Great play by Hedges again to create it though. He’s nearly our main go to guy for creativity these days

Garrett booked after 12 mins. He’s not experienced enough to reign in the tackles so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him ending up with an early bath

That’s probably the most infuriating thing for me. JDT keeps pushing this play out from the back approach, setting the centre backs between the goal line and the 6 yard box to receive the ball from the keeper. So obviously all built for intricate stuff. And yet once it goes to midfield there is none of that, it’s either hopeful punts in the direction of a player or just running into trouble! No interplay, no planned movement, nothing. You would nearly accept some of the goals being given away from overplaying at the back if they showed the same application of passing it through midfield to the forwards, but it’s just totally aimless and hopeful passes/punts for the most part.

I can't see him being long for Brighton unfortunately for them. He looks some player

100% People seem to have short memories and bizarrely forgotten the yearly death spirals. I am guessing those people are still harking back to the promotion from league 1 and championing him as a result. He definately provided a much needed refresh at the start of his reign but he was finished here by the end. Not in a million years would I be pining for him back no matter how badly JDT might do.

Are you harking back to the halcyon days when Tony was in charge and we had yearly death spirals?

Cant win them all I suppose. These lads were definately there for the taking, no great shakes at all. Much like the rest of this division. We need to figure out this Plan B very sharpish, as our total inability to get back into a game when going a goal behind is just ridiculous. After giving Dack the guts of 30 mins against Hull I cannot fathom why he was left on the bench while we were treated to Hirst providing yet another non performance. I dont know what that lad done to be considered a decent loan but its clearly not working and he is a passenger in every game I have seen him

And yet up until close to the end there was people on twitter actually suggesting we should have a statue of him outside Ewood

Its actually bloody hilarious seeing someone else on the receiving end. "Said he wasn't going to make excuses then spent the entire interview making excuses. Looked a broken man mind you" Along with "You caught that as well? "Well, you know, Luton is one hell of an intimidating place to go play football" Bear in mind he basically just arrived and they were doing reasonably ok (points wise, havent looked any closer at performances or anything). The first expected death spiral and it will be curtains for him

Main striker out? Who is ol' Tone going to play as right wing back now! Obviously not the right back as he is planning to deploy him as the false nine in another move straight out of the Pep playbook! 😀

Don't mind me, just tucking into this extra helping of humble pie served up with a side of egg on my face!!😁 Doff of the cap young Szmodics! Goal and assist, massive contribution

JDT is going a long way to tossing all the initial good will that was coming his way into the garbage can with these Mowbray like decisions. Spent money on a specialised right back/right wing back who has started well and he decides to drop him to play arguably our best attacker there out of position. Still not given Dack a chance even after he at least showed something more than SS against Cardiff. And no Wharton instead sticking with the tried and trusted. Tried and trusted being Morton and Travis who have failed in midfield for the last few games

Similar to yourself Bazza, I'm not writing the team of GB and JDT off yet at all. On the front of it they have done correct things by spending money on defenders, and good ones aswell. We'll have Hyam and Brittain with us for a few years so at least we won't be trying to fix the problem with the loan market sticky plaster each year. So with those additions and with Ayala and Wharton we are solid at the back, but then JDT is hamstringing them by asking them to play short one touch passes around the back line or sometimes in the box itself. Something that they are totally not suited to be doing. Fair enough if in Jan or next Summer he wants to bring in a Tosin-style centre back that is extremely comfortable on the ball but its killing us at the moment. If they are intent on playing this way now, we need Adam Wharton in there. From the briefest of glimpses that I have seen of him against Blackpool he was the perfect foil for a defender that might be a bit jittery on the ball. He was always finding space, and more importantly finding the angle to give an easy out ball for the defence. Blackpool from what I remember did try the high press against us aswell but as he was there looking for the ball from the defence we were able to break through that press more often than not which I'm pretty sure resulted in most of our chances

That’s the thing, when I saw that he was stepping up I was like 100% this lad is going to miss. How could an Ayala or a Travis not go “Here mate, I’ll take this one”, assuming Gallagher or Dack wussed out of it

That Hirst fella can f*ck right off back to wherever he came. Dack should have been all over that penalty or Travis. gutless wonders the lot of them

Delighted with the news! I was fairly consigned to him leaving, there was too much of the old Hoilett carry on and then Spurs sniffing around aswell. Fair play to lad for turning them down, the premiership team with much bigger salary draw couldn't have been easy to pass up. Looks like we are finally doing things right contract wise and getting lads tied down for at least a few years!

Infuriating. Trust Rovers to completely f*ck up your weekend! How can they be so good in one game (Blackpool, Watford) and so horrendously crap in the next.

A player to throw in that did a job for us but even above his name has not come up yet (that I can see anyways), Jonathon Douglas! Might have been just one or so season where he was somewhat of a regular when Souness adopted the dogs of war approach in the tail end of the 03/04 season I think it was. Vaguely recall him popping up with a goal aswell, might have been that 4-3 game against Fulham. Not a bad player all told, bit of a workhorse but definately better players there that came in and took his place... would be a bloody superstar in our current setup!

I think a move to Celta Vigo would be far better for all concerned, especially seeing how Armstrong has fared in the Prem since his move. La Liga doesn't seem to be at the level it was 5 or 10 years ago. Teams he will be up against would not be as difficult as the Prem I would imagine, plus for a mid table team like Celta (guessing that's where they are these days) the expectation would not be as great. If he has a few good seasons there and nets in region of 15 goals you would imagine an Atletico Madrid or dare I say Barcelona would start getting interested in him. Stranger things have happened! Didn't we see Modeste join Dortmund earlier in the summer which knocked me for six! I would nearly accept a 10/11M bid from Celta over a higher fee from Everton but put in a 30% sell on clause. If he gets a move down the road we could be looking at 15-20m based off a 30%+ sell on clause.

Unless you're eating a hearty breakfast we don't care!

Can we get a live feed set up! 🙂

I think thats a fair point. There seems to be some real issue with the terms of "journey" or "project". I think these are fine and we generally see them at every other club. Klopp had a couple of years I think before they won the champions league or title there was no immediate success from day 1 (open to correction on this), similar to Pep at City. Ferguson himself had to wait 5 or so years for any sign of success, but different time obviously. I think discussing a project as a 2 year thing is fair, it gives the new management a chance to see what we have, get in their way of playing, tactics etc and reasonable time to bring in players they have identified as improvements over what we have. When Mowbray talked about journeys and projects it was a total different kettle of fish. That was an absolute shyster who saw that he was clearly not good enough at the role he was in, and just putting in as much spin as possible to keep the higher ups at bay. His "project" had ended 2 years into the job after the first death spiral. Was evidence enough to most that he wasnt up to it after that.

Thats what I was assuming myself aswell, those 3 wins from 3 at the start of the season were always going to be nothing more than padding up the points needed to avoid relegation. As we have said numerous times, there is just too many players gone. We have to give the management team time to implement their way of playing, get their type of players in etc. That would take the above time. After 1.5-2 years it would be fair to say whether JDT/Broughton is a busted flush or not. The penny was dropping on Mowbray around that time. Brexit I'd imagine is also throwing a major spanner in the works. A few years ago we would have been able to trawl the Scandinavian leagues for players that would cost next to nothing but JDT would know they would do a job here. Now with the whole deal of work permits its just not that easy anymore.

Fixed it! Now you sound like Mercer!! 🙂

Night and day to last season. I remember the Blackpool game at Ewood in particular where Nyambe was taken off and Lenihan was put to right back. At one stage Dack was screaming to the bench looking for some direction or plan! Unreal what a difference JDT has made