joey_big_nose

I'd take Gallagher and Reed perm in this window in a flash. Gallagher has his weaknesses but he is certainly better than Brereton. I'd also take a look down the leagues and take a punt on someone scoring for fun down there. Marquis, Maja, Eaves, Henderson? Wingers more of a problem... must be a loan from somewhere?

Like you I can see him hating to drop both Smallwood and Evans. He'll probably keep Bennett at RB, play Reed RW and play Travis and Evans in CM until Nyambe and Smallwood come back. Then he'll be forced to drop 2 senior players. I thought he'd probably sacrifice Travis but I don't think he can after that performance against Newcastle alongside WBA. To be fair to Mowbray he has stood by Nyambe and Raya so hopefully Travis will get the same treatment. It's a bit harsh as Smallwood and Evans have been amongst our best players but we're just overloaded in certain areas.

Emergence of Travis does raise the question of what our best side is now with everyone fit. IMO... ------------------------Raya Nyambe---Lenihan---Mulgrew----Bell? ----------------Travis-------Reed ---Bennett?--------Dack-----Armstrong? ---------------------Graham ? = I'm not convinced Subs : Leut, Williams, Smallwood or Evans, Conway, Rothwell, Palmer, Brereton We do seem to be getting ever more narrow. We have only one wide player so we shoo horn central players like Rothwell, Armstrong, Bennett and Palmer in there... Also central midfield is mad. We have nine decent players I think now who can play there. But only one decent striker (Graham) and one decent winger (Conway) - and both of them at the end of their careers. Left back is also weak. All in all good squad though. I would argue the "spine" of central positions GK to CF is promotion quality.

Two things we learnt today 1) Travis is a very good player indeed. Impressed with him. If we could pair him with Reed the middle we'd have one of the better midfields going in the Championship I think 2) Brereton continues to look utterly useless. I know it's not kind to say but sadly it's true I think we have a pretty good squad all told. Just need another quality striker.

My total guess is we spent around £3M up front for him, with the remaining £4M add ons. Still looks way too much based on what's been seen so far.

Main hope we have of keeping him is if his poor from from the last month or so (WBA excepted) continues for another few months putting the prem teams off him. But then do we want players who have long poor spells? I'd say he's a gonna in the summer as we are not getting promoted. We have a succession plan of sorts in Rothwell I think. I can see him developing into that number 10 role and being decent (though obviously not as good as Dack).

Simply put we should sign one very good striker and a good quality winger. Everything else we have decent enough players we can persist with. Doubt Mowbray has the cash though.

If there's one player Mowbray is loyal to it's Smallwood. Probably Bennett the other one. He does not like dropping players he sees as "core players" like those two. It's due to their mentality and leadership I think. I bet even if Travis has a good run Smallwood will still find his way back into the team when he is available again. Probably Mowbray will drop Evans and play Travis and Smallwood, rather than leave Smallwood out entirely.

Still looks really poor to me. Im really struggling to think of any player who had looked so consistently poor for us since signing on. Even the likes of Joe Nuttall and Samuel - signed at a fraction - look like they have something in their locker. Brereton is a total mystery to me.

I'd say we're one good striker from being a good team personally on paper. If Venkys have the cash I'd write Brereton off and go out and buy a top striker. It's the only area we are seriously deficient. Simple as that id say. A winger also if possible. But we're not too bad. All the other comments are jumping off the deep end after a run of poor results. The losing goals late is a mentality thing which a decent manger should sort out. Hopefully Mowbray will do that. If not sadly we need to swap him out

Pretty bad when you put it like that...!

I can't really see why that would be to be honest. Main mistake I can see Mowbray making is bringing in Brereton who looks no way good enough. Everything else he has done seems reasonable, performances have largely been modestly good, and he's in a table position we would have accepted at the start of the season. But to lose winning positions again and again is not sustainable.

How we handle the last 30 mins of a game has turned into a very significant problem. One that could ultimately cost Mowbray his job I think if it doesn't change between now and the end of the season. Seems to be something fundamentally wrong. I'm not sure what it is, but it's happened far too often for there to be purely chance.

I just can't actually see us paying £7m for him. I think we must be paying a much smaller sum (like less than 1m) wrapped up in a lot of other conditional clauses that lead to that number. Otherwise it's a totally crazy deal. He's looked a total fish out of water every time he's played. Not just from a physicality and technique standpoint, but also from his positioning and movement which are bizarre. He's not only not what we need, hes *profoundly* not what we need - virtually any way you cut it. Which - when you consider we haven't spent more than 2m on a player in 5 years - is exceptionally weird. Unless he was signed for a lot less cash. Or - I hope - I'm missing some harbinger of his quality somewhere. But forgive me I can't see it.

From what I've seen Gallagher is a far better bet than Brereton to lead the line.

Sort of, he continued to be used on the wing and then sold. It's only at Fulham he starting playing centrally and making the full use of his talent.

Disappointing considering where we were at half time. By the end of the game we were holding on to a draw against 10 men and that should never happen. We've got some talented young players, but they have some pretty significant weak areas. Armstrong has pace to burn but picks the wrong passes all the time. Rothwell oozes technical class but has major lapses of concentration, Dack is a fabulous attacking mid but can be man-marked out of a game. Onthe upside they are all young so should improve. On a side note I can see why Mowbrays chooses Smallwood over Rothwell. Smallwood was very solid. But I think there's something of Cairney about Rothwell, hes not physically strong but he is fantastic on the ball. I think we have to accept that he will make mistakes as he learns, but let him have a run of games at cm as in terms of his ability he looks like he could turn into a premier league player. It's about making a strategic investment. I fear like Cairney under Bowyer Rohhwell wwillonly play a marginal role and have to move for his career to kick on.

I'd say a 7/10. Hes got us promoted and competitive in the top half of the Championship on very little if you exclude Brereton. If Dack goes he will bring £20m+ into the club. I can't see how that's a 5/10.

Good analysis that. Looking at the fixtures we've had probably the easier half of the season so far too. Still got to play most of the clubs above us away. Realistically finishing top half would be a very good season. Then it's all about how we recruit over the summer. The reality is we will need to pull together a high quality squad with real togetherness to make a real promotion push. The odds, like all clubs without parachute payments, will be against us. Hopefully Venkys can help.

Bit harsh on recruitment. He's brought decent quality in on a tight budget (Brereton excepted who is early days atm). Dack was an exceptional buy, while the loans who have come in have broadly been good.

I'd say big money signings like this you expect to see some combination of great skill, great pace or great physical dominance. Rhodes had outstanding finishing, Bellamy great pace and skill, Santa Cruz great physicality. For £7m you really expect there to be something remarkable in there. Even players who we have signed for a third of that money have come in with something exciting about them (Marshalls skill, Dack obviously, Grahams experience and goal scoring record etc.)

Speedie gave an excellent answer above, but to add to it the state /federal dynamic hurts the US response severely to any major disaster. A single event can have a dozen different jurisdictions responding (multople city, state and federal agencies) which makes things very confused. Information integration and sharing tends to be poor as a result. Non federal countries like the UK (you have devolution to Scotland, Wales and NI but services are well integrated for efficiency) have a much easier time coordinating and responding.

What worries me about Brereton is he seems to lack a lot of basics that are core for his role like control with back to goal, getting in the box and physical presence, while he seems to gravitate to things that aren't core like dropping deep and running at the defence with the ball. I like to think I give players a fair shake, but it seems pretty evident to me he is going to struggle. You can see why he is played wide. I want him to do well, but if I was a betting man I wouldn't put money on this working out. Haven't seen a major signing look so out of alignment with what we need for a long time. (Because I'm sad Ive just gone through 15 seasons of Transfer Market and the only one I could find similarly ill fitting was Barry Ferguson who was a very strange signing when you have Tugay. But even then he was a good player in his role.) Still early days yada yada. Looking forward to being proved wrong. But it seems a monumental dropped bollock from where I'm sitting.

Amazing! I just checked who qualified for the finals and it is England, Portugal, Switzerland and Netherlands. I reckon we might just about be favourites out of that bunch.

Not sure that's totally true - we (supposedly) splurged 7m on Brereton and he looks a someone to develop rather than the finished product. It's mad but I don't think you can get established championship promotion quality players for less than 5-10m a piece now. The best value players you get on loan (as we have with Palmer and Reed).