Hes never been particularly good hence his inability to ever nail down a starting place. Problem is due to constant budget cuts, we need him to step up more than ever and he isnt capable.

Hardly inexplicable. 200k paid for a decent squad player. Problem now is such has been the recent budget cuts, he has to be a key player. Armstrong, Brereton, Rothwell, Dack, Kaminski, Pickering, the loans of Adarabioyo, Elliott, Harwood Bellis, Reed, the likes of Smallwood, Downing etc in League 1, his overall transfer record was no worse that what we have seen since. Although everyone has had their work cut out by the budget cuts and regular summers of the taps being turned off.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23803406.mowbray-praises-blackburn-rovers-despite-sunderland-victory/ Mowbray with some nice words. Ultimately not the first manager to say stuff like this. When other managers are regularly saying how well you played after beating you by 2 or 3 clear goals, it becomes less of a source of pride and more a worry. Soft touch.

We werent mugged. We just cant score goals.

I dont get this narrative that luck isnt on our side and especially the one that surely we will start taking our chances soon. We dont have a goalscorer, our attacking players lack the ability to score many goals. They will need well above an average amount of chances to score goals. Why would that suddenly change?

Really important game, lose and then its the bottom end that comes closer into sight. And hard to muster up much in the way of reasoning as to why we can be confident of a win. Ipswich are near the top but their side is nothing special. How do we change things considering our squad is paper thin and packed full of kids? Change in goal is obvious as Pears will continue to cost us, but for some reason Tomasson is blinded by how poor he is and/or the new keeper isnt anything special. Defensively we have not been good enough all season, I think thats as much down to the way we set up. We signed a holding midfielder who was a regular in the Dutch league but he cant even make the bench. Wharton has been poor all season but its hard to justify dropping him, Travis is important too, Garrett isnt ready and Rankin Costello is never a midfielder in a 2. Going forward, I have no idea how we can even change it. Sigurdsson I presume certainly wont be fit enough to start or even feature. Ennis remains in the Ayala role keeping Gallagher company and Dolan and Markanday are not even good enough to make the bench. So its left with Hedges who is tidy but seldom makes the right decisions in the box and Moran isnt a wide player. Then up front, it says a lot when Telalovic is not even considered a better striker than Dolan in Tomassons eyes. Some of the fluid passing football is great to watch but we arent scoring enough and that wont suddenly change, its not bad luck, our players just arent good enough. The budget cuts have left us with a shell.

Will they just start going in with our set of attackers?

You seem keen to avoid putting any blame on us having to go through bargain bins to try and sign a competent striker.

Its impossible to not have massive sympathy that Tomasson has been saddled with such a young, underfunded squad lacking in quality. But today he did make some very strange decisions which didnt help.

Same old story, lots of pretty passing and lovely interchanging but terrible in the final third and also now far more vulnerable defensively. Pears with yet another mistake, playing him IS down to Tomasson. Carter with a bad one too. Adam Wharton had a shocker, Travis was poor, Moran is not a wide man, Szmodics and Hedges both struggled when it came to the final pass and Leonard aside from a paochers goal was fairly anonymous. The subs bench told its own story about the negligence from the owners. For Telalovic (who struggled in his brief cameo but was so short its hard to take much from it) to be ignored in favour of sticking the useless Dolan up top maybe tells a lot about what Tomasson thinks.

Any blame towards the owners for their budget cuts and moving of the goal posts? Probably not.

The Tronstad signing seems ever stranger with him playing with the kids tonight. Obviously Sigurdsson is understandable.

The lack of investment is what I think people have issue with.

Guessing the fictional pitch inspection was positive and we are good to go.

Southampton for me have the weakest squad (plus obviously manager) of the relegated 3. I think the quality is overstated. Adams and Armstrong (writing Stewart off for the short term) give them a goal threat but the ones theyve lost were key (Ward Prowse, Salisu, Lavia, Livramento, Tella etc) and they were by far the weakest of the 3 last year. They made a lot of strange signings towards the end of their Premier League stay and beside the front 2 not many of what they have left is stand out. Not sure on their signings either in the main.

I am definitely glad that we let him go when we did and am certainly happier with Tomasson. It was merely a tongue in cheek comment at the regular weird hatred towards him some have displayed on here since he moved on.

They clearly did not want to run the football club but they had the decency to allow competent people to have the autocracy to make decisions which had just led us to a top half finish. The rot started when the sale went through.

Leeds should push on now the window is open. They had a lot of rubbish going on but with the likes of Gnonto and Summerville settled again and having signed some really strong players in Piroe, Kamara, Rodon, Anthony Darlow and Spence towards the end of the window and with Farke in charge, I think theyll do well.

I never once said dont give him a chance. For some reason, any questions seem to lead to a pack throwing that line down peoples faces. I said to give him a few games now in the absence of Gallagher and Ennis. Regarding tomorrow, im expecting us to absolutely batter Sunderland if Mowbray really is as bad as many on here like to make out.

Not sure what thats based on at this stage either way but I hope you are right. Seems the perfect chance to give him some games though and lets hope he hits the ground running as we need him to step up.

Admittedly he was offside but he did miss a sitter himself on Saturday. But he definitely should start especially with the lack of alternatives.

Telalovic was the first to come on before Leonard on Saturday and with him being older and a summer signing who we had picked out, surely he starts tomorrow.

Big blow but not unexpected, Gallagher might not be as injury prone as our other main striker but he is still injury prone. Piles the pressure on Telalovic who needs to hit the ground running.

What would you put our season ticket numbers down to then, if not price?

I think there are plenty of reasons why its unlikely. A lack of experience, a lack of goals, a lack of depth. But the hope lies in Tomasson whose stamp is very much evident on the side and lets hope we can finish far higher than would be expected according to the resources given to him.