That's mad imo - Lenihans the captain and the only defender whose been reasonably consistently good over the long run, and can dominate in the air and recover on the turn. Williams has played very well recently but no one we've played have really gone direct and hurt him where he always suffers - balls in the air or in behind. My expectation is when that happens he will have some really tough games and everyone on here will have the pitchforks out for him again. I fully expect Lenihan and Ayala to become the eventual first choice with Williams frequently filling in due to injury or suspension.

Just watched the whole game back. What a tremendous performance. We really should have scored a few more. When I think back to the games in June post lockdown when we were playing 433 but getting beat by Millwall and Wigan etc and compare to how we are playing now it's night and day. Everyone feels in the right role (no Bennett at left back, or Holtby as false nine), losing Graham and Downing allows us to press properly, and obviously Dolan is a vast upgrade compared to Gallagher or Samuel on right wing. Kaminski - is exceptional with his feet. Like a third defender, classic sweeper keeper. He retains the ball so well compared to any keeper we've had in the Championship. Looks like he could be better than Raya to me but let's see how it goes. Williams - much maligned but won everything and used the ball so well when he had it. Looks a top defender. Ayala will struggle to get in. Lenihan, JRC, Nyambe, Bell - all had decent games with very little to do. Lenihan had one exceptional block at the start of the game. Rothwell - phenomenal all-round game. Looked Premier League class. Huge engine, put his foot in, pressed relentlessly and also used the ball excellently. A complete peformance. Left side of a 433 is the perfect role for him. Could be a big season for him. Holtby - neat, keeps things moving, always provides an option. Has defence splitting passes in him, superb one for the fourth goal. Looks much better in a deeper role than in the front three. Johnson - physically dominant. Used the ball well under pressure (which has always been his weak point, but he was very composed). Two well taken goals, first was a thunderbolt. Because everybody is working their nuts off to close down his lack of mobility is not exposed. Dolan - clearly destined for the top. As obvious a first rate player as when Duff and Phil Jones first turned out. It's incredible Preston let him go. Are they on drugs? Armstrong - finishing was poor but still very dangerous. Got a good goal. Should really have got a hat trick. Brereton - I have really thought he is useless since he's been at the club. In fact I think I called him "the worst player I have ever seen for Rovers". However I am beginning to see that I was wrong about that. In the quite unusual niche of his game he is becoming very effective. He beat his full back in probably 70% of duels yesterday. Physically dominated him, outpaced him. Yes his shooting was generally poor but he did create Dolans goal off the post. Crucially he held up and layed off the ball well. Gave it away very infrequently, and won a ridiculous amount of free kicks. If he can find some shooting boots he could come good. You know what I realised - he is basically Emile Heskey.... Derby were woeful, and despite being thrashed by us in the first 15 minutes seemed to stick with the same tippy tally football where we just hounded them. Daft. I love the way our front three and midfield three swap around positions and the full backs play as wingers while the GK forms a back three with the CBs. It's total football nicked straight from Liverpool and it's actually working for us. Absolute madness. Really really looking forward to Cardiff. Same team, Nyambe for JRC who will be injured I suspect. Let's enjoy this season, it's going to be a lot of fun. Reckon when we play a decent team who like to be direct things will get tougher, but lets trust this system and players and ride it out even if we get a few poor results along the way! Oh - and huge kudos to Tony for implementing such a radical plan. And all this with Dack, Travis, Gallagher, Evans out. Wow.

Yeah that's another way to skin the cat. More risky than going long though as it leaves big gaps in behind on the flanks for Dolan, Armstrong et al to exploit on the counter.

Yeah exactly. You hardly need Makelele, just someone who can sit on the playmaker and make it difficult for him. A Smallwood type can do it. Similarly you hardly need Crouch and Defoe up front either if your playing long. Just someone who can get their head on it and someone who can run in behind. I'm not saying if other teams start playing long we will always lose or anything like that, just we've played a couple of naive teams in Wycombe and Derby who were suckers for our system. Other clubs will now be taking note and adjusting their plans to exploit our weaknesses. I doubt we will have such an easy ride at Cardiff. Hopefully I'm wrong.

What you said is no other team has a decent front two or an enforcer who can shutdown Holtby. I would say that's a little optimistic!

If you think we've suddenly become invincible be prepared to be disappointed!

Quite a few I think. We're not Liverpool. They won't need exceptional players. Just competence.

I agree other teams will be looking at us and thinking what can they do to hurt us. For me it's pretty simple - stick a man marker on Holtby, play a classic front two with a big guy who can win the ball in the air consistently and a nippy striker who can get in behind, and every time you get it you play it long to the target man or in behind the full backs. It bypassees the gegenpresse and exploits the fact that we have so many players pushed up at any given time, and we are weak in the air at the back. Reckon once teams figure that out it will get a lot more tricky. But that's always the way with tactic and formations, they get accommodated for.

Realistically as the season progresses we are going to need to rotate. But that actually works for us as most of our players fit into the 433 really well (Buckley, Evans, Chapman etc can all slot straight in) with two notable exceptions - Dack and Gallagher. When they get fit it will be interesting to see if they can adapt. If they can't they could find themselves warming the bench.

Mowbray has been messing around with the 433 for a while, So he's obviously fancied it. He had Downing playing the role of Holtby and Gallagher on the right wing in the last few games of last season, but the basic ingredients were there. Obviously they have doubled down and committed to the "gegenpresse" over the break as that is improved. Of course there's a bit of fortune in there as well - Dolan has been a complete surprise and Gallagher being injured so he got starts was also useful. But it does to me seem like something we have been working towards since April / May. Credit where it's due. Mowbray decided we've got a very fit set of young players who can press and also keep the ball and he's built the team around that. Playing 433 is a very bold move. Good on him.

I mean we did win 5-0 so naming the same team isn't that outrageous a thing to do.

In the position that Rothwell and Travis have been playing it requires incredible workrate to get up and down. Just not sure Dack has that, plus the issue that he is a long way from the goal. Just can't see the sense in it. Dack spearheading a 433 has to be worth a go imo. Armstrong has hardly been playing that role like a target man - he's been facing goal and moving around finding space. I think it could work. Dolan, Armstrong and Dack is a fearsome front line if we can get it operable.

I think Tony will try Dack initially in a 433 as a false nine with Armstrong on the left and Dolan on the right. He'll be keen to keep the improved performances 433 seems to have brought out of Johnson, Rothwell, Holtby and the team generally. If 433 doesn't work for Dack I am sure we will then iterate a bit to find something that does work. I can't see Dack playing wide personally - he's far more a goal scorer than a winger. Probably a move to 4231 or 4411 could be on the cards. But we could end up in a position where what we gain from Dack we lose from others. It is interesting, that someone else posted, losing Dack did not really impact our results much last year. There could be an argument for dropping Dack if we are playing better without him. It's certainly true that in terms of players important to Rovers Dack is probably on number 4 (1. Armstrong, 2. Lenihan, 3. Kaminski).

Yes - I think probably a lot of clubs have cancelled their transfer plans. It's a classic "stop everything and we will rebudget scenario".

What I mean is the realisation there will be no gate revenue until at least March.

The feeling I'm getting is Venkys have been spooked by the Covid second wave and halted all spending.

Yeah I thought that. Weird way to make an argument!

I think we could just about survive with no further signings except a left back. Left back is critical. Besides the fact that Bell is not consistent enough, if he gets injured we don't have anyone. JRC, William, Bennett, Mulgrew etc can fill in but they are all very weak there in different ways. Need someone.

Yes. Travis, Buckley, Dolan, Nyambe all look like they could one day play at the top level. I'm interested to see more of Butterworth, Vale, Davenport and Wharton also. When they have played none of those 4 have looked out of place but they have very few minutes.

The only youth players I can think of as having as good a start to their Rovers career are Phil Jones and Damien Duff. So he's in pretty good company.

I don't really think its fair when any mistakes are blamed on Tony but when we play well it is "almost by accident". Tony has quite deliberately tested out and implemented the 433 and picked the players. It's success is as attributable to him as it's failures.

In the middle 3 against Wycombe we played 1DM (Johnson) and 2AM (Rothwell, Holtby). I could see him flipping it round, and putting JRC in there for more legs and pushing Rothwell further up. Kaminski Nyambe. Lenihan Williams. Bell JRC. Holtby. Johnson. Dolan. Armstrong. Rothwell. Subs : Fisher, Wharton, Ayala, Davenport, Buckley, Chapman, Brereton, No idea how the game will turn out but I think it will be a cracker.

Not sure why you think this when he has played a very aggressive 433 against Bournemouth and Newcastle.

Starts to a season like this are a double edged sword. Im sure those in Pune will be looking at us and say "why do you want X million, you just battered Wycombe 5-0".

I think like Dack we've got a good chance of keeping him and tying him down long term. Neither player look standout Premier League quality, maybe worth a gamble at £5-£8m to a Prem team but not the £15-£20m we would want to let them go. Armstrong could try and run down his contract, but we will probably offer him +50% what he is on and it would take a strong man to turn that down. If he tried to ride it out he is running the risk of getting a significant injury or falling out of form. He's in contract to August 2022, I think we could extend that to 2024. Flip side is do Rovers want to do that just now or wait till early 2021 to see how things develop. I personally would just get it done now.