I do get that and find it totally baffling, but Martin did finish 9th or 10th at Swansea in the end. I don't think anyone decent goes for Tomasson with us near the bottom.

But they have left us with such a poor and thin squad. If the owners hadnt have been so stubborn with potential sales and slashed the budget so aggressively then the disparity wouldnt be as vast. Tomasson deserves criticism for how we are playing but to just dismiss where the main blame lies is crazy.

I dont think incredibly there is that total agreement. Some prefer to deflect the brunt of the blame onto people over here, usually Waggott who admittedly is a pathetic CEO but still only a symptom. I think some think that once he goes things will get considerably better.

It's not necessarily the reality, more your theory. They won't back him in January because Venkys (the blame doesn't need distributing, its 100% in India) have slashed the budgets and have turned the taps off, nothing to do with not seeing Tomasson here long term. This idea that Tomasson is sticking to the style purely focusing on his personal career makes no sense. These clubs won't come in for him regardless of style if we are near the bottom. If he is unconcerned about the club and putting his reputation first over the wellbeing of the club, then he needs to go. But it is such a warped theory, he will get more suitors if we are higher up the table. He clearly has always wanted to build towards this style, either through personal choice or this backward way in which clubs now run whereby the director of football chooses the style and the actual person who knows how to manage a team goes along with it. Obviously he is reluctant to rip up or even tweak something he has been working on for over a year.

Absolute shite and slipping naively into a relegation battle with a team full of kids. Goal difference getting higher and higher into the minuses. This comes down to the owners, not even specifically Waggott or Broughton, just Venkys. Their stubbornness in the past over players whose contracts are expiring coupled with the aggressive mid summer slashing of the budget has left the squad as a shell. But saying that, that doesn't give Tomasson free reign, the way we are playing very much is down to him and it is simply not fit for purpose. We have conceded 4 today, 3 v Sunderland, 4 v Ipswich and 3 v Plymouth and overall as many as any team in the league. This cannot go on, we simply are not giving ourselves a chance to win games. It is partly down to individual mistakes but they are massively exposed by our gung ho tactics. "Fortress Ewood" is long gone too. If he doesn't make significant changes to how we play, we will continue to leak goals and slide into a relegation battle and there aren't many of our lads that you would want in the trenches with you. Carter needs dropping, mistake after mistake, Hyam has also looked far shakier although both are again being exposed. Markanday isn't Championship standard, Sigurdsson struggled today and doesn't look very quick, and it says so much that Telalovic doesn't get more game time considering we need a striker so badly. Thought our best 3 players were the full backs and Moran.

"As simple as that."

Even if Pears puts in a match winning performance, we have lost more points due to his ineptitude so he would have lots more work to do beyond that.

Armstrong was sold for 15m as reference again by Broughton this summer as a warped benchmark used by Venkys to reject bids for Brereton. We bought him for 3m so if we made a profit of 4m then Newcastle had a 66% sell on relating to profit. No chance.

Its naive to expect any player let alone a young lad with minimal first team experience to be able to cope with his partner in midfield, 4 attackers and the full backs often high up the pitch and him left to protect the centre backs on counter attacks when we are so exposed. His demeanour has been identical, its just his style and doesnt mean he isnt trying his hardest. He has at times been sloppy but the system is not helping him and Tomasson needs to help him out.

Because hes been left isolated in there because of the tactics.

Obviously the defence, but that is down to the style of play, the same defence was good last season when we werent playing so gung ho. But a striker like Armstrong would have a field day with all these chances.

Considering the chances created and that we have to be so gung ho to do so, not really.

But in games, where it matters, Pears has averaged pretty much a goal causing error across the last 6 games. It can just also be that Tomasson has poor judgement, managers often have blind spots towards players, hes making a mistake here. Last season he decided to not change back to Kaminski when fit, we know how good Kaminski was, so the wrong call was made. Maybe Tomasson does think weve got a dud and I appreciate that, but the performance standards of Pears are so low where it matters thats its worth a go.

I never said we could balance the books, running a Championship club means losses are par for the course.. But the current level of losses is down to the owners, they could be less than what they are. Employ a CEO with instruction to increase revenue streams and boost the match going fanbase. Be consistent, so dont have summers of the taps being totally off which then blocks the process of signing players before developing and profiting off them. And crucially, dont block sales of players whose contracts are expiring. My point was, say we make 12m on Brereton and Rothwell. Reinvest 6m of that, a substantial amount considering our whole squad barely cost 10m and half of that was 4 or 5 years ago. Of course there is then scope to make money off those purchases in the future. Put 6m towards losses. So it massively helps.

This argument about training is nonsense. Where it matters in games, Pears has made 5 errors leading to goals in the last 6 games or so. Tomasson also picked Pears over a goalkeeper we saw in games was a lot better. Pears continuing in goal does not make it the right decision by Tomasson. If Tomasson was happy with Pears why did we spend 800k on a sub?

He was never going to "throw in" Wahlstedt not because he shouldnt but because he seems to think that Pears is far better than he actually is. Why drop him after the 5th mistake if you didnt after the 3rd or 4th? We could at least hope that Tomasson will finally see sense. But no. Bemoaning individual mistakes yet leaving in the biggest contributor.

It makes sense that your argument is based on the myth that our fanbase demands that the owners "write blank cheques." Thats not the issue. We would have money to re circulate if they run the club properly. Dont stubbornly refuse to sell players running down their deals which could allow both relatively speaking considerable sums to both reinvest and slightly stem losses. Dont slash budgets randomly mid summer affecting plans. Dont continue to employ an incompetent CEO who affects revenue streams.

You know what the uniquely negative Rovers fan base are like! I dont think people are surprised. Just annoyed about Tomassons continued lapse in judgement.

Pears to start. What a joke, why cant Tomasson see how bad he is?! Impossible to see past an away win.

Brittains main strength is negated at left back. Pickering should play.

Would be equally happily with him at right back. Was just thinking because Rankin Costello can do what Pereira does for them and become an extra midfielder so we dont get overrrun.

Ive never really bought that Pears is anything special with his feet. But I dont see how the number of goals he has been responsible for in the last few games is defendable or even worthy of meaning that he "must" start v Leicester. He will, managers tend to have players they seem to have blind spots towards and Pears is that to Tomasson. The Hull winner, Pears' positioning was awful. Against Plymouth, goals 2 and 3 were blatant mistakes. Against Sunderland, he should have saved the 2nd. And against Ipswich, the second was a poor kick out albeit a superb pass by Chaplin to take advantage, and the 4th was a poor decision to punch it out to Luongo.

There definitely is a plan and a specific way that Tomasson has really got across. The worry is especially with an average, young and thin group, whether it is naive in quite how gung ho it is and whether Tomasson will be willing to compromise that to retain a level of solidity. Chance creation is really good but we are also letting other teams create too many chances.

Was that not before his excellent season in Mowbrays final season when we played a back 3?

Its not just as simple as cutting out errors as if its as easy as that, unless Tomasson reigns in the setup then Wharton will continue to be isolated trying to protect 2 centre backs and players will keep being isolated.