for Watford, who have only won one of their last five matches and slip to 16th. Leicester picked up a narrow 1-0 home victory against in-form Bristol City via a Jamie Vardy penalty kick, which moves them up to 1st place. Another clean sheet for the Foxes, meaning they've only conceded five goals this season, giving them the best defence in the competition thus far. A first defeat in five for Bristol City, who drop to 8th place in the table. Middlesbrough finally picked up their first win of the season at the eighth attempt, beating hapless Southampton 2-1 at the Riverside. Despite former Rover Adam Armstrong putting the Saints ahead on the 17th minute, two goals either side of the break was enough for Boro to claim their first three points of the season (in a single match). Boro remain in the relegation places, but are now 22nd and just a point behind Swansea. For Southampton the misery continues with a fourth defeat in a row, dropping them to 15th with a -7 GD, and 19 goals conceded remaining the worst in the competition. The shock result of the day came at Home Park, where Plymouth took apart a desperate Norwich team, romping to a 6-2 victory. It was an emphatic way to bounce back after suffering two defeats on the bounce, and makes Plymouth the second highest scorers in the division, behind Ipswich/Norwich who are joint-first. Norwich meanwhile continue to stumble after a bright start to the season, with this being their third defeat in four matches, and a really damaging one. It means they are now level with Rovers as third-worst for goals conceded so far this season. Preston dropped their first points since the opening day, drawing 1-1 away to Rotherham. A disappointing result from Preston's perspective, but they remain the only team in the division yet to lose a match. They drop to 3rd for now. Rotherham meanwhile pick up their first point in three matches, but still fall to 23rd having still only managed a solitary win this season. They are leapfrogged by both Boro and Swansea, and have now conceded the second most goals in the division. Speaking of Swansea, they recorded their first win of the season by defeating Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at the Swansea.com Stadium. For the Swans it's another step in the right direction after picking up a point midweek, and lifts them out of the relegation zone and into 21st in the table. Sheffield Wednesday now sit bottom of the league - the only club yet to pick up a win, with six defeats out of eight making for grim reading. Not only that, but they have the weakest attack in the division with a meagre five goals in their first eight matches. It's going to take some effort for them to avoid a straight drop back to League 1. WBA and Millwall drew 0-0. Not much I can say to make that interesting, as both teams sit in mid-table doing nothing worth talking about.

Might have been a bit harsh, but there are periods when we become overwhelmed and go into our shells. We have the ability to fight back but give ourselves too much of a hill to climb during those periods when we panic and lose our heads. Have to get it sorted.

We were very lucky to escape with a win there, honestly. Think we had one decent shot on goal and it went in. Going to need a few more games to go like that this season to be comfortable.

Tbf Watford dominated us as well, they just had a Rovers in front of goal.

I would imagine the few of us in this thread are aware of the all time classics mate 😅

Just to note this thread will operate under the same guidelines as the optimism thread - arguing against pessimistic takes not accepted. If you don't want to read pessimistic takes, or can't do so without needing to lash out, don't open this thread. Personally think we're in big trouble. Can't defend, awful attacking options, a manager who, if we're being brutally honest, hasn't been able to get a decent run out of this squad since Dec 2022, absentee owners, no transfer or wage budget, outright admittal from Waggott that there's no expectations being set at all other than to stay in the league... All points one way, and that's down. Might not be this season, but at this rate it's going to happen soon.

Southampton lose again to Boro... wonder if that'll be it for RM? Getting embarrassing for him now.

Considering we conceded first there was only one way it was going once it went to 3-3. These lads can't even ride a wave of momentum properly. The fact we have zero to offer from the bench makes it even worse. Venky's going back to the mid-2010 style of drastically slashing the playing budget until we go down. Learned their lessons? That's a good one.

Maybe he can give Pears some tutoring.

On JDT this. Has to hold his hands up and admit selecting Pears has cost us big time today.

Whatever JDT said at half time has done the trick, just a shame he keeps handicapping us with the goalkeeper selection.

Between that and picking Pears every match you start to wonder. Seriously though, he might regret not resigning in the summer if this keeps up. On the other hand, Russell Martin keeps getting work, so it probably doesn't matter.

A dire half which gives us all a reality check, despite some pre match optimism. If we can't stop shipping 2+ goals it's a relegation battle for us this season. That's the stark reality when you can't defend and don't score enough to offset that. Our home form will be the deciding factor there, as we are absolutely spineless away from home.

Eh, from my experience it's no worse than here, although maybe they had to clamp down at some point in the past.

Hirst isn't a good player, we just can't defend. Hence conceding 3 to Plymouth, 3 to Sunderland, 3 to Walsall and another 3 at minimum today.

Our defence is a fucking joke. We're in major trouble.

Which only leaves JDT genuinely thinking Pears is better than Wahlstedt. Or Wahlstedt is struggling to settle/acclimatise.

Good that Siggy is starting. Frustrating that Pears isn't dropped despite numerous recent errors. Either Wahlstedt isn't up to much in JDT's eyes, which would be really worrying, or the manager is lacking some required ruthlessness.

According to wiki we only lost 3 of our first 17 matches in our first season back in the Championship - the main difference between us and Ipswich being that 8 of those matches were draws, so we were still ultimately floating around mid-table rather than being in the top three. It was the tried-and-tested post-Christmas death spiral that did us in that season, with 9 losses in 11 matches between February 2nd and April 6th.

https://www.twtd.co.uk/blogs/21959/opposition-preview--blackburn-rovers Pretty detailed opposition preview from the TWTD website. Interestingly going with a 2-1 Rovers win.

It was indeed very cool to see The Rock back, and what a huge pop! Apparently the plan was for Reigns/Rock at the WM just gone, but the stars didn't align from a scheduling perspective. To be honest I'm not sure they ever will. Rock got busted up pretty badly in his last match against Cena, and that was 10 years ago. It isn't going to be any easier for a 51 year old Rock, and I don't see him putting potential movies in jeapoardy over a one off match at this point.

Well it is indeed my opinion, I would hope I don't need to put that as a disclaimer with every statement! Nobody has ever said he's the perfect player, but he's still contributed with goals and assists as a young player in previous seasons, and had improved from 21/22 to 22/23, reasonably enough from a kid who was only 19/20 at the time. This season however he's really struggled to make any kind of impact, despite JDT putting him in as a first team regular (granted mainly because we have no squad depth). He'd missed some real sitters as well, and his confidence seems dented. Would make sense at this point to take him out of the firing line for a while.

When Hull beat us on August 19th. In general though you might be right, it'd be interesting to see the stats for that.