If that really is the case we should be worried. I was thinking maybe a change of face and voice in the dressing room might get a bit more out of them.

It's like last week against the Pie Eaters. Are they a better team than us ? The league table would suggest not. Did they want it more than us ? In my eyes, definitely.

I was doing cartwheels around the room when we won at Doncaster the season before last. That was great. Having said that the next day it was over and we needed to step up. Going off the level of performances that season I had doubts about Mowbray even then. We never out battled anybody that season, our superior levels of skill for 30-40 minutes got us through. That was never going to be enough in this league.

You're looking at things from a fans point of view. These guys are doing a job of work. They want to be doing that job for as long as they possibly can. One of the best midfield players I ever saw, Franz Beckenbauer, moved into the back four at a really early stage in his career. Do you think that was because he liked heading the ball ? He said himself it was to cut down on the amount of running he would have to do so he could play at the top level for longer.

You should never ever be satisfied, especially when the team is only perfoming for half a game. Being satisfied with the team that won the Prem meant that the following season we ended up a poor seventh in the league. The start of a downward spiral. Do you think Fergie was satisfied every time they won the league ? The minute you decide you can stand still you are actually going backwards.

What gets me is he seems to just collect players without any coherent way of playing emerging. Everybody on here could pick a team and it would be a different team. We have enough players to field two teams when we're all fit yet at least half of them aren't up to the required standards and most of those never will be.

How many games in that season did we play well for more than 30 minutes ? You could count them on the fingers of one hand.

If it at the end of every game we can answer the question " Did we give that game our best shot " with a yes, I'd be happy. I don't expect miracles but I expect every player to give 100% to the team. Hand on heart I can't recall many games in recent seasons were I've felt that. Too many are falling into the trap of thinking they can prolong their careers by playing within themselves.

If you look at Sheff Utd last season you could have said their players were in the same boat as ours. They'd no really outstanding players last season. They still stormed the league. I'd suggest that their players went for it because they had faith in the manager and had enough confidence in him coping with the Premier League to buy in to a promotion challenge.

If we had those two playing for us they could play where ever they liked. Our two are much more limited players so they need to make the most of what skills they have.

I agree that other teams will be resting players because of potential fatigue issues. However how much of this potential fatigue is real is a moot point. If I met you in the the street and said. - " Bloody hell Paul, are you OK ? You don't look well at all " how would you feel ? Not full of beans I suspect.

Playing Armstrong and Chapman on the wings that don't favour them just means they'll be coming inside all the time. That pretty much negates the point in playing wingers in the first place.

That first half against Wigan was as bad as I've seen us play for a long while and that was before Dack was injured. It's a culmination of our poor transfer dealings over the last few years.

Or the Paul Ince appointment.

Maybe he was waiting for a taxi ?

Much as I like Nyambe as a defensive player I'm afraid he's always going to be prone to missing games through muscle injuries.

Tylor Magloire played 90 minutes for Rochdale's first team today.

I agree, if you intend to play 4-4-2 with two up front you must be getting the ball out to wide players to provide the strikers with good service. Just banging the ball up the middle won't work most of the time.

How long's that been going on for ? When did we really go toe to toe with anybody ? You know, the sort of performance were you can wring the sweat out of your shirt after 90 minutes. I'm sick of asking these questions. When we win more 50/50 balls, contested headers, tackles, second balls, run further etc then things will start to improve and not until. There are no short cuts to winning football matches.

How long have we looked like a team that hasn't had a minutes coaching ? What do they do in training ? Just sick and tired of us being out enthused.

Let's have a guessing game to guess how many changes from the last starting line up. I'm going for 3.

It must have been his mum.

It's bound to be a borefest then.

Butterworth's got a long term injury also.

Yeah them and our local railway system.