Andy

I feel that Cantwell is an easy target for some. Maybe it's unconscious bias or something. But he has the quality that most of the squad doesn't have and works harder than most of them as well. Yes, he's shit sometimes, but in terms of pointing fingers at players this season, he wouldn't be near to the front of the line for me.

Unlike when we got JDT and JE, any replacement would be chosen by the megaminds of Pasha, Owen and Gestede. Take a look at which managers/coaches are aligned to a particular agency and you've whittled your shortlist down to a few. I think VI needs to go now. But what worries me even more is who these jokers would replace him with.

It has been one level of failing to replace proven Championship-level performers (Hyam, Travis, etc) with younger, cheaper lads from foreign leagues. But the (many) rumblings we've heard about players being shipped out due to non-footballing reasons, on top of allegations such as Gestede bullying administrative staff, or removing all non-Halal food at the training ground, concerns me just as much. He/they are forcing themselves and their personal preferences onto the club at all costs. And if you don't agree, you're out of the door.

The only way we're not going down is if another 2 teams are somehow worse than we are, between now and May. Sheffield are down, so it's a 'shittest' shootout that we are absolutely involved in. You're not in a false position in January. It's one thing if you're playing well / unlucky / etc. But we have no style, no strategy, no plan (or backup plan). It's pretty dire.

Genuinely didn't look it - maybe he was standing next to a couple of giants when I saw him on the pitch.

A striker that's scored 2 goals in 17 prior to today gets 2 in the first 35 against us. Absolutely embarrassing. Sack the lot of them.

Yeah, my earlier weather forecast needs revising. Its coming down and the floor is covered already.

Pears starting is a surprise, unless Toth isn't ready yet. Good to see Tyjon on the bench, at least he's an actual forward instead of a midfielder cosplaying as a striker.

I've been watching this - not been impressed, if I'm honest. And he looks very small for a CB. Unless the boys next to him are particularly tall, he looks to be around 5'9".

There's no risk - I live up the road from Ewood and apart from cars being frozen over this morning, it's fine. Currently blue skies and no sign of snow.

Not sure if this is the right thread for it, but I saw that Paul Gallagher was appointed the new Barrow manager. Has coached at PNE, but first managerial position for him. Good luck to him, hope he succeeds.

I do think we should include either/both. The recent performances of both O'Hashi and Henriksson...I genuinely can't believe that the young lads would be doing any worse.

Purely based on the fact that he knows how to run a training session in even a semi-professional manner puts him above Coyle in the competency league. Coyle was a Sunday League level coach, let's not forget that. Not old enough to have experienced anything pre-Dalglish, but Kean is (bald) head and slippery shoulders above anything in our history, for both footballing and non-footballing reasons. Ismael's home record is astoundingly poor, but he doesn't come close to either of the above 2 clowns, in my opinion.

Yeah, this. You can see the intent / frustration; he's trying to make things happen, but he's trying too hard. If he had a little sprinkle of quality around / in front of him, it's a different result. He was our outstanding player pre-injury and we shouldn't forget that, though he was also dog shit today.

That was dreadful. Wrexham have not been good, all they have done is press well and fire long balls at our defence. But we have been that poor, it's been so easy for them. Nobody wants the ball, or is brave enough to empose themselves. Zero presence up front, we genuinely wouldn't be any worse off having Boggan and Joseph up there.

Shocking to be beaten from there, at his near post. Pears was always going to do a Pears, just surprising how long it took.

Agree with this. It's either a shortsightedness on behalf of the player / his parents, or pressure from an agent only interested in lining his own pockets. Adam Wharton is a perfect example of how to do it, if you believe enough in your own talents. Excel for the first team, give a little back to the club that developed you, then leave as a more rounded player, for a larger sum. It's a shame to see players like Phillips, Finneran and now seemingly Tyjon put their long-term development at risk for the sake of some bigger bucks in the short term.

I quite liked the first 20/25 minutes - that trio in the middle of Tronstad, Cantwell and Baradji looked very decent and we were using passing triangles well. But, as much as I like Ohashi for his effort and endeavour, he's just not good enough as a main striker. He doesn't have the instincts of a Gudjohnson, for example. After that it was a bit of a cluster. Sheffield are terrible and the only way they're scoring is an error from Rovers. But we have to take at least one of those chances.

But that was the point - the crazy, recurring, match-defining errors. All GKs make errors and, at this level, you expect a few over a season. But Pears was a lot worse than the average prior to being dropped. He has been fine since covering for Toth's injury, but there's no way that Toth isn't coming straight back in. Some of the saves he was making before injury were some way beyond Pears' ability. They did try offloading Pears in the summer, but those aforementioned errors have been so bad/regular, that nobody was willing to touch him. Maybe this run of decent form may have changed some opinions, we'll find out in January.

He's a funny one. The away performances and results (over a half season, not just a few fluke results) tell me that he knows how to set up a team. But then the home performances & results show that he hasn't found a way to win games where we have to take the initiative. There's no question that the players are playing for him and, whilst it's a bit Marmite, I like his honest, direct answers on most things. I can deal with honesty, it's the generic football manager speak that sends me to sleep. So he's nowhere near to be being in the 'useless piece of shit' (Kean / Coyle) group. But he's clearly not as savvy as the likes of Eustace or JDT in terms of getting a tune out of a group. You do also have to take into account how we're being run by criminally-inept administrators. I think I lean more towards the 'he's actually doing alright in the circumstances' column, though the home form needs to pick up - and quickly.

They're a professional football club; their entire operation revolves around the fixtures. As the lead of a customer service department in my day job, I find it inconceivable that they've just gone with 'we're on A/L, soz, lol'. Surely you'd have skeleton staff on to ensure you don't get to a situation like this?

It's no coincidence that you're in a gang of one on this; you're wrong. Tronstad is a very good player at this level - certainly a lot better than Travis. Anyway I didn't catch all of yesterday's game due to Boxing Day family commitments, but I was really impressed with what I saw of Baradji again. Looks the real deal so far and explains why we were keen to take him, injury and all. Good point away to 2nd/3rd in the league.

Pretty sure it was announced that the option to make the loan permanent was in our favour? The terms would normally be agreed pre-loan in that case, so the commercials would all be in place.

Yeah, agreed - his kicking has been suspect and I can recall a handful of occasions in recent games where he's kicked it directly out for an opposition thrown-in, under no pressure. Pears has done fine, but Toth will come back in as the number 1 when he's fit, as he's a far superior GK.

He's been fine and hasn't made any match-defining errors, so I think we've come away from what was a concerning period for the majority of us, when Toth got injured. But, for sure, Toth comes straight back in. He's proven to be levels above Pears, when he was given a proper run in the side.