roversfan99

I have watched Gallagher as much as you so stop being patronising. You are quick to tell me what he is not as a striker but not what he is good at? Bar working hard and not moaning. Matt Smith and Sam Vokes are average but they have very specific talents, they are both very good in the air. Limited players but they have a clear, well defined strength. All in all though, the main priority regarding a striker is how many goals he can get. His goals may have been good but its about quantity, not quality. He needs to score more goals and he should never, ever be played out wide.

If the summit of your expectations is not moaning and trying their best, and you turn a blind eye to strikers not scoring goals and the manager playing players in incorrect and uncomfortable positions then thats up to you. I want my strikers to score goals and I want players working effectively in their natural positions. More fool me. But it isnt needs must? We have actual wide men at the club. You are the absolute master at taking a point off tangent to hide something. Apparently being linked with players and then the manager saying that we are nowhere near asking prices is proof that the money is there to spend. If we cant judge or discuss anything "without knowing the full facts" whatever thag means then lets all not form opinions and instead close the messageboard. I can see with my own eyes that Gallagher cannot play effectively out wide and when he has been up front his goalscoring record has been dismal. But as long as he shuts up and doesnt publically berate the manager for it and he tries his best I am not within my rights to expect any more!

Neither were Dack and Graham last season, but they are natural goalscorers. I am not saying that strikers cant learn, but the knack of goalscoring is somewhat a natural one. I dont see much potential in him at all. What is he particularly good at to build around? Quite quick but not rapid, tall but not the best in the air, not a natural goalscorer. Id love him to turn into a good striker and goalscorer but id be surprised.

He played Bennett and Conway there as "defensive wingers" which was another strange Mowbray fad that didnt result in an attacking threat. Chapman has started one league game under Mowbray. Downing is a good player but one who we need even more in 2 other positions so cannot play him wide. No, I try not to recreate history that his goal tally even in that season was anything other than average, 1 goal every 4 games, and that was the highlight of his career. His overall Championship goal record is appalling. He gets a hard time from me because he statistically is one of the worst strikers in the division and does not merit a starting berth in our team. The fact that he works hard does not set him apart, the team in general tries its best but it doesnt in any way excuse him from not scoring enough goals. Its not even like when someone like Graham has a dry spell but still provides a focal point because he doesnt do that either. I dont recall him having decent games out wide. He has played plenty of games (and played poorly) central but this wide forward experiment needs to be stopped immediately and I blame Mowbray solely for persisting with that.

Gallagher bashing? The discussion has been about where he has been sometimes playing, very ineffectively, and where Mowbray has suggested that he is being shown videos and analysis to try and further him as a winger, a position he has shown no signs of potential in. Id suggest its pretty naive to expect a 24 year old to massively increase his ability to be able to sniff out chances. Hes not a natural goalscorer, he doesnt anticipate like a Rhodes, like a Dack or like a Graham. Working hard doesnt compensate for lack of goals which is what a striker will primarily be judged on and his tally so far is with the worst strikers in the league. Id much rather have someone who can "only" score goals, even assuming that the implication is true (it isnt) that Gallagher has everything but that in his game and Rhodes can only do that. You mention the price, when theres a natural goalscorer who does get goals at this level going for 4m then you have to ask questions.

Agreed, the whole wide forward thing is bollocks really. To be fair, Gallagher has been really poor up front too where he has played plenty as well, so I suspect it is a mixture of being reluctant to drop his big money signing and a lack of proven quality out wide, but it is illogical and is vocally getting the fans irritated now.

Mowbray is currently playing the wide forward system, and has done so, but that doesnt mean that he is right. The wide areas in my opinion have been an achilles heel throughout Mowbrays tenure. Antonsson had a bit of a hot spell there, Armstrong in very small patches, but aside from that, many of the other players that have been tested there have quite simply not been comfortable or effective there, Gallagher, Brereton, Samuel etc. Even more talented players like Holtby or to a far less extent, Jack Payne have been tried there with no success. It is ok to go against the managers opinion and state that Gallagher is quite simply not fit to play wide, no matter how many videos he watches or "information he takes on board" it is not only hindering the team having him offering nothing there, but it is also disrupting the players development to be trying to mould him into something (at the age of 24) that he is never going to become a success at because he doesnt have the skillset or the subtlety to do that. Whether we sign a winger or not this week, and if we dont get at least one that is a failure on the club and the manager, then Gallagher STILL should not be on the wing. It has been trialled and failed many times. All of the analysis and training for Gallagher should be based around him being a more effective striker than we have seen so far. In terms of wide positions, we are not strong in terms of proven quality in these areas, but whether it is the youth and natural width that Rankin Costello and Chapman can provide, the more proven outlets of Downing and Armstrong, (the main issue with these 2 is that we need the former in central midfield or left back and the latter up front) the pace and dribbling but ultimately repeatedly flattering to deceive Rothwell, or even in an emergency someone like Bennett (who I would hope is one that could be moved on in the next 5 days but doubt the manager will) they are all better options than Gallagher lumbering up and down and frustrating us all. Regarding the cash bids, basically all that has been confirmed by the manager is that we are nowhere near the price tags that teams have set for their players, we may have some money but clearly it is barely any. And our players futures should have been sorted by the start of the month then they knew where they stand. I am not sure it makes much sense to keep involving Smallwood and Samuel around the first team squad to be honest.

If that is correct, why do them so late in the window?!

But he cannot play wide full stop. You dont have to defend it when youve said previously that you disagree with it, you are trying to justify it because Mowbray has done it. If he cannot get in the team in his natural position, then he should play at all. This wide forward bollocks doesnt work either. Its neither helping the players development or more importantly benefitting the team.

Usual guff, dont get your hopes up!

Mowbray is coming out with the same platitudes about the rest of the window that we have heard before, that theres nothing imminent, we cant afford fees being banded, reliant on clubs releasing players on loan, all in hope rather than expectation unsurprisingly. Dont think hes been chased up on the deal he had lined up over a week ago.

Playing Gallagher wide is not effective in any way shape or form. Saying "he has a role in the team and wants to get better in that role" is just a smokescreen for that. Theres no positive angle for him playing there, you have yourself said that you dont like him playing there. You talked about his development being stunted at Birmingham, if he is spending hours trying to become slightly better at a position he quite blatantly isnt suited to nor has the attributes for, his development as a striker is again being stunted by Mowbray.

Thomas Muller doesnt just provide aimless toil, he is a very intelligent player and regular goalscorer.

Aimless toil over goals?

Weve not spent any time in the play offs in the last 18 months and have spent very little time in the immediate vicinity of them, and when we have, we instantly fall back down. Chuck in a couple of major injuries and no money to make reinforcements and its realism rather tham negativity as to why people consider our top 6 chances to be very slim. Armstrong and Nyambe are important players but certainly would not get into every team in the league. Downing has been good, Holtby has yet to consistently impress for various reasons. I suspect that neutrals would not consider us a major threat.

What does that even mean? He was consistently playing football, what more can managers ask? Its not their fault that Gallagher is not very good, Mowbray has also played him regularly and he has scored even less goals. The alternative for Buckley is to continue to just play kids football because hes a liability when he plays in the first team. And money makes it unfeasible but we dont want a goalscorer anyway, who needs goals?

Would be amazing but cant see any chance.

I think you are stretching it by saying 2 years. He played 33 times for Birmingham, so was playing regularly. Managerial changes are common place but he still played plenty of game time, especially for a very limited player who was not scoring goals. He spent half of last season injured so it was only half a season that he spent not playing.

The confidence will be solely from the last game as we are in poor form in the last 6 games.

Its unreasonable to expect a player to be fit to play in every single game, missing half a dozen games is not enough to raise it as a major reason as to why we arent in the top 6. I dont think there is any tangible evidence to suggest that we are top 6 quality considering we have never been in the top 6.

Im not saying that he isnt really important, I was correcting the implication that hes missed a high proportion of our games and its cost us. Same with Dack, we never once spent a day in the play off places even with him playing. He will be spending the rest of the season playing on the wing I suspect with Armstrong up top and reinforcements not coming in wide. Wherever he plays he doesnt have the knack of sniffing out chances.

Lenihan has missed 6 games, Cunningham was a blow I will concede. Gallagher was scoring goals at a (career best) 1 in 4 ratio and Brereton was performing at a level that had seen him drop out of the Forest matchday squad. Id love you to be right on that but I dont see any chance.

There was absolutely no logic to expect them 2 strikers with their respective ability and records to even come close to scoring goals with that level of consistency. To have a 40 goal strikeforce is incredibly difficult to get though, especially with 12m, a decent amount of money but not to afford a striker with a record of scoring that amount of goals, fee or wages, for example Dwight Gayle. I understand that Gestede was an unexpected gem but Rhodes had scored 36 goals in League 1 the year before. You say Gallagher was successful, he was average and thats the best hes ever been. And Brereton couldnt make the Forest bench. The Cunningham injury was a certain blow but Dack and of course Evans have only just got injured, and Lenihan has only missed 6 games. Even up until now, we have been at best a couple of results away, and at worst deep in the bottom half, with the injured players being fit. Neither our attack nor our defence is top 6 quality do even if you add one of sufficient quality the other would let us down.

To say we "would" have been is a huge logic leap. Both Dack and Lenihan have played in 22 of 28 games and we have not once been in the top 6.

Danny Graham has footballing intelligence and a goalscoring knack that Gallagher simply does not. He is the master of putting his arse in or giving a gentle sly shove to get a yard to hold the ball up, and he knows where the ball is likely to fall and has the composure to capitalise on that. Gallagher lacks both of these and they are hard to coach.