Benson putting on a session for kids does not suggest he can or cannot competently teach a professional goalkeeper at Championship level.

I don't think either keeper is good enough, but keep either as back up to a new keeper. Both Bell and Williams should be instantly on the chopping board, 2 terrible players. Would keep Lenihan and Nyambe, Mulgrew potentially as a 4th choice centre back, but we need an overhaul in defence as an urgent priority. In midfield, I would sign Rodwell up for an extra year or two solely as a midfielder, Travis is a very good prospect, Reed I would like to get on loan again but I don't think he can be considered a big enough priority to spend a chunk of our budget on. Evans I would keep as a squad player, I think he's had a pretty decent season. Smallwood, Bennett and Conway I would thank and move on, Gladwin I would just move on. In attacking positions, build around Dack, give a new contract if we can. Armstrong, Rothwell, Chapman all can play big parts going forward. Graham still has a huge part to play, otherwise up front we are short. Samuel has got better to some people by not playing and needs discarding, I don't think Nuttall is or will ever be good enough, and Brereton has looked woefully short and I would loan out ideally. So yeah, a big overhaul and one that wont happen!

Im not sure why theres an insistence to view it as a reward. Its the first time in a few months where there has been a break in the fixtures, a few days off to rest any knocks and recuperate ahead of the remaining fixtures seems in the best interest ahead of coming back and training ahead of Villa. If we go to Villa and suffer further embarassment then im sure there will be tactical, recruitment, substitution, team selection based questions to ask of the manager but I feel like this thread is somewhat clutching at straws. Im sure the holidays arent paid for by the club or awarded as a reward. The suggestion that its because we dont care about the rest of the season and are going on a "jolly" because of it is unfounded in my opinion.

Whilst you are correct in suggesting that Hughes has declined massively from his spell as manager here. You staunchly defended him up until what you perceived to be an unfair sacking at Southampton so why have you suddenly changed your tune? You say Mowbray knows what we need. Why hasnt he even tried to address what we need in the 4 windows prior? Why did he not learn from making a similar mistake of neglecting his defence in his last job? Theres a different between knowing somethings wrong and being able to fix it.

Your comment about team selection is a far more objective and fair one. Although the player you have picked out is unfair. I dont discount the fact that Dacks form in the last month or 2 has been below par, but hed made himself the first name on the team sheet prior to that, and his recent run of 6 without a goal was his biggest drought in a Rovers shirt. A goal and an assist in the last 2 take him on to 12 goals and 6 assists in the league which is a more than respectable statistic. Its like with Rhodes; people used to question his inclusion when on a lean spell but hed proven himself consistently before that. There are players that regularly play whose places should be under serious threat far quicker than Dack. I dont understand why you are viewing potential mini breaks as a reward for poor form. Poor results dont discount the fact that the players have played a lot of games since the last break. It makes sense to give the players a bit of a break, im sure a few are carrying knocks that need resting and then get back with plenty of time to go over tactics on the training ground. (Something I am not convinced in Mowbrays ability to do so recently but thats beside the point) I personally dont think that we have been so poor because of a lack of effort either necessarily.

But the players may benefit from a few days off after a hectic few months to rest and recharge. You are viewing the opportunity for a holiday as a reward but it may well be far more beneficial to allow the players a bit of rest.

Im not one to get too worked up about something like this. Im not saying that it is or isnt like a holiday camp but I think its pretty common at the start of an international break to see players go on holiday, its not a reward its to rest ahead of a busy end to season schedule. There are plenty of things that I can with certainty criticise the manager for, recruitment, tactics, team selection, organisation, without needing to speculate. At the end of the day, different managers have different styles and last season we were all praising the dressing room. Id prefer to see through such a subjective issue and concentrate more on facts, weve lost 10 in 16, and we cant defend at all, rather than speculate how much if any of that is down to a holiday camp mentality.

That fantastic January falls within a run of 10 losses in 16 games. Theres making mistakes but theres also a constant negligence of the defence over a period of 4 transfer windows, armed with well over 10m, from a manager who left his last club with the parting regret of not signing a dominant centre back, yet hes replicated it here. His signings overall at this club have been overall pretty poor. For me this hope that hes going to fix it all in the summer seems a little fanciful.

Would 21st have been mission accomplished in your mind?

The part in bold can be removed. In the last 2 games, we have had serious problems with injuries, fair play, although even then he deserves no sympathy. Hes neglected that whole area of the pitch. Hes had more than enough money and more than enough windows to address it. He simply hasnt bothered. You look in goal, weve a keeper who is making major mistakes on an almost weekly basis, who the manager has publically criticised, but its an empty threat to drop him because the only competition is well off the level to challenge him. At left back, every man and his dog has seen that Williams isnt up to it. He has actually tried to add competition here, sadly Bell cannot defend one on one, as a defender he is quite cowardly. His only right back signing has departed, the short term, cheap option of Caddis, and now a promising but at times inconsistent Nyambes only competition is Bennett who is a liability at right back but his "versatility" is vastly over-estimated by a manager who is too loyal to him. At centre back is the biggest shit show. He bid for a blood and thunder centre back in Bauer, didnt get him, so for no rational reason whatsoever he then signed a midfielder to try (and fail) to convert into a competent centre half. He considered a decidedly average but fairly reliable centre back as expendable as a left back and central midfielder, both of whom are clearly not up to it as centre backs are above him in the pecking order. We have had the same problem in terms of defensive ineptness throughout the season. 2 weeks ago we had 2 of the 3 "centre backs" available to us at Rotherham and ended up having the same debate about the embarassment whenever the ball is played into our box. Before that, Lenihan played most games including the 5 goal horror show at Brentford. He is our best centre back but thats not saying anything. Indeed, these players have had their best runs in terms of reputation when not in the team. Theyve all contributed. The stats dont lie, weve conceded 42 goals in 19 away games, more than anyone else, and the 4th most in the league overall. And that is in spite of playing a "defensive winger" and 2 holding midfielders, so its not as if we are conceding due to overly attacking tactics. When weve got a 7m project striker who never plays its unforgivable. Why trust him with another window?

You make some decent points. Unfortunately they will be totally missed with you always ending with your provocative and totally unfair comparisons with Coyle. Coyle left as we were 23rd in the league. End of. You cant be totally dismissive of getting out of League 1. Yes its a poor league but you have to earn promotion like any other league.

You touch on his main flaw being over-loyalty to those players we had in League 1. Sorry but that doesnt cover an inability to add any defenders or improve our defence with over 12m and over windows. Whilst blowing much on a striker he never plays. Our defence is the main reason for our demise, and there arent any excuses or reasons for that.

Whilst Mowbray hides behind his defensive injuries and mentions players coming back, its important to remember that we had the same debate a couple of weeks ago when 2 of his 3 injured "centre backs" in Rodwell and Mulgrew also proved incapable of defending crosses. His recruitment with over 12m and 4 windows has left us still with one defender capable of heading a ball. Unacceptable.

Agreed, the poll is flawed. Back, back until the summer, and sack would be 3 simple options.

Only watched the second half, although I have seen the first goal too. Mowbray will point to the fact that we have defensive injuries, but hes orchestrated us into a situation where we only have 2 very injury prone centre backs to begin with. He signed a midfielder (as an alternative to Bauer) who has almost exclusively looked out of position playing at centre back. He let Downing go, a competent League 1 defender (possibly no more) because he was 5th choice in Mowbrays mind. If that was the case, fair enough. If he thinks as a centre back, Downing (who is actually willing to head a ball) is worse than Williams and Rodwell, then he is talking out of his arse. To compound matters, Mowbray doesnt understand that versatility is all well and good but you cant play a player in 2 positions at once. Williams is also our (probably) second choice left back. All the while, he has a 7m striker who he dropped into the reserves to get his confidence up and has not played a minute since. His recruitment this season simply cannot be defended. The defensive mess we see at the moment, he will probably put down to injuries, but its down to him. Ultimately, Magloire is nowhere near up to it, hes been thrown in miles above his level and he can't head a ball. Shouldn't be anywhere near our first team. Williams is much more experienced but equally hapless. An absolute coward of a defender. Raya is nowhere near good enough, hes edging towards Jake Kean levels of being out of his depth and costing us directly on an almost weekly basis. Mowbrays words the other week have proven to be hollow and empty ones. Bennett was ok and finally scored a bloody goal but hes never a left back in a million years. Nyambe cannot head a ball either. As part of a settled back 4, id suggest he would be fine. Evans I thought had a shocker and Reed may as well have not bothered. Armstrong didnt look like he could be arsed when he came on either, and Dack had a frustrating day but superb footwork for the second. Positives, Rothwell was at times frustrating but ultimately constantly trying to create goal scoring opportunities, which he did for our first. He should be given a run of games. Thought Travis was ok, and Buckley looked very composed albeit he is as soft as shit, and showed his naivety when letting them counter at one point. But technically looked very able and promising.

Again, you randomly brought it back up, not someone still aggrieved by it. You are making out as if the main thing people were taking from the season was the title surrender, which is blatantly untrue. Again, you can criticise the manager for discounting a potential league title, which he blatantly did both with what he said and the team he picked, whilst being complimentary about the overall promotion.

People didnt criticise us for not winning the league, they criticised the manager for not appearing to be arsed about winning the league, big difference. Again, your line about automatic promotion suggests you are purposely being obtuse. The main criticism has been about the failure to significantly improve a League 1 team with a very big net budget. This is where expectations are irrelevant, and mutually exclusive. You can meet expectations and totally waste a hefty transfer budget at the same time. You've staunchly defended the Brereton deal but we are nowhere near a top 6 team, which is the long term goal to get promoted, so we simply cannot afford 7m sub strikers who is at best 3rd choice and yet to get a goal, regardless of potential which I have yet to see. There is plenty to build around and look forward to, players like Rothwell and Chapman are genuine projects (low cost, high reward without seriously impeding our overall budget) and we have a very good academy. The Brereton one is high risk, and so far no reward. If we finish around where we are now, between mid table and relegation, I would consider it an underwhelming but far from disastrous season. With the finances available I was never of the opinion that we would be relegated, in danger of doing so or should be happy with simply avoiding relegation.

Why is there no point in playing Chapman?

,I would have to disagree on that, Mulgrew was very good last season and as @BlackburnEnd75 said his reading of the game made it look easy at times for him. Out of curiosity, how easily accessible was it to watch games last season? Is every game live on ifollow? Yes I have watched Mulgrew defend, I have at no point suggesting that he has been good enough this season, but my comments about him being able to keep clean sheets in some of the games he missed is more suggesting that the defenders who did play had very easy games and were protected against very poor attackers. I think Mulgrews biggest issue has been that his injuries have been much more frequent, and age seems to have somewhat caught up to him. He also has struggled to put together an extended run without succumbing to injury. Rodwell looked good on the ball but ultimately he had a run in the team against poor, toothless opposition, and I think Mulgrew could have looked easily comfortable, but ultimately Rodwell is not a capable Championship centre back either as he has proved in games with any difficulty posed to him. I dont think people are being harsh on him this season, although suggestions that Magloire should be over him in the pecking order would be in my opinion incredibly premature. I am saying he has been a good defender for us overall in his time at the club. I am of the opinion that we need 4 defenders in the summer.

Its important not to be too harsh on Mulgrew, I think injuries and his age may have caught up with him but hes been excellent overall for us and hes not always been a poor defender, obviously we was a league below but he was one of our key players last season and to an extent dragged Downing through half of the season. The stats also fall around a favourable run of fixtures in January that we got 3 successive clean sheets in against really poor attacks that im sure we may have still done had Mulgrew played. Ultimately, he is another who was given a new contract far too early. Its not on the same page as the likes of Williams and Smallwood who simply are nowhere near good enough and giving them new deals as "rewards" is not the sign of a progressive, ambitious club. But there was no hurry baring in mind his age.

I do like Armstrong, but ultimately I don't think hes been a particularly good signing so far, save for an incredible month in January of course, he has been poor far more often than good. Plenty to work with, so quick and direct and a good finisher, but his numbers need to improve next year.

Critiquing individual performances or aspects of a performance is not failure to support the club. Wigan and Rotherham are not the sort of barometer we should be comparing against, both have far less resources than ours. The fans are behind the team on match days so I am not sure that your post is fair. Very much enjoyed the result last night as did all fans.

Nuttall doesnt look up to the quality required, was really poor when he came on. Surely Brereton has moved up the pecking order without playing? Ultimately we need a viable alternative to Graham as we dont have one at the moment despite spending 10m on strikers during Mowbrays reign, and Graham has been our player of the season so lets hope hes fit and we dont have this dilemma come Saturday.

No one has said that, he has been almost exclusively praised but he looks raw round the edges and its only fair to comment on that. For me you are unfair on the Smallwood and Evans axis, not in terms of its admittedly lack of effectiveness but in terms of how often its used. Since Travis' emergence, when we all presumed the status quo would be resumed, Travis has in the main retained his place (his levels dipped after an excellent first few games) and the Smallwood and Evans partnership has rarely been used really. Id agree that it shouldnt be used again but its also unfair to group the two together, Evans has been one of our better players this season and certainly shouldnt be banished. Smallwood is short of the required quality but lets not group the two together. Its playing Smallwood especially with Evans that is the problem. Last night against a poor team Reed and Travis had good second half but were both poor in the first, especially Travis. Evans certainly has a role to play going forward.

I know I was just saying we could play that football with Graham at the heart of it if we chose to. If hes injured for Saturday then id probably go for a front 3 of Dack and Rothwell behind Armstrong.