You should play for us. Sounds like you've got a rocket of a foot...

The only things Tony is going to try are our patience, and breaking the Guiness record for most players played out of position in a season. A record he already holds but wants to better.

I like it as a rule, personally (I know plenty don't, no need for them to tell me). I despise how Tony uses it. Tbh though he used to do all our subs by about the 70 minute mark. Somehow we were always lucky enough to not have anyone injured after that, but I kept expecting it to happen.

Ahh good, I was just thinking the time was right for a tall donkey on the wing.

Good question. How long does it take to demolish a training site and build an extra toilet on the other one?

Commentators just queried how long until Tony contemplates changes. Have they been paying attention this season? It's always just before, around or after the 60 minute mark, regardless of how things are going.

I'd need medication to sit next to TM during this drivel week after week, watching him gurn whilst we flounder and he repeats his mistakes.

At least his were right at the start in the middle of a season. Mowbray has had years to get his ducks in a row.

Dolan playing like he has been told to be more conservative with the ball if he wants to stay in the team. Mowbrayed.

Well if we start getting about 45% possession for the next 5 games or so, Tony will step down, regardless of points. But only then, when he has become a burden to the club.

Was it that bad? In my mind it wasn't quite that horrendous. Were there more draws in that than in our current run?

Thing is, teams know the 'beat Rovers blueprint'. Once they go 1 up, they're best just shoring up and showing minimal ambition to score again. As everyone except TM knows we are better on the counter. I believe this is the real reason for so many 1 goal defeats instead of 2 or 3 goal defeats. Not Tony's hard luck tales.

He isn't even close to being the only one.

Because he has finally started looking like he can play. Time to drop him.

Stonewall foul. The contact happened just outside the box.

Wait, no massive bloke on either wing? Or is it Kaminski inside forward?

They don't even need to maximise. Rotherham would only need 2 wins from their 4 games in hand to be 5 points behind us. That and a Coventry win from their game in hand and we would indeed be 5 points (and our GD) from the drop zone as you say. With presumably the worst form in the league, this is all getting very worrying...but Tony doesn't seem to think it's a possibility. Sleep-walking into disaster potentially.

Just ruminating on TM's comment that we will win enough games in the last seven to not be worried about relegation. I'm sure he didn't expect to only win 1 game in the last 13 before this run, so it's hardly a reassuring prediction.

I want whatever works out best overall for the club. And the prospect of TM in charge for next season makes me consider relegation a very real possibility. Maybe even this season if we're not careful. That's why I say I'm not sure I want us to win. If we do I'll celebrate it as always of course, that's what the game's about.

I have a funny feeling that, despite all logic, we will win this one. Just feels like it's due. I'm not sure I want us to - despite what many say, I feel sure there is a theoretical point at which he will be sacked, and I don't think we are all that far off it. Lose the next three and I'd be surprised if even Venkys keep him in situ. But if we win today I suspect it will take the pressure off his back for another relegation-threatening 5 games or so of dire results. Feels like when he normally pulls a point or three out the bag. In theory though we should get tonked the way we are playing.

On the topic of unanswered questions, you didn't reply to one of mine. Ok, the owners have backed TM financially, but if we have a proper ownership and aren't badly managed as a club, why is TM still in charge? The buck stops with the manager, but if the owners won't replace a manager who is severely underperforming and the majority of fans want gone, the buck stops with them instead.

I didn't realise talking about Tony Mowbray had that effect on you.

Interesting notion- Tony Mowbray wouldn't have bought Tony Mowbray.

And you know if a player is doing well by watching them. Yet data on players has become a very prominent tool. In most lines of work, a management hire will usually have to justify themselves at least partially in numbers. Truth is almost anything in existence can be explained in numbers. It's just a case of establishing how. Stats like possession can be used to make Mowbray look good - but only if you ignore all the other stats that make him look bad, like this terrible run we are on, an almost inevitable decline in league position and points this year, and the stats I posted in the other thread that show his strategy of controlling possession backfires. Empirically.

Maybe win percentage relative to win percentage that club had in the year before a manager took over. Like a win percentage improvement stat. Although I'd say points are more important than wins. Difficult with promoted sides, but for those you could take an aggregate of the three promoted teams from the season before (or a 5, 10 year aggregate if you liked) and create an 'expected points' metric to compare it to, sort of in the vein of xg. Then see how the manager performs for points compared to that. Depending how you view these things you could also base it on teams who have finished 1st, 2nd or won the playoffs, to tailor it more, but I think I saw a stat years ago that the team winning the playoffs actually tend to do better than the team finishing 2nd, so that might indicate it isn't too useful. It might be possible to add in other factors too, like net transfer spend relative to performance, or altering the expected points metric, with a bit of tinkering. Tricky though, especially since so many fees are undisclosed which probably makes it a non starter. Maybe player number turnover though, which could indicate how a manager deals with a rebuild. On the whole I agree managers are harder to run data on, but there are things that can be done. Comparing league finish to that predicted by the bookies could be another, although that has an element of subjectivity.