There's a common denominator with all of them - cheap. Other than Appleton all unattached as the time of hiring (or already at the club), and even Appleton wouldn't have cost much to take from Blackpool. You get what you pay for.

I think @Biz mentioned something about defensive injuries in the last couple of months in another thread, but we conceded 20 goals in Nov/Dec compared to 21 in Feb/Mar, so we're conceding roughly the same amount of goals irrespective of injuries. We had a January transfer window to prepare ourselves defensively and instead further weakened the team by inexplicably letting Downing go out on loan. Tony has got it massively, massively wrong as far as defence is concerned and (imo) faces a pretty big task in the summer to turn this ship on the correct course - especially taking his limitations and biases into account.

Part of that is probably because he knows he is going to have to do something special to get noticed by TM. Unlike certain other players he can't coast through games and expect to get an automatic starting spot next time out, so he might be trying too hard to try and impress. Especially with Mowbray unfairly singling him out when discussing our defensive woes. If TM said to him straight up "I'm giving you a run of games from now until the end of the season. Let's see how you do", he might be able to calm down a little and play a more natural game.

There were rumours of the Bolton games being played behind closed doors, but apparently the EFL rules don't allow that?

We've managed 4 points from our last 30. It's not like trying something a little different can have a catastrophic effect at this point. At the very least at home to teams like Stoke and Bolton we need to be trying to put ourselves on the front foot as opposed to playing the defensive game. We've already proven we can't defend, but we've scored enough goals to know we can attack. If Mowbray wants to continue being cautious with our remaining away games then okay, but at least try to give the fans something to cheer about at home.

Surely the EFL has a responsibility to act when a club repeatedly puts fixtures at risk with this type of behaviour? It's not fair to the teams affected or the fans, some of whom will have already made travel arrangements. It's absolutely disgraceful that this pantomime is allowed to continue. The indignant tone throughout his "letter" is astonishing. Not to mention the outright attack on the players. It's like he's deliberately trolling at this point.

Have tried to multiquote above but the quotation system on here is totally broken, so... figure it out I guess.

A statement from Ken Anderson: https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2019/april/a-note-from-the-chairman/ I'd guess trying to shine a spotlight on you not paying them as agreed in their contracts. Nice one. It's almost like you are the owner of the club and therefore responsible for these things. What a strange bloke.

The only stats that bother me as far as Nyambe is concerned are the lack of goals or assists. Performance ratings are too subjective to take seriously.You don't expect a shedload of goals from full backs, obviously, but you do expect a few assists over the course of the season. If Nyambe ends the season with no goals or assists then combined with our poor defensive record that makes for a poor season for him imo that needs to be hugely improved on in 2019/20. Unfortunately Nyambe fits the criteria of players who TM will single out - young & inexperienced, role in the team not guaranteed. Unlike the likes of Bennett, Dack or Mulgrew who suspiciously avoid any public criticism. Well, technically Mowbray alluded to it in that post-match interview where he spoke about defenders who won't put their heads in, but to my knowledge he has never criticised Mulgrew publicly despite multiple defensive mishaps.

That's not really saying much, though. I think we need better than all of them.

Still very unconvinced by Nyambe. https://www.whoscored.com/Players/276649/Show/Ryan-Nyambe This stats page doesn't make for very good reading, although I'm not entirely sure how their ratings are calculated. In terms of their average calculations over the season: Raya: 6.54 Nyambe: 6.53 Mulgrew: 7.02 Lenihan: 7.04 Bennett: 6.83 Williams: 6.83 Bell: 6.78 Rodwell: 6.48 So make of that what you will, but it's more the 0 goals and 0 assists for Nyambe that worries me. To compare, Bell has scored 3 and even Del has one assist to his name.

Still have my Amiga 500, in fact a few years ago I even installed a new floppy drive as the old one wasn't working anymore. Was pretty cool opening it up and seeing what was inside. It was amazingly easy and cheap to find the replacement part on eBay too... possibly not so much these days.

There's been no evidence in our brief experiments with the formation that our players have been coached to really understand how it works - nor am I convinced our current squad is even close to being capable of doing so. I'd say at the very least to play this system we'd need two new CB's, a new LWB (although we really need two of these as well) and a new CM. I'm also unconvinced by Nyambe as a long-term solution as RWB due to his lack of assists & goals, but he might prove adequete in that position.

Something Tony has never learned and probably will never learn is that sometimes attack is the best form of defence. That's not to say we should go gung-ho as our defence is bad enough as it is without exposing it further, but the opposition will struggle to create chances if they are pinned back in their own half. It's hard for me to think of any games under Mowbray, even against opposition at the wrong end of the table, where we've applied sustained attacking pressure for long periods. I'm sure there are a handful of examples, but generally speaking every game we play is either even in terms of shots and possession, or in the opposition's favour. Setting up defensively does nothing but invite pressure - and it's pressure we can't even release as we have very few quick players to counter attack with, and usually the more technically gifted players are on the bench anyway, making a creative breakaway even less likely. It's a novel concept, but the defence might make less mistakes if they have less work to do.

We've been "heading towards a back 3" since the day Mowbray arrived. Just over two years later and we're still nowhere near, and every time we do try to play a back three it's an absolute shambles. Another in an increasingly long list of failures for Mowbray - inability to impose the formation he prefers onto the team, instead repeatedly reverting to this stodgy 4-2-3-1 which makes us a defensive mess.

Meh, just an excuse for a couple of days off. If they really wanted to make a statement they'd refuse to play. What are they going to be threatened with, termination of a contract they aren't being paid for?

I don't think anybody is voting under the assumption it'll make a difference. I agree, he's going nowhere for the foreseeable future. He'll at least get the summer and maybe some way into next season. Coyle wasn't potted until, what, February?

I never said Bowyer did anything good, I was asking what Mowbray has done to be better than him. The revisionism on Bowyer's tenure is hilarious though. Literally everything being said about TM was said about Bowyer, right down to the integrity, dignity, etc along with the frustrations over tactics and favourites. It's all too familiar but people now seem to write Bowyer's tenure off as a disaster and pretend that he was the same as Kean, Berg, Appleton, Lambert and Coyle, which is completely untrue.

A good point, along with the old chestnut "they wouldn't employ anybody better" - which may be true, but isn't exactly a rousing endorsement. If the team is regressing at the rate we are at present (we've been in relegation form 4 of the last 5 months!) then it's either roll the dice or prepare to be relegated again. I can't think of many situations where a manager has presided over this kind of slump and ultimately made a success of things. It's certainly never happened in Mowbray's career, which most of his advocates seem to be conveniently ignoring! "He'll get it right this time" - when all evidence points to him not learning from his mistakes and digging his heels in.

What has TM achieved that Bowyer didn't? Keeping in mind promotion from L1 doesn't count as Bowyer never took us down to that level.

Have to admit I didn't think the overall site opinion would sway so far towards the sacking side.

Losing to Bolton at home is pretty damning in fairness. We've got Bolton at home on 22/04 and if we lost that one I'd think even the usual culprits would struggle to play devil's advocate as far as Mowbray's competence is concerned.

Weren't both our shots on target from that? Mulgrew's free kick was on target, then Bell's rebound after the keeper parried it out obviously was as well. Which would mean other than those 10 seconds or so we didn't have a single shot on target for the rest of the match.

Some suggestions around here that Ipswich might have a new owner once this season is done. If so and he's been told as such then I suppose his answers make a bit more sense.

Hart I can at least forgive as a development project, whilst Whittingham played a small part in our League 1 campaign despite not really impressing. Gladwin might as well have not existed at all.