roversfan99

If we appointed Ainsworth and it was even 1% because of who he supports then it would be for the wrong reasons. He should be considered simply for work hes done as a manager.

Of course, we are in agreement that obviously a manager makes a huge difference and we need a new one but you can only do so much and our squad is lacking in so many areas. Never mind a defence not being top 4, ours isnt top half, its one of the worst in the league!

Preston have Daniel Johnson, the 2 centre backs too, Davies and Bauer. I dont doubt that Neil is perhaps overachieving, but theyve got a better and more balanced squad. Part of the problem is the lack of balance in our squad. Goalkeeper, we havent good any good ones. Centre back, question marks over all 3 of them. Right back, Nyambe is our best bet, still very raw. Left back, very unfortunate with Cunninghams injury, Bell and Williams both repeatedly prove their incompetence. Central midfield, Travis is our best one, top 6 quality? Not for me, certainly not yet, quite a bit off Pearson and Gallagher for example. Johnson seems past it. Wide, weve got Downing who is usually fairly ineffective, Armstrong is rubbish, Rothwell probably our best bet there but has never himself proven himself to be capable of regularly scoring/assisting, plus possibly more natural in a central role, contrast them with Barkhuizen, much more natural there, always puts in a shift, always chipping in with goals. Number 10, Dack yes I will give you, Holtby has the CV to suggest he is up to it, been mixed so far (excellent v Huddersfield, OK v Sheff Weds, awful yesterday) but to get him in the team in his natural position youd have to drop our best player. Up top, only one competent striker and hes 34 and out of favour, seemingly written off. I agree that we could be a bit higher up the table but we are nowhere near good enough to be in that top 6.

Because he hasnt been starting games, he has been dropped right from the start of the season for Downing, a managers favourite who at his age despite being neat and tidy is often ineffective and laboured. He was excellent on the left hand side for a continued run of games last season, he should have been starting this season from day 1. Armstrong and Downing have started 14 games, Rothwell was a stand out wide player for us at the end of last season, hes not one of the managers favourites though and has started 4, all tough away games in isolation before being singled out and dropped as a result. Getting 15/20 minutes at the end is totally different.

Rothwell never gets played, unless you spelt Downing wrong.

With ineffective players like Downing and Armstrong down the wings, teams know that if they stop Dack, they stop us.

You get a sense of a teams character away from home. Our last 4 away games, all defeats, have included limp, heartless displays at Birmingham and Leeds, a battering at QPR and a total inevitable surrender at PNE. Theres your good group.

Thats a depressing list. Alan Pardew in particular I will presume is a joke. We need to have a bit of ambition, aim for the best rather than settling for no marks. Hughton, Bowyer or Ainsworth for me.

It seems a totally baseless statement to make. Which of our players are top 6 quality? Only Dack IMO. We finished 15th last season and have regressed since. The manager takes much of the blame I agree, and I also think that the quality of the games in this league is poor, but ultimately Mowbray has not built a particularly good squad for the money hes had. Poor goalkeeper, incompetent defence, no width, no goals, no leaders, its a bottom half squad hes built I think, maybe a good manager could have us in mid table.

He has played a stupid 4-1-4-1 formation a couple of times recently, Dack should be feeding off our striker, he is not a central midfielder but he has been played there. Ultimately with a crap striker like Gallagher, Dack wont be able to get the ball in areas where he can hurt teams. If he would rather be stubborn to his philosophy even though it quite clearly is less effective (and more drab) then hes an even bigger idiot than we think. He did it in League 1 after a dozen games, ripped up the way that was causing us to underachieve. Your "job on the line" comment makes no sense, surely stubbornness at the cost of results is the exact kind of thing that costs managers jobs? Sadly ours is not a normal run club, the owners dont care and the CEO is Mowbrays mate so hes here for as long as he wants. Our side at the moment also lacks bollocks, lets be honest. We dont have any characters really. For the next game, Bennett, Downing, Gallagher and Armstrong need to be dropped, I would bring in Lenihan, Johnson, Graham and Rothwell, dont be afraid of going more direct, the last 4 away games have summed up our manager and team, surrendered at QPR, a really limp display at Birmingham, a total surrender at Preston and another limp display yesterday.

Youve said numerous times to me that my suggestion of Lee Bowyer is unrealistic. Re Ainsworth, couldnt give a shite who he supports or what "style" of football he plays, he seems to be very good at winning football matches so thats why he should be in the reckoning IMO. Hughton has to be the first point of call, we may aswell at least ask the question, we can speculate on the money we offer, the money we want or the jobs hes rumoured to have turned down, the managers the most important person so if it takes a bit more money we should spend it, if he turns us down move on to the next one.

The time has certainly come to abandon this playing it out from the back bollocks that quite clearly wont work with the players we have, its so slow and its far less entertaining even than the shite on offer last season which is saying something. Graham should be the first name on the team sheet from now on. Sometimes we need to go a little more direct to get from back to front quicker and he is the only capable forward we have, Gallagher, Armstrong and Brereton are all horrendous signings that cost big money. If it means playing off Graham and getting the players we have, Dack, Rothwell and Holtby playing off him in dangerous areas (far too much of Dack and Holtby playing in their own half in recent weeks, pointless) and trying to keep teams pinned in their defensive thirds then thats how we should play. Mowbray need to go, if he stays he would need to abandon his stupid philosophies which he quite clearly is too stubborn to do. Trying to play out from the back just causes us problems, its incredibly slow and we cant break down teams. You look at our goalkeeper, he cant handle the ball, all of our defenders cant bar Adarabioyo (whose weaknesses come with the bread and butter of defending) and our central midfielders cant play on the half turn, I think the likes of Travis and even Johnson have their merits but playing it out slowly on the half turn they will always struggle.

Mowbrays interview certainly was predictable. Spent the whole time blaming the ref and no questions or answers about our inability to play 2 passes or to offer any goal threat. Or why hes spent so much money on shit. Given an easy ride and also trying to cover up his own inadequacies.

I dont think theres any chance of Mowbray being sacked sadly for the reasons I gave. They are allowing Mowbrays mate to keep things "ticking over" and he wont sack his mate. Jobs for the boys.

Even if you inserted a capable pair of defenders and striker in terms of top 6 standard I still dont think we would have a top 6 standard team. Walton had very little to do in fairness today, Leeds were pretty wasteful I would suggest considering their dominance, but in general he is not up to it IMO. Defensively, you say 2, but none of our defenders are top 6 standard so youd still be short. Midfield, weve made some fairly high profile signings but still treat the ball like a hot potato, our pass rate today was embarassing. Definitely not a top 6 standard midfield. Basically the summary is I would say Dack perhaps is our only potential player who you could say is top 6 quality.

Out of interest, do you stand by the claim that the current group of players and a different manager could compete for the top 6?

Absolute crap, somewhat misleading score doesnt show quite how bad we were, again. You find out about a teams character away from home, we continuously show that we dont have any. Again im sure the manager will blame the referee, but we cant control that, where we can control we are sadly lacking. 50.6% passing rate is embarrassing, couldn't string 2 passes together, no attacking threat, no passion or commitment, bizarre subs. Looking more and more unanimous that Mowbray needs to go now, but sadly with disinterested and absent owners and his incompetent mate running things, theres no chance of that and we will continue to have to watch shit week in week out. Armstrong and Gallagher continue to make a mockery of the money Mowbray has blown on 3 awful attackers if you include the currently absent Brereton. Armstrong quite clearly cannot be arsed, Gallagher offers nothing either, but they both play every week. Dack again quiet although if anyone was going to do something it is always him. Downing bar one good corner was absolutely hapless throughout, his influence has been overstated, even in his good games hes little more than neat and tidy. Holtby a total passenger in the middle, Travis did some decent things but I think this season he has proven that he is a little overrated, even if he is our best central midfielder. Defensively, Williams not great, Bennett missing for the second and horrendous on the ball, Tosin ok for most of it but cost us for that first goal with some really weak defending, Nyambe quite blatantly not a centre back.

He did.

Why he was pulling out in that position I have no idea, but he still clumsily made contact.

Did you actually see it or just listen on the radio? I thought it probably was, either way, Adarabioyo totally bottled it, incredibly flimsy, cowardly, passive defending which sums up our defending as a whole, both today and in general. We have been absolutely horrendous. On the ball, we have been nothing short of a joke, it has shown the stats on screen at half time and our passing accuracy is 49%. We have had 26.1% possession. No one has had any composure throughout the team. Literally nobody comes out of that half with any credit, but Armstrong deserves a special mention because he has been particularly terrible. Not only does he do nothing going forward, he quite clearly cant be arsed and never does anything going back, regardless of what Mowbray says about him. The manager is again to blame, partially for building such a poor squad, no matter what people say this squad is never a top 6 challenging one regardless of manager, although the current manager is doing a great job of making them look worse than they are. Lets hope these comments look a little premature at full time but dont let the 2-1 scoreline fool you, we have been embarrassing.

Bloody hope not! Dack dropped?

Do you trust Mowbray to sign the players we need, out of interest?

Mowbray wont spend any funds even if he got any on defenders as we all know. Pantillimon is crap, theres a reason hes nowhere near Forests team anymore. We wont ger out of the bottom half with the likes of Bennett in our team. That implies that Venkys have a sensible plan in place. Spending milllions and millions on non scoring strikers is the plan.

Yeah we do, but doubt Mowbray will fix our defensive problems. All 3 positions you mention are major issues, a right back ideally too to compete with Nyambe and we can get rid of Bennett.

Seems a bit of an overreaction to pay that sort of hefty and random fee based on one game when hes underwhelmed prior, its a big if that he will now continue with that performance level based on what weve seen.