I'll believe it when I see it.

We've got plenty of players who can "move" but most of the time give us sod all in return. Meanwhile Graham is our top scorer. Think there are a lot of positions to look at before talking about replacing DG.

In the nearly 9 years Venky's have been here this has been a consistent theme. Defence has never been the focus and as a result we've consistently fallen short of expectations and ultimately regressed to the point where fans are patting Mowbray on the back just for keeping us in the Championship (albeit potentially at a lower points total than when we got relegated in 16/17). Appleton and Lambert both spoke about sorting out the defence but were out the door way before this could realistically be implemented.

Spot on. Over two and a half years and we still have no identity when it comes to how we play football whatsoever. Almost every time we play our supposedly target formation with three at the back we look absolutely dreadful. Rather than stick with it we revert to a sludgy 4-2-3-1 which has worked intermittently but only when Dack or Graham has a stormer. Otherwise we're as bad playing 4-2-3-1 as we are 5-3-2 or whatever it is the three at the back is supposed to be.

What a fantastic job Bruce has done so far at Sheff Weds. They were an absolute shambles when we played them a few months ago, and now they're rocketing up the league. No matter what you think of how they played today, our teams have essentially swapped positions since we hammered them 4-2. Now we're the team who can't defend and are struggling to pick up any semblance of form.

If Conway is a good influence around the place then keep him on as a coach next year, if he's ready to retire. If not then good luck elsewhere.

Hope he's gone by the summer. If we do have any kind of budget he will waste it.

27 shots in the Leeds/Sheffield Utd game... One on target, which went in.

Doesn't seem like any have come from Mulgrew assisting (although I'm also interested to know if that stat is legit or whether the website has incorrect info). If so then it would suggest Mulgrew is good at hitting the goal from set pieces but not so much creating assists for team mates to score. Obviously we also have to take into account how poor our players not named Graham, Dack and Mulgrew are at scoring goals, too.

I don't think he has any? https://www.whoscored.com/Players/19556/Show/Charlie-Mulgrew

Well as far as his league goals for this season are concerned... Reading 2-2 Rovers - got us a point here through scoring two pens. Obviously credit has to be given to McShane for giving us the chance to do so, but still, a goal's a goal. Bristol City 4-1 - safe to say his goal here didn't mean much, would have preferred better defending Swansea 3-1 Rovers - as above Boro 1-1 Rovers - contrived to draw after Mulgrew put us ahead, despite Boro being down to ten for a major chunk of the match Leeds 3-2 Rovers - Mulgrew scored both but considering he was part of the defence who conceded two in the last two minutes, again, would have preferred he did his job defensively Rovers 2-1 WBA - scored the opener Birmingham 2-2 Rovers - another game we managed to draw after being 2-1 up, Mulgrew scored our equaliser in the 52nd minute Rotherham 3-2 Rovers - scored a worthless 93rd minute penalty So overall Mulgrew's goals have helped earn us 5 combined points, although in two of those games we were leading before the customary defensive collapse. None of his goals this season have been decisive winners. Bradley Dack is the MVP in this regard, with Graham not far behind.

Scholes has resigned from Oldham already 31 days.

You have to think it'll either be that or back to Scotland. Could imagine him going back to Celtic potentially.

Mulgrew as part of a back two just isn't working, unfortunately. It's difficult because when he's not in the team we do lose a lot of ability when it comes to set pieces, but is it worth the defensive issues that him being on the pitch causes? I'd argue at this point that no, it isn't. The vast majority of successful teams build from the back, and as a CB I just don't think Mulgrew can be a part of that anymore. It's a shame and we've gotten a lot from him - more than I thought we would when we signed him - but at the end of the season it might be time to say thank you and put those wages to better use.

Agreed. The highest paid players should be able to turn a game around when things aren't going well, either through goals/assists or pulling the team forward by the scruff of the neck with sheer attitude and determination. Graham, Dack and Mulgrew fit into this category. They all have flaws but can produce something special when needed. Evans simply does not and has never fallen into this category. I wouldn't be opposed to him being at the club as a backup player on a lower wage, but I don't see him as a starter if we're genuinely aiming to get out of this league.

0 goals and 0 assists. Even Smallwood has one assist. Always has been and always will be a nothing player who can at times look "tidy" but in reality offers very little to a genuinely ambitious side.

Still the last fifteen minutes to worry about.

Evans and Smallwood being dropped is a beautiful thing to see.

I think it was the other way around, wasn't it?

So if I have none of these things I should probably avoid?

If we got pre-18/19 season Bart, then yeah, but this season he's been much worse than Raya. Granted he's playing in a poor team but some of his gaffes have been Sunday league standard. Very strange as in previous seasons he's been excellent.

Hand on heart I don't think many would say they want to see the Evans/Smallwood pairing in midfield unless absolutely necessary, so I do question Mowbray picking those two, particularly at home. I might understand it a bit more away from home, but then again I'd still prefer not to have both of them together. I wouldn't mind seeing Reed alongside Evans if Travis isn't considered reliable enough. Either way we really do need at least one box to box midfielder in the summer if we are going to keep playing the way we're playing. Unlikely we will be able to shift Evans or Smallwood due to their recent contract extensions.

The other problem is we set up with two DM's in Evans/Smallwood, which you typically wouldn't do if your game plan was to press high. They don't seem to be helping as far as conceding goals in concerned, so I'd prefer (at home at least) to only have the one DM and then have a box-to-box type midfielder (such as Travis) doing a bit of attacking and defending. Maybe that is one of Evans or Smallwood's remits but we know neither are good enough to do both.

I'm not advocating all out attack, but what are we trying to achieve with our current formation? You'd assume soak up pressure and counter attack (as we did a number of times last season) but it's more like soak up pressure and then hoof it up the pitch. I don't see what the point is if we can't defend properly, and the long ball tactic clearly isn't working right now. It feels like we'd be better off trying to get on the front foot a little and make the opposition worry about us, rather than being the other way around in every match. It's not like we don't have attacking players to worry the opposition. Graham is still a good striker and hold up man at this level, Armstrong has good pace, Dack can score and assist. Brereton might even be able to worry opposition defences if he was more central. I just don't understand what we're trying to do at the moment in terms of playing style.

One of the most frustrating things about us is that we play defensively but can't bloody defend. We might as well set up in a more attacking way as we seem to find it impossible these days to keep a clean sheet. In four of the last six matches we've conceded a goal in the first twenty minutes, in the last two it's been in the first ten. In five of the last six we've conceded at least one goal before half time. We simply can't defend despite playing a defensive formation, so what exactly are we doing on the training ground?