Admiral Nelsen

I remember reading somewhere that Pedersen had a similar story. Naturally right footed, but practiced with his left to the point where it became his dominant foot.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2022/february/26/injury-update--ryan-nyambe/ Encourage noises about Nyambe's injury, at least in terms of having him back this season.

No arguments that we look toothless once going behind, but I think losing 4-0 is (nearly) as unlikely as winning by that sort of scoreline. Our attack has been off, but we're still a very solid team. That said, a loss by the odd goal is looking like a decent bet, so I'd take a draw in a heartbeat!

Our fixture list reassures me plenty when it comes to at least finishing in the play offs. We've suffered in the last month by having so many tricky games bunched up together (and some underperformance too) but we should really be able to cash in after the Fulham game. Doubtless there'll still be some slip ups, and these will probably be the difference if we find ourselves outside of the conversation for the top 2, but we shouldn't be panicking too much about the top 6 just yet.

I get what you're saying about the Fulham game being a free hit, but we have so little room for error for the top 2 now in my view, we can't be treating any game (even Fulham away) like that. Say we need the average of 84 points to go up automatically, that means basically 5 wins and a draw out of the 7 games coming up which would put us on 70 before the international break, before needing another 14 from the last games. There are so many winnable games in there that it's not impossible (and chances are we might need just less than 84 this year) but every game is precious now. Agree that all that being said, 4 points from the next two would be a great return. QPR is looking like a must win, but you could argue that Sheff. U away is possibly the toughest game that we'll have between now and the end of the season, bar maybe Fulham.

Splitting hairs a little bit, but I think his issue was more lacking imagination than being too cautious. We tended to score plenty, he just didn't seem to really know how to do anything beyond setting us up as a standard 442, even when it clearly didn't suit some of our more talented players. I can count the number of games that we genuinely controlled on one hand, it was just a case of get it to a winger who can then cross it to Rhodes/Gestede. No wonder we used to concede so many late on.

Bowyer deserves a lot of credit for stopping some of the rot when he was in charge and his transfer record overall was very good. That said, when you look at how we wasted some quality players (King, Cairney, Judge) to play our system whilst constantly having the likes of Williamson, Evans, Lowe, Akpan and other assorted hangers on in the middle of the park. What a wasted opportunity.

Might be a lack of imagination on my part, but I genuinely don't know what they could do, realistically. The last day of the season can't be moved because of the play offs, so they need to play all of their games before then, same as everyone else. They already have more than one game a week (international break aside) until the week before they play us at the end of April - and you'd imagine the Swansea game will probably be rearranged for then. Definitely agree that they're catchable. Their last minute win against Blackpool can't mask their very ordinary form over a long stretch, much longer than our recent spell. They've also got a run in March/April which looks similarly horrendous to the one we're hopefully going to come out of after the Fulham game. Not saying we'll do it, or even that we'll necessarily get that close in the end, but they're vulnerable to a team who can put good form together, and our last quarter of a season is much, much kinder than theirs.

Bournemouth have had their game against Swansea called off because of stadium damage! They'll be playing three games a week until May at this rate!

I wrote him off by the end of the Bowyer era, but he came close to winning me round a couple of times in the years since. Never fully though, and I wasn't remotely sad to see him go last year, which speaks volumes for a player who was here so long. One thing I'd say in his defence for the first few years at least is that we were completely mad to sign him and then play him in a 442. He never had anything like the mobility to thrive in that role properly, which should have been obvious before we signed him. When he played deeper in the L1 season and after, he had spells of being quite a lot better in my view, admittedly without ever being brilliant.

Think you're right about Leicester's performance flattering them, although to be fair Forest were still very good. It'll be a challenge for them to get up to the same level for this one, and we're typically a very tough prospect at home. I fancy us to win this one.

I think for the automatics that might be undershooting what we need, slightly. Say if we need 87 points to go up, which I think is the average, 7 from the next 7 games leaves us needing 27 from the last 10 games. There's a decent chance that we'll need slightly less than that this season, but still a big ask. I think you're right that we need to look at this run as staying in contact though. If after the Fulham game we're within two results of second I'd be pretty happy. I'd guess that probably means something like 12 points, which really highlights how important today's game and Millwall at home are.

A curious development with modern football I suspect, although maybe it's always happened to a degree. I definitely don't think it's just a Rovers thing - media performance seems like another thing which a manager gets judged on which to be honest, I really don't get. Even taking an ultra-extreme example of K**n and the nonsense he came out with, I would've been fine with him calling Ribero Dennis Irwin if he was even semi-competent at managing the club.

I blame Coyle almost entirely (and I suppose those responsible for appointing him). The after that I blame Shane Duffy and Anthony Stokes. I know some disagree, but I don't really blame Huddersfield at all. We had 46 games to get to the level needed, and I think managers' concerns has got to be on the club that pays them. Put it this way, if we go into the final game having secured third spot but with no chance of coming second, I'd be pretty furious with Mowbray if any of our key players got injured when they needn't have played.

I think this is completely right. The pessimistic view though is that for all our struggles against solid, well drilled teams last year, there were occasions when we got it right and were genuinely very difficult to get to grips with. Especially when we scored first. I think we'll win, but there is an element of danger with this one. Teams that are capable of dominating the ball like they do can cause good teams problems, they took a point off QPR at their place only a week or two ago and could've nicked three.

I don't think many would go as far as to call him a 1 in 2 striker - Rhodes and Rudy only just made that ratio when they were here. But if you look at the number of minutes that's played in the league, it's a smidgen over 15 games (let's not forget that he's been brought off injured in those starts). So 6 in 15 is better than 1 in 3 and a pretty decent strike rate. Could be better, but it's a lot better than crap. I'm convinced that if we signed Gally this season, the only gripe we would have (apart from his first touch) would be that he hasn't been fit enough to play more games.

Straightforward selection for me. And immeasurably stronger than the team that started against Luton, let alone the one that finished it.

At least one of the wide forward spots - but ideally he'll be able to cover Rothwell's role in the centre. Not certain if he can, though I think he played centrally for Cardiff a bit.

Writing them off certainly is ridiculous. Today is more likely to be a big help to their promotion chances then hindering it. Equally, signing so many apparently first team players on January deadline day is not the sign of team who think that they only need some fine tuning. Their form has been way short of promotion standard for quite some time now (after an admittedly very impressive start, results wise) and the manager has already shown signs of not being able to get the most out the resources he has, both there & at Fulham. Deep down my money would still be on them to go up in second, but there's still a good case for them falling short. Today arguably even highlights it.

I know it sounds odd seeing as we were ultra stretched up front vs Luton, but the likelihood of being anywhere near that position again is tiny. Brereton won't be going to play for Chile again, Hedges has been brought in, Khadra and Dolan are going to be back in the next week or two. Gally might be a little longer depending on his injury, but there's no way that Butterworth gets in front of any of them and we'll be bang unlucky to have any less than 3 of them fit and ready to play at any one time until the end of the season.

Butterworth going makes sense for me. If he's ever going to useful to us, he needs to progress from the odd promising cameo and actually show that he can start games and score goals. No point staying here for 20-30 minutes here and there. Also, assuming we play the same system from here onwards, we have BBD, Khadra, Hedges, Gally and Dolan fighting for two spots upfront. Several options to play in the Buckley role too. I would've liked reinforcements, but in the absence of that it's still right to get him playing and seeing if he can progress.

Certainly looks that way, but it has serious potential to backfire. There's no guarantee that they'll be able to integrate their new signings overnight, and If Rothwell has anything about him he should be even more motivated to prove people wrong after the way his move has broken down.

Decent, yes. And I agree that there's a tendency to ignore that we've got some good business done early this window. That said, we're still one more player short of it being a really good window.

£1.5 million loan fee for Nat Phillips, apparently. Absolutely extraordinary for 6 months. It would be so funny if Bournemouth didn't go up from here.

I assumed he meant that Trav might have seen the news this morning and regretted liking the post. Happy to be corrected though if something else has gone on.