arbitro

Pretty much everything at a professional football club is measured by winning games. Bigger crowds, commercial revenue and lots of other things are by products of winning.

The objective in any football match is winning and we did just that. Of course I would have liked a performance with panache and exhilarating football but that costs a lot of money. The first half of last season we saw lots of exciting play but invariably drew or lost. I will take a scabby, scruffy win any day of the week. After a hugely disappointing defeat at Plymouth I was interested to read the managers comments about the game plan and keeping it tight for an hour and then bringing on some attack minded players. An early Plymouth goal put paid to that. Yesterday seemed to be the converse of this as we scored early and were then content (but not entirely comfortable) to defend and play on the break. It's a risky tactic but when it works then in my view we can't have too much cause for complaint. Playing players in their best positions helped us yesterday particularly defensively. Hopefully Eustace has learned from his errors in recent weeks in this respect. I'm sure that on their five hour journey home Swansea fans would have been delighted with a scruffy win rather than seeing lots of pretty patterns and no end product. Each to their own I suppose.

Whilst I don't agree with your entire post I absolutely agree that Eustace has to take the lions share of blame for Saturday. Selection and tactics in the wake of an abysmal performance at Coventry should have been so different.

I have said many times that what lets him down more than anything is his decision making. Quite how you coach that out (or in) to a player I don't know.

Yep. All this nonsense has come out of a classroom when coaching courses are being run. It's bollocks. As you say if the player is a defensive midfielder just say it rather than trying to sound smart and condescending.

What is it with the modern game and specialist coaches? A big thing was made about Austin McPhee, Villa's specialist and their set pieces were awful. Carragher was laughing as he likened one routine to Strictly Come Dancing.

Looking at your avatar reminded me that yesterday I bought a steak pasty outside the ground. It was massive, so much so that I cut it in half for me and my granddaughter and neither of us finished it.

Free admission for anybody going to Altrincham on Tuesday. https://altrinchamfc.com/blogs/news/free-entry-for-all-after-alty-land-sponsorship-deal-for-cup-opener

Getting a result away from home is palatable as we did at Norwich, Burnley and Preston. It's when the methods don't work like at Coventry and yesterday that questions are asked and a fear I have is that Eustace isn't radical enough to make big changes to both tactics and personnel. Hopefully I'm proved wrong over the next few weeks.

For me Cozier-Duberry should have started yesterday. With him and Cantwell on from the start we could have got at them rather than sitting in to accommodate the game plan. I would rather defend a one goal lead later in the game rather than chase the game and he susceptible to a counter attack. If we are going to execute the game plan that Eustace had then why not go with a back five like we did at Leeds and Leicester last season?

I think that the three managers he has played under here will have seen how erratic his decision making is and tried to change him. His fancy flicks, too many touches, losing possession, turning into trouble and other things are part of his make up now and I don't believe he has the wherewithal to change. For me it's time to get rid and I would be looking to sell him in January if there are any suitors.

If Eustace had drummed this 'keep it tight for an hour' into the players it becomes a mindset for them. Once they scored an early goal that game plan goes out of the window and tactics should have changed to take that into account. But they didn't and the effect of going one down was there for all to see. We did get on the front foot after the changes but why not go with that (or a variation of it) from the start. Eustace has to accept his culpability here.

And that game plan is all well and good providing you don't concede the first goal. It's a bit insulting to me for Eustace to come out with that when most of us are still hurting. He should be coming out and saying he got aspects of the game wrong like selection and tactics - I'd have far more respect for him if he did. Or is he exonerating himself and putting it on the players?

Well said that man.

Coincidentally Nicky Marker was on the pitch at half time yesterday and looked really well. He spoke really fondly about his time at Rovers and how he was made welcome.

I have just seen the winning goal and it looks like Hyam is jumping with divers boots on. A simple header into the box and we get done by it. Yesterday Plymouth played a really high line and the number of times Yuki angled his run to get in behind but wasn't seen was frustrating. The sideways passing becomes habitual and when another option is available invariably it just wasn't seen.

That was a negative - the drive home was a killer yesterday 😁

What an awful week as a Rovers fan.. Nigh on 1000 miles, a pitiful performance at Coventry and a defeat at Plymouth with a goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Eustace has to drop his nice guy image and add some players after today and sideline them for a while. Dolan had his one in ten game against QPR and then reverted to type. Awful decision making invariably loses possession and allows the opposition to counter. He needs dropping. I also think we need a specialist right back not a makeshift one. It seemed that Plymouth targeted Carter in the first half as he struggled against Cissoko. I don't blame him, it's on Eustace. Hyam is certainly the weakest link in a position where you need the strongest. His feeble attempt for their second goal should ensure a spell on the bench. Weimann and Hedges aren't contributing nearly enough. Ironically though I thought Pickering was one of the better players today and he will be a shoe-in to get dropped in favour of Beck. Up to Tuesday things were going ok but this week some of the misgivings from last season have resurfaced. Losing can quickly become a habit and Eustace, like all managers will be judged on results.

Conspicuous by his absence in the technical area recently I was wondering about David Lowe. By coincidence I saw him walking out of Ewood last night and asked why he wasn't in Plymouth and he told me he is going to do a scouting report at Swansea tomorrow. It appears he has new role certainly for match days.

Not for me. He was a great example of a 'manufactured' referee with no feel or empathy for the game.

An entertaining match at Ewood that the referee did his best to ruin. Rovers started really well and Leicester looked like but to be fair they played their way back into the game and deservedly equalised with a penalty naively conceded by Michalski. Rovers again went in front only for a resilient Leicester to equalise again. The winner came in the last couple of minutes from a corner with a great delivery from Beck smartly headed home by Edmondson. Both teams finished with ten with an over zealous referee issuing a total of the yellow cards, most of them unnecessary in my view.

It's one of where you want both to lose. However my dislike of the Dingles wants me to see Nobbers win. A few sending offs for both wouldn't go amiss though.

Ex Dingle signs for Plymouth. Hopefully he won't be playing tomorrow.

I rate him highly and against the real threat Plymouth have from their pacy wide players I think he would be our best option tomorrow at right back. It's nonsensical to me to play out best centre back out of position when we have good, natural right backs on the bench.