To get a promoted team (one who were in League 1 far longer than us) into the top 6 is a very rare achievement to be fair, they only went up through the play offs and hardly went on a summer spending spree, the squad is padded with loans. Surely a manager would rather take over a club that finished 8th in the Championship. Im glad hes gone and im sure he wont finish in the top 6 but he has done a good job at Sunderland and deserves praise. He isnt the terrible manager he was portrayed as after the way we tailed off. Hes a good manager at this level but certainly has his limits. Tomasson is a strange case. It is about league position but you would be hard pushed to come up with much to suggest that our recent form is a blip that we will bounce back from, but lets hope we do.

They dont have better attacks than us as a whole. I havent said that Tomasson is doing worse than those teams, just specifically that he has struggled throughout the season in attack with getting us to create chances, and that has got worse in recent weeks and months. Basically the same group of attackers is far less effective than it was under Mowbray and less effective than poorer squads in the league. Tomasson is doing other things which are more impressive though.

Its not a case of we should be happy that we spend any money on a player to the point where we cant criticse that player and whether we think its value for money simply because we have spent money and it isnt Hope Akpan. What sort of standards would those be?!

Mowbray doing an excellent job at Sunderland. They dont have a proper striker at the moment, only Gelhardt who is not an out and out striker.

As I said though, I think it is an oversimplification to assume that Brereton just isnt giving his all. If he wasnt trying, he wouldnt keep running back to help defensively. Unfortunately, that is eliminating any threat from him going forward. Under Mowbray he wasnt being played as a left winger in a very defensive 4231. I am as critical as anyone especially of the owners who certainly have again fucked up by refusing to sell Brereton, the cost of which will come beyond this season more than this, and also Broughton etc for their own failings. But you seem to be willing to totally remove any scope for criticising the manager because of that, whereas I still think we could be far better going forward than we are with our current players, who are essentially the same as last year when we did look far more threatening. Do Rotherham, Hull, Reading and Birmingham have better attackers than us? Not in my opinion yet theyve all scored more.

Brereton is very much a decent goalscorer, even this season he has a very respectable overall goal tally. I am not really having that he isnt putting in his all but both wide men are being played so deep that they are always going to struggle to offer a goal threat. I wont deny that we need a new striker but only 5 teams in the whole league have scored less than us, I am simply not having that our attack is THAT ineffective and indeed that the manager couldnt do anything more with the players at his disposal. We offered more attacking threat last season and Brereton was further forward. We have gone from 1.28 goals per game to 1.06.

I don't think that Brereton has been anything other than shite in these last few months. I am just saying that he has proven an ability to score on a regular basis, and he clearly is as disadvantaged as anyone with Tomasson's negative tactics. He certainly shouldn't be selected to continue as left wing back of a back 6.

We can only judge on what we can see, and I have yet to be impressed. Buckley was another that has gone backwards under Tomasson and does not suit playing so deep. Presumably "by trade" you mean with the kids which is not the same.

What chances did Thomas create against Wigan? Mowbray's tactics clearly did suit Brereton more as he was more effective and not spending all game defending.

Hyam is the stand out, I don't think he is "significantly" better than Lenihan who he replaced and is currently a key player in a high flying Boro side, judgement call and I would opt for Hyam personally. Brittain has been fine, I don't think he has been brilliant and you have to consider his injuries, but I am happy with him playing hopefully a much bigger part of things to come. Rich Sharpe reported the fee as £1.7m. Obviously not gospel, but worth mentioning. A big fee for a squad player. He is no more than a squad player and in a position where Dack is a lot better and Buckley has also been moved back to accomodate. The money could have been used on a good central midfielder rather than having to try and convert Buckley into one, or a striker. Szmodics can't really play anywhere else either.

I think with technology and analytics, it seems that has been ongoing pre Broughton. There were numerous interviews in which Mowbray mentioned new things in that regard to analyse performance.

I am also giving Broughton the benefit of the doubt and no blame in regards to the farcical Brereton situation, allowing him to run his deal down. That like Rothwell is clearly a decision above his head.

He himself took responsibility for it, but either way, he didn't sign, so I am judging on the 7 he has signed and subsequently the positions we are left lacking in, which include central midfield in terms of quality. Do you think Szmodics is worth nearly £2m as a squad player?

Which chances did he create though? If there are none, did he offer a tangible attacking threat? I know the left winger has to defend! But I don't think we are playing to his strengths when he is the one doing the graveyard shift spending all game in his own half when attackers like Vale and even Dolan are tasked with being the furthest man forward. He shouldn't be the man doing that. No, I wouldn't drop him. He along with Dack is one of the 2 attackers we have that can score goals regularly. I think Tomasson needs to try and find a way to get both of them as close to the opposition goal as possible. The likes of Thomas, Dolan and Hedges are all infrequent scorers but full of energy to be able to run up and down the line, so they can do that if needed. It will take something beyond merely dropping Brereton for someone like Hedges to suddenly start us performing as a good attacking side. We have struggled to create chances all season so merely like for like changes will not solve much alone. We don't have to play quite as defensively as we have been doing to try and stay solid, in fact it can be counterproductive as when we get the ball we have little plan of how to sustain attacks, so the ball comes back into our half. Brereton has barely played as a central striker, but we may aswell try it out because the current plan isn't working. He has not been as good this season because Mowbray's tactics were better suited to Brereton as an individual in comparison, he was always high up the pitch. We either stick to the formation and play him further forward, or change formation to get him further forward.

Underwhelmed so far, based on actual actions, as I said. Hyam good, Brittain unfortunately always injured, Szmodics overpriced squad player, Morton crap, Hirst and Mola woeful, Thomas I am optimistic about but just through the door. Fucked up the O'Brien deal, failed to get a striker. Communication and taking responsibility is all well and good but I judge on actions. "Will look at it in the future" doesn't pacify me.

He didn't create any chances though, the only one we had was Dack playing it through to Brereton. He didn't really do much if anything when it came to creating chances. We didn't look a threat at all throughout aside from that one chance. The tactics need seriously looking at going forward. I don't think that it is constructive to have essentially a back 6 for so much of games, but even so, I have not said that wide men have no defensive responsibilities, its just in our tactics at the moment, everything they do is defensive and they don't attack. Brereton is a quality striker with pace. Mowbray got more out of him compared to Tomasson because he played him higher up, either in a 433 or along with Khadra as one of our main 2 attackers with Buckley around them. Playing him as a left winger in our defensive 4231 will not allow him to get forward as much, but Dack needs to play as a number 10. So some thought has to be put into changing things up. There are 2 suggestions, one is to have Brereton playing as a central striker, he has had very little chance to do that but he is quick, he runs in behind, he can finish and he holds it up better than anyone else in the squad, so worth a shot. Alternatively, we could play a 3412 with Dack behind Brereton and another forward, maybe Dolan. I'd go for the former as the latter would mean only one of Thomas, Brittain and Rankin Costello could play.

Kaminski out for 4-6 weeks, gigantic blow. Hyam and Brittain in the squad tomorrow. Hyam in for Wharton IMO.

Yes. The main barometer of judging him comes down to how competent he is, rather than how ambitious he is or how well he talks. Underwhelmed so far, yes. His 2 transfer windows thus far have not been a great success.

Saved Leeds from relegation by taking them from 16th to 17th. A bit like Super Frank Lampard "saving" Everton!

Our better players tended to be those in defensive positions, Carter and Travis stood out and Wharton, Pickering and Rankin Costello all did well. Thomas wasn't one of the better players for me, nor obviously was Brereton who spend most of the game back at left back. Buckley only played half an hour but did more than Morton who may aswell have not played. My point on Brereton is that he has been poor, I am not denying that, but the aim should be for the manager to look at getting him back into form by playing him near the opposition goal. The whole attacking side is dysfunctional and the tactics are a huge reason behind this. We have scored 8 goals in 9 games as a team since the World Cup and have scored less than many bottom half teams including Rotherham across the season, we have struggled to create chances all season. Brereton is on 9 league goals, Dack is on 4 having missed much of the season and beyond that, our other attacking players are on 0-3. The key to scoring again is probably getting Brereton back in form, and he won't do that in his own half in such negative tactics.

No I didn't think he was great at Watford, we were generally dropping off as we tend to do, Thomas wasn't getting us up the pitch. Like I said, I don't overly mind whether its him or Hedges, both useful players, the key to being an attacking threat is far bigger than that. If we continue to play as we have been, either player will be a secondary full back.

In this instance though, the club didn't do right. I think that is fair without going down the rabbit hole of "loving to criticise" or being negative, not specific of course to who you are quoting. You have chose to describe Broughton as "ambitious" but ultimately the key question mark is competence. I personally have been underwhelmed by the 2 windows that Broughton has overseen. I have yet to see much evidence of a "big step forward."

Such a strange appointment, Marsch nearly relegated Leeds last season (went from 16th to 17th) and has been doing poorly again this season, he has signed a lot of his own players for decent money (many from previous clubs) and it makes no sense for Southampton to appoint him. Nor Gerrard for that matter who isn't a good manager.

I was quite surprised to see such a positive reaction following the Wigan game regarding Thomas, he didn't create any decent chances (the only one we had was Brereton via a Dack pass) nor offer a goal threat and his set pieces were poor. I did rate Thomas at Huddersfield and I wouldn't be totally against him starting over Hedges but I did not see the same performance that many did against Wigan, albeit it was a difficult game to debut in within a "Tomasson back 6" with Vale clogging up space in front of him with terrible movement. The thing that seperates Brereton from everyone else aside from Dack is that he can score goals. For me rather than it being an issue of focus/effort, the main reason for Brereton's poor form is the tactics from the manager, Brereton is often having to go far too deep into a left back position and it totally nullifies the attacking threat he does carry. It makes more sense to me to re-think the attacking tactics which haven't been working for a while, well to be honest we have not scored many all season, even less than Rotherham. We have been putting players up front (notably Vale but Dolan would not hit double figures in a full season up front) who aren't a threat whilst having our main striker having to do all of the donkey work and never getting to attack.

Agreed. Just curious as to whether chaddy has changed his opinion of him following his shocking performances.