Reasonable without a shot on target?

If he was that bad youd have think Mowbray would have asked the owners for money and they would have bought Alexander Arnold. Apparently all you need to do is ask.

Look at that front 4. Armstrong has 16, Elliott, Brereton and Rothwell all have 3 each. Armstrong is not on form but the others need to get themselves into goalscoring positions. Armstrong was barely clinging onto a place in the side out wide. Since he has scored more than anyone in the league. He is a striker. We need Dack on, the other goalscorer we have. If Armstrong drifted wide as he did when he put in a superb cross Dack would have likely had the instinct and desire to get on the end of it.

Another terrible half. Armstrong not on form and we are solely reliant on him for a goal threat. When he links play or drifts wide no one else gets into the box and it isnt good enough, Brereton will never score goals with any regularity for that reason. Luton the better side. Dacks exclusion from the starting line up bizarre and this box midfield nonsense seldom if ever works.

I meant to start sorry.

Mowbray said that Holtby wasnt fully fit and he didnt want to start him, so no conspiracies there. Dont get why Dack isnt included.

The worry is, with Mowbrays lack of ruthlessness I could quite easily see all 3 being renewed.

Dack has to start surely.

Suggestion that Crewe might loan Pickering back for the season should he sign. Maybe that would reduce the price and be something that is forced due to already having 2 senior left backs. I would rather have him now if we sign him though. But ideas about just fobbing Crewe off with Bell are a non starter for many reasons.

Im not even sure it is about making a statement, we made a few statement wins v Derby, Wycombe, Coventry and Preston but ultimately have been undermined by inconsistency. The statement would be to win a few on the bounce.

Joke signing in a further neglect to our defence. How did he pass a medical if he is so brittle?

Bournemouth look absolutely awful tonight, Reading look brilliant under this manager. I do wonder if Bournemouth regret or are putting any pressure on Tindall, with the squad at his disposal you would expect them to be far closer to Norwich at the top.

No way do we get a fee for Evans, Wlliams or Bell. Evans is again injured, soon to return, but has 6 months to go, the obvious lazy link is Stoke but they have plenty already in that position. Williams' hamstring is "off the bone" according to Mowbray which will bring him to the expiry of his contract and no one seemed to want Bell last summer when he was on a free.

I think that is a very biased judgement. We were toothless when we played them at home last season, they beat us fairly and we barely created anything of note. Away we were all over the shop, Carter had a nightmare at centre back. And even this season, we were really flat and whilst the referee missed a decision at the end, it would have only been a free kick, so calls of being robbed were a little misguided even if the ref was poor.

Definitely, they had quite a few whose contract was about to expire and to be honest, as good as Pearson etc are, with minimal recruitment in recent windows and the manager coming under pressure, it felt like it was getting stagnant there and maybe it will do good to have a refresh. A couple of good additions in but as I touched on in my earlier post, quite a lot of loans in too. January isnt the best time to hit the reset button but they have been forced to do so due to contracts and injuries.

Saville is really average, I would disagree that he was a "top signing." I dont think that they should be relegation battlers, Woodgate was a bizarre appointment and was definitely underachieving, but equally where they are now is in my opinion over achieving compared to their squad, which is also mainly a squad that isnt his. With Tavernier, he has been playing central a lot under Warnock. Although he did play wide v us and in what I perceive to be our best 11, the biggest chance for Rothwell to get in would be wide left with Dack as the number 10. He also did a brilliant job at Rotherham before that Cardiff promotion where he kept them up against the odds.

Its not, more touching on the lack of time and resources that Warnock particularly has had to make the team his own, which makes direct comparisons between the job him and Mowbray are doing as unfair. But as I said, I dont think that their squad is as good as ours personally, they were near the bottom fighting for their life when Warnock took over. Howson was a good player in his day but hes 33 this year, his best years came well before Warnock, and the other 2 were squad players, Saville has had a new lease of life a bit further forward and McNair has been converted from average midfielder to good centre back by Warnock. Assombolonga certainly wouldnt get into our side over Armstrong, the goals have dried up in the last few years and Boro fans are not his biggest fan. Tavernier would be competing with Rothwell and Brereton for a place, would probably agree on Fry though. Would you prefer Mowbray or Warnock as manager?

Which players that Warnock inherited do you think make Boro's squad maybe better than ours?

I would totally disagree with that. The squad Warnock inherited was admittedly under a poor manager but they were in the relegation zone. We have the likes of Armstrong, Dack and Elliott so we have a real goal threat plus 12m worth of other attacking players. Boro have a very thin squad even including the players that Warnock has either signed or got a tune out of that no one else had prior. They also dont have much goal threat which Warnock has aided by the signing of a player who had been released months ago by League 1 Sunderland. They are in their 4th season in this league, so if they do still get parachute payments it wont be much and it certainly is of no use to Warnock.

For me, Bennett had a good 6 month spell starting just before Mowbray came, but I felt that was because at that time we were awful, there were big question marks over the character and he really led by example and scored 3 uncharacteristically really good goals too. I do think his character was obviously key when we went down but as a winger his performance levels were poor I felt considering that I expected him to stand out at League 1 level, I expected goals and assists. He didnt do much as a winger, he then had that one game with Smallwood v Shrewsbury in central midfield before his performances in that role waned and then he had a few more games out wide before filling in at right back when Nyambe got injured near the end of the season which of course became a common occurence as we went back up. He had a turn of pace back in his Norwich days so I do suspect that the serious knee he suffered there has affected his career.

Just seen the highlights for Swansea v Brentford, now Raya always frightened me in the air and I do think that goalkeepers can be over protected but that was a definite foul on him.

Pull the plug on him? Who will finish higher is a tough one, its difficult to call. I dont think its a direct call between the 2 managers because Mowbray has had far more time and far more resources to build a team that he wants. But I cant see either getting into the play offs if im honest, the relegated trio, Brentford and Swansea seem certainties. And Boro have a slightly bigger chance at a push than us with Warnock but Reading look a good shout. Warnock has shown what he can do with a very limited squad in a short time span though, to be where they are is impressive. Converting McNair from a bog standard to one of the best centre backs in the league has been impressive, as was signing Watmore off the scrapheap who has given them a real spark. Morsy and Bettinelli have been good signings too, and hes getting performances from Dijksteel, Bola and Tavernier that didnt seem possible before.

It said last week in the LT that we are contributing a minimal amount of Trybull's wage so we may aswell keep him around. We have plenty in midfield so I would certainly loan Buckley out.

Preston's transfer business is interesting, with quite a few windows with very little recruitment, things do seem to have gone a bit stale there, plenty of criticism for the manager and quite a few players destined to leave at the expiry of their contracts or seemingly for quite a few, much more imminently. Plenty of incomings in too. They have signed Iversen who was briefly linked with us in the summer on loan to cover for the injured Rudd. Fisher is about to join Boro, they have been playing Browne at right back now he has signed a new deal. Ben Davies is their best defender but seems like he is joining Celtic in the summer, Bauer has a serious injury and they have conceded lots of goals and have been linked with Van Den Berg on loan from Liverpool. And Cunningham again on a loan has re-signed, fitness permitting he looks a very good signing especially as he can sign permanently when his contract expires in the summer. In midfield, Ben Pearson is about to join Bournemouth and Daniel Johnson has 6 months on his deal so uncertainty there. Whiteman looks a very good addition from Doncaster, a player obviously mentioned on here on a daily basis, he looked good in his first 2 games. They also signed Molumby again on a loan as well as a bizarre signing of Ched Evans.