It goes against all logic to suggest that Mowbray doesnt want promotion. If he managed it, his wages would go up, and even if he was sacked, he would be paid off. He just isnt capable of achieving a genuine play off/promotion push. He has signed too many players that sum up the team as a whole, attacking players like Rothwell, Holtby, Brereton and Gallagher who may have the odd attribute but cannot offer anything of any consistency, and whose role in our team are still questionable even now. Kids on loan trying to patch up a feeble defence. And a lorry load of central midfielders, none bar an academy graduate who can nail down a position. His tactics are overcomplicated to the point of total inconsistency and confusion, and his subs are bizarre.

Cardiff 2 up v Coventry and set for 11 points in 5 games under Mick McCarthy and set to go up to 7th. Not bad for an unfashionable dinosaur.

Surprised to see this. Even aside from his bizarre cameo at right back, all he did of any value was dive for the penalty. Questions over his defending and positioning for both goals and I dont recall any attacking contributions of any worth. There was once when he totally messed up an opportunity to slide Armstrong in.

Today was his second or third start since returning and he was our biggest threat, not that its saying much. Physically he looks fine. To say he is a shadow of the player or an elephant in the room is crazy at this stage. He needs a run in the team in his best position.

Thats a massive overreaction. Understandable emotionally driven frustration, but embarassed? Behave. Most of those reasons are just buzzwords. The net spend is more than competitive, over 15m. Are we going forward, is there a plan or do his tactics and subs resemble chaos? If the main reason to stick is fear then thats not one that paints the manager in a favourable light and surely is one that will never ever change.

Did v Stoke. Been really poor lately although when there are no alternatives you stick with him so no defence of the subs Mowbray made but Nyambe warrants criticism too.

To make the subs Mowbray has made was totally bizarre and there is no excuse. But Nyambe is not a golden child, hes not the best right in the league and at times he is overrated. The whole defence including Nyambe was to blame for the first and its far from the first mistake hes made in recent weeks. Problem is we dont have a valid alternative to him either.

Absolutely dismal performance and an absolute mess on behalf of the manager. His tactics most of the time resemble total chaos, players out of position, subs increasing the confusion, constant changes of system and ultimately no clarity, with players struggling to know what to do. Scoreline flattered us with another wrong decision going our way. The subs today as touched upon elsewhere were absolutely bizarre, nobody else would have done what he did. Branthwaite had a shocker on the back of a mistake last week and a horrendous challenge that should have led to a red card and penalty the week before. Get him out the team, bring in the other loan kid. Rothwell a waste of space 95% of the time. Nyambe massively overrated although he shouldnt have been subbed off. Kaminski a bomb scare tonight. Travis and Davenport ok, Dack our only spark so no doubt will be dropped. We didnt have a chance of the top 6 before the game, even less so now. This isnt progress, and whilst some of the understandable emotional reactions on this thread are not fair. He has to go now.

Great to see Dack playing and Douglas back too but that side doesnt look balanced. Dack in front of Travis and Davenport leaves Gallagher on the wing, no thanks. The worst scenario is Dack false 9, Armstrong and Gallagher on the wings. And the box midfield rarely works and would leave Dack too wide.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56009301?at_medium=custom7&at_custom1=[post+type]&at_custom4=E9F5C6AA-6B88-11EB-AAD5-CEFD923C408C&at_custom3=Match+of+the+Day&at_campaign=64&at_custom2=facebook_page Smallwood out for the season.

For me there are some things that have to happen with the team. Dack HAS to start and in his best position. Harwood Bellis should not at any point be shoe horned in regardless of Mowbray trying to appease Pep. Douglas has to come back in, the only selection dilemma for me is the left side where no one is demanding a start to be honest. Kaminski Nyambe Lenihan Branthwaite Douglas Travis Davenport Elliott Dack Brereton Armstrong Subs: Pears, Harwood Bellis, Gallagher, Dolan, Rothwell, Downing, Trybull, Bell, Bennett

With his contract about to expire, it would make no sense for him to sign up again here for another year.

Rhodes has scored again tonight for Sheffield Wednesday.

This latest news which is I think somewhat misunderstood has again been greeted with plenty of reactions as per the attached. And one thing I really did notice is that many of the responses are from people younger than me, maybe between late teens and early to mid 20s. (I think the bottom one that ive shown is particularly seen as almost a parody account) I do find it baffling quite how much people defend them, especially often to the point of slagging off fans who do still have any disdain, and often comparing to Wigan/Bolton/Bury which are comparisons that really lack any understanding of the bigger picture. But there are definitely patterns between ages and reactions.

Where do all of these random rumours come from? There were posts last week that he would have been gone before the weekend...

Even well drilled players will naturally benefit from playing in a consistent system in a similar role from week to week, as the current top 3 show. And of course in positions that suit them.

The problem is, sometimes it may be unavoidable. Say Armstrong says in the summer, ill stay and sign a new deal as long as I can have a 20m release clause, baring in mind he would have a year left, wed take that 100%.

To be fair to Bowyer in that example, Keane did well there and we had more quality at that time at CB than at RB, so Keane was an upgrade on Kane and Henley. I have never said that I expect him to return instantly. I am saying that the only way he will return to full match fitness and full form is by starting league games. Continued cameos (often within periods whereby our shape is out the window and he barely gets a kick) will not lead to a return to the Dack we know.

Do you not agree that tactical consistency goes a long way? The top 3 are miles apart in this league, and all of Norwich, Brentford and Swansea play the same way every week, 4231, 433 and 3 at the back, so all different, but all consistency. They have had injuries and unavailability like us, but someone else slots in. Its also not just about the players understanding their positions either, it is also about the players being suited to the roles they are playing. Gallagher is quite a strong, powerful runner who lacks subtlety and imagination, never a wide man. Harwood Bellis looked out of place at right back, he was poor on the ball with a dreadful cross and a few misplaced passes but seemed a physical CB brought on purely to appease Pep, Elliott like Dack and Holtby before as a false 9, none are the type of players to act as a focal point in attack. We know that Mowbray has tendencies to try and over thing tactics to our detriment. I mentioned Bell on the left wing v Oldham to counteract their right back. Dom Samuel right wing back v Luton. Holtby false 9 last season. They seldom work. You also have never specified why you want Mowbray to stay, you just revert to mentioning a fictional reason that you gave that everyone missed, and you have never specified as to what are the parameters that would make you decide whether a change should be made in the summer. The most bizarre thing is that you have twice called for a change, after the win last season v Barnsley, and the cup win v Oldham. So you clearly dont place much importance on results! I dont think statements like these help, if you genuinely feel that then surely you werent around fully during the Kean era. Mowbray has done overall a good job, with a fairly common consensus that we have hit a wall, that we will not go further. Kean was a charlatan who accelerated our decline. You also said that he hates Nyambe which is again hyperbolic in the extreme. The sub yesterday was bizarre and deserves criticism but the exaggerations and/or over dramatic comparisons and descriptions dont help.

I know that he isnt fully match fit! That is my point, he isnt match fit because he is not being selected for matches in favour of inferior players! Why do you "hope" that it will take months to get to the old Dack? It should happen sooner if now that he is fully fit, not fully match fit but seemingly fully fit physically, that he is given a run of starts.

He was but Armstrong as a winger and Armstrong as a striker are 2 different propositions. If we sell him it will be nigh on impossible to replace a striker who has scored around 30 goals since the start of 2020. I cant help but think back to that Boro game at home when Armstrong (and of course Dack) were both out, and we had to rely on Brereton and Gallagher, we wouldnt have scored if we had carried on all night.

You have constantly downplayed the return of Dack, whether he would never be the same again or indeed repeatedly asking for him to be sold, but lets stop this nonsense about his fitness. He has been fit for a couple of months and made a cameo on boxing day, he made 3 cameos in fact within was it 10 days or so, scoring in the last one. That was on the back of under 23 appearances, and then he went on to play the majority of a game in the cup, albeit in a stupid position. He has since reverted back to cameo appearances, he played for the kids again (a full 90 minutes) last week, he is now in a position whereby he wont get any fitter/sharper without starting League games, and until he does, he wont get back to the player we know. He has to start games in his best position. Armstrong's goals are not as frequent and the supporting cast quite simply do not come up with the goods, of course not aided by our tactical inconsistencies. He has repeatedly flirted with other formations, this box midfield (4222) has been seen on numerous occasions lately which tends to leave us congested in midfield and with the strikers too far apart. The false 9 bollocks as you rightly criticise is never far away. At this stage in a managers tenure, you should have a rough idea of a favoured team when everyone is fit, or indeed shape, and we simply dont. Dack and Armstrong are the 2 goalscorers we have, Elliott until recently has been very good but none of the supporting cast are consistent enough to justify building around them, whereas Dack and Armstrong get goals. My point on Downing was because Mowbray again used his substitutions without any strategy. Something he has been criticised about even prior to his Rovers career has been what he does when his team needs a goal, he just throws attackers on without any plan, purely out of desperation and games tend to fizzle out because we have no structure. Remember when Samuel came on I think v Luton at right wing back?! When he brought Brereton on, who has been shocking since returning from injury, we already had Armstrong, Dack, Elliott and Dolan on. Downing could have slotted in next to Travis, Dack off Armstrong, Dolan left, Elliott right, plenty of goal threat and a semblence of structure. As it was, Dack and Elliott spent most of their time too far away from goal and the game fizzled out.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/13969813/west-ham-blackburn-armstrong-transfer/amp/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=sunfootballtwitter&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true From the resident clown so probably a load of bollocks. And a sale I suspect is inevitable barring an unlikely contract extension but we should laugh off 8-10m. We are really in a pickle once he goes.

Im not sure that he is reactionary necessarily, analogies aside. In fact he often goes out of his way to try and second guess opposition tactics, threats and weaknesses to the point that he fails to generate that level of consistency in his selections. You look at examples of playing 2 left backs against Oldham to try and nullify Oldhams right back, or even today the way that he lined up the front 3. You look at the likes of Swansea, 3 at the back and wing backs, Ayew and Lowe up front, they play the same every week, Brentford with their 433, Norwich with their 4231. The players invariably change with unavailability etc but someone else comes in and keeps that continuity. Mowbray needs to look at it, who are our biggest goal threats? Dack and Armstrong, build around them. Kaminski, Nyambe, Lenihan, Branthwaite and Douglas with Travis and possibly Davenport as a shield. And then probably Elliott and one space up for grabs out wide. If one comes out, like for like in. He also has a big problem in chasing games without going gung ho to the detriment of the balance of our side. That was a criticism even going back to his Celtic days. We needed a goal and regularly had the likes of Elliott and Dack in front of the defence where they dont offer a threat. There was no need to have Brereton, Dolan AND Elliott all on today. When Holtby went off, Downing should have come on.

I think Holtby perhaps benefits from being a player who has the mystique of playing most of his career abroad and of course with a couple of international caps at the start of his career with a very strong country, albeit possibly when they had a weaker side than they do now. Look through the fine print and we signed him as a free agent past the transfer window having been playing for Hamburg in the second tier in Germany. Even in the Prem for Spurs and Fulham he struggled in the main. He definitely technically is better than most at the club but his Rovers career has almost summed up the team as a whole. He is constantly injured and struggles to show enough robustness to put a consistent run of form together. He has not contributed enough in the final third and his exact role is still not nailed down, first he played in a wide role, then as a number 10, then deeper, but you question even now if he gets in our best side.