I find that explanation somewhat baffling. On first sight Brereton looks a big powerful lad and there doesn't seem to be any obvious reason from his stature and physique why he couldn't be starting on his own up top. I find it bizarre that any Championship Club would spend £7m on a player and not attempt to make them the main man. When all other alternatives are out and midfielders are put there in preference it becomes incomprehensible. I'm starting to wonder if BB wasn't a Mowbray signing and TM is leaving him out deliberately to make a point to the owners that he's the boss. Either way I feel very sorry for Brereton who in his last 3 cameo appearances out of position has managed to contribute 2 assists and a decent finish arguably wrongly chalked out for offside. If he isn't the answer up front after he's played there, so be it. But give the lad a chance for heaven's sake.

Probably the fact Williams is shocking at left back and opposing players run in behind him at will. Bell is by no means perfect but by far the better of the two imo. Unfortunately Williams appears to be one of TM's favourites and he can't seem to bear to leave him out of the side.

I'd say we are still much the same as last year. An ordinary set of players then there is Dack. If he's on his game he can make a fairly ordinary bunch appear better than they are. If he's off it, which he has been for a while, we usually look hopeless. I'd also disagree re: Palmer. I think potentially he looks a very handy player indeed, unfortunately TM appears unable or unwilling to place much faith in any of his summer signings apart from Reed.

Not sure the quality of the signings is so much of an issue per se, the problem for me is that TM views them as merely bit part additions to the squad that won promotion, and is too loyal to the llikes of Graham, Conway, Bennett, Evans etc. There's no room for loyalty in football and if the manager feels the team can be improved by bringing in someone else then that's what should happen like when King Kenny sacrificed Speedie for Shearer. What we ireally needed were two or three big signings to go straight into and improve the team and replace the likes of Graham, Evans Bennett etc instead of a bit of messing about around the edges to add to the squad depth. That said our current position isn't terrible but I hope that isn't as good as it gets this season and that we don't start to slide backwards at a rate of knots.

Not entirely surprised by this performance and result as imo the manager has been picking the erong starting line up for a while and been attempting to put square pegs in round holes, We've also been playing fairly poorly on the whole but scraping results up until today. That can't go on forever. I'm not sure if Dack thinks he's moving in January but he's been really poor for a couple of months and looks overweight to me. Armstrong has been generally very disappointing this season and would no doubt prefer to play down the middle. Brereton also needs a chance playing down the middle and will never progress until some faith is shown in him and he gets said chance. Williams is an absolute liability when playing at LB and I've no idea what the manager sees in him in that position. The team desperately lacks pace and width on either flank and the bizarre experiment of starting without an out and out striker be it Dack or Palmer simply doesn't work. Apart from that it wasn't too bad......?

Good post. However I think Nyambe would need tying down to a new big long term deal before he was worth megabucks. Not sure what his contractual situation is but if he hasn't had a suitable upgrade recently it should be a priority. Same applies to Raya.

I would have thought our hands would be tied on this to some extent by the fact a release clause was probably written into his latest contract. If there was such a clause, hopefully we were prudent enough to pitch it at an absolute minimum of £20m and hopefully higher. If not we can demand telephone numbers should there be any interest as philip says.

Bit harsh on TM. Whilst there is the possibility TM could become a more experenced version of Gary Bowyer when he was here and whilst I have some sympathy with Mercer's view that he might have kept up up had he not gone too negative, and despite the fact he is too cautious and pragmatic for my likiing, overall he has done a great job and appears to be a man of genuine integritty which was exactly what we needed after Lambert and Coyle. Have to agree with Parson on Lambert, in the absence of anything to the contrary I remain to be convinced he wasn't simply in it fot himself to boost his bank balance for 6 months. Who takes a job and inserts a get out clause? At the time of his appointment the squad was at tipping point with some players getting over the hill and the others we wanted to keep having their contracts running down. We needed someone to come in for the long term and stick around and sort the playing squad out, not someone who buggered off as soon as results didn't go his way. Whilst not wanting to be an apologist for Coyle who was clearly the wrong appointment and who couldnt set up a defence, he had his work cut out for him by Lambert who left the squad in a right state and without a single striker under contract and the owners who sold Hanley and Duffy immediately after his arrival.. Anyone would have found it a challenge.

How can anyone say he's not ready? He hasn't been given an opportunity to play down the middle yet so no-one knows. If he had been played there and failed to imprress then that view might have some validity.

Graham should have been hooked yesterday well before he may or may not have picked up an injury.

Yes I thought Rothwell was poor when he came on as well, possibly too eager to impress, which is maybe understandable given the lack of opportunity he has had despite looking impressive on the rare occasions he has featured.

Frustrating result yesterday but an infinitely better performance than the shocker against QPR and over the two games four points is probably a fair return. Not sure what Brereton has to do to earn a start. In the last two games he has been brought on too late for a couple of ten minute cameos, but still created a couple of goals and generally looked threatening and direct even stuck out of position on the flank. By way of contrast Graham has had the odd really good game this season but nore often than not has looked completely past it. The roles of Brereton and Graham need to be reversed imo, Brereton needs to be starting and Graham could come on to try and hold the ball up etc and take the pressure off us in the last 20 when hopefully we have a lead to protect. Dack has also been completely off the boil for the last four or five games as well and I didn't think he was any better yesterday again either until he scored then it was like a light had been switched on and he looked a completely different player for the final few minutes. Let's hope that's the end of his barren spell. Elsewhere I thought Nyambe was sensational when he came on and showed what we've been missing in his absence. Smallwood for me had one of his best games of the season beforr being sacrificed and I thought Palmer and Bell looked promising although the latter let himelf down with poor delivery after doing really well to get himself into dangerous positions on a number of areas. Overall at the moment we look more likely to finish mid table than in the play off positions for me, we just aren't quite there yet. That's not terrible after being promoted but you feel it could be even better if if Brereton came in up front and were to be a hit and were to bring in at least one wide genuine man in in January and Tony iwere to be a bit more adventurous with his selections and let the players off the leash for 90 minutes as opposed to 45 minutes per match.

Couldn't disagree more, for me Evans still offers absolutely nothing and the partnership of him and Smallwood simply doesn't work for home games, far too ponderous and negative. Whilst Palmer does tend to give the ball away a bit at least he injects a bit of urgency and is always attempting to do something imaginative and worthwhile with the ball as opposed to merely abdicating responsibilitty by passing the ball two yards sideways. I thought we only improved a bit when he came on yesterday. Generally I'm quite surprised by the overall reaction, I think the bare result masks the fact it was a dire performance and for the second week in a row an overly cautious team selection by the manager. Can't complain too much whilst the results are still coming but I'm not sure if we can continue to play as we have been doing and get results in the long run.

Only read the last page of debate and can't be bothered scrolling through every comment since the match finished but I was at the Hawthorns and for what it's worth I thought TM got the starting line up completely wrong, neither did I agree with the withdrawal of Palmer who I thought was having a very good game. I also thought he was bailed out by Reed putting in a superlative performance second half. But we just about got away with it so onwards and upwards. On another note it must be extremely worrying for Brereton that TM would rather play Dack out of position as a lone striker rather than give him a chance.

"The jury has been out" on Lambert for so long I think most of them will have expired due to natural causes by now. Very poor record since leaving Norwich in 2012.

Fair enough, wasn't aware of that. Always a bit wary of players dictating a manager's departure though.

He's had two very quiet games the last two imo. Hope the speculation isn't turning his head a bit. Arguably he'd look a lot better the better the side he was in but performances apart you can't really quibble with his goal scoring return this term at a higher level especially considering he isn't an out and out striker.

How does that fraud Lambert keep getting gigs? He just seems to sail merrily from job to job and the poor performance of his teams always seems to be attributed to someone else. If the Ipswich fans didnt like the style of play under McCarthy, they're going to be sadly disappointed now. Also expect there to be some sort of escape clause in Lambert's contract allowing him to walk out and make himself available should the Real Madrid position become vacant. Lol. On Hurst, I don't support Ipswich but looking in from the outside it seems to me that they should have treated his appointment as a long term project. McCarthy had been there that long it was bound to take time for Hurst to fully implement his ideas and style of play. Especially with little or no investment in the team. I'd have thought he would have needed two to three transfer windows ideally. Man Ure are still struggling relatively speaking several managers down the line from Ferguson and they have all the money in the world to spend on the best players.

Agreed. How impressive would Graham look if you stuck him out on the right wing? Brereton probably isn't as much of a hold up player as Graham but what talents he does have are clearly being wasted playing him out wide.

Id replace Evans with Smallwood but generally like the look of that side.

For me, as soon as we go ahead we stop playing normally and start backing off when we don't have the ball and fannying about with it and just trying to keep possession when we do have it. We got away with it at Bolton and in the last 10-15 mins against Leeds but were found out badly tonight. I don't think there's a massive amount wrong that wouldn't be rectified by having a far more positive outlook and playing for 90 mins as if we were 1-0 down but that said Brereton clearly needs to be playing down the centre and we could do with Nyambe back asap.

Great first half, very poor second and whilst we just about got away with it courtesy of a linesman's flag, I have to say TM after getting it right by shaking up the starting line did his best to throw it away with the sunstitutions which merely invited pressure onto us. Raya MOM for the second game in a row for me.

Dont understand those substitutions at all. Tony just cant help himself with Williams/Evans/Smallwood can he.

As someone else said, scrappy 1-0 win needed to get the show back on the road after two very disappointing results at home.

Substitute the name Graham for Dack and I'd completely agree with that. As with last season it still seems to me that if you stop Dack playing you stop Rovers. Despite the fact we've made an acceptable start I'd say our home form has to be a major concern as Id imagine we'll suffer a thin spell on the road at some point. The manager needs to be a lot braver at home and start utilising some of the players he deemed good enough to sign in summer.