Watch their first goal back and tell me he isn’t lazy. I’d have far less of an issue if he played up top, but I never want to see him play out wide again.

Give it Souness til the end of the season. If for no other reason than at least he might crack a few of their pathetic heads on the training ground. An Armstrong consolation is just depressing as it justifies playing the lazy, greedy little twerp going forward.

You could comfortably play a midfield 2 of Holtby and any of the other options if you played actual wingers instead of wide strikers.

I hate him playing on either. Whichever fullback has the misfortune of being behind him is completely exposed. I can’t remember the last game he didn’t play, but I really don’t rate him one bit. You can make a decent argument for him playing on current form because he’s actually scored a couple, but 2 in 25 (I think it is) shows what a charmed life he has led to still be an automatic pick.

I think Mowbray would confuse the words ‘natural balance’ with Swahili, judging by his fondness of playing wrong footed strikers on the wings.

Looks as though Evans is creeping back up the pecking order

8 or 9 players are guaranteed to start, with a couple of likely candidates and a possible wildcard. I think Rothwell is most likely to win the tombola today. At some point, for no apparent reason, Smallwood is going to start an away game. Hopefully not today.

I think they are a (slightly) different colour. Apparently based on the red and green of the Lancashire rose. Used to be quite seriously into my Adidas collecting but sold off about 40 pairs of trainers and 30 jackets a few years ago. Wish I’d kept them... or used the money more wisely!

Really? I saw a lot before the season had even started. Twitter was full of it also. Obviously Graham isn’t going to be around much longer, but we seem completely unable to replace him despite spending the best part of 13 million quid trying to. By and large we look a better side with him in the team.

I didn’t see all of it, but from what I did, I agree. Was looking forward to the Rock, but it was same old same old. I don’t get the fascination with Becky Lynch either. I’m just praying they don’t ruin Bray Wyatt completely on Sunday. The whole show seemed a bit desperate.

Brereton has been ‘not ready’ or injured for 90% of his time here. Graham has been, and remains consistently available. He’s chosen to play in the reserves recently, and generally being a model pro, not to mention our best player last year. But apparently he is suddenly past it.

Funny how Graham’s decrepit 34 year old body seems to stand up to the rigours of football better than Brereton 20 year old body.

I expect a few on here will be heading down to check this out. Anyone lucky enough to get a pair of Blackburns today?

Funnily enough I was thinking Jake Roberts. He’s very close to DDP, so there’s an in. He seems to be over his demons, but given his previous it’d be a big risk. One of the greatest on the mic of all time though, and something that would get people talking and tuning in.

Caught up today with Dynamite - here’s my thoughts: The arena looks great. Superb production values. On a personal note, I loved seeing Tony Schiavone back on commentary - and considering he’s been on a near 20 year hiatus he did great! JR adds legitimacy, and is still fantastic. I haven’t been a fan of Excalibur thus far, but he did ok on here. I really liked the fact they talked about WCW and acknowledged the world outside their own “universe”, and really the only issues I had with the commentary was the expectation of too much prior knowledge of the AEW product so far. This might be a result of me watching the broadcast on ITV player (more on that later). Cody V Guevara Cody’s entrance was great and he’s just an absolute superstar. Guevara was a bit sloppy at times but good overall. I thought the Brandi spot was silly, there was no real payoff to it. For me this was a good match, and a great way to open the first broadcast. There were too many false finishes. Once again an inside cradle is seen as a more effective move than a really vicious looking inverted superplex. Schiavone doing in ring interviews post match- yes please!! Real shame Cody didn’t get a word or two in before the Jericho run in... now this is where the crowd become problematic - Jericho, being a heel, gets a big face pop. I get that people are excited to see him, being as he’s one of the few legitimate stars they have, but if they had allowed Cody to cut an impassioned promo having won, Jericho might’ve got the right reaction. *It appears that the ITV player broadcast has cut out a big chunk here - this may have effected the next segment. Pissed off to have missed MJF too. SCU promo This again seemed to presume knowledge of a tag tournament. Love SCU, but I didn’t really get this. Lucha bros interrupt and descends to brawl. Meh. Hangman Page v PAC Bit annoyed PAC has robbed Dave Mastiff’s bastard moniker, not that WWE would ever let him use it. Really good match, strongest in ring performances of the night. Good ending with Hebner playing his part well. The timing on the finish was spot on, and this was proper heel V face. Both are going to be big players going forward. Nayla v Riho Nice recap video as Britt Baker is out for commentary - she shouldn’t have bothered though as she was awful... but far from the biggest problem here. Sloppy and disjointed match throughout. Some good ideas, but execution an issue. Nayla is more than twice the size of Riho... if Riho is going to overcome Nayla it needed to be a long build, seeing her overcome the odds. All they have achieved here is to bury their top female star, and their entire division. I can’t see Riho getting over to anywhere near the level needed to carry the women’s division. Ridiculous booking. Really bugged me how a little shove to the face floored Riho longer than any of the big moves got during the match and necessitated a save from Omega. Stupid. Another post match interview broken up, and the least said about that powerbomb the better. Main event Said it before, not a fan of Omega or the Bucks. Plenty of dives, superkicks and Omega’s daft poses. Moxley and Omega’s brawl was sloppy and low budget... Omega moves like a cat, but can’t make a punch look legitimate. The glass table break looked shit, but at least it took them out of the action - because seeing them return after that would’ve been really stupid. I thought the Bucks dragged LAX down to their level... seeing them stood round waiting for moves to land on them and seeing them overselling is just sad. The Bucks are great at doing wrestling moves, they are not good at having wrestling matches in my opinion. But along comes Jericho to save the day! Masterclass. Minimal involvement but every little move he makes means something (both here and in the earlier beatdown). Despite the early cheers he got, he cemented himself as undeniably a heel here. Until his involvement there was no psychology, rhyme or reason. Showed why he is their main man. While the match itself wasn’t anything to shout about, the ending was phenomenal. What a fantastic way to end their debut show! Battle lines drawn between clearly defined heels and faces. Jake Haeger looked a beast! Having seen a bit of him since leaving WWE (notably on the short lived 5 star) what I will say is GET THE MAN A MANAGER! Drawing similarities to Brock is lazy, but he would benefit massively from a strong mouth piece... the ideal man for the job (Cornette) will never happen, so it’ll take some thinking outside the box. Could be immense for them. All in all this was a strong show, better than I expected, and it left me wanting to watch again. My big concerns are where they go with the women’s division now, as well as the impending doom I feel knowing Janela, Orange Cassidy and some of the other jokes they have employed will inevitably appear in the coming weeks. They’ve got good backing, and some great talents... hopefully egos and in jokes won’t be allowed to spoil things as they have a real opportunity here.

?? Superb site to partner with, and kudos for knocking back the vape companies and bookies!

I was talking hypothetically Chaddy. As I’ve said before I am not advocating getting rid of Mowbray at this point, and I have zero confidence of a competent replacement. Like I said, not many of those types of Manager about, although Joey Barton seems to be doing ok (except for assaulting opposition managers). To be clear, I am in no way, shape or form advocating we get him. As for how long Mowbray will be here... could be days, could be years. Lunatics tend to be unpredictable.

If we were to have a change of manager, I wouldn’t necessarily be wanting someone young and hungry. I think we are crying out for a Souness type... someone to drag us kicking and screaming out of the league. I know they are a bit of a dying breed, and it might be a very short term appointment... not to mention the fact that anyone like that and Venky’s wouldn’t be at all compatible.

Might have got a like on this if you’d called us Rovers! Rhodes can definitely do a very good job at this level, but he needs to be in a team playing to his strengths. Gestede exactly the same - when you put crosses in the box for him you knew he was going to get on the end of 9/10 of them. We really ought to have been promoted with them two firing like they were. I’m concerned we are going to look back on this current period as another missed opportunity to get promoted if we don’t find a more coherent way of playing and a more effective way of getting results pretty quickly. Plenty of talk about a work in progress - but how long can we build before we expect to do something. The similarities between now and those Bowyer days are there, and it won’t be long before this squad is dismantled if we don’t see some success.

But Mowbray seems to have a very odd way of picking his team. Players nailed on to start every game: Bennett, Cunningham, Armstrong, Lenihan, Dack Players who will start games except in extreme circumstances: Downing, Williams, Gallagher Expendable regular starters: *this is usually where the tombola approach starts Travis, Johnson, Graham Players who might get minutes when the fan base demands it: Rothwell, Chapman, Adarabioyo, Brereton Players who will get minutes when there is little other option: Nyambe, Smallwood, Bell Players who will get a bit of game time fairly inexplicably and at random times seemingly out of nowhere because Mowbray rates them, even if nobody else does: Evans, Samuel Mowbray seems to work his way down this list, shoehorning people in to fit his favoured formation.

Mowbray needs to start picking a team rather than 11 players.

Don’t give Mowbray ideas!

I actually think Bennett on the wing in front of Nyambe would be decent, though I’d prefer Rothwell there

I think being unbalanced has been a big issue for a long time. Laughable reading his comments about how he likes his wide players to do their bit defensively in the telegraph today - Armstrong offers nothing defensively. Tough job being a full back in this side.