Watching that preview by Roverseas and what screamed out at me are Reading's three fixtures after facing Rovers. They will be beyond desperate to get points on the board against us because a big fat 0 out of 9 comes next.

Who was the last full German international we have signed?

My God no way and I say that as someone with a soft spot for Besiktas. If 22 man brawls in the tunnel after games and lots of dodgy types inducing you into criminal activity is your scene, Turkish football is the place for you.

Hamburg are the nuts club of Germany.

Would have been gutted if this had fallen through. Perhaps an u-23s overage player game then into the side?

Yes v excellent reading as always

Got to improve on last year. Very important we don't follow up one step forward with the Millwall win with a one step backwards result at Reading. Reading totally destroyed Cardiff and should have won by much more than 3-0 so not to be taken lightly. Have to stop their quick counter attacking style so retaining possession mission critical.

London Football web site rabbits on and on about Holtby making a surprise return to English football and his performances for Spurs and Fulham and Hamburg and Germany. But guess what/who doesn't get named... No prizes. But pretty well confirms he is signing for us in my book!

I would imagine the agent and Lewis get a big smile on their faces for signing on but his week to week wages will be within the club pay structure. Amazing the number of posters reading the Motorway sign and not the heading of the tweet by the way.

Too early to say the league is rubbish. It is clearly highly competitive judging by the top two both losing at home to unsung opposition this weekend. I suspect Huddersfield and Stoke are really going to struggle to escape from the horrible starts they have made simply because of the competitiveness. In the Championship. Equally very hard to see both Wigan and Barnsley avoiding relegation- one of them will go at least. Having watched three championship games over the weekend I would say the style of play has transformed beyond recognition from the Championship we came down to eight years ago. Now is much more a Premier League 2 in style and there is a gulf in quality to the third level. The quality of ball control and passing from all eleven Championship players in a team are much higher than it was. Premier teams are quicker, more effective closing down and make fewer mistakes but no longer are most Championship teams playing a different style of football from the PL to manage their limitations.

If Holtby arrives and lives up to his billing, Christmas will have come early.

I'd love to have the subs bench Man City have. Signing Holtby would mean about 12 current Rovers players would have to seriously up their game to stand a chance of making the starting eleven. Hope it happens.

Serious question. Has it been established as a matter of fact the reason for Coyle over Warnock was cost?

I am always in favour of class players which is why I gave Rodwell the benefit of the doubt for so long. If Holtby produces for Rovers, we have a player of Premier League class and there are not many at Ewood we can say that about.

Williams/Lenihan centre back pairing started last season and the graphic shown in the Hull game by Sky gave remarkably good stats for the partnership in the (at that time) 12 games they had played together.

Talks with Lewis Hotby confirmed in Germany and by Rich Sharpe. This season's Rodwell? Sooner or later one of these rescue bids will come off spectacularly well.

Just out of interest, the last time we scored from outside the area from open play before the Williams strike?

The Williams strike rightly earns the plaudits but the second goal deserves acclaim too. The way we retained possession plugging away for the vulnerability and Sack's finish was excellent. Dack struck from a tight angle and could easily have skied it at full stretch.

We need a minimum of 12 points from this run of 6 games between breaks so good to start with a win.

Surprised Aderabioyo doesn't have his own thread. Quietly did what he was brought in for today but the system didn't gell. With Laporte out long term and City Central defense repeatedly vulnerable today, might he be recalled early?

Every Harrison touch was commented as Bobby Reid.

For my sins watched Fulham v West Brom and Derby v Cardiff over the weekend; both 1-1. Fulham looked easily the classiest of the four but just like against us needed a world class strike to get the break through. Bilic's subs changed the game totally and WBA perhaps unlucky not to win. In the final analysis, Harrison Reed (not Bobby Reid the BBC thought was playing) is like a duck to water in the holding central midfield position but for all their fabulous possession and brilliant passing/ball control, Fulham struggle to penetrate even Championship defences and their own defence doesn't handle pressure well. To invite howls, of the games I have seen, Rovers handled Fulham by far the best over 90 minutes despite losing 2-0. West Brom are competent + but we really shouldn't have set up the 3 goal first half charity shop at the Hawthorns. Cardiff at times looked like the team Warnock wants them to be and it is far too early for my tip for them to gain automatic promotion to be written off. Playing tight like that for two thirds of a game rather than one third will be enough to see them up. Derby have a gem in Holmes and their speedy fluidity is the reason why Bradley Johnson was no longer needed. They should have had a penalty three minutes after taking the lead but the ref bottled it and then didn't bottle the equally clear Cardiff penalty five minutes later. In short, if Mowbray can bring out the talents we already have at Ewood, the performance of this 4 likely challengers shouldn't cause too many Rovers sleepless nights despite our record against them is P3 W0 D1 L2 F2 A5

Worked brilliantly- I jinxed us into scoring again.

Line-up now makes more sense but surely Gallagher up front with Dack just behind.

We have to keep them out because there is no way we are getting a second