He’s right btw. Reed and Travis at times vacate the CM and create holes for teams to annaihilate us in transition and on the counter. Derby didn’t do this because their style of play is not incisive, it’s possession based and (currently) very lethargic. The conundrum for TM is that Reed and Travis are far superior footballers than Evans and Smallwood. I personally would like to see Reed and Travis continue against the remaining teams purely to see how it affects this thread! Because teams like Norwich, Swansea and even Forest will murder us if our midfield vacates chasing into areas that weaken us. Ideally, they both play every week and learn to play that position better.

Seething that we’ve won. Would rather prove your weird point about a manager who’s done a great job. Relax mate, you should be happy!!

Mate, you only have to read this mb to see that not all Rovers fans are rejoicing. Been waiting for the claws to come out. Guys sarcastically asking if fans are p#%%ed because they’re happy. No one stepping in there.

Correct. Anyone who knows anything about football can see that pal. ??

Correct. Anyone who knows anything about football can see that pal. ??

Some Rovers fans genuinely gutted that we’ve just played fantastically well and won. jeez ???

I think we could get a point at Forest too. My initial thought was between 6-8. So I went for 7.

I think we’ll get a point on Tues. derby are blowing hot and cold. Then I think we’ll beat Bolton and then Swansea at home who won’t have anything to play for.

Cool. I’ll go for 7pts

Hard to say. I think it’s a bit of everything. What This late season slide does do is ensures that changes have to be made.

There’s 6 matches to go lads!! ??

Correction. This was the points total of the caretaker manager Tony Mowbray whose side got to 51 points and accumulated them at a rate associated to a team in mid table to get there. Coyle was on for a much lower points total.

No, I understood your point but decided to flip it because you can’t have it both ways. You can’t lambast the manager for not changing things and then blame the form of our talisman on that team. A team he had previously thrived in. A team which is and always has been built to accommodate him. Why cant you see that there’s the slightest possibility that the team started to suffer because the star man decided to concentrate more on his new flame than his performances? The team hadn’t changed...I watch them home and away. The team don’t make him misplace 5yrd passes or miss guilt edged chances or look like he has two size 5 mitre deltas in the back of his shorts....

I personally think Williams could play for another Championship club. I’d play him every week over Bell as it is. Richie may struggle and end up in league 1. But those players only have another year after this season anyway. If we’re going for it and decide to sell Williams to a Millwall for £250k and loan Smallwood to a top half league 1 team for 50% of his wages then it’s not a big deal imo.

Fair enough. If it’s beyond him to understand the ambitions of his bosses and to see that Mulgrew, Bell, Smallwood aren’t good enough. If he can’t comprehend that no team in the world could go up with the likes of Bennet, Graham and Evans playing every week. Then he needs to go! He’s given them a fair crack at the whip. They started off we’ll be have ultimately shown they are not upto the required standard.

Yes mate, and as I’ve said 6436636763 times now. IF Mowbray decides to be stubborn and unable to change his tact by remaining loyal to players who have proven since the new year that they are not good enough, then I will join you in your view that he’s not the right man for this job. Im not trying to change your mind. Barring us losing every game and going down I’m pretty sure he’s going nowhere anyway so we’re going to be able to see how this plays out.

I don’t know what those players went from and too in terms of salary but I can’t see that we broke the bank for them and none were signed on extended term contracts. In terms of what fee we’d get for them, as far as I’m concerned we wouldn’t have been expecting big money for them either way. At least should someone want to prise a Smallwood or Williams away they will have to pay something for them? TM would’ve been slaughtered had they all been able to walk away for nothing. This is nothing like the Etuhu, Murphy, Best scenarios. They were on massive, long term contracts...next seasons squad fillers will be on nothing like that.

That’s a fantastic post. I 100% agree.

The keeper Leutwieler is outof contract too. I agree with most of this. But I feel that Mowbray has no option but to make those changes. He’s openly talked now about first team CB’s with aggression. He’s openly talked about frontline strikers and experienced keepers etc... He’s set Raya, Mulgrew and Graham up as the most high profile potential omissions. I’d go as far to say he’s a dead man walking if we start with Mulgrew and Graham in the team next season. Smallwood must be alarmed at Travis progress and with Davenport back he will know his days are numbeed

We’re going to lose 5/6 out of contract. (If we wanted them they’d have extended already imo). So if we sign 6/8 then we’re absolutely going for it and I wouldn’t expect the likes of Buckley, Magloire etc to figure in any such scenario. The bottleneck only becomes an issue of we’re suggesting that the young lads are better players than those we’ve mentioned who are currently regulars but would be sat on our bench next season. The only player I can see who could cause this situation is Richie Smallwood who may take the place (wrongly) of a young player. The rest would simply be second choice due to be being replaced by a better player. That’s progress surely?

You need those standard of players on tour bench to give you a chance of kicking on. It’s w process of improving and replacing first teamers with better players so they become squad players. There’s no evidence of a bottleneck appearing. Mowbray has given more youth players senior debuts than any other former manager I can think of. That said, IF we are serious about challenging next season a lot of them will have to go out on loan. Possibly only Travis who will be ready for that level.

For what it’s worth, I wanted us to sign a front line Striker instead of BB all summer. I would’ve tried for a CB at Christmas too...that said, the January market isn’t usually the best and I don’t have the full picture so I would’ve been guessing at what was best. But I don’t think there were any signs that things would drop off so sharply. The injuries to Lenihan, Mulgrew and the Form of Dack were massive reasons for the downward spiral imo. And only Lenihan has come back to his previous level. Mulgrew looks finished and Dack away with the fairies.

The same bad guessers will be quiet as a mouse UNTIL something they guessed right actually works out. That’s life.

All about opinions... He was playing in that same ‘awful’ team up until Dec when he had 15 goals and 10 assists or whatever. My feeling is that part of Rovers problem is that our Talismsn has capitulated as oppose to the other way round. The last four home games have been lost 1-0. Those games were screaming out for him to do something. The team is built around accommodating him and he’s been soooo poor! A bit of magic in any of those games could’ve changed everything, created some momentum and confidence. Took the pressure off the team. Lets not be too quick to blame the team for Dacks form. It’s common knowledge that team hasn’t changed much from the one he thrived in for 18 months. Which begs the question, what HAS changed?

Think there’s a few more...Leutwiler, Gladwin, Rodwell etc... Re the contacts to squad players. I don’t have a real issue with that. You’d need Bennets, Williams, Mulgrew, Graham on your bench if you wanted to go up. The most important bit is getting better players in to take their position in the first place!