Bethnal

‘kinell, I’m nervous about this one. £30 cab to get home from work in time for it, could prove a very wise or very foolish expense. Good sky fact: JDT has won 25 of 51 games in charge. That’s impressive in your first season, with this squad and not much backing.

Which would be fine, except the only box that the guy wearing number 9 for us tonight can apparently score in is his girlfriend’s.

I honestly wish someone would put us out of the misery of thinking we might still do it. Really embarrassing to see how far away we are from the required level, when it matters. Embarrassing to think I fall for it every time.

We look like we’re on the beach. I think whatever adrenaline we had through nerves has been dumped out and the abject showing has killed any atmosphere at Ewood. You’ve got to give the fans something to turn up for, if you keep asking them to turn up.

Literally scored top bins from the edge of the area first home game of the season, I think?

The only way we win here is a scrape. Most likely a fluke. Absolutely no composure in the pitch anywhere.

Dolan, Gallagher and Diaz are totally ruining any forward progression. Morton, Trav and Szmodics are trying to play positively but you’ve got three turgid outlets almost actively sabotaging progress.

This is really bad.

Agreed, I’ve said this before, it would suit him and I guess we’re about to find out. I realise Sharpe will have been briefed about formation, but I don’t think Szmodics is naturally inclined to be out wide, so either he’s in a false nine/part of a fluid front three or we might be employing some kind of diamond formation? Trav in the pivot, covering for either full back that breaks forward? Interested to see our shape, either way and encouraged to see JDT make a fairly significant change in response to Friday’s performance.

I have to assume that the Villarreal deal is done and there’s an agreement not to “process” the deal (thereby triggering the announcement) until Rovers’ fate is decided. His mind has gradually drifted to that, maybe, although his form has been generally poor since he became a dad, I reckon. Either way, he’s been carried and not contributed much at all, except for the West Brom free kick and he was poor in that game as well.

I wouldn’t want Brereton to sign a new deal on current form

Wharton has done more in 4 minutes than Morton has in the whole game so far. Harry Pickering quietly having a very good game again. Grasping for positives here, it’s a frustrating watch.

How is Calum Brittain the answer here?

Against a side we’ve already done twice this season (to nil), we’ve had no real threat, no shots on target and basically gifted them two goals. Woeful indictment of the players’ mentality. At a guess, the salary range for those on the pitch is between £50k and £750k annually. Not having the required mentality for the job when you’re being paid that kind of money is staggering.

And that is game over. Notionally season over, save the Burnley game. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Huge team talk needed here, something definitely not clicking and it needs solving. There’s fight in some of these players but some of the others need to have that fire stoked.

Norwich’s movement in the final third is good, we’re struggling with it.

Not the start we wanted. Gonna stick my neck out and say if we win this from this position, we go up. If we lose it, we’re gonna drop out of the top six. Exact situation we’re in is all about bottle and we have to find out how much of that we’ve actually got.

Nervous about this one. Looks like the players might be as well, just a bit on edge. Looks a good gate on, Ewood always looks nice when there aren’t swathes of empty seats visible everywhere.

FFS. Khadra has been absolutely awful the whole game.

Yeah, something with the loan system is hindering the whole affair. Having said that, they didn’t force him on us and we should have had a genuine plan for him. Don’t want to labour a point we often make on here, but he’s not better than Adam Wharton in there and he’s very likely the worse option.

Running and tackling, yes, but with that around him, he can find space (has done two or three times that half) receive a ball sharply and quickly move to distribute. His confidence is visibly low, I think the particularly errant pass to nobody on the left wing speaks to that. But he does have the ability in him. I’m not a fan of him for us, but I think he will thrive somewhere. Again, it’s just not here.

Not a bad half, not excellent by any means, either. Wouldn’t change anything yet, just tweak the approach. We’re being forced out too wide and need to be more direct to goal. Not got the kind of players on the pitch who gamble or find space for crosses/cutbacks. Play to the strengths.

I think I’ve sussed him. He’s an auxiliary and he simply cannot perform in a two. You can use him to bind two combative CMs or you can sit him between two very dynamic CMs and he can play from deep, while kind of disrupting any breakaways. Can now see why he’s well-liked at Liverpool, as sat between Fabinho and Henderson, he would work. But he’s not what we need.

Open game so far. We look the more likely and are visibly in control. They’re pushing to make it happen for them on the break. Could be an intriguing/nervy watch, but I think we’ve got enough to get our noses in front and definitely the right reinforcements available if not.