joey_big_nose

I think Breretons main contribution is the ball has started sticking to him and he can carry it 20-30 yards up the pitch and win a lot of fouls. Pretty unglamorous stuff but has been quite effective in keeping the pressure on the opposition. If he can add something else to his game - finishing, or becoming significantly better in the air for example, he could become more useful. As it is as soon as Dacks back he's on the bench.

Dacks dilemma will be whether to sign a contract available to him from us or take his chances and maybe get another injury. To be honest I think he will probably sign on similar terms to what he is on unless he has a spectacular season and Prem interest comes back. Bird in the hand and all that.

When was the last time something like his happend? IE valued asset ran down contract? You talk like it's a regular occurrence?

But then you are moving one of our two regular goalscorers far away from goal which is absolutely crackers.

Yes perhaps, but another good game will put him in a strong position. Kind of depends how Forest come out and play. If they sit in he'll struggle, but if they come out to play there's no doubt he should make a big impact.

Think your first lineup. Dack is going to be CF, Armstrong left, Dolan right. The idea will likely be that can smoothly move into a 4312 if Dack wants to drop deeper. With Dolan cementing his place and Dack coming back the players who should be nervous are Brereton and Gallagher. They need to start scoring goals very soon or they are going to find themselves frozen out. I know there will be a lot of "Mowbray has his favourites yada yada" on here in response to the above, but he's dropped the likes of Smallwood, Bennett, Walton, Nuttall, Samuel etc when they haven't performed. Hes not going to leave out the goals of Dack or Armstrong, and Dolan has already scored two himself. So they better start finding the onion bag pronto.

Dack will play up front imo. But I do agree we would have an issue in that only three of Rothwell, Travis, Holtby, Johnson, Whiteman and Evans can start. But then realistically all of those players, with the exception of Rothwell, are injury prone so maybe it's not really a problem.

He's got nearly 2 weeks to work with them though. Considering his basic approach is going to be "balls to passing it around lads, just hoon it down field" it's not going to be the most sophisticated strategy to impart. My expectations for this game have moved from reasonably confident to very nervous.

If i had to choose two from Tosin, Ayala and Lenihan I would choose Ayala and Lenihan every time. Tosin is the best footballing centreback I have seen for Robers without doubt. But what we need are centrebacks who prioritise the defensive side of their game. Would have loved to see Tosin come back but given the money constraints I think we have chosen well.

For my money Chapman and Buckley are both decent impact players in terms of creating chances. What we are missing though is someone to come on and put the ball in the net.

That's outrageous!!!

As I said it's a second half option if we are struggling to break teams down if they sit deep like Cardiff. Not advocating starting with it. Dolan is one of the first names on the teamsheet for me.

Ah okay. Well that buggers that idea. Don't really know what we can do then. I guess just plug away with the 433. On the positive side looking at the fixtures between now and that November break probably only Boro and maybe Coventry will be inclined to park the bus and hit it direct. So maybe it won't be such a big problem.

Two weeks till the next game, so a bit of time to settle and refresh after a very good start to the season. If we can get a good left back in that would be just about acceptable. However looking at the team you would have to say that the area we look weakest is finishing. That sounds a daft thing to say considering the ridiculous number of goals we have scored in the first four games - but Bournemouth, Wycombe and Derby all played open which really suited us. But when we got to Cardiff who sat back we really struggled as we have in the last God knows how long. This season we have now been marked as a very dangerous team, and as a result that most sides will sit deeper against us. Who do we have who can reliably finish in that sort of a game? Just Armstrong and Dack, both of them small lads who will look for a bit of space in the box which is very hard to come by if there are 10 players behind the ball. What you really want is someone to mix it up who can get his head or foot on the crosses that come in and get a shot on target or a knock down for a team mate. For the money we spent Brereton or Gallagher should offer that but sadly they don't. I can see it turning into a major problem as the season wears on. I suppose something we could look at in the next Cardiff style situation is to flip the 433 into a 4312 in the second half and try and crowd the box with bodies. Need more quality from the full backs in terms of crossing though. -------------------Kaminski JRC-----Lenihan-----Williams-----New LB? ------Holtby-----Johnson-----Rothwell ---------------------Dack -----------Gallagher----Armstrong Basically get all of Gallagher, Dack, and Armstrong into the box while JRC and the (hopefully) new left back send decent crosses in as the other team sits. A quality proper centreforward would make a lot of difference though. Instead we are in the position where we are hoping Gallagher can offer a target role against all the evidence, rather than being able to rely on it. That said we should stick with our 433 with Dolan to start etc but just have the above in the back pocket if we are struggling. I think Dack could be back after the international break? Also I note Connor McBride seems to be finishing very well for the under 23s. I don't really see the harm in giving him a chance in the first team soonish. Repeatedly the under 23s players have played very well when promoted to the first team. There's a decent chance he would be much the same. If he can offer some finishing quality that we can bring on in the last 30 mins of games it would be a huge bonus.

Yes that's a very fair point. Of you asked me at the start of the season who our best 4 players were I would have said Travis, Dack, Lenihan and Armstrong. We were missimh three of them and looked the better team by a way. Target this season has to be top six minimum.

On the positive side we dealt with Cardiff's direct style really well. They hardly threatened us an early shot from Hoilett aside. We also played some nice stuff. On the negative side we struggled as they sat back. Even when we had six attacking players on and they were down to 10 men we rarely found a killer pass, and when we did we couldn't finish. Not having any real finishing quality outside of Armstrong is a problem. I wonder if Connor McBride may get a Dolan like stab at the first team at some point. Overall decent performance and result against a side that could have been tricky for us.

I wonder if we are gaming QPR a bit on Ryan Manning, getting them to lower the price?

If he was fit enough hed be worth it but I would let him go and bring a young lad through. Reckon he will miraculously string together 10 good games at the end of the season though, just in time to change everyone's mind.

This is beyond a f***** joke. He needs to be available to us for a few games before turning out for NI.

Yeah - I can easily see us losing this one to be honest. They are well equipped for our weaknesses. I expect them to sit back and ping it straight over our midfield onto Moore's bonce. Huge game for the back four and keeper. Lenihan needs to clean Moore out early and then physically dominated him. And Dolan and Brereton need to pin their wide players back on the defensive. If I was Harris I would be tempted to go 442 and put someone like Hoilett up front to get the knock-downs. Not how they usually play though.

Has anyone got any idea how many ifollow passes are being sold for these games and how the money is divided up? I would guess probably around 5-6k Rovers passes sold including the season ticket ones as people who share a house will probably buy one to share. But then it's hard to predict because so many factors involved. It's cheap so maybe numbers are higher than that? Or maybe people can't be bothered watching from home so theyre not buying?

I guess my point is to stick with and trust the system, as opposed to get spooked if we get a few poor results.

I am absolutely frothing at the mouth for this game. To be honest I won't be that upset if we lose as long as we keep playing the same ultra aggressive way.

Nah people like kicking Mowbray and saying "he has his favourites" ad nauseum. But in actuality when he drops a player and the replacement does better they keep their place. That's consistently happened. Bennet - dropped, Evans - dropped, Walton - not renewed, Smallwood - dropped and sold, Mulgrew - dropped, Williams - dropped for Tosin. Dolan will keep his place. Gallagher will sit on the bench.

He could have been I think, if he'd sorted himself out. Obviously just a personal opinion, but he had exceptional pace, could score from range, link and create. He was unplayable really. Some of the goals he scored were unbelievable solo efforts. Henry kicked on from a pretty modest start at Monaco into a goal machine at Arsenal really epitomising everything Wenger was trying to do. Bellamy on the other hand spent that part of his career falling out with Souness and Shearer, getting shunted out to Celtic, had one excellent season with us, then moved to Liverpool and hit Riise with a golf club and continued he merry go round of clubs. If he'd had his head screwed on he could have had a much better career.