I have to say it's hard how we would meet his demands. Maybe because he's on a free we will throw him a big signing on fee but keep the wages in our structure. Could work? I think that's how we swung Holtby.

I agree I think that's where having a flexible approach could help. If a team sits in going 4231 or 4411 could help using whoever is at the 10 role to unlock. But then I suppose if they sit back we can still press them hard in 433 and get them to make mistakes and turn over the ball. I know they're a trillion times better than us, but Liverpool hardly struggled to break teams down in a 433, they were just relentless. I guess we will just see how it works. Probably other teams will work out best thing against us, no matter the vaguries of the formation, is to just hoof it as we are so weak under a high ball or running back towards our goal.

I am surprised by Davenport too. I think he's decent. Johnson and Evans have qualities but are not going to last all season. I would imagine that Travis, Johnson, Evans, Davenport will get rotated in the flanking two CM "water carrier" roles, while Holtby and Buckley will share the central playmaker CM role. If we are playing high pressing those flanking roles are going to be really really intense as they are asked to cover a lot of ground. If you run out of legs there to whole system falls apart. I can see a fair bit of rotation as we play Saturday/Tuesday a lot.

I think to be honest you are dammed if you do or dammed if you don't at the moment. He's trying something new, it looked pretty good against Bournemouth, let's see how it goes next few games. Prefer that to just hiding away with a defensive game.

Don't think Tony, or any manger, would want Dack that far away from goal.

Yes I was thinking that last night. Basically he would have to play as a false 9 I think. On the balance I do think we are better pursuing a system which work for half a dozen of our attacking players rather than just one. That said maybe we could have a fluid system that switches to 4231 when needed with the same personel? 433 Kaminski Nyambe. Lenihan. Williams. Bell Travis. Holtby. Johnson. JRC. Dack. Armstrong. 4231 Kaminski Nyambe. Lenihan. Williams. Bell Travis. Johnson. JRC. Dack. Holtby Armstrong

Oh enormously so. To be fair to Brereton though last three or four games have been his best. Starting to look like a reasonable asset, mainly because he can now quite regularly beat his full back. Has bulked up a lot.

Based on what I've seen he's seems a.nailed on future star. Last time I saw a player come through with that sort of quality was Hoilett. I'm so confused why Preston let him go. Mental. He's the ideal last 20/30 minute player. Will get a lot of game time for us. Should have scored on Saturday, but that apart his all-round game was excellent.

I know hope springs eternal but having watched the Bournemouth game I have to say I like the new system which is quite a radical departure from where we were for most of last season, we've actually got quite a lot of good attacking players, so am interested to see if Tony and the team have turned a corner. Desperately needs some quality defenders though or it's all for naught.

Couldnt watch the game yesterday, but watched the whole match back this evening. All in all very unlucky to not get a point, draw would have been fair. Also hard to really say any of the goals were major defensive errors, more that the Bournemouth players made some incisive moves and finished well. Johnson, Evans and Dolan all had chances where if they had shown similar cool finishing we would have scored. Also it was really hard to see if Holtbys goal was offside. Looked very close. Obviously the 433 is going to lead to some pretty open play. But I'm looking forward to it to be honest. In Dolan, Rothwell and Chapman we have players who can come off the bench and scare teams, and we are a very energetic and youthful side who can cover a lot of grass. Del had a surprisingly good game, I like the look of Kaminski. Bell was actually less of a defensive liability (but was an offensive one). Still we do need two really top defenders to kick on. Think this could be quite a fun season for us playing some ultra aggressive football with quite a lot of entertaining attacking players in the team. Expecting mid table again, but it should be a more interesting season.

It's really ballsy move by Mowbray. Straight out of Klopps "heavy metal football" playbook. Level of fitness to make it work is extreme. But I definitely prefer it to last year's initial "lump it to Gallagher on the wing" tactics which were rubbish.

Sorry I meant Davenport.

There is a chance we will be better - if the two or three of the young lads (JRC, Dolan, Buckley, Downing, Wharton, Magloire) make a significant impact, and if either of Brereton or Gallagher offer something (as they didn't last year). Plus obviously hope is Kaminski is significantly better that Walton. So some cause for hope there. But we are an injury to Lenihan or Nyambe away from disaster. And left back is already hopeless. We need to sort that.

He's always been like that.

Fair point! Does say he was born here though. Does his dad own a place near Blackburn?

Was born in Blackburn while his dad was playing for Rovers. Surely bleeds blue and white. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Rathbone That aside why the f*** are we trying to sign another center mid?

Surely we are in pole on this one. He was very appreciative of our staff supporting him during injury. Would be absolutely great to get him. Obviously concern about the injury and if he is all there. But that apart as good as we are going to do at left back. Then it would be down to getting at least one quality experienced cb or 2 quality experienced cb if we let Williams go. Then I think the window will have been adequate (but certainly not good).

I have had a good long think about this game, and on paper it's very hard to see anything apart from us getting a mullering. But then again the Championship is a mad unpredictable league so anything can happen. You've always got a decent chance in any game, and a lot of side that come down from the prem underperform until they get to grips with the league. That said if you were to ask Tindell who his ideal first opponent would be you have to think he would be pretty keen on Rovers. Defensively chaotic, passing focused, not very physical or aerial, who are playing a 433 formation light in midfield. Bournemouth are a very good passing side who can dominate the ball, and that's a very favorable environment....

He had a good run when he played well before the Covid break. But then dropped back to previous standard once we came back.

Everything he said is fair enough. Don't really have an issue with it on a factual or logical basis. But it's a situation every club is in except those with parachute payments. Many Championship clubs have less resources than us and some clubs are signing good players. So we need to do something about it, not just talk about it.

Problem with 433 is the front three get isolated With 4231 at least you have the 10 role to link up. I guess we could develop an approach where we use the same personnel but can switch between the two systems during the game as required. Three at the back however is baffling. I get why we did it at WC2018 and it worked pretty well, but the squads changed a lot and we seemed to move away from it in 2019.

It's disappointing to see games like this when we do actually have a squad at the moment with a lot of excellent attacking options. On reflection I don't really know what is wrong with sticking with 4231? It suits our players and links the team together well back to front. ------------------------Pickford A-A-----------Gomez------Maguire------Chilwell --------------Henserson------Winks -----Sancho----------Foden--------Sterling ---------------------------Kane Great team that, probably only France have a better set of attacking players. Recognise injuries / players behaving like dickheads made a few drop out but you could still just swap around a few names but keep the shape and it would work very well. I like Southgate but I just didn't really understand what he was trying to do yesterday.

Can pass it well but way too slow on the turn and across the turf. Holtby will be playing this role I think, and has looked good doing it.

I only caught the second half but it really looked like 433 to me. I wasn't really watching that carefully though, so happy to be corrected. That several people seem to be if differing opinions about the formation after the game has finished tells its own story too!

He's done pretty well so far. As well as any England manager in the last 30 years. I can't see the point in endlessly changing them. May as well see how he does next tournament.