5 minutes ago, danger19_80 said:

This Hull side is top 6. What a shite league.

Top 5 is a lock, the other place is anyone's but yet again we're found wanting. Having the leagues top scorer should see you there or thereabouts for top 6.

How can we always have the leagues leading scorer but still be going nowhere in the league?

Rhodes, Armstrong, Brereton, Szmodics.

Another way of putting it, is how long can we rely on having the top scorer in the league to prop us up?

How are we 3rd is baffling but then I said the same a year ago and look how that ended up.

Clubs like Boro and West Brom are transformed after managerial changes and will expect to make the top 6 like Forest last year. Norwich should improve with a new manager.

1 hour ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

It's the 'lightweight' comments that concern me most from 'Pool fans. In this league you need to stand your ground, be prepared to take some whacks, and give a fair bit back. Clarkson had none of that; fingers crossed this lad does. 

No doubt he'll have all of our backing once he pulls on the shirt.

He can, he just needs to fill out a bit.

1 minute ago, K-Hod said:

What’s an ‘8’ and what’s a ‘6’? 
(Not aimed at you Jimmy, more the author of the article).

This ain’t rugby!

6 a holding midfielder, 8 more license to get forward and controller with passing etc (i.e. for Liverpool Fabinho a 6 and Thiago an 8).

Morton's game time for Liverpool was as a 6 last season though.

42 minutes ago, RoverDom said:

Morton is way ahead of Clarkson at Liverpool, he's had a few games with the first team and wasn't too bad but clearly the business end of the premiership / champions league is not his level yet. I think championship will be a good tester for him. 

Morton played a fair bit for Liverpool last season, including bossing the midfield at the San Siro in the CL. 

Clarkson was nowhere near the Liverpool first team. Morton is more an Harvey Ellliott level of talent. Question over physicality though for central midfield.

Mowbray may have done well at Blackburn overall but to be nowhere near the top 6 with a striker scoring 30 goals last season (Solanke and Mitrovic have Bournemouth and Fulham top 2) is poor in what was a weak division.

Weak league again this season and we go from an automatic promotion spot to 19 points from our last 17 games and out of the play off hunt (with a game still to play).

We should have been top 6 last two seasons, regardless of how the play offs went. Clubs like Barnsley, Swansea, Huddersfield and Luton have managed it. 

On 28/02/2022 at 14:00, chaddyrovers said:

The tactics suits the squad and having a smaller squad is working for us. But on lesser wage budget aswell. 

Given the budget and squad size Mowbray had last season he should have got us top 6 for sure

Elliott here as well and Armstrong banging in 30 goals in what was a weak division. Not to be even in play off contention was a rank failure when you look at crap like Barnsley and Swansea made it in there.

Done well this season and a 20+ goal striker should have you in contention. It's a funny league again, who'd have had Huddersfield in 2nd place in March?

Automatics have been there for the taking but we've been carried by Ben's goals and without them haven't been able to keep up the pace with a stumbling Bournemouth.

Good chance of play offs though.

I don't think the performances are any worse than before Christmas, we just haven't got Ben's goals to carry us. His 20 goals are the only reason we're in the mix.

20 points from last 14 would give us 74 points. It'll either be a point or 2 more or less  needed for the play offs. If we can't achieve that it'd be an almighty collapse given it's 2 points from the last 4 games already.

We should make the play offs but then need to find form at the right time going into them. The teams in form now will have a dip.

8 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Not sure you can say Ayala was swinging the lead on this occasion but what you can say with certainty is he has a career history of being injury prone and/or going awol for whatever reason so overall, given the money he's on he has to go down as a bad signing for me.

Dont agree with the bit about Travis.

The rest is absolutely spot on. It needs saying.

I can't believe how blase people are being about us having slipped so tamely and quickly out of the automatic promotion reckoning. It's not on, if form had tailed off very slightly then fair enough but if we were good enough to get into 2nd in the first place then the form over the last few games has been simply unacceptable.

If we were playing like this in any other season the pitchforks would be well and truly out but TM is getting away with it at the moment purely because we played well before Chrismas.

It's not on. We've already had quite enough dung thrown our way over the last 10 years without this to cap it all off.

 

The run we had was the outlier though. You can't finish top 2 with one good run of form. If you combine it with mid table form for the rest of the season then it can get you top 6.

We are what we are. An average side with a striker on 20 goals. That's enough to put you high up the table.

Either a point closer to a play off place or 2 points further off from the automatic.

The reality is 2 points dropped to a poor side on a terrible run. No goal threat without Ben.

55 minutes ago, Ianrally said:

A few on here said before Armstrong left that he wasn’t PL standard. Their views have been totally vindicated. The start of the slippery slope into oblivion maybe. 
As for Raya, well that says much about Mogadon’s talent as a manager or a talent spotter. Good luck to the lad, how I would love for him to represent Spain. 

Another Jordan Rhodes.

5 minutes ago, superniko said:

Can’t see it myself, albeit I’ve not seen much of him. 
Looks like a kid, compared to Elliott who came and dominated games for us. 

I gave him a bit of a slagging last season but feels like a game where Bradley Johnson would help get control in the middle. We just have a load of lightweight players in midfield now. 

Clarkson looked lost in that half. Whether he was out of his depth, or just completely lost in whatever he was being asked to do in a team lacking in a proper game plan. He's used to being centre mid at Liverpool and generally zipping the ball about.

Just now, West Yorks Rover said:

Any half decent manager would get much more from most of those lads.

If you've got a 30 goal striker and you can't push for the play offs you're doing something wrong. His goals carried Mowbray last season though.

Just now, davulsukur said:

Not signing a striker is looking like an absolutely horrific decision.

Anyone who doesn't think we'll be in a relegation battle only needs to watch this.

It's a weak league overall, but it's likely a season of mid-table nothingness again.

A play off push should be possible, look at crap like Barnsley and Swansea last season.

Dire stuff.

2 hours ago, PeteJD13 said:

I don’t disagree with the comments re Gallagher he was extremely poor yesterday, I’d have hooked him for Butterworth around 60 mins. Yesterday he’s got no one on the bench to come on and put their foot on the ball. Can’t blame Mowbray for the clubs inability to close deals that have been lined up 

That's surely what Clarkson was signed for. He's a ball playing midfielder.

9 hours ago, tomphil said:

It's the way he manages and that's never going to change a quick ask of Boro/Cov and West Brom fans will say the same things as we say he's a complete rotator, tinkerer and square peg in round holes man that'll never change.

Even when he has whats resembled his best 11 getting results he's rarely left it unchanged more than a game or to apart from the usual enforced ones he really is Tombola Tony but it was actually working early on but it's getting daft now, he has the excuses to do it though now for rest of season.

He's a League One level manager.

Not done anything at this level since West Brom over a decade ago. Last season was his first success in management since then. 

He also had a two 2 budget last season and very strong squad for that league and he did his job, but it would have been a balls up if we didn't go up.