I agree with Stuart tbh Nathan. Mowbray been here over 2 1/2 years now and at no stage has he looked like he is close to being tactically aware or knowing how to set a team up. We have shipped soft goals almost from the start of his tenure and lost or drawn games through silly goals conceded/poor game management or daft substitutions that wreck the shape of the team. I find it incredible that the shape of the team and ''style'' of play goes out the window repeatedly when he makes his subs. This happened in League One though generally teams weren't good enough to exploit it. In the Championship they do. He has been ultra conservative since he walked through the door and had he been bolder he might well have prevented relegation to League One. He remains ultra conservative. He has publicly commented on 'defenders coming' and knows full well that we can't ship goals like we do. Yet in god knows how many windows , the defensive structure of the team is no different and in some cases neither are the personnel. His obsession with utility players knows no bounds and continually we have players in wrong positions . I genuinely think he is a decent bloke at heart but has been pressured into some very strange outbursts of late and in my opinion , I think he is simply struggling at this level to compete tactically or organisationally. He is too old school and as some have said including myself , I think he is a decent chap but a managerial dinosaur . I don't think he has it in him to radically change and deal with the demands and footballing intelligence of a fast moving football world . He is naturally conservative and a steady hand which initially was needed but if you cant progress from that then you start to go backwards and that is what is happening here. He has nothing more in his locker than we have seen. So it is possible , god forbid, that he frustrates and infuriates us even more in the coming weeks. But The whole Club looks to be behind the curve operationally at many levels , notably our scouting, and the owners aren't savvy enough to see it and therefore we bumble on as a club because he's a decent bloke and appears to be trying his best. The fact that his best isn't good enough is likely to mean that we will need a sequence of horrendous results before anything changes because nobody within the Club will rock any boats for fear of their own positions. The Club is a cleft stick of mediocrity which most on here can see and which is why there is so much outrage at the claptrap comments they come out with which basically insults our intelligence. Most on here know what they are talking about in general (though there will always be differences of opinion on specific players etc) .We have lived through decades of this Club and know its capabilities, strengths and weaknesses all too well. The people in power at Ewood are largely people who don't have that depth or history with the Club and which is why we find it pretty offensive when they come out with the tripe that they do. I don't see change coming early; it might happen if we have a total nightmare run of results .The owners wont want the hassle or the cost and the present incumbents won't want to put their heads above the parapet. Conclusion: Stalemate, tread water at best. Flirt with relegation again at worst. Why? because we are badly owned and poorly managed.

Seems a very poor decision seeing as he should be nowhere near the team if Mowbray bothered to pick our strongest 11

Taking my daughter (5 y o) to this one - her first visit to Ewood and first competitive football match. Gone for JW Upper seats, near as I could to the halfway line. No doubt it will be a case of 'Is it finished yet?' well before half time, and the wallet will take a pounding in the club shop, but hey ho, the blue & white blood has to be infused at some point! COYB!

Here’s the thing that I think gets missed in these discussion, the constant references to “we”: what “we” need, who “we” should get etc. There is no we. There is us, the fans, and them, the owners. Owners who never once have shown any regard to the fans, never once made the right decision at the right time, never once recruited a manager either worthy of the role or capable/empowered to take us anywhere. I see Mowbray as a reincarnation of Bobby Saxton: well meaning, committed, passionate, but too loyal to certain players, not a great finder of talent, and tactically limited. We all wanted Saxton out sooner or later, but history has shown he did a better job than was thought at the time by his dealing well with some existential off-field issues. I suspect history may say the same about Mowbray when the Venky regime is over, should we ever again be in the hands of owners who care about the club AND the fans.

What have at the moment is a collection of players, not a team.

Not exactly off-topic - more at a tangent to it - but, as one in whom a love of the Rovers was nurtured in him by his Dad 60-odd years ago but has no children of his own, I must say I'm heartened to read the posts from Dads taking their children to their 'first game' tomorrow. There'll always be a Rovers if that loyalty is instilled at an early age. No matter what those youngsters think about the Manager the club's got twenty-odd years down the track!

Mowbray should play his strongest eleven. Full stop. We need a convincing win to give us some confidence and momentum.

I think both manager and squad have enough about them to avoid the drop comfortably even if we lose the next few but it does make a potentially good season has gone up in smoke and this time it will be at this managers door nothing else. However i totally agree when the writing is on the wall it's there for all to see and the ten games then becomes christmas, jan window etc then we get down to the next 3 and it goes on like that. Sometimes the best thing to do is look at the bigger picture/long term goal then plan, source and make the change when safely in midtable mid / late season before the summer scramble starts. Besides we'll know if/when TM is coming under serious Venky scrutiny because SKY will be all over it and other managers will be making special appearances saying what a great bloke and manager he is. Then tell me again certain influences have nothing at all to do with this club these days still. Mowbray came via the path of the other managers......

I really don't get the arbitrary ten games which seems to me a figure plucked out of the air. In the last two relegation seasons I predicted that we would go down after the first couple of games. Whilst results were obviously important I saw that several players weren't good enough and the managers simply didn't have a plan or the wherewithal to start winning. Whilst we are not at that stage yet I think another couple of consecutive defeats and we will be. For me we need two wins in our next three to save Mowbray and stop us falling into the abyss.

Cements Bennett's place. non playing captain's exist but are rare - and let's be honest does anyone really think Bennett will be a non playing captain? We might as well rename this thread the goodbye Nayambe thread. Too much competition in midfield for Bennett to play there regularly and there's too many strikers to cram in at right mid. Sad news as I liked Nayambe as a player and Bennett guarentees a couple of horrendous muck ups per game at RB.

in my opinion the words in bold should read. when having yet another poor game.

It basically confirms that Nyambe won't play RB this season Parson. Terrible news.

Yep. My house, business, car, the lot. But then again, we might just lose tomorrow night......................

We will not lose tonight. I guarantee it!

Why 15? Why not 25? Why not 46? We have been on a downward trend since the January window closed. We haven’t fixed the problems that caused that - in fact we’ve made them worse. Mowbray has peaked.

We sold Raya who was our player, we had all the close season to find a solid replacement and we've ended up with a keeper on a one year loan who, at the moment at least, is unconvincing. And we have the same back-up as before. Does anything sum up the confusion and inadequacy around the club than that?

Not really - we are 5 minutes from Ewood, and at 5 years old I think the noise and hustle of a full match day might be a little overwhelming, whereas there will be a smaller crowd on tomorrow evening (I would wager!)which shouldn't be too 'exciting'. If she likes it, then there will be more opportunities in the coming months to build her interest. Are you going? ;)

He only has himself to blame.

Knew it he was going to go with Bennett ... really out of touch our manager is and he’s getting very bitchy with each game that goes by .. we will learn and go onto the next one as he likes to keep saying ...I see no light and with each decision he makes gets worse and worse ... please get Rid of him before it’s too late ...

The thing that bothers me about Bennett being named club captain is that it almost guarantees he's going to start regularly, which means Nyambe might as well paint his name over one of the seats on the bench.

Great post lifted from FB: 'Mowbray is like that Sunday league manager who picks his son and makes him captain no matter how shit he is''

Mowbray should play his strongest team tomorrow. Whatever that is.

Think you have missed one between Iley and Coyle!

Jason Lowe MK2 We know how that ended

Captain is a non-job in football. Make him Club president for all its worth, however it should not in anyway keep him in the side if his performances do not merit it.

If I posted my opinion on that I would get banned again and probably deserve it. Suffice to say Mowbray is certifiable.

I know...….Game 3 of the season and a dilemma at home to a league 2 team who have lost both games. WTF have we become????

Well people keep telling me modern football is better. Really ? Look at that pitch yet the players conjured up more goal mouth incidents than we can today. That would be what 90% of pitches would be like by mid Feb and March.

He's not so cheap if he doesn't play.

I don't we are there just yet, not that I don't have serious doubts. I also don't think we should stick to some arbitrary 10 game target either. Charlton was very poor and worrying, losing to Fulham away with the players they have isn't the end of the world plus the performance wasn't too bad (I know we didn't have a shot on target). Give the defence a couple of games to settle, see if Tony figures out that strikers play better up front then out wide, then see where we are. I think we've come into the season a little under cooked again, we generally had a good start to last season despite not winning either of the first 2 games so we've got plenty of time at this stage.

Having been to the game, I thought we were pretty good yesterday.... The results will start coming. We will be top 10 finishers this year and will do well, another season of progress.

Making a judgement after three seasons, not two games. TM deserves a chance to get the season going - and a little loyalty.

It was v much tongue in cheek bluebruce. I am very much a glass-half-full bloke so far as TM is concerned, for now at least...

It's simple. Does Bennett have a captain's personality? Yes. Should he be playing most weeks as a captain is generally expected to? No.

You crack on mate got to get them into it and with the price of tickets at £2 a kid it's just the right price for first match as if she wants to leave you dont lose much..... I did the same two years ago with my daughter to a £2 cup match jw upper and now we have st in the river side together!!! Just remember it's not the football that matters it's her enjoying the night so its ingrained in her blood for life, it smells, the lights, the hugs from dad and the blue and white

I think that rightly so it will be only results that shift him. I honestly don't care about team selection or tactics if we win but conversely losing means he comes under greater scrutiny.

It’s really interesting when posters like your good self lose patience. Kind of tells it’s own story.

Think most of us would have been happy with Bauer and Tosin/Lenihan at the back. Would have given us decent depth with Williams in contention as well.

I don't think Bennett deserves any stick at all. He always tries his best which can't be said for all players. The fact that he isn't the best player in the team and certainly not a full back of any description doesn't take away his endeavour. He will take any booing personally so any show of disapproval should be reserved for Mowbray - however that may manifest itself.

Another predictably eccentric decision by TM. Going to cost him his job and he can't even see it. Start loading the Venky Tombola. Here we go again.

What cos I made a couple changes to the suggested team the post above mine? Behave, have you seen the suggested teams others have put on this thread?

A tricky one for Mowbray because he is in some ways in a no win situation. Home against a crisis club who have got off to a poor start in the 4th tier. We need to get up and running quickly. A defeat to this lot and we go from poor start to awful start and the pressure cranks up. Can he afford to throw in the kids? Suspect tonight's U23 team will give us an answer. Likewise if he goes with a strong Xi and someone gets injured he's going to be in trouble. I expect a strong team as he did that at Carlisle last season and Coventry the year before.

I certainly don't subscribe to the idea of getting rid of TM, not at this stage anyway. He deserves at least 10 games or so, any side can loose their first couple. However I do think that he's under pressure, a different kind of pressure to the last couple seasons. Two major factors. 1.) We didn't have a good 2nd half of the season, we had clear defensive deficiencies, especially away from home. TM had the whole summer to sort out that problem and the jury is out on whether that has done so. I think a back line of Cunningham, Del/lenhian, Tosin and RN is decent, but he will live or die by that choice. 2.) The other part of the situation is that he has built up a pretty capable championship squad and that brings it's own pressure to deliver. It is most definitely his squad, no more inherited dross excuses. A bench of Bell, downing, Chapman, brereton, Graham, evans, Buckley and Grayson is pretty strong at this level in my opinion. It will be interesting and I am really hopeful that it comes off. Hes a genuine football bloke, I just hope his conservatism doesn't hold him/us back.

That's very harsh, that header was an absolute rocket and might as well have been hit with his foot. @01:46, anyone calling that Raya's fault is showing a heavy bias imo. I'm pretty sure if he let that in for us there wouldn't be many people blaming him.

Two thing that seems to be uniting most people I have talked to, is the strange obstinate selections in the defence, and strange tactical substitutions. These have nothing to do with the players available, but are purely the managers decisions.

Just lol. we have improved in the 2 full seasons that he has been in charge- why not wait to judge him after 15 games?

A 17th placed Championship team didn't think Brereton was up to scratch and a Championship team that finished 8 points below us last season didn't think Gallagher was worth signing. So you can see where roversfan99 might be coming from.

When I first stating watching rovers (1983)John Lowey was part of the team , always seemed to be him or Colin Randall partnering Simon Barker in midfield , I am mid 40's now and it's sad that now makes 3 of that team no longer with us After Noel Brotherston and Chris Thompson ?

The Fray - How To Save A Life