Thought Ollson was a decent lb for us personally 

Jesus are folk genuinely suggesting Efe ambrose 

Jonny Williams would be a good dack replacement if he were to go

I don’t believe we will get reed even if he was to leave Southampton, I reckon they would want 7-8 mill in todays market and we wouldn’t have that to spend again after Ben 

Papa soares on loan for left back, Matt Connolly loan for centre back, Jonny Williams transfer, Liam Lindsay transfer, Sam Gallagher loan and il be happy ? 

I’d love to send him back but we all know it’s not going to happen so let’s kill that chat once and for all

Please stop playing that game on here, create a new thread if you want to play make believe.

He should be selling the likes of Williams and Smallwood but no way will he, not while they are still getting game time. Downing, gladwin, nuttall are the only ones I could imagine being moved on 

Happy tonight but can’t help but wonder where we would be if Tony had trusted in youth a bit earlier, if we had Travis in the middle all season instead of Smallwood- who by the way I was one of the first to note his limitations when others were praising him to the rafters, wasn’t and never has been good enough for this football club. If we had signed a centre half, lb and a genuine 15-20 goal championship striker. Graham is graham and you can’t fault his effort or commitment, think he will be more appreciated when he is gone. That being said, he should be a final 30 min player by now with younger, faster, more prolific striker starting. Brereton it is not. Graham should’ve scored in first 5 mins today, was a very poor effort. 

Il be interested to see how lambert is on his return to Ewood in a few weeks time, in some ways you can’t blame him for walking after broken promises and foresight into how things were heading pre coyle but in others, he clearly didn’t fancy his skills on a limited budget and felt like he was better than us, we have now overtaken his stock, would love to beat them for a wee bit of smugness 

Today’s the day I’m pretty sure we won’t go down after getting a bit wobbly in December but I’m confident we are a better team than at least the bottom 4

Great win, didn’t expect that. Travis must now start over Smallwood without a doubt 

Take off the one player that can break and hold it up top and in the corner. Jesus man 

The red button needs refurbed tho, no replays, dull commentary. If your going to do it, then do it right not half arsed. Looks and feels like a training session the way they have it currently 

aitor karanka if he gets the shove from forest- yes please 

My prediction is a solid enough start, maybe even opening the scoring before a collapse in another frustrating afternoon, 3-1 West Brom 

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

 

 

Why do our supporters have such negative opinions of him? If only we had him now.

Was superb towards the end of his stay here when he really came of age, culminating in deservedly winning player of the season. His move to Newcastle didnt work out but he still got a title winners medal and his move to Norwich has been a very successful one, finishing runner up to Maddison in their player of the year award last season.

No way that Norwich will loan him out so think its a moot conversation but still.

Really think absence has made the heart grow fonder on this one, must be because we have had so much rubbish since. He is a big lumbering oaf of a player, always prone for giving away pens/free kicks, needed a week to turn whenever we played a nippy striker, wasn’t fast, in fact only thing he was goodfor was getting his big square heed on a ball in the air. Had to suffer his performances for Blackburn and Scotland way too much. Give me a Michael Keane or a minus last 2 months Shane Duffy before grunt anyday

god not Hanley 

13 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I was only thinking about this the other day. When did we last score a goal with a shot from distance ie 20 yards plus ?

I think Bennett got one from distance last year, Wimbledon perhaps? And Conway in pre season I think, other than that we have relied on dack or graham with scraps in the box

8 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

I just don't see how proper wingers would impact on him. If anything it would be positive. Its hard to guess what Tony is at sometimes 

I agree it could, but mowbray doesn’t play it or sign players to do so 

Just now, Ossydave said:

With the way we (seemingly) want to play though it's essential we have some attacking input from the full backs. Not saying you're wrong though we can only dream of solidarity at the back! 

Point is the way we have seemingly wanted to play is clearly not working, changes needed and I’d start be becoming more solid 

Just now, OJRovers said:

Bit harsh on Evans. He’s not been at the level of Reed, but I think he’s had a good season at DM.

Unfortunately I think Travis is going to be the next Alan Judge, lots of potential but left out for reasons unknowns. Will get dropped now and probably loaned out then leave.

 

Evans doesn’t hold the ball well enough, tackle well enough, find the net well enough to justify his place. Hence we get overrun in the middle

Just now, Ossydave said:

Not sure about Mulgrew as a full back, he's seriously static way too much 

Played a large part of his career at lb, I’d not be wanting him to be bombing up and down the wing, just solid defensively which is where we have been let down all to often this season. It’s an easy concept, defensive players win the ball back and give it to our attacking players to do their jobs. Dominate the midfield with ball winners and players comfortable holding the ball, hence rodwell and reed. Mulgrew gives it to rothwell to run with it or play a defence splitting ball. 

At this moment in time without much needed reinforcements I’d suggest the strongest team we could field would be 

gk- raya

rb- nyambe

cb- downing

cb- lenihan

lb- mulgrew 

dm- rodwell/davenport

dm- Reed/travis

rm- Conway/bennett

am- dack

lm- rothwell

striker- graham/brereton 

1 minute ago, Stuart said:

Don’t like it but, like this...?

No thanks. Williams and nyambe at the back means goals goals and more goals. Armstrong and bennet wouldn’t create much on the wing, both have showed they are not the answers there. If your going to take lenihan out of defence he deserves a chance to play his actual position of defensive mid. 

1 minute ago, Stuart said:

The problem is that Dack makes a heck of a lot of goals for this team - including winning free kicks for Mulgrew to take.

We don’t have any alternative and we have no successful Plan B. That is down to recruit to an extent but also down to Mowbray’s distrust of the likes of Rothwell and Travis - until yesterday.

If that’s because we don’t have good enough centre backs, then don’t play two uber-defensive midfielders to cover it up, get new centre backs.

In the Summer I said that we needed to bring in players to go straight into the first XI. Mowbray decided to stick with his League One team and hope that our legendary team spirit would be enough. It hasn’t been. In January he has to change that - before it’s too late. For starters we need a brute of a CB with Championship experience. £7m would have bought a lot of those.

He does but we are over reliant and a one man team. This makes it easy to defend against us. I’d rather have 3-4 players in the middle that we’re capable of creating something, be it a quality cross, mazy run to the byline, a long shot that bursts the net, a sublime pass to our strikers. As it is we are waiting on dack to beat 2-3 men and find the one striker up top. We need more options. We also don’t keep the ball enough and dominate teams. We are looking for smash and grab results. I’m all honesty it’s hard to watch