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.

For me, whilst its not necessarily untrue, its incredibly harsh to drop Graham for that reason. It doesnt suit him to constantly hoof it aimlessly in the air and hes far better on the floor than Nuttall, he played a couple of superb passes v Preston and in general he links up better than anyone with Dack. Its up to Mowbray and the rest of the team behind Graham to come up with less brainless tactics to play up to him rather than the lazy and thoughtless lump in the air knowing that he makes treasure out of very little at times with excellent hold up play. I was really unimpressed by Nuttall last night and find the whole Brereton situation confusing on the back of 3 goals at an admittedly poor level.

I also feel like it would be controversial to say, but Mulgrew would have had an equally comfortable day as Magloire last night, even after his rotten form following his latest injury. Magloire did himself proud but he was very well protected and also massively aided by a very poor Wigan. Might be a far bigger test on Saturday against an in form Steven Fletcher who will bully him.

What in particular did you disagree with? I dont get how you can describe Rothwell as the most talented man at the club and the man of the match based on yesterdays cameo. Hes undoubtedly talented but he gets better by being on the bench. Definitely deserves more minutes with Armstrong deserving to be dropped. But hes done nothing substantial enough in his cameos to warrant such a tag either. Dack is undoubtedly the most talented player we have.

Thought 3 nil was a very flattering but welcome scoreline against a horrendous Wigan side. Dack deserved his goal, for 80 minutes he was so obviously out of form but he kept plugging away and that lucky goal may be just the ticket for a hot spell. Graham again is superb with such poor service to him, first half we were shite but he took his 2 goals very well and we have to pray hes not injured. Magloire did well enough at a level far above his station at the moment, one superb recovery tackle and one or 2 blocks, says alot for our organisation and/or their lack of quality meant he was barely involved but looked a bit flimsy especially in the air. Felt Williams and especially Nyambe also did a decent job in unfamiliar positions. They should have taken advantage of a back 5 as bad on paper as I can remember but fair play, collectively, cant grumble at all. Reed and in particular Travis were poor first half but were much more on the front foot in the second and ran the game through a high press. Rothwell is like a dog chasing a ball in whatever direction it goes and it can be risky to dribble in the wrong areas but hes undoubtedly a threat and perhaps deserves a chance over Armstrong on Saturday who was really poor. Nuttall I felt was very disappointing and if he is higher in the pecking order than Brereton then we need to worry.

The players are undoubtedly part of the problem but the reason that Mowbray takes the blame is the length of his tenure here and the resources and time hes had to rectify these issues. Its ok slagging off our defenders for example for not being willing and able to head balls away into the box but how have we manufactured a situation whereby we only have 2 centre backs, both of whom are injury prone and even one of those 2 in Mulgrew is not someone who is best at dealing with aeriel balls. Any manager would struggle with this so called set of defenders. He had 10m in the summer and signed 7 players, none of them natural defenders. If Mowbray had just inherited them then he would have an excuse. There is absolutely no excuse for us having such an imbalanced squad at this point in his reign. Both the quality and balance of his recruitment has not been good enough and at the monent we are really feeling that. That may appear to be a "cop out" but at this point in his tenure the blame falls with Mowbray.

Downing is a bog standard League 1 centre back who did well for us initially, partially by not being Elliott Ward, but as time went on his limitations became more and more clear and indeed Lenihan was instantly back into the team upon his return. The fact that he has been missed and that he would walk back into the side says more about the neglected mess of a defence we have rather than anything about Downing himself.

Thats as good as anything Kean said.

Thought again the performance and result alike were really poor and I am now of the opinion that progress is not being made and that we need a managerial change. His squad is so imbalanced, his loyalty to certain players is badly hindering us and our results are getting worse as time passes. Shake his hand, hes done well overall but we need a change now. Our crossing was again, as the stats prove it has been all season, absolutely horrendous. Bennett was as bad as any, to be shoehorned at left back summed up everything that is wrong with Tony Mowbray. Im sure Bennett is a nice guy and he tries his best but hes nowhere near good enough. His crosses every time went over everyone. Preston were nowhere near their best today but I never felt that we were gonna equalise and Williams defending for their goal summed him up. Dack and Armstrong also may aswell have sat in the stand with the again impressive Graham doing at times very well with our horrendous service up to him.The midfield duo that puts fear into Rovers fans minds again failed to deliver. Fancy that.

Hope not. Reed, Travis and Evans are all better than them 2. Some people CANT go because of the needless kick off time which you havent justified and neither has the club. Its not that they are saying "nah dont fancy a 12 o clock kick off" they cant go. And some people dont go through thick and thin, they go when it suits them like any other club. I will be going like you but we stick our noses up at these people at our peril.

Even though i didnt agree with some of the post you quoted, is there any need for such an ignorant reply? I am going as per usual tomorrow, but I have empathy for those who cant. I dont agree with his points about team selection etc I must admit. The main valid point was that his son has a tennis lesson and therefore he will be unable to attend Rovers. Hes far from the only one in such a situation, Ive seen many people mention other committments, work, kids, doing sports either themselves or for their kids, and this needless decision at best gives them a decison to make. Yes theyve had notice but some people will be unable to stop their other committments, and some less obliged to go "through thick and thin" will choose whatever else they have on, and you can either look down your nose at that or realise its only to the clubs detriment based on Waggotts decision. If the game was moved for TV ie out of the clubs hands, then fair enough. As it was, the club moved it for valid reasons yet to come to light, blamed it on the police making the decision and when it became clear that wasnt the case, released a phoney statement still not addressing why it had to be moved. The point about pricing is very fair too. I noticed that Wigan have had a game against Norwich moved which is out of their control. They have responded with a deal, £15 tickets no strings attached and unbelievably under 18s for free. Superb deal.

There is perhaps far too much over-analysis of Mowbrays words but ultimately I dont hold much credence towards what a manager says, even when we was winning every week in League 1 and folk blew smoke up his backside about his "refreshing honesty." Ultimately he has brought on such nit picking within his interviews towards what HIS team is doing on the pitch. Whether he chooses to protect and defend his players at all costs or call them out for the mistakes is his personal choice but ultimately it all boils down to his management. With Raya, we are in a position where he is making big errors on an almost weekly basis but id still be unsure whether to change simply due to a lack of competent alternative, Leutweiler has barely played football (even in the cups he doesnt play) in a good few years and his CV is incredibly underwhelming. The issue is not what Mowbray is saying about it, its asking whether hes actually developing under the current setup (questions have been asked about the goalkeeping coach) and also why has Mowbray not seen fit yet to bring in a more established and competent goalkeeper. Likewise with the defence, ultimately he can call them out all he wants but they simply are neither good enough individually defensively nor well organised enough and that is the issue. He can say "they need to feel it in their bellies" and question their bravery but its HIS choice to have signed a midfielder to try and convert into a centre back rather than just signing a defender. Hes been here more than long enough and given more than enough resources (which he has chosen to use almost exclusively on attacking players) for me to look at the situation and not give a shit what rubbish he is saying in the media, or where he is apportioning the blame elsewhere, but judge him on what I see from HIS team on the pitch.

We only have such a poor defence due to a negligent attitude towards spending barely any of the considerable resources the manager has had in his time here on it.

Think that is somewhat of an unfair and antiquated criticism. We all expected Travis, the missing person within your post, to instantly lose his place as soon as Smallwood returned from suspension. Indeed, since Travis came in v Sheffield United, he has played all of the game apart from v Bristol City, when he was taken off for his own protection after losing his discipline, and at home to Boro, when he came on at half time but rather than Evans and Smallwood, we went with Evans and Reed in the middle. The Rodwell centre back experiment has been a farce from day one, in that he came as seemingly an alternative to a natural centre back that we couldnt afford for a fraction of the price that we paid for a sub striker yet to score. Unfortunately, Mowbray's imbalanced recruitment has removed any potential to put him in his natural position in the absence of one solitary centre back.

But hes played his whole senior career in midfield. He earnt England caps and a big money move to City as a midfielder. And he looks as flimsy as anyone in defence, because hes never played there as a senior player with any regularity. It was a stupid project which was stupidly seemingly an alternative to signing a blood and thunder centre back.

For me, an open and shut case. With very little service, minimal crosses, and aimless hoofs regularly and blindly played up to him, hes been excellent. Has done everything to dispel myths about a perceived physical wane with consistently impressive performances, a competitive goal and assist tally and some text book leading of the line. Dack would have to be second, despite a lean couple of months his goal and assist contributions are still impressive. Armstrong has had one excellent month amidst a season of mainly poor performances, Travis is young player of the year but his performances have dropped to the mean following a superb few initial performances, and Reed and Evans have had decent seasons. Aside from that, nothing else of note.

January was just a 4th opportunity wasted in a constant neglect in regards to our defence. Signing a top class striker wouldnt have solved it. The fact that we seemingly wanted a striker shows what Mowbrays attitude is towards our defensive woes. We will make do.

Ultimately he came out and went all guns blazing on the players post match, but ultimately the team he put out had absolutely nothing in the way of competent defenders on the pitch. If Raya had been taught all week how to finish and he played him up front, would Mowbray have any place calling him out for not scoring. No. Playing that flimsy defence and keeper will always struggle to defend as a unit. Mowbray needs to look at himself and how hes ended up with such a defence. He bemoaned the lack of our one player on Saturday who enjoys heading the ball away. Behave Tony, its hardly an injury crisis to be without one centre back, that shouldnt leave you with no option but to go with a tired and tested Rodwell and Mulgrew combination that simply doesnt work. This is your squad now, why do you still only have one centre back who will head the ball away? Mowbrays most staunch supporters will point to the potential of a Bauer deal not going through last summer. Why was Mowbrays plan B to sign a midfielder on a year contract to try and "convert" him into a defender? And its ok saying he "knows what we need" in the summer but what evidence is there to suggest he is the man to fix it? Calling for more time and resources shouldnt be at all required. Hes had 2 years, 4 windows and well over 10 million. Whereas a good manager builds from the back, hes spent less than 500k on defenders. The only centre back hes signed was for peanuts, and is very much a steady League 1 defender and no more, the very fact that so many are bemoaning his absence now weve carelessly loaned him out says plenty about whats still at the club. Its a slap in the face to have a 7m striker twiddling his thumbs on the bench as we chase a goal due to poor defending. Its negligence over a long period of time under Mowbray thats ended up in the sorry state we see today. We seemed to be a well drilled team in many aspects last season, often capable of winning when not at our best. It seems that was solely based on having superior attacking players.

The players in defence arent good enough, and Mowbray has neglected this in the transfer market and blown all of his money on attacking players. Rodwell is an automatic pick at centre back after one solitary injury, and he is a midfielder. All whilst we have a 7m striker on the bench. Why no acknowledgement of him seemingly seeing our defence as unworthy of improving over the course of 4 transfer windows?

I am bordering on having lost my patience with the manager. But implying that a win would be unwelcome and suggesting Coyle could do a better job, you are showing yourself up, again.

Theres some laughable defences of Mowbray with some people seemingly swallowing the blame he put solely on the players. Sorry Mowbray but it is entirely your fault. You have had 4 transfer windows, 2 years and have spent well over 10 million. You have not remotely improved our defence. As individuals, the defenders and goalkeeper are not up to it, even if they were well organised (they arent that either) then they would still make too many individual errors. Rodwell isnt even a defender, your negligent attitude towards our defence has meant that youve signed a midfielder on a free and thought "he'll do." You say that we only have one central defender who likes to head the ball and enjoys the rough and tumble on defending, its your squad! I also think we were really poor going forward again, our one dimensional tactics do not get the best out of our attacking players. Furthermore, Smallwood has again joined Bennett as players who are automatic picks regardless of ability and form. I am fed up of seeing the same things week in week out, it feels like we are stagnating and serious question marks are arising as to whether we are indeed progressing under the current manager. People keep saying he knows what he needs to do. How do you know?

If he is going to be pushed into midfield at some point then get that deal done ASAP. If hes solely a centre back in Mowbrays eyes then its an experiment that hasnt worked and we should leave it.

If I was a Rotherham or Barnsley fan and they were claiming to want higher attendances, I would be equally critical. No one has suggested we are unique in our approach. Anyone who does it is jepordizing the hope of getting as many additional fans as possible into the ground.

Raya Nyambe Rodwell Mulgrew Bell Evans Travis Armstrong Dack Rothwell Graham Subs: Leutweiler, Reed, Bennett, Smallwood, Nuttall, Brereton, Chapman/Butterworth Need to get a win considering recent forn and Rotherham are poor hence their league position. Reed has been out of form and Bennett doesnt provide anywhere near enough so id give Rothwell a game, perfect chance for him. Very hamstrung defensively.