Tony Mowbray spoke to BBC Radio Lancashire as the Rovers boss discussed the possibility of bringing in another central midfielder, whilst also highlighting the need for some much needed strength in depth, which he believed would allow Rovers to properly compete within the division.
“I don’t think we need to let anybody go, I think at first team level (in the midfield) we have Whittingham, Smallwood and Evans. I think Willem (Tomlinson) is a young guy that’s still got a lot to learn and he still needs to understand what it takes to be a top footballer.
“I think we need competition in the midfield area which will give me headaches when everybody’s fit and we have a game from Saturday to Saturday. Who are you picking? Who are you leaving out? How are you telling them why they’re not in the starting eleven or on the bench? Yet they all come expecting to play, especially the loan players. If you loan someone in from the Premier League, they expect to play.
“I try to be honest with players when I talk with them about signing with the football club. Nobody’s guaranteed a place in the team, they have to earn it, they have to work hard and if they get an opportunity they have to try and stay in the team.”
The Rovers boss also talked about how difficult it is to tell a player that they wouldn’t be required for an upcoming game and how a tactical change, due to the opposition, may change a manager’s line-up in order for him to pick the best 11 he believed would get the result.
“As a manager you want the players to understand that you’re on their side, you want them all to play and yet I can’t pick 20 players, I can only pick 11. If you’re not starting, it’s generally not my fault, you may have been poor in the last game or you didn’t work hard enough in training or I think the game may dictate that the team may need a certain type of player over another, like a pacey player over a technical one, for example, or the other way around.
“The players have to understand the logic of it really and they have to be mentally tough to sit on the bench when they’re not in the team and when they have to play, they have to perform.”
Despite setting out his intentions of wanting another central midfielder, the Rovers boss did not state how close a potential deal was to being completed. In addition he made no comments in regards to whether the deal he was working on – which he revealed was in the pipelines following Rovers’ win over Coventry – was to be a permanent switch or a loan deal.
