aitor karanka if he gets the shove from forest- yes please

My prediction is a solid enough start, maybe even opening the scoring before a collapse in another frustrating afternoon, 3-1 West Brom

Really think absence has made the heart grow fonder on this one, must be because we have had so much rubbish since. He is a big lumbering oaf of a player, always prone for giving away pens/free kicks, needed a week to turn whenever we played a nippy striker, wasn’t fast, in fact only thing he was goodfor was getting his big square heed on a ball in the air. Had to suffer his performances for Blackburn and Scotland way too much. Give me a Michael Keane or a minus last 2 months Shane Duffy before grunt anyday

god not Hanley

I think Bennett got one from distance last year, Wimbledon perhaps? And Conway in pre season I think, other than that we have relied on dack or graham with scraps in the box

I agree it could, but mowbray doesn’t play it or sign players to do so

Point is the way we have seemingly wanted to play is clearly not working, changes needed and I’d start be becoming more solid

Evans doesn’t hold the ball well enough, tackle well enough, find the net well enough to justify his place. Hence we get overrun in the middle

Played a large part of his career at lb, I’d not be wanting him to be bombing up and down the wing, just solid defensively which is where we have been let down all to often this season. It’s an easy concept, defensive players win the ball back and give it to our attacking players to do their jobs. Dominate the midfield with ball winners and players comfortable holding the ball, hence rodwell and reed. Mulgrew gives it to rothwell to run with it or play a defence splitting ball.

At this moment in time without much needed reinforcements I’d suggest the strongest team we could field would be gk- raya rb- nyambe cb- downing cb- lenihan lb- mulgrew dm- rodwell/davenport dm- Reed/travis rm- Conway/bennett am- dack lm- rothwell striker- graham/brereton

No thanks. Williams and nyambe at the back means goals goals and more goals. Armstrong and bennet wouldn’t create much on the wing, both have showed they are not the answers there. If your going to take lenihan out of defence he deserves a chance to play his actual position of defensive mid.

He does but we are over reliant and a one man team. This makes it easy to defend against us. I’d rather have 3-4 players in the middle that we’re capable of creating something, be it a quality cross, mazy run to the byline, a long shot that bursts the net, a sublime pass to our strikers. As it is we are waiting on dack to beat 2-3 men and find the one striker up top. We need more options. We also don’t keep the ball enough and dominate teams. We are looking for smash and grab results. I’m all honesty it’s hard to watch

Perhaps we could but Tony doesn’t sign/like wingers and can’t help but feel it’s to accommodate dack to allow him a free role

I think the elephant in the room is that mowbray has set his team up , formation/signings to accommodate dack. We don’t play two up top because we have dack, we don’t have wingers because we have dack. I know he didn’t start yesterday but by all accounts we won’t wrong when he came on. He has played ok this season but he has had far too many quiet games. Gives the ball away too much and his fitness isn’t up to scratch. Love him but would happily sell him to get two good pacey wingers in, go to 442 and become solid. This would also allow Armstrong to play up top because on that winger role he is useless and a complete waste of time. Cut the square pegs nonsense and make it as simple as needs be. Let Tony Mowbray be Tony Mowbray and not trying to be Tony klopp

Fitness is what iv heard, and looking at dack, it shows

Not quite sure what games you have been watching but we have been gifting teams good chances all season. Got away with it to an extent at the start, derby springs to mind but teams aren’t always going to be that charitable and it’s showing now

I reckon it would be an idea for two new defence centre back leaders and shift Mulgrew to left back, he won’t be able to get up and down but he would be solid enough there with some new legs on left wing to carry the attacking threat

When mowbray took over I wasn’t overjoyed, as iv said in the past up here in Scotland he is laughed at for the mess he made at Celtic. I was prepared to give him a chance. He initially done well and I didn’t blame him for the relegation although there was a few games I wish he had been more gung ho in the run in. It was a very big ask to keep us up tho after the mess coyle left. going down to league 1, again I was prepared to give him his time, he done the necessary, but the performances started to grate me as there was very few great attacking performances, wee played in spells and had enough in games. Annoyed we didn’t go for the jugular at Charlton to win the league. We then get promoted, again I’m prepared to give him a shot here, he has money to spend to finally sort our defence but he doesn’t. Iv criticised Smallwood and Williams for years, not good enough but nice guy Tony sticks by them even giving them lovely new contracts. He can’t turn draws into wins. He can’t stop rots. He has taken us as far as he can. Nice guy Tony doesn’t have that adventurous attacking kill off teams that good managers have. Nice guy Tony is done here. Go and manage kids football where your non critical , encourage everyone mentality will work. Blackburn need and deserve better. Don’t let him waste another transfer window on whimsical ideas like brereton

Don’t dare criticise Emerton, what I wouldn’t do for the likes of him these days. Much as I appreciate Bennett he isn’t a patch on emerton

Here is a left field name for you, will probably go down like a lead balloon but.......... Aidy Boothroyd. was once highly regarded after doing miracles with Watford, lost his way granted through some strange managerial choices after that but is redeeming himself with youngsters of England. Won the u21 tournament. My thinking is he will be more than willing to work a team of youngsters and create something a bit special- quite possibly lift us where mowbray can’t. just thinking out loud really

For all the Doncaster joys, the game that sticks in my memory was the pboro game, down and soundly getting a bashing at half time, looked like we were going to have the wheels come off, dack and graham stepped up for a masterclass that had the corks hanging on by a thread ready to pop.

We invite pressure, keep the ball up top. We then panic and boot it to anyone, it’s honestly amateur stuff. speaking to a mate from a different club who said to me that he heard our fitness was crap and so teams ramp it up against us last quarter because they know we have fitness issues and a soft underbelly. Concerning

Smallwood gave away the free kick that led to their winner, I was screaming at the tele don’t foul him but standard Smallwood, he has no football brain. the one thing that will hold dack back is pace/fitness, he broke through on the Leeds goal and had a clear sight at goal but slowed up allowing a defender to get a toe in, top class player scores there. Our defence is woeful, can honestly say we need 2 new actual centre backs, a new left back and quite possibly a new rb. It’s a shambles. Lenihan should then be pushed back into midfield with Rodwell or reed, giving us some actual bite rather than the powder puff Evans n Smallwood. Armstrong is a one trick pony, knocks it on and tries to use his pace, doesn’t work at this level. Play him up top or not at all. Bell needs to work on his final ball and I just don’t think he is quite good enough in all honesty. New hard battering ram cocky striker needed to aid graham. sad thing is most of the rovers fans can see these points need addressing but mowbray can’t, it’s baffling

Reckon the tide is starting to turn with mowbray, in fact I’d be confident if there was a poll tonight more rovers fans would vote to twist with a new manager than stick going round in circles

We aren’t a good team, far from it sadly. Wouldn’t trust this lot to win any game