I think we will play one of either Travis or Johnson with a ball player like Holtby or Downing in the middle this weekend. There’s no need to have two holding / combative midfielders at home. Walton Bennett Lenihan Williams Cunningham Travis Holtby Armstrong Dack Downing Gally OR Walton Tosin Lenihan Williams Benno Travis Holtby Downing Armstrong Dack Gally

Haha which of my common themes would you prefer I climb down on? The transfer thread where I fought the daily barrage with a message of “let’s wait and see until the end of the window?” OR The ‘Mowbray out’ thread where I tried desperately to add some context into the incessant pleas to sack a manager who’s done a great job for us? Where did you sit in those discussions Stu? Have your views changed since?

100% - And since then he has been passed from pillar to post around lower championship clubs and currently plays for Millwall! ??

The ability of those who were emotional and situationally irrational to change their opinion isn’t flaky Stu. It says more about them as people...it’s cool to admit you were wrong mate. Try it.

Touché...I’m just glad I didn’t join in with the ‘Mowbray out’ furore tbh. It was pretty difficult to resist at times, such was the levels of vitriol and allegations levelled against him.

I think it’s refreshing when people realise that their emotive rants were unnecessary and feel able to change their opinion.

What’s the question?

I don’t intend on referring to all of this and of course it’s all about opinions but here goes: The league one signings overall were very good (hence promotion) and Samuel hit 10 goals before being displaced by our current player of the year and then picking up a long term injury. Holtby and Tosin can be seen as positive signings based on their pedigree and the clubs they’ve played for. BB is just turned 20. “A colossal waste of money” Wow Gally £5m and 8 games in a league where Bamfords get traded at 7-10m? Rodwell was very good for us in games last season. He’s good player, but a weird guy. Norwich are one of the exceptions to the rule. This is like bottom half PL teams saying they should be trying to win the league because Leicester did it. Of course there’s a model there but a lot of external things must line up for it to work. Some of Bowyers signings were excellent. But they were in a different market. Plus you have the benefit of hindsight. Maybe in a few years you will see the likes of Rothwell, Dack, Armstrong, BB and Gally banging goals in the PL for whoever and think...maybe it wasn’t all that bad after all! Finally, In the interests of balance you should have mentioned the managers development and integration of youth into our team. You may have simply been countering a previous post so I apologise if so. But if you’re neglecting all of this then I fear that is you who is being disengenuous. I look forward to your transfer review.

Farke and Norwich are not the rule and £12m isn’t a lot of money to spend in the championship if you want to go up.

Pukki is the exception to the rule, not the rule. If he were the rule then football clubs would be cash rich money making machines....

Whilst I agree that we make some pretty big changes I have to say I disagree about other teams not changing theirs. I’ve seen games recently where City have changed their shape three times in a game, where Liverpool have gone front to back and played Origi in wide forward positions, Spurs play with a different formation most weeks as do Chelsea and Wolves. In fact I can’t recall think of many teams who play a set XI and pattern. Times have changed. Of course there has to be balance and I think all of the teams will settle as the season goes by but to compare it to our PL winning team 20 odd years ago to today’s teams is difficult. The intensity of games and training is much harder now. The culture of the game has changed so much during that time with the Wengers, Klopp and Pep effect.

100% agree. That steeliness is a combination of the additions of Johnson, Downing, Cunningham and Walton. The form of Williams alongside Lenihan and another years experience for the likes of Travis etc. I make that three games now where we’ve won by a goal and managed the game out. Boro, Hull and Reading. That’s progression in anyone’s eyes.

I genuinely do not believe that we have too many midfielders. There’s very little repetition in the group and most do very different things which give us options. Where there is repetition in skill sets, like Smallwood, Evans, Johnson and Travis who are all combative and deep lying then You can see obvious prioritisation from the manager (BJ / LT) with a rotation option from CE and complete removal of RS. Buckley, Downing, Holtby and Rothwell can play deep lying If we go to a three OR play in the advanced positions with Dack and Armstrong etc. Preston are decent and have been building in the Championship for several years. Yes, In our first season back in the league they beat us twice and finished marginally above us. But I’m confident that the extra years experience of our young squad, new signings, emergence of the likes of Travis and Buckley as well as the investment in technology etc will see us finish this season comfortably above them. They’re still two or three key injuries away from that terrible form from the start of last season. Individual games are always subjective to form, injuries etc. I know something, I’d back our best team against theirs even now.

They’ve had several consecutive seasons in the championship and have a decent base. But we did finish just behind them in our first season in the only metric that matters. The league. Based on the trajectory of both clubs and squad depth / quality I fully expect us to finish above them.

Come back to me when those suspensions and injuries start coming in. Or speak to the Preston fans who are acutely aware of how precarious their squad is in terms of numbers ??

The hype around Preston is funny. The press are all over it too. “Preston are on an amazing run” “They were brilliant last season and they’ll be even better this season”. It’s just hype. Jeez, they finished just above us in our first season back and I’m pretty confident that once the injuries and suspensions hit in Nov / Dec we will be above them for the rest of the season.

The team is picked to win games and we won both matches ffs!! ? Preston play the the same team every week because they have nothing behind the first XI. They couldn’t dream of having the quality of Nyambe, Johnson, Buckley, Holtby and Graham sat waiting to come on with Tosin and Rothwell sat out of the 18. Not to mention Chapman, BB, JRC etc to be integrated. This notion of playing the same team every week is completely outdated. You only have to look at every successful team in the last two years to see that other than a core of 6/7, rotation is pretty normal now. It’s based on the idea that you increase the overall squad quality, then there isn’t a dip in performance regardless of who plays. It also prevents injury and keeps people fresh.

I think it prob needs re-naming mate. “Mowbray out” cannot be on the mind of any Rovers fan.

Absolutely fantastic result. A game we won with Johnson, Holtby and Graham starting on the bench....

Can’t believe this thread is still a thing tbh. How on earth could someone justify sacking the manager?

Hill and Flitcroft in. Happy for them!

It’s complete bullshit tbh mate. Whatever can be rightfully levelled at Mowbray, I have literally NEVER heard anyone in football refer to anything other than how thoroughly decent the guy is. The drivel that spews out “you can just see Joe Rothwell doesn’t like him” the crap about Joe Nuttall being “let down” by him etc...if only they knew the truth. How much respect both have for the manager. In fact how much the group suffer if they think they’re letting him down. Are his tactics always great? Does he sign brilliant players everytime? Nope. The biggest criticism which stands mutually between here and and the club is that, if anything, TM is too loyal. The annaihilation of the manager by some on here is embarrassing.

Mowbrays never played wingers at Rovers. We’ve scored plenty of goals. The problem at the moment is that they are changing the style. Sheff Utd was the best example of this but ultimately they know they have to win games and so it’s easy to revert back to diags into DG which is proven to work...

Interesting. So what’s your take on Mowbray? You say his mask has slipped. What do you think is underneath the mask?

Do tell us how it should be pal? You seem very knowledgeable...