I was thinking after Saturday I'm not so sure I'd start him tonight. Exact same starting lineup isn't it? Bound to have some not at 100% 3 days later, especially someone as hard working as Szmodics.

Szmodics has become crucial for us. Have to pray he can stay injury free for the vast majority of the season. He has the application and the ability. Arte et labore.

I'd argue confidence in the keeper also plays a part. Yes, Wahlstedt hasn't been here long or played much yet, but I'm more talking about the removal of the lack of confidence that surely the defence had started to feel having Pears behind them. When I played CB we had a cracking keeper (nearly got taken on by Rovers if I remember rightly) and it was such a confidence builder to know the man in the sticks had a good chance of stopping it if you didn't win your tackle, header etc. It alleviates pressure and you can focus on what you're doing better. Course, I was being tongue in cheek when I said it all comes down to Pears being out. But I'm certain it's helped.

I put it down to Pears...

Anybody know how many minutes Wharton, Garrett and Ennis played?

Wharton starting for the u21s this afternoon. Suspect he might not be starting on Saturday. Garrett and Ennis starting too.

So, you don't remember him leaving the field in tears. You remember somebody else claiming it happened. If they weren't lying/exaggerating, they could also just be mistaken. They'd need very good eyesight to spot tears at that distance, unlike the person Arbitro mentioned who was in the technical area.

That error really is one of the stupidest I've seen a keeper make though. There's a really easy pass on, he looks like he's going to play it, then plays it straight to a Nice player instead. Only 16 so I'll let him off.

Whilst I generally agree with your reasoning, and that we should be able to (and are able to) freely discuss pros and cons of a player as soon as we have seen them, and to an extent before we have seen them, the 'some reason' you allude to is that there's an assumption that a player will take time to bed in. New club, new teammates, new manager, new area, new tactics, often a new league or even new country. It's natural to assume a player will take time to settle in and adapt to all of this, and there is a fair bit of apparent precedent for it. So if the player struggles, it's easy enough to think it may be down to those factors, and it may be. If a player hits the ground running, it's easy to assume those factors haven't made much difference, or that he's just that good that he's playing well in spite of them, and can only get better or at least is less likely to tail off as any natural change in form may be offset by having settled in. There's logic in this too, although there is certainly precedent of players who have set off on fire at a club and tailed off, perhaps due to adrenaline and hunger when they arrive, starting as an unknown quantity for opposition, or sheer dumb luck. There's a lot of psychology at play, and I think this is another reason some supporters tend towards saying give them time. It's only a messageboard, and I maintain we can say what we want on here, but if players get a sniff the wider fanbase is criticising them, when they're new, confidence can spiral. So I can see where people are coming from when they say these things. Attempting to shut down debate is something I'm not in favour of though. But I do think people should steer away from comments like 'he's clearly a waste of money' or 'he's shit' or 'he'll never make it here' when it's just been a few games, or even a couple of months really. Comments like 'so far he isn't looking like he'll contribute enough to warrant the fee' however, are totally fair. The problem for me comes from posters who attempt to shut down both types of remarks and don't do balance.

I think JRC spent pretty much two seasons out during his youth development, that's before his first team injury issues.

And what if only an offer of £1 million had been turned down? You don't just sell for the first offer that comes along if it's nowhere near what you think you'll be able to get. Where the club (or owners) erred is in miscalculating what they could get, and I would guess, in deterring further bids by being adamant it would take double/triple the bids received.

A few of us have been saying his head hasn't seemed right, and he's confirmed it now: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23842990.dolan-opens-mental-struggles-blackburn-rovers/ Hopefully he's out of this funk now and his performances can improve. He's better than he's been showing, and whilst I know he has always had his detractors who will probably never rate him regardless, personally I think he can be a menace at his best.

Yep, we could definitely do with him having a break instead, given we play him as frequently as we can and he puts in a shift. I'm sure he'll be made up though, just hope it doesn't start getting in the way at club level like it did with Brereton (tbf that also supercharged him initially).

I thought, surely that's not true, so I checked their results, and it is. That's even including friendlies and cup games (1 of each, and of course we haven't played friendlies or cup games there). In fact, they've only earned one more point than us at Loftus Road, 7 to our 6. That's just shocking that. 1 win in 16 home games I make it.

Anybody know how he is getting on? I see 6 games, no goals or assists (not that that means much at this stage). I see they still haven't won, though they've drawn 2 of their 3 draws in the last 5 games, and he played in those (only as a sub in the last one though...in fact he's come on as a sub in their last 2 matches so I assume he hasn't impressed much).

I wouldn't even call it poor recruitment, we had a few other recruitment priorities that should have come above it, and we didn't have the budget for those either it seems. The poor judgement was in loaning out his competition, Bucko, a player who could have rotated with him to keep the pressure off and injuries less likely. Totally bizarre move.

Good good, more of that.

Who said class? It's clearly better than 'useless' though. There are only 10 players in the whole league with more, it's double the assists of our most creative CM, who he has also created the same number of chances as. Useless is very harsh.

Probably a worse one. We needed a better keeper than Pears anyway, and that's what I'm hoping he is. I suspect he's seen as true competition rather than a reserve, but Pears as the incumbent was always gonna get first crack at it. JDT doesn't tend to drop keepers without injury enforcing it. If he turns out to be worse than Pears in the fullness of time, I'll agree it was wasted money. Pears isn't very good, so 700k should definitely buy an upgrade.

Good to know our top league assist maker is useless on the ball. The stats show he has created as many chances as Wharton. I wonder how he managed that if he's useless on the ball.

No offence, but I'm sick of seeing this argument from people. For one thing, we'd currently be trotting out one of the kid goalies, who sound way off the required level, if we hadn't signed Wahlstedt. But moreover, we didn't 'spunk most of our budget on a reserve goalie', we traded to create any budget at all. 2.5 million in, 700k out. Selling Kaminski with no replacement would have been sheer idiocy. Even if Wahlstedt doesn't prove better than Pears (we should see that more clearly over the next couple of games, managers are forever giving players time to settle in, doesn't mean they're seen as second choice long term), it's madness to go through a season with one senior keeper unless you have a prodigy in the youth team. No, we didn't really spend the difference between the fees either, but you can be pretty sure without that money we wouldn't have brought in Moran or Hill either. And the way Buckley went out on loan...who knows who else we would have had to sell or loan to keep our heads above water. The criminals in this window are Venkys, it's plain and simple for me.

Good point actually, I hadn't noticed Pickering wasn't in. Although Carter could be at RB or something.

An AMC who I believe is third top scorer in the league? And scored from that position last match. JDT has been clear he doesn't think Telalovic has adjusted yet.

I think Szmodics has been easily our best player this season. Brittain has played well though since he came in. but it's a fact we've conceded more since then, by quite a lot I believe. Probably resulting in the team being stretched, or could be coincidence, but either way he is also no good to us if he gets injured due to playing too much. Not sure JRC and Wharton is the right combo in midfield either, or at least not to try for the first time when we're away, but we'll see.

Only thing that concerns me is JRC in midfield seemingly, with Wharton, whilst Brittain plays at RB again. We've struggled defensively since JRC stopped playing there. Plus Brittain is injury prone and it was probably a good time to rest him for a match. We also have Garrett and Tronstad more directly suited to replacing Travis.