This.

Agree with most of your assessment but I thought Evans was a disgrace to the shirt today. For me the best midfield combo is any that doesn't involve Evans. Smallwood wasn't great either today and for me the glaringly obvious change needed at HT was Travis for Evans or failing that Smallwood but Tony was obviously happy with what he saw.

It's fair to say I completely lost my rag today when Evans went AWOL, Bennett went AWOL, and Williams came over to deal with it and got skinned for their goal. Yet another goal conceded inside 10 mins and I think in the last 3 games we've been trailing inside 20 mins. After that, an absolute shambles, players swapping about from one side of the pitch to the other every 5 minutes. No changes at HT after one of the worst halves I've ever seen. No one left on the half way line for opposition corners with us one down at home. For me the manager has completely lost the plot. This side is rotten to the core. Sack Mowbray before the day is out, rip up the contracts of Williams, Evans, Bennett, and Conway, bring Damien Johnson in, and promote some young lads who might actually wear the shirt with pride, show some enthusiasm and put a shift in. # Fuming.

Same but more importantly we've won the PL and Liverpool haven't. Don't want anyone different winning it ever really, although I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't one of the "big six." # Stillonlysixnamesonthepremierleaguetrophy

Imo we're not going down this season, we have enough credit in the bank. I don't think any of the bottom 3 will get more than a point or two beyond what we have now. Next season though....... ?

If we had two no nonsense centre backs who dealt with danger properly and a decent defensive midfielder then Nyambe, Bell and Raya would probably look very useful indeed imo

Don't blame you. I feel like I'll be purchasing out of duty rather than because it's going to blow my socks off.

I'll be renewing as I love the Club even though imo entertainment levels have been dire this season and I have lost faith in the manager. However I still think people are barking up the wrong tree regarding price. Was speaking to a Nobbers fan a few days ago and he commented how cheap our ST prices were, think he said theirs start at £400.

TM inherited a squad which got us relegated from this League. He then made an inspired signing in Dack and with him playing a blinder the same squad proved slightly too good for League 1. We've now returned to the League we got relegated from, yet the majority of the same senior players who took us down have moved from being experienced pros to being two years closer to retirement. I really don't know what TM was expecting when he said he would give them a chance at this level. If we did by some miracle sneak up into the Prem via the play offs then surely even he wouldn't say "I want to give these lads a chance" would he? He'd think we needed better players. So why it should be completely different moving up from League 1 I've no idea. I don't understand it at all and I also think he's landed us in quite a hole as there's now too much to do at once.

18 points from 19 games now Parson, it's not like it's a bit of a blip and I find it a little odd you're targeting individual players. So in your view it's all the players' fault and no blame attaches to the manager?

I dread him bringing in an "experienced" keeper like Steele who doesn't appear to make any outrageous blunders, but every time the opposition shoot it's a goal.

Not many of those comments make much sense. Sounds like he's feeling the pressure. Whilst our poor defending has been obvious to most (except TM) throughout most of his time in charge I'd say Raya is the least of our problems in the general scheme of things. Yes the defence is shockingly poor but it's not as if we're like Brazil or Barcelona in other areas of the pitch. We lack any sort of wit and inventiveness going forward either.

That's the worry. Unless we get the summer transfer window very very right next season will either be another wasted one with no forward progress or an all out relegation battle. Again won't happen but hypothetically on the flip side, a change now would be the ideal scenario giving a new man the opportunity to assess the squad for the remainder of this season and take an axe to in the summer.

It won't happen but definitely time for a change for me. Need a fresh pair of eyes to come in and gut this squad.

He's at Bury now and incidentally scored today, not that that has any bearing on his defensive capabilities.

Think we're at the point where a fresh pair of eyes need to come in and take the axe to this squad. I've been saying it for ages, Williams, Conway, Bennett, Evans, Graham and probably Mulgrew and Smallwood need replacing with proven Championship performers at the top of their game. Instead most of them have had relatively new deals. Even if the budget allowed for it, it might be too much to do for anyone in one window. Imo TM was negligent in the extreme in taking the view that he would see how the promotion winning side did, it's not his job to keep his mates in employment as long as possible, it's his job to constantly improve the playing side of things and try to keep us competitive.

Arguably we didn't even need to sign one. Not sure if we were technically allowed to, but if we were Wharton should have been recalled and given his head to see if he would have been the answer next season. And Downing didn't HAVE to be sent out. Never let us down for me but instead we preferred to soldier on with 3 converted midfielders for the CH positions.

Think we'll stay up but if we lose its eighteen points from the last nineteen games. Looking grim going into next season.

Bit of a goal machine recently old Ding Dong.

It's very sad but we are unlikely to go down yet so drab and uninspiring I have very little interest in what happens for the rest of the season, it's all about planning for next. We should be testing whether the likes of Brereton/Nuttall and Rothwell or any of the Academy Squad look as though they'll be able to come in and make an impact next season. If not we'll obviously have to look elsewhere. In particular Chapman should be getting game time off the bench and being brought up to speed to start games. I find his situation very strange, he's only a young lad and must be fit enough to manage half an hour off the bench once or twice a week.

Wtf? Is English not the first language on here anymore? Lol.

I get the impression Reed is losing enthusiasm for playing out of position wide right. Waste of a decent looking talent and even if we could afford him I guess he'd take quite some persuading his future lies here.

Good post. I'd add Raya Travis and Reed (if he signs) to the players who are good enough going forward and if they were ever given a chance you'd hope Rothwell and Chapman would stake a claim as well. It really doesn't help that the players who imo need clearing out were nearly all given new deals. The owners must be looking at that and the £7m spent on Brereton and wondering what's going on.

At the very most, Graham should be an option for half an hour off the bench or the occasional start in case of injuries next season . He should be able to cope with and play at 100% doing that. Evans is a shocking player in my book, not that much of an upgrade on Lowe. You might be able to make a case for giving Mulgrew another 12 months as back up, however there's no value at all in keeping Bennett around, he's simply not good enough either.

The absolute bare minimum priorities in the summer are a commanding specialist centre back, a top class central midfielder and a top striker to replace Graham. That won't be cheap in itself as top strikers at this level have gone for £10m plus. If we can land Reed for CM that would help but if we lose him and Rodwell then the squad suddenly starts looking even worse on quality than it is now. For me if we lose Dack as well we might as well give up now and Im not sure why TM has suddenly started floating the idea of selling Dack because if there is money available like he says (and I was told) then that shouldnt be necessary. That's the bare minimum required and ideally we obviously need pace and ingenuity on either flank as well so instead of wasting the rest of this season with the same tired old faces TM should be trying to integrate Rothwell and Chapman into the starting eleven to see if they can save us some money in the summer. Big clear out of the old guard also needed. Williams, Mulgrew, Evans, Conway, Bennett and Graham need to go for me. I don't really trust TM to do any of this, I don't think he'll be able to bring himself to be ruthless enough with many or any of his favourites and I fear we'll start off with the right sort of soundbites but as the summer goes on and nothing much is happening we'll start hearing the same sort of excuses about players' demands being excessive that we did last summer.