What is Plan A? Clearly didnt work that well.

Brilliant penalty save by Raya.

Lets get plan A sorted before we worry about Plan B. And no false 9, box midfield, wide strikers crap.

Do we disagree on how those behind the striker should play? You never say what your opinion is, just repeatedly state what Mowbray does and doesnt do. Do you agree with wide strikers or do you prefer wingers to play there? You dont need to change a formation to have a "Plan B" but either way, you perfect Plan A first. You can change players. For example, Dack off Armstrong is plan A. Plan B could be to move Armstrong wide and put Gallagher up front. Struggling to break a team down with Travis and Evans in midfield? Put a Downing or Holtby there. Stick to the same formation all the time and it promotes consistency.

Mercer is trying to provoke and antagonise. Either way, "some people" dont expect academy players to all be Phil Jones and David Dunn, one person claims to in an attempt to wind up and cast doom. Tosin as a defender maybe slightly overrated, its his technical ability that makes him stand out. Either way, the main difference is the fact that had we signed Bauer, we could have had a long term partnership at CB. In essence, Adarabioyo just helped us finish mid table. If we had Raya and Bauer now, this very difficult summer would be far less difficult than it is now. Regarding Raya, thats 3 errors, if a goalkeeper makes 3 errors a season, youd take that. Its when it gets above 10 that you have a problem. Selling Raya for peanuts, loaning a crap temporary keeper and signing Gallagher with the Raya money was a dismal three pronged bit of business.

You mean Mercer does, a man who is a parody of himself with his daily administration predictions? Not "some people" Carter was ok v Reading, no more. Wasnt directly responsible for any of the goals but defensively we were poor again. The own goal was poor on his behalf, no escaping that, and one of numerous signs of him struggling. What you cant grasp with Raya is that it is almost as if for you, its mistakes or no mistakes, black or white. He has made far fewer errors which doesnt compute with you. Every goalkeeper makes them, hes made far less this year. Waltons problem is not that he made a mistake or 2, he made over 10. You wont acknowledge that even though hes still certainly not perfect, hes getting better and making fewer mistakes. And again like with Paul Mani you are totally looking short term when judging signings that were short term and helped us finish mid table. Whilst also judging the manager not on who he did sign but who he didnt sign but tried to, even though you dont know who they are! Would you be happier now if we had Bauer and Raya? Of course you would, and we could have had both and not got Gallagher.

@Paul Mani how is Bauer now sub standard? You described him as 7 out of 10, which is far from sub standard. Also claiming that Williams is a 7 out of 10 standard Championship defender which is crazy. How is replacing Raya with Walton "arguable?" Walton is clearly more error prone and again critically, no longer our player. You sign a loan player ideally to push you on that final last step. I suspect that after a mid table season, that it is pretty obvious that if we had Raya and Bauer at this moment in time, we would be in a better place than just having Gallagher. If we signed that level of player this summer youd be over the moon. Now we have a real task on our hand filling those 2 positions.

Either way, your system is to complicated for me, false 9 should be an experiment never to be repeated. A 4-2-3-1 is much simpler. It doesnt have to involve direct play like we played with Graham, but we dont need to come up with complicated formations or copy off other teams.

Is Derrick Williams a middle of the road Championship defender?! I must have been watching a different player in the last 4 years. Is a 7/10 defender who heads away more balls than anyone in the league a pretty desirable thing to have! We would certainly take that now. Instead we downplayed his chance of starting for us (he would walk into our defence) and let him go, in the end getting a temporary CB (who is obviously far better technically but a FAR better cb? Lenihan is a better defender than Adarabioyo I would suggest) which on the back of a mid table finish has left a hole again that could have been permanently fixed. Dodged a bullet? Do me a favour. Mr elite football? Agenda? You've lost me. Clean sheet record? I am not sure from when that record is, but he conceded 63 goals this season, surely that is the most important stat, and it is still bottom half level defending and has cost us. I have seen him play and he definitely has improved, he looks far less eccentric, I am sure coupled with playing for a team that prioritises its defence. He will always make errors, goalkeepers do, its the quantity that is important and it has come right down this season. So has the number of goals that have gone into his net. I will say that he did not fill me with confidence and I will not pretend that I was his biggest fan. It is the low fee, coupled with how we used that and the inferior temporary replacement that came in that rankles. Again, it goes back to forward planning. We could have easily had a permanent, talented goalkeeper and a solid and reliable partner for Lenihan at the moment. Instead, we have a poor striker.

He scored many of the goals from playing central early in 2020. Plus assisted eg v Sheffield Wednesday.

I certainly did not even hint that I expect academy players to be of that standard. For example my analysis of Carter was from a Championship game v Luton in which his game was riddled with errors, not because he didnt play like Phil Jones. I havent written him off, I just dont think he is ready at this time. Surely Bauer should have been prioritised based on the fact that he would have been a longer term solution? From what I have seen, he is a very capable Championship CB, I think he won the most aeriel duels in the League this season, Preston conceded 9 less goals than us this season. To compare him to Williams seems a little strange.

Just a simple 4-2-3-1. Trying to copy other teams or come up with complicated and inconsistent formations does not breed familiarity and consistent results. Nyambe is not good enough in the air to be a centre back, and Dack has played as a false 9 in the past with no success, he isnt suited to being a striker. Expecting Downing to regularly play as a wing back at his age is unrealistic, and Armstrong should play centrally when possible. Rankin Costello is a winger so like Chapman should compete for that position. No more strikers out wide, Armstrong can be effective there should Gallagher hit some form but of course as a central striker. Holtby could potentially play wide right too, Rothwell left, but we need a winger, certainly far more than a central midfielder. Whether Mowbray will I am unsure before people jump up saying he doesnt play wingers, and we were linked with a few in January so maybe there is hope.

People have a natural confirmation bias. There is an element of fairness there based on judging players on their overall performances throughout the season, but of course an unfairness in that it is more difficult to judge players on the individual game that the topic relates to. For example, if Nyambe and Bell both had poor games, the reason that Bell may suffer more criticism is that Bell is poor more often than not, and Nyambe is good more often than not. If Bennett gives a penalty away, he has done so many times before so it will be further proof that he is a liability in that regard. If Nyambe or Travis did, it is more uncommon and not a common theme.

Fair enough. I feel at times that youngsters performance are bigged up or if negative, dismissed purely because they are young. But I cannot argue with your post.

Interesting that pre season is 3 weeks away! Reckon we will have a budget by then?

My point is more that I think some (not aiming this at yourself) seem to see "being patient" as unwilling to accept any doubts, any criticism of individual performances from specific games, even if it is done constructively. Take Carter for example, I thought he looked well off v Luton, was ok v Reading despite the 3 goals, but not just the own goal, his passing, his dealing with the high balls, his positional play with the ball in behind, I thought he was a massive weak link. For me, thats not being impatient to say, it is from my opinion being honest about his individual performance and how I see him currently in terms of if hes able to contribute to a supposed promotion chasing side, or indeed at this level. If I said he will never make it etc, fair play, but I said loan out and see how he does. You then look at Wharton, he broke through mid season, in a worse team, at a really tough time, and for me looked far more at home, but still probably a bit short. Centre back for me is a really difficult area to break through. Throw in 3 loans in League 2 where he will not only have developed physically and toughened up, but seemingly really impressed overall. When he broke through, I suspect although I didn't think he was out of his depth in the same way as Carter looked v Luton, With Rankin Costello, he definitely doesnt look out of place in the same way. Technically he looks fine, clearly not a full back, but he has been competent even if the praise has been at times over the top. I think for what its worth, considering that Dack will be back, that Holtby is more effective (even if he has been at times a drifter) as back up, we have Brereton and Gallagher who could play with Armstrong, I think the time Buckley would get would be minimal, he isnt a wide man either, he would benefit from a season in League 1. I think you have been a little harsh on Evans, not in terms of his overall Rovers career, which has been disappointing and underwhelming in the most part. But statistically him and Travis together is a winning combination and I think he has had a good season when he has played. Downing for me is better central as he doesnt have the pace to play wide anymore, and he does have the technical ability and can play on the half turn. That being said, defensively he is lacking. Can only play with Travis.

I totally agree that we need to get into a position whereby our academy graduates are not only providing assets (Travis, Lenihan, Nyambe, Raya) but also padding out the squad to a degree too. I also agree that the league is But I would actually say that people overcompensate for our academy graduates at times which I can totally appreciate. Take Rankin Costello. He has been ok at left back, a role he admittedly is not used to. In terms of stand out qualities, I havent seen much. No crosses that I can remember bar mishit ones. Bit of naivety sliding around in the build up to one of Readings goals, but again, not a full back. But he seems to be right in strong contention for man of the match by many. Would that be the case if he wasnt an academy graduate breaking in? Not sure. Think hes one who can provide competition as you alude to, out wide as his natural position. We are still a little in the dark as to how much impact he can have there. Also take Carter. If a senior player put in the performance he did, he would have been absolutely slated and rightly so. All over the shop. Im all for having more patience but for me it showed that hes not ready yet. Wharton hasnt proven that he is ready playing in League 2 but regularly excelling there, standing out, surely he is well above of Carter at the moment. Because he isnt on the inner circle on terms of having gone out on loan, he shouldnt be forgotten about. Buckley is maybe a little more complex, he seems to be like marmite, due to his lack of physicality. Hes victim of his position at the moment. That being said, understandably I think he would evoke more patience/praise than say a Holtby for a similar performance. I suspect that it is unrealistic to expect a further sudden surge of academy graduates all breaking through next season. We are already very reliant on our academy in fairness. Maybe sometimes we underappreciate our more experienced players at times. For example, Evans despite his good performances and relationship with Travis, has almost been written off. Davenport seems the flavour of the month. Downing again, written off.

Very true. Plus I can sort of understand it if the only 2 options are stay on a higher wage or go further down on a lower wage, we would all find it difficult to cut thousands of pounds a week away. I think we can focus on the clubs perspective more and query why we are handing out new deals as rewards as if they are going out of fashion. The line "hes looking after them as humans" doesnt cut it.

Perhaps, I think the last sentence is definitely a figment of a supporters imagination at times.

Cant see Ayala touching us with a barge pole or us affording his wages. Not sure why the whole Barnsley squad is on there but I dont think Woodrow for example is out of contract. Going to be a tough market with so many teams reliant on freebies plus us at a disadvantage actually agreeing on a budget. Quite a few on there that take the eye but probably out of our league financially, Lyle Taylor, Jordan Ibe, Jackson Irvine, Steven Fletcher, Jack Colback etc. Suspect that Morgan Fox, Brad Smith, Demetri Mitchell and Steven Kingsley are the most obvious left backs, again youd ask if any are going to improve us. Tom Lockyer is available for nothing from Charlton, Welsh International CB. Maya Yoshida, experienced CB. Danny Ward from Cardiff up front. Just feels like these players are very much scraping the bottom of the barrel, suspect we will need to be a little more imaginative if we want to improve. Surely our new, famous European scouting network will pick gems off the continent and we wont even need to look at this anyway...

In an ideal world perhaps, but due to the negligence around the defence, we only have one competent centre back. Undoubtedly need a partner of quality, difficult to find on minimal budget but without that we could struggle so I am sure it is a priority. If we want to keep a young defender around the first team, it has to be Wharton. Not to start. Carter looked well off it in his dress rehearsal. No matter what Wharton did in League 2, as you suggest there is always a limit to what you can read from that, but a third promotion, individual awards, plenty of praise and a desire to keep him in League 1 suggests that he does have something.

Yep, very important in League 1, not a Championship level player but just what we needed when we went down. Don't blame him for sitting on his contract either, anyone would struggle to rip up a years worth of wages higher than he could have got anywhere else, we handed out far too many to average players when we got promoted, Smallwood, Williams, Bennett, Mulgrew etc, I suspect that all of them could be off the payroll now had we not done that.

As I said, I think you are trying to read between the lines to see what you want to see. I read the quotes at face value, plus obviously we know what our disinterested and backwards owners are like. Links and rumours are one thing but pretty meaningless at this stage. Some get excited about the merest whiff of a rumour which is fair enough. Even if there is truth in any of them, having no budget doesnt mean that Mowbray isnt interested in players anyway. Just that he is stuck in limbo. One thing I am sure of is that central midfield is well, well down the list of priorities.

Im always skeptical of transfer rumours because 99% of the time they are false and Sparks Rovers even said that it might just be a meeting (ie not post budget agreement) because Mowbray said the night before that he has no clarity on the budget. Also Mowbray said hes not looking for a CM so must have been a change of mind in that regard. If you or anyone chooses to believe that there is a strong interest or that he likes the player I can understand, to then assume a decent transfer kitty seems a massive stretch to me. Regarding our need for a central midfielder, I dont discount that one might be useful, but certainly not a priority until defence and goalkeepers are sorted, plus a winger or 2, if there is any room left after that. Certainly no considerable fees there. I suspect it will be loans and frees considering the economic climate. Evans injury problems are a concern although his last 2 have been unfortunate, fractured skull and broken toe. There is also Downing who is certainly no longer a wide man. Agreed on priorities, I would be amazed and concerned if Mowbrays first signing was a central midfielder for a decent fee.