DE.

Sharpe's article is more a criticism of the manager than SG. To try and paint it as a single-minded attack on Gallagher is little more than deflection and misdirection. I'm not sure Graham even read the article - if he did he either failed to understand the underlying theme or deliberately tried to alter the primary message which reflects worse on him than it does on Rich Sharpe imo.

Not always but last night he really was being lazy. At one point in the first half Tosin was jogging out of defence with the ball and motioning for Johnson to come closer to get the ball, but he just stood there and then strolled off to the side leaving Tosin looking visibly annoyed and instead passing it to Travis. Really frustrating to see that.

Johnson could barely be bothered to run yesterday, let alone do anything else.

Highlights the risk of bringing in somebody like that I guess. Although saying that Berg was a club legend here and he got 60 days or so ?

Because we have a team of soft lads created in the image of the manager. That's why we don't sign the likes of Maddison. Bring in talented 'nice lad' type players and it's enough for a comfortable enough mid-table position, but is the ambition and cunning there in these lads to push on past that? I don't think so. All teams need a couple of players like Short, Todd, Savage, Mokoena, etc to dabble in the dark arts when required, or dish out some serious bollockings when things aren't up to standard. We have very little of that in the team and under TM I doubt we ever will.

Not sure it can get much worse, but I suppose it would depend who they brought in. I don't think it would be too much harder to find better than Woodgate though in all honesty.

I think Stoke had at least double the amount of shots we did in the first half and spent a significant amount of time in our half, so if they set up defensively I dread to think what we were doing!

I think if Boro drop into the relegation spots Woodgate will be removed. A transition season is one thing, getting relegated is another.

Hah, that's some propaganda. I remember Butland making one save low to his right in the second half, but other than that every shot or header we had was directly into his arms. Walton made better saves over the course of the 90, and as you said in your previous post Stoke actually had better chances than us to score - although both teams were ultimately pretty poor in the final third. You can see why Stoke are where they are, but I imagine after last night a fair few of their fans are wondering how we are where we are.

I think it was as much to do with our ineptitude as them being good. Armstrong up top on his own with long balls being pumped up to his head would be easy for most Championship defenders to deal with. As would the likes of Gallagher and Bell toiling on the flanks. Rothwell's comeback was hugely underwhelming as he did nothing of note and Downing struggled to create anything either. It was a bad day at the office for us - particularly the first half where we looked incredibly disjointed and slow. It was nothing to do with Stoke, we just didn't come out prepared or motivated. Second half I was much happier with our effort but it was obvious the quality was still lacking. Stoke really didn't have to do that much. How many saves did Butland have to make? All our shots were directly at him.

I think Nyambe has all the attributes to be an excellent right back, but whilst he has the speed and drive for the wing back position it's no good if he can't create good chances for his team mates from out wide. Today we were very reliant on our wing backs getting high up the pitch, but there was once again nothing produced. Neither Bell nor Nyambe have a single league goal or assist to their name and we need our wing backs to at the very least provide some assists, especially on nights like tonight when we can't get through the middle. Nyambe is young and talented enough that with the right training he can improve this side of his game - whereas I don't see Bell getting any better than he is right now.

The standard in this league is often poor enough that Bell can get away with looking decent in some games, but in games like tonight when we need some quality from our full backs against a stubbornly resistant team you can see it just isn't there. Worth noting that whilst Nyambe has improved considerably as of late he also remains on no goals and no assists for the season, and didn't get any last season either. Even Cunningham managed one assist in his brief time here, and Bennett has 4 assists this season.

Our movement by default switched us to 4-4-2 when we were near Stoke's penalty area as we had Armstrong/Gallagher in the box. Out of possession and when we were in our own half we were at our standard 4-2-3-1 though. We were trying to play with some fluidity but it didn't really work. The players looked a bit confused about what to do when Gallagher moved centrally and this caused a few problems, mostly in the first half. Second half Gallagher seemed to be out wide more often which held our shape a little better, with Downing in the middle trying to support Arma. SG did drift inside a few times in the second half but definitely not as often as he attempted in the first half - possibly because Mowbray saw we were vulnerable down the right as a result.

Please don't quote my post without providing full context. I said we switched to 4-4-2 when attacking which was obvious as Armstrong and Gallagher both moved into the centre when we were pushing forward. I assume Rothwell was meant to be covering the right hand side but he tended to stay in the centre which meant Stoke could break down that side without resistance when we inevitably lost the ball.

I can't fault Bell's effort but I just think he's technically lacking at this level. Some of his passing in the first half put us in danger, and his ball control in the second half when we were pushing forward more ruined some promising attacks. There was one moment in particular when I think Downing pinged the ball out to Bell who had considerable space... but Bell's touch was so poor that Stoke had plenty of time to close him down before he then kicked the ball out of play for a goal kick. A real shame Cunningham got injured.

Yeah I meant slow for a wide man, probably should have made the distinction. Compared to the likes of Arma, Nyambe or even Chapman he's pretty sluggish when running with the ball. I'm not sure I've ever seen him beat a man to be honest. He tried a few times tonight and it was embarrassing, he usually just ran straight into them and instantly lost the ball. It's just not one of his strengths in any way, shape or form. Some aspects of his play on the wing must be pleasing Mowbray as he continues selecting him there, but I'm lost as to what those are. Yes he wins headers pumped up to him in that position, but 99% of the time those headers bounce to an opposition player so what is the point? It's not like we even set up to try and take advantage of it. I would like to understand what the manager is thinking but I just can't.

If Del is still unavailable and Mulgrew is persona non grata then I think that might be the only choice we have.

Agreed, Gallagher doesn't have the attributes to play out wide - dem diagonal aerial headers aside. He's slow, cumbersome on the ball, can't cross and can't beat a man. Putting him in that position is just nonsense, but Mowbray keeps doing it so at this point I'm beyond hoping the penny will drop.

Personally I would have started Armstrong out wide tonight. I know he's been scoring goals playing as a striker but if we're going to play Gallagher (and I hasten to add I would not) then he needs to be playing up top. He's useless when out on the right, and when we switched to 4-4-2 tonight when attacking we were left exposed on the right as Rothwell was not covering the position Gallagher was leaving open. Arma can score goals from the flank anyway, and a lot of his goals come from outside of the box. He would have been much more of a threat on the wing tonight than Gallagher. Ideally Downing would have started centrally from the beginning (much more effective there in the second half) with Rothwell on the right, AA on the left and SG up top. It may still have ended goalless but I think we would have been more of a threat lining up this way than how we set out.

I can kind of understand why Mowbray held back on the subs for a bit as we were in the ascendancy for much of the second half, and truth be told there isn't a whole lot on the bench these days to change things. Unproven youngsters, aging/poor strikers and that's about it. Squad depth is lacking and it shows in games like this when we need a change but have nobody to bring on who will 100% have an impact on the game. First half was shocking tbh, other than the first 10 mins as bad as Wigan for me. Second half better but the same lack of quality, guile and ingenuity to force a breakthrough. We just don't have it in us to beat teams who come for a point, unfortunately.

A repeat of Wigan at home all over again. I said before the match we'd see how far we've come by the end, and the result gives us that answer.

Another game where we can only play one decent half. First half was dreadful, totally insipid. Second half much better in terms of endeavour but unfortunately very little quality which meant we never really looked like scoring. Walton - 7 - did nothing wrong, made a couple of good stops and claimed the ball well when he needed to. Another solid performance. Bell - 4 - looked nervous at times defensively, especially in the first half, and was terrible going forward. Attacks broke down often down his flank. Tosin - 6 - some wayward passing at times, as is normal, but overall did OK. Lenihan - 6 - struggled with Campbell at times but other than that did alright. His inevitable booking puts us in a difficult position. Nyambe - 6 - drove at the Stoke defence to try and make something happen but nothing came off. Some poor passing too which would have cost us against better teams. Johnson - 4 - lethargic, didn't look interested. Travis - 6 - worked hard as usual. Rothwell - 5 - largely anonymous. Downing - 6 - played better in the second half when moved central, but no major impact on the game. Gallagher - 4 - won headers but they went nowhere so as usual absolutely pointless. Was playing a hybrid of striker/right wing, but wasn't particularly effective in either role. Watching him out wide in the first half especially was painful. Can't understand why Mowbray persists with this. Armstrong - 5 - ineffective. Big Dom - 5 - he was on the pitch briefly. Rankin-Costello - 5 - he was on the pitch briefly. Graham - 5 - he was on the pitch briefly. Swansea on Saturday pretty crucial now. Fail to win and I think we can forget the playoffs, although the reality is we aren't going to make it anyway. Not good enough when push comes to shove.

Bell really isn't up to standard at all.

Johnson off, Graham on.

We've lost our momentum now. Looking like it's going to end goalless.