Tony Mowbray's Reign...& is he off to Sunderland ?

[Sweaty Gussets]

 

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

To @SAFCfaninpeace

I think Rovers fans have had their impression of him soured by the fact that our owners are disinterested and he ended up staying on longer than he should, ending in a season where we had a quite remarkable first half and a catastrophic second half and it got a bit unpleasant at the end.

I would say that he is a good appointment for you as a promoted club with probably more expectation (like us when we came up after only 1 season down) than the majority of promoted sides, he came in here with an uphill battle to stay up and a weak squad and didn't manage it. We then got promoted and finished 15th, 11th, 15th and 8th with probably a bottom half wage budget. 

His transfer record is not perfect but pretty good nonetheless and he can develop players so if your owners don't interfere and allow full autonomy and the ability to partially reinvest, he can make profit on assets. We sold Armstrong for a big profit, Brereton should be sold for a big profit, Rothwell would have been had our owners not intervened and Dack would have was it not for terrible luck on injuries. We have a few other very good signings in his tenure especially his use of the loan market and he gave the chance to numerous youngsters, some of whom (Wharton, Travis, Buckley, Nyambe and Lenihan) played important roles for him.

Tactically he went quite pragmatic at the start which worked, tried to make us into a passing side which didn't, then went to 5 at the back which was a masterstroke for a while but eventually became something that he stubbornly stuck too when it isn't working. He is prone to overthinking things tactically and has tactical ideas that might seem clever in his head but not as good in practice, and his sub usage was mixed.

His seasons follow a very typical pattern with a dip in the early months of the year and although he is a safe pair of hands that shouldn't have you worrying too much about going down, he will likely only take you so far.

Steady but not spectacular.

@mackemlad @SAFCfaninpeace That's 👆a pretty good summary of Mowbray and his 5 years at the club. 

His Championship finishes of 15th, 11th, 15th, 8th are a fair refection of his tenure. It's criminal we didn't make the play-offs last season (we were 2nd at the half-way point) but Mowbray's teams seem to always slump after Christmas. It's happened here, at Coventry and at Boro. Think it was 2 wins in 17 last season for us after Christmas. Similar the year before too. 

Psychologically he also seems a bit flaky (or 'emotional' as our CEO put it after he left). When the bad runs start you may want to avoid his interviews. They will drive you insane.  It's never his fault, put it that way!

A decent man though, who clearly loves his football. You could do a lot worse. We have!

 

[tomphil]

It needs mentioning if it already hasn't been that Neil at Preston out performed Mowbrays Rovers for a few seasons.

Without 15 million worth of strikers, an upper mid wage budget and a top Cat Academy.

A safe pair of hands for a season or two for sure who will make some shrewd signings particularly on loan. All depends what the aims are of Sunderland but i'd be amazed if he didn't finish in a respectable position this season.  I'd also be equally amazed if he got them anywhere near promotion without very heavy backing.

[DE.]

I'll amalgamate my posts from the Championship thread...

Some of the Sunderland supporters' reactions are definitely way OTT. I get that he's not the most exciting appointment, but from some of the comments you'd think they were about to appoint Steve Kean. 

There are some misguided comments on there regarding TM playing a 'good style of football' though. I've seen that a few times and whatever they're basing it off, it isn't the time he had with us. Our football was largely attritional under Mowbray, and during the period he was obsessed with possession it was downright horrible to watch. We did have some good performances under Mowbray, but they tended to be in isolation rather than over a sustained period of time. I find it hard to even really describe how we played under him, but I wouldn't overall describe it as good to watch. Ultimately however I only cared about results, and in some seasons (L1 season, first season back in the Championship) it was good enough regardless of how we played. In other seasons it became an added frustration as the death spirals, tinkering and overcomplication repeatedly torpedo'd our chances of getting into the playoffs. Obviously with last season being the worst, considering where we were and where we ended up. Even though it was technically our highest placed finish under him, the last half of the season in many ways made it feel like the lowest. 

I'd say the closest we had to consistency was from around October in our League 1 season to the end of our first season back in the Championship. Still not sure what you'd call our style during that period, honestly, but it was somewhat settled for the most part. I think I remember a statistic showing we played the most long balls, or joint most, during our first season back in the Championship, but it wasn't like it was under Big Sam. 

Anyway, after that he tried to evolve our style and yeah, from that point it became confusing and inconsistent. He wanted to do the possession based style for a while, but it didn't work. The stats from that season (19/20, I think?) showed that we actually did far better in the games where we had less possession. Our burst of good form during the 21/22 season that got us to second was basically a low possession, counter-attacking style, but once teams cottoned on to what we were doing we had no effective plan B. Coupled with BBD's injury we lost all semblance of style and just faded away.  

Mowbray isn't a terrible manager by any stretch, but he's also one that has repeatedly shown not to learn from his mistakes. He's carried the same positives and the same negatives to essentially every club he's been at. Sunderland can expect some good runs, some horrific runs, some baffling tactical selections, bizarre soundbytes and periods of satisfaction followed by equally long periods of immense frustration.

There will always be debate on here about how much TM was hamstrung by the owners and the way they ran the club, so I guess we'll see how many of the same patterns develop at Sunderland, which may give an indication. 

 

[booth]

22 hours ago, mackemlad said:

Hi all, 

Sunderland fan here. Tony Mowbray is our new boss. Could you tell me how you all feel about him please?

Style of football, formation etc,

Is it true he likes to field a youthful line up?

Reckon a mid table finish is a shoe-in with him.

A lot of our fans are underwhelmed after losing Alex Neil who was very popular. 

Completely bonkers but he'll keep you stable. Likes to have half a season off.

Once played a centre forward at right back, for no reason. Played same CF as a winger whenever he could, for some reason.

Once played an aging defensive midfielder as a false 9, for no reason.

Played one of the league's top assisters on wrong side, for no reason.

And he likes to nullify the opposition over playing to his teams strengths which can be frustrating.

Decided that when sitting in second place and knowing that his top scorer would be on international duty or could get injured, he decided not to bring in any cover then openly spoke about his decision in the local press - stating that, in basic terms, we don't play with a centre forward here.

On the other hand you'll have some games where you'll play like Barca. Well maybe not Barca but he'll have them playing well. Next match he'll make 5 changes for the sake of it, and they'll play like a pub team.

Known in these parts as Tombola Tony.

[Armchair supporter supremo]

23 hours ago, mackemlad said:

Hi all, 

Sunderland fan here. Tony Mowbray is our new boss. Could you tell me how you all feel about him please?

Style of football, formation etc,

Is it true he likes to field a youthful line up?

Reckon a mid table finish is a shoe-in with him.

A lot of our fans are underwhelmed after losing Alex Neil who was very popular. 

miserable, underwhelming, mediocre, tactically & strategically inept, stroppy, sulky, bizare uses of substitutes and playing players absurdly out of position, arrogant, cliquey(expect a lot of his past colleagues/pals to turn up working their to do a poor job) 

Expect him to blame everyone (including your own fans) when something goes wrong. Never his fault. 

Transfer wise... Did a good job of bringing in some quality loan players from the prem (how much of that is down to him though i don't know) 

Overall pretty lame at signing and attracting established players and liked to pay over the odds for young players with potential that he may or may not play for 3 years before they may or may not come good(if theyvdo it's usually when they're in the final year of their contracts funnily) 

 

Honestly you could easily have hired so much better! Sorry. 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Armchair supporter supremo

[RevidgeBlue]

23 hours ago, mackemlad said:

Hi all, 

Sunderland fan here. Tony Mowbray is our new boss. Could you tell me how you all feel about him please?

Style of football, formation etc,

Is it true he likes to field a youthful line up?

Reckon a mid table finish is a shoe-in with him.

A lot of our fans are underwhelmed after losing Alex Neil who was very popular. 

God help you if he takes over at your place, I'll be laughing my socks off.

Expect platitudes about being on an unspecified "journey" with no definable targets or end goal. From his point of view it should be enough to keep him in situ until the end of his contact when everyone wakes up and smells the coffee and realises that you're in a no better place than when he took over.

[Oldgregg86]

Openly admits he doesn’t practice set pieces and never checks the league table. Will big up anyone you play like there Madrid and call anyone under 40 a young kid still learning his trade . The most pessimistic man I’ve ever heard

[Mike E]

Boring football, midtable probably.

However, compared to Neil it's a huge downgrade.

[Silas]

You'll like him at the beginning, be non-plussed in the middle when he's doing an adequate job, and fuming by the end when everything wrong at the club is somehow all the fan's fault.

Enjoy the journey. 

[Upside Down]

He will get you not relegated. 

And that's about it really. 

[matt83]

When things are going well he’s vaguely tolerable. When things are spiralling out of control, in the new year, he’s a very different animal. He needs sacking before he gets too comfortable and he’s insinuating that you’re lucky he’s prepared to do the 30 mins up the A19 and that fans need to challenge fans being negative towards him. 

[SAFCfaninpeace]

Thanks for taking the time to post your detailed views lads, much appreciated. 
 

Our aim this season has to be survival so sounds like he’ll likely see that achieved. Gutted/annoyed about Neil as the feel good factor was back, we were playing really good football and rare optimism as a Sunderland fan had returned. Will be looking out for Stoke’s results now in the hope they do poorly. 

[roverandout]

On 29/08/2022 at 18:28, SAFCfaninpeace said:

Sunderland fan in peace. It’s looking increasingly likely that he will replace Neil as our manager before Wednesday’s game v Rotherham. Just wondering what your thoughts are on him as a manager? Thanks in advance 

Hes a dinosaur. Wasted 5 years of pishing about. Don't expect any progression.  He'll have u midtable bottom half most of his tenure there

[roverandout]

On 29/08/2022 at 19:08, mackemlad said:

Hi all, 

Sunderland fan here. Tony Mowbray is our new boss. Could you tell me how you all feel about him please?

Style of football, formation etc,

Is it true he likes to field a youthful line up?

Reckon a mid table finish is a shoe-in with him.

A lot of our fans are underwhelmed after losing Alex Neil who was very popular. 

Midtable is about the best u can hope for with him

[SuperBrfc]

On 29/08/2022 at 18:28, SAFCfaninpeace said:

Sunderland fan in peace. It’s looking increasingly likely that he will replace Neil as our manager before Wednesday’s game v Rotherham. Just wondering what your thoughts are on him as a manager? Thanks in advance 

@mackemlad If you are happy with mid table in the Championship, then Mowbray is your man. That's his ceiling. His teams always have a second half of the season collapse from January onwards which tend to ruin decent patches of early form. It happened at Boro, Coventry and numerous times at Rovers.

He's a steady eddie who will see you comfortably float around those mid table spots, but put any pressure or expectation on him about the play offs or promotion and he will crack.

Rovers went on a run of 2 wins in 17 under him in one of those collapses I mentioned, which ruined any play off hopes we had that year. Instead of holding his hands up, he responded to fan pressure by saying "it's not 1995 anymore". He will never accept anything as being his fault and you will notice him become bitty and snarly when things aren't going well and he is being questioned on that.

In order for him to have a crack at promotion, he needs a big budget and even then there's no guarantee of him delivering. He can spot a player though, to be fair. Dack, Armstrong, Tosin, Elliott and Brereton (eventually) are examples of that, so he may make some shrewd buys. However, it's how they are used that could be a problem.

Please do not buy into the myth of Mowbray's teams playing good football or playing "the right way". There was barely any evidence of that at Rovers in the five years he was here. He flip flopped between a direct game at first with Dack and Graham up top, then tried to play a tippy tappy game with the likes of Holtby, Rothwell and Harvey Elliott in the side, then tried to go with a silly false nine approach last season. None of those approaches led to success in the Championship.

No doubt if given money at Sunderland, he will try to implement the tippy tappy stuff, as that seems to be his preferred style.

However, be prepared for baffling team selections and square pegs in round holes as he tries to act clever and outsmart opponents. Ryan Giles, a left back, was played as a right sided attacker in a front three by Mowbray. Mowbray thought he could be like Mahrez for us by cutting in on to his left foot. Ridiculous, I know.

Oh and one last thing. When things are desperate in a game, he will throw every attacker you have onto the pitch in the hope that something clicks. Fans will be left confused as to who is playing where and what the plan is. It happened at Celtic, it happened here and will likely happen at Sunderland too.

All the best.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Never knew his best 11 and he never settled on a coherent long term way of playing - in five years !

[Mercer]

On 29/08/2022 at 18:28, SAFCfaninpeace said:

Sunderland fan in peace. It’s looking increasingly likely that he will replace Neil as our manager before Wednesday’s game v Rotherham. Just wondering what your thoughts are on him as a manager? Thanks in advance 

 

On 29/08/2022 at 19:08, mackemlad said:

Hi all, 

Sunderland fan here. Tony Mowbray is our new boss. Could you tell me how you all feel about him please?

Style of football, formation etc,

Is it true he likes to field a youthful line up?

Reckon a mid table finish is a shoe-in with him.

A lot of our fans are underwhelmed after losing Alex Neil who was very popular. 

Feel really sorry for you lads.

Never, ever rated Mowbray from the moment he set foot inside Ewood.

My thoughts / opinions on Mowbray:

• In his words, appointed to keep us up - he failed
• Style of football - turgid and unstructured.  A myth he plays good football
• Youth - he calls 23 and 24 year olds 'kids' and is reluctant to give 'real' kids their head
• Mid table finish - you'll be lucky!  Tactically inept, poor game management, lousy substitutions and too many square pegs in round holes!  A bullsh1tter and when things go wrong it's never his fault
• I wouldn't be underwhelmed by his appointment after losing Alex Neil - I'd be feckin devastated
• Likes to portray himself as a humble man and a man of integrity - I beg to differ.  

Enjoy Tony's 'journey'.

[simongarnerisgod]

On 29/08/2022 at 19:08, mackemlad said:

Hi all, 

Sunderland fan here. Tony Mowbray is our new boss. Could you tell me how you all feel about him please?

Style of football, formation etc,

Is it true he likes to field a youthful line up?

Reckon a mid table finish is a shoe-in with him.

A lot of our fans are underwhelmed after losing Alex Neil who was very popular. 

varies as he tries a different formation every week

not particularly keen on younger players,he often quoted to the local press that they are not men (even though scott wharton our centre back was 6" 2 when he turned 19)

he`ll definately get you to mid table and occasionally trouble the top six,you`ll be bored to tears watching it mind

he had some cultish pull over some fans at ewood,they would`nt hear anything bad said about him,personally i think he`s a poor man manager and about as charasmatic as a dose of piles

couple of gems from his time here

he adored corry evans,we had an excellent midfielder on loan called harrison reed,tony shoved him out wide because he thought evans was the better centre midfielder

he once played 35 yr defensive midfielder bradley johnson up front on his own,thankfully a dressing room revolt enforced a change,he spent the 2nd half sulking on the bench and after that it was pretty clear he`d lost the dressing room

 

[DeeCee]

7 minutes ago, Mercer said:

 

Feel really sorry for you lads.

Never, ever rated Mowbray from the moment he set foot inside Ewood.

My thoughts / opinions on Mowbray:

• In his words, appointed to keep us up - he failed
• Style of football - turgid and unstructured.  A myth he plays good football
• Youth - he calls 23 and 24 year olds 'kids' and is reluctant to give 'real' kids their head
• Mid table finish - you'll be lucky!  Tactically inept, poor game management, lousy substitutions and too many square pegs in round holes!  A bullsh1tter and when things go wrong it's never his fault
• I wouldn't be underwhelmed by his appointment after losing Alex Neil - I'd be feckin devastated
• Likes to portray himself as a humble man and a man of integrity - I beg to differ.  

Enjoy Tony's 'journey'.

😂

[Mercer]

and Tony is off - "It is a journey - I've just come from Blackburn Rovers and like here, it was a rebuilding process...."

Feckin hell - think Tony's walls have fallen down here and Sunderland under Neil were on the way up - ongoing development you clown and not rebuilding!

[simongarnerisgod]

9 minutes ago, Mercer said:

and Tony is off - "It is a journey - I've just come from Blackburn Rovers and like here, it was a rebuilding process...."

Feckin hell - think Tony's walls have fallen down here and Sunderland under Neil were on the way up - ongoing development you clown and not rebuilding!

bring on the death spiral and 2 wins in 17🤣,i would`nt wish that fellow on anybody

[AllRoverAsia]

I would not wish him on anybody, not even Burnley.

[AAK]

Did a good job in league one, albeit with by far the biggest budget. In the championship though, yes he stabilised us, which was completely fine, but then he completely failed after that, consistently allowing the team to fall apart second half of the season, did the same at boro and Coventry. 
 

his negativity at times was so demoralising too, don’t miss him, but don’t dislike him, hope he does okay. However his team selections, and seemingly unwillingness to spend money despite venkys making it available was baffling and I certainly won’t forget his dig at the fans for calling him and his team out.

Edited August 30, 2022 by AAK

[AllRoverAsia]

19 minutes ago, Mercer said:

and Tony is off - "It is a journey - I've just come from Blackburn Rovers and like here, it was a rebuilding process...."

Feckin hell - think Tony's walls have fallen down here and Sunderland under Neil were on the way up - ongoing development you clown and not rebuilding!

I really thought you were joking with that quote.

No mention though that after 5 years he left us with a demolished house of cards.

The man is a tool.

[Mr. E]

Hats off to Tony he must have the greatest PR manager in history. I would have thought he would have followed in the one who shall not be named's footsteps as second assistant ball boy manager in Bahrain, or wherever he ended up.