Classic rovers, total and utter domination without actually looking like scoring, one bit of terrible defending (Douglas again...) and we are 1-0 down. Gallagher has to come off, he's worked against us. Anyone of Dolan, Dack or Brereton on. Otherwise team has played pretty well apart from Douglas but not really sure Bell would be any better.

He's got more if the attributes to play there than as a winger...

While I agree we should at least give Gallagher the opportunity to try.

We really really need an alternative tactical system. Even when we were throwing people on it was effectively the same 433. How hard could it be to try a 343 or 3412 or something different? We really need to figure this out.

Don't think Johnson was out under any pressure really. Stoke were abject.

Have to agree. I don't understand why when Stoke were so deep and clearly running at their defence was causing issues we didn't get Dolan on earlier. Not the game for Gallagher at all. And when we did finally bring Dolan on we changed everything which seemed unnecessary considering we were in total control. Baffling for me.

We should have won today, Stoke were unbelievably bad. One of the worst teams I have seen us play. We generated a lot of good positions but slipped or stumbled or miscontrolled at the wrong moment. Real sickener. But then we managed to win a game we should have lost on Wednesday so can hardly complain. Basic point is we are no nearer to getting promotion despite having a better squad than last year's...

Stoke have switched to 343, bet they will try and push out now..

Substitutes seem crazy... Why take Trybull off? He's been excellent?

I'd get Dolan on and get him running at their full back. Exactly what we need. Stoke are happy for us to have the ball so this is the perfect game for him. Reckon he will cause absolute carnage.

Stoke look absolutely terrible.... Can't believe we haven't created more. Slips and mis control in the final third...

Just seen Williams is out for "months not weeks...". Christ.

I've gone back through Stokes' Whoscored and it seems they have played 4231 last six games or so, which makes me feel more confident as that suits us. Four at the back suddenly means our front three get loads of room and we generate a lot of chances... That said they could change up - they played 343 earlier in the season - and I am sure they will be thinking about it when they go through the videos of our games... I am banging on about it but we need at least the option to change our system when it is as clear as day it's isnt working as it was for the whole of last night's game. So assuming Stoke go 4231 I would go Kaminski Nyambe. Lenihan. Ayala. Bell. Holtby. Trybull Rothwell Elliott. Armstrong. Dolan If they change up and go 343 I would change the system to Kaminski Lenihan. Ayala . Williams Nyambe. Holtby. Rothwell. Downing Elliott Armstrong. Dolan. We would only need to bring on Downing and Williams to shift systems.

Rothwell needs to be in midfield to run with the ball from deep for me... I really think we need to go three at the back on Saturday or we are going to get mullered.... Kaminski. Lenihan. Ayala. Williams. Nyambe Holtby. Rothwell. Downing. Elliott. Armstrong. Dolan.

Yes but "grinding out results" suggests your team is in control. In those games we were not in control, we were lucky to edged the game with fortunate goals. We have a serious problem in that it is now very very obvious how to make our tactical system stop working. All the opposition need to do is play3 at the back, pack midfield, be aggressive and be direct. Even the most modest teams can play that way. We need an alternative to our current system desperately. We are not going to get promoted just playing the same way over and over and praying for fortuitous goals to get us out of jail.

Yes, they were completely in the driving seat until they sat deep. Very odd from them. Their fans must be devastated.

Never seen a game we won that we should have lost more. The squads good, but we have some deep tactical issues to sort out. We can't keep trotting out 433 against a back three and playing terrible over and over and over again.

Lol

Rotherham are stupidly sitting deep and we are able to play the game we want...

Just made us a goal...

We should be 3-0 down!

Also what is going on with the pitch? It looks horrendous.

I think we'd probably need to lose two or three on the trot after this one for Mowbray to go.

We're just tactically way too one dimensional.... We are swapping players around but the system is the same.

Horrendous...