Greg Cunningham signs on season-long loan from Cardiff

[davulsukur]

Just now, JoeH said:

For me you've got:

RB: Bennett, Nyambe, Rankin-Costello
CB: Williams, Tosin, Nyambe, Grayson, Doyle
LB: Bell, Hart, Downing, Davenport, Thompson

It's easily the worst defence in the division.

Genuinely must be one of, if not the worst.

Another nail in the Mowbray coffin, failure to address the defense in the summer.

We are kippered now without Cunningham and Lenihan. None of the formations fill me with any confidence.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Murphy's Law dictates that Williams will certainly pick up an injury on international duty.

 

Assuming Murphy shows us mercy and Williams doesn't play / get injured, for me we must now go with a back 3. There is no way we can have Bell playing ever again.

For me we need to go :-

                    Walton

    Nyambe   Toshin   Williams

                   Johnson

Bennett   Travis   Holtby   Downing

         Dack   Armstrong (1st 60) / Graham

 

 

[Maji]

There won't be any major changes to the formation, TM is not so bold. 

It will be either Williams or Bell. 

I'd be tempted to try Downing there but he's done well playing further forward. Regardless of who he chooses it will make us weaker defensively, which sucks as we are leaking goals presently. 

[Parsonblue]

2 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Nyambe and Williams at centre half ! You'd get 42 games out of 42 with Matt Woods but he looked like he'd been carved out of a block of marble !

One of my favourite players in my youth.  A man mountain of a defender.  It's worrying the number of injuries that Lenihan picks up for one so young.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Apparently the treatment room received a fax which simply read....

"Defenders are coming"

[Mercer]

5 minutes ago, Parsonblue said:

One of my favourite players in my youth.  A man mountain of a defender.  It's worrying the number of injuries that Lenihan picks up for one so young.

So true.

I think so many of our injuries are 'self inflicted'.  I think our once decent medical / science department has, like most areas of the club, been 'dumbed down'.  I don't think we even have our own club doctor now and rely upon a local Whalley GP who's classed as a 'consultant'

Our once famed fitness and durability (remember the Hughes (in particular) and Allardyce eras) are things of the past.  For years now, when I watch us, the opposition all seem to be a yard or two quicker and snappier and have far more stamina (perhaps illustrated by the substantial number of goals we seem to concede in the last quarter of games).

It doesn't help the cause when we sign players like Chapman who have poor injury records.  Then we have the likes of Davenport who seems to have been injured ever since we signed him from City.

All clubs suffer bad injuries (breaks, cruciates etc) but surely, notwithstanding that, we need to be signing tough, robust individuals who we know are going to be available for 90%+ of our games.

I think our defensive crisis lies entirely at the door of Mowbray.  There simply cannot be any excuses.  'Defenders are arriving' - well they feckin didn't and it's going to be hugely challenging to even stay out of the bottom six now instead of challenging the top six.

Bottom line, IMO, is Mowbray isn't up to it and never was.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Mercer

[jim mk2]

Just now, Mercer said:

 

Bottom line, IMO, is Mowbray isn't up to it and never was.

Quite right, so why do you put money on us winning easily every week?

How about you naming the odds on Mowbray going before the end of the season.

Whatever you bet, I'll do the opposite.

Surefire money winner. 

[CraigF]

Bad news that Lenihan is out for 2 months or more. 

Terrible from Tony and the club not to sign any proper defenders. Everyone knew that our defence was poor but nothing was done properly to address the issues. How we lament PNE signing Bauer now, that’s exactly what we needed. Some bloke who lives for heading the ball! 

Lenihan hasn’t played a full season for us, probs could say that he’s injury prone. Williams, Bell, and Bennett not up to the correct standard etc. 

Can see us going for a back 5 due to the weakness in our squad and to have a place for his Majesty Elliott. Although I do think this is probably our strongest first 11 now  

                           Walton

              Nyambe  Tosin  Del

Bennett                                  Downing

             Travis          Johnson

 

                            Dack (False nine)

     Gallagher.                  Armstrong 

[rigger]

46 minutes ago, CraigF said:

Bad news that Lenihan is out for 2 months or more. 

Terrible from Tony and the club not to sign any proper defenders. Everyone knew that our defence was poor but nothing was done properly to address the issues. How we lament PNE signing Bauer now, that’s exactly what we needed. Some bloke who lives for heading the ball! 

Lenihan hasn’t played a full season for us, probs could say that he’s injury prone. Williams, Bell, and Bennett not up to the correct standard etc. 

Can see us going for a back 5 due to the weakness in our squad and to have a place for his Majesty Elliott. Although I do think this is probably our strongest first 11 now  

                           Walton

              Nyambe  Tosin  Del

Bennett                                  Downing

             Travis          Johnson

 

                            Dack (False nine)

     Gallagher.                  Armstrong 

So no Rothwell or Holtby

[davulsukur]

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

Bottom line, IMO, is Mowbray isn't up to it.

Basically, this.

Not sure about the never was bit but where we are right now, he's not the man. 

This situation is a result of his poor planning, we have no back up plan available and his only hope is that he strikes lucky with a youth player.

[OldEwoodBlue]

56 minutes ago, rigger said:

So no Rothwell or Holtby

We can talk about different theoretical line ups which TM may choose to provide extra defensive cover....

I can see Evans getting a lot more game time,

But I really don't see how Rothwell gets a game now.

[rigger]

29 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

We can talk about different theoretical line ups which TM may choose to provide extra defensive cover....

I can see Evans getting a lot more game time,

But I really don't see how Rothwell gets a game now.

Personally I’d pick Rothwell instead of Dack

[AllRoverAsia]

5 hours ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Apparently the treatment room received a fax which simply read....

"Defenders are coming"

I needed a good laugh. Thanks for a bit of MB Gold.

[JacknOry]

Seriously, a blind man could tell we were seriously short at the back and that an injury or two would leave us royally screwed. He tempted fate with no depth behind an injury-prone defense in January (even sending Downing out on loan and therefore weakening us further) and was punished for it. He tempted fate again this summer despite the now infamous 'Defenders are Coming' statement and low and behold, it has happened yet again.

Good job we spent our entire budget on more midfielders and another non-scoring striker then....

Seriously, if the lack of investment at the back is TMs choice, then he deserves sacking for it. Our season is now over...in fact I would start to worry about staying in this division.    

[OldEwoodBlue]

Almost sounded plausible at the time.

[Bbrovers2288]

I just feel totally deflated about this season after the latest round of injuries, don’t see what we as fans have to look forward to, basically going to be a struggle until the end of the season with turgid football and a failing manager leading to heavy frustrations. Fair play to anyone who regularly attends to watch, no incentive for me to travel 5 hours to watch a probable defeat. No youngsters making a significant breakthrough, not even got a perm keeper. It’s all a bit of a mess really. I’d take just scraping survival if it meant the end of mowbray to start again next summer 

[Leonard Venkhater]

4 hours ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Almost sounded plausible at the time.

Well, I knew he said it, but it really is shocking watching and listening to it.

If it was a scene in Shakespeare, it would be discussed as the perfect exemplar of dramatic irony...

So, for any journo or supporters panel..."Watch this, Tony. Now take me from there..."

[tomphil]

3 hours ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

I just feel totally deflated about this season after the latest round of injuries, don’t see what we as fans have to look forward to, basically going to be a struggle until the end of the season with turgid football and a failing manager leading to heavy frustrations. Fair play to anyone who regularly attends to watch, no incentive for me to travel 5 hours to watch a probable defeat. No youngsters making a significant breakthrough, not even got a perm keeper. It’s all a bit of a mess really. I’d take just scraping survival if it meant the end of mowbray to start again next summer 

We've got the youngsters though but they won't get used properly they'll just get a few mins here and there. He's signed two good mids in Holtby and Johnson giving us some potential steel and bite in there yet he still prefers to jerk them around and use Travis as his bit part man leading us to believe yet again he hasn't really got an idea what to do with them.

And as soon as Samuel is fit he gets back in and will probably be no 1 if he isn't starting, this tombola shite of trying to keep everyone happy whilst giving youngsters the odd taste is going too far now it's detrimental to building and gelling the best first 11.

Injuries will become his get out of jail card in that respect though now.

[booth]

7 hours ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Almost sounded plausible at the time.

He does talk a load of shite. You wouldn't have to sell your best players at all if you didn't take big money gambles on kids.

He's clearly at that point in his tenure that he's now playing fantasy football. Emphasis on fantasy.

 

[Ossydave]

4 hours ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

I just feel totally deflated about this season after the latest round of injuries, don’t see what we as fans have to look forward to, basically going to be a struggle until the end of the season with turgid football and a failing manager leading to heavy frustrations. Fair play to anyone who regularly attends to watch, no incentive for me to travel 5 hours to watch a probable defeat. No youngsters making a significant breakthrough, not even got a perm keeper. It’s all a bit of a mess really. I’d take just scraping survival if it meant the end of mowbray to start again next summer 

Pretty much how I'm feeling too tbh

With xmas on the horizon I'm gonna be progressively less tempted to attend as well now sadly, I just can't be arsed going through the motions week in week out.

The Preston turnout is probably going to be as embarrassing as on the pitch too. I'm still gonna go that but after it, christ I'm not even sure at this point.

[JacknOry]

When I first saw that interview I was delighted, i thought finally he has seen the light and he seemed as adamant as you could be.

Now when i see that video, it makes me sick to my stomach.

[JacknOry]

Our defence is now going to be weaker for a few months at least than it was last season, and that is saying something. 

Edited October 12, 2019 by JacknOry

[Amo]

Bell should've moved out in the summer. We needed at least two new left-backs and two centre-backs. Mulgrew started the season opener, then had his card marked without us signing a replacement. It seems that once we passed on Bauer we just threw our hands up and bumbled on. Shambles.

[rigger]

Just now, JacknOry said:

Our defence is now going to be weaker for a few months at least than it was last season, and that is saying something. 

Personally I don’t think it has to be. I would play Nyambe Tosin Williams Hart. If we change to 3 at the back. I would use the first 3

[Amo]

Just now, rigger said:

Personally I don’t think it has to be. I would play Nyambe Tosin Williams Hart. If we change to 3 at the back. I would use the first 3

Nyambe won't get a look in at RB while Benno's captain. Tosin and Hart are unknown quantities, and Williams is a squad player at best. We might be able to cobble defence together to see us through the season but I think it's gonna get rough.