He’s probably been out most consistent player all season, never below 6/10 and often a 7 or 8. There were genuinely people on here giving it that he wasn’t good enough at the start of the season. He’s in the top few RB’s in the league. Fantastic signing, massive shame he spent so much of last season (uncharacteristically) injured.

I said to my little lad before the game yesterday that it had loss written all over it. Having such a young side, that’s paper thin and whalloped by injuries doesn’t help. But two good wins and losing away to a team who can barely buy a point is text book Rovers. As we’ve said many times most the young lads have played more games this season than they’ve played in their careers to date. It’s always going to be a couple of steps forward and one back this season. If we can keep in an around the play offs they and JDT will have done a phenomenal job.

Depends what you mean by unreserved, I know at Celtic Park they have absolute murder keeping those without tickets for the standing section out. I am all for them but one of the main considerations is around access to the section and effectively fencing it off so you don't end up with 100 people standing in an area designated for 50. Whilst standing sections are unreserved once you get in there you do get allocated a seat.

I take it all back, 20% off both home and away kits over will have boosted the coffers with them selling out.

Let’s see at the end of the season, I think you sell more if you offer incentives. You also increase the number of casual buyers and on the fencers. The more Rovers shirts on kids the better. A kid kit costs best part of £100 quid, kid gets a choice of that or say the new FIFA, a lot choose fifa and we have less rovers shirts on kids. There are differing pricing strategies of course but I just think they’ve missed a trick of directing loads of traffic and business to the site today who might make secondary purchases that they wouldn’t normally make. Whereas I bet there will be plenty like me who looked on and thought what a joke and bought nowt.

The Black Friday Rovers Roulette is pathetic, I imagine many rovers fans like me looked this morning to check for discounts on kit and training kit as other clubs have done. I should have known better. Missed a massive opportunity to swell the coffers there IMO. A single junior shirt with printing costs the same as I paid yesterday for a full Celtic kit with league badges, printing and postage. Our commercial operation is so out of step with the rest of the sector and it’s much to our detriment

Been a disappointment so far, first few games I thought he looked miles ahead of the league quality wise but has looked pretty run of the mill since then. Possibly struggling with fitness but I’d thought his overall talent would make him stand out like a sore thumb. Sadly not thus far

Agree on AW for certain, I should caveat the 30-40 games marker as being at first team level for anyone in champ and above.

One of the problems of having so many academy graduates progressing to the first team means we have a season where we have majority under 18 players. I seem to remember this happening 5 or 6 years ago, could be longer though. It will be really interesting to look back in 18 months time and sew how many of those who have been involved in the first xi so far have 30 - 40 or so appearances, I'm going to wager on 3. Wharton, Gilsenan and possibly O'Grady-Macken or Michalski the keeper.

Not sure Rowett going is as big a spanner in the works as other sackings, I listened to a 20 minute long interview with him on TalkShite the following day where he was very open about it being a genuinely mutual agreement. Seemed like he was leaving a fairly settled operation rather than the usual heart being ripped from a dressing room. That said with our formation and personnel tweaks in the last 2 games we seemed to have been able to cut out some of the defensive errors that cost us games and capitalise on attacking opportunities where we'd previously let them go begging and I can see a 2-1, Rovers take a 2-0 lead before a 70th minute or so rally from Millwall leaving us with a nervy last 20

looking at those positional reports, that is a busy midfield against Coventry and Leicester. Interesting to see how we set up wider more structured back 5 against QPR. Signs that JDT has learnt from the high risk formations in other games, admittedly we were unfortunate against Coventry.

The difference with Evans and Travis is that they're water carriers, moving the ball for moving its sake with little to no reasoning. A 'pivot' player who is someone who moves the ball to open space in other areas to utilise 3rd man runs, etc. Evans and Travis are players who pad out their stats by making 4 or 5 yard passes with little to no thought IMO.

Yeah but numbers are a good reference point to highlight changes in the way the game is played and to explain specific roles. A double pivot is very different to 2 central midfielders. Historically most teams played 4-4-2 where a 6 would be the more conservative and the 8 would be up and down. A double pivot is neither. The idea of a double pivot is that the ball is constantly moving, with the pivots being responsible for that linkage plus adding a screen to the back 4. It's a really difficult position to play and requires a great deal of maturity. I'm not sure Wharton is best placed in one of those roles as he is more of a classic deep lying playmaker a la Tugay, Pirlo, he doesn't offer much protection for the back 4 and his passes are much more progressive than a pivot. I'm not sure who goes in there alongside Sonny to be honest as Travis is more water carrier than someone who can constantly rotate possession.

I'm not sure it's pigheadedness, I think it's more an unwavering belief in his principles of play. Pigheadedness suggest its a lack of humility, whereas I'd say from the personality he has shown so far he has a belief in a certain way of playing and that over time that will win more games than it loses. I'd argue that it may be the case in many leagues but the championship doesn't give you much breathing space and a bad run of results can very quickly become suffocating and death spiral like. I ultimately think JDT is being a bit naive, he needs to cut his cloth accordingly for a little while, shore up the midfield, stop leaking goals and focus less on nice patterns of play and more on results. Because at the end of the season the record books don't say, lost but played nicely, they say lost, 0 points recorded.

No manager puts out a team to lose out of spite, I love JDT and his brand of football however I do think he needs to be more pragmatic at times. Unless you're able to wedge 35 million a la the dingles to play a specific type of football then you're always going to have to make modifications and compromises. Which at this point JDT seems unwilling and/or unable to do. I'd say Bielsa is the only one who has managed to completely mould a team to style of play on a 'relative' shoestring, he managed it at Leeds (albeit blessed with Phillips and a technician like Klich) but with the greatest respect to JDT he is no Bielsa. We need an extra body in the middle of the park to add cover, for me this either means sacrificing Wharton as a deep lying playmaker and moving him further forward in a 4-2-3-1. I'd feel much more confident with Tronstand and Hill at the base of the midfield and Adam pushed into a 10 role. We also need the full backs to stay wide and parallel to the centre halves not stepping centrally into midfield for the time being as we're so exposed when we turnover the ball in midfield.

I think JDT has to shoulder some blame and the cuts business doesn’t wash for me defensively. We’ve got plenty of players to play at the back and in midfield. JDT is however showing himself to be stubborn to a fault and seemingly unable to pick a side that gives the defence some protection. i love the way we pop the ball about but he needs to show some flexibility in adjusting our shape to provide protection and sharpish otherwise we’re going to be all fur coat and no knickers pretty quick

We’re in deep shit I’m afraid. Lovely to watch at times without sticking the ball in the net but we unfortunately fall apart like a packet of broken biscuits time and time again.

Preston only getting good crowds due to being near the top and Liverpool being away when they’re at home………. Lads going to watch their 2nd team more regular

I think the big difference with u23’s is the that speed of being closed down. In 23 games they move the ball quickly and I find it enjoyable to watch however it’s noticeable how passive the press is. It’s more of a training ground press where the aim is to get there rather than get them and win the ball. Focus always seems to be on delaying and denying space, forcing the players to make decisions. Whereas in championship they get there and make you play and if you don’t you’ll lose it.

The pass from Telalovic to lay on Smodizc shows there is a player in there. He’s off the pace for sure but that’s 100% to be expected given he’s coming from a different league and our lads have taken 16 months to get up to speed with JDT’s way of playing. We move the ball at an hell of a speed now, no wonder he didn’t fit in immediately. Another note on today, Brittain was outstanding, JDT has a real job on his hands finding a way to get JRC and him in the side together as they’re both too good to be on the bench.

How long have we been waiting to give someone a good tonking in the cup, this is exactly what teams should be doing to lower league opposition. I think it’s disrespectful to fellow pro’s when higher level teams ‘go easy’, love seeing a team play to their maximum and whallop someone.

Smodicz has really nailed what it takes to be a fan favourite, he showed in the 2-2 game that even when playing poorly as long as you work your socks off you will get our support. Different times and different styles but I think his direct running style and work rate has shades of Rothwell

No, got sent a picture of JDT sat in the boardroom watching the half time scores and enjoying a cake!

Very good. it’s a strange one for him to watch, only thing I can imagine is he’s looking at the 18 year old Adam Mayor at Morecambe.