Its not just the manager its the player himself. He can barely string games together playing centre back so he's got no chance playing centre mid in the championship Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday. The player knows this and is trying to salvage his career playing centre back, and to be fair he looked good in January playing there (even though he's not the type of centre back we need). If the manager is telling him that he's going to be considered a centre mid he's not going to bother. That he trains every day is irrelevant. Rodwell's only option long term is to play centre back.

Like you say Reed won't be here next season, which is a shame but he;s barely played in position all season. Rodwell isn't going to be considered as a centre mid so you can stop day dreaming about that. He's finished as a centre mid. I keep him as a back up centre back if the wages were right.

I he was ours he be out on loan next season. A loan till January might not be the worst idea but where would he go. Having played so many games for his age at Championship level would going to League 1 do him any good? Not sure he'd get in many championship teams, other than Bolton.

I wouldn't get rid of Nuttall just yet. I'd give him a few more chances see if he's worth keeping and then loaning out to League 1.

Who does everybody want gone in a hypothetical summer clear out? Assuming we can shift them off the books? For me: Dominic Samuel Ben Gladwin Craig Conway Derek Williams Charlie Mulgrew Jason Leutwiler One of Richie Smallwood or Corry Evans not particularly bothered which one Paul Downing Sam Hart (I'd keep Bell as 2nd choice left back)

£3.5 million I think, although he'd likely be the highest earner at the club if was here. The frustration is we committed around £7million on Brereton a player who wasn't brought in to immediately improve the first 11 or seemingly with a particular role in mind. I think considering they released the funds last window that £5million might be available again. Like you say that scouting teams needs to pick some gems out, take Preston for example they regularly sign players in the £500k -£1million bracket, for every one that works another doesn't theres no sure thing deal in that kind of market. Brentofrd have signed good attacking players like Benrahma, Watkins and Maupay for around £1.5 million. I rate Rothwell as a player and he only cost us about £500k I think, Dack was £750k We shouldn't really be relying on more than 1 loan player per window really, they usually only become available later in the window anyway and we don't want to be moving late on again. I agree that it must be hard for Mowbray to plan when they don;t know whats available.

You can forget about getting a fee for any of them. I suppose it depends what sort of wages they are on. If Mulgrew is on £15k a week at Rovers then even that's too much for most scottish teams outside of Rangers and Celtic and he ain't going to either of those. Same with Williams if he on close to £10k a week, are a top half league 1 club going to pay that? I think someone would sign Smallwood on a free, not as sure about Evans but probably. Bell would find another club and with his ages might demand a small fee. So your into the territory of paying a chunk of their wages for them to play somewhere else. A complete pay off is out of the question for me. Wages are the problem we've got when signing players, like with the Brereton signing you get the feeling that the money is there for the transfers but not for wages. We've actually done quite well to lower the wage bill but then Mowbray has given pay rises and longer contracts to players who we now know aren't up to it and have no resale value. This is going to limit the scope of the changes we can make in the summer. What we desperately need is £5million or so being spent on a commanding centre back. You look at say Leeds and Norwich for all the football they play they each have a very dominant centre back in Pontus Jansson and Timm Klose and if we had that it would be a big part towards us becoming a stronger defensive unit, won;t be cheap though.

I’ve listened to that radio lancs interview now. Thought he said some pretty worrying things again. His comments on Rothwell were very strange after the performance he put it in. Goes on about consistency but he delivered today so why be so harsh with him? I bet he’s on the bench at Villa. Frustrating stuff at the moment.

Can someone show me where Mowbray slagged Rothwell off? Can’t seem to find it. Thought he was our best player yesterday from what I saw

When we went to a back 4 midweek it was. Nyambe Magloire Williams Bennett so I would expect similar if it’s not a back 3. Would rather have Bennett at left back over Williams

Bennett has played a large chunk of the season at full back. Rothwell has only started 5 games. Smallwood and evans don't go anywhere near the opposition box and I wouldn't trust them to shoot from outside the box.

To be fair to Mulgrew I thought defensively he was good very last year. He read the game so well was always one step ahead. Problem is I think Injury and age have caught him too much.

Like you say if we decide to go with a back 3 then maybe he's got a future in the centre. As part of a back four, if, as mowbrays says he does, play on the front foot then you need to be able to push up the pitch more. We'd miss his set pieces though. especially if Reed goes back in the summer.

Depends what you compare us to. Remember Salgado commenting on how pressure free playing for Rovers was compared to Real Madrid. Said we were far less judgemental.

Some interesting stats from Rich Sharpe on twitter about our defensive issues. When Mulgrew has played(26 starts & 1 sub) we've W-6 D-8 L13. with 4 clean sheets. When Mulgew hasn't played (10 games) we've W-6 D-3 L-1 with 6 clean sheets, Total this season for is P-37 W-12, D-11, L-14

I agree, he started less than 5 games for us in centre mid. He could quite easily start centre mid for a team higher up the league in CM. Unless Mowbray was to give him assurances about starting there every week I can't see it happening.

I'd look to rest Graham for this one, he was holding his hamstring before he went off on Tuesday and now we're safe lets not ruin him. Thought we looked better when we went to 4 at the back on Tuesday in the second half. Rothwell is well overdue a start, Chapman on the bench start him of with 20 mins then go from there. Nuttall or Armstrong up front to deputise for Graham. Raya Nyambe Magloire Williams Bell (if fit) Bennett Reed Travis Rothwell Dack Armstong/Nuttall Subs: Canadian, Smallwood, Evans, Conway, Chapman, Armstrong/Nuttall, Brereton/Graham. If we go 3 at the back then something like: Raya Nyambe Magloire Williams Rankin-Costollo Reed Travis Bell/Bennett Dack Rothwell Nuttall/Armstrong

Yeah I think you're right. Wasn't their a delay of around a month when we fired Coyle though, If I remember this right then Senior wanted to get rid of Coyle but it took nearly a month to get authorised.

Would Waggott actually sack Mowbray? Genuine question. Or would the decision be made in India and Waggott would just be the mouthpiece?

I like what you're saying but most of what you say isn't possible. Rodwell is injured and is also NEVER going to be an option for us in centre mid. He's not robust enough to play there, his body clearly can't handle it. There's a reason he's here in the first place thats because he's trying to extend his career by converting to cb. We can't recall Downing. He's not very good but he shouldn't have let him go without a replacement. Rothwell should be starting though and he should have been starting months ago.

I'd go something like Bennett, Reed, Travis or Evans, Rothwell

If thats the case then i'd call for Mowbrays immediate dismissal. No way that Conway should still be starting games for us. Lets hope thats not what he does.

I've just found this article from Monday which I missed at the time. - https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17475257.rovers-boss-mowbray-wants-his-side-to-show-their-character/ Some quotes in there I’m not a big believer in formations, ultimately it’s what’s in your stomach, what’s in your brain, the emotion of a footballer is what is a true reflection, never mind what formation you play. - Thats I'm not at fault it's the players who don't want to defend enough. Whether we play a back four, whether we play five in midfield, we lose three goals every game almost. - So why for example did we go Birmingham away and play with 1 defensive winger and one centre mid out wide? With all his criticism of the defence and the keeper i'd like to hear Mowbray address our attacking issues. We're playing two ball playing centre backs and all we do is lump it to Graham and hope we score from a set piece.

Mowbray calling Raya out in public isn't something that's sat particularly well with me. The other worrying thing was that Mowbray described Leuitwiler's strength as him being experienced. He actually isn't though. He's 6 years older than Raya and has played about 50 more league games than him. He's played 3 games at Championship level (not going to bother checking but I'm guessing under Mowbray) compared to Raya's 34 so if anything he's less experienced than Raya he's just older. He's not a viable alternative and that itself is part of the problem. I'd stick with him until the end of the season.

But that 1st goal against Rotherham, the lads made a decision before the ball has been thrown to come for it. He's started coming out realised that he shouldn't be coming for that then gets caught out back peddling. That throw in to the box he shouldn't be coming for at all, theres no way the opposition should be getting a clean header like that in from a long throw. For me the problem is Raya making poor decisions of when to come and when to stay examples being the birmingham (H) penalty, Rotherham (A), Brentford (A). I actually think that he's much improved when he does come for things than he was at the start of last season. Raya with his build and lack of height is never going to able to come through a crowd of players on the penalty spot, so why are we asking to do that. We're setting him up to fail, I think if we had at least one centre back who was dominant in the air we wouldn't be asking him to do this. If Mowbray didn't or doesn't like that Raya can't do this then he should've got a bigger keeper to challenge him. My main gripe with Raya is his kicking. He should've become more consistent by now