The England games are immaterial, already qualified and not playing a calibre of team that will provide any help with preparation. Will that mean that Southgate does anything but still hand out caps to the likes of Phillips, Henderson and Maguire? No chance. Rashford will likely start too despite truly shocking form all season.

Rotherham would have joined Sheffield Wednesday in being relegated without a fight, so a change is surely sensible. Always a tough job, but nothing to lose making the change. Their away record in particular is embarassing.

People can view transfer business with one eye, signings who have done well are described as such, those who haven't cannot be judged yet, its too early or its a work in progress. It says a lot that the manager simply refuses to even use the 2 strikers signed this summer off the bench when we have no senior strikers. Broughton's transfer record is IMO mixed, I don't think there has been a noticeable improvement in recruitment since he arrived, very much a mixed bag. But he isn't the problem. The owners are forcing him to work with his hands tied behind his back, and again @RevidgeBlue simply will not believe that.

Leonard isn't ready for the amount of football he currently gets at first team level and it only further adds questions to why we bothered with Ennis. Batty seems to have not kicked on as expected. Broughton talked about not signing a left back because they didn't want to block Batty's progression this summer. I suspect it really was a case of "the owners have slashed the budget so much we can't afford one." In the last 2 games, for 30 minutes at Norwich (factoring in the need to have Pickering elsewhere) and for the game against Preston, had Batty been deemed to be ready to play in the Championship he would surely have played when we had no other left backs, rather than having to stick Travis there and move Brittain. Unsure what the situation is with Gilsenan, surprising he can't currently make the bench considering its essentially just kids.

I do find it strange how regular the debates come back to the competence or otherwise of Lowe and especially Benson. You have club puppets totally naive to the fact that Tomasson would never come out when appointed and say, "well I wanted to bring more staff in but the owners wouldn't let me." Obviously he would not upset staff he has been lumbered with, whether he rates them or not. Carvalhal reportedly turned the job down due to limitations on staff he could bring in, true or otherwise. Equally, quite a few seem convinced that they are terrible coaches with not too much foundation. Players do seem to develop as footballers here and ultimately the issue is the fact that we have to be overly reliant on that due to the budget available to bring players in being uncompetitive. @Mercer even talks about "seeing them in action on the training ground" and being underwhelmed which is very bizarre. Also, I get that football becomes stricter and stricter in terms of reducing the amount of physicality, but it seems a bit of snobbery to me (purely in football terms) to suggest that football has moved past players like Ched Evans. Put it this way, a Championship defence would MUCH rather be up against Leonard who isn't ready for anything other than occasional Championship football.

It isnt possible to recall him before as its not in a transfer window. He is really average but as things stand, having an average sub is better than our usual bench packed full of mainly kids, whereby the manager does not see them as ready to contribute at first team level.

If Tomasson doesnt ever plan to play with a focal point and Ennis is seen as that, again, why was he signed? Did Tomasson want him? Indeed. People have mentioned about wishing he hadnt been loaned out. He definitely would be more use than basically any of the subs last night, but he isnt particularly good. The issue was the assumption that his wage could go elsewhere but typically Venkys allowed the out but not the in.

The bottom 3 (especially the bottom 2) are so bad that it would take a lengthy period of fixtures for that gap to be made up even if we lost every game in that time. So we shouldnt be in serious danger. But with a squad so thin, especially if we get more injuries (quite possible when we will have to keep flogging roughly the same 11 players) a poor run will never be far away. Talk of a genuine top 6 push is head in the clouds stuff, the owners have ensured that sadly. But we should be fine at the other end. I have said before, id have us down for probably a bottom half finish, maybe 13th to 18th.

And more so. If Ennis is not considered even a potential option off the bench, with our main striker injured and the only 2 viable options in Tomassons mind being a false 9 or a young lad who is not yet Championship ready, then what is the point in him being here? When will he be considered? He is a 24 year old who impressed for the League 1 Champions, the Telalovic one is more clear cut because hes been playing in such a low standard league, its more obvious why he isnt good enough. Ennis hasnt been injured now for 2 months. The pecking order is clearly Gallagher, false 9, (usually Dolan) Leonard and only then Ennis. He only had a sniff when obviously Gallagher and also Leonard were out and even then, it was brief sub cameos. There has to be something more to the situation. He isnt injured, he wont get match fit ever if he doesnt play at all. Is it purely that Tomasson thinks he doesnt have the quality? That would be a big call considering the general lack of quality of the other options ahead of him, I dont think for example that Leonard could play a big role in a team that wins League 1 with over 100 points. Or is it more likely something else? Has he (maybe somewhat justifiably having been signed under false pretences) spat his dummy out? Or is it another fitness thing, maybe carrying too much weight? And why arent the local journalists asking about him? So strange.

I understand why short corners are our preference to an extent, we have a small team. But they are pretty much always short, even if its near the end and we are desperate. And they arent well worked. So that is on the manager.

I know the standard of local reporting gets worse but Tomasson doesnt seem to get asked about the Ennis situation. The Telalovic situation is self explanatory, he is a cheap signing from the German pub league. But with Ennis, he did well in League 1, hes been injury free for 2 months and he doesnt even get considered for cameos. Leonard isnt ready, usually doesnt impact games yet is the only striker we ever consider even if losing. There has to be something more to it. Is Tomasson simply not happy with a lack of quality? If so, makes little sense considering the lack of options. Or is he unhappy with his fitness, he has never looked in great shape but im unsure if he just naturally is stocky.

That post could have been valid after the first 6 words.

100%. Rankin Costello and Hyam are understandably big losses. Pickering is a steady player and Carter is a talented young defender too. The other 3 to varying degrees are to us now considered starters which is a sad indictment on the owners. To have a decent injury list is as much down to having to repeatedly play the same players. It shouldn't be a case where with 7 out, you have a subs bench whereby none of the players on it are considered Championship quality. Most of the bench I suspect would never have come on yesterday in any circumstances. Our squad is far too thin, its not competitive. The one outlier is obviously Ennis, a really curious situation. He was never a guaranteed success but he apparently did really well at a club who won League 1 with over 100 points. The only question marks seemed to be injury based, yet he has been injury free since before the last international break. He is never even considered for cameo appearances. I can only assume that his general level of fitness is causing Tomasson to simply not consider him at all, even for 30 minutes, or 20 minutes. I guess he could have seen him and thought he isnt good enough but Leonard is not Championship ready yet he is always the one Tomasson turns to.

A blind man clearly cant see the scoreboard which sadly is all that matters. Id take winning by being alledgedly far inferior any day. Any blame to the owners forcing him to forage at the bottom of the barrel.

Rubbish. Impossible to focus on the positives out of a 5th home loss in 8 at "Fortress Ewood." So lightweight, lacking an attack and the state of that subs bench shows you everything about the disregard shown by the owners.

I suspect Dolan wouldnt for a start.

I think anyone who expects a constructive January is setting themselves up for a fall and has a short memory. That Wimbledon player link stinks of a busy agent.

He has clearly been reading on here again for his information.

His performance levels have been poor which will be much of it. That being said, with Brittain going back into defence, a space opens up further forward. With Dolan performing well at the weekend more central, and with Leonard still being very raw, Ennis a waste of time, Telalovic miles away and Markanday not up to it. Surely there is a strong argument for Sigurdsson coming back in from out wide.

Hindsight is not necessary for most clubs when deciding whether to take 8m or just let a player run his contract down.

They are clearly not shite hence why they are in the play offs and above us. Its an average league and they like us are probably going to end up in the middle somewhere. Its not about letting them think Wahlstedt is a weakness, he is if he continues to play as he has been and with such a depleted defence we may not be able to offer him the protection we have prior to the weekend.

Obviously its just an opinion. We dont know the result of anything that didnt actually happen, I think had we signed Mbappe in January we would have likely got that extra point, but in reality I cant be sure. In my opinion, Kaminski is a much better keeper than Pears, therefore we would have been a stronger team.

The one he fumbled minutes after the goal he conceded was worse, he spilt it unnecessarily but thankfully Norwich's misfiring attack couldnt capitalise. But like with the crosses it seems to not be a one off. You throw in the crosses in which it isnt an occasional issue and surely you would not like to be a defender in front of someone who appears a bag of nerves.

To have 3 centre backs unavailable simultaneously is obviously quite unlucky albeit not inconceivable, but the issue is made a lot worse by the fact that we dont even have any other players who can do a reasonable job there outside of the 4, nor any depth at full back. Had we got a second senior left back for example, even with only one centre back, ideally he could do a job at CB but even if not, we could at least still then keep him at LB, Brittain RB, and we would be left with one player in the back line out of position, not 3. It would show what Tomasson feels in terms of how far away Batty is if he doesnt play. There was an article a couple of weeks ago in the LT with Broughton quoted about how we never planned to sign a left back because of Batty with all of the usual "blocking pathways" spiel which to me seemed like a positive spin on a negative situation with the budget slashing. If Batty doesnt play, it shows that potentially Tomasson didnt agree with that.

We will never know exactly why Tomasson opted not to drop Pears last season. Did he simply rate Pears higher? Or prefer his supposed abaility on the ball over what Kaminski gave us? Im not convinced by either of those, Kaminski had been preferred before that and was about to start the season as number 1. Was it because he knew Kaminski was likely to leave? He still selected Morton and Brereton knowing they would leave so I doubt that. I personally think it was probably an ill judged decision but based on not wanting to drop Pears (which would potentially have been seen as harsh as at the time he hadnt done too badly, albeit he wasnt winning us points like Kaminski had done prior to injury) potentially causing problems in the dressing room, and also with Kaminski potentially being seen as rusty having missed a couple of months with injury, with it being quite late in the season. Luton cant be blamed either for messing us around, im sure we have also like any club put in lower initial bids for players to try and get prices down, its only normal. We got ourselves our supposed top target still, unfortunately he has struggled since he started playing.