No, if that is the primary thing that Mowbray wants from his defenders then I dont accept it, I oppose it because we need to stop the goals going in! I know, I have summarised why I think the obsession over the possession "league" is flawed, both based on our current squad and also the numerous exceptions, with the teams you have quoted me all having squads far more suited to it than we do. Its the goals conceded that you want to look at. QPR seem to be a fifth exception to this supposed rule, all that possession undermined by conceding the third most goals in the league. Give me some "basic" defenders any day.

Which is totally baseless you mean. Its not like Rothwell has previously had really productive seasons before but has just entered a bit of a lull.

Also, Mowbray goes on about the possession v league position statistics but the thing is, the correlation is far from 100%. The specific teams right at the top, either through incredible superior coaching (Leeds) parachute money (Fulham and West Brom) or incredible scouting (Brentford) have the strengths to specifically play that way. We have central midfielders that can get in your face, we have 2 natural goalscorers and plenty of pace to press or counter dependant on the situation. Can Travis, Evans or Johnson dictate games every single week? No. Can Lenihan play passes through the lines? No. You look at some further examples, Barnsley are right near the top but are ultimately spineless at one end and lacking goalscorers at the other so they ended up lucky to be bailed out by Wigans off field problems. Cardiff finished 5th with the lowest possession. They have really good wide players with pace, and are really organised. They really take advantage of those strengths. Forest and Milwall are both right near the bottom of the possession stats but above us in the league. Im not saying that we should purposely aim for low possession but we shouldnt obsess over it. More important is the correlation between goals conceded and league position. The top 4 teams had the bottom 4 goals conceded. If we can actually fix our defence then we have 2 goalscorers and that makes us dangerous. Again @chaddyrovers youve dismissed Bauer as basic. Playing out from the back etc is not critical. If he could have come here and helped us knock 13 goals off our goals conceded column, then thats what matters. Lenihan cant pass the ball out from the back so we had better sell him too.

Marshall sorry. Got my Scottish keepers mixed up. No I dont. Because even if they were obtainable financially, which I dont know about. But Mowbray seems to not prioritise actually keeping the ball out of the net as the priority of signing defenders. As has been touched on, your "opinion" is essentially empathising with and second guessing Mowbray has really struggled to stop us from conceding too many goals so in this regard he is not the oracle as he is not getting it right. But he is massively overachieving to the point where barring something incredible, he could not progress any further, and is already massively overachieving in terms of resources. Why change if its working so well? I agree with what you say on Allardyces Bolton but I am not sure if it is possible to bring in a player like Anelka for under 10m or the likes of Okocha, Djorkaeff anymore. I do think whilst they dont have Okocha etc they are unfairly treated in terms of reputation. Brighton for all of their passing it out from the back finished where they finished under Hughton, so it didnt improve them, and they scored less goals than Burnley. Goals are the ultimate source of entertainment. Burnley also scored more than Sheffield United for all of the marvelling over their overlapping centre backs etc.

I think youve quoted the wrong person haha

Plus Burnley scored more goals than them so they cant be that boring! Remind me what the most entertaining part of football is...

A basic Championship defender? Again seemingly lacking any perspective in terms of considering defensive ability as secondary in being a defender! Bauer had a very good season. Preston improved how many goals they conceded with him as a sole signing there by 13. That is the sort of improvement we needed. He won the most aerial duels out of all defenders in the League. If basic means a massive improvement who does all the basics right and helps you concede far less goals, thats what we needed. As you say, Armstrong was a very good signing to us, but fairly irrelevant. Although I doubt Alex Neil told him he wouldnt play! We had more money and he had already been here.

What do you mean Dyche hasnt evolved Burnley ? He again got them a top 10 finish, what more do you want?! You are far too easily charmed by the medias perception of which teams plays attractive football and which dont. Results become of secondary importance to you. Burnley scored more goals than Brighton and had a far, far better season. Likewise, because Mowbray bangs on about possession football, you seem to be under the impression that our football is more aesthetically pleasing than Dyches, not factoring in the obvious gap in terms of Dyche competing with Premier League clubs. Its not. When we tried to focus solely on promotion we became less effective post lockdown and worse to watch. Potter didnt improve on Brightons first league position upon promotion under Hughton, thats the most important thing. For all the supposed fancy football they play, they scored less goals than Burnley but because they supposedly play nice football (I dont agree) there is a perception that they are better to watch than Burnley. Sadly if you want to see goal threat you would go to Turf Moor, for your sins, rather than the AMEX. Regarding your suggestions, id take Phillips. Him or McGregor for me are the stand outs from the names mentioned. Central midfield isnt a priority, GK, CB, LB and both wide areas are, not withstanding what Mowbray will do. Dickie I have never seen, and Clarke is decent but id prefer someone like Van Der Hoorn, Ayala or Dunkley on a permanent basis ideally. Playing out from the back isnt the priority. Getting that goals against column right down is.

I think the stats back up that Evans and Travis together give us a very good win percentage which probably is partly due to the fact that they give the defence more protection. Rothwell wouldnt get as much license to run at players if playing in a central 2 without exposing the defence.

Why dont you think that Bauer has "set the world alight?" I suppose defenders rarely do but he was part of a defence that conceded 13 fewer goals than the season before, and 9 fewer than us. He won the most aeriel duels out of any defender in the League. I have seen Preston quite a few times and he has always looked solid. Plus hes their permanent signing. Lets not pretend that he would have been anything but an excellent signing. But seemingly wasnt intended to be first choice.

Can you really see him playing in a central midfield 2? His strengths are running at defenders which means he needs to be further up the pitch. He almost certainly lacks the discipline to be one of the 2 central midfielders. Evans compliments Travis the best.

Surely we are best off having Armstrong and Dack together centrally. They should get more goals than anyone we could get externally at this time. Focus should be on a solid defence and the wide areas either side of those 2. Sadly wont be the case.

Yep, results first, but are Sean Dyches Burnley worse to watch than Mowbrays Rovers? Not convinced.

Priority has to be to fix the defence properly. Would a 21 year old Crewe defender help that? Continue to leak goals and it will at some point be the end for Mowbray and a lot of our players.

Im not sure about that. Bowyer was sacked with us 16th in the League. We finished 15th. You look at his jobs since too, awful recent record. All talk IMO. What is with the looking down the nose towards Dyches style ? Dyches football has been successful consistently over a few years, getting them into the top 10 again in the Premier League. Effective and not horrible to watch as people would have you believe. More goals last season than Sheffield United and the Brighton side you regularly laud under Graham Potter.

I think most of the excitement around him has fizzled out to be honest. Last season, in 21 starts and 15 sub appearances, his end product was a deflected goal v Reading, a second goal v West Brom and 2 assists. 2 goals and 2 assists in the season before too. The wide areas need to be fixed, we have not had players in those positions for quite a while who have been effective. Even Armstrong was far better centrally. I suspect they will continue to be neglected. I dont see how Chapman can fall into that same category baring in mind his season compromised of 78 minutes across 5 sub appearances.

Did he do a particularly groundbreaking job at either Wycombe or Colchester? That is true and surprising, but looking at their points per game, Lambert collected 1.33 points per game and Bowyer collected 1.44 points per game. Lambert just had that ability to appear like a man with a plan based on what he said, and obviously it had become stagnant under Bowyer. Lambert chose to sell Rhodes and brought in a number of substantial loans, Graham was a very good one, the likes of Gomez, Watt, Grimes etc far more underwhelming. And the likes of Bennett, Jackson and Ward were just him signing players he already knew.

Also @chaddyrovers what would you do if you was manager? Would you prioritise getting that defence solid and keeping the ball out of the net, or would you only consider "ball playing defenders?" Our central midfield partnership of Evans and Travis is a very effective one but its not the best in terms of keeping possession. They are decent on the ball but their strength lies in putting themselves about, pressing the opposition. With those 2 and then plenty of athleticism and youth in front, we should focus on pressing teams and getting in their faces far more often. That is what the game plan should be built around. Do we have the players to be totally dominating games? Not for me. Also, tactics like false 9's, wide strikers etc dont work but Mowbray chooses them. If we can get an Adarabioyo who can do both, excellent, but we need a left back, centre back and experienced goalkeeper who can help us get well down from the 60+ goals conceded, thats the priority. If we sign this Dickie that you mention, has he got the calibre to be able to single handily pass the ball out like Adarabioyo did, baring in mind that Lenihan is very limited on the ball himself? And one of our main midfielders in Johnson is abysmal at picking the ball up on the half turn. Once we do that, if we can keep Dack and Armstrong and get them working together, then we might have half a chance. I dont think these 2 are realistic necessarily, but I would love us to push the boat out for Van Der Hoorn or Ayala. Both would command high wages, but both are proven at this level, both are free agents and proper defenders and would make a very good partnership with Lenihan. But are they fancy enough for our manager and his delusions of grandeur?

Off on a tangent but I dont think the BBC punditry is all bad, Lineker, Shearer and Wright are good together and I enjoyed the lockdown podcasts they did. Its once you start getting to your Murphys, Keowns and Phil Neville that both charisma and intelligence go out of the window.

Hes the absolute master of PR though. Here, he knew that Venkys were the enemy. The results and football werent great, so what does he do? Announce that he is leaving due to Venkys and criticises them publically and he goes out as a hero. At Ipswich, when results were really poor, he pulled out the "pay for the supporters travel" trick when (a couple of 100) fans came to Ewood. And all the way through he has slagged off the chairman and the owners publically which initially at least got the fans onside and ignoring the dismal job he is doing

Lets hope he can do the basics first because if we dont tighten up then we wont get near the play offs and our better players will leave.

If that role is anything other than conceding as few goals as is possible then we have problems.

Whatever your source is, maybe best to ignore it next time! And maybe dont prematurely big yourself and the source up 2 days before the player goes elsewhere on the back of Nixon posting the rumour in the paper ?

Have you seen his work at Ipswich, or indeed at Stoke, Wolves or Villa? I think its fair to say that a team with Williams and Bennett at wing back and Lenihan in central midfield isnt going to be challenging. I dont think Coyle chose to sell his best 2 centre backs willingly. Mowbray has made mistakes and has plenty of flaws but hes certainly better than that chancer!

Not necessarily disagreeing with much regarding Mowbray but Lambert would not have spent 15m on strengthening the team, not successfully anyway!