Mowbray unsurprisingly going for the same boring set of players and not taking the likes of Chapman and Davenport.

Disagree with Bennett being a capable central midfielder. The game that sticks out in the mind was the Shrewsbury one when he and the "incompetent" (not arguing with that assessment!) Smallwood ran around full of energy and it seemed to knock Shrewsbury off their stride. They failed to replicate such performance levels after that and a couple of months after Bennett was playing at full back and Evans had come into central midfield and was arguably our best player for the last couple of months, something Mowbray himself said. Evans has been far better than Bennett this season and is very tidy on the ball. Ultimately, he impressed the most under Mowbray initially which was at a time when he inherited a side that was perhaps lacking in passion and committment, something you cant doubt in Bennett. As time goes on and work rate becomes a given, then you need quality to accompany it to justify a place in the team. As a winger, he is nowhere near good enough going forward, even in League 1, his crossing is poor and he doesnt take players on nor does he get anywhere near enough goals. As a full back he is often caught out of position and dives in. As a wing back he looks totally uncomfortable and as a central midfielder he isnt technically good enough to control a game. You compare him to players like Travis and Reed in central midfield, two players who share his enthusiasm and energy but ultimately are far more natural centrally and are far more competent on the ball. His versatility is overestimated too because he is poor in many of the positions he supposedly can play in. The primary issue however is that he is now a (admittedly better) Jason Lowe in that he is the first name on the team sheet, and that I cannot see changing.

That article looks purely a case of putting 2 and 2 together, nothing substantial to it.

It tends to wear fans down watching shite for 2 months now, especially with the season being all but over already. We cant defend and one thing that could rectify an inevitably dull season conclusion would be to play exciting players but I suspect his favourites will remain in the team until seasons end.

Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Bell Rodwell Travis Chapman Dack Rothwell Graham Subs: Leutweiler, Armstrong, Brereton, Davenport, Evans, Reed, Butterworth/Buckley Apparently Abraham has pulled out out England under 21 duty tonight with an injury so hopefully they will be without him. Hoping to see Mowbray grow some bollocks ahead of Saturday. Villa are apparently weak at full back and I'm fed up of seeing the likes of Bennett, Conway and Reed out of position plodding up the line and creating precious little. With a little more room to maneovure due to being both safe and not within a chance of the play offs, why not experiment but in a positive way. Dont see the point of having the likes of Conway, Smallwood, Williams and to a lesser extent Bennett taking up places in the 18. Would like to see Rodwell in midfield because he could merit a new deal if played in his correct position. Raya played simply because Leutweiler wont be here next season.

Forget Bennett, specifically Smallwood and Williams who youve said you want rid of. A task made far more difficult by giving them extended deals.

Yeah last summer. Bonkers.

Would you agree that it was an incredibly short sighted mistake to give Smallwood and Williams new deals when we got promoted as "rewards." You wont progress with such a lack of ruthlessness. Same with Bennett and Conway.

Because Dacks place is a given because he has 15 goals and is our top scorer. As is Grahams when he is fit. The only functioning part of our team that doesnt need breaking up.

He definitely should have been selected before crap such as Brown, Varney and even played wide before shite like Chris Taylor.

What job do you have then, to see if it has similar physical requirements as a professional athlete? Players do have natural dips in form, to say teams have worked him out is again jumping to conclusions somewhat. He is not helped by the fact that we play predictable, long ball football. Mowbray is also really reluctant to play players like Rothwell and last season Chapman with technical ability and pace who both linked up well with him.

Seems like you are jumping to conclusions in the extreme to suggest that hes on the wane, his form has dipped as has our whole team, but hes been better in the last 2 games and has got a goal and an assist. Much of my point was aimed at thinking that Armstrong and Rothwell would be capable replacements. They would be downgrades, no doubt about it. Saying that, no reason why all 3 cant play together, Rothwell left, Armstrong right, Dack 10.

Whilst I totally understand your frustration if you feel that Dack is capping his potential by making poor lifestyle choices, to suggest that we should sell our best player for a fairly modest fee on the back of the picture you show is a massive overreaction. Even if Dack remains at the level hes at now, he has 12 league goals and 6 league assists this season, and 3 goals and 3 assists in the cup. He got 18 goals and 9 assists last season to drag us up into this league, and his biggest goal drought was 6 games. You mention 2 talented players in Armstrong and Rothwell but neither has given any suggestion that they would be able to live up to the mantle of Dacks numbers on the pitch. I agree that Rothwell needs to play more but feel that in comparison to Dack, you overestimate his ability to influence games. He has 6 goals in his whole career, so theres nothing to suggest he could replicate Dack's impressive goalscoring record if he took over his place. Armstrong has played a similar number of games and has had far less impact on them tangibly, and when hes played centrally hes looked even less threatening. Whilst I would agree with the notion that players are entitled to some sort of social life, your comparison to your own circumstances is a moot point. As others have pointed out, you are not a professional footballer. Forgive me if I am wrong but arent you some sort of lorry driver? If so, there is no requirement for you to stay in any sort of physical state, so long as you dont turn up pissed to work of course which Dack hasnt either.

Have to disagree on that. With Rothwell (and I suspect we will be able to soon include Chapman in this category) he could be reasonably included without breaking up the only part of our team that you can argue works efficiently in Dack and Graham as a front 2. Mowbray however prefers to play at least one of Reed, Bennett and Conway who plod up and down (Reed admittedly out of position in his defence) who dont really offer any attacking threat (from open play in Reeds case) but seemingly arent doing much to stem our defensive issues either. Meanwhile Armstrong has almost monopolised the other side despite having far more poor games than good games this season. Indeed, I think he needs to play on the right where he is capable of simplifying his game as he showed v Ipswich and Brentford, running at his man at pace and playing crosses in. I would like to see in the last 8 games, 2 of Chapman, Rothwell and Armstrong down the wings and a bit more bravery in that area that has in the main underperformed this season, alas I dont expect to see it. With Josh King, he is very much a striker, and ultimately no matter how good he is now, it doesnt the change the fact that it was impossible to justify breaking up a strikeforce that had 2 20 goal a season strikers in it. To be unable to get a top 6 position with two such consistent goalscorers is criminal.

Ultimately as much as King is now a better player enjoying a better career, even with hindsight there is not a chance that we could justifiably have broken up a strike force that had 2 individuals that guaranteed 20 goals each every season.

Yeah, plus Hope Akpan as captain which probably gives an indication as to why they are struggling!

Samuel was crap in League 1, we are supposed to be building towards the top 6 of the Championship. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Agreed on Morris and Mahoney not being improvements on what we have but the 2 defenders are top Championship centre backs who you are perhaps doing a disservice too. O'Connell has attracted reported Premier League interest and is key for a top 2 team. Hanley was our player of the year as we know and had really matured, left, didnt play much at Newcastle but still got a winners medal and was excellent for Norwich last season (think he was runner up after Maddison for POTS) befoee an injury saw him out of the team this season and due to the form of his replacement has struggled to get back in since. 2 top quality Championship centre backs.

A very average keeper and certainly not one of the calibre we need, supporter or not.

One thing I would like to see before the end of the season is a proper attempt at getting a much more potent threat from the wide areas. You are right, we are too reliant on Dack and Graham going forward, aside from Mulgrews set pieces. I feel like this defensive wide man crap is hindering us going forward whilst I am not convinced that it gives us the added defensive stability that Mowbray thinks it does. I would like to see 2 from Rothwell, Armstrong and Chapman, the latter should not just be a 20 minute man. I would also like to see Rodwell played alongside Travis in central midfield.

I wouldnt want to see Magloire playing in our first team any time soon. He seemingly cannot head a ball for a start. May need to spend some time on loan. Hanley would be a terrific signing but also I cannot see that one happening.

Rubbish. Graham is good on the floor but unfortunately it requires less thought from those behind him to kick it in the air knowing that Graham does often turn that trash into treasure.

"Being locked into playing one up front" is totally deceptive in that Dack is essentially a second striker and directly contributes to goals with regularity. Selling him would be a massive backward step no matter how you look at it. If we played Armstrong or Brereton with Graham instead of Dack, that would give us 2 up front. Would that make us more attacking or threatening? No.

Graham wouldnt be in your best side when everyone was available?

No its not. Hed be going on holiday and leaving you with a hole in your roof as a direct consequence. At the moment we have no games for 2 weeks and a small rest is quite possibly beneficial to a set of players who have played with such regularity for a few months, not as a reward may I add. A more accurate comparison would be if a player got subbed off at half time to catch a flight! Ive been very critical of Mowbray lately but I think this is a storm in a teacup.