I've seen enough now. Yet again on sat, he was awful. And didn't appear to try ....again! He just isn't up for it at all. That goes for a fair few. This should not be the case, but the likes of Mulgrew, Conway, Graham, Whittingham simply are not up for this league. They don't like the changing rooms, the pitches and all that comes with Div1. I said it on another thread, player recruitment will come back to haunt us. Mowbray had an idea what will work. I mean I hear fans saying 'we have the biggest budget' etc. Yes we spent money on a guy from Readings reserve side who scored one goal. (against Rovers) A guy who is right at the end of his career (Whittingham) Dack who has been effective at this level 2 seasons ago. Mowbrays criteria was anyone who had played well against one of his sides previously, or who played well for him. I think at a push Smallwood has been ok. The rest have been a mixture. Samuel (while I quite like him) is very much work in progress. He and Antonsson are not looking like forging a good enough partnership. If Antonnson plays, that means Dack doesn't. Dack's final ball isn't good enough thus far. But he does at least try the creative things, we severly lack. And Antonnson is not as effective out wide left, but even less so alongside Samuel. Especially away from home. At Oldham we got beat by a very classy display from Byrne (who we let go back to City last season) he ran the game. They won the midfield battle, which subsequently won them the 3 points. We don't have that type of player. That needs addressing.
Sadly a nice little chat to a seasoned pro will not be enough. Pay him up and send him on his way, nobody will come in for him. Personally I always thought we should have gone for Beckford (in the summer) who went to my other team Bury. If we went in for him in Jan, we'd get him. Not a world beater, but big, physical and knows how to score goals at this level. Same with Gallagher at Birmingham. He would come now I think, he hasn't played much for Brum. And he is the class we wont get from Whittingham. And he cares about Rovers. This SHOULD be the criteria for the players. Its not about what you spend (for those rolling out the same old argument about us spending the most money therefore should simply win promotion) its how you spend it, and how wisely. We haven't done that. And we reained the likes of Graham and Conway who are just not up for this at all.