There must be about 7 or 8 of those teams no longer playing league football.

I know, it’s mad. The manager is much more influential than any individual player, as we found out yesterday.

How did England win that game yesterday ? The stats are amazingly in Scotland’s favour. Normally in rugby the team than is on top wins, You can’t “ park the bus “. The area you are defending is too big so you can only defend by attacking.

Erma Franklin - Piece Of My Heart.

It’s the same with my Rugby League team. I can tell after 5 or 10 minutes if they’re going to be up for it. If players are running hard onto the ball = good performance. If they’re taking the ball standing still = bad performance.

I’d expect most managers would want double the normal remuneration to come to the shit show that is Blackburn Rovers, not less !

I never will get that. Your manager is the most important person in the club. He should be the most highly paid.

When Mowbray went out of his way to sign him I thought what has he got ? Is he quick, is he a tricky dribbler, is he a good header of the ball, is he an aggressive nasty bastard who’s a nightmare to play against, is he a workhorse who runs the left hand side all day, does he get late into the box and score goals, can he cross a good ball ? After about 3 or 4 games I was scratching my head because he’s none of those things. I’m at a loss to see what Mowbray saw. How he’s still a regular is a complete mystery to me.

If the chicken chokers were picking the team thst would probably be their team.

Look at that pitch.

Honestly my initial thought at 2-00 pm was “ Who’s actually picking this team ? “ Is it Lowe or is it somebody else ? Given the players we had to choose from who apart from Chaddy would have started with that 11 ? Especially the Dolan, Weimann, Hedges bit of it ?

When I saw the team at 2-00 pm the expression “ Lost In Team Selection” went through my mind.

I remember us playing at Swansea when Buckley was playing further forward and he missed a chance I could have put away. A real sitter. Having said that I still think that is his best position.

Pete Wingfield - Eighteen With A Bullet

Football doesn’t exist in the real world. Normal business rules don’t apply. If your manager wants to leave you come an agreement pretty sharpish and off he goes.

Pears gets picked for every game at the moment. Does that mean he a top class goalkeeper ?

I’m with you on this. I don’t know what Hedges brings to the party apart from pulling the shirt on.

That is the danger. Too many modern managers are wedded to “ playing their way “. Which may not be our current way.

Mm, that must be another Sigurdsson.

Well he was right about Rhodes. He did nothing at Boro.

He wanted out after the knock backs in Summer regarding spending money. So got his agent to fly a few kites and throw his hat in the ring. Anything else is just spin.

Maybe we have a group of players who put their pride and self respect first ?

Good performance on a pretty poor pitch.

Time traveller as well !

Compare the current bench with the one over a month ago. Players that were starting then won’t even make the bench at all when Tronstad and Ohashi are back. And the strength of your bench is crucial in modern football.