I hope Vale bounces back, but one moment that stood out for me was Burnley away. He came on for Gally at 0-0 and never broke out of a jog. He didn't close down their centre backs and it was like playing with 10 men.

Absolutely crazy. How can any manager be expected to succeed with that sort of managerial turnover? I know 'projects' aren't trendy, but you can't build anything as you're one bad run away from the chop,, so constantly have to adopt a short-term approach (potentially at the expense of greater long term success).

I must say I love the football we've been playing recently. We've lacked a finisher up top but it's far more pragmatic than it was in the first half of last season - it's direct when it needs to be and we pass less often to players who are in no position to receive the ball. I've noticed football at every level has changed. Playing it short from the keeper was so rare once upon a time - now you'll see it at semi pro level. The movement towards a Pep style of football has killed off individualism in some cases though. Look at Grealish - he was so exciting to watch, but is now just very functional and is part of a well oiled machine. As mentioned on the thread, the old ways aren't gone completely. The Dingles had some success in the Prem in the last decade playing a more 'old fashioned' style, and of course Luton went up. I do miss seeing chalk on the boots wingers though, they're largely a dying breed now. More generally, football discussion now is dominated by stats. You'll see people talking about players like Tugay, Scholes and even Xavi and Iniesta. They'll talk about 'assists' and their lack of them (compared to other midfielders), not knowing that these players often had matches on strings for 90 minutes and basically orchestrated the entire game. I remember Tugay making Gerrard look like a muppet, playing it to MGP who set up McCarthy. Of course Tugay didn't get an assist, but we all know who was the key man in that goal. Stats are clearly important, but sometimes the 'eye' tells you a lot more, and some of the more modern fans will do well to realise that! Styles come and go in football. I reckon in 10 years a big team will use traditional wingers and they'll be lauded as a maverick/genius.

Anyone have an indication of ticket sales? Want to know if it's worth chancing it until open sale or whether I need to get a membership to buy one quicker. Cheers

Fully agree on Brittain. I thought the same about Ennis, but by that point we were going through the motions and not playing with the same intensity or creating chances. There was no real service or urgency from that point, so felt a bit sorry for him tbh.

A baffling decision unless there's more to it. Reminds me of when they got rid of Rowett.

A great day out. Whilst QPR were a very poor side, I was delighted to see us looking comfortable on the ball (no shock there) but also pretty solid defensively. You can't grumble at a 4-0 win! Sigurdsson is going to be some player for us! Dolan also showed a welcome return to some sort of form, whilst the defence continued to look solid. Brittain looked bright after coming on, Hill looks to be a find and we were so dynamic and fluid positionally. Szmodics continues to rack up goals too. A really enjoyable day out capped off by a vocal away end!

Yet many of our own fans will try to convince you our support is shite.... Great support in trying circumstances, cannot wait!

To be fair I would certainly blame him if he deliberately lost to make a point - not that I think he will! I like to think the away fans attending are worth more than settling a few scores (whilst making himself look worse in the process). I'm going this time. Bringing my fiancee, who currently has a good record of 3 wins, a draw and a defeat in her 5 games. The one loss was on our doorstep in Cardiff so hoping her good luck continues. I think we get the balance right and win this 2-0.

The differences are stark and that's not even taking inflation into account. Horrible.

On the Newcastle point - yes they might be good owners in football terms, but some people would have a moral objection to it due to their extra-judicial murder of civilians, including journalists. I personally *would* have a problem with that type of ownership, as I'd very much struggle for my club's success to be paid for by the blood of innocents. You might not do, and that's fine. I'd be intrigued to know at which stage owners would be considered unacceptable. It appears a country that performs executions and murders dissidents is absolutely fine, so I suppose the bar must be pretty high in that regard. In a slightly different vein, I'd feel the same about criminals like Lee Hughes and deviants like Mason Greenwood representing the club. At different points they may have contributed on the pitch and made us better, but I'd sooner have a cleaner conscience, even if it means we win less games (and yes, I know I'm naïve holding up footballers as bastions of morality). I also wouldn't want us to sign a neo-Nazi or racist, even if in football terms they'd likely do well. I'd struggle to stop supporting Rovers and would likely still do so, but it would certainly feel dirty and I'd struggle morally with it. The Premier League also happily let Venky's take over and they were even more useless back in those days, so I'd take that with a pinch of salt. They clearly have the money - they're bankrolled by the Saudi state!

That's with good reason - otherwise it isn't a fair reflection of the game itself. The logic is that better strikers outperform their xG and thus show their value. What the xG shows above is that we are often not creating more chances than our opposition, which does undermine the 'unlucky' label many have attributed to our recent form. If xG was updated to be based on the player the chances fall to, I imagine it would look even worse given our lack of striker. Agree on the smashing the ball across the face of goal though, that won't show up on xG - it's why you can never really look at it in isolation (like with any stats). I imagine there were games last season when our xG was really low and you'd think we were never in it, when in truth we probably had heaps of possession and no killer ball. Feel like a massive geek talking about xG and whilst I think it's flawed, I do think there's merit in using it (like we do with possession, shots on target etc). It usually ends up being quite predictive.

It's silly talk, some people never got over him leaving. On the whole, I'd say most Rovers fans were happy to see him go and are much more patient with JDT than they were with TM (with good reason), but that might be my own echo chamber at play.

I think the message is loud and clear - 'as long as I'm not the one being persecuted or murdered by a villainous regime, I am happy for others to suffer that very fate and for me/my football team to reap the rewards'. I do find 'their owners are investing in and off the field' an absolute eye opening (and symptomatic of modern football) reply to concerns about murder and oppression. It's like turning a blind eye to Fred West's murderous rampage because he helps out with your weekly shop.

Tbf you sounded happy, but I mean generally. Never really seen you disappointed with the manager, staff, board, recruitment, players - aside from the BBE closure. I remember you were TM's biggest defender (until they got rid, at which stage it was suddenly the right thing to do). Better than being a moany git like me. It isn't a criticism, I wish I was the same! I'm also happy with JDT overall, albeit with some concerns over recent performances. I thought last night was a step back in the right direction and I feel it's more sustainable than the kamikaze football we've seen lately.

I don't think you're wrong tonight necessarily, but I wish I had your blue and white tinted glasses! Everything is always great and everyone should always be happy. You were happy under TM and are happy now. I genuinely wish I could feel the same way tbh, I'd be a lot happier.

We have shown we can grind it out and play with discipline - Watford away a prime example. The lack of number 9 will continue to cost us points though, you're right.

Not to be pedantic, but asking people if they expect to win every game looks daft when we are 20th and have lost 4 on the spin. I get the spirit of the post and agree it wasn't as bad as it could have been but people are going to be pretty miserable at sitting 20th with 5 defeats in 6, especially after the hope (and crushing disappointment) at the end of last season.

Whilst I am miserable, tonight was a hell of a lot more encouraging than the kamikaze of recent weeks. It may be because Coventry are weaker, but we at least looked more solid and could have easily won. Still gutted though

I agree he's a better manager, but some seem to shrug their shoulders and say it isn't his fault everytime we get beat. The biggest issues are clearly upstairs but we just seem to be absolutely imploding. Whilst I think we'll finish higher, I think that 20th is certainly underachieving

I'm surprised people are arguing about the disallowed goal. The delay was weird but to me it was a foul and he had both hands on the ball.

Whilst I have ever faith in him, I'd be interested to know if many of the people feeling sorry for JDT would have the same sympathy if it was our previous manager in charge under the same circumstances. He seems to get a free pass from some. JDT clearly deserved more but 20th is desperately poor and inexcusable. That being said, I do like him and think he'll get us going.

Of course..... but my point is setting us up in a different way could yield better results (as we saw last year). Our defensive options are virtually unchanged from the majority of last season. So not sure really how what you said contradicts my point! Unless of course tactics/manager/set up make no difference....

I do see this season as a big departure from the second half of last year - it's much more gung ho. I thought we rode our luck in the first half of the season, but it was hard to put my finger on it - we were either good or absolutely woeful. The second half we were more consistent but seemed to lose the rub of the green or were let down by individual errors (Hedges at PNE). Our results were also brilliant for a period in February/March time (or around there). I agree on Kaminski, but I always had the impression JDT didn't. We are undoubtedly weaker in net but Pears seemed to win the battle for #1 in JDT's mind. JDT (and any other manager) clearly has their hands tied behind their backs working under the idiots upstairs and their lack of clarity/communication. I still think our current squad is better than results and our goals against column would suggest, mind.

Of course and I totally agree - there is definitely some recency bias. That being said, we probably played our best football at the end of the season without them (even if results indicated otherwise), which gave me hope they wouldn't be huge misses. Kaminski was brilliant and far better than Pears, but JDT seemed to disagree - so don't think we can grumble too much from a transfer perspective at his exit and Pears being the main man - although a lot of people predicted the errors and points lost that have arisen. I think he is a huge miss, but if he stayed it is possible he'd still be behind Pears anyway. Likewise, JDT didn't have much faith in Dack and he was a bit part player, so don't think JDT was unhappy to lose him. Ayala was constantly injured and I still think we remain strong at centre half, albeit without much depth. Take your point entirely on the off the pitch impact - big characters gone there in the dressing room. I'd have happily kept all of them for different reasons.