jim mk2

Formation's don't matter - if Mowbray can't get the players in the right frame of mind and they aren't up for it, we'll lose. Steve Bruce said as much after Newcastle's crushing defeat by Leicester. It wouldn't be unusual of Rovers though to win this after Saturday's debacle. I'm feeling gloomy though. 1-1 at best

Horses for courses with players; some need a bollocking, others need encouragement. The skill for the manager is doing both when necessary. All teams need bawling out when they've played badly. Bruce will have done after Newcastle's debacle this week. I can't imagine nice guy Tony doing it though after Saturday's non-performance.

Nearly 25,000 watching Spurs v West Ham in the WSL today. Perhaps Ewood would be better attended if we played 11 women - they couldn't have done worse than that shower yesterday

Blimey, that's sober reading. Football is all ifs and buts and you're never going to win every game but those 2 games should have been 4 points at least. Thank you Tony

Today was disappointing in so many ways - 2 wins in a row, decent crowd, rising expectations, a feeling we might have a team that could challenge. Losing at home to a bottom 3 team is a real hammer blow. Feels like another season treading water ahead. Was considering going to Loftus Road next Saturday but is it worth the bother ?

There's also the free running Frank Lampard type of midfield player who makes runs beyond the forwards and scores goals regulalrly. Worth their weight in gold; can't think of many of that type at Ewood over the years

I was a flying winger in my pomp - Id have taken you to the cleaners ?

Yep, fans can argue about players and team formations but if the team isn't up for it or not motivated properly you gel results like today's That's all down to the manager.

Mowbray is rubbish. Doesn't have the nous to take the club any further.

Good call

Today was so predictable. Why don't you lot listen to people who;ve seen it all before?

Thanks for the info. Can we play the match on the seafront please?

I wish people wouldn't be so upbeat. It's not the Rovers way

We're on a good run but this is Rovers and over the years we have tended to disappoint when there is too much optimism and expect to win. 1-1 draw.

Brexiteers won't like that Philip.

Can't be worse. We were very poor in a 2-1 defeat. And I saw us get thumped in the previous game at Reading. I'm not going this Saturday - which is a good omen

Sorry, meant Rothwell

So yet another midfield player. Downing and Johnson are Mowbray favourites so assume they will be first picks. But then where do you fit in Holtby, Travis, Nuttall, Buckley and Davenport (when he's available) - and not forgetting Evans and Smallwood ? If all this leads to Travis and Nuttall getting fewer chances and leaving in January, I'll be miffed. But Holtby's arrival does make one thing thing more certain: The manager says Holtby gives him "more options", so expect yet more chopping and changing of the team, yet more different permutations of the formation, and yet more overthinking of a simple game on the part of Pep Mowbray in the dugout. When is he going to decide which is his best team and stick with it every week?

So he's in Yorkshire - does that mean he's signing for Burnley?

Strange that as he's from East Lancs and not southern. How did Plymouth of all clubs get him?

Says in that LT piece Fergie started at Plymouth. Not true, surely? Are they mixing him up with Mike Harrison?

Rovers' forays into Europe were in the old Uefa Cup, which wasn't a competition for "winners" but the best-placed teams behind the champions.

One things is for certain: as always after a break we will start slowly, be on the back foot from the whistle and concede a goal in the first 15 minutes. Can't remember the last time we got at a team from the start.

Other reason to dislike the CL are 1. It increases the wealth and power of clubs that are already the richest in the world; it is in effect a closed shop of the elite to which the rest are effectively barred - rather like the class system in this country. 2. The Champions League is a misnomer. It should be called the Champions and Runners-Up League, because clubs that do not finish first in their respective leagues are by definition not champions. 3. My biggest complaint of all - it has diminished the World Cup, which was eagerly anticipated, comes around every 4 years and used to the showcase for the world's best talent. Now you can watch them every week, and well, familiarity breeds contempt. I switch over now and watch the soaps when the CL comes on.

The Champions League. It dominates world football, to the extent it has diminished the World Cup because world's best players are either injured or knackered from playing in the CL. It led to the demise of the European Cup (which was wonderful), the Uefa Cup, the Cup-Winners Cup, which were excellent tournaments too. And it has concentrated power and wealth to an unacceptable level in a few select clubs. It is boring, boring, boring in the group stages until it becomes knock-out (like the old European Cup in fact).