To be honest Barnsley actually have pushed up and passed out of the back so totally different to what I thought. Buckley and Rothwell still did them though!

Really good start from us. Rothwell really unlucky.

I reckon they'll sit back and not let us break on them. But the beauty of our setup is we can just switch our approach to Rothwell running at their deep lines, Buckley picking through balls, and being very dangerous at set pieces with our three big CBs and Brereton to aim at.

Same team for me for this one. It's a great feeling to have a first XI you have complete confidence in, and another 5 players on the bench (Dolan, Gallagher, Davenport, Edun, Ayala) you would be happy to bring on. And that's before Dack and JRC are available too.... Specific to this game - in a way we owe Barnsley a bit - our current way of playing which has been so successful we nicked from Barnsley under Ismael when they took us apart last year. Tony Mowbray was very impressed by it, and obviously has mirrored our current 343 with the pressing front 3 on their setup. That said they've lost Ismael, and seem to have lost their way so it should hopefully be an easy win for us. On paper can't really see how they hurt us, but football is always full of surprises. BTW good work on both clubs in avoiding Covid. It's an achievement just to get games done. I think we are looking at quite a few cancellations in the next few weeks, and I expect (unless all the players are completely in a bubble away from friends and family which I sincerely doubt) at some point the Rovers squad will be hit. Realistically it is just a case of when, not if, infections turn up.

Armstrong's a great player but not really sure he fits the way we play atm. He'd have to be much more aggressive pressing the ball, and be more interested in linking up with other players

Way things are going with cases now levelling off in London (showing how things likely to unfold elsewhere) and the lower hospitalisation rate I can't see a lock down happening tbh. For some reason after insane initial growth the Omicron case growth stalls. Why that is isn't clear, but it's happened in SA and now London. Probs biggest threat to football is the players catching Covid themselves.

The way I would describe it is really as two different formations - one with the ball and one without. When we dont have the ball it's 523 with Brereton and Khadra quite wide and Buckley pushed right up so they form a very aggressive pressing line of theee. The wing backs sit back alongside the back three. When we have the ball Buckley drops into the number 10 role and Brereton and Khadra get narrower so it's more of a 3412. The wing backs push right up into midfield, Works a real treat. Opposition defences haven't really been able to grapple with it at all.

Has to be an unchanged team. Don't think I've ever been as confident of a win. Got to be a bad sign?

Agree on the backup. We've gone on a massive run without Ayala who is probably our best player. Pears came in and did a great job when Kaminski was out. Outside of the starting XI today Dolan, Ayala, Davenport, Dolan, Gallagher could all come in play with the complete confidence of the supporters. Pears probably too given his last couple of games. It's such a strange thing as a couple of months ago most - including me - would have said it was a pretty patchy squad. But it's turned into our best squad probably since we were relegated. If I had to pin it on anything it's probably having landed on 4 really top centrebacks and found finally a top left back, and a system that uses those assets so well. It creates this fantastic platform for forward players to create.

What's great about this team is you can see how it's a real conundrum for opposition managers to figure out how to get any change out of us.... Play it in the air - our three massive CBs will hoover everything up Play it in the channels - Lenihan or Wharton will sweep it up in partnership with the wing backs. Try to possess the ball - our front three will close you down relentlessly till you make a mistake Play a high line - Khadra and Breretons pace will get in behind Sit deep - Buckley and Rothwell will pass through you Usually there's at least a couple of obvious ways to hurt us. But I really struggle to see what options the other teams have at the moment.

Lenihans pass for Khadra for the second one was great too.

Since we switched to three at the back (that was the Peterborough game) we've benen unstoppable. No one's even made us sweat let alone score. Its outrageous how solid we look. Genuinely beginning to feel automatic promotion is possible.

I guess the way we play could be characterised as 523 without the ball and 3412 with the ball. I agree its really smart - when we're without the ball the opposition get no respite from the front three press, but there is very little on with the long ball due to the back 5. When we have the ball it's very hard for the opposition to effectively mark Bucko dropping off or track the wider strikers in the channels. Mowbrays been doing this wide strikers thing for 5 years now, and the false nine for two years. But it's just now starting to make a lot of sense. As for Dack - he'll definitely end up in the false 9 if he gets fit enough. In this system it's the perfect role for him. Bucko is so good he could play anywhere really, could see him in central mid or right wing back.

I've had a think, apart from not selling anyone, the thing that will make the most impact is signing from somewhere a top right wing back. I wonder if we could get a half season loan deal for somone to replace Poveda?

Feels doable to me. I don't think we are overly reliant on any particular player, solid defence, clean sheets, scoring goals. Also got Dack to come back who should slot nicely into the false 9 role he can share with Buckley. Theoretically we should be able to add to the squad in Jan from the Armstrong money.

Id be surprised if a prem club paid big money for BBD mid season. He's having a great run, but there's plenty of question marks on whether he could score in the Prem. 25m on him would be a massive punt. I reckon we'll still have him. The ones that worry me are Rothwell and Lenihan, both playing brilliantly, some club is going to offer them significantly more wage than we are, and sign pre contracts. I'm sure Venkys are considering authorizing increases contracts. Just bloody do it!

But Rothwells corners were fantastic today, including the one for the goal.

Incredible defence, absolutely sensational, and we carried a real threat on the break and set pieces. Time to believe everybody! Everyone played really well, but personally I was blown away by Buckley who was something else. Won the ball back, ghosted past defenders, superb passing, dominated at right back. The false 9 thing that never really worked with the 433 looks great in the 343, I think because the two wide strikers can play a lot narrower as the wing backs provide the width. Pears, Van Hecke, Travis, Lenihan, Rothwell, Pickering were all brilliant.

Pickering has been excellent also.

Pears has been exceptional. Good on him, I'd totally written him off. Goal was surely offside I think? But saw some saying it was an own goal? Apart from the one chance right at the end our defence has been excellent. I really love the balance of the side. Looks like we can score more on the break. As someone else said I'd like to see Gallagher at some point.

We're 4th in the table, just had a great win against Preston - really surprised there is no Bournemouth thread up yet? Thought I'd jump in 🙂 Anyway, looks like Ayala and Gallagher are back but no Kaminski. Id be very surprised if either starts though, probably will be an unchanged team. I'm probably more impressed with this current Rovers XI than any I've seen since we got relegated to the Championship. Defence is very solid (which we have never had), good quality midfield, and an attack that scores regularly. We genuinely look like we could make top six. That said feel there is a very good chance Bournemouth will beat us as their quick technical players will cause us a lot of problems, and they have a lot of quality I'm their squad. A point would be great, three would be sensational. Just looking forward to watching.

Yeah I can't really see why Brighton would let us have Khadra or Van Hecke at an amount we can afford. Also doubt their wages would fit our structure either. We'll just look for new season long loans next season. It's been a very long time since weve signed a loan from the Prem. Gestede? Sad fact is you get paid q a lot more to sit on the bench in the Prem than play in the Championship.

My view is pretty much everyone from England to Chelsea to Barnsley to us is using 343 when you want to be defensively tight. Our 433 got minced repeatably last season by teams playing 343. It's very much a standard tactic with an ever growing % of teams using it. Mowbray has come a bit late to the party on it tbh, I think last season the idea was to play a high intensity 433 exclusively like Liverpool and try and batter teams which started well but ran out of steam over Christmas and as other side's figured us out. This season the philosophy changed to be more of a counter attacking 4231 with the option of a 343 when required against other 343s. Now what's happened is the 343 is performing very well so we've made that our main approach. So I don't really think we've ended up here in a premeditated way. But to be honest planning too much when there are so many variables is not that smart, you need to be flexible and TM has and were in a good place. That said if we'd shown similar flexibility last year I think we would have had a better season tbh. We pushed the 433 for far too long. But such is life.

Getting way ahead of ourselves but if we did manage to sneak promotion we would be onto a hiding whoever we got as manager as while we now have a really strong set of 14 or so Championship level players probably few of them are Prem level. Only Kaminski, and maybe Wharton and Buckley if they keep developing. Diaz has been great but I struggle to see him making that big an impact on Prem defenders. Same with Dolan. We'd need to sign a vast number of players to be competitive, or we just go in with a free hit mentality and see if we can grind out survival.

I just think they have the quick technical players who we just won't be able to cope with like Fulham. Im expecting us to struggle to beat their press and make mistakes that let them score. We'll see.