roversfan99

But he also inherited a 35m strikeforce at Championship level, one with 84 international caps and who had interest from big European teams, and another proven goalscorer who is top scorer in the league. If that doesnt Bony, Olsson, Narsingh, Fer and Montero barely played last season and Ayew was out on loan so hes hardly handicapped losing any of them. Most of the cutbacks have absolutely no effect on the manager.

No way that Lenihan is a competent Championship midfielder, he is really poor on the ball and his aeriel ability and bravery would be somewhat wasted there. I wasnt impressed at all with him when he broke into the side in midfield when he was struggling to push ahead of Lowe, Akpan et al. He is definitely a centre back for me, but hes one who always has a big mistake in him, he can be colossal but he is often rash and gets rushes of blood to the head. You are also suggesting moving Travis wide to make room for him? Seems a bit remiss to ask for Bennett to be dropped at right back to then play another midfielder there, surely Nyambe is our only actual right back? Armstrong is an enigma, when he does play up front he looks totally ineffective, v Hull he couldnt time his runs correctly and was forever offside, and when he did got through he never looked like scoring.

Interesting to see Boltons fans reactions (elation being the main one) on social media to some absolute dross from well beneath the bottom of the barrel that they have signed. I make that comment totally aware of the situation they have been, and are in at the moment, so of course even being able to sign 9 players in a day and be able to piece together some senior players and actually have a side to watch is all that matters. Liam Bridcutt on a short term loan and the ageing Darryl Murphy are probably the highlights, the likes of Chris O'Grady and Joe Bunney very much low lights.

Looks like Ayew is staying at Swansea, with him and Baston as a 35m and seemingly happy to be there strikeforce, with 5m Celina there too, youd have to fancy them for a top 2 push. Great win at Leeds too.

No point debating a game neither of us have seen. For me he looks like a central midfielder who needs to be become capable of stamping his authority on games. Theres more to it than individual mistakes (although Armstrong is a repeat offender and Mowbrays assertion that his "cross country like running going back" last season makes him a safer pick than Rothwell is utter rubbish) we often capitulate away from home like on Saturday. That stat is still somewhat galling in terms of Gallaghers ability to get involved in play, but whilst I dont rate him nor think hes come close to his first league goal our attacking failings are across the board and this new attractivr style is nowhere to be seen.

As I said in the post you quoted, he is technically good but he hasnt actually created anything of note in his cameos in the first team. Even against Oldham he was incredibly ineffective. I suspect that he is only played further forward to make his lack of physicality less of an issue. In that second half we didnt really pose a substantial threat and I dont recall him creating a chance. Not seeing a team developing towards a play off push from the first 6 games. Our inability to create clear cut chances or offer a goal threat is a huge concern and Gallagher wont do anything to rectify that. Meanwhile, any hopes that our collapses away from home are a thing of the past have been put to bed.

Buckley is technically good but I dont see where you could justify starting him. Made his first couple of appearances central but unfortunately far too lightweight. Presumably that played a part in puttting him further forward but not sure he does anything in terms of goal threat or more specifically creating chances.

Shame that neither have shown signs of that as of yet.

Our results and performances so far do not indicate we have a cat in hells chance of a top 6 challenge. Went yesterday and didnt enjoy it at all. Usually it takes money to turn a team that finishes in the bottom half into a play off contender. The 15m weve chucked down the drain is galling. Gallagher offered absolutely nothing again, and was rightly hauled off, so ineffective. Armstrong couldnt be arsed again, and offered nothing. And what is Mowbrays obsession with playing Downing right and Armstrong left, it repeatedly doesnt work, it nullifies both even more, yet he keeps trying it. The fact that Dack ended up spending any of the game as a false 9, one of Mowbrays stupid failed experiments from last season rearing its ugly head again, says it all. A lot of talk as to Buckley's impact, he was neat and tidy but offers nothing particularly productive. Travis was good, Johnson terrible, Lenihan awful for that third goal with the sort of mistake he makes every 2 or 3 games, Cunningham was surprisingly poor too.

Totally agree on Rothwell, there is no justified reasom for him starting the season on the bench. Also to a lesser extent would agree on Nyambe. Think its unfair to blame him on Travis for hypothetical reasons, hes been a regular since he broke in.

That doesnt excuse the wide men not offering a goal threat, ultimately the main reason is the actual players chosen to play there. The first type is defensive wingers, thankfully he seems to have moved away from choosing the likes of Bennett, Conway and an out of position Reed (the latter 2 have obviously gone) purely because they work hard and irrespective of an inability to aid attacks. The second type of wide man he chooses is wide forwards, something he keeps trying now to little/no success. Gallagher, Brereton and Samuel have all played in wide roles, I think because Mowbray wants to give big signings for him game time but doesnt fully trust them, leaving them looking somewhat of a fish out of water out wide. Good to see Chapman on the score sheet again tonight.

@SkipDonoghue any team news?

I think that the wide areas have been quite a weak area throughout the teams that Mowbray has played, and in terms of us "scoring plenty of goals," I would suggest that goal and assist contributions have been pretty poor from that area, and we have been incredibly reliant Graham and Dack (often assisting each other) partnership and from our former set piece specialist of a centre back. The likes of Gallagher, Brereton and Samuel when played wide as wide forwards I think it would be difficult to argue have been anything other that in the main, incredibly ineffective and noticeably uncomfortable in those areas. Their combined goal and assist return from these positions would likely make for grim reading. There was also the "defensive winger" thing that Mowbray seems to have thankfully started to phase out, with the likes of Bennett, Conway and the out of position Reed mustering up a lack of attacking threat. The main success was Armstrong in his first half season in League 1, a constant menace from a wide role. Last season Mowbray had perhaps too much patience with him, and also didnt help by IMO playing him wide left where he is less effective, but even so, he was poor far more often than good and his numbers were fairly underwheming. Rothwell and Chapman are the 2 exciting and seemingly most natural players in these positions but due to the cautious nature of the manager, have ultimately both struggled for game time. Rothwell is the main one, only a couple of goals and a couple of assists but they came at the end of last season when he was excellent, started this season on the bench. Chapman under utilised in his first spell and ignored in his second spell. Downing seems to be someone who can hopefully get decent numbers in terms of scoring and assisting, and was superb v Hull, but you look at his stats in recent years and also obviously his age and there are perhaps question marks on whether he can really improve our goal contributions and also even if he can, for how long.

Nothing like a bit of hyperbole to make your point. He isnt a defender so he cant be the worst defender in the world.

To give them any credit for us not about to go out of business like Bury would be the least illogical thing ever.

Walton Bennett Lenihan Williams Cunningham Travis Johnson Rothwell Dack Downing Gallagher Subs: Leutwiler (sadly), Nyambe, Evans, Chapman, Armstrong, Graham, Rankin - Costello Gallagher and Bennett wouldnt have been in, but for me Gallagher has to start centrally after his goal yesterday and as much as I think Nyambe is better than Bennett, it would be harsh to drop the latter after 3 clean sheets.

He got an injury right at the beginning of pre season and then soon returned and started playing regularly for the under 23s, he was back fit well before the end of pre season. Mowbray has never seemed to have any faith in him, even when he signed he said he doesnt seem him as a potential starter any time soon and was quite critical of him in general presumably as an attempt to dampen down supporters wanting to see him. He definitely should be above Gallagher and Brereton in a wide role, neither are competent there but both have played there this season. Armstrong as you say Nothing to do with the "anti Mowbray no matter what" group people just want to see him given a chance in a position thats been at times somewhat of a problem position under Mowbray in terms of direct attacking contributions.

Hes been fit all season and managed 20 minutes v Oldham?

Smallwood played a poor back pass which led to the corner in the first place to be fair.

Why? Quite a few of the younger players who played looked out of their depth, notably the centre backs. Being away at a Premier League team surely wont "suit us" more than a home tie against a League 2 club.

In terms of attacking threat he has done very little and has never really looked like scoring in my opinion. People will judge players on their performances, and it makes perfect sense that people have regularly praised a defence on the back of 3 clean sheets, and also questioned an attack that gas yet to score from open play. Gallagher has played every game and is a big part of said failing attack. If you have such a problem with what you perceive to be the nature of the messageboard, what do you get from regularly reading and posting out of interest? Again, seemingly as an attempt to be funny, you have taken something massively out of context. Gallagher as an individual was far more effective under Coyle than Mowbray during his loan spell, as proven statistically. Blackburn Rovers were far less effective under Coyle. They arent mutually exclusive.

To clarify, that initial comment about Lowe was one you took out of context as a "comparison" when he was just highlighting a specific part of chaddys post showing the folly of praising a player so much for his work rate. Who has said he should be as good as Graham straight away? Totally made up argument. If your mentality is that you shouldnt judge yet, fair enough but others will and have the right to do so. I dont believe he should be in our starting 11 at this time on merit. I personally totally agree with @DE. in regards to what I also perceive to be a lack of attacking threat from Gallagher and also that Mowbrays appointment coinceded with a decrease in his effectiveness first time around.

Doesnt look like a comparison to me, more that the fact that Gallagher worked hard isnt enough to justify a place in the team. Look at Wilders comments over the weekend about work rate not being something to applaud.

Dont understand why youd change our formation away from our usual one only to change it back at the weekend. That second paragraph has nothing to do with my point about Chapman. Give him a start see what he can do and let him put a marker down to potentially improve our impotent attack. Totally get rotating the squad, totally get that the league is the main priority, cannot remotely empathise with Rovers fans saying they dont care about it.

Surely a cup game is a perfect chance to give an exciting attacking player a chance for a team who havent scored a goal in open play in 5 league games. Giving him a 20 minute cameo is a waste of time and he may aswell continue to fester in the reserves.