Norwich where never paying out big money on any wages. They were selling to survive. Just luck got them the right combination. Hanley would be ideal. Championship defender for a championship club. Finesse no culture no. Get stuck in yes, get your head on the ball yes, if in danger put it in row z yes. Exactly what’s needed and he has a big gob to go with his big head. For me a tick. Sell lenihan no

Never heard this before but the commentary was so biased it could have been Leicester tv. I saw well organised defence work not an unlucky Leicester. Also from the limited highlights we missed a fair few ourself. Who where the commentators Gary linekar and Alan Smith?

Completely agree he would be ideal. Not perfect but everything we need. Get stuck in,lead the defence and will help lenihan. Also knows the club and possibly available for a reasonable price

There was but 19800 where locked outside

Maybe he’s one of the ones for the chop.

I said exactly the same to the fella next to me on Saturday. It was embarrassing at times made worse by the fact that when the ref didn’t stop the game the jumped back up and ran around without any problems. Personally I just can’t stand it and find it infuriating.

To be honest I don’t really care. I hope they both do spectacularly well and that opens up the extra spaces for Burnley to fall through the trapdoor. At the same time we go up with the Farke/ Sheffield/ Mowbray/ German/ continental/ fluid yet organised system that sets us apart from the others and for once other teams want to be like us. That would make up for nights like tonight attending other people’s parties COYB

Sorry my sentence / paragraph construction is poor. 1)They have a similar format to Huddersfield. 2)Relegated by Christmas is my opinion of Norwich not Huddersfield 3) I dont believe that their format is the one to follow. 4) I think Sheffield Uniteds is better.

I’m assuming that is sarcasm. They are the new Huddersfield. Obscure German manager with a group of unknown European players/ germans. Relegated in reality by Christmas. Sometimes you get the roll of the dice and everything goes right and this is one of those anomalies. Under no set of circumstances do we need to become the new Norwich other than the self belief and luck aspect. Sheff United on the other hand are a completely different story.

It’s not Mowbrays usual preferred team. That was Saturday

Travis for me had to force his way into the team and hold down that place with I believe a manager who was waiting for the opportunity to replace him. Stood up to that pressure and more than earned his place. It’s a pity the manager can’t adopt the same sink or swim attitude with some of his other regulars.

Putting the Venky issue to one side but not marginalising it. ( to prevent this being an ownership discussion). We are not developing has a team. Mowbray talks about change but his actions defend the status quo. The current run of defeats by any standard is poor but his team selection remains the same. He seems to trust players and formations that are failing. He suggests the reason this can’t be changed is the alternatives are not up to the job ( chapman, rothwell , travis to a degree and all the under 23 squad). This is understandable if those he believes are competent to deliver his objectives are achieving them. I am at a complete and utter loss at the current mindset. He is in as he acknowledges a results business but does not appear willing to or capable of the making the decisions needed. In the end if something’s not working change it. It is unlikely that repeating it will be successful. This applies to team selection the manager( Southampton as an example) and the owners.

While I’m not an advocate of selling Dack his goals could be replaced by investing in solid defenders to reduce the appalling goals conceded column

I think your spot on. However if we continue like this Mowbray won’t be here much past October of next season. He makes absolutely no attempt to rectify the defensive problems. Not one of the guys who made the training ground noisy this week can defend. At Coventry he needed a defence and didn’t address it and he hasn’t done here. He doesn’t appear to reflect on his failings and address them. He appears to have an ability to blame failure on the junior members of the squad whilst never once applying the same criteria to the more senior staff ( mulgrew ,Conway Bennett William). We are in free fall as were Coventry .He had an appalling win ratio at Celtic until he was removed and while he is respected in boro they went into a downward spiral as well He needs to stop talking and start doing or he will be out if a job before the turn of the year. Mowbray has an immense amount of footballing experience but appears to learn nothing from it. I don’t remember who said this but experience is directly proportional to the intelligence that’s exposed to it send a cabbage around the world it won’t come back an expert in geography it will come back a cabbage PS I really hope this is not true because of all the recent managers I would love him to succeed.

Or don’t play him put him on the bench and then blame him for our defensive weakness

Interestingly I think this says a lot about Mowbray general philosophy. When Travis got his chance in the first team the thing that was pleasing to see was the way his first thought was a foward pass or to run with the ball. The result was we played much higher up the pitch. His dip in form coincides with a more play it square approach. Chapman was never trusted because he didn’t understand his defensive duties. Rothwell is just childlike for wanting to run with the ball causing us defensive problems. In the case of rothwell and chapman why sign them if you want defensive players who don’t run with the ball.Why sign one thing but expect another. Did he not watch them they are attack minded players. I suspect Rothwell has no intention of changing his style unlike Travis and that’s what annoys Mowbray. In the long term Mowbray for whatever reason has collected together a good array of attacking talent and is frightened to use them. Which will be his downfall. That coupled with a total inability to buy the appropriate defensive players to give the attackers a platform on which to display their talents. Its a disjointed philosophy defenders who are midfielders and can’t defend. Foward players who are attack minded and can’t defend no matter how much he berates them. All of it built around the Evans smallwood square ball half way line mentality. Next season he will have to change or we are relegated

Add to Hanley with Bauer the Charlton lad. Lenihan Wharton and Mulgrew. That’s cb sorted. Now just the fullbacks goalkeeper, effective wingers and Graham’s understudy. I’ll look at that between appts this aft. Football management easy.

If Norwich are promoted Hanley who has only played 8 games this season could be available. He’s big and can head. I wonder if we could get him on loan or outright. I feel ideal in our situation knows the club and can lead. Also has a bit of aggression added in

I agree and a basic requirement of lower league football ( unless your the most talented team in that league ie rovers league 1) is defensive organisation. Commonly known as the basics. I can’t believe that a manager who has a wealth of lower league experience is unfamiliar with this concept. Yet the facts in terms of the on the pitch antics and the statistics say he clearly doesnt. He has had 2 years to address this not two weeks. We lack height, pace and aggression our defenders are mainly makeshift midfielders. This was the case when Mowbray arrived and surprisingly has not been addressed. I’m not a professional in this area and may be missing some nuances but if my job depended on not losing and showing progression the easiest method is to not concede goals. Unless as you say you are Barcelona and going to heavily invest in the best attacking talent money can buy which we aren’t. Yet even Barcelona have an organisational shape they fall back into when defending. I may be wrong but we need not only proper defenders but a clear defensive strategy. I’m at a complete loss at what has been worked on for 2 years but if there is a strategy then it needs changing immediately and if there isn’t we need one. For this reason alone questions need to be asked of Mowbray and his team because has I said initially he is failing on the basics which for an experienced man is a worry to say the least

Is that based on intuition or something more concrete?

Is there not a book he could read just to brush up on the bits he’s forgot. Or if he can’t be bothered reading it get our defenders to do it. Set it has homework or something along those lines. Sort of on the job training, nothing official. Its only a thought because nothing else seems to be working

If only that was in any small way true. I like Mowbray but defensively it’s shocking. Can’t think when it’s been worse. Although to be fair I’m not really trying I’ve become desensitised to heavy away defeat. Positive I didn’t go

I’m quite liking those as code names and may adopt them in all future reference to the pair

I want Burnley to lose purely on the basis I hate them more and a defeat today with yesterday’s results increases the pressure on the ginger gob. Just to clarify I can’t stand Klopp and Liverpool either and want city to win the league sort of.

I don’t know you and respect your opinion but like every other football fan I never set off with the idea of hanging around. In January we had a chance to push on and for whatever reason Mowbray didn’t take it. Football as In life is a results business and no matter how you dress it up this is really poor. No successfully enterprise accepts mediocrity as its aim and I bet you can’t name one that does. Do I want Mowbray sacked no but let me assure you if this continues it will happen. That is a given