joey_big_nose

We look really well balanced, hard working, defensively sound, creating decent opportunities. Final pass not great though from both teams. Morishita is a good technical player with good movement, but one on one he gets so out matched physically. The man marking him will get a bit of a shock when Henricksson turns up on the hour.

Probably great news for us generating a transfer fee too. But he's our best player, and a really difficult role to replace as it's so demanding physically and technically, so would be a massive miss for us.

Yeah I agree. I guess what we are probably looking at is if Alebiousu is unavailable then Miller will play there. But he's not going to offer the same quality. But I can't see us spending a lot on an attacking wing back who won't be first XI. Definitely can see the situation of us going on a bit of a roll over the next few weeks with the 352, then Aleb gets injured, and the whole system falls apart. Very Rovers!

I quite like McLoughlin. He's done well. No way I would be bringing in Riberio. For me our needs are : - Defence : Extra experienced CB, could be a bit of a veteran, and recall O'Riordan so Miller can cover RWB if needed. - Midfield : Extra experienced Championship CM in his peak years (26-29). Not another inexperienced youth player, or old player who hasn't got the legs. - Striker : At least one CF in their peak years with a championship or equivalent scoring record. I imagine we could find players who fit the bill in defence and midfield. Up front is a real problem as I can't see how we will have the money to sign anyone worthwhile. Lets not do the pointless Dennis / Woodrow thing again.

Out of interest what does the same database say Travis' wage was at Rovers and now at Derby?

Wow, yeah not worth that. Half is about right. Bizarre that Birmingham agreed to pay him that sort of money then immediately cut him out of their plans.

Its hard to see based on his career to date why he would be on big wages? Id definitely buy him if we can make it work financially. Not the finished article but decent.

We will have to play him quite a bit in the next few months just due to the volume of games. We need to figure out how to fit him into this system. With the two up front and a number 10 in behind I reckon we could get some use out of him.

Brittain also had an incredible first touch at this level. Better than a lot of Premier League players. But he couldnt beat players on the outside through sheer pace and power like Alebiouso and (to a lesser extent) De Neve and that is the most powerful thing as a wing back as it turns their entire defence. Also means they can recover to help out the defence in a way Brittain didnt have the pace for. I would definitely choose Alebiouso over Brittain now. I still have seen a full back who can manage him, whereas a decent amount of teams could shut Brittain down.

Its probably a bit early to judge. Everyone banging on about how bad De Neve is but he's turned out to look pretty handy. Henricksson like everyone deserves a bit of time

The thing about Rovers is we are very streaky... Lose a few on the bounce, win a few on the bounce. So sort of hopeful, which is of course asking for trouble.

Interesting to see us really commit to two proper forwards up top. Not suggesting its in anyway connected to them both being back at Ewood in various capacities, but I think last time we played with two centre forwards was Gestede and Rhodes? Its refreshing after years of one striker and a number 10 playing off them.

Well I guess I would say Rovers played similarly well against Coventry and Southampton. The difference was Coventry took their chances, while Southampton did not. if Armstrong had managed to finish one of his second half chances it would have been a different story. So as big a factor as our performance levels maintaining is Leicester not having their shooting boots on as we will give quite a few decent chances away no matter how well we play.

Would be interesting to compare this to the same point last season, and the first season under JDT. I suppose even more dramatically it doesn't include the Ipswich game in hand I assume. So if we won that it would put us fourth which is mental. That said there are lots of dynamics which undermine the value of this data. For example if you have a team that's good at scoring early (i.e. you actually have some decent strikers) and then you then switch focus to defending you will therefore concede more "expected goals" than you create. But you don't sweat it as you back yourself to keep the other side out. So teams that can finish well and defend deep well will look poor on this table, but are in reality just a good football team playing to their strengths and taking their opportunities.

Who scored thought he was brilliant... Looking at the stats breakdown it seems to be because of his goals, key passes and "Aeriels Won". Which is weird as I wasn't that impressed with him in the air. Stats eh..

Yeah, agree with this. The 3412 works well because our main asset is the athleticism of the wing backs. But its very dependent on Alebiousu and De Neve staying fit, as well as 3 of our 4 centre backs, and as you say we only have two strikers the manager wants to play and we are playing both of them. But to be honest with one up top we really struggle as we just don't have the quality so this feels the way we need to persevere with.

I personally think it would be mad to drop Ohashi - he is the heart beat of everything up front. I'd start the same team as the last game. I think doing the same thing with Henricksson and Montgomery coming on for the last 30 mins is a good plan to persevere with as they offer the energy we need to see out games. Striker options are a real problem. Ismael needs to do something with Gueye - he can't just freeze him out when we have no one else. We need an alternative - Ohashi and Andri worked ceaselessly against Southampton but they will get injured if we ask them to do that every game for a full 90. Only other place to look is Tyjon who has barely made the bench. If Gueye is totally discounted by the manager then we need to see what he can offer.

On Hedges I would say is we are quite a radically different system now where he is playing a very different role (as a wing back with two strikers up top) so not sure how useful referring back to previous seasons performances is really. I quite like Hedges offensively in the new system, it suits him. He's better combining with players than trying to beat someone on his own, and the way we are setup hes got a lot to work with. But defensively we do need the wing backs to get back quickly when we lose possession which De Neve and Alebiouso are brilliant at. Hedges i dont think really has the engine for it.

A few positives on reflection... 1) Toth is very very good. 2) Really liked the look of Montgomery. A bit confused why we havent used him more tbh. Has the energy the team needs and a bit of quality. We are flogging Tronstad and TGH senseless, so very welcome to have someone who looks like they can play a part (unlike Tavares or Baradji) 3) Henrickson is physically imposing, and I can see him giving us legs and restoring the press in the final third of games. This is a big issue due to how we fatigued. He and Montgomery made a big difference to our energy levels. 4) I know they have had their cards marked by many, but De Neve and then Hedges coming on both look like they will generate a lot of opportunities down the left. Alebiouso we know will do that down the right. Also De Neve and Alebiouso have real recovery pace, which massively helps our 3 quite slow cbs. Both can catch wingers 5 yards behind them. That said a few major areas of concern 1) Strikers are really blunt. Ive no issue with Ohashi whose work rate is stunning and makes some great runs. But his partner needs to offer more whoever it is. Glad Andri got a goal and hope he kicks on. But as it stands I dont think we have a striker on our books who any defender would really worry about. 2) Because our threat and finishing up top is so poor we commit more and more players forward to get a goal and leave ourselves very exposed. We were lucky Armstrong couldn't finish as we would have been dead and buried at 2-0 imo. 3) Defensively we look like we have loads of individual errors in us. Eustace ironed that out of us, but its come back massively. I guess losing Baath and Hyam has had a big impact. Individually I like Miller, Wharton, McCloughlin - all physical, committed, can come out of defence into midfield reasonably well. But as a unit its hard to imagine them not making three or four mistakes a game between them. And to compound that they lack the pace to recover from mistakes. Ultimately if we had one genuinely good striker at this level we would be in a much better position imo as we wouldnt commit so much forward. But we dont...

Hmm all i have seen is him beat his man consistently and while his crosses have been erratic, but quite a few times he has delivered decent balls where the finishing has let them down. Hes done well for me. Obviously hes not Roberto Carlos but compared to the various wing backs or full backs weve had turn out for us over the last 15 years he doesnt seem particularly worse.

Well, Ismael has got a lot of abuse on here quite rightly over recent weeks in terms of his subs, calling out players etc. But christ he got them to worm hard yesterday. In terms of effort we were absolutely relentless. Generally across the season we've been pretty decent in midfield & defence; but then dont finish easy chances and give away soft goals from nowhere. Looked like that would be the story yesterday - luckily Armstrong was as poor as us with his finishing and we got a couple of scruffy goals. Hopefully the confidence that will build in Gudjonsen will make a big impact. Defensively it feels to me we really need Carter back as we miss his pace. I like Miller, very committed and physical. But when hes beaten he is not recovering, and you can say the same for Wharton and McCloughlin. I kind of expected the heads to go down, particularly when we went behind, so was really pleasantly surprised by how they kept going and going.

I really doubt Pears is on 10k a week. Hes never been a regular anywhere hes played. I can believe Toth is getting paid a bit less, but I would guess they are both around 5k-ish.

Cant fault anyone's effort. Everyone's worked their nuts off. But doesn't seem to be any idea on how we score goals. And then we score!

Um... Last counter we had McCloughlin in the left wing spot and Miller on the edge of the box. Very similar to the end of Sheffield Utd here. Just not good finishing from Armstrong otherwise we would be three down.

Toth is a very good keeper. The one positive.