That Preston game was the only game he has been anything other than poor to be honest.

Against Preston? Isnt that it?

In the league, 1. In the cup, 1. So 2. He never gets into goalscoring positions, he cant anticipate where the ball will drop. Dack has 7 goals and all seem to be poachers goals. Either way you are just playing devils advocate as your team has Graham and Dack up top if im not mistaken.

You can find extreme examples of most things working sometimes but they started in Leagues One and Two so essentially worked their way up didnt they?

Scapegoat is an unfair tag, he gets no stick at games but he gets criticism because hes repeatedly a particular weak point. But no one is attacking his character and ultimately people can see that hes not good enough. Hes been directly responsible for 4 goals in 6 games and has also made mistakes that hes got away with, for example v Boro when he tried to claim, totally misjuded it (again) and they could only hit the post.

Gallagher has played at least half of his games up front. Repeatedly offering no goal threat. Why would we drop our best player and our only competent striker at the cost of our goal threat to attempt tp justify price tags. Makes no sense. Dack and Graham, and 9 others.

Is that front 2 a genuine suggestion? To drop by far and away our best goal player and scorer, as well as continuining to leave out our only competent striker to play them 2? You would also have to imagine that Downing will play after his impact on Saturday. Williams is injured, goalkeeping wise I think its flip of a coin as both are dreadful.

Why when Ainsworth got a team on a small budget promoted and top of League 1?

Baring in mind its for a lower half side with no one else bar the now sidelined Graham contributing they are incredible stats. How people can constructively claim that we could move him on and get stronger is beyond me.

Doubt it personally.

He lacks intelligence, theres no counter attacking threat if he cant stay onside.

Whilst as "good as any in this division" might be a push for them 3, I dont think that whilst we have some decent midfielders that it is anywhere near balanced enough to be top 6 worthy. Ideally all 3 would be playing in the same position. We dont control games and we dont create many clear cut chances. Our set of strikers bar Graham is really poor. Agreed on defence.

How could you say that Armstrong played well up front? He broke down nearly every attack by seemingly not understanding the offside rule. To be fair, being better than that trio is nothing to be proud about, Graham should be the first name on the team sheet.

Thats a cop out to the rest of the underachievers.

Bennett cant cross a ball to save his life. From the sound of it no one is playing well for the under 23s at the moment. Armstrong and Bennett are consistently playing poorly. On one hand you are saying we are 2 or 3 players from being a top 6 contender, then you are advocating playing players who are repeatedly coming up short.

Mowbray was quoted afterwards as saying that Barnsley are "an athletic young team and I didnt think it was a day for Stewy Downing." Now I dont think I had him in my 11 for the game but hes picking and leaving out players in fear of the worst team in the league at home after not winning since the opening day. You just look at some of the consistent sides who play almost unchanged sides, feed off their consistency and are now successful in the Premier League, Sheff Utd and Burnley to name but 2 and you just have to shake your head.

But Armstrong is ineffective no matter where he plays almost everytime he plays. Width is something that people try to downplay but it is still effective. But Armstrong isnt even a winger, our only winger is the disused Chapman.

Ive no idea, Id presume and hope not baring in mind its not until Wednesday. If hes fit, surely he starts, the useless teachers pet is dropped? He has played wide almost exclusively for the last 18 months and has been shit 90% of the time. Like I said, we dont really have an alternative so we have the useless Bell. Easier said than done when the players arent very good and the manager cant organise defences. Brentford dont score many but dont concede many either.

On what planet do Bennett and Armstrong deserve to maintain their places? Nyambe and Holtby every day for me, Holtby back in a more advanced position. Walton is a flip of a coin with an equally incompetent Leutweiler. Bell cant play either, massively hamstrung with him, but sadly we dont seem to have an alternative. Benrahama if he plays on that side will have a field day. Sadly, Mowbray will pick most of if not all of his teachers pets, Gallagher, Armstrong and Bennett.

Again, to clarify this is in no way defending Mowbray because he signed them but I think you are being generous on the players you have mentioned. Armstrong played wide for the vast, vast majority of last season, he almost exclusively starts full stop, and he was rubbish for the vast majority. One superb month aside he was very poor. Ultimately this was the same role that he succeed in League One, which may be the 2 most important words. A lack of influence/output and often a lack of effort from him. Theres a bit of a myth that I sometimes see that Bell is a good attacking full back (or wing back) and just poor defensively. He is as bad as youll see going forward too, the countless amount of times he has space ahead and he just checks back, very rarely does he get a cross in and even rarer a successful one. Technically poor too, 18 out of 44 passes apparently made successfully yesterday, considering his penchant for turning back and playing it safe thats incredibly poor. The amount of times the ball comes into his vicinity especially in the air and he just heads or kicks it in the direction he is facing is unreal. Such a poor player.

To be fair, him being on the pitch doesnt work. Hes crap as a striker too. Awful, awful signing.

But ultimately hes the only player consistently scoring goals in an offensively dysfunctional team and every player has off days, it says more about the rest of the players that they are unable to muster up goals when he isnt at his best, they should receive the criticism. I think people underestimate the value, importance and difficulty of just "popping up with a goal or 2."

Brilliant post I almost unanimously agreed with regarding your player summary. Not sure this is fair on Travis though. I do actually agree with Mowbray that he is often too loose on the ball, he was a breath of fresh air since he came into the team and Mowbray has done right by since that moment, having him in almost every single game in the centre of our midfield. Like a few other of our players, I dont think it suits a player like him to try and out pass teams as he isnt that great on the ball, his chasing, harrying and winning the ball back is his key asset. Im not sure he really had the flair you mentioned or a particularly good passing range, maybe you could say that the new "style" is hindering him but I think he has been treated pretty well by the manager since he broke in. Look at Johnson, a far more experienced player who has fallen right out of favour, and Smallwood has never come close to re establishing himself since that watershed moment.

He was struggling to dislodge Lowe and Akpan when he broke through in midfield. Not very good on the ball, his assets are his bravery and his ability to win headers, he is very much a centre back, just in terms of quality, far too rash to be a top 6 quality one.

Absolutely no chance, especially on the back of a fairly hefty deficit already. I think you overestimate the quality of them players. I thought you wanted Brereton to play? Armstrong has repeatedly been shite, why is he in your team? Bennett and Walton youve made a note that you want replacements in January which is fair enough, but we are handicapped with them in the team until then. You think Williams can play a part as a top 6 quality left back. You think that the midfield partnership is top 6 quality?