Your support of Brunt is absolutely pointless! Shame you haven't got the balls to admit he is not the player he was. Who is better Barry or Brunt in your opinion?
Moore had roughly a 12 game spell with Brunt and Bartley in the starting 11 and results were patchy.
You yourself have posted many a time we should be aiming for Top 2 and no less, which contrasts with the more conservative people on here who favour other teams squads over ours.
You also said it's critical we deliver promotion in 18/19 due to the potential loss of good players in Summer 19.
Brunt and Bartley were being played due to players being unavailable due to injury/lack of match fitness/personal reasons/their future being in doubt in the window etc, nothing more. These reasons apply to Dawson, Morrison and Barry most notably. Moore also showed strong signs of wanting to strengthen both the RB and CM roles with the late bids for Dack and Tavernier (bids enabled by the late sale of Chadli) but unfortunately these did not come off.
Once Dawson was available and he felt Tosin (who had initially had a torrid time at RB against Forest, leading to the 3 at the back formation) was going to be comfortable at RB in the short term, Bartley was benched. Since both Barry and Morrison have been available we have seen less of Brunt. Brunt may have been injured initially when these two came in, but this was only short term and he has not started regularly since his return to fitness. If DM felt Brunt was the best option in the middle he would have started a number of recent games in succession, but he hasn't, because DM clearly doesn't believe he is.
The Holgate signing has already strengthened the team/squad and DM has stated they intend on signing a RB this month, so he sees the weakness in that area and has taken and is taking steps to rectifying it. He has also said he intends on signing a further attacking player (midfielder?) so it seems he sees the weakness in the squad in that area as well.
Everything that has happened so far this season tells me DM is more 'switched on' than many give him credit for and most of his decisions are quite explainable. I for one am as comfortable with him in charge than I have been at any time since his appointment and fancy him to take us to a top 2 finish this season.