roversfan99

It just seems a bit of a swing from you thinking he is likely to go in this international break! It seems more likely based on past events that if Armstrong goes, it will be some bollocks next season like Buckley as a false 9 with Brereton and Gallagher either side.

So Mowbray is staying now? I agree but that removes any slither of excitement that could be mustered up. If our 2 strikers were Gallagher and Brereton, you would still deem that to be well down the lists of priorities? Absolutely crazy. If Armstrong goes then we need a new striker to come in. Gallagher may well be serviceable as 2nd or 3rd choice, Brereton is not a centre forward though. Them 2 as the grand total of our striking talent would leave us in the mire. I get that 12m has been spent but thats a sunk cost now and we cant rely on them in spite of evidence purely to desprately attempt to justify it.

Possibly not although he has scored 20 in a season before. But again, you can apply that logic to anyone. Could Kaminski be a prolific goalscorer? I have seen Gallagher plenty in a central position to have seen that he is not a natural goalscorer and he does not anticipate chances very well.

Definitely agree, they have limited use. I think that Nyambe is a better defender one on one, how do you statistically prove or disprove that though? Rankin Costello is definitely a better crosser as Nyambes crossing is poor but there are more ways to skin a cat and he has learnt how to get past full backs and his assists which in the past were absent tend to be pull backs rather than crosses. Mind you with the weird tactics that Mowbray plays, is crossing even a useful skill to have? I dont think either are amongst the top right backs in the league but Nyambe is definitely ahead of me, Rankin Costello has a lot of good points to his game but I think I would like to see him further forward.

From where?

You cant just use random examples as proof that he can score x amount. Its like me saying that if we had allowed Friedel to come up for corners, he could have scored more like he did at Charlton away. Obviously his usage this season (previously defended by yourself) has been bizarre but even before I didnt rate him as a striker. Not a natural goalscorer for a start.

Not sure I would describe Maguire as solid. Indeed it is not a selection of players of the quality in line with other countries or indeed other positions where we are stronger. I think Gomez is out of the Euros too.

We are not particularly strong at centre back, all of our options bar maybe Stones (who himself has only just come back into the picture) and also in central midfield. Pope is a good keeper but Pickford will play and is a liability. Shaw is playing really well for United at left back and we have untold wealth in attacking midfield and at right back although especially concerning the latter I am not convinced that Southgate will select the best one. At the moment, I would personally definitely have Pope, Alexander Arnold, Stones, Shaw, Jordan Henderson, Foden and Kane starting, as well as probably Sterling. The rest up for grabs. Not that todays match proves that or indeed anything. Waste of time really, should have pre qualifiers. Impossible to gain anything from today, just needless extra football.

Impossible to judge. England could beat these if they could only select League 2 and under.

The underlying problem is going into a season with Lenihan, who is injury prone but we have been lucky with, Williams who has never been reliable nor particularly good and had attracted interest in the summer, Wharton and of course the massively injury prone Ayala. Carter and Magloire playing at a lower level elsewhere is not the issue.

Shows that you can use stats and video clips to prove any point you want really, I think that reflects unfairly on Nyambe.

As others have touched upon, he has proven nothing of the sort, he has never really started at this level. I am not saying that he should be kept here, or indeed that the others wouldnt be good signings as I am unsure about you but I dont recall seeing them play, my main point was that no number of attacking midfielders would allow us to go into a season with one (average) striker. Such a plan makes no sense. I dont want to get into too detailed a discussion on Gallagher, but that season is often used as if he was handicapped during it, when in fact the set up was very well suited to him and was by far the best in his career to date. Either way, I would not be comfortable going into a season with only Gallagher as a striker.

We will never know what happened had certain other scenarios played out and it is totally unfair to criticise and berate the manager for them especially when he makes so many decisions anyway that make very little sense. Travis played well, I expected/feared that Smallwood would instantly regain his place upon his return from suspension but Mowbray stuck with Travis from there on in. Would also personally suggest that Carter didnt look ready and I feel the loan move to Burton in isolation has been correct. I do appreciate the hypocrisy of what he said about young boys and I would say that signing 2 kids made little sense, one of whom has been good and the other desperately poor.

I personally think that Gallagher getting 15 goals next season is very unlikely and I think when Armstrong does go, we definitely need at least one striker, even if we cant get one as good as Armstrong, we cant just have one striker across a full season, especially at best a mediocre one. If Sam Gallagher is your only striker, and this isnt a dig at him because I mean as much if he gets injured etc, you are looking down rather than up. You cant fill the void solely by signing wingers and attacking midfielders. Players dont have to come from the lower leagues either, if our scouting network is as good as Mowbray seems to want to portray, then surely it can find players within these parameters from abroad. There is also no reason not to look within the Championship, especially if any strikers contracts are close to expiry which I think a few are. I do think we need to sign a few attacking reinforcments, Armstrong and to a lesser extent Elliott departing will leave a huge gap, and signing one player to make up the number of goals that Armstrong has been getting will be impossible. So a striker and 2 wide men, by all means. Although if the current manager is still in charge, im sure it will be some nonsense like we saw last weekend. A fair question is that Chapman seems to be doing at least as well as the other League 1 attacking midfielders mentioned, would these players even be an upgrade?

I would have to say that definitely with Harwood Bellis, he is certainly a better defender at this moment in time than either Carter or Magloire. I said in January and totally agree that signing 2 young loanees made no sense and the situation is compounded by the unreliability of the defender Mowbray signed in the summer on a long term contract, but as an individual signing, as with Adarabioyo, Harwood Bellis has been an upgrade and a decent signing. Carter was played in the last 2 games last season to see how he did, and we conceded 3 goals in both games with Carter particularly poor against Luton and looking miles off it. I personally dont think that he should have then been played again at the start of this season, although that isnt giving up on him, the only potential difference for me would have been to loan him out at the start of the season rather than in the middle although a seemingly very successful loan spell at the level below seems to suit all parties. With Magloire, for all the hype about how he did in a friendly, the fact that he spent the first of the season in non league suggests he perhaps isnt ready, again if he impresses at a decent level for Motherwell then we can re-assess but I think both looked a bit out of place when they were tried in the first team and a loan spell will do them good. I dont think that Mowbrays defensive recruitment and set up has been anything but shoddy but I have no issue with the kids we have. Regarding Travis, his first game was against Sheffield United WITH Smallwood and he subsequently through his performance level has been a first team regular ever since so I think forcing a narrative that Mowbray has done anything wrong there is a little unnecessary personally.

It doesnt sit well how reliant Mowbray is on kids from other sides, but it wasnt right for either Carter or Magloire to continue. The former obviously played the last 2 games of last season and looks miles away, especially v Luton. He didnt look ready and this loan is perfect. Magloire was absolutely bullied at Hillsbrough a couple of years ago, it would have done more harm than good for both player and especially team to have left him in. Fact of the matter is that Harwood Bellis and Adarabioyo last season are both miles ahead of Carter and Magloire. I am very critical of Mowbray but I do feel like the issue over his use young players is a little overstated, Travis broke through and has been a first team regular when fit ever since, Rankin Costello plays basically every game when fit, Buckley gets a lot of game time for a player who in the main has struggled and Dolan has had much more game than expected too. Agree with the list of players out of contract, the whole state of the squad is a huge worry and damning of the manager.

I dont really agree with Lingard being called up, he would be well down the list although his recent form is impressive. It is not half as controversial as Dier's inclusion or Alexander Arnold's exclusion though. But tonight, firstly the whole international break is a farce with the pandemic and makes no sense. And games against San Marino without such minnows having to pre qualify is beyond going through the motions, it isnt competitive. But anyway, there are 3 games in this break so I would expect a second string side tonight rather than playing the same 11 for 3 games in a row.

What was the point in the scouting network then? The decision to leave the EU was hardly unexpected. One at the time that played a huge part for some illogical reason in you thinking Mowbray had to stay to be able to use it.

Should we not be taking advantage of the supposedly upgraded scouting network rather than continuing to solely look within this country? The manager will still be here which puts a dampner on everything but we definitely need a total rebuild regardless, especially in attack whereby our 2 goalscorers look set to leave or miss next season injured, and the rest of them dont have goals in them.

Haha, fair play, for some reason in my head he had only managed us and Bradford!

Strange appointment, the intention is for him to go back to Derby in the summer so it is very much a short term one geared to get them in the play offs, something he has never shown the ability to do.

Even in the first season he was here when he scored 28 goals in front of a lazy, inadequate midfield as a lone striker with an attacking midfielder behind him?

Can we do better than him? I would say so and hope so. But is he a "dud" based on the job he has done at Preston? Not for me at all. Theyve been consistently better than us in these last few years.

There is an automatic assumption that changing managers regularly is counter productive but try telling Chelsea that. Salford have got up the leagues with a very aggressive turnover of managers. Mind you, not sure Bowyer will improve things.

Ah, will be baseless, quoteless, speculative nonsense then.