My mistake, I meant a 6, was a mistype!

He has had a year of consistent goalscoring to be fair with his biggest dry spell being 3 games since he has played up front. To be fair even if Gallagher said I only want to be a striker, Armstrong is still the main striker so I suspect it is either play wide or be on the bench. Hed probably rather play out of position rather than not at all.

Kaminski - Very shrewd addition from left field. Huge upgrade - 9/10 Pears - Doesnt seem like competent back up and for a fee too, questionable - 4/10 Ayala - Undoubtedly a very good Championship defender on his day but as a sole addition at CB, with his injury proneness, a disappointment so far. Not convinced the style we play is beneficial to him - 5/10 Douglas - A huge disappointment so far. A second attempt at putting a plaster over a long term weakness with Bell not a viable alternative - 4/10 Trybull - Ok, nothing special, squad player - 5/10 Downing - Possibly gets into our best 11 but Mowbray seems to think that he isnt in contention to start games, plus he was signed after the main games in which we missed a few players, so he was signed after the main time in which he was needed - 4/10 Dolan - I still am unconvinced that he is at first team level, beyond raw, but made a couple of crucial contributions early in the season, on a free and perhaps thrust in quicker than expected - 6/10 Elliott - Inspired loan signing and pleasure to watch - 9/10 The squad is stronger but we are achieving essentially identical results.

He is a striker who is at best an average Championship striker, at best he will creep into double figures as he did in his best season to date here. He also doesnt have any particularly strong attributes that make him important beyond his goal tally, he is fairly quick but not rapid, he doesnt bring others into play, a random example would be Jutkweicz who again wouldnt get into our team but his use to Birmingham is beyond a not particularly prolific goal record. Gallagher is not a striker that will give you the goals that will get you into the top 6. The key has to be to avoid the temptation that Mowbray struggles to avoid, to try and crow bar him in anyway. I get that there is a big price tag but it is counter productive to play him out of position against the balance of the team. He could maybe grow into a useful player off the bench if we needed a goal or a deputy to Armstrong. Armstrong is our main striker and theres no way that he is anything but first choice. His goal record is competitive with players like Pukki, Toney etc at the top of the league so Gallagher cant grumble at not playing at Armstrongs expense but he could ideally become a competent second choice.

He is a striker who is at best an average Championship striker, at best he will creep into double figures as he did in his best season to date here. He also doesnt have any particularly strong attributes that make him important beyond his goal tally, he is fairly quick but not rapid, he doesnt bring others into play, a random example would be Jutkweicz who again wouldnt get into our team but his use to Birmingham is beyond a not particularly prolific goal record. Gallagher is not a striker that will give you the goals that will get you into the top 6. The key has to be to avoid the temptation that Mowbray struggles to avoid, to try and crow bar him in anyway. I get that there is a big price tag but it is counter productive to play him out of position against the balance of the team. He could maybe grow into a useful player off the bench if we needed a goal or a deputy to Armstrong. Armstrong is our main striker and theres no way that he is anything but first choice. His goal record is competitive with players like Pukki, Toney etc at the top of the league so Gallagher cant grumble at not playing at Armstrongs expense but he could ideally become a competent second choice.

Definitely, the fact that the owners appointed Coyle as the manager before Mowbray, who whilst not having the corrupt undertones that Kean had was as bad in every way a choice as they could have made, seemingly done amidst turmoil with a late change from a very good manager in Warnock to a cheap option who couldnt be more unpopular, there is always scope for that to happen again. I just personally cannot embrace keeping the status quo purely out of fear of impending disaster, for one if that is to happen isnt it delaying the inevitable anyway? Its blind faith but of course any idea to sack Mowbray is coupled with replacing him with an upgrade. Likelihood? No idea! But I genuinely do appreciate the fear with these owners for whom many may have forgotten or prematurely forgiven a little too much.

Of course, they are incomparable undoubtedly. Kean is in a word of his own in regards to both competence and integrity. It just doesnt sit right with me that anyone, either self inflicted upon themselves or especially trying to quash other peoples opinions based on the notion that Mowbray is a professional and we arent. To use a less corrupt example, Coyle was a professional but should we have reserved opinion on his ineptitude? No one on here in their right minds thinks they are credible options to become the next Rovers manager, but there is no need to sanitise anyone's right to have an opinion, and to share those on here. Mowbray is a professional and there are most aspects to his role that no one on here could possibly do. But he still will make mistakes, he will do things that we dont agree with and he is in a position whereby he is in a position to receive criticism which he will accept I am sure. Even those who want to change managers would want to put in a more suitable (in their mind, at this point in time) professional.

Very fair points @JBiz Kean is incomparable to Mowbray and all who are sane would agree with that. A stain on the history of this club. I am keen however not to allow Keans era to become a benchmark, in the same way that players being praised merely for trying their hardest even if not up to the job, or the owners not allowing us to cease to exist is not worthy of praise. We can set higher standards than that without fearing being deemed unrealistic. Something you touch upon by suggesting that should we finish mid table that Mowbray should go. I am unconvinced it would be productive to even give him that long to be honest, based on what I have seen I think Mowbray having done a good job may have gone as far as he can but either way there is a standard there that ensures that merely not being Steve Kean is not a good enough standard.

I think the point that if you are refusing yourself and others an opinion on the principle that the manager has been a professional for many years then surely Kean would fall into the same category is a very fair one. Making such a point was clearly purely to provoke and wind up otherwise they wouldnt have seeked out a fan opinion forum to make it if their mindset was so black and white.

Did so well for us in his loan spell? He did ok, nothing more really. Definitely should only be considered central as second choice to Armstrong but I think his first spell here is overplayed.

He scored 2 in those games, one at Preston and one at Stoke which was off the bench. There were plenty of games especially in the first half of the season before Armstrong was considered a central player that Gallagher played there and was ineffective more often than not. I presume as someone who is adamant that Armstrong is a number 9 and understandably so, that you also see Gallagher as a back up in that position, unless you see something in him playing wide that only Mowbray does.

He definitely shouldnt play wide but even central which he has played numerous times mainly last season, he was ineffective more often than not. Our current striker is one player within our team to which you cannot doubt his effectiveness. Dack should be back soon so I would suggest playing Dack off Armstrong. Gallagher should be no more than sub striker as far as I am concerned.

"Trusting the professionals" isnt something that should be done at the expense of personal opinion. No one is suggesting that they take over as manager. All teams in the league have professionals, the question is whether the professional in charge at the moment is our best bet to achieve or even surpass expectations.

I have no idea from where you have based this on, but based on the league table, does that mean that Mowbray is underachieving, if he is below a side you have decided we are better than? Theres absolutely no sign or suggestion that we will go up playing "our way" although at least we will seemingly have the consolation of being able to dismiss any teams that play any differently to us.

The last sentence is totally irrelevant. We have no divine right to be anywhere but the main point that people are making is that "less attractive" or more direct football that gets you results is totally fine, and indeed perhaps a way for us to punch above our weight.

The point was that when we played with a pragmatic style and got results, in your head only the results were important. Now we are supposedly playing "attractive football yet its breeding further inconsistency and we are not progressing, its the style that matters. As ever, your points are riddled with inconsistencies and hypocrisy.

Im not even convinced how attractive our football is. Quite a few games in recent weeks we have played boring football. None moreso than on Wednesday, after the game I was made up because we won. End of. Anyone who couldnt enjoy us winning even if the football was more pragmatic has got their priorities wrong.

Either way, we have conceded too many goals this season, and kept too few clean sheets, again. Same shit, different season.

I dont want my team to necessarily play as Stoke do. I want my team to win as many games as possible to realise their ambitions, style is not important. We played direct football in League 1 and got promoted and I suspect that your lust for playing "attractive positive possession" based football wasnt prevalent then.

Ayala had the potential to be a good signing, the intention was to sign 2 centre backs and it never materialised. Throw in a poor signing at LB and its little wonder we still dont keep clean sheets.

If you was a Stoke fan and saw your team play as they did and win today, or saw us how we played v Bournemouth/Watford/Newcastle, much more expansively and lost, in which situation would you be happiest post game?

The most important thing is the result which was never in doubt. They scored early and changed the game, always had us at arms length, they had no need to provoke an expansive game. If that was us and we won like that, you would be correctly saying its the result that matters. We didnt create a good chance all game. They are also missing their main 2 keepers so need to protect their young keeper recalled from a League 1 loan, are missing their 3 main CM's in Mikel, Allen and Clucas so cant control the midfield as they may have preferred and are missing Tyrese Campbell, their main threat going forward, so maybe became more pragmatic. We are missing players and blame it to the hilt but they were equally depleted. Snobbiness towards other styles is totally unconstructive and bizarre, they won, we lost, end of.

I dont get how Stoke didnt deserve the win. The game did become played solely in their half but obviously that was as a result of their early lead. They managed the game brilliantly and at no point did we ever appear to be about to score. They allowed us to pass it around in front of them and we never had the guile, the craft or the invention to break them down and even create decent chances, never mind score.

Theres a lot of talk about "the squad" that Mowbay has built. I am not convinced it is as good as we think it is aside from a few (4?) undoubtedly impressive individuals that Mowbray has signed, mainly along the front. Dack when back, Armstrong, Elliott, cant argue with those 3. Kaminski in goal, a big improvement. Defence, basically the same aside from Ayala who cannot be relied upon. Midfield, lots of players who flatter to deceive to varying degrees, Holtby, Rothwell, Johnson, Davenport, Trybull. Gallagher a waste of time. Brereton better but nowhere near 7m. Dolan, Chapman, meh. Sick of the injuries line too, all teams have suffered. Bristol City had 7 or 8 starters out the other week, Stoke had their 2 keepers, 3 main CM's and main attacking player all out amongst others, Norwich had quite a few out, its just how it is this season.

I suspect that goals will be conceded with either to be fair, the answer has to come externally.