roversfan99

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.

Where was it reported? Theyve not said a word in ages.

Isnt their record signing still David Healy? I am guessing that their new record signing is Whiteman who you are particularly transfixed with at the moment but there was no mention of him breaking their transfer record when he signed. Him having more money than previous PNE managers is irrelevant, what is relevant is that his budget compared to the vast majority of teams in the league has been incredibly small, so a top 6 finish was always less realistic. Neil has done more in the Championship than Mowbray with less money, always finishing above him and being far more competitive in being within the top 6 a few times. Things have gotten stale in the last year coinciding with a number of players having contractual issues and to clarify, this should in no way be a valid reason for appointing a manager therefore Neil wouldnt be more choice but he would be a notable upgrade on Mowbray.

Fair enough. Not sure it could ever get as bad as Kean in any scenario but much more likely on here I would say. If Mowbray got us up there, then of course most people would get back on board. Its that results are so poor that it wont happen though sadly.

No way will Mowbray ever get to Kean levels of negativity. Im guessing that you didnt attend around that time but it was toxic for a couple of years, I remember going on many protests and regular Kean out chants. Mowbray will never be as universally hated. More likely to be apathy and reduced attendances.

The only true statistics are the league table across the season. Based on obvious regression, both deserve sacking, indeed Mowbray has spent much more and not had to sell to get to such a position.

It was another poster that inferred that he was a potential bad egg. And obviously we would have still scored, but and I dont think it is too controversial to suggest that without a 19 goal striker, we would have scored less. I actually think that he has become under appreciated, in fact I think that our goalscorers in general often are. I felt that Rhodes was and even in our first season back, Dack's general performance level was always the main focus even when he was scoring too. What I think happens is that our best attacking players have to and have had to cope with far different expectations to the lesser ones. If they go through a dryer spell, or indeed if parts of their game dont match up to their goalscoring prowess, then they are criticised well before anyone points a finger at the supporting cast not pulling their weight. What evidence is there that we would score as many goals is a fairer question. Do you think that without Armstrong and his 19 goals this season, that someone else would have equalled that deficit? I think the quality of attacking players that Mowbray assembled outside of 2 is desperately poor. Gallagher's best season was in a team perfectly suited to his style, even then, he was just about a 1 in 4 striker. Brereton and goalscoring dont tend to go in the same sentence, he gets praised to high heavens if merely doesnt look like a lumbering clown, such are his expectations. Dolan does his best but to be honest, he has only played as much as he has due to necessity ie the shortcomings of Mowbrays recruitment in general. Rothwell might show up once every 10 games, but he has a lorry load of excuses as to why he doesnt contribute. I could go on, none of these players historically or recently have suggested that they would I also think that you are putting too much emphasis on the shots per goal stat, its not as simple as suggesting that if any of those other players shot more, they would score in direct correlation, Armstrong gets into more shooting positions because of his pace and movement. I would concede that one of his main flaws is that he is not clinical necessarily, he does miss chances he shouldnt and I would accept that. But he does score plenty of goals too. In regards to performances without him, I would again disagree. Yesterday, as a team we did lots well, but the front 3 were nigh on useless, they wouldnt have scored in a month of Sundays and we looked toothless, obviously that hinged around the truly bizarre continuous use of a false 9. When Armstrong missed the Boro game earlier in the season, we were equally toothless. The Millwall and Swansea games were better but hinged on Dack being in the team, who does offer a goal threat, and scored 2 of the 3 goals aside from the one that hit Gallagher. That was then followed up by another toothless display v Brentford. I would also share much of your criticism of Mowbray, his tactical decisions do baffle me too. I also felt that him playing Armstrong midweek when he was clearly unfit was counterproductive.

Armstrong is not the most clinical of strikers but to imply that we set up solely for his benefit when we play possession based football which allows teams to sit off and deny him the space in behind he thrives off is not true, especially to solely get him as many shots as possible. You even recently implied that Mowbrays primary objective is to benefit Armstrong and his value rather than the overall team, which was just beyond bizarre. I dont subscribe to the opinion either that we have a team full of players who can "create chances and score." I don think Mowbrays tactics help but I dont think our attacking options with Dack injured and Armstrong soon to depart are anything other than desperate. Where is the evidence that Gallagher, Brereton, Rothwell, Dolan etc can score the goals we need? Defensively we have actually been much better in recent weeks but our goal threat has totally evaporated, not helped by Armstrongs injury problem. There seems to be a growing narrative that we are better off without him and that he is a "bad egg." (totally baseless theory) Without his goals, we would be very much in a relegation scrap, yesterday we looked totally toothless for all the approach play, with the starting front 3 unlikely to have scored had they played all day and night.