Bell letting it bounce and costing us a corner that almost costs us... What an absolute sh*t house.

Bell can f*ck off right now. Absolute dog sh*t player.

Only just caught up on this. On the defender he referred to... Has to be Bauer surely? He's pretty much a dressed everything that I've suggested... Lack of leadership, Joe Rothwell and scouting in Germany, France and Holland... It's almost as if he or someone from the club has been reading posts on here before this event. ?

Forster is my dream keeper signing, unfortunately has a contract for a while and is on massive wedge.

Armstrong really seems to learning his position but I do agree he could do some damage up front. Nuttall I don't think will ever be good enough, I hope I'm wrong. I have to disagree though, I think we'll need to try and replace DG, along with CB and full backs are the most pressing issues.

You mean Armstrong and Brereton?

Can't be relying on DG all season again with his knees and being a year older. Desperately need someone to come in to try and fill his shoes.

No centre forwards?

Fully expecting that one to happen. Not in the know but just seems pretty obvious.

I'd written off this season after Brentford. I suppose to say it's a write off is a bit far as we could still use this season as experience for the younger players. This squad is going to need some investment to match the ambitions of the manager. Who would you like to come in? First bit of summer transfer speculation to kick us off... Apparently sourced from one of the red tops... https://the72.co.uk/125258/derby-county-blackburn-rovers-among-sides-interested-irish-defender/

Surprised by how people have voted on this so far... I think people have lost sight on how difficult a job managing Blackburn Rovers is and what mess we were. No manager is perfect and everyone has their failings.

2 very simple problems that aren't easily fixed. Before I start, when I say "good enough" I mean to match the managers aspirations of being promoted. Firstly... An issue that has been the same all season. No matter what midfield pairing we play we never seem to control possession. Correct me if I misheard but I'm sure the SS commentators said we had the lowest possession stats in the league. We are always chasing after possession and never controlling it. It comes back to that old saying "if we have they can't score". We never make teams work for possession... Why? We play too many long balls, our general passing is not good enough and our movement is not good enough because the players we have are not good enough, therefore the ball keeps coming straight back at us. If you keep giving away possession then you will concede cheap goals, it's a pretty simple concept. Secondly... Our defenders aren't good enough. Charlie is on his way out now, Bell has no defensive brain, Williams and Bennett aren't full backs. We lack vital experience and leadership at the back and in midfield, having this can help you organise better and see more games out. We're far too naive both on and off the pitch, the amount of goals we've conceded that required someone to take a yellow card and commit a professional foul would have seen us further up the league. Also naivety from the manager to not see these issues and sort it out, hopefully he will in the summer.

Wow. Well all of a sudden we're in a real mess. I hate to say it but a lot of it is down to the manager. Today was an absolute sh*t show from start to finish. No style of play, no method, no creativity and no leadership on and off the pitch. Today was a complete embarrassment, as my dad said, the players looked puzzled by what the manager was saying to them, he was changing formation and tactics every 2 minutes, Dack was playing centre half... It was an utter joke. I've seen him in his post match comments blaming the players, fair enough but he has to take a big slice of the blame here too because his management as of late has been totally inept. There comes a time when a manager has to realise throwing your players under the bus isn't the answer and take some of the blame. Tactics aside, he's making a lot of problems for himself. His use of Brereton has landed us in a really dire situation, his protection of him and constant playing him out wide has seemingly shattered his confidence and the confidence the fans have in him (Brereton) also. I've just spoken to my dad who was rightly saying that he needs to be taken out of the firing line because even sections of the fans are starting to turn on him (wrongly in my opinion). Had he played him through the middle when we first bought him this situation could be quite different. I'm not saying he'd have banged them in but he might have got himself a few and things would be looking a bit rosier. Now the only answer seems to be is to loan him out somewhere. If he goes to league 1 and does well then it's good for us because we might make some money back or he'll have gained much needed experience. If he fails then we have our answer and at least he's not done it on our time. If we were getting beat like we have done these past 4 games whilst experimenting and playing our younger players then I'm sure the fans would be more forgiving but obviously that's not the case. TM desperately needs to learn from these recent results, see the warning signs and crucially stop saying one thing in the press and doing another. He's invited a lot of unnecessary pressure onto himself, I don't like to tear him to bits in this way and it will take a lot more to be questioning his position but results, performances and decision making like this is only going to end up one way. There's not a lot a can say about the game. The first half was beyond a joke, I can't recall a performance as unorganised as that under TM, I've seen us play badly but today was just a complete shambles. Williams being sent off was a saving grace for the manager because he was forced into actually having a plan. I'm starting to have serious questions about Mulgrew and was surprised he stayed on ahead of Rodwell, I can only assume for set pieces. I think going forward Charlie has had his day and should now be used as a squad player, same goes for Benno. Graham looks knackered, it's time to bring Armstrong in through the middle and put Rothwell out wide. Nyambe at right back. Reed in the middle. Game time to Butterworth, Davenport and Magloire. Bring in Chapman when fit. Things need freshening up, players with nothing to fear can just add a spark to the current squad and sharpen everyone up, rather than picking the same old same old, it can only help and we have nothing to lose by trying. A lot that he should do, hope he has the bottle to do it else I fear things will get even worse.

Him or Bell, Bennett too, awful at full back. Cracked me up when TM said that he can swap Bell for Williams and we wouldn't be weaker... Aye mate, cus they're both shyte (Williams is a decent CB though).

I'm going to lose my sh*t if he's left Rothwell out of the squad. EDIT: His Mrs is having a kid. Congratulations to him.

Can't be a better signing than Pukki on a free though? Unreal business.

Seen highlights of Tekpetey, good player from what I've seen, the issue with him is that there will be decent Bundesliga clubs looking to sign him already. Hinterseer is one we might be able to pull off, he didn't really do it at Ingolstadt when they were in the Bundesliga, he is defo worth a punt but I suspect he's running his contract down for a reason...

If you want an out and out goalscorer then Nils Peterson at Freiburg would be a shout. He's 30 but scored goals all his career and wouldn't be on mega money at Freiburg. If Dack left then I think Vincenzo Grifo would be a good player to take a chance on. He was top class at Freiburg and left for Monchengladbach for about 5 million a year ago or so, hasn't really worked out for him there as M.Gladbach are doing well and have a decent side. He's 25, has that mercurial maverick type talent that Dack has and you'd probably get him at a snip.

Anywhere where there are good academies. There are quite a few in the Eredivisie. Young players get a good go in the Belgian first division and Austrian Bundesliga too. I think it is possible to pick up players from the the main leagues around Europe but we'd have an even better chance getting more value for money in smaller leagues.

People might laugh but I honestly think there's probably enough people on here to develop a scouting network who could do a good job at scouting for the club and save them some money. I know there's one other poster who has good knowledge of Scandinavia and has recommended players that have turned into players we couldn't afford now, another who has good knowledge of Australia who recommended Aaron Mooy before he became a big name. My knowledge of Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2 and Eredivisie is pretty good also. I'm sure there are others out there who have knowledge of other leagues too. The amount of talent that comes out of France who don't make it at bigger clubs who then drop down and turn into good players... Is insane.

Agree with much of that except I would keep Benno to be around the squad, cup games and cup appearances. On wingers, we already have Chapman and Rothwell. The amount of players we'll need to replace will cost us a lot, that's why I'm so eager for him to blood some youth players NOW. If they can step up then we'll have more money to spend on quality rather than quantity. Not that i'm advocating blowing Brereton type money on players but a few 2-3 million on players in key positions.

I think a lot of folk have faith in him moving us forward based on what he's says in the press, I just hope we can hold him to his word. To be fair, he has mentioned that this isn't the side he's had with the most quality, I just hope that he rectifies that by getting rid of the players that aren't simply good enough to match his ambitions and replaces them with better quality... Or it will cost him his job.

Yeah I almost expect results to be poor for a while tbh and I agree with much of what you say especially regarding recruitment. As far as his results going on a downward trajectory, I think it's the same for any manager, I just think people are being a little hasty by questioning it now. In our case, a change of manager is a massive risk with our owners and I just don't think the current situation is dire enough to warrant the risk. A lot rests on his transfer business and developing of our prospects. Next season we could be without Dack, Reed and Graham might not be able to do the minutes he has done this season, that's a lot of goals and quality to replace. Add to the fact that the defence and keeper positions need looking at too, he has a big summer ahead. What frustrated me about last night is that it was a prime opportunity to start getting our younger players game time and preparing them for next season. If you can get the likes of Butterworth, Rothwell, Nyambe, Chapman and maybe even the likes of Magliore (is that how it's spelt?) in the first team and learning what's required of them now whilst the pressure is off it might save us some money in the summer. What we don't want to do is sign players who block the path of our younger players who don't turn out to be much better and end up with a massive wage bill too. I just hope Mowbray see's it the same way, he seems to say similar things in the press but then last night benches Rothwell for Conway, I want to see some bold decisions from him now and in the summer.

I suppose it remains to be seen. He has done it in this league before, so whilst he's here I'm going to place my faith in him to try and do the same. I think it will become pretty apparent when he can't take us any further but now is not that time. Reading should be a big warning to him though that it could all go south quickly if he doesn't get his house in order now and in the summer.

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.