I think having JRC and Douglas at FB will make us a lot better at breaking them down if they do park the bus.

Brereton is now looking genuinely pretty good. He loses the ball so rarely. It's like complete chalk and cheese compared to the last 2 seasons.

Well we look like we will get a lot more quality deliveries in from the FB on the attack but we look very vulnerable on the break. Coventry should be winning. Have to say I don't like the look of the midfield three. And there we are - red card and pen! Tremendous ball from JRC.

Johnson has been excellent with two mobile players either side of him - Holtby, Travis, Rothwell all fit that description. With Evans though it looks way too static and they can't cover the ground. So dropping Evans makes sense. Looking ahead to this game.... From the Watford outing the impression I got from Trybull is that he is also not very mobile, so I wonder if we will see the same issues as with Evans? Obviously I hope not but I suspect, based on what happened on Wednesday night, Trybull will sit at the base and Johnson will be expected to play a box to box role. I just can't see how he can do that? It also means our left side will have little pace with Douglas, Johnson and Williams on that side. I think we have maybe missed trick not playing JRC in midfield as we need legs in there. Anyhow that's all based off seeing Trybull for 20 mins so hopefully my concerns are unfounded and he will cover a lot of grass.

Don't disagree but to paraphrase Souness we need to use the willy we have... We've got 3 proper CBs - after that it's a choice between Wharton, Carter, Magloire, Nyambe at CB. Of those Magloire seems the least risky as he has recovery pace (well Nyambe does as well obviously but we need him at RB unless we play JRC at RB and that makes things even more fragile).

Really? I'm generally a very forgiving judge of youth players but he played a number of horrendous balls out of the back and lacked the pace to recover. To me it looks like Magliore is a much better better fit for our high line defence.

I would say : Kaminski. Nyambe. Lenihan. Williams. Douglas JRC. Johnson. Holtby Elliott. Armstrong. Brereton Subs - Stergiakis , Wharton, Bell, Trybull, Buckley, Dolan, Gallagher Without Rothwell I think JRC has a big part to play in midfield box to box. It is critical we win this one. And we really really should do. I don't think Coventry are that defensive so we should make plenty of chances, we need to put them away, and let's show the kind of defensive fortitude we have shown prior to the Watford game. Big game to make a statement.

Yup. Wharton looked really out of his depth yesterday. Does anyone know if Douglas has got much pace on him? With Ayala and Johnson not being the quickest and the high line we play were going to need a bit of pace there.

Yes, a lot is going to be how good Douglas is I don't really know much about him defensively.

Nope just saw us play probably the hardest fixture of the season and be the better side. It's not all about results (well it is all about results, but you know what I mean), the basics are we created a lot more and just struggled to put them away. It's very similar to when we played Bournemouth a few games ago. Everyone was wailing and gnashing teeth but we followed it up with two great results at Wycombe and Derby. I think against teams that play relatively open against us we will have a very good season. We create a lot of chances. I am concerned we struggle against teams that are defensive and sit deep. My expectation is we go on to get about 12 points in the next 6 games. Maybe I am deluded. Let's wait and see!

Pretty impressed by what I've seen and I'm excited about the season. That isn't sarcasm!

I've never been a fan of Brereton but you see when he's off we struggle for an out ball.

We've had a really good half in general play. Finishing has been wasteful, and on balance of chances we should be ahead. However there is a clear mismatch between Sarr and our left side where Bell, Ayala and Johnson can't keep up. It's as good as money in the bank for Watford. So while I'm pretty sure we will score again, maybe even twice, I still think we will lose this as they have more goals in them on the break. Not really sure what we can do about that to be honest. Douglas isn't that pacy on the bench. Could do something radical like move Nyambe to left back but while he's got the pace I wouldn't have that much confidence with him against Sarr either. Just keep on and have our fingers crossed. Overall I think the system is great and we do look the part of promotion challengers.

I guess the plan is for Dolan to swap for Elliott second half.

Great news!

They will play very different to both Forest and Cardiff. It will suit us. We might lose but I am pretty sure we will score.

Nah, they haven't played anyone like us yet. We're a totally different opposition to anyone they've come up against yet.

I would say to the team "forget about Cardiff and Forest - this will be a very different game. Press them high an early and break quickly." I quite fancy us to get an unexpected result. As we don't have Rothwell I would play JRC in there to join up midfield and attack. Team for me : Kaminski. Nyambe Ayala. Lenihan. Douglas JRC. Johnson. Holtby Dolan. Armstrong. Brereton Subs : Greek GK (I will learn how to spell his name!), Wharton, Bell, Buckley, Trybull, Elliot, Gallagher.

I would say it all depends who we play and how they play. Dolan (and most of the team) have been excellent in open games even when playing the likes of Bournemouth and Newcastle. We have struggled when other sides (well Cardiff and Forest so far) play tight and defensive. On that basis I would stick with the team as it is against Watford as it should be far more open and we should (fingers crossed) be much more effective. Next defensive team we play isn't until Boro, so we have a run of four games where we probably aren't going to be playing against teams who park the bus. My hope is Dolan and Armstrong come to life. We do need that plan B though when other sides do sit in as Boro will. I think that plan B does have to involve a target man of some description - so Gallager in the absence of anyone else.

Great for an end to end game but does he offer that much when the other team is camped in their own half?

I agree we desperately need a plan B against deep defences. We did try something different in second half, pushing Buckley further forward and Evans and Johnson deeper. It looked a bit more fluent but we still struggled to create anything of note. I suppose when Dack is fit the idea when we want to go ultra attacking to break down teams it might be something like : ------------------Kaminski JRC-------Ayala-----Lenihan-----Douglas --------------Holtby-----Johnson -----------------------Dack ----Dolan-----Armstrong----Elliot The question is though why would the oppo do anything other than park 10 men on the edge of their box to deny us the room our small nippy players need? Cardiff and Forest have shown it works very well against us. Maybe Dack and Elliot will be more effective? If we had a decent mobile target man you could scare the opposition to push out. But as it is they are happy enough to just sit in and head out everything that comes in. What's frustrating is Gallagher is supposed to be that mobile target man, but Mowbray has such little faith in him that he is left on the wing. Not signing a decent target man could be a big issue for us as the season wears on. As it is we only have Gallagher (maybe McBride if he comes on?) so the next time we are in this situation (and I think it will roughly happen every other game as sides will be desperate to play tight against us) I would go for the following if we are after a goal in the second half until Dack is back: ------------------Kaminski JRC-------Ayala-----Lenihan-----Douglas --------------Holtby-------Johnson ------------------Armstrong ----Dolan------Gallagher----Elliot

Will be a totally different type of game to Forest or Cardiff. Watford will come out to play which should suit us. Holtby back and Douglas into team seem likely to me. I think Mowbray will persevere with Dolan. Big question is will Brereton get potted for Elliot? Team very uncertain but my guess is : ------------------------Kaminski Nyambe------Ayala-------Lenihan-----Douglas ----------Holtby------Johnson----Evans ----------Dolan-----Armstrong-----Elliot But realistically I could see TM starting any of Brereton, Trybull, Gallagher or Bell. Watford have got the quality where they will expect to beat us at home. Will be interesting to see how well we can compete with them.

Not having Rothwell today was obviously a problem. His driving runs down the left have been part of the big success of the new system. Also Buckley was no where near as effective as Holtby unfortunately. But then again they were both in the team against Cardiff and we struggled. The general pattern of play of this game and Cardiff is a concern. What do we do if teams sit deep against us? We don't really seem to know. Both games we get a lot of space down the flanks and in front of their defence but couldnt really do much with it. I think the next thing we will try is Douglas and JRC at full back and try to use their improved crossing to open up teams. That's a reasonable plan. But I am really concerned we don't really have anyone who can get their head on the crosses in a congested box. I think that could be a big problem for us if most sides intend to be very defensive when they play us.

Less worried about lightweight, more with both Holtby and Rothwell out we may struggle to link up midfield and attack. Huge game for Buckley.

If Mowbray changes the formation to 343 after 433 has served us so well he needs his head examining! I think it's 433 come hell or high water.