This "coming from a lower league so be patient" theme is another thing that I have some issue with. I do not blame Mowbray at all for relegation. Had he come in 2 or 3 games earlier we would probably have stopped up. The team that season were good enough to stay in the league under Mowbray but were undone by Coyle. He's kept a lot of the team together and has replaced from the lineup that went down at Brentford:- • Lowe with Smallwood • Guthrie with Reed • Gallagher with Dack • Ward with Rodwell. He's shifted out some of the deadwood and, in the instances above, has improved the starting XI. Out of the above, only Dack had no Championship experience - and he has taken to it perfectly. Therefore why are we talking like we are a team such as Southend who are playing at a new level for the first time in 25 years. We shouldn't have gone down last time, we have improved since and the players all know what the Championship is about. It's an excuse. Think big.

I don't think it's negative to highlight things such as: We concede too many late goals/we conceded late again the other night not long after scoring. We dropped our two best attacking players to the bench the other night. Our first choice right back is on the bench and another player that isn't a right back is currently playing there. If anyone cares about the club, why aren't they allowed to highlight such concerns about this great club that we all support without being labelled negative?

Strange you say that you pick players on form and that Smallwood was better than Reed on Saturday and that Reed has been poor recently. Yet in your team you had Reed starting and Smallwood on the bench. Funny that pre game you thought Reed should start yet because Mowbray picks Smallwood instead, Reed has suddenly become poor and Smallwood a better option. Talk about contradicting yourself.

That's great but it would also be great if he liked a few 'good' players especially when there is a quid or two to spend. Sadly the good ones aren't always the nicest ones and some of the best ones might be a bit nasty. The art is not having too many at once and having big enough balls to manage them.

I love it when people make stuff up and read what hasn't been written......

Ok, so the defence needs work , I think we can all agree on that. Below is what we have, if I left anyone out, please let me know, others on here would know more about the under 23s than I. GK- Raya Leutwiler Raya will start next season, I don't think there is any doubt about that. So, I think we need a more experienced back up. When Raya bust his face open, I personally feel he was rushed back. That must be because Mowbray doesn't trust Leutwiler. We need competition. I do like Raya a lot. He could be a top championship keeper. He is a bit small though. RB-Nyambe I am not even including Bennett here and I think there may be a few good lads in the under 23s. I have no issue with Nyambe starting. Although it seems he may have fallen out of favour a bit. If we received an offer of circa £3-5 million, would you be tempted to cash in? Personally I wouldn't sell him. Again though, we need competition here. LB- Bell, Williams Willaims can go. There are many issues with him, but I have never seen a player misplace as many passes as Williams does. One game against Portsmouth last season sticks in my mind, I think her got the assist 2nd half, but first half he must have given it away 7 times. We need serious competition for Bell. He looks good on the ball at times, he just really ,really worries me under the high ball. CB-Mulgrew, Lenihan, Rodwell, Wharton, Magloire, Platt So this is where things get very interesting. Realistically one of Mulgrew and Lenihan need to go, would everyone agree on that? So, which one? Would people be tempted by a £5 million bid for Lenihan? Can what we have be coached to be better? I can't see Lenihan , Mulgrew or even Rodwell being happy sitting on the bench for the majority of the time, but something has got to give. Discuss

I'm a bit concerned that Tony talks so much shit (as do a lot of managers). The big problem here though is that he seems to generally believe it ?

I'm not having that. Mowbray has been manager of the club for 2 years. He's had 4 transfer windows, a healthy budget by most accounts, supposed freedom to do things as he wants. He's an experienced manager who has operated at Premier league, Championship and League One level for 10 years+ so should know straight away whether the players he has are good enough or not and act accordingly. Not give them a full season to 'prove' themselves before having to replace them when they can't do it. It's his decision what he does and it will be his neck on the line. We have 3 options: 1) stick with what we are doing, which is one of the worst defences in this league. I know enough about this game to know that if we continue to ship goals at the rate we are doing then sooner or later we WILL end up in trouble at the wrong end of the table 2) stick with the same personnel but try to change things through different coaching - this is for the manager to work on every day in training and the proof will be in the pudding when the players cross the line - at the moment whatever he is doing isn't working because we're still making the same mistakes and conceding goals galore 3) change the personnel - get out there into the transfer market and replace those players with ones who won't keep making mistakes - once again this is the manager's job and he has cash to do it by his own admission. Whichever way you prefer to do things the manager is the one who has to sort it out and deal with it, and it will be the manager who carries the can if he doesn't. Suggesting that the manager is blameless and it's all down to sloppy individual errors is nonsense.

Despite being labelled by another as a 'negative' I stated yesterday I was ok to give Mowbray 4 more windows, not just Summers, to get us to serious promotion contention. Next year may be a bit too early.

Me neither but if they seriously want the club to move onto the next level that is the pond to be fishing in and if they haven't learned that doing it on the cheap doesn't actually do it and costs more in the long run they ought to clear off right now.

You would have lost that bet. I consider myself a realistic poster as opposed to one living in cloud cookoo land. I was disappointed that he gave up on winning the L1 title and belittled it when it became obvious Wigan would finish top.

Graham says he can play three times a week. He did it last year. He wasnt injured. He could have started yesterday if required. The fact is Mowbray was never going to say Graham and Dack could have played but he thought the team he put out was tactically better suited to getting a result. We didn't start with our goalscorers and didn't score goals. You keep mentioning the chances we created but all this does is re-inforce the folly of leaving DG on the bench. You can spout all the superfan rose-tinted shite you want but, for the posession and positions we created, the result itself speaks volumes.

I know, he’s a bit of a broken record on the subject. We’ve had our fair share of mercenaries and “couldn’t cares” for the last decade though... So last season; winning more, being the big boys, promotion and big away followings etc etc didn’t matter as much to me as seeing performances like Benno and Smallwood vs. Shrewsbury. Proper heart, pride, and pulling their bags out for the badge. It’s not a bad thing to base your club and philosophy around imo

Mowbray seems to see every club as superior to us in some way to be honest. He takes the underdog schtick to absurd levels, like when he was waxing lyrical about bottom of the table Bury last year before we faced them. Sometimes it's OK to be favourites and to have a little ambition.

Ok thanks for explaining. So you don't pick players on form like you said.

I see big club Boro are back to their usual selves, home crowds dropping each week. And they've only sold 900 tickets for Sunday here at ewood. Was only other season they brought 6000 on a Tuesday night, cause they knew they were going up, and had around 23k home fans. They were convinced they were massive and a bigger club than us (laughable). All clubs are same, fickle fans. Leeds are same all of sudden 28k this season or maybe more, but past few years newt like that, and upper tiers shut etc.

No, I think the problem is two fold. Partly it is down to the way we play - we crumble under pressure - this has been going on since last season when we managed to get away with it because we were playing garbage sides. Clean sheets have been very rare, particularly away from home. There is something structurally wrong with the way we defend as a team. Call it what you want - lack of discipline, lack of nous, lack of leadership - but it keeps rearing its ugly head and has done for too long to ignore it any further. It is also partly down to personnel not being good enough. I think I said yesterday that I would be looking to offload Williams and Downing in the summer, Bell would be on the bench (at best), I'd sign a new CB and RB, but would keep Nyambe, Lenihan and Mulgrew. Do you agree that coaching, recruitment and tactics are all the remit of the manager and at least one of those things needs improving on for our defensive record to improve?

I think the make up of the defence has got away from Mowbray and needs a complete retooling. Raya has played 100 games and his distribution, decision making and command of the six yard box haven’t improved at all. Nyambe has improved but makes too many mistakes and offers zilch going forwards. Lenihan I’d keep as long as we replace Mulgrew who is little more than a special teams kicker. Both him and Rodwell look great strolling out from the back but neither is a proper stopper, bullying forwards and putting their bollocks on the line. Williams and Bell are terrible, made even worse by having Charlie as the last defender when they mess up. All of Mowbrays other issues are flea bites compared to the state of the defence.

What evidence is there that the Venky's actually do want to take us to the next level? The whole pattern, choice of managers, transfer behaviour and league positions etc, since the take over certainly do not point in the direction of "next level".

Being honest, I think the defence/goalkeeper situation needs a complete overhaul. Either a new right back or one to compete with Nyambe. A new left back with Bell as back up, Williams can go. 2x new centre backs really. I'd be fine with Rodwell in midfield or in a back three, but not that comfortable with him in a two. Mulgrew will need to be replaced sooner rather than later. With that comes more issues as his goals will take some replacing, so we either need another set piece specialist somewhere or a centre back that scores a fair bit..... Raya either needs to be coached better/more and we need someone to come in and compete with him. Leutwiler may be that man, but it appears that he has absolutely no chance of getting into the team as it stands, no matter what Raya does.

They would play their best right back that's for sure. Think when you look at our defence it starts from the goalkeeper. He can save shots as well as most can but anything in and around the box to think about and he's crap. That bring panic to the defence which leads to more errors. Defenders, Nyambe should be playing every game. He's no finish article but if he was he wouldn't be playing for us. He does have pace, power and height so can be worked on. Centre halves, one of Lenihan or Mulgrew would drop to the bench for me. For me and it will go down like a lead balloon but Mulgrew drops out and someone like Liam Lindsey would be brought in. I like the defenders to try and defend first and Mulgrew will start to deteriorate soon. Left back I'd keep both Bell and Williams but with William's being 4th choice centre half. We should look to bring in someone like Jay Da Silva whose on loan at Barnsley at the moment. Goalkeeper is a tricky position because you wouldn't want another young goalkeeper. Someone with experience at this level even if it's for a season or two to play back up and step in when performances dip. Rodwell if he's signed would be a holding midfielder for me. Isn't a centre back and you can tell when he's defending. Let Smallwood go and put him into his role.

When you have your top 2 goal scorers on the bench with 21 goals between them and are then complaining about missing chances, I'd say that the selection was wrong. As for Rodwell he's not a centre back, so why is he playing there?

I think in general the vast majority of fans are grounded and realistic. I expected to be in a relegation scrap so we are above my expectation at the moment. But the doesn't exempt Mowbray and the players from criticism if I believe they are wrong and that is the same for the majority. I like Mowbray as a person and nobody has had a go at the man himself. His decisions are criticised and as a professional in the public eye he would accept that although not necessarily agree with it.

The key word there is inherited. Allardyce inherited high quality defenders. We have been dodgy at the back for years now. Like him or not Duffy was as solid as we have had since the premier league days. Hence why he is playing in the premiership now. Why do you give professional defenders playing in a straight back 4 a let off by constantly pushing the issues on the manager? We aren't this cavelier team leaking goals because we are so open. It's usually because of individual errors we concede. I suppose a way of thinking about it is this- if Mick Mccarthy or Neil Warnock came in would they keep the same defence?

You make a good point about Lenihan. The fact he has come through the academy, is relelativley young and therfore will have a sell on value at some point, is he undroppable? Factoring in that he has huge potential to improve as centre halves peak around 28. Should we stick with him? Then with Mulgrew you have his incredible dead ball deliveries. Plus he is a good defender, club captain and vastly experienced. I just think he lacks pace and that can punsih you ruthlessly at this level. Can ye imagine him on the bench? I think we all agree Lenihan looked better beside Rodwell. He has to let Mulgrew lead when he plays, but he seems to enjoy leading himself. The more I think about it, the more I keep thinking the solution could be 3 at the back. I just don't see Lenihan and Mulgrew leaving or being dropped. With the 2 of them and Rodwell, 3 at the back could work, in theory. We need an experienced and physical center half to be added to the mix anyway regardless.

It's not the players; it the manager. He doesn't know how to coach or set up a solid defence.

We should keep Lenihan, but we need someone else like him (but more experienced) for backup - he's becoming a leader and is rough and tough and the mistakes will get ironed out... I wince when he comes for headers he shouldn't. Next to one of the two ruffians should be Mulgrew or an improvement on him. It's sad but Charlie is winding down and physically ailing. But we need someone to get a foot on the ball and be composed. Rodwell is not that man unless he goes on a crash course in how to actually be a CB for me. HOWEVER - I think in a 3 at the back, those 3 would be a decent mix, Lenihan in the centre. Some competition HAS to be brought in though, Williams disposed of and bring Wharton/Magloire through. More or less agree with everything else @Bigdoggsteel

I think it's pretty dangerous talking about changing manager. Let him attempt to fulfil what he says he intends to do, if he fails or worse takes us backwards then fair enough but overall a good job all things considered. We have a manager that the owners trust to invest in for once, I think people have lost sight of what state we were in before him and what state we could be in again if we change manager.

Personally, I'm far from reaching the point where I would want a change of manager. I think Mowbray has done a very good job thus far and has the ability to take us forward in the long term. However, as with every manager, it will come down to recruitment and results. Last summer the stated aim was maintaining Championship status and anything better being a bonus. I believe we will finish well above the relegation places but some distance from the play-offs which, for me, is a decent season after promotion. This summer we need to recruit players who will make us stronger and take us to a point where we can be serious challengers for the play-off positions. It won't be easy as there are clubs with money to spend from parachute payments. However, it can be done as other clubs have shown over the years. This is going to be a big summer in terms of recruitment and we have to get it right. On the plus side we have a number of youngsters who could fill the 'squad' positions so that the money can be targeted on players who are the 'finished article'.

I’ve talked to more than a few Boro fans online and in person that would swap him with Pulis in a heartbeat. I know what you are saying but I really feel we need a bit more patience and to give him a couple of years. We had one season where we nearly almost never really troubled the playoffs since the Venkys came in. That’s when we had quality players all over the park. We aren’t that parachute payment club anymore. It will take time and it would take time no matter who is in charge. I just really don’t think we can afford to gamble again right now. We are only just getting some normality, structure and trust back within the club and it’s not like we have a squad of mismanaged Barcelona players. Nor have we been too attractive a proposition for top players to join us since TM has been here. No one is untouchable of course and if and when it starts to go backwards and tits up big time then you’ll see me on your side. But for now I’m right behind Mogga, he’s a safe pair of hands and I can’t ever really see myself being vitriolic in my protests for him to be replaced. Unless he gets an invisible dog of course.

His holier than thou bullshit is getting old. He should be creating a winning football team, not a team of choir boys.

I remember the myths supposedly from something a director was once overheard saying but thought it was more down to the club having to fork out bonuses, bigger wages and reconstruct the ground in a time when promotion to top flight didn't bring much more in the way of revenue apart from maybe doubling the crowds if you were lucky. Different kettle of fish these days it's all about money and some might fall by the wayside but the bonuses they'd get for winning promotion plus other stuff triggered in contracts etc would be tempting enough to give it a go and take the risk I reckon. Knowing Rovers and agent influenced ownership a lot would be quids in if they weren't wanted as they'd get paid off their recently extended deals once the percentage boys get in the ears and the revolving door starts again.

Yes, we're a slow team all right, which is why Rothwell made such a difference when we came on , a fast player who takes the ball past people. Getting defenders to defend properly shouldn't be that difficult for Mowbray, who was a rugged, old school defender in his day. But he seems to be incapable of doing it. I don't think he really knows how to set up a team properly. Have to disagree about Sam. Loved him to bits; the day he was sacked I knew as a club we were doomed to relegation. But that's another debate

Yer played GTA 5 and being a total sucker bought it again for the Xbox One.

Net loss: The ball nestles in the empty goal while the Rovers defence is nowhere to be seen and manager Tony Mowbray looks the other way

So he could have played but TM thought we would get away with it ("unless we need him").

If they are minted and use the club to offset profits from elsewhere being comfortable now losing on the books 10 mill per year then I don't think they'll be that bothered. True the club would prosper with that income if it was used and managed correctly but they are already prosperous beyond what they can spend if some are to be believed so again they might not be that bothered I think that might have been one of the main problems of their time here. They'd certainly get off on the publicity for their business and some egos but again the original plan was exposure for their Venky brand moving into Europe but that's probably been more or less scrapped now.

Clearly never listen to Danny Graham. And of the three games in a week debate, the striker said: “It’s getting a bit boring to be honest. “I’ve played three games in a week already this season. “Everyone goes on about me being 33, it doesn’t matter how old you are as long as you keep yourself fit and right. “I feel as though I’m fitter now than I ever have been at this football club so I think three games in a week is fine for me. “If other people want to talk about it then that’s fine. “In the past the gaffer has even changed players who you think would play three games in a week so it doesn’t make a difference.” Of course, Danny Graham is always going to say that isn't he. And Mowbray is always going to say he was too tired when he drops a tactically clanger like on Wednesday.

Kendall inherited Faz and Keeley, Sam inherited Nelsen and Samba.

Why do you want to rectify our terrible and neglected defensive record by bringing in someone you deem as a squad player?! Beggars belief.

They have, over time.

It just shows how far the last few seasons have detached them from the top clubs in Europe. Great to see

I prefer keg day

That’s the connection then. Samaras who played for Celtic at around the time that tw*t won Scottish Footballer of The Year at Celtic as well as being club captain, top scorer and biggest charity donator in Glasgow. Is is that the best your contacts can do for you now you charlatan? But I don’t want anyone to think that I dislike him.

Reminds me a bit of the Pedersen situation when he first signed. Sparky knew what to do with him, guess we have to hope Mowbray can do the same.

Yeah but leaving the full back exposed. Offered nothing to cover the full back bar a clumsy foul. He wont though, hes a striker. If thats your argument then that could go for anything. Nyambe and Reed were also in your team. They didnt put the chance away, one good chance for Armstrong and a couple of half chances. No firepower on the pitch. I am negative because a bizarre team selection and continious defensive and organisational woes led to a third straight loss, an 8th loss in 15 and v a shit team at that. Best manager since Allardyce. Albeit the alternatives are all shit. Im not saying hes not done a good job but theres a massive red flag surrounding his defensive negligence and you seem as relaxed about it as him despite it costing us game in game out.

That game was screaming out for a Chapman-esque player last night. Can't wait until he's ready to play. 4 3 3 would probably work if we had 2 proper wingers, Brereton and an ageing Conway isn't the answer.

If there's anyone on a wind up about Graham it's got to be you, to be fair!

and "Kean later resigned from Rovers that September despite them being third in the Championship under their controversial owners" Utter utter tripe. The whole article. Kean's last 10 years are worthy of some real investigation. However, whenever he surfaces it's in puff pieces touting his "talent". A journalist willing to take some time and look into his background would be a nice read.