Crosses remain a devastating weapon especially if you are able to get defenders turning and facing their own goal. So effective that with the higher fitness levels and ability to substitute half a team, defenders getting out to block potential crossers far more than they used to IMO. I would also suggest the science of blocking balls has improved dramatically- players seem to be far more effective in selecting the right body part to optimise chances of a non-handball block. The lighter balls means a block is no longer risk of injury as used to be the case. Plus a cross is pot luck finding your own player whereas a pull back pass finds your own player more often than not. With the emphasis on possession and the improvement in average players' ball retention skills has meant crossing is more discretionary compared with the old fashioned getting down the touch line to the by-line and swinging it in every time.

And we have just worked out between us probably 90%+ of League 1 players don't get paid that much following the salary cap introduction. Quarter a million a year is still not bad and that is not out of touch. I wasn't arguing for him not be given an improved offer. Out of touch, telling me to calm down-my you are having a prissy fit...

Odds on reduction of reduction to yellow which means he would still be sent off and face a one game suspension?

Great article on football tactics which have come from Germany. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/sports/soccer/man-united-RB-leipzig-ralf-rangnick.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20201208&instance_id=24813&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=51793659&segment_id=46313&user_id=ea9bf3fba8ef2ae1ebee7fe2fad99a21 Pay-off line- a third of goals come from set pieces- corners freekicks and thow-ins. But a third of training time is not devoted to set pieces. I just wonder given the quality and variety of Barnsley's corners if their Manager has read the book?

Agreed. At the risk of being called out of touch again. Having the contract talks now might be the best timing from the clubs perspective and a conscious decision rather than indolence/ Pune not understanding what is needed. I stress MIGHT 1) FFP pressure is reduced now as a result of the Covid crisis. Sure we could talk earlier but we were at our FFP ceiling and the cupboard was effectively bare for offering better terms. 2) In the summer we had one big money saleable asset and he was a long way from fitness. 3) Because of eye catching performances since September, if we are in a forced sale to avoid FFP sanctions, quite a few players individual would now raise net transfer fees to fund at least two months' operating losses. If any one of them suffers an injury like Dack did, we will no longer lose our only get out of FFP jail card. Brereton and Gallagher might not yet command the figures we paid for them in a forced sale but we would get more than gift tokens for them based on the 16 games they have played in so far this season. 4) and this is the crunchy one- what sort of a contract do we want to give to whom? Which players would we want to retain for a Premier League squad? Now is the ideal time to write a contract which - recognises we are promotion contenders and no longer mid Championship trundlers - anticipates Premier League pay - writes in a relegation clause if we get to the Premier League (too late to include that at a reasonable wage after promotion). Talk of ending parachute payments makes relegation clauses potentially existential. 5) all the players we are looking to renew are young enough to put three year (or more) deals on the table. Holtby would only be 32 at the expiry of a three year deal.

And the League 1 salary cap is £2.5m per club. So League One clubs only pay 10 players?

Ten group winners and play off between second places for qualification? England v Poland in Group I with Hungary as awkward squad and three turkey shoots Didn't Poland prevent England from going to the 1974 World Cup? I can see their goal at Wembley even now... Very long odds against the other home nations and RoI getting to Qatar looking at their Groups. Wouldn't bet against Faroe Islands getting at least a point off Scotland. Malta have been improving but winning Group H will be a bit tough!

If they go 3-5-2 we are in for a war of attrition. I think they tried that v Brum and failed. Usually Bristol City have tried to play open attacking football so they are not that used to packing midfield. They certainly were open and attacking against Reading and were picked off very easily. Had Reading been as lethal with their chances as they were against us they would have hit Bristol City for 8. That said Bristol City are not used to 3-5-2, we were not used to playing 4-4-1 but it worked second half with different combinations of nine players who probably hadn't practised as nines on the training ground. Incidentally, did I correctly read Buckley plays right back in ten v ten practise games on Fridays? In which case perhaps I am wrong about that. Stream of consciousness post here. Looks like we have to be prepared for facing the total unknown on Wednesday apart from Nakki Wells. At least Mowbray can concentrate on setting us up to win without over fretting about the opposition.

Hope Pike is OK- second time he has been injured within a fortnight.

Del- hopeful he will play v Bristol City (the target recovery before Saturday's catastrophes) Wharton- achilles having a scan but probably his season is over Brereton- probably back for Stoke away Dack- Boxing Day v Sheffield Wednesday possibly

Ended 2-3. Apparently the ref was conned by an outrageous dive for what proved to be the deciding goal.

1-3

Well this is better. Apparently a brilliant run by Chapman which set up a Lyons header 1-2. Butterworth came through his 45 minutes well And.. Rich Sharpe Excellent Stergiakis saves, tipping over a Harvey White shot and then keeping out Tobi Omole’s header from the resulting corner. In other Stergiakis news, he’s a dead ringer for Patrice from The Inbetweeners.

0-2 Pochettino scored; any relation to the former Spuds chef? Rich Sharpe @richsharpe89 · 1m Goal #Rovers 0-2 Spurs If a goal summed up an opening half hour... Stergiakis’ attempted pass out goes straight to Pochettino on the edge of the box and he fires into the empty net.

No streams anywhere but we conceded after just 3 minutes. Stirgiakos getting a challenging introduction to English football- he has let in 7 in little over an hour of competitive football!

Playing Spuds. Let's make sure we get the fish 'n chips supper.

Oh that was a great day. Always fantastic to be part of an old Ewood 20,000+ crowd.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18767240.rovers-dont-envisage-contract-concerns-defender/ Hey, look folks- evidence, a source, back-up to what I am telling you. Don't know if this sports salary website figure is accurate but the wage is pretty decent in my book and will price out all clubs except those in the top divisions in the four big countries plus a few perennial Champions League sides like Porto, Salzburg, Basel, Ajax Ryan Nyambe earns £4,700 per week, £244,400 per year playing for Blackburn

Rovers will have named him in our squad of 24. Downing became our 25th, under 23 Academy graduates can play and don't count to the squad of 25- without that rule we'd have been in the Norwich pickle of being unable to fill a bench of 9 subs. As it is we have had 13 out and have 20 players still available on match day. Back to Trybull, players are allowed two registrations during the season so there would be no problem about any of Rovers' loans in or out returning to the parent club in January. Without that rule, what would be the point of having a January window???

I know everyone hated Mowbray talking about a long term 5 windows project to get us into the top 6. Well here we are after 5 windows at the end of his "long term". Quite honestly this season hasn't been bad so far irrespective of absences. We now enter a mini league of crocks - Rovers, Bristol City and Norwich City. I fancy us to do pretty well with our squad players against their's. And if we do, it will be Chris Who? ton on here. Ps where is the edit button for when I submit on my mobile mistake?

Had to scroll up to see what thread I was on. Hughton has never been my cup of tea. Am I correct that his only win with Forest was that scabby last minute deflected effort at Ewood?

He missed off subs 8 and 9.

Being realistic, he is not going to get much game time ahead of a fit Holtby, Johnson, Rothwell and Travis and will be duking it out with Buckley, Davenport and Evans (plus possibly JRC and whoever are the upfront selection casualties between Dack, Gallagher, Brereton, Elliott, Armstrong, Dolan and Chapman if we are playing a more progressive player in midfield) if we can ever get everybody fit.

https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/norwich-city-injury-list-in-full-6569038 This is also a handy reference for next Saturday. Norwich are squealing but 13 is only the same number of injuries as we have faced in a couple of games so far this season. Undoubtedly Trybull would have been an ever present at Norwich in the last four games had he still been there. FFP has been extended for 12 months so with several players looking capable of generating bigger transfer fees than they were only three months ago, FFP can be gamed more freely than it could be last summer.

Armstrong makes a bonkers belated run back which distracts Buckley and leaves both Brentford players free for the second goal. The scorer then goes on to ride a half-arsed challenge by Rothwell but by then is inside the area so Rothwell presumably didn't fancy a red card.