Andy

I was thinking exactly the same just before Leonard came on. Get 2 up front and just get crosses and through balls into them. I'd imagine Telalovic and Ennis would cause a bit of chaos between them, in the opposition box.

Unfortunately today was very predictable for Rovers. Could see it coming a mile off, even after our recent wins. It's like when a striker hasn't scored for 750 games / next game Rovers / guaranteed a goal. Do agree with Leonard's general movement and 'strikers instinct' being a plus though. He and A.Wharton need to be given a run of games together.

First 15 or so minutes aside, that was dreadful. No excuses, we need to be better in the next game.

As I've said a few times, the Saudi league will go the same way as the Chinese and Russian 'boom and bust' leagues over the last decade or so. The surprise has been exactly how quickly the bubble appears to have burst. Henderson is a ballbag; couldn't happen to a nicer person.

It's far too early to make any definite conclusions about Telalovic; he needs a lot more game time before we can really judge him. What is encouraging is that he's scored a handful in a few friendly/behind closed door matches. Clearly knows how to score. Otherwise, look at last summer: Hyam, Brittain, Szmodics - all very good signings. This summer, I think we've seen very encouraging signs from Tronstad, Hill, Sigurdsson and Wahlstedt. The evidence at this moment in time would support our summer window being pretty successful, with the obvious omission of a proper striker. One thing is for sure, it's a long way from being the disaster some will have you believe - particularly in the circumstances.

Maybe it's time we started putting a bit more trust in our recruitment, data and analysis teams?

It's one we should win, to make it 5 consecutive wins - and would surely push us back into the top 6. However, in true Rovers fashion, I think this will be a banana skin and will give us a bit of a reality check. Hope I'm wrong.

Agreed on all points, particularly the latter. The GK's priority is keeping the ball out of the next. If they choose to do that via their arms, legs, punching the ball or any other way, then that's ok for me. The error was a big one, but as I said last night, he shook it off and went on to have a very solid game. He'll move on, as we all will.

Makes a nice change from the 'we've just turned them over, but they're the best team in the league, honest' shit we were reading, week after week.

I know it's only Football Manager, but it's surprisingly and consistently accurate. Rovers get somewhere between £12m-£15m across two different clauses for Raya, from Brentford. And in true Venky's fashion, I received about £2m of it to spend...

Leo's error was as bad as anything Pears has done this season, and I say that as a big fan of Leo. However, the important bit: he shook it off and had a solid game after that.

As I write this, we are 3 points off 3rd...

3 consecutive wins, 2 goals conceded in 4 games, 3 points from 3rd in the league. How's that relegation battle going?

The Bournemouth loanee we've got at RB is better.

See this out, we're a point off the top 6.

Boom.

Game is there to be won, we've certainly been the dominant side. Soft goals at either end. Agree with whoever said sticking Moran on. May as well have Telalovic up top as well, more presence than Dolan. In fact, Wharton as well, the middle is asking for someone to put their foot on the ball and dictate the tempo.

Another Szmodics and Sigurdsson masterclass tonight. Get an early goal and we'll dominate.

I thought he was just a CB, but having done a bit of research today, he's just as comfortable at RB - as we've seen, I guess. No coincidence that we've conceded 1 goal in 3 games since he and Wahlstedt have come into the team.

I've been saying this for a while; AW would be more effective playing higher up the pitch. Let him use his vision, passing and technique where he can hurt teams more. Leave the deeper stuff to players like Tronstad.

Hill has been really impressive since he's been in the team. And with Tronstad, Wahlstedt and Sigurdsson also doing the job in recent games, you have to give some credit to the business done over the summer, in fairness.

To be fair, when Benni went to West Ham, he did actually get fat (for a professional sportsman). Ennis just has that body shape naturally, I don't think he's carrying too much body fat.

Consecutive wins, consecutive clean sheets. Not the most eye-pleasing game, but who cares? We've played enough games this season where we've been dynamic and come away with nothing. And my lad's U9's team got to do the flag waving at the start and HT penalties today, bonus 🙂

Hopefully we can build on the QPR result and start to build a bit of momentum. Sigurdsson and Szmodics is plenty of goal threat alone. As long as we keep it solid at the other end, hard to look past a home win.

Leonard has some natural goalscoring instincts - the type that are very difficult to teach.