Intriguing is one way of putting it!

That team makes me feel a bit sick. Brereton and Gallagher both starting sadly, at least one wide I suspect too. And them 2 at full back. Can some of these misfits actually start performing against a Birmingham reserve side? No Chapman either, suppose he didnt cost millions of pounds.

Has Rothwell? He has done nothing all season. Has Buckley? Only been in the first team picture for a lshort while and I havent seen much improvement. Did Raya? Went backwards to the point of being criticised and dropped. Has Bell? I have seen no improvement whatsoever, Mowbray has seemingly lost his patience with him. Armstrong? Not sure, suppose he has scored more this season so maybe. Dack has always been good but Mowbray deserves praise for that. I think Lenihan is more refined than when Mowbray joined too. Williams probably yes. Evans has always had spells of decent performances. Both maybes.

I think Bunn has done well to make that first list!

I think the thing he had going against him is that Conway and Gestede signed soon after and ultimately he was never going to get the number 10 position at the expense of one of our 2 20 goal strikers. That said, he would have been far more useless wide left compared to the awful Chris Taylor.

Thats ifs, buts and maybes though. His header hit the post and came back out, he missed the target. That last season he was still only scoring 1 in 4 and that season is references as some sort of benchmark for him, as if its proof that hes good enough. It was by far his best season to date and he was still decidedly average and didnt come close to winning player of the season in a dreadful campaign.

I think that second sentence could apply to either keeper. Leutwiler is awful too.

No idea if this random journalist is in any way reliable. Would be a very peculiar signing, 31 years old, has had injury problems and has failed here twice already.

I didnt see the positive feedback, but if you think a front 3 of Chapman, Armstrong and potentially Sam "worst strike rate in the league" Gallagher can fire us into the top 6, I suspect you are setting yourself up for a big fall. I think my team would be Walton, Nyambe, Lenihan, Adarabioyo, Downing, Evans, Travis, Holtby, Chapman, Armstrong OR Rothwell, Graham. So it is not massively different to yours, I am not necessarily saying that your team is massively wrong, I just think our attacking set of players is piss poor without Dack. It is ok to say move on from him, but the quality isnt good enough. Only Wigan have less goals than us if you take Dacks goals out. Brereton, Gallagher, Samuel, all shit. Rothwell, never scores or assists. Armstrong, occasional contributions, more poor games than good. Chapman, you have slagged him off all season, talented but again unproven. Graham, our best bet, but very old.

Midfield playmaker? Hopefully he can slightly improve on his record of 2 assists last season and 0 this then... I think we are miles away without Dack and will finish roughly where we are now, no real improvement on last season.

That would have only been a potential workable game plan with Dack in the side. Gallagher and Brereton couldnt score in a brothel.

A left back to replace Cunningham and free up Downing and someone to score some goals to fill the Dack void are the 2 priorities. Our attack is statistically worse than our defence and thats even with Dack in. In an ideal world some one would take Gallagher and Brereton off our hands but Christmas has past sadly.

The problem is that our other strikers are so bad its untrue. Wont find 2 worse strikers in the division. Graham didnt start at Forest, he has played 10, 60 and 18 minutes in the last 3 games, a third of the time available. Agreed that we could ideally rest them players but its a winnable cup game in a season that is unlikely to have much riding on it in a couple of months so its creating that balance with no midweek game.

Don't want to see Gallagher, Brereton, Bell and Bennett anywhere near if at all possible. Not ideal to not rest Lenihan, something I would strongly consider, and also without our only right back we are always struggling in that area, I would go for the following: Walton Travis Lenihan Adarabioyo Williams Davenport Rothwell Johnson Chapman Graham Armstrong

We desperately need some firepower. In Brereton and Gallagher, we have 2 of the very worst strikers in the League, the former looks totally lost on a football pitch and the latter has the worst goals per minute ratio in the league. We are solely reliant on a 34 year old who perhaps is on the wane to score our goals. Our wide men all flatter to deceive most of the time. Meanwhile our only competent back 4 contains a 35 year old who is needed in midfield, and the rest is injury prone, with any alternative options being well out of their depth, especially Bell and Bennett. Our goalkeeper meanwhile is regularly responsible for goals conceded. Our central midfield options of Travis, Evans, Johnson, Holtby and if not needed elsewhere, Downing probably make up our strongest area. If we did sign a number 10 who is a kid with little first team experience on a short term contract allowing time to adjust and get used to the way we play, it would be a little strange at face value. Seems to be a random bit of gossip at the moment though so will take with a huge pinch of salt.

No but I am saying the most important defensive stat is goals conceded. I dont rate Raya much either and he has obviously been helped by a good defence and not working with a novice coach. Walton is crap although you seemingly agree hence you saying we need a keeper.

Surely goals conceded is a more useful stat than clean sheets?

Whilst he should never play wide, he hides behind the fact that he is sometimes played there, when indeed as you imply he mainly plays up front. In either position he is crap.

He has played mainly down the middle, even allowing for the fact that he has played wide too on occasion, that is a dreadful stat for a very poor player and a waste of money.

The stats show that it is a goalscorer that we need more than anywhere else. 8 clean sheets in 26 but take Dack out of the equation, which he is, and only one other player has more goals than Derrick Williams.

There is a myth that we are terrible at defending and competent in attack. Only 10 teams have scored less than us, and Dack has 9 of our 34 goals. Take them away and only Wigan have less. There is no evidence that any of those players can come close to matching the tangible goal contributions that Dack brings to this team.

I dont think hes necessarily getting the best out of the squad but especially without Dack, to get in the top 6 would be a massive, massive overachievement from anyone. No manager could get very many goals out of a expensively assembled and ultimately poor set of attacking players. No area of our team is top 6 quality. Over the Christmas period, albeit not to the level Mowbray has tried to, rotation was always going to be needed. The problem is that our squad is littered with crap players. None of our goalkeepers are up to it. Both senior keepers were signed by Mowbray. Defensively, our only back 4 of any promise includes a winger in his mid 30s who we also need in midfield. Defences should be less prone to rotation but our competition is particularly dire. Bell, Bennett, Gallagher and Brereton are stealing a living. Many of the others are at best patchy and ok, and at worst totally ineffective. I am not trying to absolve Mowbray of blame or suggest that his job should be anything other than under strong consideration. I just thing his main fault is not necessarily at massively underachieving with a set of players that another manager could do far better with, as I do not think that is the case. It is because with plenty of money and time the squad is well off where it should be and the blame lands at Mowbrays door.

Do you think the squad, without the injured Dack and Cunningham, is one that could genuinely get into the top 6 under a better manager? A squad lacking in so many areas? I think we are well off, down to the managers poor recruitment. Where do the goals come from?

Absolutely. Out of the 2, Lenihan for all of his faults is the important one back there. We have kept 8 clean sheets this season, all with Lenihan starting, 4 of which have been with Williams, 3 with Adarabioyo and 1 with both. Lenihan has played 21 games, in the 5 he missed we conceded 9 goals, 1.8 a game, albeit it is a small sample size. We have conceded an average of 1.19 per game with Lenihan in. (Still not very good) Adarabioyo is the better of the other 2 but neither are leading defenders, and when they are played together we are far more vulnerable.

I do think we are lacking in the wide areas, but lets not reinvent history, Conway was unable to justify a place in our team for his last couple of seasons here, his abilities had clearly waned with age and he was ineffective for at least his last 2 seasons. As others have said, theres a reason hes had to go to League 2 to get a contract.