Another U23 signing Any first teamers linked?

The club have spent a bit of money in the last 18 months on a European scout setup. So far this has produced very little except the Holtby signing. I fully expect another token “Euro” signing if nothing else but to justify the existence of the scouting team who have probably been on many a jolly round Europe at the club’s expense.

The best thing that could happen is for him to go out on loan in January to a League One/League Two club to play some games and try to build a bit of confidence back. Unfortunately, for political reasons I don’t think that will happen.

Strange that he doesn’t run the same as in the video and looks like he’s lost some pace.

It's a shambles. What is Bell doing? Why does Williams just commit! He's never getting the ball!

What's the latest with Sam Hart? Is he still around? We're so bad that might as well give anyone in the building a try.

I would try something totally crazy and play two natural wingers. Chapman on the right, Downing on the left. 4-4-2 with Gallagher and Graham upfront, get some proper crosses in!

The squad is ridiculously imbalanced. With no money, I would give some of the U23s a go. They can’t be much worse than playing the first team squad out of position. JRC (when fit), Davenport, Butterworth. Throw them in, you never know they might surprise.

Mowbray complaining after today's match that he's not had the time between matches over Christmas to work with the team in setting us up for the opposition. This is the root cause of the problems IMO, we're spending mon-fri at Brockhall watching what the opposition are doing. Over the Christmas period more than ever it is important we have our own system of play that we know inside out and doesn't take 5 days to prepare for. This is lacking and we're constantly changing to fit who we're playing each week. It's like a merry go round of formations and players.

With Dack out, I'm afraid we're going to spend the rest of the season tinkering around with the formation. I think we went through 433, 4231,442 today at least. Mowbray can't help himself but tinker around. Rothwell at right back! Won't be long before we see Graham at centre half.

Injuries have not helped; add Nyambe and Cunningham to the defence we'd be much better off. Bennett/Bell are subpar for league one.

My theory about Buckley playing these last couple of games is so that he can ship him out on loan in January. Same was due to happen with Travis last year. Mowbray played him to put him in the window. Wouldn't surprise me to see Samual get a token appearance next game to showcase him in front of scouts.

I'd be tempted to get a RB ahead of a LB. How many games have we lost with Bennett playing there? It doesn't work. We look a much better team with a proper RB. Whereas we've got Downing, Bell and Williams at a push for LB.

I'm assuming that 2 x wingers are going to be top of Mowbray's shopping list in January if we're now suddenly going 4-4-2?

Mowbray is so frustrating. It's the constant tinkering with the formation, system of play and starting XI. Must be a nightmare for opposition scouts, but also for our players who won't know what they are meant to be doing. Liverpool (and other top teams) have a system of play and they stick to it, whoever comes in. It's not rocket science. The lack of wingers also severely limits our options. We've got Graham and Gallagher in the middle, yet ZERO wingers on the pitch. We've got no options other than to put strikers there or central midfielders out of position.

The team selection will no doubt leave everyone (including the players) confused. I'm expecting something random like Bennett playing no.10 again like last season.

Today was the first game without Dack, perfect opportunity to say to Holtby or Rothwell, here you go play #10 make it your own. But instead we played Holtby on the bloody wing. He's never been a winger. Typical Mowbray overthinking it.

Correct. And Williams.

Holtby and Buckley on the wings? Surely JRCostello the best option for playing wide??

Credit to Mowbray this last week, he's effectively rotated the team to maximize points over the 3 game week. Fresh faces today made a difference.

I genuinely do think he listened to fans and other people round him when he was on the brink a few weeks ago. (Not saying he reads this board). I'm not giving him unreserved credit yet when the only reason he played Graham, Nyambe, Rothwell and dropped Bennett, Gallagher etc was because his job was at risk- due to his own poor team selections. I'd still take a replacement, because on balance (transfers/ team selections/tactics) I think we can do better.

Did he play on the left of Lennihan? Something Mowbray said he wouldn't do earlier in the season.

Great to be moving in the right direction in the league, shame that it took 3 months of Mowbray tinkering to get to this point. If we have a solid Christmas, let's see what happens in January. Have lessons been learnt since the shambles of Jan/Summer windows last year?

Chance for Brereton if he can do any better in the Armstrong role second half?

Great news about the team! Let's play to OUR strengths, forget about tinkering about with it every week. COYB