DE.

Managed to get a team out of this league well over a decade ago - the fact he's still dining on success from so long ago says everything. Since then "how I've always done it" has yielded little success and got him sacked from Celtic (as one of their worst ever managers), Boro and effectively forced him to resign from Coventry. "How I've always done it" also failed to save us from relegation in 2017, and although it got us back up from League 1 with a much better squad and budget than the rest of the division, it's never gotten us close to serious playoff contention let alone promotion from this league. His refusal to accept and address his shortcomings is exactly why he needs to go.

Bowyer's tactical inflexability simply wouldn't have allowed Cairney to play his natural game in CM. He could have been bulked up and coached to track back more often, but I don't think it would have meant much to us in the grand scheme of things to have Cairney in that role. I think he would have ended up stifled under GB no matter where he was played. Bowyer's tactics just didn't suit Cairney at all. In theory his tactics should have worked with the likes of King or Mo Barrow out wide, but we played at such a slow pace (I assume deliberately) under GB that pace seemed more of a detriment than a benefit. We saw glimpses of what could have been with King in the FA Cup, where we played him centrally a few times and he caused havoc against Premier League teams, but we never saw that same style deployed in the Championship. It was fairly obvious King in particular didn't have the motivation for the grind of the Championship under GB's usual tactics, and only seemed to be motivated to play when the cameras were on him against better opposition.

Assume you mean Cairney. Would have needed to play AMC to really be effective and Bowyer's teams didn't have attacking central midfielders in them. Both CMs were generally defensive with our attacking play largely coming from wide areas - which is why he tried to shoehorn Cairney there, but it didn't really work.

Sounds like it was a "mutual decision" between Evans and Lambert, and he's getting a £2m payoff, so Lambo will be reet.

Generally speaking I don't think defence was a huge problem under GB. The GK position was a consistent weakness, but we had solid Championship-level defenders for the most part. The back four of Marshall/Duffy/Hanley/Spurr was good enough for the most part. Bowyer's biggest blind-spot, by far, was central midfield. He was overly fond of cloggers who ran around a lot but produced little substance. The likes of Evans, Williamson, Spearing, etc didn't give us enough, and the undying loyalty to Jason Lowe needs no explanation. Unfortunately Bowyer wasn't tactically astute enough either, and he didn't know how to turn games in our favour regularly enough. Too many draws that a better manager could have turned into wins with some smart tactical alterations during the game. Mowbray is no better in that regard - although he's more erratic in terms of his team selections and attempts at formations. At the very least GB generally played our players in their correct positions, he just didn't have enough creative guile to switch things around when needed. He also had no idea how to implement pace into the side, leaving us as a slow and largely predictable side. I don't rate Bowyer's time here as successful, but I don't think he performed any worse than Mowbray, and considering his lack of experience at first team level I'd say in a direct comparison Bowyer performed better than Mowbray has by most useful metrics. Ultimately though we've never really had what I would class as a good manager under Venky's, so comparing Mowbray to any past managers seems pointless. None were good enough to make us better than the sum of our parts, and neither is Mowbray. Until we have a manager that can do this we'll remain where we are now, in a frustrated, never-ending limbo where brief periods of hope are quickly snuffed out by the bleak reality of being owned by people who simply don't understand what needs to be done to make a club successful.

Six draws is still the equivalent of won two and lost four, so hardly something to crow about as a positive.

Didn't expect us to win when they went down to ten, so whatever. We're in limbo until this lame duck manager is finally removed or leaves of his own volition. Just have to hope we don't get sucked in to a relegation battle, because I don't think this team and manager have the stomach for that.

Hasn't Strachan been out of football for 4 years now and out of club football for over a decade?

Mick is in a lot of ways the total opposite to Mowbray. Keeps things simple, plays everybody in their best positions, sticks to tried-and-tested formations and makes his teams hard to beat - building from the back. TM overthinks everything and, despite being a centre-back, seems to have zero concept of how defending works, which is why we always end up in a muddle.

Big Show signs for AEW... words I never thought I'd write. Figured Show was a WWE lifer.

Hearing we're playing well just makes me more certain we're going to concede again shortly. Edit: lol

Much more chance of Watford getting a third pretty quickly in the second half after a Mowbray half time team talk special puts the lads to sleep and kills any momentum.

Fortunately I don't have Sky so don't have the ability to watch even if I was tempted - how's Corry "the engine" Evans getting on? Done anything of note other than not get injured? 5 losses in a row... Mowbray should be potted at half time, let alone any later.

I expect Keane would be out the door in even less time than Lambert was.

Amazing that Wayne Rooney's Derby® are now only 2 points behind us. And by amazing I mean embarrassing.

Strange goings on there. Appointing a rookie at the beginning of the season, then going for another rookie after sacking the first rookie (seriously, what has Henry achieved to even be on a shortlist for a club looking to get out of the Championship at the first attempt?) and now putting Woodgate in charge until the end of the season - which considering his last stint as a manager seems like the equivilent of throwing in the towel for this season entirely. I can only assume cashflow problems as otherwise I see no logic in their thinking at all.

Until they appoint a genuinely decent manager - whether that be one with obvious upside or an experienced pro who has recent success - I completely disregard the suggestion they have learnt anything significant from their decade of owning the club. It's not like the options haven't been there in the past - Warnock in 2016, McCarthy in more recent times, and plenty of up-and-comers who may be ready to make the step up. Instead they always go cheap on the managerial position, and not learning the importance of having a solid manager at the helm has been one of their biggest mistakes and the reason we have never gotten anywhere under their ownership. The other huge omission from their plans for the club is the implementation of a structure at Ewood which allows the manager to focus on managing and other departments set up to focus on scouting, long-term vision, etc. I've said for a long time the manager should not be dictating our long-term vision, that should be something decided at a higher level and given to the manager as a remit.

This is pretty much my view as well. It's really difficult to judge our players at the moment, as they are under the instruction of a manager who is at what would traditionally be the end of the road for most clubs. Mowbray's selections, tactics, subs and interviews are becoming increasingly bizarre and desperate, making it difficult to judge how the players would fare under a more stable, organised manager. I don't think we have a squad significantly worse than a lot of the clubs going for a top six finish. With the right manager, able to make a team greater than the sum of its parts, I believe we would have a decent shot at the playoffs. Our weakest area is defence, due to how injury-prone most of our first team defenders are, but a better manager would likely have addressed this some time ago. Certainly if they were given four years to complete that task.

9 losses from 11 back in the 18/19 season, with a draw in the 5th game and a win in the 8th game. A horrific run nonetheless which ruined that season entirely. Notched 4 wins in a row once the pressure was off though, unsurprisingly. I've never really felt serious resentment towards Mowbray despite his obvious limitations as a manager, but his recent comments are turning me against him and I imagine if fans were at the ground there would be a turning of the tide at this point. He comes out with excuse after excuse, and his attempt to blame the fans for Nyambe's injury is disgraceful.

Holtby is a talented player but his body just can't handle the regular demands of professional football. It's always difficult to maintain any kind of consistency when you're in and out of fitness. Fact is if he could stay fit he wouldn't be here. I think we'd be better off letting him go as he isn't available regularly enough to have any kind of lasting impact on our form, but it's a shame.

I tend to agree. There's a possibility for a small initial uptick with a new manager bounce and players performing above their usual level to try and impress, but I get the feeling that would fade fairly quickly and we'd be right back where we are now. If we want to go up the next appointment simply has to be ambitious and a little risky - and I'm not talking Henning Berg or Owen Coyle risky, but rather a manager who doesn't necessarily conform to the Bowyer/Mowbray 'nice guy' standard. I wouldn't necessarily be in favour of a John Terry style appointment either as I don't think this job is suited for a novice manager due to our unorthodox structure which sees the manager oversee practically everything at the club, but I do feel we need somebody who could come in with a serious plan to shake the club out of its slumber. It was briefly attempted with Lambert but ended quickly as he was clearly unable or unwilling to work under the Venky structure - although perhaps that was for the best considering how he fared after leaving us.

I actually think Pulis could do a solid job with us, basically a budget Big Sam for what has become a budget Blackburn Rovers. No doubt he would cause some major fan divide in the same way Allardyce did, though, so whether that's really what we need is debatable. Question marks over whether he could get us into promotion contention but I think he'd improve on Mowbray somewhat in terms of results, if not playing style. Adkins did a solid enough job at Hull but has been out of the game for nearly two years and hasn't had any serious success in some time. Not convinced he'd be able to get us any further than Mowbray. Definitely wouldn't be an ambitious appointment by any stretch of the imagination and would signal we are looking to stay where we are rather than climb out of this league.

If Mowbray had truly lost the dressing room or the players wanted him out we'd be getting hammered regularly. We may play some dire stuff but we aren't getting battered results-wise on a weekly basis. The players just look confused and massively lacking motivation. I think they've lost faith in TM being the man to get us up, but have enough respect for him not to down tools and give up entirely. This makes the decline extremely slow and tedious. If we were getting smashed each week the pressure would pile on far quicker, but because our defeats are generally narrow and we pick up wins here and there it never looks that bad - even though as supporters most of us know this "journey" should have ended some time ago.

Yep, quite a few performances this season where it's been obvious that Mowbray has lost the players mentally even if it isn't a full-on "lost the dressing room" mutiny. The lads aren't putting in the extra graft for the gaffer and looking at how he sets them up each match who can blame them at this point? They are likely as confused as we are by what the "philosophy" is, whilst our "journey" seems to be taking us off a cliff edge into the abyss of Championship mediocrity (and soon we may consider that a fortunate fate). At most clubs Mowbray would have had his bags packed some time ago. Probably during that period where we lost 9 out of 11 games. Instead the manager and players carry on like zombies, a lifeless husk of a club in desperate need of change from the very top, let alone the manager's position.

Every time we get a sniff of the playoffs this happens - every single time, without fail. It's so pathetic. The entire non-playing side of the club needs a clear out, the mentality needs to change. Certain players need to go too, but with a team of winners in the dugout I genuinely believe a fair few of our current squad would thrive, whilst the rest would be quickly weeded out and moved on. Never going to happen under Venky's though. That kind of transformation can only come through owners who actually give a shit.