Gallagher is crap though, at least Khadra makes things happen. I suppose we dont have great options though in attack in general.

So its not even a holiday.

Play him deep and you dont have his pressing. All of his good performances have been higher up, maybe he can play a deeper role but its an unknown.

At one point he very much merited his place as a false 9, he played there and was very important during our winning run. Him being there now isn't Mowbray meddling or coming up with weird experiments, it is the continuation of a successful tactic. That being said, his performances in recent weeks have been as bad as anyone so he needs dropping.

I'm sure that wont stop. This messageboard is essentially a place for us all to air our grievances and debate things, but its the people in the stadium that matter. And the support is very much there in the ground.

We have the 2nd worst disciplinary record in the league, now of course that doesnt totally correlate with aggression but I think its an easy and perhaps misguided conclusion to suggest that we have a soft team. Football ultimately has changed massively even from the Souness/Hughes days when we had senior leaders throughout, full of aggression when needed. @Bigdoggsteel you say that "You need hardy boys , battlers to get out of this league." Is that true? Would you consider Norwich, Brentford and Watford to be bunches of "hardy boy battlers" last season? The main reason for our poor form is an inability to score at the moment, not helped by our main striker being out. I also think that having had such success playing on the counter attack, our opponents are perhaps wising up and when we have to break teams down, we can struggle. I don't necessarily think that there are many questions about spirit or heart.

I know he missed the penalty, but Khadra was far more effective than Gallagher. He won the penalty after a mazy run, he nearly scored with a curling shot at the end, he put in a ball at the start of the second half that was dying for a striker to tap in, (Gallagher was nowhere near) he hit a decent free kick in the first half, he got someone sent off and he got to the byline a couple of times, once with a very good cut back that Buckley got in Rothwells way for. What did Gallagher do bar win 2 free kicks miles out?

I would be really wary of moving away from the back 3 which even recently has not been leaking goals. We don't have that good an attack in the absence of our 2 primary goal threats, to try and overcompensate for that at the expense of defensive stability is a big risk. We definitely do need to change things, Hedges needs to start, Buckley needs dropping and Gallagher too. But I would probably keep the back 3.

If he has gone away, its probably for a week before coming back and getting involved with the rest of the team again. He was at the (eventually called off) game at the weekend, its a few days away to rest, its hardly leaving the rest of them in the lurch. I imagine its common and with Brereton, he was looking tired anyway so maybe going to get some sun or whatever is what he needs to have is what he needs, a quick break and then he can begin his rehab. Its a mental break as well as the physical rest, his last 12 months have been so intense. Ultimately, everything is micro analysed nowadays, to make out that it is weak management is just bizarre to me, looking for reasons to criticise unjustifiably, but seemingly we will not agree on the issue so maybe best to agree to disagree. Off the back of him being given a few days leave on the back of getting a bad injury? I think its obvious based on his contract that he will leave but I very much doubt that anyones opinion has changed on the back of such a trivial issue.

A rest is probably a kind way of putting it. He needs dropping, hes been crap for for 2 months.

What?

Amongst the lads doing what? He isn't a cheerleader. Even if we remove the assumption that he is feeling low after getting a bad injury and missing a key period for his club and also a potential once in a lifetime international appearance in Brazil. He has played a lot of football with minimal breaks and Mowbray and many of us on here commented on how tired he has been looking. Surely a week with a mental and physical break far away is just what the doctor ordered. It's hardly as if he has asked for a jolly up mid season when fully fit and the manager has turned a blind eye to it. Surely the intention is for him to come back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle his rehab head on in the right frame of mind to impact the end of our season with a spring in his step? What do you think they are thinking?

A physical break having played so much football in the last year without many breaks which was notably taking its toll even before the injury? A mental break to get over the disappointment of being injured and missing a crucial part of the season, as well as a once in a lifetime chance to play at the Maracana? What use is he moping around not even really able to do any rehab so soon into his recovery? Just to prove that Mowbray isn't laissez-faire?!

I can't claim to have the physio knowledge to know what exactly can be done on an ankle ligament injury in the first couple of weeks when the foot is in a protective boot. That being said, for a player who has had minimal breaks in the last couple of years and was showing signs of weariness even before the injury, aswell as presumably being gutted personally, an overdue week off to rest both physically and mentally seems fairly reasonable to me and not some sort of pointer towards managerial weakness.

Mowbray was saying even before the injury that he needed a rest, he had football during the summer, a short turnover before the season, he has had a few mid season trips to South America, and added to all this, he is probably low after picking up a bad injury. A week off for his mental and physical health whilst his foot is in a protective boot and he cant do anything seems very sensible to me, yet people have to manipulate it into some sort of weak management. Crazy.

Must win really, not confident at all. Kaminski Lenihan Van Hecke Wharton Nyambe Travis Rothwell Pickering Hedges Dolan Khadra

Similar to the obsession about specific runs of form, that point is disproportionate to the fact that the difference between the teams is 2 points. You say the "sign of a good manager" but would that not also mean that presumably, we have earnt 8 more points than QPR within the first 85 minutes which reflects well on Mowbray?

We level out at 5th as it stands, thats where we ae which would be a good season, an overachievement for sure with the resources. The pattern of results is irrelevant. People fixate over bad runs of form which suit an agenda, for example last season when I saw far more mentions of 2 wins in 17 than finishing in 15th place. The latter was all that mattered and was more than enough to criticise the manager last season, that was my reason for wanting him gone, but the reason that people focused on 2 in 17 was to make it sound worse than it actually was. At the end of the day, we assume that this bad form will continue and our season will tail off and we wll fall well out of the picture. If that does happen, it might not but if it does, then that specific run does not need focusing on, those poor results will go towards the final position which is all that matters. If that sees us say in 9th, then you look at 15th, 11th, 15th, 9th, and you say right lets have a change. Well, normal owners might. It wouldnt require the additional "we only won x games in x months from here to here" to justify it further. I cant fathom why people would sack him now, but in the main those people are the same ones that refused to credit him when we did win, making out that it was in spite of him. At the moment, we are 5th with 13 games to go. A place we would have all taken last summer. If we sacked him, there would be disruption, there would be a gap, and it would be very unlikely to create an improvement at this point.

The fact that 5th is overachieving for us is rather dissatisfying and a perfect sign of the real problem in that it is a peak under these dickhead owners. Like I said, for me a top 6 finish solely in my opinion is less than 50% likely. A change of manager at this stage would not increase that for me. If he doesnt make it, by all means id not renew his contract. Plus Brereton, Kaminski, Van Hecke, Rothwell and Khadra. Lets be fair and not exclude the half of a team that doesnt suit the narrative. He hasnt been gifted that team either, those players have matured and developed under his coaching.

No money from the Armstrong sale was given to reinvest. Surely much of the blame goes above them for not allowing even a reasonable fraction to reinvest? The question being debated is whether now in 5th place we should sack him. I think we have a limited squad full of graduates and loanees. Mowbray has done well to get it this high, lets hope we can squeeze into the top 6. Exactly. To sack him now would be stupid. If he doesnt make the top 6 come May, then let him go at the end of his contract. Although I suppose Venkys dont judge managers on results as they have proven throughout the last 11 horrible years.

We have a chance, I dont think we will make the play offs personally but I think our chances would decrease further with the disruption of removing the manager who has done brillliantly to get us to 5th at this insane point in the season.

No, but I dont think that replacing him and then a new manager would. I think Mowbray has us overachieving where we are. Top 6 is not par for this team with these resources, it would be a brilliant achievement. If he doesnt manage it then change in the summer.

How we didnt win I do not know, criminal. One sub far too late was not good enough. Buckley needs dropping, absolutely shocking. Anyone calling for Mowbray to be sacked tonight needs to have a word with themselves. We are overachieving with an underfunded squad packed full of academy kids to be where we are. If we (as probably expected) do stumble out of the play offs, replace in the summer.

Its strange, I have always been against the mindset of being a promotion challenger and going to away games content with a point before a ball has been kicked. We shouldn't be going anywhere (especially any team below us) when genuinely chasing promotion and hoping desperately for anything other than defeat. That being said, it is hard not to feel that Sheffield United are a very strong proposition. I always was wary of them when they were 10th or 11th with games in hand because they have a very strong squad, and I do fear that we don't really have goals in us.

Stats such as those on the previous page do not "prove" anything, they can of course be part of someone's opinion, but there are so many factors to them, how they are defined, how their teams play, the role they play specifically etc, they cannot objectively prove whether one player is better defensively or from an attacking sense as a midfielder compared to another one. For what its worth, I have seen him a fair few times for Preston, he has always looked decent. Nothing outstanding and I'd prefer Travis and Rothwell but a solid Championship midfielder all the same.